6 Months!!! ( or: A very merry 1/2 birthday)

Believe it or not, Juniper reached her 6 month milestone today. 6 months!!! I am a little bit dumbstruck. She is such a little girl now - she's been sitting on her own for well over a month, and lately she's even been practicing some supported standing. For instance, check this out:

In celebration of her 1/2 birthday (and because we were specifically waiting for her to reach 6 months) we finally introduced some (dun dun duuuunnnn) SOLID FOOD today. We are trying out something a little different with respect to introducing solids - friends of ours recommended a book called Baby-led Weaning: Helping Your Baby Love Good Food , and the concept seemed to make so much sense that we decided we would give it a go. Essentially, the philosophy is that you don't spoon-feed your child - you let her feed herself. So instead of pureeing all Juniper's food, we will cut things into manageable pieces (steaming it if necessary) and let her put it in her own mouth and figure it out. We started her with carrots and broccoli this evening, most of which ended up smashed on the table or tossed on the floor... though I think some made it in. Here is a little clip from that adventure:

And... what else is new? Well, two days ago, we took Juniper in for her 6 month check-up - she is now well over 18lbs. More importantly, however, she also got her first vaccine. This whole vaccination issue has been a tough one for us, but we finally opted to start her late (ie, at 6 months rather than 2 months), and we are breaking them up as well (ie, she just got her DaPTP/Hib on Thursday, and in three weeks she'll get her Pneumococcal conjugate - usually you just get them all together). We'll have to reassess when her 1 year shots are due. In any event, she took this first one like a trooper - she hardly even flinched, and there were no tears. I can only assume this was at least in part because of the healthy layers of pudge on her thighs!



Juniper is also making lots of new sounds these days - she's moved from her initial cooing to throaty warbles and purrs, lips smacking and clicking, lip buzzing/raspberry noises, and most recently, really high-pitched squeals. Here's a little montage of that progression:

OK, that's lots for now. More to come!

Flashback! (and a photo album)

This is just a short post, so that I could share one of the video montages I've been working on. Since I only really figured out how to post videos a month or two after Juniper was born, one of the things you've missed out on has been the "early days" footage. As such, I've put together a selection of clips from Juniper's first week, set to "Blackbird" (one of Juniper's favourite songs). Enjoy!

Also, fyi, I've posted a picasa album of photos from our December trip to Fredericton, and of Christmas. More montages to come!

Birthday weekend

(photo courtesy of Alana Yorke)

I had been meaning to post some catch-up videos and photos from Juniper's day-to-day, but I thought I should maybe post about this past weekend while it is still fresh. So, on Friday last (ie, Jan 15th), I turned the big Three-Oh. That's right, 30. And boy, was there ever a jam-packed weekend of celebration!

On Friday, after our weekly yoga class, a bunch of my friends and their wee ones came over for some hang-out and eats. It was such a blast! We even got to hang out a bit with some of their partners, which was lovely, as mostly it's just the moms and babies that spend any time together. I was especially curious to see if the kids would be interested in each other, or if it was too early for that yet (most were right around Juniper's age). Here is Juniper and her friend Isabella (who is 1 week older than Juniper); both of whom have mastered the art of sitting!

Conclusion: there was some acknowledgment of each other's presence, and some tentative reaching out to touch each other's faces. Juniper, however, was mostly interested in playing with the new toys (she absolutely knew which toys were not hers, and didn't want anything to do with her regular toys - only the ones that belonged to the other kids), and eating the other babies' feet. That's right, their feet. To be fair, they were slippered, and therefore little, colourful, and moving - could you think of anything more appealing to stuff in your face? Here is a short video of one of her attempts... sadly I didn't catch the actual chomping. And this is also my first time over dubbing!

Then on Saturday, we had a lovely, and incredibly eclectic mix of people over for a crepe potluck. This meant that Clark whipped up a veritable mountain of crepes, and everyone brought contributions to out on the inside. What a delicious success! There was so much lovely fresh fruit, and cheeses, and sauces - I stuffed myself silly. Juniper even had a friend to play with - Cristina and Dag's little 11-month old, Ida, came and very graciously shared her toys. Notice Juniper's sparkly party duds :)

Apart from those two parties, we also had a whole host of people staying with us - Faye and Brent (my sister and her s.o.) were down for the weekend, as was our long-time family friend, Jill Allison (who lives in St. John's). It was Jill's first time meeting Juniper, and they were fast friends. On Saturday night, after the crepe brunch, Faye and Brent spent a couple of hours in the kitchen, preparing us some lovely sushi and tempura for supper. How spoiled am I?

On Sunday, my festivities had ended, but we went to the shower/birthday party of our friend Ashley, who is due in two weeks. It was great fun, and I suddenly felt like the seasoned five and a half month veteran :) Then Clark and Juniper and I walked around downtown, picked up some supper at Pete's Frootique, and had a very quiet evening. Obviously, a complete whirlwind of a weekend, but lots of fun!

Stay tuned for all the videos I've been meaning to post! In the meantime, here is just a little something fun to leave you with.

Fredericton and Christmas: a quick synopsis

(photo courtesy of Brent Gamble)

So, I had contemplated trying to do a nice, full post about all our Fredericton adventures, but then came to the conclusion that realistically, a synopsis is all I'm going to manage. So here you go: the quick and dirty recap of the last few weeks.

