Happy 400th

Well, she's 400 days old. That's a milestone, right? I thought I'd throw some recent pictures up and update the world on our quiet life. When one takes no holidays, there's simply no reason to blog... but I'll try anyway.

Lily was spoiled with a second first birthday party in Ottawa (her first first birthday party having been in Vernon). Again, out came the chocolate cake and off came her clothes.

As all parties should, this one started with wearing a dumb hat and crying about it.

Licking icing off the candle turned out to be a bad idea, as she took a bite.

'This is gonna be good!"

And behold, it was very good!

Friends helping unwrap an awesome present.

Now our wee child is one and almost out of her 6-month clothes. Time to buy 9-month clothes? (She weighed in at 17.1 pounds at her one-year checkup/stabbing two weeks ago.)

She rather likes the dog's bed.

Tasting her first balloon. Thanks Oma!

Wearing her first helmet. Thanks Grandma!

She doesn't like hats but is tickled about this helmet, especially when I test it by bonking her on the (covered) head. We got a nice bike seat at a garage sale this spring; all we need to do now is actually use it once in a while. No worries though; looks like she'll fit in it for a few years.

She's at the stage where she's pointing at everything and grunting (or something). Her first word was probably "daisy" but she's added "mom" and "ball" to the collection. She recognizes quite a number of words but hasn't bothered to try and say many yet; when she does it's often with her mouth closed, so she gets the syllable count correct but that's about it.

Oh, one of her favourite items is fans. Like ceiling fans. They fascinate her for some reason; on is better than off, but they're all very exciting. One of our weirdest episodes was in North Carolina this past June. We walked into a surf/beach store that happened to have a dozen ceiling fans on, and she just went crazy. I actually had to hold on very tight to keep her from jumping ecstatically out of my arms. What a weirdo.

What else is new? Well, Carrie is leaving her job for a different one for a year and a half; it's called a secondment (temporary transfer) and gives her an acting promotion plus better pay. The new position is downtown, which is farther to walk/bike to now, but it would mean a better bus commute than to her old job if we decided to move, say, next year.

I, on the other hand, spend less time in the basement working and more time upstairs child-watching. We're slowly adjusting to a routine. Lily naps once in the morning so that means my afternoon is shot... ahem, I mean, is spent doing fun stuff or errands with my wonderful daughter. We now understand the potential benefits of living in the suburbs, as we could then use friends to babysit a few days a week. We haven't used a babysitter yet... at all. Don't worry, it's not a weird trust or attachment thing; we just haven't run into the problem yet, as we've just taken her everywhere we go together.

Well, she crawling under my desk looking for spiders to eat so I'll sign off for now.