School's Out! Summer's On!

We are really enjoying our Summer. Our days consist of morning walks to Parc de la Visitation to watch ducks and geese, home for lunch and F's nap, then a late-afternoon trip to the local outdoor pool. Life is good!
We wanted to share a few moments that marked the end of the school year for both girls. R played Minuet 2 by Bach at her violin recital and we have a short video of that with her dad accompanying her on the piano. F finished her volunteer teaching gig with Roots of Empathy (http://www.rootsofempathy.org/). The video was taken at her last class when they presented us with gifts they'd crafted for F and sang her "Happy Birthday" in anticipation of her first birthday.

F's birthday party was a little gathering to mark the day. Gran, Gramps and her babysitter had dinner with us to celebrate.

F with her babysitter C

C took this picture of F learning about life in the park

F deconstructs her  first birthday cake

F is fully entertained by R who's just outside the frame

Our sweet little ladies!

Walking and Talking...

Our Sleeping Athlete

I'll start with F's walking. There were definitely two phases to her learning to walk.
The first was her being physically able. She showed us on her 11th-month-day (almost a month ago now!) that she could walk alone. She took three steps by herself with the whole family crowded around--only she did not realize her ability and for two weeks after that she insisted on always having a hand to support her while she led the way. We were constantly trying to encourage her, knowing she could do it. I tried to tap into her subconscious by whispering to her as she was falling asleep, "F, you can walk! You can do it!". I was expectant that she'd realize her physical ability when she'd wake. But, in the end, it took a while longer before she consciously knew she could walk. On the day of her great realization, she walked back and forth between Mom and Dad with joy! Currently, her new skill gets lots of practice.We can see she gets a little frustrated with the falls onto her bum. But, already her walking has improved so much! And, she still cackles with joy as she crosses a room on her two feet!

F has mastered saying "Hi". This was really fun for us because there was no denying that this was her new word. She speaks a lot of fun baby babble everyday but she was using "Hi" every time someone walked into the room. So, we knew she understood. The story gets funnier with F saying "Hi" to strangers on the metro. She is so social when we go out. She has tried (with lots of success) to engage practically every stranger we sit beside on public transit into playing peek-a-boo or just smiling or laughing with her. But, our poor little anglophone! After mastering "Hi", she was ready to put it into practice with people on the metro. In our city, people expect to hear French first and her efforts weren't as well rewarded with big smiles as they are at home. F still usually relies on her smile to converse in public.


Enjoy the videos!

F likes to eat acrobatically, with one foot on the table!

Early Spring Belated

In April, I went back to work to teach the last 3.5 weeks of term. Now that I'm beyond the exams and numerous end-of-term meetings, I can spend some time on blog updates!
This Early Spring post is special because it documents several of F's first experiences like sitting on grass or in sand and just being outside without a jacket (which is now old news to her since it is now late Spring and the weather is like mid-Summer). Her reactions with anything new are always exciting to us and give us a good laugh.


The video shows F's reaction to sitting in grass.

Enjoy!

R's first run at our local park without snow

Twigs! A new plaything!

The joy of no snow!

R and F work together exploring sand

Here is F trying to pick up the shadows!

F loves the playground!

The Many Faces of F!

Flooding in our nearby Parc de la Visitation

Say "Ahhhh!"

On the move at the Chalet on Mount Royal

We have been chasing after little F in new ways. She is hard to contain in her exploring adventures whether its unrolling the entire roll of toilet paper, dumping clean folded clothes out of any drawer she can reach, pulling out all the kleenex from its box, crawling into the pots and pans cupboard, or emptying the toiletries cupboard onto the floor. We are constantly on the alert to keep her environment safe and explorer-baby-friendly.
One of her newest fascinations has been to unpack toys from a small purse or an emptied kleenex box. She also loves trying to put toys together that seem to be able to fit into each other.
I've been asking her to say "Ahhh" to show me what she has picked up and put into her mouth, so that I can perform the finger-sweep to get the thing out. She has learned to say "Ahhh" on command and I believe that this has come to mean that Mommy wants to eat what she has in her hand. So, when I cue her to say "Ahhh" she takes that small piece of fluff and puts it in my mouth instead.

Enjoy our small collection of pictures and videos from the past few weeks!

Bath Time

R tries on F's snow suit

Feeling the Warm Sun of Late Winter

Getting help up the stairs

Tempus Fugit



BLUEBERRIES!!

 Time does seem to fly. I've been eager to get another update of the happenings of our fine ladies for a fortnight at least! So many things seem to happen in R's world and with F's development.

For la semaine de relâche (March Break) R went to acting camp. It was a good time for her overall but on the eve of their week's end show R was feeling the stress of mastering her lines. There's a video clip from the play below (she's saying "Nous vivons de peux mais nous sommes heureux"). She was very proud of how she projected and so were we!

F's crawling has progressed immensely! While she was still crawling commando style she had been desperately trying to get vertical. She has since mastered the cross-crawl but we're not sure if she's even noticed that she's moving more efficiently because she seems to be desperately trying to stand and get around on her feet. She's a baby with a mission, we're just not exactly sure what the mission is, maybe to keep up with R.

I've included four videos altogether. The first features R saying her line during her play, in the second F is having a laugh, in the third R is discussing Gozilla facts with P and the final one shows F getting to standing on her own.

Enjoy!



F uses the open dishwasher to get vertical. We need to watch her constantly!

Bedtime routine includes a story!







F tends to crawl onto the book making it tough for R to read.

  





R continues to read regardless of the interuptions.







 

Bébé Motrice

Hello Everyone,

Bébé motrice was how F's vaccination nurse described her today. The videos were taken this past week and are proof of that description...which I suppose could be very loosely translated as Motor Baby. In any case, F is on a mission every waking minute to cover as much ground as she can.

Special requests were made for the dancing bear video to be posted and it is also included. R's Dancing Bear was created in October and was the inspiration for a short book published by Gramps!

Enjoy the cool new moves of Motor Baby and Dancing Bear!

One of F's new skills is clapping! See below.

Baby F in Dad's arms



F insists on feeding herself and with several spoons at the same time.

 



Constructing a Pyramid take #1



Constructing a Pyramid take #2



Constructing a Pyramid take #3



R helps F straighten her ears. She's sleepy after her bath.

  








So, We've Decided to Blog!

Dear Family,

We've decided to blog to keep you up-to-date with the exciting developments of the girls. We have videos we've been wanting to share and found that blogging would be the only way. We're a little tentative embarking on this blog because the info will be "out there". But, you are all so far away, and maybe you'll see why we are amazed with these two beautiful little ladies as they grow up.

I'll be taking a page out of my sister's strategy in writing this blog by abbreviating our names to initials only. And thanks goes to Uncle A for motivating us to publish a weekly picture and video. We've been wanting to share our fun watching R and F grow. We hope to be able to capture and publish a small glimpse of it for you so that you too can share in our laughs.

In future blogs we plan to post old videos that we've been wanting to share for a long time. So, for the next little while not all photos and videos will be of the previous week.

Enjoy!

xoxo

S.

November 2010

November 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Here is Baby Professor F with her Roots of Empathy Class

Trying out new food is so exciting!

January 2011

January 2011



F enjoys eating her feet. I was checking out what the fuss is all about.




F usually wakes up in this happy mood.



R the Snow Lady!



R as buried treasure!