Some shaky first steps!

Lynsey has been busy growing up over the last 10 days:). She is starting to love it when we read to her - in fact, we have found that when she is whiney, we just have to pull out "I Love You Through and Through" and as soon as she sees it she starts smiling and crawling over as fast as she can. We think she has a crush on the little boy in the book:). We've been spending quite a bit of time with Ruthy and little Elijah before they move in a week - it's so sad that they are leaving! We'll have to find another best friend for Lynsey:(. She shrieks when she sees him (he's the boy in the pool in case you don't know who I'm talking about) and follows him around everywhere. Hopefully we can still see them from time to time - Westlock seems far away!

Now I don't know how people measure when their babies start walking, but I think I can safely say that Lynsey took her first real steps today! They were shaky and a bit unbalanced, but she definitely put one foot in front of the other unaided and reached her destination (fell into her destination really:)). It was very exciting to see! When Brian came home we tried to get it on video, but it was difficult to do because we really were both required to try to get her to walk so we'll have to wait until there's a third party around to properly get it on video. She did do it again in the evening, so Brian got to see it which is nice. I sort of think she might do what she did with her standing and take some time off now, though (she hasn't stood for more than a second or two since that day she did so well). She seems to lack some confidence. She does, however, like independence, so I think that once she realizes that walking can get her from point A to B with a better vantage point than crawling, she will try harder.

To Manitoba and back!

Sometimes I think I should rename this blog "Lynsey's Life". But then I think, Lynsey is our life now so the title of "Brian and Sarah's Life" is still appropriate:). We have had a busy few weeks! After the campout we hung out at home for a while to recuperate from the drive, knowing what was coming up. We had some company over the long weekend and went out with Brian's Penner family to celebrate his Grandpa's 80th birthday. We did some shopping, finally getting a baby gate so we don't have to keep laying down our bar stools as barricades. We also got Lynsey this walk-behind toy which she loves! She's so cute plodding along behind that thing:). Last Wednesday morning, we departed for Brandon, Manitoba to attend Brian's brother Steve's wedding. The trip wasn't too bad - we stopped in Regina on the way there which was really nice. Lynsey loved the pool (as usual!). The wedding was on Friday and it was a beautiful day. It was a very nice wedding - I was a bit stressed out because Lynsey hardly slept all day and because Brian was in the wedding party, he was obviously busy most of the day. It was nice at the reception because we took her little walk-behind toy along so she was able to run around in that big open space. Weddings are not as relaxing as they used to be, that's for sure! Oh, well - I guess it's my turn to be running after my baby as she's crawling over to get into someone elses purse. We stopped in Saskatoon on the way back to visit my friend Leanne which was really good. On Saturday, Lynsey stood on the grass by herself for a long time! I put her down thinking she'd stand for her normal 3 or 4 seconds, and it was more like 10 - 15! Very exciting! She did it on Monday, too - often! I got it on video with her standing for 20 seconds, but since that day, she hasn't really wanted to stand. She starts crying and wanting to get down and crawl as soon as we try to stand her up. I think she's a bit of a scaredy-cat all of a sudden. She still does it when she's distracted by a book or something else, but we're just going to have to make sure we don't push her too hard.

A summary on how Lynsey has been doing lately:

Sleeping: Going through a rough patch right now. She got a tooth on the top a few weeks ago and she's cutting three more at the same time, so that could be why, but she is not herself these nights. Last night she actually grabbed my hand and was quiet while I was with her, but when I let go started crying like the world was ending. I hate to let her cry it out in those circumstances! I think she'll come through it like she has every other phase, I'm just a bit tired these days.

Eating: Not really so much fun right now! She wants to try all different sorts of food, but it's hard for me to know if she's getting all the right nutrients. She spits her food out a lot of the time which is really frustrating. It was much easier when she just ate her baby food without a fuss.

Playing: So much fun right now! She is so cute! She plays by herself a lot better now, but still wants to play with us and we are having a blast:). She giggles and shrieks and is happy a lot. She's very active, climbing up on everything and crawling around, but so far I haven't actually found it that hard to manage. I just have to be aware all the time of where she is. So far she hasn't gotten mad when I've taken her away from something, so we'll see when she'll enter that phase!

Camping with the family!

We had a really fun weekend camping near Grande Prairie with my family! We drove up to Edmonton Thursday afternoon and stayed at Brian's parents for night - I thought it might be better for Lynsey if we split up the trip. The drive to Grande Prairie wasn't too bad - Lynsey required some attention on the drive, but we really only made one stop. The weekend was tiring, but really enjoyable. Lynsey was in her element with all the attention she was getting from her little cousins! They were walking her around and playing with her and she was loving every minute:). She slept okay at night, but didn't have the greatest naps - mostly catnaps in her stroller throughout the day. Oh, well - I guess that's the way it goes when you're camping! We had rented a trailer from the campsite and we were really thankful for it - I wouldn't have wanted to tent it with bottles and baby food and diaper changing etc. - I don't know how Mary and Dave did it! Another thing that was confirmed about Lynsey this weekend (besides how much she loves attention and is not shy in the least bit!) is how much she loves the outdoors! She was all over the grass (which wasn't nice and soft at all) and she even loved playing in the gravel (had to make sure her soother was in at all times!). We left the campsite on Monday morning and drove to Edmonton. Lynsey slept almost the whole way - wiped out apparently! We stayed in Edmonton for the day and hung out with Brian's parents and left for Calgary at 8pm, so she slept the whole way to Calgary as well - worked out great:). All in all, travelling with her isn't too bad. I hope she's getting used to the long drives because next week we are off to Manitoba!

Turning 29, getting visitors from the north, going to Invermere, etc.

We've had quite a busy time since my last post - probably should have checked in last week! Oh well - I can cram it all into one post:). We got a kiddie pool and tried it out with Lynsey and Elijah - Lynsey quite enjoyed it actually. Becky and Gordie came to visit us last weekend! They came on Friday and stayed until Monday. We had a really good time with them - Lynsey didn't whine the whole weekend for all the attention she was getting! My birthday was on Saturday and Mary and Dave came out as well to celebrate my last birthday in my 20's. This last weekend, we made a trip to Invermere. One of the girls in my small group (Christy) has parents with a "cabin" out there (I put cabin in quotes because it was more like a big, beautiful house!) and they were kind enough to let a group of us hang out there for the weekend! We had a great, relaxing time. Lynsey loved it, but she didn't sleep very well. I hoped she would be easily adaptable to a new environment, but apparently I have gotten her quite used to a routine, and a new place to sleep just didn't agree with her. She is at the age now where she is all too aware that there are more people around and sleeping might mean that she will miss out on something. I really hope she will do okay this weekend at the family campout! She slept from 8 until 8 last night with only a small stint of talking around 6:45am, so I guess she was a bit worn out. Two weekends in a row like this might be a recipe for disaster, but we'll find out:).