Walking (sort of)

Amy can't walk on her own yet, but she is getting closer all the time. She has a miniature shopping cart that she loves to push around the living room. She also has a small stroller and another push toy that she likes as well.

Last night, she started standing up without holding onto anything. It was only for a few seconds at a time, but it was more than she was doing before. Normally when we try to get her to do that, her legs just go limp and she sits, but she did it all on her own yesterday. One more step towards walking!

Here is a video I took of her walking with the shopping cart.

Lots of pictures!

September was a busy month for us. We went to Texas for two weeks to visit family and surprise Brandon's mom for her birthday (she was very surprised). We had a great time and everyone loved seeing Amy.

Since Amy's birthday was at the end of the month, we had a small birthday dinner while we were in SA and found out she loves chocolate.

Then we came back home, along with Melissa and Grandma Amy. They stayed for a week and we saw the sights of Montreal.

Olympic Stadium

Notre Dame Basilica

Part of the old port

It was a lot of fun having them here and Amy enjoyed every bit of attention she got!

On Amy's actual birthday, we made her more cake. This time it had vanilla icing, and she wasn't as big of a fan. But we still got a few good pictures.

And finally, (two days before her birthday), she got some teeth! Two little pearly white nubs appeared on her bottom gums. They really seemed to pop up out of nowhere!

What kind of kid doesn't like the park?

Amy went on her first trip to the park a few days ago. She was not a big fan of it. Didn't seem to like sitting in the sand. Or even the swing. I forgot the camera, so I didn't get any good pictures, but I'm gonna try again today. And take some toys this time.

The amount of real food Amy eats has been growing, while the amount of formula has been shrinking. For a while, she was having one bottle of formula at night, everything else was just regular food. A few nights ago, I stopped giving her the nightly bottle and she doesn't seem to miss it yet. This weaning thing might be easier than I thought :) (Lets just hope it continues!)

C25K has been going alright. Good and not so good. The first week was a bit tough, but that was expected because I don't run. Ever. Then this was supposed to be week 2, but I kinda got sick earlier this week and missed two days of it. That's the not so good part. But I went again this morning (just doing the week one set), and it was much easier than last week! My knees hurt a bit, but I wasn't very tired at all. So I'm looking forward to the rest of this program more now than I was before. I heard it got easier, but actually feeling that it did is great!

As you can see above, Amy likes to put cords in her mouth. This particular one is an iPod USB cord. At one point, another one of these cords was plugged into the computer, and when we weren't looking, Amy found the other end and put it in her mouth. Then, Brandon's computer popped up with "USB device not recognized". So apparently Amy is not an iPod. Good to know.

Happy Face

Gangsta face

By the way, our apartment smells like chicken fajita tacos right now. I really want some.

Keeping up

Last weekend, we went to Ian and Jamie's place. We hung out there for a few hours, went for a walk. They have a dog and a cat, and Amy loved playing with them. She just naturally likes animals, which is great. Then Ian and Jamie watched Amy for a little bit, while Brandon and I went to eat dinner. We were going to shop around, but then we realized it was after 5 on a Saturday, so everything was closed. It was a fun trip though, I enjoyed getting out and seeing other people :)

I finished week one of C25k. It went better than I expected it to. It was tough, but doable. I am ready to start week two tomorrow.

Brandon is also doing it as well, he went twice this past week. Hopefully, I can get him to go all three times next week ;)

Amy is doing very well. She's been working on her speed crawl lately. She also still pulls herself up on everything she can, and she walks holding on to the couch. Still no teeth. Also, no real words yet. She makes sounds like mamama, dadada, naynaynay, etc. but doesn't really know what she is saying.

And here she is in her new high chair! (I've been slacking on the picture taking lately, so there's only one this time)

She's recyclable!

This also doubles as her favorite toy bin

Just a few new pictures and a little selfishness

I want to keep up with this more. I may not have a lot to say, but I usually take a picture or two every now and then, so there might just be some posts with only pictures.

Peanut Butter Face

Would be cuter if it wasn't blurry

Big smile!

And I know I always post on here about Amy, but I'm gonna go a little off topic now.

Brandon has 2 months left of his parental leave that he never used, and has decided to use it now. His project at work is finishing up, so it's the perfect time (also considering that he only has 2 months left to take it).

I've decided to use this time to try and get in a little better shape. I've been hearing about people doing the c25k program (couch to 5k), and I've decided to do it myself. Basically, it's a 9 week running program that is supposed to get anyone from the couch to be able to run a 5k. Sounds tough, I know. It starts out slow though, just walking and jogging and slowly builds up to running. With Brandon home to watch Amy, it's the perfect time.

I'm both a little excited and a little nervous to do it. I want to get back in shape, but I've never been a runner.

Lately I have just constantly felt tired and worn out, after doing something simple like walking 15 minutes to the grocery store. So it's time for a change. I want to feel better, I want more energy. And I wouldn't mind fitting into my old jeans again :)

Melissa is currently on week 6 of the program and says it's going pretty well for her, so if all goes well for me, maybe we'll be running a Thanksgiving race in New York! That would be something I never imagined myself doing, but I know I would be super proud if I could do it.

So, I start Monday! Pray that I don't die in the next 9 weeks!

Videos!

The entire electronic world has been against me sharing these videos. I won't go into the long, boring details, but I believe I finally got them to work.

This first one is of her crawling.



And then her standing



And this is kind of an old video, but I love the way she laughs in it, so I wanted to share :)

Dr. Day

We went to the doctor today. Amy is very healthy :)

She is 31 inches tall and weighs in at 22 lbs, which the doctor said is bigger than the average one year old. That didn't surprise me at all though. Amy was born a big girl and never slowed down.

