Happy Belated 1st Birthday Nadia

Nadia has grown into such a beautiful little girl!!! It's hard to believe that a year has passed so quickly (actually even more than that now...)!!! She has changed so much and come so far in all the different things that she has learned to do. We are so proud of her!! Yet some things never change.....Nadia cried on her birth day and on her first birthday!! She's so cute!!! It's all good Nadia!! It's your party and you can cry if you want to!!

BIRTHDAY PARTY

I know that it's now March!! But I never got around to dedicating a blog for Nadia's First Birthday.... So better late than never!! Where does the time go!!! I had intended to do this much sooner...in any case... Nadia had an excellent first birthday party!! We held it at Grandma and Grandpa's house the weekend before her actual birth date. We were so lucky to have family and friends there to celebrate the big day. Nadia had a great time! She wasn't a fan of the cake though and definitely was not a cake trasher. She wasn't too sure about the whole thing and we even cut her a smaller piece thinking that it would be less intimidating and Uncle Sebastien even tried to encourage her to get her hands into it but, she just cried. Poor girl!! She didn't even particularily like the taste. It was her first time having something that sweet. It was a really yummy cake though!! So we ended up replacing her piece of cake with her favourtist thing in the whole world, CHEESE!!! Mmmmm cheese!! She loves cheese so much!! We love you more than cheese Nadia!!! (I actually saw a stamp in a scrapbooking store that said 'I love you more than cheese' and I was very close to buying it!!!)

The birthday crowd, here Nadia's playing away!! Oh how she loves to play with all kinds of things!!! What a busy little girl!! Always on the move..always doing something!!

Nadia opening gifts!! Ooooh, I wonder what's inside!!!

Nadia and her friend Aiden!!

Nadia's birthday gifts!! What a lucky girl!!! Thank-you everybody for coming out and for all of the wonderful presents!! Also, a big thank-you to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting the birthday party!!

BIRTHDAY (The actual day)

So since she wasn't a fan of cake at her birthday party we thought that we would give it a second shot on her actual birthday. No tears this time but still not to sure about the whole cake and not really interested. Oh well, more for mommy!!!

Nadia got to open some presents on her birthday. This one was from mommy and daddy, Nadia's very first doll house!!

TRICK OR TREATING

Here Nadia was all ready to go out trick or treating!! She was just the cutest little butterfly!!! Everybody loved her!!! Nadia went to five of the neighbour's houses. It was actually a very effective way to meet the neighbours that we hadn't met yet! We also stopped into our next door neighbour's house who has a little boy that's a little older than Nadia so they got to play together for a little while. He was a cute little dinosaur...too bad I didn't have the camera with me when we were there.

Into the candy!!

Family photo after being out trick or treating!! Mommy sure looks in better shape than last Halloween!! Definitely not as pale!!

Thank you Amma for handing out candy for us while we were out!!!

Here is Nadia the morning after Halloween trucking her candy around!! Yummy candy!!

Next I plan to catch everybody up on the other major holidays and things that have been going on in our lives over the last few months or so, as well as, to talk about all of the things that Nadia is up to these days. So many changes!!!

Amma's Visit!!

Miss you Amma!!!

We were so lucky to have Amma visit us for 5 weeks!!! She arrived the 7th of October and Nadia warmed up to her right away! Funny enough though, for the first couple of days we would take Nadia to the sitter's during the day and each afternoon when we picked her up and brought her home she would look at Amma like, who are you? and what are you doing in my house! It was funny, but she got over that very quickly and loved playing with Amma and getting tickled. Amma even taught her a few new skills while she was out. Like blowing on tummies, blowing better kisses, climbing up and down stairs, saying 'tickle, tickle, tickle' and of course saying 'Amma'.

Early on in the visit we got to stop at my friend Angie's place to meet up with her mom who was also out for a visit!




