Just a quick post wishing everyone a happy holidays. Hopefully you can enjoy it with family and friends, as we plan to.
Not that we in Ottawa have seen much of the white stuff yet this year, but here are some of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comics involving men (and women) made of the white stuff...you will probably have to click on the image to get the bigger version...
Sign # 217 that she's growing up...
Yup, them there are a couple of teeth...really sharp ones that leave marks on daddy's knuckles when they're within chomping range.
She's not quite crawling yet...up on all fours, but doesn't quite have the whole "coordinating the movement of the arms and legs" thing down yet...
One of the things that she does now that is the most fun is playing with her feet/toes. She does suck them, but I can never get a picture of it because the light on the camera distracts her. Anyway, she likes to play with her feet while eating as well...
She also likes to suck on her bottom lip...
Not exactly spooky or EVIL, but here's our little ladybug...
...with somewhat more spooky/evil friend Tom...
I guess she's just too cute to be scary.
It has been a while, so this will be short and sweet...the first pic is Katherine at about 3 months and the last at 4 (in rough chronological order). As you can see, she growing like freakin' crazy and as you may be able to imagine, she is also a pretty crazy amount of fun. She is starting to find a laugh, she can roll over onto her tummy - although gets stuck there.
Here's one of the first shots of her in her highchair...
My favourite of the bunch...
That bottom lip tastes pretty good, I guess...
In her swing (giving mom and dad's arms a break)...
With her cow/rattle/dinnertime toys...
Tummytime playing downstairs...
Having fun wrestling while being changed...
Gotta love those cheeks!
OK, so it was a month ago already, but here we go...
It was pretty crappy weather during our first day in NYC, but we came prepared and were still able to get a lot of stuff done. The rest of the trip we had perfect weather.
Not far from our host's place (Thanks again, Leigh!) was the Flatiron building...
...gotta love the yellow cabs.
The Rogalski's in Times Square!
...and only one of us is sleeping.
...and at Rockefeller Center...
...sorry Laura, no Chsitmas tree or ice skating yet.
Wonder who's getting more out of this picture at the Disney Store?
A (perhaps) somewhat less dramatic perspective on the Empire State Building.
...more on this to come...
The intrepid traveller...from Ottawa to Vancouver to New York City by the time she's 3 months old.
Even though it has been over 5 years and the site restoration is well underway, Ground Zero is still a pretty surreal and intense place to be.
This beam is pretty much all that's still stands...
Those stairs at the far end of the site (right under the far lamppost) was the last unobstructed point through which people were able to escape the towers...
View from the west (?) end of Wall Street. I had no idea it is a pedestrain-only street...kinda cool and actually quite unassuming, really.
"The Sphere" used to be displayed between the Twin Towers and has been relocated to Battery Park from the World Trade Center site, as it was salvaged (note the hole in the top), where it stood as a monmument to world peace.
Katherine just "hanging loose" while we cruised through NYC on one of tour buses.
The next few shots are views from the top of Rockefeller Center, where we were for sunset.
First northwards over Central Park...
...south with the Empire State Building lit up in the background...
...again with our host...
...and again a little after dusk.
Here's our "big" star sighting...right outside of her building, oddly enough, we passed Yoko Ono heading out...
...guess that's pretty much where her late husband, John Lennon was shot...
On our last full day, we took a recommendation of our faithful Frommer's tour book to take the subway over to Brooklyn, stop for pizza, and head back over to Manhattan via the storied Brooklyn Bridge.
Mmmmmm....pizza...
The Brooklyn Bridge, from the Brooklyn side, with Manhattan in the backgraound...
Last photo op on the bridge...
So there's a decent overview of our trip to New York City. We took the train on the way there...nice enough ride, but a little on the long side...Katherine was pretty much just hanging out the whole time...luckily for us. The 1.5 hour flight on the way back made for a much easier day.
We were there from Thursday to Tuesday, which went really fast. We had lots of fun and can't wait to go back...too much interesting stuff to do and see.
