Road Trip

We have just returned back from our first family road trip. We were supposed to go camping this week, but, the weather finally decided to change, and the rain forced us indoors. We headed up to Harrison with some friends and their 2 children. 

On the way there, we decided to stop off at the Vancouver Aquarium. Kira had never been there before, so it was fun to see her reactions to some of the exhibits. She was a little bit young for many of the items, but she really enjoyed the jellyfish. She kept saying "oh wow!", too cute. It was incredibly busy at the aquarium, so we didn't stick around too long. We headed out and went up to Harrison. Kira borrowed a pair of rubber boots from her new friend, Paulina, and discovered a new love - jumping in puddles. She was SOAKED! And she loved every minute of it. 

On the way home we stopped off at the Vancouver Zoo, it was our first time there (all 3 of us). We enjoyed it for sure, it was a good day weather-wise, not too hot, not too cold. Kira kept saying hi to everyone and calling all the animals baby. I think that we will take her back there again when she is a little bit older.

All and all, it was an incredible couple of days. Kira is exhausted and will hopefully sleep well. Now, it's back to reality and time to begin packing for the move next weekend. 

I have added a new feature to the blog, I copied it from Maya's blog. It allows you to leave thoughts, without making a comment. And like she said, I do like comments and I do read them! Feel free to leave thoughts and comments, it's always nice to know that I'm not just writing this for myself.

Packing up + moving out!

We managed to find a great rental place in East Vancouver, much further West than we currently are. It's in the Kensington Park area, very close to a huge park and community centre, plus the house is right on a bike road, so it's quiet and easy for us to take Kira out on bike rides. We'll be moving in August 22, I'm very much looking forward to it. We decided to rent for at least the next 12 - 15 months, in that time we'll keep saving our pennies and hope that the market comes back down again, and with any luck, we'll be able to get our dream house.

Today is the first day of our mini-vacation. Daycare is closed for 2 weeks, so we are looking forward to spending the next two weeks with Kira, it will be a lot of fun. We will be heading up to Harrison Hot Springs on Monday for an overnight trip with some friends and their two children; we were originally going to go camping, but mother nature had other plans for us. No worries, the mini-getaway will be nice.

Yesterday, we decided to stop giving Kira her soother. We had previously taken it away from her during the day with great success, so we thought now would be a good time to take it away at night too --- especially since she still has a short-term memory. Last night had 2 very tough moments of her screaming and grabbing for it, but she fell back asleep after about 10 minutes and slept through to 6:15. She actually woke up and started chatting with her stuffies in the crib, she hasn't done that in a while. She's down for her first nap without it now, she went down without any troubles. Hopefully the transition is quick and easy!

Kira is almost done with her gymnastics for the summer, she has been enjoying it a lot, so we decided to sign her up again for the fall. She started jumping this week and is still attempting to figure out how to push her body forward to somersault. It's pretty cute. She's added a few more words to her vocabulary - uh-oh, hello, bye-bye, and baby. She can say these words very clearly now. Yesterday, we were walkign to the park and we passed a mom with a stroller, Kira pointed and said "baaay-bee" and then "hi!", when they walked past she said "bye!". Too cute. I was very proud as she said these things without any encouragement from me.

Flower Girl

Here are a couple of photos of Kira when she was the flower girl at Jeff + Erin's wedding last month. She clapped and giggled her way up the aisle. Seems she isn't as shy as we first thought...

Oh yeah!

Kira has started gymnastics on Saturday mornings. It's pretty much a free-for-all, the kids (1 - 2 years old) run around on the gymnastics equipment. They learn how to jump, balance (ha!), climb, and somersaults. Kira LOVES somersaults! They also sing songs and dance. She has a blast and is good and tired when we are done. It's hard to get her to stay still to take a photo, but we'll try. She always has a huge smile when she's there. It's nice to have an outlet for all of her energy!

We also discovered today that Kira is cutting more teeth (hooray!) This time she is getting 2 on the bottom, but not the two that I thought would come next. These are the two teeth next to the eye teeth, towards the molars. They are also pretty close to cutting on the top as well. I hope that her two bottom teeth, the ones that should have come by now, do indeed come in. Hopefully she didn't inherit my missing teeth gene...I can feel a large orthodontic bill coming on already.

Here are a couple of pictures I took today of Kira's first Nutella sandwich...

Pictures

Kira loves the swings!

Go Canucks Go!!! (that's just for you Charlie)

The flower girl outfit at Jeffy + Erin's wedding. The shoes are fantastic. Thanks Georgina!

Yikes, where does the time go?

So it seems that it has been a while since last posting. Things have been crazy around here, since selling our place we have been looking at houses every spare moment that we've had. After looking for over 6 weeks and have 2 horrible inspections at 2 different houses, Jon and I have thrown in the towel. It seems that while we sold at the right time, we are buying at the wrong time and in the wrong price point --- everyone is buying a house at our price point right now! We have decided just to rent for a year or so, save up for a larger place, and move when the right place comes along. While renting is not ideal, it does allow us a lot more flexibility, I know the right place will come along for us, just maybe not right now.

Kira has been doing very well lately. We have been trucking her out to various doctors appointments to get to the bottom of this rash she has had on her torso + diaper area for the last couple of months. After ruling out food allergies, diaper allergies, ointment allergies, yeast infection, and heat rash, we were finally referred to the dermatologist at Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, we are no closer to the cause of the rash, but, fortunately, the darn thing appears to be disappearing on it's own. Strange stuff. Never did bother her, just bothered us.

The last week has seen Kira add a few more words to her vocabulary. While they aren't easily understood, they are definitely the beginnings of the words. So far she has the usual Mama + Dada down, she also says Hi, done, and now says bye bye (it sounds like ba-ba), and baby (which we call her all the time). She has also started to say all done.

Kira is also starting her transition to the "terrible two's". We find ourselves saying no to her A LOT! She has a very clear understanding of what she is allowed to do and what she is not allowed to do, but she sure loves to test our patience. I'm sure the next few years will be good fun. One of her favourite things to do is remove her glasses and then hand them back to you. Drives me crazy!! Well today she finally snapped the arm right off of her glasses. Guess she got her way in the end, she'll be glasses free for the next day or two while we get them fixed. Smart kid.

Quick update

Things are still hectic around here, we are still searching for a house, so we haven't had time to update the blog. But we have exciting news! Joanne + Yuet-chi welcomed their baby girl (the name is still being discussed) to the world on July 9, she weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 9oz. Mom + daughter are doing well, and have gone home to join Dad + Marcus (and Leo). Will post some pictures as soon as possible.