9 Months

The 'spike' is no more (well, it's more like a comb-over now) and she's got some more moves. This baby is changing but one thing remains the same - she's awesome. Nine months and going strong...

MOMENT: Nine months

Look at those baby blues and those seriously sweet cheeks. Aw.

River Ski Fun

We made use of the wonderful snow Ottawa had once the temperature warmed up to "not frigid". Just up the road, we donned our skis and made tracks along the Ottawa River with a little sledding to get us started.

MOMENT: Falling Fun

Tavish is such a fast learner. I showed him how to get up and down hills on his nordic skis. I think we both agree, it's fun - especially when there is some cushy snow to absorb the falls! Keva enjoyed her backpack nap and her first slide too! When there's this much snow that surrounds you, might as well get out and make use of it...

Ammendment

Figures, I finally edit an entry featuring the Jolly Jumper, and less than 24 hours later - I acquire footage that now seems to be missing. Out of nowhere, Keva became keen in the Jolly Jumper. Probably not-so-coincidentally, this also happened within days of the grocery experience being noticeably less tranquil too (um, is that our tilapia on the floor? how does she have broccoli in her mouth?! ack! no, that's not for you!!!). Guess some of these 'moments' are more ongoing than I realized...

MOMENT: Genuine Jumping

The earlier entry honoured Keva's appreciation for the existence of the Jolly Jumper. This little clip shows her evolution (within days) to now being a jumper that could be straining the springs! What a difference a few days can make at this age - my baby is now getting some air! I promise though, no matter what acrobatics she pulls off, this is the last tribute to the Jolly Jumpers in my life.

Jolly Jumpers

Ah, the Jolly Jumper. Seems to be a modern right-of-passage for the first year of life. Truthfully, I've always been a bit leery of them so tend to delay its introduction and limit the amount of time it's used. (Fine, there might be a tiny additional factor of space consumption that dissuades me as well). Try though I might to avoid it, seeing their jubilant smiles and hearing their infectious giggles always make hauling it out worth while.

MOMENT: Jubilant Jumps

Keva's first exposure to the Jolly Jumper was before she was 7 months old. Not too much happening, but Tavish was excited about it. This makes sense, he was a fan himself ... his first jump was when he was 8 months old. We gave Keva a bit of time and hauled it back out just before she was 9 months old and it's part of her play still before she turns 10 months old. These ages happens to be very similar timing to when we captured Tavish jumping as well. This montage show our babes jumping for joy. Be sure to listen to the musical accompaniment - it's pretty funny...

Seeing Double

We were able to stuff Keva into the red hand-me-down snowsuit for the winter. For some extra-cold outings, we did use the blue snowsuit that Tavish wore at this age though. When I went to pick Keva up from the floor after zipping her into it one day, I couldn't help but feel a bit reminiscent ...

MOMENT: Double Take

It seemed as though I was seeing double, so I quickly too a photo of Keva who was growing impatient in the blue snowsuit, just as I recall Tavish doing in a photo I took of him in the very same snowsuit and about the same age. I don't know why I find seeing both of my kids rendered immobile by the same blue snowsuit funny, but I do...

Blue snowsuit 2013 - Keva style

Blue snowsuit 2009 - Tavish style

Family Weekend at the Farm

It was family day weekend and we were invited to join my friend Torie at her family's farm and sugar bush. This was especially exciting because we went at this time last year and had a blast. It didn't disappoint, it was another weekend full of winter wonderfulness...

MOMENT: Terry and his ATV

Tavish grew quite fond of everyone at the farm last year and remembered what he did and with whom eagerly when it came up that we were invited to go again. It was Keva's first time there (unless you count last year when I was 6 months pregnant with her) and she fit right in. Tavish was keen to see and do it all ... with a special draw being to Terry (Torie's father) and especially to his ATV. In fact, an entire month after our visit, when packing up his toy ATV to take for brunch Tavish said: "I wish we had an ATV here. And Terry." When Terry offered Tavish a chance to "help him drive" last year, he made a friend for life...



FLASHBACK: Twice Makes a Tradition?

Family Day weekend last year at "Torie's farm" with more friends keeping us company for part of the weekend that included two other boys that Tavish played with. Here's a highlight reel from the sugar bush adventures 2012 style. Our camera was malfunctioning (fine, it was operator error due to a dead battery and full memory card), so these fine photos are courtesy of Jode and Torie. Thanks for capturing some great memories for us...

Bucket Loss

We started using a new car seat for Tavish in the new year because we knew that Keva (and her Mommy's arm) wouldn't last too much longer with her in the bucket car seat (she is moving into Tavish's seat). It made sense, especially since we had pretty much become accustomed to carrying her out of the seat rather than hauling her in it anyway. There was one disadvantage I'd forgotten though ...

MOMENT: Cart Concern

Right, grocery shopping. With the bucket car seat, I just plopped the baby secured to the bucket into the cart. Now, there was no special seat to keep her secure because she couldn't be trusted to sit securely on her own (this first shopping trip happened back on January 7th). A family has to eat, so I secured her with the seat belt, stuffed her upright with my winter coat, attached a toy, and was off to find food. It was a success. The bucket mourning period was short - the routine task of grocery shopping was more interesting with Keva's company because of it's absence. I've always enjoyed getting groceries with my kid (now kids), and with a face like this - who can blame me?

Valentine's Day

 Tavish enjoyed all of the valentine's he was given by his classmates this year. He also loved colouring hearts at school.

MOMENT: Skate Date

To start the official day of love, I sent Tavish to school with a lunch that included a heart shaped love note, melon cut into hearts, and a towel wrapping his warm food that was red and white hearts. Sure, he didn't realize the note was for him (he can't read yet after all), didn't seem to notice anything special about the shape of the melon, and saw the towel as being any ol' towel - but the extra love was sent. For Keva, we celebrated by skating the canal from one end to another with friends of ours. I guess Keva had two special valentines - Mommy who pushed the stroller, and Finlay who was pushed along side her by his Mommy.

