I hear that Abbotsford is a winter wonderland today :) -- sounds like fun! I love snow ...except if I have to drive in it - ha ha :D - I'm one of those drivers everyone else gets mad at cause I'm going so slow :D Well... no snow for us today - it's 8 degrees, raining and gray ....feels like home :)

So, the other day I was getting dressed and commenting to Tim how cold it was by our bedroom window. Unlike today, it was a very cold morning, I think around -15 or so and I could feel a breeze of freezing air coming into our bedroom. Tim denied having opened the window - I opened the curtains to double check and this is what I found. The windows were closed tight .....no wonder our heating bill is through the roof!



...yes! it is snow/frost on the INSIDE of our windows on the latches even with the windows completely closed....crazy!



Onto another story....I try and clean out Myra's ears with a warm wash cloth every day and usually she likes it so much she pushes her head into my hands as I do. On Saturday, while cleaning her left ear she started crying very hard - so hard that it took me almost 30 minutes to calm her down. Very unlike her! My mommy radar was immediately on high alert....I suspected an ear infection or something but wasn't totally sure. Except for having a hypersensitive ear, she was her normal self...happy, laughing, sleeping, eating unusually well, etc ...no fever, no cold, no other symptoms. It's fairly uncommon to have an ear infection in the absence of a cold or fever. So we watched and waited. I phoned MSP to see what would be covered if we needed to see a doctor. Tim mapped out a route to Windsor, Ontario (about 3 hours away) in case the financial cost would be unreasonable down here....and we waited. Finally, yesterday I made an appointment at a health center close by. Myra seemed okay, but I still could not touch her ear at all. We had our appointment this morning and came home with antibiotics for a double ear infection that is worse on the left side. (Mommy radar was right once again :D) MSP will reimburse us for about 45% of the cost. So it's not too bad ... and the antibiotics were free which worked out well.

Myra is still on the VERGE of crawling! :D She spends a lot of her time these days standing on her head. Have a look....







The latest trick Myra has mastered is how to get from laying on her stomach to sitting up ....inevitably, if she's not quite sleepy enough when I put her in her crib, she'll go from laying down, to standing on her head, to sitting up and squealing with excitement (very cute!) at which point I try and intervene so that she'll actually get some sleep. :D

Well...I should sign off for today and feed my cutie pie :D She's been eating solids like a champ the past few days -- yesterday, for both lunch and supper, I gave her second and third helpings of food! YAY!!! Now I just need to be diligent in finding new foods for her to try. I think we'll try egg yolks this week.

Hope you are having a good week - it's half way over :D ...only 2 more days till the weekend.

I'll leave you with some pictures of Myra having fun with the kitchen chairs....





cheers! :D

SNOW FUN!

I took Myra outside in the snow this morning. :D We only lasted about 5 minutes but it was so cute!...she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. :D





My pretty little girl!

"Roar"

Wow! Myra is 9 months old today!! Crazy how time flies and how I can barely remember life before her :D This week we've had fun imitating. Myra has learned to wave 'bye-bye', roll a ball toward me (only with her left hand), now uses the hammer to hit the shapes on her hammering toy, and will bang two blocks together to make fun sounds. She says "daad dadada" "mamama mam" and most recently "wao wao wao" (sounds like wow) and "hai" (sounds like hi). If one of us coughs, she will too (fake of course). SO FUN! I love it. We're working on giving kisses but so far she just head butts Tim and I - ha ha!




She is still on the verge of crawling - she goes from her stomach to sticking her bum in the air (hands, feet, and head on the floor), to all fours to back on her stomach. I expect that she will crawl within the next two weeks and then it's good-bye to leisurely getting stuff done while she plays. :D

Here's a fun moment we captured on camera...."what does a tiger say?"



Wishing each of you relaxation and laughter this weekend :D

"ba-bye"

It's a gray and rainy day today - perfect for Sunday afternoon naps! This morning we attended Prairie Street Mennonite Church (one of our favorites from the ones we visited in the Fall) and now Tim is watching football and Myra is napping. Don't have much to say but thought I'd post some cute pictures of Myra :D





I wasn't able to upload the first video I have of Myra "walking" so here is one we took this morning :-)



Cheers! :D

Fun Times

One of the fun things to see in Myra over the Christmas holidays was her total excitement for other kids/babies. While we were at Dan and Lynn's house, every time Ethan came into the room Myra would start yelling a happy yell. As we waited for our plane in Vancouver, a little girl came over and started playing "peek-a-boo" with Myra and Myra laughed and laughed - (when we play that with her she mostly just smiles) :D So, I had an idea yesterday to pull out my doll that I had as a little girl and give it to Myra to play with - she was so excited! and maybe even a little bit scared of it at first. I tried to capture her initial reaction on video ....so cute!!







Here on campus Myra has her friend Kai to play with (about the same age as Ethan) - so that's good. I'm also hoping to find a local moms/tots group or something for us to participate in.


The weather here has been quite mild in the past few days. Within 24 hours all the snow melted (causing flooding in some areas). The green grass combined with sunny skies and warm temperatures - almost feels like it could be Spring - but I know it's still January and we'll probably get a few more dumps of snow before the season is over. The highlight of the day today was taking Myra for a little walk outside. Her new favorite activity is to step/walk while holding onto our hands... one of many new things she learned over the holidays



(Note: I will post a video here of Myra "walking" but I've been waiting forever for it to upload and can't wait any longer today.)

With learning to crawl (sits on all fours but that's it so far), learning to step/walk, growing, and seriously teething...Myra has had a hard time sleeping for more than 3 hours in a row. Since being back, she's settled into a pattern that is something like this: I wake her up at 8 am (to hopefully result in a more normal routine); naps at 10 and 2; bed at 6:30 or 7 pm; wake up at 8:30 pm and play/refuse to sleep till 11:30 pm. Needless to say, I've been seizing the opportunities to nap myself :D

The weirdest experience for us this week was having a full blown thunderstorm two nights ago. Never expected to experience that in January!

Anyways....
Time for me to crawl into bed and sleep - wishing you peace-filled rests tonight. :D

Giggles

"Helping" Daddy play Mario Kart... :D (even then I still lost - ha ha)






Playing "Round and Round the Garden..."

Feeling so Sleepy!!

Well, we're back in Elkhart and slowly readjusting to life here. Wake up times both days so far has been 10 am and even then Tim and I feel like we could sleep forever :) Myra was wide awake at 10:30 pm last night, ready to play....good thing she is so entertaining and cute! Guess that's what happens when you travel across 3 time zones in one day.



Other than being finger printed and having our pictures taken, our flight back was uneventful. Myra is an easy baby to travel with, especially when there is turbulence ...it puts her right to sleep :D

Oh! funny moment...while we were waiting to board the plane, I gave Myra my water bottle to hold since she was being fussy. She liked it so much that she wouldn't let me take it to have a drink and when I did manage to get it out of her hands she started crying - haha - crazy girl!





Hopefully tonight we'll be able to sleep at a more normal time instead of 1 or 3 am like the last few nights. It's good to be back in our own beds ...though a big part of me wishes our beds were in Abbotsford instead :D

Hope you are all having an enjoyable day today! I'm going to make a snack and try to resist having a nap :)

Until next time....