Ouch!

Now here's a real OOPS... Gwendolyn had a bit of a tumble yesterday afternoon while walking on the brick courtyard outside our home. Of course, it was the last go-round before heading inside...

She was a little too tired, got a little too excited about the lucky penny Dad found for her on the sidewalk, got going a little too fast in her rubber boots, and BAM! Of course, that was followed by a lot of screaming and crying -- our poor little bear! Daddy quickly scooped her up, cuddled and consoled her, managed to get the wound cleaned up and got her down for a nap before Mama arrived home to inspect the damage.

As you can see, her beautiful button nose took the brunt of it. It is really just a scrape, though, and she doesn't seem at all bothered by it. Her teeth and assorted other face and body parts came out of the tumble unscathed, thank goodness. She slept well last night and was a happy camper this morning.

So, for the next week or so, we have a little Rudolph on our hands. Such are the trials and tribulations of growing up, we guess.

Scarf Madness!

Gwendolyn still very much enjoys playing with the box of scarves Mama created for her, as you can see by these photos taken yesterday afternoon.

This past week was a good one, by the way -- lots of sunshine and lots of fun. Some highlights: several trips to the park to "schwing," walk, watch a bit of tennis and/or run around with other kids, a reading and songs hour with Daddy (called "Man in the Moon" and offered by the VPL) on Tuesday evening, dinner at friends Ethan and Sydney's house, and a Sunday afternoon visit with Grandma Ronaghan.

There's rain in the forecast this week, but that won't slow down our intrepid duo of L'il Miss G. and Big Daddy... or will it? Stay tuned!

Oops!

Daddy's not sure what the original "oops" was for, but it must have been very, very funny.

Note the expression on Gwendolyn's face when she sees that she's being filmed. Priceless...

Jazzy breakfast

Except for the brief banana malfunction at the outset, Gwendolyn shows some pretty skookum spoon technique -- and an impressive knowledge of musical genres -- in this 50 second video clip.

Playtime photos

Here are a few recent photos of Gwendolyn getting busy with the hard work of playing:

*making music with her xylophone and concertina. She has just recently found the arm strength to squeeze and pull the concertina to get some noise out of it. It has always made a terrific rolling toy, however!

*methodically moving her library of books from their various positions on the floor to the dining room table, repeating "table" over and over as she goes. We're not sure where she picked this one up either, but we're pleased to have the tidying help.

Mama's home!

Talk about feeling wanted! Once Mama arrives home from work in the evening, Gwendolyn literally drops everything to greet her. Such a reception almost makes spending the whole day at the office worthwhile...

Usually the first word out of Gwendolyn's mouth upon seeing Mama is "nurts" ("nurse"), which she does with gusto as soon as she's able. Then it's cuddles and playtime until Daddy calls everyone together for dinner.

Here's a photo of Miss G. and Mama during a recent pre-dinner play session.

Bean Junk? Yes, please!

Gwendolyn's dinner this evening included a little dish that we affectionately call "bean junk." The recipe (including its name) was offered to us by Felicity's Aunt Julie. It was Julie's surefire cure to get things moving (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) for her children and it has worked like a charm for our little girl.

Its thick consistency means it can be served in little blobs and eaten as finger food. Gwendolyn loves the taste -- so much so that she ate a couple of servings tonight. We also think it's pretty tasty and have used it as a filling for our own quesadilla snacks.

We've been meaning to post the recipe here for a while, in the hope that any suffering, bunged-up babies you know could benefit. We really eyeball the ingredient portions, so the measurements included below are wishy-washy on purpose:

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a pan.

Fry about a 1/4 cup of finely chopped onions in the oil.

Add taco seasoning (we use chili powder) and tomato paste (say a tablespoon or two) and mix with the onions.

Add a standard size can of red kidney beans (drained and rinsed) and stir into the onion/seasoning/paste mixture.

Cook until the beans are heated through, and roughly mash everything together.

Serve to a hungry little person. (Be sure it's cooled first, of course!)

In reverse

We're not sure where she picked it up, but Gwendolyn has recently taken to walking backwards, clearly illustrating that she's getting more and more comfortable on her two feet. Here's a short bit of video evidence, along with a rather impressive pronunciation of the word "backwards."

On Friday, she added a beeping sound as she moved in reverse, much like the sound those big delivery trucks make when backing up. Daddy figures she picked up this little trick at that morning's open gym session, where a father was pushing his child on a riding toy in reverse and making the very same sound. She doesn't miss much, our little girl...

Tooth Talk

Gwendolyn had her first visit to the dentist yesterday morning. Mama was due for her regular appointment, and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to have the dentist take a quick peek inside G.'s mouth to make sure all was in order. And it is -- perhaps a few less teeth so far than babies her age have on average, but all that are there look strong and healthy. It's probably due to all those apples she's been eating...

