Our son.

 I went to pick up a dress from the tailors, and the man who owns it looked at Wrennie and said, "Oh big boy!". I laughed and said, "yep!" And then I took the picture of her (above) and said, "Kenton, look how cute our son is." She is still in that sort of unisex stage. This one Joe t-shirt really throws everyone for a loop though, even when she is wearing her pink helmet. It's like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time, your brain has a hard time with the dark blue on a baby girl even if she has pink on too.

Everything is an opportunity to stand, especially the couch. Look how tight she is trying to hang onto the edge, those fingers are white!

Oh p.s. Wrennie and I are still sick. Kenton ran out to get pizza for us, and Nyquil for me. This is highly unimportant, but I had never had the liquid form of it before. So I took the recommended dosage (I swear) before heading to bed and half and hour later, it was like I was intoxicated and overwhelmingly sleepy. Wrennie had woken up around 11pm and I barely heard it, and when I could hear Kenton trying to soothe her to sleep, I couldn't even lift my head or attempt to open my eyes. That stuff is powerful. I sort of look forward to taking it again tonight...that was a great sleep. :)

A sweater

Not just any sweater, an Adidas sweater!

Cutest ever.

That's all.

Happy Friday

Happy Friday everybody! Okay, that makes me sound happier than I actually feel. I still feel like crap, surrounded by a million Kleenex's, and wishing I was out and about having fun in this amazingly hot weather. An upside is that Wrennie has become one awesome napper again, letting me just sit around and watch 30 Rock or try to nap myself.

My friend Cara is bringing us soup, SOUP. I am excited for that, mostly because she always makes amazing soup and because the last thing I feel like putting energy into is cooking. She is thoughtful, taking pity on my sad state.

My mom also came over yesterday to help me out, let me nap, and watch my show with me. Thanks mom!



Here are a few fun things to check out:

We have been watching a super interesting documentary, Surfwise. A family with 9 kids get in a 24ft camper and surf around the world.

I just bought this cute little space saver for my diaper bag. A stackable food/formula storage container by Innobaby called Packin' Smart.

Some more incredibly beautiful photography by Max Wanger. He did engagement photos for a woman that write one of my favourite blogs, A Cup Of Jo.

For music these days, I really like The Swell Season. I mostly love her voice.

And for you cloth diapering moms, Bumgenius just came out with their new one size diaper, the 4.0 which apparently will ACTUALLY fit your baby to 35 lbs, unlike the 3.0 version that they say does but really no one can believe that. Wrennie is about 22lbs now (still haven't gotten her weighed at 8 months) and those diapers are gettin snug. The diapers also now come in velcro or snaps depending on what you prefer.

Okay, back to the couch to continue my recovery.

Yuck, Gross, Sick.

Wrennie may or may not have caught the cold Kenton was fighting a few days ago. Wherever it came from, it made last night a living...well you know. 

As you can see from the picture, she is not feeling so hot. The poor thing cried throughout the night, hardly sleeping in between. Eventually we brought her into bed with us by 3:30am. We were desperate. And not sure how people manage the whole co-sleeping thing. 

Today Kenton and I are taking turns napping. It's a bit of a bummer. I will succumb to watching more 30 Rock to make myself feel better. 

In the meantime, Wrennie helps with laundry as she starts to feel a bit better:

First, chew on cord.

Discover it's not that tasty.




Sniff diapers to make sure they are clean.

Good job Mom.

8 Months

Sheesh, Wrennie at 8 months old. How did that happen?

She was so teeny not long ago...

Now she is my big sweetie Wren who gives me grown up girl faces for the camera. 

So what's new with Wrennie?

1. Wrennie loves to go swimming. We stick her in this baby floatation thingy and she pushes herself around the baby pool. She also likes to sit back and chew on a rubber fish toy. Either way, if she could have a bottle waiting at the poolside, life would be perfect. 

2. She is strong and can pull herself to standing in her crib and the couch. She will try to do it all the time, and even if she is set down on the floor in the living room, she is always trying to find a chance to practice. It's a good thing she has a helmet because with this new skill! This new skill is also slightly frustrating when nap time comes. We lay her down, and hear 2 seconds of crying, followed by silence. She has either sat up, or stood up and it just hanging out, sucking her soother in the dark. And repeat. Hey moms out there..what did you do about that one??

Sidenote: See how sweetly she stares at the camera for this photo? Or the cute way she turned around on the couch photo? Let me assure you, these photos do not come easily. If I am not saying "Wren-wren! Wrennie! Wren-wren!" a million times to get her to look at me or somewhere in my direction, I am making sneezing noises or singing baby songs to get her attention. And if I am not doing all that, I am trying to get her to sit still. And then I sift through 100 pictures of blurry shots until I find one that is clear, and cute. I seriously don't know how professional photographers do it. Maybe that's why photographing babies isn't a lot of people's forte.