Nadia and Amma had so much fun together!!! They played and played! In fact Nadia had this one phrase 'doy, doy, doy' which we were beginning to believe was really 'play,play,play'. Amma and Nadia went for lots of walks around the area. Nadia loves walking outside! They also went to the park, where Nadia got to go down the slide and swing on the swings!! She LOVEs playing at the park!!! She also really loves playing with the little stones that are around the play structure!! I think we're really going to have to think about getting a swing set next spring! Nadia also loves to be tickled and boy was she in for a treat as Amma loves to tickle little girls!!! Amma's favourite phrase 'Here come Amma's tickle fingers!'.





We got to do all kinds of fun things during Amma's visit!! One of the biggest challenges was finding the perfect Halloween costume for Nadia!! Amma, Nadia and mommy spent a full day going around looking at costumes and trying different ones on. It was so hard to decide as they were all just so cute!!! The first one that we really liked was wonder woman. Nadia made a great little wonder woman and especially since she's so strong ,as she likes to lift and carry everything around, it really suited her, but we figured it would be too cold going around trick or treating in so then we found a cute little piglet costume. It was so adorable, but as it was made so fitting, you couldn't easily fit another layer on underneath and the material inside was incredibly itchy....very strange for a children's costume. Then we found a pink lamb costume which we thought was 'the costume' but then we came across this perfect little butterfly costume!! Not even a second thought, I bought it right away and it was definitely the best choice as she could wear layers of warm clothing underneath and she was still so ridiculously cute!!! Mind you she's pretty cute in most anything she wears!!!!

Well we weren't exactly teaching Nadia how to climb stairs but she would go up a couple and then back down but never did anything more than that. Then one day on the 14th of October while Mommy was doing dishes, Amma was upstairs cleaning out the bath tub and Daddy was in the basement working. Mommy thought Nadia was just at the front door playing with the zipper on her bag as Nadia had been going through a zipper phase at the time..... where she loved to unzip and zip things back up. So anyway, Mommy thought things sounded a little too quiet so she went to check on Nadia at the front entrance. No Nadia. Mommy started to panick but was not in a frenzy just yet...Mommy opened the bathroom door with horrible visions....still no Nadia. Mommy ran around everywhere on the main floor searching for a little Nadia...all the while screaming Nadia's name like a crazy person. Where could she be...she was just here a minute ago. Then rushing upstairs to see if Amma brought her upstairs with her....Amma came out of the bathroom saying no, Nadia wasn't with her....then all of a sudden this little person appeared out of the guest room. So mommy grabbed her and still in a state of panick and relief asked Amma again if she had brought Nadia up....nope Amma didn't bring her upstairs....then it finally dawned on mommy that the only way she could have gotten upstairs was by climbing the stairs herself. So we went back to the bottom of the stairs and put Nadia down and let her loose....and there she went back up all 14 stairs like she'd been doing this her whole life. We were all so glad that she hadn't gotten hurt but now we always have the gate up blocking the stairs going up.

Nadia got a wagon from Amma and Gido for her birthday! She loves going fo rides in her wagon!!

The shirt says it all!!!

Mommy, Amma, Auntie Karen and Uncle Sebastien also got to go to the broadway musical CATS! Which had excellent dancing and singing and although it was a good show, its one of those once you've seen it you don't feel compelled to see it again.

The days of Nadia sitting still or sleeping on me seem so far in the past. This was a really special moment to have her sleeping in my arms and as I don't get to hold her for long periods at a time cause she's always on the go and so busy I definitely appreciate these special moments alot more!!!



We just had our first snowfall the other day and here is Nadia out in the snow in her new snowsuit. It's a little big as its for 18 months but it should last the whole winter!!! Maybe if we're lucky, next winter too!!! The other picture of Nadia holding the box of lego is so cute...I guess its kind of hard to see but her hair is permanently sticking up. It's so fine and has now grown to a length that it's sticking up, but not yet long enough to stay down. Only a matter of time!

Nadia is such a loving and cuddly little character. It's really hard to get her to sit still in one place but if we turn on the tv and give her a little friend to hold, we may be able to get a few minutes out of her.

We were sad to see Amma leave back home but we'll see her again in no time at all! Only 3 1/2 more weeks!! See you soon Amma and Gido!!!! Thanks again Amma for the special visit!!

