Carpet Lint

A reason to keep up with the vacuuming...

Occasionally Paige will decide to put carpet lint in her mouth. She knows she is not supposed to do this because as she does it she shakes her head and says no. If she gets a reaction from me she proceeds to repeatedly pick invisible lint off the carpet and frantically shove it in her mouth to see what I'll do. I have to ignore her, but it reminds me to vacuum the floor every few days....

A quick trip out west.....

We just got back from a fabulous time out west for Angie and Marty's wedding. The time flew by and the entire trip was fantastic. We took a million pictures, but I have just posted a few.

Here are Anj and Marty doing a non conventional (yet fantastic!) first dance to "Bringing Sexy Back"

Great Grandpa Turcsanyi with his 2 newest Great Grandaughters both born on July 9 (Paige's second cousin--Ciara)

Grandpa Jerry discovered a way to keep Paige quiet--a celery stick.

The Turcsanyi-Weir-Pugsley's!

Because the weather wasn't that great we decided against the zoo and opted to take a trip to the Royal Alberta Museum! As Paige can walk, she was able to wander around the museum and look at things that interested her...signs, dinosaurs, fake people, stuffed (real) animals. If she'd wander off too far we'd just carry her to the next place. She really likes to be stroller free unless we are walking quickly. The cutest moment was when she went inside a teepee and then popped out from underneath and yelled HI! On Wednesday night we went to the Barr's house for dinner. Paige loved their Golden Retriever Riley (even though he was 5 times her size and scared of her), and loved the backyard with the stream and pond and steep hill to (accidentally) roll down. They were nice enough to have us over right in between coming and going from vacations. Paige got to play with toys that Marilyn had saved from when Cameron, Lauren and Allison were kids--I remember a lot of these toys, like the strange magnet man...so that was pretty funny.
Paige with Great Grandma Turcsanyi

"The girls" went to the farmer's market while the boys went golfing. It was "easier" to install the car seat in Grandma Val's convertible with the roof down (they don't make these things like your average family vehicle...it practically took 45 mins to install the seat), so we put her in and took some pictures before putting the roof up for the ride.

Paige with Zaida Bruce

Paige and "Uncie Tys"


Grandma Val

We didn't actually get a very good picture, but Paige and Abby (Jen and James' dog) were inseperable. Paige continues to call for Abby several times a day which is heartbreaking. I can see why people get their toddler's dogs. She was in a fantastic mood the entire trip because she loved Abby so much (well, the rest of her Albertan family too). She learned how to feed Abby cookies and how to discipline her by saying "NO" if Abby was doing anything bad.

In addition to the word "Abby" she also learned "fishie", and "pretty" (jewellery).

She learned some new actions: tickle fingers--index fingers held up ready for tickling; and "Who's the biggest girl?"--and she raises her arm and says "I am" (but it sounds like "hi")

um..wow.

Yesterday Paige spazzed out completely. She was not having a good day as the skin over her top 2 teeth is stretched to the max and they are about to pop out any day now. It all started at Gymboree where she was just crying and whining and not wanting to participate in the circle time in the class. Normally she wanders off a bit, but will be ok if I have to reel 'er back in. Yesterday she had a huge meltdown in the middle of the circle in front of the whole class. Then (pushing my luck, I know) I decided to pick up a coffee on the way home from Second Cup. Going in the store was fine, but trying to leave?? I could not get her back in the car seat. She was too strong for me. She had her back arched, screaming her head off, and there was no way I could get her in there without stuffing her in there like some horrible person. If we had been in a hurry to go somewhere I guess that is what I would have had to do. Since we didn't have anywhere to go, we went back into Second Cup to have the coffee (and to keep her happy, a chocolate chip cookie). She eventually started crying in there too (well, pouty lip and little tiny cries compared to the car), and the lady that works there said, "I've never seen her cry her whole life!" Then on the way home she spazzed out as I tried to put her in the seat, but I was able to quickly stuff her in. She luckily fell asleep in the car and I was able to transfer her into her crib at home. So, not only were her teeth hurting, but she was super tired. The rest of the day she continued to cry and she got really sticky and sweaty and probably feverish. I hope these teeth come through soon, even though I love her 2 teeth smile.

On the weekend we went to the cottage for a nice visit with Aunt Robyn, Aunt Mary Jo, and cousin Evan. Our camera battery died in the car on the way up so we have no pictures.

Poor little thing doesn't know what's coming on Friday night when we get on a long 4 hour plane ride to Edmonton.

Oh--2 new words, or maybe 3.

wa wa=water (as opposed to waWA, which is flowers)
Uh oh=when she drops something, or sometimes is a preliminary uh oh, and then a drop. She says this a lot.

and "puh puh puh" (or something like it..not sure how to describe it) for Peek a boo

1 new game

Shape sorting! She is great with the circle, and she tries the other shapes but will usually give up if a shape doesn't fit in the first 2 holes that she tries.