By the way, we seem to have turned a corner on the teeth brushing front. Gwendolyn no longer fights and fusses, and in fact has been extremely cooperative when the brush and paste have come out this week. Could it be that Daddy's warning about "teeth rotting out of your head" made her reconsider her position on the matter?

Swimming sure takes it out of you...

Little G. was "capital T" tired after her swim lesson today. Here she is, sleeping in her car seat on the way back from the pool. Note the half eaten rice cake in her lap; she fell asleep mid-bite, we expect.

It was a particularly fun lesson for Gwendolyn, by the way -- lots of smiles after an initial balk at the temperature of the water. Mama was her swim buddy today, and they make a great pool pair!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry we're a bit late, but it's still February 14th here on the west coast. Gwendolyn (dressed appropriately in red and holding some of her Valentines) wishes you lots of love today!

A(nother) case of the sniffles

For the second time in almost as many weeks, Gwendolyn has a snuffly head cold. We expect the cold attached itself to Mama somewhere in her travels, as she is suffering along with Gwendolyn. Maybe being tuckered out by all that activity on Saturday made little G. more susceptible to catching it?

The stuffiness is causing some difficulties with Gwendolyn's sleeping and eating (ever tried to breathe through a mouth full of food?), and her nose has been running like a faucet all day. But, as befits our little trooper, she's taking it pretty much all in stride. All, that is, except the nightly "nose-hosing" ritual (we'll spare you the details).

Today was an at-home play day with Daddy, including the typical reading, stacking, talking, dancing and tearing around the living room, as well as:

*The absolute demolishing of 1 1/2 bananas for a mid-morning snack. At least her appetite is still good!

*Working out future university tuition costs on her calculator (a word Gwendolyn finds very similar in sound to the phrase "cracker later," as Daddy found out).

Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and less sniffles tomorrow.

Je m'appelle Gwendolyn...

Gwendolyn is starting to get a bit of exposure to French, courtesy of Mama who studied the language in university. It's all very casual, of course -- just a chance for G. to hear and see another language while her brain is so ready to absorb new things.

Our local library is a big help, with a fairly large selection of French language books for children, including the absolutely delightful Les petites betises de Penelope series and Gros Grognon, a story about a grumpy bird and his forest friends. Even Daddy is getting into the act, although his French is terribly mangled at best. (Don't worry -- Mama is there to kindly correct his pronunciation so Gwendolyn won't learn any bad habits.)

It's fun to hear Gwendolyn respond to these stranger-sounding-than-usual words, and mimic some of them just as she does with English.

BTW, the picture attached to this post has absolutely nothing to do with Gwendolyn's French adventures. It's just a cute picture of her playing dress-up with some of Mama's scarves. Note the gate behind her; we finally had to break down and install one, as G. was beginning to show a little too much interest in the stairs.

All tuckered out

It was a busy Saturday for Gwendolyn. First were swimming lessons, where she worked on her back and front floats and played "Fishy in the Middle" with her classmates. Next, she hosted her friends Rosie, Devon and Kate (and parents) for a brunch/play date Chez Ronaghan. Finally, she accompanied Mama and Daddy to a dinner at the Thai House to celebrate their friend Lisa's birthday. The fish tanks at the restaurant were a big hit with little G.

As you can see by the photo, all that activity tired our little girl out! Today is a quiet day of playing at home and resting up for her next set of adventures.

Firefighter Dave

Gwendolyn met her first firefighter on Thursday, and surprise -- it happened to be Daddy's cousin! Dad knew that David was with the Vancouver Fire Department, but didn't realize he was stationed at the fire hall adjacent to the local library. It just happened that Dave was one of the crew washing the big truck outside the hall Friday afternoon, and spotted Dad and G. as were leaving the library after story time.

Perhaps when Gwendolyn is a little older she'll get a personal tour of the fire hall and sit in the big truck. She'll be very excited if they have a fire dog stationed there!

Trout Lake adventure

While we didn't bring our camera to Trout Lake on Wednesday, our wise friend Josephine did and was kind enough to take a few photos for us:

*Watching the ducks in Daddy's arms
*Getting as close to the ducks as we can without actually swimming with them ( Gwendolyn seemed to want to do just that, judging by the way she was trying to evade Daddy's grasp)
*Nicolas and Cedrine observe the goings on from the cozy comfort of their Zooper
*Fun on the swings

Thanks, Josephine!

Doing stuff

We're keeping busy this week with all manner of things. Yesterday, Daddy and Gwendolyn spent some time with friend Josephine and twins Nicolas and Cedrine, enjoying the ducks and trails at Trout Lake Park. Today, Dad had to run an errand and as a wee thank you to G., he took her to another park where she walked and walked... and walked. (Oh yes -- and took a 5 minute turn on the swings.)