He also said we could start giving her milk, and if it sits well with her, start phasing out formula. So I guess will try removing the bottle and formula from the picture at the same time and see how it goes. As long as she has something to eat, I don't really think she'll miss the bottle that much. She already uses it about half as much as she used to and doesn't even seem to notice.

Also, I know I promised video and have not followed through. I apologize. Our video camera requires three cords to connect to the computer, and only two of them were in the camera bag. So I've gotta hunt down the other one. Hopefully I will find it soon!

Almost 10 months

I've gotten really bad at posting on here frequently. I do have a small excuse. Amy and I were in New York and Texas for 5 1/2 weeks visiting family. So we were either always on the go, or didn't have internet. But it was a lot of fun, and it was really great seeing all the people we got to see! Somehow, there's never enough time to see everyone though.

Anyway, about who you really come here to read about ;)

Amy has been doing very well, she's learning so much! Since I last posted, she can now sit up on her own (push herself into the sitting position), clap, crawl, pull herself up to stand and sort of walk while holding on to the couch. I took a video of her crawling this morning, but I laid her down for a nap in the bedroom, and then realized that the camera cord is in the bedroom. So I will have to upload and post it later. Haven't gotten a good video of her standing yet, but I'll keep trying. When she sees me pull out the video camera, she tends to just stare at me and smile.

She also sort of plays games now. One of them she did for a while, was that she would start to hand me or Brandon a toy, but then when we went to grab it, pull it away quickly and laugh. She did it over and over again. I think it's because I used to do that to her a lot. She thinks keep away is funny.

And last night during bath time, I put a big ring toy on her head. It fell off after a few seconds of course, but then she just grabbed it, gave it back to me, and then sat really still like she wanted me to do it again. So I put it back on her head, it fell off, she gave it back to me.

She's learning more and getting more fun as she gets older :)

As for foods, she doesn't want to eat baby food anymore. It can be forced on her if necessary, but she cries, so I just don't bother. So I've been giving her things like bananas, peaches, pears, squash and watermelon. She doesn't seem to like bread at this point, and she's still a little unsure about cheese. But she loves french fries!

Still no teeth though. Not even any sign of teeth coming soon. I'm starting to think she'll never get them. But she is fascinated by other people's teeth.

She has a doctor appointment this week. I'm curious how much bigger she has gotten. She wears some 12 month clothes, but 18 month is starting to fit her better, so her accelerated growth doesn't seem to be slowing down just yet.

And here are some of the pictures I took while on vacation. Videos to soon follow.

Messy eater

She knocked the box over, picked up a can and tried drinking it

Lazy child

Go speed racer!

Pictures!

Trying to teach Amy to crawl :)

Already likes The Little Mermaid

She loves pulling all of my shirts off their hangers

Plastic, yum!

A few seconds earlier, she was up on her knees. I didn't get the camera in time.

Weirdo

8 months and still no chompers

I know, I should be happy that she hasn't gone through teething yet, but I just want to get it over with, haha. I'm afraid that the older she gets, the worse it will be for her.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on with her. She's getting really big, already wearing 12m clothes. She's sitting well, and even pulled herself up on her knees in her crib the other day. She also grabs everything is reach, and pulls. Her favorite thing to grab is my hair of course. And she's like a ninja. Grabs and pulls and I am halfway to the floor before I even realize it. When we go to stores, she reaches for anything she can get her hands on.

She seems to be constantly happy. Sometimes I think that somewhere along the way, Brandon replaced her with a robot. A smiling, laughing, happy robot. And hey, I'm not complaining at all. I'm just amazed by it. She is always so good. I don't know how we got so lucky!

This coming Thursday, we will be heading to NYC for Melissa's graduation from Brooklyn Law School! So that is pretty exciting. And it will be nice to see them again. And then after NYC, me and Amy are heading to Texas to visit more family and friends. Unfortunately, Brandon has to come back home to go to work :(

We're really looking forward to the trip. Hopefully Amy will do as good on this one as she did on the last one.

I have taken some pictures lately, but as usual, I haven't gotten them off my camera (and my camera is currently in the room with a sleeping baby, so I'd rather not disturb anything). I'll try to add some in the next few days)

Dress Up

I decided Amy looked like she wanted to play a little dress up today. So I put Brandon's tie and my hat on her. And got what I think is my favorite picture of her yet.

Easter and other fun stuff

Melissa came to visit us for a week during her spring break, and Joseph came for a weekend. It was quite fun and Amy enjoyed having more people to give her attention. Though I am pretty sure after the week was over, she never wanted to be in her stroller again. She saw lots of the city though! And of course, got new stuff ;)

We went to the Jean Talon market and bought lots of fruit for our Easter picnic at Mont Royal. The weather ended up being a bit chilly, but it was still nice. We also did a lot of walking around the city.

Amy is learning to sit up on her own. She does pretty good for a few seconds, and then usually tries to grab the ground and falls over. She also seems to prefer mine and Brandon's toys over her own. She loves the laptop and ipod and remote, anything she can get her hands on that she is not supposed to. Her toys are no fun anymore now that she has found ours.

She's also been eating real food for a few weeks now. Not a fan of peas (though I'm not giving up!). She does pretty good. She got a bit mad at me after I kept feeding her the peas and didn't want to eat for a few days, but she is better now. I think I just have to mix stuff with cereal for a couple meals so that she can get used to the taste. She seems to take to new foods better that way.

Pea face!

More pictures