So Many Changes!!!

Nadia beginning September

Nadia end October

I've been meaning to give some updates on key milestones of Nadia and our family. I know I've been very delinquent on keeping the blog up to date. Who knew life could get so crazy!!! So much has happened over the last few months!!! Nadia's first birthday is probably the biggest thing but I'm going to dedicate one of my next blog entries to that. Nadia has really grown up over the last little while. I've now gone through her drawers 3 times to get rid of things that are too small and to fill them up with the next size of clothing. I have to say it certainly doesn't get any easier. So many different clothes with so many memories. It's hard for me to believe how much she has changed!! Everything comes with its excitement and sadness. I'm always excited for her different firsts but then brings the sadness of her lasts. It was so exciting when she was taking her first steps!! We were so proud of her and cheering her on!!! She started taking her first couple of steps in early September and then on 17 September she took her first five steps in a row. She still did quite a bit of crawling at that point. Her walking was more of an experimental thing and she was still quite a bit faster crawling so that was her preferred method of travel. Then as the month progressed she was doing more and more walking and then the beginning of October she decided she was just going to walk. She even went a week without playing with her toys cause all she wanted to do was walk to the front of the house and then to the back of the house. It was as though she had just made the greatest discovery...which I suppose she did....why God gave her two legs. Walking was this new and incredible thing that she just couldn't get enough of. She even tried running at first but her poor little feet didn't know how to do that yet and so she fell. But she always kept getting right back up. Now, she's a great little walker and has even started running. But as I mentioned before, as exciting as this was, with it came a last....the last time she would 'really' crawl...sob....sob.. I can't believe how Nadia's really growing up into such a perfect little girl!! I love her little teeth filled smile. It was so funny how her front teeth didn't come in at the same time and she looked a little lopsided, but around the last half of September her other front tooth came in and balanced everything out!

A video of Nadia's first steps in September

The next thing was the changing of the car seats as she had grown too long for the infant one. We did this nearing the end of September. She now rides in her big girl car seat!! We still have it rear facing though and will continue to keep it that way till she either reaches 37 inches or 30 pounds. She'll definitely reach the height first before the weight. I don't know what it is but this kid can eat and eat and eat and I have no idea where she puts it in that little body of hers. She has the cutest little belly though after she's finished eating. It's like a little minnie pregnant belly!! So cute!!! Again, another last, the last time she'll ever ride in her infant car seat.

Nadia has also really developed intellectually over the past couple of months, in September she started playing with the shape sorter the way its supposed to be played with, to putting balls in the intended tubes, to playing peek-a-boo with her own hands, to more recently in October tickling everyone, finding their belly buttons and of course her own. She is also obsessed with learning how to buckle her highchair belt. Nadia has a great sense of humour. No matter how unhappy she is, if mommy puts a diaper on mommy's head (an unused one) it always makes her laugh!!!She is also quite the little chatterbox. We have no idea what she's saying and its almost as though she thinks that we should understand so she talks louder thinking that by increasing the volume we'll know what she's saying. She has a few words like mama, dada, ba (for bath), she pants when you ask her what a puppy says....and for a kitty too even though I've tried explaining to her that a kitty meows. But that's fine, she'll figure it out later. A couple of weeks ago she started saying this one thing 'tkoy tkoy'....only thing I can think of is that it must be Ukranian .... like 'chici, chici'. She's only recently started saying 'tickle, tickle' I think that was Amma's influence on her during her recent visit.

Nadia loves to empty everything!! Like the tupperware drawer, her toy bin, her toy drawer and the shelves in the living room that are dedicated to her toys. Of course she also likes to help mommy with the laundry by unfolding clothes and pulling them out of the basket and onto the floor! What a great little helper. So we've just started working on showing her how much fun it is to put things away!!! I've heard that kids usually catch on by their early 20's.