Daddy?

Paige now understands when daddy is home and when he isn't home. She starts off the morning by looking for daddy. "DADDY!" in the computer room, "DADDY!" in the bathroom. If she knows he is not home, any noise that sounds like the garage door opening--thunder, airplane--she does this: *gasp*.. wide eyes...walk walk walk to the babygate looking into the foyer... "DADDY? DADDY?" After a minute or 2 she gives up, knowing he isn't home. He is working from home today so she won't leave him alone. (probably working from home since I told him that she constantly looks for him during the day)



Here is another new favourite activity:

Sick

Paige has a cold. Caught it from the two of us, who caught it from the cruise ship (inevitably--when 3000 people are pretty much confined to one place for a week). Now all 3 of us are sick.

Oh well....

Here are some new photos...

New words...

I forgot to mention before, but Paige has been using a new word for the last few weeks..."flowers". But she says "WA wa", or "wa WA". I guess you need top teeth to be able to make an "F" sound. She likes to say "wa wa" while she is in her stroller and we pass flowers, or while she is outside on our front steps. In fact, when we pulled up to our house for the first time as we were driving home from the airport last week, she said a loud "WA WA" as she saw the flowers on our front steps.

She also knows "Paige, where's your head?"-- she puts both hands on her head for this one. I'm trying to teach her other things too-- nose, mouth, etc.

She also seems to know puppy, since i asked her where the puppy was and she went and got her stuffed puppy.

12 month shots

Poor little Paigey. It was that time again for the dreaded (for mommy) shots. Paige was a very brave girl and only cried a bit. She was having a rough day to begin with since her top right incisor is making its way down. I tried to take a picture of the bandaid on her arm since the nurse put a heart sticker on it, but she was not happy when we got home. You can see it poking out from under her sleeve.

Here are her stats:

height: 28 inches

weight: 22lbs

This puts her in between the 50th and 75th percentile for weight, and in the 25th percentile for height. Short and stocky.

Our Cruise

Another carnival ship at Miami Port (looks the same as ours)

This is our ship: Carnival Triumph

Our stateroom: 8237 Balcony

The main lobby from above The Rome Lounge where all of the big shows were every night at 10:30
Formal night #1

A casual lunch in the Paris dining room
A $15 drink!! Woops!
In Cozumel we started the morning off by going Parasailing.

In the afternoon in Cozumel we took a Twister Boat ( 65mph, and then spins in 360degree turns on the water--fun) to Isla Pasion which was a tiny island with a bar/buffet on it. We were able to relax and enjoy the view, and swim in the crystal clear water.

Formal night #2

In Grand Cayman, we took the Allura Catamaran to Stingray City. Breathtaking views on the ride over. the stingrays were actually quite cute once you got over the initial fear.



Our 3rd stop was in Ocho Rios Jamaica, where we went to a garden and then Dunn's River Falls. We weren't able to bring our camera to the falls since it would have been ruined, but picture us + hundreds of other people forming human chains trekking up the very dangerous falls + me apparently babysitting small child who is too short to climb who needs me to yank her up all of the steep slopes. It was a must do while in Jamaica, but not the most exciting thing on our trip. Anyway, i think we have about 495 more pictures, so obviously, I just picked out a few. The vacation was unbelievable, I would highly recommend cruising. We loved how you get to feel right at home on the ship. You can wander down the hall and have a fancy meal, wander off to have a coffee at the cafe, or go see an hour long show in the huge lounge, all while being 5 minutes from your room. Then the port days were fun for a change in routine, yet you can enter and exit the ship as often as you like. I can't wait to go on the next cruise--Mediterranean here we come!

0h--and Paige was very well behaved apparently. ;) Of course we missed her, but we were so busy and having so much fun that we were able to enjoy our trip, but also enjoy going home to see her. She looked bigger than I remembered. When we first saw her at the airport she couldn't stop staring at us--as if she was trying to work everything out in her mind--"hey...wait a minute..."

How much we've grown.....

Birth Day:

Birthday:

It's unbelievable that when Paige was born we didn't know her at all. We loved her because we had a special bond with her, but she was a complete stranger. We didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into, and what the months leading up to this moment would be like. We didn't know it would take 9 months for her to sleep through the night, or that she would scream instead of nap when she was tired, or that she would go through a phase where she would scream instead of eat. We also didn't know that she would roll over early, and crawl early, and start saying hi at 8 months. We didn't know she would love the water, and stuffed animals, and puppies and cats. We didn't know that the sound of her laugh sometimes makes you want to cry. The fact that she would one day take hesitant steps across the floor at 10 months was a mystery to us. We didn't know that every morning she would stand up and smile and sway back and forth in her crib when we went to say good morning. We didn't know how lucky we were to have the most perfect little girl in the world.

This is the best job in the world.