Day 212

Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm

Today the Milligans went out to the town of Bon Accord, Alberta for some down home fun! And that is what was had by all. It was the Fairy and Pirate weekend at the Prairie Gardens & Adventure Farm, much to our surprise! Adeline had a blast! There was a petting zoo, a tractor ride, corn maze (which we didn't take in), a haunted house (which we did!), a band (which Adeline apparen't knew, because she was singing her little heart out right along with the lead singer) and even some pirates who made you walk the plank and gave you a tattoo!

Day 211

Daddy Lovin'

Adeline has started enjoying the occasional hug and she sometimes will even lay with us for more than 5 seconds. But she has to be on her back and when the 5 seconds is up, you better be letting her back to motor around.

Day 210

Finger Sucking

Adeline has started this thing where she sucks her pointer finger...today I totally busted her with choking herself with her finger...she had it all the way up to the knuckle in her mouth.

Day 209

Fun at the Apple Store

Apple is so smart...While parents are doing some shopping, their kids get hooked on Apple products. Although the bouncy ball seat was not specifically an Apple made product Adeline had a great time bouncing around on it.

Day 208

Reading

I always knew Adeline liked books...I just didn't realize she was such an avid reader.

Day 207

Kitty Lovin

One of Adeline's daily chores, trying to touch the kitty. Today she was successful.

Day 206

Mum Mum

I just realized the other day that Adeline was not talking to me each and every time she eats...that's just how she says Yum Yum.

Day 205

Home

Although Adeline is a great travler, she is not great at sleeping, or just being for that matter, anywhere other than home. The first night it took her over an hour to get to sleep and was up and hour earlier than usual. The next day she had one good nap, in the morning, but did not nap at all in the afternoon, therefore we had a VERY sad baby come dinner time. Saturday night she went to sleep much quicker, it only took her about 30 minutes to get to sleep, but she woke up around 3am and could not get and stay sleeping. About an hour and a half later Dad got her to sleep by holding and rocking her and had to have her in his arms while they slept, it was precious...but so hard to appreciate at 3 in the morning. Then she again was up an hour earlier than her usual wake up time. So we decided to leave just in time for her first, rather than her second nap. She slept 3 hours on the way home and then another hour when we were at home and was out at 7pm (about 2 minutes after we put her down) this evening...I'm thinking we had a pretty sleep deprived baby. Well, that was our mini vacation in a nutshell. We did have a good time visiting Fronteer Lodge for the first time and seeing our friend Becky was awesome!

Day 204

The Lake

Fronteer Lodge is located just outside Nordegg, Alberta right on Fish Lake. Fish Lake is a nice and quite (no motorized vehicles allowed). Today we got the Fronteer Lodge tour and stopped at Fish Lake to let Adeline play with the water. Adeline LOVES water! She wanted to splash a bit so I held her over the edge of the dock to do so. She was quite pleased with herself.

Day 203

Driving

This afternoon we drove to the place where our friend Becky works. Fronteer Lodge is a summer and winter Christian wilderness camp. It is awesome! If I were a teen now and knew about this camp I would be going each and every year. Well, our friend Becky works there and has been inviting us down for a visit for some time now. This weekend worked with her and us for the visit that has been alluding us for some time now. The drive down for Adeline was great. She really is an amazing traveler. She ate and then played for a bit and slept until we were about 10 minutes from camp; it worked out great! Fronteer Lodge staff welcomed us with open arms, they housing and feeding us too!

*This picture was her just after waking up from her nap, reading her favourite book.

Day 202

Big Girl

Adeline didn't want to sit in the cart today she wanted to stand in it...she was so pleased with herself too. She could not stop smiling at the checkout lady; she kept flashing the look at me, look what I am doing smile.

Baby Proofing Necessary

I have two baby proofing problem areas in our house...under the computer and under the fish tank. I am not sure what to do about them, but that didn't really matter...until today. Because until today Adeline was content to just motor around the house getting into things that were visible (i.e. not behing closed doors). Well today she realized that the doors under the fish tank slide open and there are a bunch of fun things in there that she can pull out and play with. Distraction has been the key today, but really I can't be watching her 24/7 to make sure she doen't get into those place...HELP what can I do?

