Who's behind the camera?

We said it a while ago, and we'll say it again: it is now much harder to get photos or video of Gwendolyn when she's aware of you pointing the camera at her. Here's a cute little film from this morning to ilustrate the point. We hope none of you watching are prone to motion sickness...

May I take your order, Gwendolyn?

We've had a request for more video of Gwendolyn talking, so here's a bit of her breakfast conversation with Daddy this morning. It's not chock full of chatter, but you certainly get a feel for how successfully she communicates with her caretakers. We particularly love the emphatic "get it" in the middle of the clip... and the regal, "I have spoken" look at the end.

A West Coast winter moment

Late afternoon sunshine, blue sky, snow on the mountains (where most people here say it belongs)... Just a little Vancouver post card for you!

More words...

Some favourites from this past week: "helicopter," "plane" (as in airplane), "chameleon," "wonderful," "raisin" and "mango." If she keeps it up, this little girl is going to have a larger vocabulary than her Daddy in very short order!


(UPDATE: Daddy took a highly unscientific survey over lunch this afternoon (March 2), and heard the following uttered by our Gwendolyn: "tennis ball," "funny," "triangle," "coffee," eyebrow," and the phrase "there you go." An interesting collection of words, no...?)

Gwendolyn the photographer

Daddy took a moment today from pointing the camera at Gwendolyn to show her what it's like to take pictures. Gwendolyn held the camera (with a bit of help) and pressed the shutter for the above photograph. It's an interesting subject (if Daddy may say so), and nicely focused, but the composition could do with a bit of tweaking. On the other hand, maybe she was going for an abstract look...?

Surprise visitors

Saturday afternoon brought an unexpected visit from our friend Lisa and her nephew Isaac, who is just a touch older than Gwendolyn. What a beautiful little fellow he is -- especially those big blue eyes.

Gwendolyn enjoyed showing her new friend her collection of toys. Isaac was particularly taken with the musical ones; note the xylophone mallet in his hand (suitable for banging all manner of things, by the way).

Thanks for dropping by, you two!

Making faraway family feel closer

To help Gwendolyn keep track of her family (read: learn everyone's names), Mama has begun to put together a photo album featuring photos of her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Gwendolyn is doing quite well with everyone's names.

Rookie error on Mama and Daddy's part: pointing to Gwendolyn in the photo and saying, "you!" Because now our little smarty-pants will identify, say, Grandpa ("Gum-pa") and then point to herself and say -- you guessed it -- "you!" Whoops!

Having said that, Gwendolyn is coming along nicely when it comes to pronouncing her own name. It sounds sort of like, "Gwen-lyn" right now, which we think is pretty darn good!