a room of one's own

While Kate is fast becoming the benevolent dictator of this house, for the time being I still have control over her room. With that said, I can only imagine the paint colours, posters, pin holes, piles of clothes and general untidiness that lay in our future. If she is anything like me, what we now fondly refer to as her nursery, will be a never ending adventure in self expression.

For posterity sake and because I have had many requests I thought I would share some pics of her not-so-little room.

Photo shoot complete - Kate is back to work.

She has found an old friend.

Kate, while Mommy loves your room now I can't wait to see who you become and how you'll choose to express yourself on these walls. All my love.

a couple firsts

Suffering from a little cabin fever I went searching for a new activity for Kate and I to tackle. I decided it was time time to see if she wanted to make her own mark in this world. Here goes...

Some baby friendly supplies.

Huge surprise - straight into the mouth.

It didn't take her long to catch on though.

Voila, she added a little texture to finish off her first "piece".

More recent firsts: Kate is finally pulling herself all the way to standing, she jumped to me in swimming class from the Humpty Dumpty sitting wall and today she was obsessed with putting her face in the water during swimming.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the balmy Calgary weather (if that's where you are).

xoxo aj

2010 the year of the childproof lock

Kate is officially on the move. She's gaining speed, precision and skills - namely the ability to climb out of our sunken living room aka her playroom. Though proud, this means my ability to escape the little lady has been much compromised. This also means we finally have to get on child proofing our house:

First step, no problem.

Taking a little break before tackling step number two.

She did it and is on the move.

Destination one, the desk drawer.

After having emptied a sufficient amount of its contents she abandons the drawer and heads for the cupboard.

How divine. And all this before 6:30 am.

Kate rang in the first day of the New Year in PEI with her little cousins. Cody took Kate there solo - my first night away from the little darling ever (11 months plus approximately 10 months gestation). Here she is as copilot in Cody's truck - thrilled as it was her first time ever sitting forwards. Please note - all air bags have been disengaged.

Happy New Year everyone! Love the Jorgensen Sandwich

a first christmas

The Grandparents have departed, the recycling is stacking up in the front room and there is a unfamiliar yet high pitched hum of talking toys through the house. Oh Christmas, we'll miss you.

We had a lovely first Christmas with Kate and the Biggars and Jorgensens. Kate loves visitors and visiting and I think did really well in the face of a lot of busyness. A few highlights:

Off to bed Christmas Eve but not before taste testing Santa's milk.

Christmas morning - looks like we made the Nice list.

Kate checking out her stocking; let the festivities begin.

A dress from Grandma Sherri and Grandpa George.

An accessory that's part of a lovely outfit from the Dupuis. Can you spot those upper two teeth?

Ooooh - Side Saddle Sally.

Christmas afternoon in Margate, PEI with the beautiful little Lydia.

Cousin Carter smiling out the window of his new bungalow.

Kate going in for a visit.

A view of the living room/kitchenette.

A swing - thanks so much Aunty & Uncle.

Carter and Lydia's new battery powered two-speed John Deere Gator - from Grandpa Paul & Janice. Needless to say this was a hit.

Carter and his girls.

At Josh & Susan's for the Biggar Boxing Day get-together. Kate saying hello to Lydia.

Back home Boxing Day night. Kate sitting patiently while Grandpa and Papa assemble her new bus.

It took too long so Kate thought she better help.

Success - thank you Grandma Donna.

Kate checking out all her new wonderful things.

Again this morning Kate woke and got straight to work in the Petting Zoo.

Thank you to all our friends and family for the lovely things you sent to us. We had such a fun time and know the fun will continue. On a news front - Kate officially has 4 teeth and she is crawling pretty good. I couldn't be happier and I think she's enjoying the new found freedom.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and look forward to catching up before the New Year. xoxo Aimee

kate hearts christmas

It's the day before the night before Christmas and our stockings have been hung by the chimney with care - it's my first mantle and I'm thrilled.

P.S. Santa I could really use a larger mirror.

Kate and I went for a festive swim this morning and now are preparing for this evening's arrival of Grandpa Paul and Grandma Janice and of course the start of some festivities. We'll be spending Christmas Eve and morning with them here in Riverview before we all head over the bridge Christmas afternoon.

I'm really hoping that Kate's teeth and irregular sleep patterns allow her to enjoy Christmas morning and then the trip over to PEI to celebrate with Grandma Donna, Aunty, Uncle and the cousins. I have had her practice unwrapping a couple presents - the first took three days and the second, well we just stepped in and finished the job. She got one piece off and sat down to a little paper snack.

Overall I would say that Kate is very much enjoying the little treats that have already come with the season (please don't judge us):

Delicious milk with a hint of Egg Nog.

A covertly stolen Candy Cane - Mom has been holding out on the good stuff hey Kate.

Kate's first Ginger Snap. Like her Momma, Kate seems to mostly enjoying the Season's food treats.

And here, with much joy and enthusiasm Kate is going through all the Christmas receipts.

Other favorites have to be Boney M's Jingle Bells, Christmas cards, ours and our neighbours' outdoor lights and of course all the decorations on our tree. We have had one breakage incident but only minor.

So, I'm not sure if I will have time to do another post before the 25th so in case I don't - to my family - you know I miss you like crazy and hope you have a busy, awesome celebration. To our friends - many who have babies celebrating first Christmases - I hope you have so much fun and start carving out new traditions.

All our love - the Jorgensen Sandwich

clapping, sitting, sleeping

I believe I have started measuring the passing of my own life and my success as a parent by Kate achieving different milestones. As of late I feel like we're doing well. Milestone #1: clapping her hands. Technically her Father got her clapping this Sunday - however I don't think 10 months of me playing pat a cake should go totally ignored. I don't know why but I think it is so darling. Well, except may be for this morning at 4:44 am when she was up in her crib clapping away. She must have known it was her Grandpa Paul's birthday today. She just couldn't wait to get the party started. Happy Birthday from all of us!

Milestone #2: getting up to a sitting position on her own. This one is huge for me. Some days I felt like half my time was spent rescuing a floundering fish kicking and squirming - stuck laying on her back or stomach frustrated with her immobility.

Milestone#3: for the first time in her life Kate slept through the night. I'm not breaking out the champagne quite yet though. On Monday night she went to bed at 8:30 pm and was up for the day around 5:30 am. So she only slept around 9 hours - which is still a record for her. We're working on weaning her and so far it's going okay with an unexpected benefit of longer sleep periods.

Kate and I now have our eyes on the crawling prize. I am really starting to see potential; for a very long time I saw none at all. Terrible to say - I know. I want it so bad though! My girlfriends have all warned me that the 10 - 12 month range is a hard one as the babies are so frustrated - all the time. Well Cody and I are in the depths of Kate's disagreeableness and we want out. Crawling and maybe a few more teeth would help so much. She used to love us and now I sense a little hate. I have gone on a bit but wanted to share the good-ish news.

Here are a few pics of our Christmas elf:

Kate's first time in her sled.

She liked it - especially when I ran with her in-tow.

So anxious to get back to work she doesn't even take her hat off.

My attempt at a snowlady for Kate's amusement. Big fan.

This is what happens when Cody is in charge of hairdos.

Talk soon, Aimee