Life in the New Year

Things have been pretty quiet so far. Maria continues to grow and is now 10 months old. This means it is getting closer to the time I need to start planning her birthday party and thinking about going back to work. We have found a good dayhome for her so the concerns about returning to work are definitely lessened. Of course, this has also meant an attempt to change her eating and sleeping schedule to match the dayhome. So far it is working well, although some days have been a struggle for her stay awake

Maria got another chance to hang out with her second cousin, Cohen, on the 12th of January. It was amusing to watch as they both seem to have a "what's yours is mine" attitude when it comes to sharing. Maria held her own though...she's one tough little girl.



As for Maria, she has become Mom's little helper. She makes folding laundry, emptying and loading the dishwasher and attempting to cook a lot more interesting. We are constantly having to put CDs back on shelves, books out of reach, etc, as she frequently disappears into other rooms on a regular basis. She is very fast on all fours, and as of yet is not showing much interest in changing that. For now, I'm going to consider that a blessing.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We survived the holidays. They were busy, but it was great to see both sides of the family. We spent the 23rd to the 25th in Exshaw (just outside of Canmore) with Maria's Uncle J and Aunt D, as well as Grandma and Grandpa B. It was a lot of fun and Maria was very spoiled...in attention as much as gifts. Then on the 26th we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Epler's to visit with the other side of the family. Again Maria was very spoiled.



However, it should be mentioned the most spoiled person this Christmas was not the infant, but her mother. While I must wait until June for my gift, the 7 days in the Mediterranean will definitely be worth it.


Pillow Fight with Grandma B.

Practicing guitar...notice my new drums too!

Getting ready for Christmas

Just thought we would start up a blog of our own, for those who don't have access to facebook and all the updates of Maria I place on there. The little one is 9 months old today. Man does time fly. I can't even remember how small she really was. Our household is slowly getting ready for Christmas, but having a little one under foot all the time makes baking and decorating a lot more challenging.

Maria is a speed crawler, which for the time being has led her to hold off on her attempts to walk. She won't stand independently yet, unless she forgets what she's doing for a short period of time...then she might stand for a few seconds without holding onto anything. Mostly she's just happy to walk along pushing objects and holding onto furniture. She has discovered the stove and dishwasher which delight her to no end. She is actually quite the little helper. This of course also means that she finds many things we may not want her to find.

She also gets into a bit of mischief if you take your eyes off her for too long...she has recently discovered how much fun it is to rip paper. Christmas is going to be a blast for her.