Gwendolyn's phrase of the day was "pick up", as in "pick it up" -- today it was directed at leaves, clumps of grass and other bits of stuff along the path she was walking. She would see a small object in her path, stop, say "pick up," pick the object up (or have Dad do it for her) and place it out of the way of her path so she could continue walking.

Posted here are a few photos of other goings-on:

* What beautiful bracelets! Who knew Fisher Price stacking rings were so versatile?
* Letting her fingers do the walking... As mentioned in an earlier post, Gwendolyn enjoys flipping through big people's reading material; the Yellow Pages are perfect, with lots of pictures to go along with the many words.
* Who needs the attachable tray to the high chair when there is a perfectly good dining room table around? Note the proper pinky extension on the right hand while drinking from her sippy cup -- we have a very cultured young lady on our hands! (Also, a note to Dad: next time, don't include the place mat; not long after this photo was taken, it ended up on the floor along with the remainder of Gwendolyn's lunch. "Uh-oh...")

Walking practice at Jericho Beach

Vancouverites know that when it's not raining in wintertime, you've gotta get outside! Gwendolyn and Dad took advantage of a lovely morning to do some strolling along the trail at Jericho Beach. We saw plenty of joggers, a few dogs and their owners, and at least a couple of crows along the way. We even made fast friends with another new walker, an 18 month old who showed Gwendolyn how much fun it is to run.

We particularly love the third photo posted here, as it offers the perfect illustration of G's approach to life: "there's a long road of adventure ahead -- let's go go GO!"

Crazy tired

Pretty self-explanatory, we think:

A is for... revisited

Yes, it's another video of Gwendolyn eating an apple. But we couldn't help it -- it's so darned CUTE! No more -- we promise.

By the way, G. has really taken the "Apple a day" maxim to heart. Some days she'll work through two of them...

Time flies...

Yikes -- has it been over a week since our last posting? Well, we're happy to say we're over our colds and fully back in action.

Let's catch you up with a few highlights in Gwendolyn's development:

Gift of the gab: Gwendolyn is growing her vocabulary by the day -- fearlessly trying new words through expert mimicking of her parents. Last time Felicity checked, we were at about 50 words -- and that was two or three weeks ago.

Some bigger words include her versions of butterfly, caterpillar, peacock and ladybug (do we sense a theme here?), as well as stacking (when she wants to play with her stacking toys), cracker (see photo above) and dancing (more about that later). One of our favourites is her version of the song title, Hey Bo Diddly: "bodilly". Until very recently, her "hello" was a very cute "hul-lul-oh".

She's also begun building wee, two word sentences -- "hold it" (when she wants to hold something, like her daily apple) and "'bye, poot" ('bye, poop -- said when we flush her "business" down the toilet) are two examples.

Go, go go!: Her walking skills are really taking off, due no doubt to her continuous practicing, accompanied by constant repeating of the word "go" as she toddles along. We've started to introduce walking outside, which is a little more challenging given the often uneven terrain and the new sensation of wearing rather clunky, hard soled shoes.

Reading: On a few occasions, we've witnessed Gwendolyn with a brochure, letter or other piece of Daddy or Mama's mail, wandering about the living room and babbling to herself as she intently "follows" the words with her finger. She sometimes will catch our eye and give us a somewhat serious look: "Are you understanding what I'm reading to you?" she seems to say. It's cute as anything, and we must capture it on film one of these days.

Kisses: They're everywhere! Books, stuffed animals, toys, furniture, mirrors, the sliding glass door, even Daddy's knees -- and of course, big smooches for Mom when she leaves for work.

Body parts: Speaking of knees, Gwendolyn has learned a number of names of parts of the body: eyes ("two!"), ears (same), nose, mouth, teeth, feet, toes, head, back, bum and "button" (her navel).

As for teeth, we're trying diligently to establish a tooth brushing routine for the four (almost five!) chompers Gwendolyn has -- not a popular task by any means, and usually requiring both parents to accomplish effectively: one to gently and quickly brush and one to hold back flailing arms.

Dancing Queen: Gwendolyn loves to dance in Daddy's arms. Whenever she hears a favourite or catchy tune, the request is "dance! dance!", complete with manic bouncing up and down. Never mind that she may be strapped in her high chair in the midst of lunch, or naked in the bath tub, or in the middle of a diaper change... We must DANCE!

I'm a Big Girl now: Up until recently, Gwendolyn's term for breastfeeding was "baba". Now she prefers using the terms "nurse" and "nursing". We expect this new sophistication is likely due to her status change from baby to toddler... ;)

With all that going on, it's no wonder that Gwendolyn is eating in both photos we've included here. There's lots of energy required for this growing up gig, you know!