Uncle Jason and Aunt Pam

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.

Katherine's Grand Tour

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.

Best...Baby...Ever...

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...

I think we're part of the problem...

This link alerted me to the fact that we may be contributing to some sort of problem...

July 9 Update

Nothing particularly interesting to report, just a few more pics of life with Katherine.

Laura is doing well and getting ready for Ian to go back to work on Monday, even if it is only until August. That month went by pretty quickly.


Katherine seems to be finding a little bit more of her smile every day and Laura thinks she's developing dimples.


Other than that, this last week at home for Ian has primarily involved ripping up the stubble that was our front yard and spreading 4 yards of topsoil and laying sod...good times.

This Week's Milestone

Katherine lost her umbilical cord stump the other day, revealing what will likely be an "inny". Exciting stuff, but kinda gross really, since the newly revealed navel isn't quite done healing, but now she can have "tummy time".

She has also found her smile, intermittently at least, so I have been stalking her with the camera trying to get a few good smiley shots. I think she may be tiring of the flash, however.

We've been out shopping, for lunch at a restaurant, and some other running around; she's a pretty good traveller. So are Laura and I (I think) since we even had to feed and change her at the mall yesterday and everything went well...we might be getting the hang of this whole "parenting" thing.

Other than that, there's not a ton of news. Life goes on...