Nadia's favourite colour is blue. A couple of months ago Nadia could always be found carrying something blue with her. Whether it was her soft blue ball, hard blue ball, blue phone, blue ring, or blue shirt with a picture of minnie mouse on it. She doesn't do this as much lately as she has discovered other favourite items such as the two little green tupperware lids.

Probably the sadest 'last' of all was mine and Nadia's last day together just the two of us before I had to start back to work in September. We had so much fun that day, we went to the park, we danced together and then we cried....okay....maybe it was just me. Then the following couple of days I took her to the sitter's for half days to work her into going to the sitter's in phases. She cried her first two half days. So did I...especially the first day. I guess I don't have a very good poker face as the sitter could tell that I was having difficulty leaving that first day and reassured me as I was walking out the door that everything would be okay. Deep down I knew it would be, but leaving my baby with someone else was still not easy. Especially since from that day on, things would never be the same. It was kind of funny...even before I had left I was sitting in the living room with Nadia, the sitter and one of the other little kids and this little girl kind of asked/told me 'aren't you supposed to leave'....it was kinda cute. Kids are so honest.

There are so many other things about Nadia and what she's been up to that I could talk about forever but I think I'm just going to finish up this entry and start a new one!

Just a quick update about Mike and I, so I've been back to work since 17 September and things have been going great. It has been very tiring balancing everything but I'm slowly getting used to it. I also celebrated my 5 year reunion since graduation from University in September. Time sure passes quickly! It was nice seeing various friends again. Especially, Angie and Sonya!!! The three of us had not been together since about 3 years ago. Mike is also doing really well with his Masters and his exam routine is quickly approaching!

Busy Month!!

Where did the month of August go!!! From settling into our house, to going to a wedding, to having visitors it sure has been crazy but lots of fun!!! Nadia has been busy growing teeth these days. She now has six teeth!!! She just cut her sixth tooth about 5 days ago. I'm also still nursing her.....and I'm going back to work in less than two weeks!!! I plan to nurse her for as long as she wants so hopefully by the time she's in Kindergarten.....hee hee....well hopefully before then!!

Nadia loves going to the park!! She loves watching the other kids running around. A couple of times she has attempted to get closer to the action but as they are a lot older and bigger I have to hold her back so she doesn't get trampled. Other moms are really good and continuously warn their kids to watch out for the baby. Its funny cause to me Nadia no longer seems like a baby...but its all relative. Nadia's favourite thing at the park would definitely have to be the swing! In fact if I'm not pushing her and she's starting to slow down she starts to shake the swing as a means to communicate "faster mommy!!" I think she's going to be a real thrill seeker!! She likes to go really fast and high!!!

Nadia loves to move all of our furniture around. She has turned everything into her walker. She moves the chairs around (luckily they don't scratch the floor) she loves moving her highchair around and climbing on it. It's actually pretty dangerous but we've learned to make it safe by locking the wheels and lowering the seat. As she has tried to climb the highchair by trying to do a pull up using the tray. She has a shirt that says "Looking for Trouble" and that definitely suits her!!! She has also figured out how to escape me when I'm chasing her. She simply has to go through her secret passage way between the couches and I can't get to her cause by the time I crawl around our couch she has already gone through the secret passage way again. So then if I really want to get her I just get up on my feet and run after her....she can't beat me that way! She's also learned how to get down things safely. This is still a work in progress but she has learned to go feet first and how to go down a step at a time. Despite the fact that she is not allowed on the stairs. This is also a handy skill for getting off of the couch. Nadia has also become our little duck. She has a few toy ducks and whenever she is playing with them she goes "quack quack" it's so cute!! Nadia has also just recently started to stand all by herself. For the longest time she has been standing/walking around the coffee table, couch, walls, etc always needing to touch something with at least one hand but the other day she decided to clap her hands while she was standing and so she just did it. It lasted about 15 seconds or so but it felt like time stood still for a moment while she did that and I was torn between watching the moment and running for the camera....I chose to watch the moment and it ended with her placing her one hand back on the couch. Since that moment though she has been going between the couch and coffee table without going down and back up which is progress. She also stands by herself when she is crouched down on her two feet playing with something. She'll also stand from the crouching position and then grab onto something after she's stood up. So we know it won't be long before she is running around the house!!!