1. Fredericton.
So, as I mentioned, we made a surprise visit home before Christmas, to go to Clark's grandfather's funeral. It was a ridiculously quick turnaround time - somehow on a Monday morning, we managed to pack ourselves, Juniper, and all the necessary gear, and then get on the road by 1pm. This also meant, however, that we ended coming home to a bit of a disaster (read: moldy dishes in the kitchen sink. Gross). Anyway, we made it in one piece, and Juniper was an angel until the last 15 or 20 minutes of the drive, so we couldn't have asked for much better.

I was a bit nervous for the funeral itself - it was over an hour drive to get there from Fredericton, and the church was very small - small enough that if Juniper got fussy mid-funeral (or was upset from the drive), there was literally no place for me to take her. She was, however, a complete angel - she had smiles for everyone, and then just happily settled on my shoulder and sucked her thumb for the whole service. It was as if she sensed the mood - as though she knew how important it was to be a happy, shining light for everyone there.

The above photo is from the reception after the funeral; the bottom is also post funeral, at the farm with Juniper's great-grandmother Betty and her Aunt Theresa.

The rest of the Fredericton visit was actually quite nice - it was a different trip, because we weren't really there to do anything except go to the funeral. That meant that after the funeral was over, we were able to take the next few days to just relax and visit with some family that we wouldn't have been able to see if we had just stayed in Halifax as planned, and Juniper even got to meet some new people, like her step-cousin Ciaran, her great uncle Gerry, and Patrick's mother Brigitta (who made Juniper a lovely quilt). I'll post a bunch of pictures in a new Picasa album very soon. In the meantime, here is a nice shot of the Richards siblings with Juniper (except for poor Elizabeth. She is actually sitting next to Theresa, but refused to be in any photos due to her post-wisdom teeth surgery face).

A fun first for Juniper while we were in Fredericton was a quick cross-country ski that Clark, Theresa, Juniper and I went on. Clark strapped her to his back, and off we went... Juniper mostly slept for the ride, but she seemed very content and cozy! Here is a video from our little adventure:

2. Christmas in Halifax
After being delayed a bit longer than we had originally anticipated due to stormy weather, we finally made it back to Halifax on the 21st.  We proceeded to have the very, very quiet Christmas that we had originally conceived of - we didn't even leave the house for three days straight.  Here we all are on Christmas morning... our first family Christmas. We even had a tree! Here we are first thing in the morning in our PJs...

And here is a picture of Juniper in her Christmas outfit later on in the morning once we got dressed. Seriously, have you ever seen a cuter little elf girl?

On boxing day, my parents and my sister Andrea (who had made a surprise trip home from Vancouver) all came for a visit, which was lovely.  And then there was New Years Eve,  which Clark and I celebrated by going to bed shortly after 10 :) And here we are, in 2010 already.  Happy New Year!

Now that I've caught up on the synopsis, I'll move into all the new and wonderful things Juniper has been up to recently.  Stay tuned!  I'll leave you with a fun picture of Juniper helping me with the chores. (yes - to all you skeptics, I DO know how to vacuum)

Happy New Year!

Hello to anyone who is still reading after such a long delay!  As you might have guessed from the last post, things became rather topsy-turvy for us mid-December, when we got the sad news that Clark's grampy passed away.  This meant a surprise trip to Fredericton (after we had finally decided that we were not traveling anywhere this Christmas!), and then Christmas happened, and New Years, and so I'm only just starting to get back into the normal swing of things.

As you might imagine, there is a ridiculous amount to catch up on.  This, however, is not the night to do it.  It is only 8pm, and I'm so tired that I can barely think.  Yes, many things have changed since I last posted - One of which is that Juniper only ever sleeps for about 2 hours at a time now (maybe three at the very beginning of the evening).  I think this is a combo growth spurt/teething pain.  The upshot is that I never really sleep for more than an hour and a half at a time.  I am a bit of a walking zombie.  Here is how Juniper often sleeps these days when she IS sleeping - hands reclined behind her head.  How adorable is that?

Anyway, sorry for the teaser, but this is just a short post with the promise of more to come little by little as I play catch-up.  I have some great pictures and stories and videos planned, so it's worth the wait, I promise!  Here is Juniper with the hat/mitt combo and the rainbow overalls that I made, and had promised a picture of in my last post.  I've already made some more overalls, and I just took advantage of a big Fabricville sale, so I'm sure there will be many more creations to post as well!

And one final picture to leave you with, just for the fun of it - here is one of our mom and babes yoga classes that I go to at the Yoga Loft on Fridays.  This is after the yoga - we're just starting the post-yoga baby massage part. This is a particularly great picture because it has all the moms I've been hanging around in it.  Across from me (Juniper and I are in the back left corner) are Kerry and her son Patrick (ten days younger than Juniper), and beside me are Tawnya and her daughter Calla, who is a couple of weeks older than Juniper. Closest to the camera is Toni and her daughter Isabella, who is a week older than Juniper. Beside Toni is Sairah and her daughter Jolene.  Jolene is a good few months younger than the rest of these babes, but we realised that we had met long before either of us were pregnant, at a party our mutual friend Crispin threw.  Neat!  More soon!