Oh yeah, there will be more recent pics of the amazing growing baby soon...
As mentioned in the previous post, I didn't have any pics of Katherine with her Uncle Jason and Aunt Pam. Well, now I do so here's a couple of pics of them hanging out in August.
Off we were to BC for a month or so to introduce Katherine to her grandparents, uncles, aunt, and soon-to-be friends.
First was up to the interior of BC, Shuswap Lake, where Laura's mom has a place on the beach...10 days of this wasn't going to be so bad...
One thing I never appreciated about this place, until having to get up at 6am with my daughter, was sunrise.
Laura's mom (a.k.a. Nana) was ready to assume some of the parenting duties.
As was Allan (or "Sir" as he has taken to being called!)...
As an aside, I discovered throughout our trip how Katherine is a granddaughter or niece until she's in need of a change, when she suddenly reverts back to "Ian's kid" status.
Katherine also had her toes dipped in the lake, not that she really reacted to the fact. The lake was actually relatively warm.
Obligatory family shot #1 featuring (from left to right) Uncle Colin, Nana Barb, Katherine, and a couple of other people that continue to follow her around.
Mommy and daughter taking a break on the drive down the Fraser Canyon on the way to Langley from the lake...somewhere around Boston Bar, I think.
Down in the Lower Mainland, we had to spend one of our afternoons in White Rock and have fish & chips from Moby Dick's...good stuff.
You can't go to White Rock without walking the pier. For those of not familiar with White Rock, yes, there actually is a white rock on the beach...not sure which came first, however.
Katherine was also treated to her very first car show, which occurs every Friday night downtown. Uncle Colin cruised for chicks pushing the stroller, and Katherine also posed for this pic in Uncle's 1969 Volkswagen Type III hot rod.
Here's obligatory family shot #2 with Baba Ron, Katherine and Mom, and Grams Liz.
This is Third Beach in Vancouver's Stanley Park. It was cool to be a tourist again in Vancouver for a day.
After a day of tourist-ing around it was off to Uncle Jason and Aunt Pam's place to hang out for a while and then go out for all-you-can-eat sushi and Korean barbeque. I would post a picture here of Jason and Pam with Katherine, but they are all on his camera. Jason, send pics please.
Obligatory family shot #3, this time featuring Ian, Laura, Katherine, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Shirley.
So there's a brief overview of our trip out west, using only 13 of 294 pictures.
Next week we're off to New York City so Katherine is quickly becoming quite the traveler. We REALLY feel lucky with how easy-going she is in terms of traveling, meeting new people, and life in general...guess she gets some of that from Mom and Dad.
FYI, Katherine got her first round of shots the other day (she was NOT a big fan) and Mom was able to contain herself. Dad held her because he's almost callously indifferent with that kind of stuff...the look on her face was almost cartoon-like...first the realization that a 1-inch needle was in her leg, then the lower lip popping out, pupils dilating, and mouth opening,....and then the scream to beat all screams...she's fine now, though. She now weighs 13lbs 8oz, is almost 25 inches long (not centimeters as previously reported), and is 4 days from her 3-month birthday...crazy stuff.
I hope the title isn't too inflammatory...I'm quickly running out of ways to describe her super-mega-crazy-awesomeness...see, told ya.
Anyway, she has put on a couple of pounds already, as you will be able to see.
Her first trip to the pub. There will be many of these yet to come, with her dad, of course.
Contrary to how it may seem, this picture is completely unrelated to her first trip to the pub..."Real purty, ain't she?"
I mentioned a while back how much she likes bath time. Well, here's a shot of me dousing her.
...and another of the squeaky-clean Katherine...
So ya, her head of dark hair doesn't seem to be going anywhere, as you can also tell.
Thanks to many of our generous friends and family, her girly/pink wardrobe is growing, this particular outfit from yet another soon-to-be-friend that she has yet to meet... Ryan and Shannon, see you in a while...
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