Here we were fortunate to grab a photo with the Newlywed couple of Erin and her Mike. It was such a wonderful wedding and it was so nice to see Erin again after all of this time!!! Congratulations again to the beautiful couple!!

These smaller pictures were taken by Nadia's Grandpa and as they are just so cute I just had to post them!! In one you have Nadia getting into a drawer at Grandma and Grandpa's house, then you have Nadia reading an instruction manual....Grandpa always says to read the instrustions first, playing with a ball looking cute and then Nadia enjoying bath time!!

Here Nadia got to meet one of mommy's friends from University. It was really great to see Laura again!! The last time I saw her Nadia was still in my belly!!!

We were also very fortunate to have an awesome visit with Angela and Leandro while Angela was out helping Leandro get all settled in!!! We even got to visit with Angela's parents as they were passing through while taking their summer vacation!!! Nadia is such a little performer and loves to dance (I wonder where she gets that from?)!! Angela taught her a new move "wiggle wiggle wiggle" It was priceless!

We've also been fortunate to have other friends over! Here Nadia is hanging out with Dave. He's a friend of Mike's from university and work.

In other news, I can't believe that I'll be back to work in a week and a half and Nadia is starting daycare tomorrow. Mike has also started his Masters in Electrical Engineering. I think that he's really going to enjoy it! His courses sound like a lot of work but all very interesting!!

As well, I would just like to wish Ariel a Happy 3rd Birthday!!! I can't believe how quickly she is growing up!!!


And for your watching enjoyment here's a short clip of Nadia hugging her little baby. This little baby doll was actually mine when I was little. It's the perfect size for Nadia right now! Also, to look at additional photos (and some of the same ones posted here) you can click on the More Nadia Pics link that I've added!!! (Note how loving of a mommy Nadia is at the end of the clip!)

All Moved In!

Moving Day!!!

Our lives getting loaded onto a truck!

Nadia and Mike (one of our old neighbours) hanging out at the beach the day our house was being loaded up.

It's hard to believe that we've already been in our new house for just over 3 weeks!!! Time sure does fly!!! We will certainly miss our old home but we're really happy with our new home!!! Nadia's favourite part is all of the space that she has to run around especially her new play room! Mommy's favourite part is the dishwasher and daddy's is the bigger garage!!

Here Mike is hanging out with Nadia at the hotel pool while we were waiting to move into our new house!

Our New House (Well the living room anyway!! still containing some boxes....this picture is about 2 weeks old though)

It sure has been really busy over the last little while!!! We were also very lucky to have grandma and grandpa helping watch over Nadia during the move while we were busy overseeing and supervising the packing, loading, unloading and unpacking!! We've pretty much gotten all settled in now. Only the basement still contains some boxes and requires some organizing but other than that our second floor and main floor are all organized!!! It's so nice being able to move around the house without having to walk around or step over boxes!!!
Our new house is definitely more baby friendly!! Nadia has lots of room to crawl and get around she even has her own little fun secret passage between the couches and end table!! She loves it cause she thinks that she is so sneaky!! We have also baby proofed the house with wonderful safety gates and hooks on all of the cupboards and drawers. At first it was frustrating but now I've become quite good at accessing things. Oh the nice memories of just simply pulling a knob to open a drawer. I guess its going to be quite some time until we enjoy that again!!

Here mommy and Nadia are playing in Nadia's tent in her new playroom!!

