Learning new things

In the last few weeks, Lynsey has been growing up so much! She is starting to communicate with us more (without actually saying anything yet!) and it's a lot of fun! The other morning, I was getting her cereal ready and she walked over to her highchair and looked at me. I guess she was hungry:). She has also started bringing us books when she wants us to read to her - one day, she brought me every book out of her toybox all at different times. Once I was done one, she fished around for a different one. Another exciting thing for us (and most people won't think this is a big deal, but for us it is!) is that she is starting to close her mouth around cup spouts periodically! She's not sucking on them yet, but she isn't biting as much and we think she is on the road to learning how to drink out of a sippy cup which is very exciting for me especially. She has also started running in the last week or so, which is so funny to watch. She doesn't run very fast yet, but she is definitely learning how to pick up speed with proper leg bending etc. So cute! Oh and she is learning how to put shapes in holes! She has a walk-behind toy that has three shapes and holes that we have noticed her working hard at - today she mastered the triangle:). I am just loving watching her learn new things! Last Friday (the 21st) we started putting her down for only one nap. It was a bit of a tough transition, as she was used to only sleeping 40 minutes at a time (which was the reason for our decision to switch her to one nap). So, the first few days were rough - she had to cry quite a bit. However, it didn't take her very long and she is now napping much better. She still wakes up sometimes after 45 minutes, but she doesn't cry nearly as long - only a few minutes usually. If she sleeps a solid two hours, I'm happy, because she sleeps about 12 hours at night.

I didn't take very many pictures the last few weeks for some reason, but I have attached 5 of the family pictures that Debbie Sandland took for us at Confederation Park.

Life with a 1 year old

Well, life with a 1 year old is proving to be pretty much the same as life with an 11 month old. Not a lot to report from my last post. I did take away Lynsey's baby gate on Thursday! This was a very exciting moment for me - I was very tired of that thing. Lynsey just loves going upstairs and running from room to room. I don't know if it's because she never spent much time up there with the gate being there or what, but she just loves being upstairs. It's comforting for me to know that she knows how to navigate stairs is finally careful and cautious enough for me to trust her by herself. Other than that, she had her last bottle of formula last Thursday night as well (big day for her!) and she is now completely on Homo milk. I will continue to give her a bottle of Homo at night for a little while because she was getting a lot of calories from the formula, and to just not give her a bottle at all would be a big adjustment for her. She still sleeps through the night okay, but she is definitely hungrier in the mornings, eating a much bigger breakfast. Oh one thing I forgot to mention was that she had the stomach flu for the first time last weekend - poor thing was throwing up in her bed on Friday night! It was weird - during the day she didn't seem sick, although she had no appetite, but she definitely had the flu. Anyway, she recovered (we all did!) and is now eating as much as ever:). I was quite concerned that she would become malnourished from a few days without eating, but apparently it's not that big a deal.

I didn't take many pictures over the last week and a half - probably because we were all sick and didn't really do all that much! Here are a few - a new mouth shot. A few new teeth to report:).

Lynsey's first birthday!

So my baby turned 1 on Monday! As I mentioned in my last post, we had a party with Bobbi and Jer and Duke and Mel on Saturday night. Lynsey really enjoyed her cake:). She didn't get all that messy actually - she was very focussed on getting the icing to her mouth and didn't waste any by spreading it around. Yep, she's a Fehr! She got some great gifts and luckily for us, the abundance of icing didn't seem to affect her! Brian took Monday off of work so he could spend the day with us, and we had a pretty good day. We went swimming in the morning, and it took her a while to start enjoying herself which is quite unusual! I think she was cold, though - I need to get her another swim shirt that has sleeves. She was a bit whiney for a lot of the day, but with the amount of teeth she has been cutting, who can blame her! I noticed today that the one-year molar that was a big bump for a long time has finally cut through (yay!) and ANOTHER one year molar on the other side of her mouth has cut through (making it 3 molars that are at least partially through) AND FINALLY that fourth tooth on the bottom is coming through! I can't wait until she has all her teeth - one less reason for her to be grouchy.

Yesterday, we had another party for Lynsey! Her BDR aunties (Coraleah, Larissa and Michelle) came over and we had supper and cake, and then more presents for Lynsey! She is a spoiled little girl:). It was fun having little parties for her, even though she obviously doesn't care yet. Today we went for a walk even though it was a bit chilly outside, and Lynsey enjoyed it! She was a bit unsure about her first time walking in the snow, though - she prefered my carrying her. Hopefully she gets over that and enjoys playing in the snow - we live in Alberta afterall!

Playdates, Celine Dion, Teething, etc.