Day 201

Yummm Blueberries

Adeline LOVES blueberries!!! For breakfast today all she wanted to eat was blueberries...no cereal, no applesauce and no yogurt..just more and more and more blueberries. You can see in the second pic she is gearing up to ask for more blueberries even though she still had some on the table. It is so precious to see her communicating at such a young age. She is able to ask for more (of whatever she is eating), milk (which at this point means drink...could be milk or water) and she tells us when she is finished eating by saying all done. It's really taking the guess work out of having a 1 (or almost) year old.

Day 200

Yummm

Adeline defiantly get enough dairy in a day. Today she asked for THIRDS of her yogurt lunch. I then offered her a cookie and she only wanted it if it was dipped in yogurt...plain yogurt; silly baby! She also wanted to feed herself and share with me...what a nice baby!

Day 199

I can stand

Adeline is now using any and everything to stand. She is even cruising around the furniture too!

Day 198

Whyte Ave Art Walk

After Adeline's nap today we took her to Whyte ave to check out all the art along Edmonton's annual art walk. We only ended up going about 4 blocks before Shmadeline was rearing her ugly head and we needed to go home. If you don't know, Shmadeline is Adeline's alter ego. When Adeline is really grumpy we call her Shmadeline. Usually Shmadeline only needs some food or a nap and Adeline magically reappears, but today was a different story. We think the cause of Shmadeline's extended stay today was Adeline's numerous mosquito bites. Daddy picked up some calamine lotion and we doused Shmadeline in it all of a sudden Adeline was back with us!

Day 197

Xylophone

Adeline Loves music!! All kinds. She will often imitate me drumming on the table - if I use one hand then she does too, if I use two hands at the same so does she and if I use alternate my two hands that is what she will do too. So back to the xylophone...when Adeline was much younger I would pull it out and bang on it a few times, Adeline would then take the mallet and....of course, put it in her mouth. Now she not only puts it in her mouth, but she also uses it to bang out a little tune.

Day 196

The Zoo

We took a family trip to the zoo today. It was awesome. We stopped to pet the goats. Adeline would touch the goat and her ear would move and Adeline would giggle and giggle and giggle some more and then Adeline would touch the goat again and her ear would move and Adeline would giggle with delight again. Adeline loved all the animals and all the other children. We rode the train and she just sat and took it all in. I think we are going to have to make another trip to the zoo some time.

Day 195

Standing

Wow Oh Wow!!! You have made some physical leaps and bounds these last couple days!!!! Today you were pulling yourself up all over the place. In your crib, at the couch, at the plant stand, the bath tub and even at the toilet. Every time I turned around you were pulling your self up on something or just standing there as happy as can be, you impress even yourself sometimes ;) Even tonight rather than going to sleep you were having fun standing up and biting the edge of your crib or playing with the lamp on your dresser.

Day 194

Friends

You had your friend Charlotte over for a visit today. She eats much, much slower than you, so while she was finishing her meal you decided to pick up her scraps from the floor and play with her feet...good thing she is easy going ;)

Helper

While I was making dinner this evening you wanted to help by take out a casserole dish for me...which wold have been really helpful had I actually been making a casserole. Maybe we'll try again tomorrow!

Other note without a pic...today when I put you down for a nap all of a sudden you were crying out pretty loud (and I knew your nap was not over, because I had just put you down 15 minutes ago)...well when I went in to your room you were STANDING!!!! You had figured out how to pull yourself up and you could not get back down. Well I guess it's time to put your crib down to the lowest setting finally.

Day 193

Trapped

Now that you can move you have been exploring much more of the house. Lately you have enjoyed crawling from the living room where all your toys are to Chloe's toy basket (taking out and playing with all her toys), then you move on to the kitchen taking out all the plastic containers and then you proceed down the hall to the gate that keeps you from falling down the stairs. You often sit there on your knees shaking the bars as if to say "get me outta here." I really do love that you can move...it is amusing for the whole family.