Nadia has also really grown over the past month and she just started feeding herself with a cup!! Or rather...mommy finally let her try to do it by herself and Nadia showed me that she is capable. Which is good since she won't take a bottle or a sippy cup...we're still working on the sippy cup though as it would be alot cleaner!! She has certainly become quite a good little eater though!! She'll eat just about anything (except formula she hates it)!! We've started to feed her quite a bit more different things like plain yogurt, egg yolks, a variety of different meat stews (which she loves!), any vegetable, she'll eat cut up grapes, cheese, bananas, she loves cheerios!!, this one rice snack called mum-mums...so whenever I think she is calling me mom I think she is really asking for one of these snacks!!, and rice cakes. She really has the chewing thing down....but she tends to stick way too much in that mouth!! It actually looks kind of funny and I keep thinking she's going to choke but she seems to manage just fine somehow. She also started walking with her red car about a week ago and she grew another tooth! She also has another tooth just starting to poke out. It's exciting but I'm really going to miss that gummy grin!!! She's also gotten into this shaking her head no thing..it's kinda funny! She definitely keeps us entertained and busy!!! She also loves stories!! We have this one book that has different textures to feel and she likes touching all of the different things and her favourite part of story reading is getting to turn the pages!! She's often a little impatient though and turns the page before I'm even done!! She also loves imitating us!!! Like if we make squealing noises, grunting noises, blowing through our nose noises, and she started copying waving. She also gives hugs and she's so cute when she hugs her little baby!! It's amazing how quickly she's growing up!! I hate to think in another month and a half I'll be back to work and missing all of this cool stuff!!! Sniff...Sniff....

Here is a picture of Nadia swinging away at a park near our home. We no longer have a beach nearby.... but we do have a couple of parks. She definitely likes the swing alot more than the slide!

Here is a cute father daughter cuddle and sleep time. Awhhh!! Nadia is also doing great in the sleep department!! We've managed to train her to sleep 12 hours straight every night and have two naps during the day which last anywhere from 1 to 2 hours! She's been doing quite well at this for the past couple of months with a minor lapse during the hotel stays while we were in the process of moving. Its great for providing us time to get things done and spend some quality time together as a couple!!!!

Here we are out for dinner on our anniversary!!! With a special thanks to grandma and grandpa for watching our precious little Nadia while we were out! We have been together for seven years and married for three!!! Where does the time go? It seems like only yesterday we met!

Teeth!!!

Well it has finally happened!! Nadia got teeth!! I first noticed something while we were on the plane on the 25th of June but as my thumb nail got caught in her mouth the day before that and I made her bleed I just assumed that I was seeing some sort of cut as a result of that in her mouth. But it turned out that she had cut teeth!! It's been just over two weeks already since then and they seem to be getting bigger every day!! So I'll definitely have to get some more updated photos posted!!

Also a happy belated Canada Day!!!! As we are in the midst of moving (house is now all packed) we did some last minute visiting with some of our friends before we leave. In the one photo we have Fiona, Nadia and Isaac and in the other Will and Nadia. It sure has been fun, we will miss you and we will be sure to arrange visiting in the future!!!

So lots has been happening!! Nadia has been changing at lightning speed!!! She has become so fast and is now a speed crawler!! She especially enjoys it when I chase her!! She also loves to dance!! She will push the doorbell on her tent that plays music and then she stands up and dances along it is so cute!! She also enjoys playing other games like Hide and Seek where I go and hide and then she finds me!! It's so much fun!! We also play ring around the rosie where her favourite part is when we fall to our bums!!! She also really started to cruise around about two weeks ago and can walk pretty quickly around the coffee table. She can also climb over most things. Like her play tent, it has this plastic door that opens and closes and although she likes to open and close it all the time she also likes to crawl right over the top!! She has also become more brave and is practicing standing without holding onto anything. Today was her longest standing without holding onto anything ever!! It felt like a lifetime to me but in reality it was probably 5-10 seconds. She has gotten better and better at this whole balance thing and she's so strong. Sometimes she'll stand for a moment and bounce up one more time before falling to her butt!!! She's so funny and entertaining!!! It won't be too much longer until she's standing all by herself!!! Then it's going to be that whole walking thing!! Ahhh!!!!! She is growing up way too fast for me!!!!!

So we were very fortunate to attend a wedding last weekend!! Nadia had another opportunity to wear her princess ballerina dress!!! She was such a hit!! People loved her so much! I was known as the girl with the really cute baby! It was funny, people that didn't even know us were taking pictures of Nadia!! I think that Nadia is a hit with most people as she is so well behaved, so interactive, has huge personality and is just full of expression!