It almost seems like blasphemy to talk about anything but Lynsey on this blog, but today I will! At least for part of the time:). We have had another busy few weeks! The week after we got back from La Crete was a catch-up week, but I also had a playdate at our house with some old friends from Abbeydale (the church I used to go to here in Calgary). We had a great time! On Friday we drove up to Edmonton so Brian and I could go to the Celine Dion concert (which I've had tickets to for a YEAR AND A HALF!). Brian's parents watched Lynsey and we got a night out to see the GREATEST female vocalist of all time - what a show! Some singers need studios to make their voice sound good, but let me tell you, SHE is the real thing. At the end of her show she sang more or her fast songs which I don't like as much (as well as throwing in a few Queen songs which I thought was completely unnecessary!) but all in all, a great show by a terrific performer. On Sunday we got to see Ryan, Ruthy and Elijah again which was great! We didn't get to spend much time together because we just met up in a restaurant, but it was good to see them again and let Lynsey and Elijah play together a bit. This last week we've gone out quite a few times, visiting different people and doing some shopping, but on Thursday night, Lynsey was sick! This may not seem like a big deal, but the worst we've had to deal with from Lynsey is a runny nose, so when she had a fever of 39 degrees and she started shaking all over, I was super worried! I think it was connected to her teething, because she is working through 3 of her one year molars right now, and those suckers are enormous and causing her quite a bit of grief. She did okay during the night, crying a few times, but she slept until 9am the next morning and seemed fine so I guess we got through her first sickness alright. Today we had a birthday party for her! I didn't post the pictures because she's having another party on Wednesday with some other friends, so I'll do a post after that one with all the pictures.

New things - she is learning how to climb down stairs! This is very exciting for me because I am sick of baby gates and want her to stop seeing stairs as the forbidden fruit and lose interest in them. Everytime we go to someone elses house (someone that doesn't have mobile kids and therefore no gate) I am constantly at those stairs, taking her away from them. So needless to say I have been working with her more fervently of late to get her comfortable going down and it seems to be working! I'm hoping that in a months time, she will be completely trustworthy going up and down the stairs. I'll keep you posted. She still isn't drinking from a cup properly which is very frustrating, but I continue to introduce new cups to her and I'm soo hoping that one day, she will be thirsty enough to actually close her mouth around one of those cups and suck. She can suck on her bottle without a problem, but the second you give her a cup of any kind she just chews on it. Very frustrating! The only cup we can give her with milk in it (because this is the only one she gets anything from) is her Nuby cup. This is a cup that you CAN chew on and liquid comes out. It might be teaching her a bad habit, but I'm between a rock and a hard place because at the end of the day, she does need fluids so I can't just give her cups that she doesn't know how to use. Oh, well - I know that with time, she will learn. She has also started playing with some of her toys with some more purpose - she actually puts the rings on her Fisher Price stacking toy now! Not necessarily in the right order, but she's starting to figure out that the rings belong on the pole so I thought that was pretty fun. I love seeing her start figuring things out!

I can't believe my baby is turning 1 on Monday!

Fun times with friends and family!

We are back from our trip up north! We left for Edmonton last Friday and spent the weekend there with Brian's family, also making a trip to Martin and Angie's to see them. Lynsey discovered her birthday present from Brian's mom a bit early, so she was allowed to have her new train over the weekend - "All Aboard" was resonating in my head all weekend! We had a great time at Martin and Angie's - Lynsey at first just patted Asher on the head somewhat condescendingly, but eventually they did play together a bit:). We left for La Crete at 5pm on Monday and the drive went really well! Lynsey fell asleep around 8pm and slept pretty much the whole way! What a relaxing drive it was (from 8pm on anyway). We had such a great time in La Crete! I can't remember a week when I have visited so many people - I saw people I hadn't seen in ages and managed to make it to the house of every one of my sisters and brothers up there for a meal! I can't remember when I've eaten so well! Lynsey did so well for being away from home for so long - she had her moments of not wanting to nap, and even had one bad night, but she does that at home, too. The ride home was just as successful as the drive up there, so I think we will continue to stick with the strategy of leaving on long trips somewhat close to her bedtime.

I feel like she's changed quite a bit again in the last week! She is definitely developing a way of communicating with us, shaking her head when she doesn't want any more food, and sometimes it sounds like she's saying "no", although I'm not sure yet if it's deliberate. She makes a lot more sounds in general now than she did even a few weeks ago, especially when she gets excited! One thing that has developed that is not so cute is a bit of an attitude:(. I took her for a walk today and I was going to let her walk for a bit, since she gets tired of being in the stroller, but she refused to walk straight, constantly veering towards the road. When I would grab her and try to make her walk on the sidewalk she absolutely freaked out. Eventually I had to put a screaming Lynsey back in the stroller where she screamed most of the way home. I think part of the problem is that she is getting her one year molars on the left side top and bottom, but I also think she is growing up and growing some defiance while she's at it. I'm not really sure how to handle her little temper tantrums because she is too young to be disciplined, but I feel like I should be doing something to try and discourage this behaviour! I put her to bed as soon as we got home, but she only slept for half an hour and now I hear her on the monitor again. Very frustrating! Oh well - like everything else, this too shall pass!

I posted a bunch of pictures from our time in Edmonton and our visit up north. As you can see, I am hard-pressed to get a picture of Lynsey where she is not squinting like crazy. Every time she sees a camera these days I get this fake smile and I don't know how to get a real one out of her! Oh, well - one day I'm sure she'll find it funny to look back at our many squinty pictures of her:).