We made it home last Monday, after a detour into customs due to a recently-expired Permanent Resident Card (apparently it’s not “Permanent”). A half hour of panic, some teary eyes, a kind customs officer took pity and let us through. You slept through it all, luckily. We got on the plane and you were an angel, as you’ve been with the other flights.
The trip was a long time away from home. Probably too long, although it was nice for you to get so much time with your Oma, Opa, and the Jays (Jackie and Jamie). You visited your Great-Grandma for the second time. Every time I see her I think it will be the last time. She is now frail and lonely, but our visit really cheered her up. She still has a very good sense of humor and little Jamie really knows how to make her laugh.
This trip we also visited with Aunt Myrna; Aunt Wendy and Uncle Allen; Friedrica; Gordon, Renee and Ethan; Joan, Jed and Emerson; and had a lovely cousins birthday dinner at Cathy and Ian’s.
We celebrated mommy and daddy’s 3rd anniversary with a home-cooked meal prepared by Oma and Daddy. It was also mommy’s birthday, after daddy had left, and it was celebrated with family on Caledon Lake. Oma made a wonderful chocolate raspberry ice cream cake (which took 3 days of prep) and served king crab legs, shrimp, chicken pot pie and lasagna.
New things you’re doing:
(Note from daddy) You’re very deliberate about wanting to communicate, in non-verbal ways.
You like to try to ‘kiss’ me by planting a wide-open mouth on my cheeks or lips and sucking, all the while gazing intently at my eyes. Funny! You did this in Dr Hal’s office, I asked what she thought.. she suggested kisses!
You’re very social. You love to make eye contact whenever we are out and try to win a smile from a passer-by. The plane trip home was unsettling for you as the tired businessmen on the plane were not very interested in smiling back at you or engaging with you. A bit of rejection didn’t slow you down, you were still making attempts by the time we landed, 5 hours later!
As soon as socks are put on your feet you grab them by the toe and yank them off. A real barefoot princess you are.
You love banging and thumping your hands or any instruments whenever you hear
“There’s a cobbler down the street…
making shoes for little feet
with a bang and a bang
and a bang bang bang…”
It became a well-rehearsed song on the trip.
While being changed now, you love to try to ‘escape’. You do anything you can to flip yourself over as soon as the diaper is off, and then start to wriggle your little behind up and away. If you have success you are quick to look over your shoulder with a big grin.
The weaning is beginning. We are down to a couple times a day of breastfeeding, with the one year mark approaching, and being the goal for transitioning. I will miss those nurturing times together — it’s been some of the best memories. As you nurse and look into my eyes, as you reach your little hand up to my nose, as you fall asleep so peacefully. Oh, how you’re growing up so quickly already.
You weighed in for your 9 month checkup (although you were over 9.5 months, as we were away) at 18lbs 9 oz (50%) and 29 ” in height (90%).
For your first Hallowe’en you were a little Ladybug. You weren’t quite sure what to make of the antennae, it seemed. Your friend Nolan Rollins was a lobster…. here’s a video.
And here are some pictures from the last part of the trip, and a few from Halloween too.
