Major picture update, major Bean progress

Big things happening here. Apart from the big move from Halifax to Bedford (which pretty much sucked in every aspect, but I'm glad we've settled in), we have news on the Bean front.

Firstly, she can crawl and pull herself to standing. She can even coast a step or two in a sideways direction. This all happened in the span 24 hours. Very cool, and very fascinating to see just occur so suddenly. She gave us very little indication that she was ready (no backwards crawling, no lunging), and then she just gave 'er. Babies rock.



My sister Nicole and her husband Mike and son Hudson (18 months old) are visiting. Catherine loves having big cousin Hudson around. He's so interesting and good-looking. Except for the chocolate face.


A first interaction:


Pool time was such good fun:




Then we hit the park. Bean had some swings...


...while Hudson wandered around and took in the sights.



We also snuck away to Jill and Chris Wagner's house, where it was an Acadia reunion for Jenny. Most of her university friends now have children, and so there was no shortage of little people to interact with.

Here's Caren playing ball with Catherine. Bean is like, "you think I want that puny ball? Look how big my ball is!"




Bean is a great eater - we can't complain. But her favourite food (by far) is watermelon. She loves to chow down on the sweetness:


The next day, we went to the public gardens. Although you can no longer feed the ducks, it didn't stop Hudson from chasing them around and saying "duck!" 1000 times.


Bean checks out the flowers:



It's been a scorching week here in Nova Scotia. 30C every day for a week, and not a cloud in sight. It was so hot, we decided get white-trash in our back yard with the kids, the kiddy pool, and some beers.


But why play in a tiny pool when you can go to the Northumberland shore? We hit the cottage, where the beach is wide and the water is bathtub warm. It was a lot of fun.





Hudson, who auditioned for the part of Danny Zuko in Grease, decides to cool off with some iced tea. It ended up being more of a wet T-shirt competition.


And I'll finish it off with some pics of my girls:




I have some videos too, but they must wait for another post.

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Lots of things to catch up on:

Bean is now feeding herself. Particular favourites are toast, cheerios, and avocado. It's actually much easier now to let her feed herself than to try to force puree down her hole.


Of course, sometimes she makes a mess of herself. Below is her first experience with curry.... she required a mid-day bath for this effort.


Another big, new skill is that she's learned to sit up on her own. This has made nap time an adventure, as we'll put her down and she'll promptly sit up and clutch at the bars of her prision, er, crib, squealing with delight. She is also enjoying the hands-and-knees position. We feel it's only a matter of a few days before she's officially mobile.


Standing up while braced against something is also a new, exciting skill. I have mixed feelings about all of this, as it was awfully easy to lie on the bed with her and watch the Tour de France. Now, I actually have to do some parenting.


When the weather is good (which is not often in this grey pit of despair), we get outside for runs or hikes. This is Bean at Duncan's Cove. Classic rugged Nova Scotia coastline abounds. Notice how introspective she looks. I think she likes the outdoors, too.




And there's always playtime with Ellie, who - for reasons unfathomable - puts up with the abuse from busy hands.



We are moving in one week, and so we'll be off the radar for a bit. Exciting developments relating to the move include getting a king-sized bed and a new vacuum, the Dyson DC 23 Animal (which is probably the best thing ever invented).

Mr Mom

Jenny has gone back to work, so I'm Mr. Mom here. Hence, not a lot of time to post pics or stories. To be brief, Catherine is infinitely more portable and she loves excursions of any kind.

Here she is in the back yard, playing in the grass before we went out. "Hurry up, mummy!"


At Point Pleasant Park, watching the dogs play


Getting ready for her first trip to the beach! Lots of sunscreen for fair-skinned babies.


"This is so much fun, dad!"


"What is this neat brown stuff? It just floats away in the wind."


"That was fun, can we do it again tomorrow, Dad?"


That's a quick summary of what we've been up to. She's also doing other interesting things like

1) passing things back to us - sharing objects
2) putting objects into containers
3) pseudo-crawling. Not really crawling, but kind of wiggling/grappling along the bed to get to where she wants to go. I have a video of this, which I will post later

One more reason why Ellie is the best:

because she is infinitely tolerant of little, probing hands. Nothing makes Bean happier than playing with her fur-sister Ellie.

So much tail-grabbing and ear-pulling.... I think kids and dogs are made for each other.

(and Ellie is 5 years old today)

Pics

Happy Father's Day

Well I hope all you fathers out there are having a most special day. In honour of the day, here are a few pix of Catie and her Daddy from this weekend.

They kicked off the weekend on Friday afternoon by taking Catie on her first ever run (I think Catie is already starting to get sleepy).


On Saturday morning we had a yard sale, where Catie drew in the crowds with her cuteness.

Saturday afternoon was filled with pure laziness. (Thanks Aunt Nic for the cutest outfit ever!)


The best part of Sunday morning is snuggling.

Then, Catie and Mommy took Daddy out for brunch - ok - who are we kidding... breakfast. Our days start way too early to be considered brunch.