Day 192

Mmmm Milk

When you are done drinking you always throw your cup...it is actually really funny, you just sort of fling your cup over the edge of your high chair. Sometimes whatever is in the cup spills a bit and sometimes it spills A LOT! And today was one of those days where it spilled a lot. So when she was allowed back into the kitchen Chloe beelined it right to your spilled milk to sop it up...and now because you can crawl you wanted to check it out too, so you did. You crawled over to where Chloe was checking out your milk and literally grabbed her head and moved it away from the milk so you could get at it too.

Day 191

Snuggles

Because we weaned you this week you have been craving some extra snuggles lately. This afternoon you had your snack of Graham crackers and milk while hanging on Daddy's knee. You two are just too cute!

Day 190

Bath Snack

So today was the first day you did not have even one bottle. It's nice, and not so nice all at the same time. You used to have 3 bottles and 3 meals a day, but now you are all over the 6-7 meals a day. I now realize that it was easier to feed you a bottle of formula than to make and feed you a meal. So now because you are not taking a bottle before bed anymore we decided to give you a bath snack - that's a snack when you are in the bath. You LOVED it!!! You ate all that I had made and drank some milk too. Then you got changed for bed, Daddy read you some books and you fell asleep within 5 minutes of your head hitting your pillow. It was great!! You are becoming such a big girl!

Day 189

Breaking Out

Now that you are crawling around Mommy and Daddy need to be a bit more careful about leaving the doors and gates open. Today we were loading the groceries into the house, so we locked up the kitty so he didn't escape, but you were still roaming free. Good thing you didn't like the feel of the door mat, it acted as a barrier to keep you just inside the doorway or we wold have been in BIG trouble!!!

Day 188

Kitty

You love you Puppy!!! But you also love your Kitty too...he just doesn't get (or give) as much love so we don't talk about it as much. Today though Kitty ventured close enough for you to take notice and even touch him, if only for a few seconds. If only you'd realize you could chase him with that new crawling thing you learned...then he'd really be in trouble.

Day 187

Sign Language

Daddy and I have been doing sign language with you since you were a VERY young baby, but it is just more recent that you have actually been signing back. Exciting are the days when you spontaneously sign something to communicate. Today was one of those days. As I was feeding you dinner and trying to make you laugh with a mouth full of food for a picture you all of a sudden told me you wanted more, and because I had the camera ready for the food filled mouth picture I also got to catch you signing.

The other really exciting sign you have been doing a lot lately is puppy...it is just tooooo cute.

Happy Baby

Here is another photo of you from today being your happy self...for at least the end of the day today ;)

Day 186

Mommy and Me

Adeline, here is a picture of you and I from today. The most exciting part of today was watching you crawl around more than just a few 'steps.' It was so nice to be able to get some work done in the kitchen and have you get to where you wanted to be without needing to be the one to move you. You are becoming quite proficient at crawling (only when you want to do it ;) and also at getting yourself up on to you knees without using your hands.

Oh ya and you started signing puppy today...but rather than patting your leg, you pat your chest or belly or even my leg. It is just tooooo cute.

Here is proof that you have finally started crawling...not that you have done it for anyone other than Mommy yet.

I just love how your tongue sticks out when you are working hard! Daddy and I are soooo proud of you, you have been working so hard to crawl and now that hard work is paying off.

Day 185

Hangin With Dad

This evening I was inside doing something and all I could hear was your infectious laugh! I just had to go outside to see what you were doing. You were having so much fun with your daddy! You two were getting the hoses all set up to water the grass and Daddy was making some silly noises and tickling you to make you laugh and you were having so much fun!!!

Day 184

Fun in the Sun

Today was the first day we used your pool. After Daddy nicely filled it up with warm water you had a great time splashing around. As you can see you even wanted Chloe to join in too.