Amelia's visit to Quebec: Part III Party At Grandpa Bertrand's house

I was just getting ready to post some fun pics from Amelia's birthday party, when I found this one all ready to go... I guess we've been busy with summer (it finally happened in Seattle and we are out trying to enjoy every minute of it). Here is the final set of pictures from our trip to Quebec. Now we can jump forward to all the progress Amelia has made since her visit at the end of May...





Did I mention that the weather was amazing when we were in Quebec? It is the best weather we have had all year, sunny, warm, just beautiful. We spent the day at Bertrand and Kathleen's house. We had a lovely lunch on the porch and some playtime on the deck with Kathleen's little dog (sadly the only dog left of the trio). Amelia seems to like him since he was pretty docile.

After Amelia's afternoon nap we went for a walk down to the river. Bertrand wore Amelia in the Baby Bjorn. The day was really nice. Then we had some wonderful cheese including a nice one brought back from Ireland (i think). Delicious. And Amelia loved the cheese too!

Amelia's visit to Quebec: Part II The Playground

There is a nice playground just a block away from Simon and Catherine's house. They have old-school teeter totters! We tried to go every day with the kids. It was fun to see some of Catherine's regulars there too. Since Amelia is not walking yet, she mostly enjoyed the swings. Although the tunnel was pretty fun for her too.




Samuel seems to really like imaginative play right now. He enjoyed spending some special time with grandpa Bertrand pretending to hunt buffalo and other fun games. Emilie and Samuel also enjoyed riding their bikes to the park and circling the play area on the walkways.

Quebec Visit: Part I The Playmat

Amelia had a ball playing with her cousins Samuel, Emilie, and Marianne. They had lots of toys that she had never dreamed of yet- like an entire box full of dinosaurs! They also had these really fun blocks that stack into neat towers. Emilie was even playing the piano for Amelia. Catherine is a wonderful musician and has lots of fun musical toys, including a cute little baby piano that we just had to get for Amelia when we got home. Hopefully a little bit will rub off on her- she certainly loves to tap out a little tune from time-to-time.

Here is a series of pictures that captures the spirit of our mornings playing together. Grandma Lucille is enjoying every minute of the playtime too!





Live action tower toppling for your pleasure!

A new tradition?

I think we might just have started a wonderful new tradition!

For Mother's day, I baked a Black Forest Cake for Melissa. She's the most wonderful mom to Amelia - and partner to me. Always giving so much love, continually learning with and from Amelia. It was a delicious cake.


For Father's day, Melissa baked me a fantastic Angle Food Cake. Yummy! Perfect crust, perfect lightness and sugarness. AND, strawberries are now in season, so it was wonderful all around. Father's day was a little gray - we were not able to go to the park - and Amelia and we are battling her first bad diaper rash (I'll spare you the details...), but it was still a wonderful day. We had friends over for brunch (Meghan, Chris, Eva, and little 7-week old Ian!), and played all day. Just being with my little girl (and my big one) makes for a true perfect day.


Can't wait for future years, when Amelia will surely participate more into cake baking!

Amelia takes the spoon

Just before we left for Quebec Amelia took over the spoon. I think she was impatient at how slowly we feed her sometimes. But mostly she wants her independence (only sometimes though).



She is getting better at the dipping part now, but we have to use sticky foods for it work! More to come...

Visit to Quebec

We have been slow about posting these days. We went to visit Luc's family in Quebec for a week. It was really wonderful. We stayed with his brother Simon, Catherine, and their kids, Samuel, Emilie, and little baby Marianne. There was tons of time to play with her cousins and the grandparents. There are some really great pictures but we haven't organized them yet. But here is a wonderful picture of everyone from Lucille. I love that the two babies seem to be looking at eachother, which seems to sum up their mutual fascination. They would sit across from eachother at the breakfast table and wave- so cute!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers!

Motherhood is a an amazing transition. During this first year it has been a balancing act between reflecting on the past on the events that have shaped me (including a huge dose of gratitude for the role my mother played in my life) and projecting into the future the life my daughter could have (shaped in part by the choices that I make now). The last nine months have been amazing in ways that I could have never anticipated with a little girl that is incredible. I feel like the luckiest mother in the world to have such a special daughter. Every day is a gift and the presents just get better all the time- I can't even guess what tomorrow will bring except that it will include a smile (and likely some laughter).

On our first mother's day, we had a fun-filled day of sunshine. We went to a park for some swinging, a walk to the Ballard Farmer's Market, and exploration in our backyard. What more could you ask for (besides the yummy Black Forest Cake that Luc is making me right now? Nothing! Did I mention that Luc makes this whole thing so much better?) Another little gift that Amelia brought to us today was her decision to climb the stairs. Luc has been showing her how to lift her knee and pull herself up. She has kinda done one step on her own before. But today she really decided to do it. She climbed THREE stairs in a row and then decided to come back down- backwards and slowly lowering herself. Granted her counting sucks and she stopped a little too soon, tried to sit down, and would have tumbled down if we hadn't caught her. But I think her counting will improve with time. She is simply remarkable, especially if you've seen our staircase- it is a twisty spiral and you have to choose the right place to climb to make it up. I think that is what prevented her from going any further!

Here is my favorite picture series in a while- Amelia discovering the flavor of dirt (turns out not to be nearly as good as brie, which she seems to like quite a lot!).