It was a very beautiful wedding and we had alot of fun!! Congratulations Brendan and Melissa!!!

Also I just wanted to warn everyone about being careful while playing the Nintendo Wii. I hurt my finger nearly two weeks ago and have finally regained use of my finger. I still can't bend the tip and it is about 3 times bigger than my other index finger but at least I'm no longer in great pain. Long story short, I was playing tennis against Mike and went to hit the ball with my Wii remote (which was my tennis racquet) and I hit a basement light ceiling tile. I smashed that and I'm guessing the nail of my finger was torn backwards. Anyway it took about 4-5 days until the throbbing and excruciating pain subsided. Then at that point it only hurt if I touched anything....now after about 2 weeks it no longer hurts to touch anything...even water under the nail killed before....now that's fine too!!! Anyway, there is a website for people like me. It was a very fun game but I'm just warning others to Play it safe!!! The warnings on the game are there for a reason!!! Needless to say this was a very bad time to get injured...but I did get out of dishes and bum changes for awhile!! Thanks Mike!!!

Also I just wanted to Congratulate my friends Karen and Tim on their beautiful new little baby girl Grace!! She is just precious!!!! I love little babies!!!!!

Out Visiting

It sure has been a busy month this past June!! We had a really nice visit with Amma and Gido!! It was hard to leave but poor daddy was sure missing his little girl!! Nadia was very fortunate to spend alot of time with Amma and Gido!! She definitely was Amma and Gido's little girl!!

Here Nadia is hanging out and spending time with Gido!!!

She also got to see quite a bit of Auntie Julianne! Julianne showed her the best way to get really messy!!! Nadia loved it!! Mommy on the other hand had a difficult time with this and even Mommy isn't all that picky when it comes to cleanliness while eating. I can only imagine what Grandpa Howie would think of this (He's a bit obsessed when it comes to babies and maintaining a food free face, hands and area while eating)!!

Here Nadia's giving Auntie Julianne a kissy!!

Nadia also learned some other vital skills during our visit like giving wet kissies, clapping her hands and chin-ups!! Now we can play pattycake!! Yeah, the chin-ups were not intentional she had been standing holding onto the coffee table and sat down still holding on and managed to go too far under the coffee table and tried to pull herself back up to the standing position but her legs were too far under so all she did was lift her little body with her arms...it was kind of funny and surprising as I had no idea she was that strong!! I guess I need to take lessons from her as I'm not very good at chin-ups! But we quickly rescued her cause she was crying. Amma really wanted to have her walking before we left but I think we'll have to save that one for daddy!!! It's a little early for that anyway!! She is already way too mobile and getting into everything!! At the same time we've been having all kinds of fun! One of her favourite games is peek-a-boo and a variation of it where she stands holding onto the coffee table and I go on the opposite side of the table and I go under and she follows me and then I go up and she follows me...She's so funny cause she thinks she's so clever and it always makes her laugh!!!!

We've also had the opportunity to do a bunch of visiting with some of my friends and family! Nadia got to see so many people while we were out visiting!! She got so much attention from everyone..even strangers!!! Maybe we'll get to skip the making strange phase all together!! Here are some friends of mine that I went to school with. Jenn, Angela, Mommy, and Alicia with Nadia.

Here is Nadia with her Great Baba!

And here is Nadia with mommy's friend Briana.

We also got to go and visit Great Auntie Carrie and her little boy Hayden!!

We also got to go to one of my friend's weddings!! It was a beautiful wedding with a very beautiful bride!!!!

Nadia was also a hit in her cute ballerina princess dress!!!!

Here we are with Mommy's friend April and her handsome little guy Joshua in a suit and everything!!

Awwwhhhh aren't they just way too cute!!!



We had such a fun time at the wedding, visiting friends and family and especially spending nearly three weeks with Amma and Gido! We sure are going to miss you and all of your wonderfully noisy toys!!!! We can't wait until our next visit!!

I love you Amma and Gido!!!