All the news that's fit to print

Here's the latest with Miss Gwendolyn:

Tale of 2 Grandpas: What a lucky girl! Gwendolyn enjoyed visits with both her grandfathers this past week. Papa John (Felicity's Dad) flew in from Toronto for several days of Gwendolyn time in rainy Vancouver, and Grandpa Ronaghan dropped in today for an afternoon visit. It's clear from her interactions with both grandfathers that Gwendolyn loves them very much, and we're so pleased each of them makes a point to visit her when they can.

Swimming up a storm: Gwendolyn completed her latest set of swimming lessons on Saturday. She now has level "Duck" under her belt; next stop is "Sea Turtle." What a difference a warm pool can make: Gwendolyn loves being in the water now and often expressed disappointment when her 1/2 hour lessons were done each Saturday.

And singing up a storm, too: We have a wee song writer on our hands. Gwendolyn has begun recalling memorable activities through her own lyrics that she sings to familiar tunes. An example (sung to the tune for "the ABC Song"): "Gwendolyn went to the aquarium and saw some fishes and stuff, then she saw some whales and starfishes..."

Her own songs are an outgrowth of those she now asks Mama to create (and sing) before naps or just before bedtime, as a way to settle down her mind for sleep (we think). This evening, it was a song about waiting for Papa John's baggage at the airport. Another favourite is "The Duplo Song," which is all about the trip to the bus depot to pick up some packages from Grandpa Ronaghan, opening the packages, finding the Duplo (think big Lego) inside and playing with it along with her friend Zoey.

The songs sure aren't top 40 material, but they seem to be important for Gwendolyn to help make sense of happenings in her world.

She raps to the potty beat: Perhaps it was the book that she found on her latest trip to the library that did it (called "Uh Oh! Gotta Go!"), but Gwendolyn has suddenly taken a keen interest in potty training. With Mama and Daddy's encouragement, she successfully peed in her potty a couple of times this past week. Hurrah! We can't wait to hear the accompanying song.

Play sleeping: these recent rainy days have seen our couch go through quite a workout as a play object. The latest game: pulling the cushions off and creating a play nap space, complete with cozy quilt, requested music (usually her "Dreamland" CD) and dimmed lights. She will usually lay quietly for several minutes, staring up at the ceiling -- or in the case of the photo above, at her mousey-mouse finger puppet. Now, if we could just get her to "real nap" a little more consistently...

Here are some captions for the other photos:

• Exploring her newly received Duplo with Zoey (not actually taken this past week, but hey -- we can pretend, can't we?)
  
• Reading "Applebee's Shapes" with Papa John
• Enjoying bath time, despite giving herself a bit of a bump on the noggin beforehand -- note the emerging goose-egg above her right eye. Note to G.: accidents can (and do) happen when you're overtired and tearing around the house!
  

One year ago today...

We often scroll through Gwendolyn's blog on a trip down memory lane, which gave Daddy the idea for this posting: what did our little girl look like one year ago? Well, here's your answer, complete with pasta meal.

The photo below wasn't included in the November 2008 posts, but it's an awfully cute one. Note the rather precarious seating posture Gwendolyn is enjoying in a kid-size Poang chair. ("No, no -- I'm OK, really. Quite comfortable, actually.") Note also the awesome, "too short in the legs, too high in the waist" jeans...

The hostest with the mostest

Daddy was looking through recent photos of Gwendolyn today and found this little gem. Last weekend, the Ronaghans hosted a baby shower for our good friend Jennifer. There was another wee one at the party (Natalie -- apparently she's not a big fan of clothes) and she and Gwendolyn got busy with playing while the adults enjoyed their tea and conversation. Of course, Gwendolyn couldn't resist also helping out with the opening of the gifts and charming everyone in the room with her lively personality.

(Note the toque Gwendolyn is wearing; it's one of Grandma Ronaghan's creations. G. wouldn't look out of place at a Reggae concert wearing that colourful number...)

BTW, a lesson was learned by Mama and Daddy post-shower. You see, Gwendolyn enjoyed her fair share of chocolate cake during the party, mooching bites from several plates. We've been quite careful with Gwendolyn and sweets, but were a little lax this time around.

Unfortunately, that decision came with some consequences; it was clear from Gwendolyn's behaviour well into the evening that she was on a big, crazy sugar high. As you might expect, we're back to being careful.

One month 'til TWO!

Today marks just one month until Gwendolyn turns two years old. Yikes -- Daddy needs to start thinking about a theme for this year's cake...

We marked the day by doing a couple of measurements:

Height: between 35 and 36 inches
Weight: 31 pounds

Reading update

Gwendolyn has taken quite a leap with her reading in recent weeks. She has been heard reciting passages from some of her favourite books on several occasions while engaged in other activities. When reading those same books, she happily "fills in the blanks" when Mama or Daddy leaves a word or short phrase out of the story. We'll keep trying to get a short film of this; so far, the audio on each of our previous takes has been a bit faint.

Her current favourite? It's safe to say that "Music Is" takes the prize, although Richard Scarry's "Biggest, Busiest Storybook Ever" is probably a very close second. During the lead-up to Hallowe'en, the book of choice was "Dora's Perfect Pumpkin." By the time October 31st rolled around, she had nearly the whole book memorized.

Gwendolyn also has an alphabet puzzle game, consisting of a letter and word on one half of each puzzle card and a pictorial representation of the word on the other half. More than 50% of the time, she is correctly recognizing a letter and/or word and then finding the picture with which to finish the card.

Yes, we realize what we're seeing is Gwendolyn's memorization skills in action, rather than her ability to read what she sees on the page. But wow -- isn't it great that she is so engaged with words, books and reading so early in her life? As we've said before, we think we have a bookworm on our hands...

Having fun with Zozo

You've already met Gwendolyn's friend Zoey through this blog; last evening, we had the pleasure of having "Zozo" over for a play date while her parents enjoyed a well deserved evening out. As you can see from the photo, these little girls really enjoy each other's company.

Two good friends and lots of toys and fresh baked muffins equals one fun evening. All that laughing and running around must have worn little G. out -- she powered through a three hour nap this afternoon!

Some new photos to start a new month

Things keep growing right along with Gwendolyn. Here is this week's collection of photos (minus the Hallowe'en shots, of course):

• Looking every bit the soccer goalkeeper with her big striped gloves
• Doing some puzzling -- a new favourite activity (We've done this puzzle so many times that Gwendolyn is now able to fit in some of the pieces without help)
• Not to worry: when leg warmers get a bit snug, just put them on your arms! (Note the play toy in this photo; Gwendolyn has finally shown interest in the activity snake we purchased for her before she was born. We're starting to tackle buttoning and threading shoelaces...)
  
• Finally -- hair that is long enough to put into a ponytail