Mommy & Keva on a skate date with Jessie & Finlay

There is no doubt that there is a whole lot of love to go around. Tom and I always say that no matter what, we can live on love. I sure do love this little family...

Love keeping us warm through the winter

Bix Neal

Back in the fall, Tavish was telling us about playing "bix neal" with a classmate named Arial, a new boy at school. Bix neal? We repeatedly sought clarification and came to believe he meant "big snail". Logically, we had to ask how it was played. Also logically, Tavish explained it the way any 3 year old would: "you run and "arr" and go "guuu" and run and yeah". Oh. Now, Arial also speaks Spanish, so maybe the game name was literally lost in translation? In chatting on the playground with Arial's Mom, she also had no guesses as to what "bix neal" was in Spanish nor in English. We even casually inquired with his teacher, who also had no idea what "bix neal" was. This was a sign. We needed to just accept "bix neal" for what it was ... a mysterious, but fun sounding game that pre-schoolers play to the confusion of adults...

MOMENT: "Bix Neal" returns

February 13th, several months after having not heard too much about "bix neal", Tavish excitedly tells us about the cookies they baked at school for the "bix neal tomorrow". My mind responded with a flurry of mental activity 'bix neal'? 'big snail'? no ... wait ...

Mommy: "Tavish, are the cookies for the Valentine's Day bake sale?"
Tavish: "Yeah, we made them for the bix neal for tomorrow and the elementary kids made stuff too!"

So, there you have it. These boys have been playing 'bake sale' on the playground. It is apparently common for the kids to 'bake' things in the little building and pass them to each other through the window and thus, you have a 'bix neal'.

Happy Valentine's Day!
We enjoyed our 'bix neal' cookies.

Rockin' Dos

Cute kids + Soap = Rockin' Siblings

MOMENT: Clean & Cute

The kids were given the gift of clean hair from Mommy and her creative washing ways...

Month 8

This month's photo was motivated by a gift Keva received from a long time friend of mine... not generally something I'd put her in... it's very girly, but also cute, fun, and was about to be too small. So, bring on tutu time!

MOMENT: Tutu Time

Keva was agreeable to the photos taken on our bed covered with a few white towels. I think the sequins were the tipping point between frustration and enjoyment. Our little ballerina was 8 months old on January 28th, 2013 with 8 teeth, functional rolling skills, solid sitting, and long hair (on top). It looked a little something like this:

Skater Boy

What would winter be without some skating on the canal and the introduction of a hockey stick?

Keva - the keeper of the chair device

Lacing up

He's off! 

MOMENT: Devices

We brought a folding chair to help Tavish with his skating. First, we offered him the back of the chair. He didn't move very far. We gave him the seat, it moved better, but was still unsatisfactory. The stroller seemed more promising, but Tavish eventually just stopped altogether. Hmm... so, we offered the chair again. "No, I think I'll just skate." And, he did. That was the last for the chair and our next time out - he was given a whole new device to skate with: a hockey stick!

Ski-sonal Fun

We awoke to a great amount of fresh, white snow on the morning of Saturday, January 19th. It covered the city, so Tavish and I donned our skis and made tracks around the yard, the neighbour's yard (thanks Grandpa Mike!), the neighbourhood, and the local park...

MOMENT: Skiable City

Tavish - such a trooper! He does a face plant, falls, and overcomes some rogue plant life all while on skis for the first time in a year. We were out for over 3 hours and not once did he complain or ask to come in. A great start to a ski-son indeed. Keva was happy to be out after her nap too, all tucked into her sled. Hopefully this indicates many seasons of family skiing in our future!

Mutual Adoration

Our alarm clocks are dusty. We have long been woken from our slumber by: thump, thump, thump (door opening), thump, thump (another door opening), thump, thump - "Daddy?" Sometimes, Tavish will just nestle in or play quietly, but more often it doesn't play out that way. When the sound of rattling toys accompanies "when can we go downstairs?", we know that our day has begun.

Sibling solidarity

MOMENT: Stuffed

When the rattling starts, Tavish perks up with "can I go see Keevs?!" Off he goes, giving Keva notice of his impending presence by knocking on her door and calling out "Keva?!?". On occasion, our children play together through the railing of Keva's crib. We used to check in on them, but after repeatedly being met with blank stares from them (what? why are you here?), we prefer to just tally the toys in the crib when Tavish stops the snooze button with "I'm hungry. I think Keva wants to say good morning"...



MOMENT: Venting

The communication vent

I went into Tavish's room one morning and noticed his music player on the floor in front of the heating vent. I didn't think too much about it until a few nights later when Tavish leaned over and whispered "goodnight, Keevs" toward it. It was on a rare evening that Keva was asleep before Tavish had a chance to give her a hug and say goodnight. Aw. I later asked him if he ever listens to his music anymore. He said, "not so much, but I play it sometimes for Keva". Again, aw.

Sitting Pretty

She's come a long way with her sitting skills. They improved over the holidays and by the middle of January - her skills were solid. Here is the pretty lady sitting proudly...

MOMENT: Like a Rock

No wobbling, no toppling. She's not budging. It's virtually safe to sit her up and walk away, although I have made a few heroic saves... Although not for this photo/video shoot, we usually put the nursing pillow behind her to cushion any unintended toppled. She must be pretty proud because when you don't leave her with a toy, she seems to find ways to entertain herself with whatever she's got on her. Such a welcome baby stage and we've got it. Yay us ... er, um, I mean ... yay Keva!