Needles, choppers, new toys, first time away from Mommy and Daddy, and long nights.

It's been a...well...long week for our family...but let's not go there.





Clarissa has spent the week playing with her new birthday toys!!! (and lovin' it!!!)







She even helped Daddy put some of them together.



She also spent time admiring her birthday cards.



She also discovered that all kinds of things can be "toys". For example, a bag of sugar is a great rattle, tupperware is a great drum.



She has more teeth coming in!!!

She also spent almost 2 hours at home alone with Grandma while Mommy and Daddy were out. They played, they walked, she slept...all was good. This was a first and she did very well.

She has been putting multiple steps together without holding on to anything. Before we know it she will be running. OH OH!!!!

She has also been doing lots and lots of singing, and talking...although nobody except for Clarissa understands exactly what she's saying.

She also had three needles this week. Two at the doctor's office....she set a new record for volume of screaming...poor girl was not a happy camper at all. Then we took her to get her first H1N1 shot...it went really, really well...hardly any crying at all. Hopefully it will be that smooth in three weeks when we return for part two.

We are also still holding on to hope that she will eventually sleep regularly through the night. Ok...we are really hoping that eventually WE will get to sleep regularly through the night, but that involves HER sleeping through the night. She's pretty good with the whole playing at 4am thing.

....Happy birthday dear Clarissa. Happy birthday to you!!!!

Yep, today was....errrrrr still is I suppose, but she is in Snoozeville.....Clarissa's first birthday. Our beautiful little girl is now one!!! Thanks so much to everyone who sent birthday wishes to her.
She had a great and eventful birthday...even though she is dealing with a nasty little chest cold. She started it nice and early too, up at 4:30am ("yaahhhhh" says Mommy and Daddy). After playing for hours before most people are up, she was a tv star. We had sent in her picture to the local tv station and they announced her birthday on the air.



I also got to see her standing by herself and taking some steps solo, without holding on to anything. Carolyn has seen it a few times this week....while I was at WORK!!!!...but it was the first for me. It was priceless. She will be running around soon. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?????? I'm having trouble keeping up with her as it is :-)


We were going to go to Grandma and Grandpa's place to celebrate, but since she is sick they (along with Great Grandma and Uncle Don) brought cake (not just cake, but seven layer birthday cake...can't really adequately describe it...you really have to try it to understand...if I was willing to part with even a piece of it I'd ask you to come try it, but forget it...Carolyn will be lucky if she gets any of the leftover cake....I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow...here's hoping that I'm not having breakfast at 4:30am tomorrow!!! Now where was I???? Oh ya....) and dinner over to our place and we had a fantastic celebration. Clarissa was a wee bit grumpy at times because she wasn't feeling great.....she didn't even eat her cupcake!!!! Maybe she just doesn't like pink he he he


I know....I'm probably going to get in trouble for posting the "crying on her birthday" picture....but what can I say, I still think she's cute!!

Then it was time to open gifts!!!!


We ended with a little guitar playing by Uncle Don......he's a rockstar!!!


A couple more days til Adrian and Roberta head to China!!!!!! We are soooooo pumped for you! FOI will take very, very good care of you. We can't wait to follow your journey.

Halloweeeeeeeeen cuteness...

Well now presenting the cutest kangaroo....


She didn't make it long enough to see any of the kids come to the door, but she did get to have some fun on her first Halloween. She even tried her first Tootsie Pop....ummmmm let's not tell Mommy about that one.....just a couple of licks, then Daddy to over and made his way through to the tootsie roll centre...tried to count the licks but a certain little girl kept distracting me...and Clarissa wasn't helping either. Where is that owl when I need him????


Carolyn and I had the annual pumpkin carving contest...ok I'm the only one who considers it a contest.....pretty good though because that way I always win.
This years entries.....errrrr....ok "entry" and Carolyn's too. (can you guess which one is which????)



We had quite a few kids, but luckily we didn't have to dig in to the "stuff that we like and put aside" stash of candy....woo hoo!!!!

Clarissa has a bit of a cough today...but so far it doesn't seem like anything to worry too much about. We are going to lay low though...no walk for Clarissa today.
We are just going to hang out at home and watch the last F1 race of the season. Hard to believe it's the last race already!!!!

Next Saturday is the big day!!!! Birthday number one for our wonderful little girl!!! Since she can't eat cake yet I guess that Daddy will have to have an extra piece for her.....

Boo!!!!