3. She is crawling!! Both Kenton and I get so excited for each new thing she learns. I like that she can go get the toys she wants...unfortunately the things she usually wants are not toys, but hey, it's all a little adventure to her.

4. Her top teeth have both broken through. They are big chompers. She is totally going to take after her parents...prepare for big buckaroos Wrennie. I am not sure why, I think it has something to do with her teeth, but she is really into licking her bottom lip like a little puppy dog. Maybe she can feel the teeth.

5. The helmet. She has reached month 2 of wearing it. As you can see above, her face is looking a lot better. Some of those pictures are from before she started the helmet. I don't know about you, but I see a big difference.

6. Wrennie can wave "hi". It's a little sporadic, but we can usually get her to do it, and it's super cute.

7. She likes books and sitting on the floor emptying her box of them. Actually, she likes emptying a bunch of boxes if you place them around her...we just have to watch where we walk as we might step on Sophie or a hard little block.

8. She is so fun. SO fun. We like to have family time and tickle and roll around with her on our bed. She loves to roll and bury her face in the soft blankets, and crawl up and on us and cuddle.

9. I would tell you how much she weighs and how long she is again, but I haven't taken her quite yet. So check back...I will be taking her this week.

Friday afternoon

I like to read this one blog called A Cup of Jo. Every weekend she has a bunch of links to fun things she has found on the internet, be it pictures, things to buy, other blogs, etc.

I thought it would be a fun idea for this week.

I was just doing my rounds through the different blogs I follow, and today I saw a great bunch of wedding photos from JDS Photography. I don't know what drew me to these particular photos of theirs (I tend to like a lot of their work), but I think  it was the beautiful details they captured from this wedding:

JDS Photography blog- http://blog.james-design.net/?p=920

As I was flipping through their latest work on their blog, I also came across a surprising find! Kenton's cousin Brett and his girlfriend Jenny had photos done as well...and look pretty darn good I think:

http://blog.james-design.net/?p=885

Our friend Amanda Gallant also just shot a wedding a few weekends ago, and borrowed our gold, vintage couch for part of her shoot. The photos look amazing:

AG Photography blog:  http://agphotog.blogspot.com/2010/07/tamara-kendall_20.html


And on a different note- cutest little girl shirt ever- http://www.myrockingwardrobe.com/item_312/Red-Cherry-Pop-Top.htm




Okay, enough. I have to get ready for a birthday party tonight and leave my sicky and baby at home. Happy Birthday Cara!!

Wrennie crawls!

Just about 8 months old, and Wrennie figured out crawling today!

This morning she crawled for the phone on the floor across our rug. Nothing motivates her more like the phone, stereo remote, keys, guitar cases and cell phones. I don't exactly have a picture of her crawling from today...mostly because we were too in awe of the fact that she was actually crawling when the moment arose. We were also too busy grabbing the video camera instead. 

This morning I also ran over to Babies R'Us to pick up a baby gate for the back entry way by our kitchen. We bought a kind that can swing open like a little door so that we don't have to kill ourselves trying to jump over a gate at the top of the stairs. I said it was pretty 'snazzy'. Kenton made fun of me. Oh look, it's our recycling piling up behind the door...what a good spot for it...

Another piece of baby gear came today as well...we ordered Wrennie the Chicco high chair online from Babies R'Us as well. You can't buy this high chair in the Babies R'Us stores for some reason...just online. In case you are wondering what happened to our awesome vintage high chair, I will fill you in. Two things: There was no bar that went between her legs to prevent her sliding out the bottom. The second was that the tray didn't secure properly so it could get pushed right off too. Sucky. If you are the friends that bought it for us and you are reading this- we will talk.

Needless to say, she loves it too, so much that she just sat and played in it for some of the morning. We needed her to hold still while Kenton installed the baby gate. 

Kenton wasn't feeling well today, probably one of those timely summer colds. To give him some quiet for a nap, Wrennie and I went to the park. Since her outfit was all matching today, she requested a photo.  I shouldn't even joke about that, because one day she will be asking me to take a photo of her for a Facebook profile picture.

Here is our little sweetie on her favourite swing. She loves watching the other kids play around her.

Oh yep, toenail colour changed again of course. When I do mine, I do hers. It's our little thing.

And here is Wrennie this evening, getting into her diaper bag. Our lives changed again this morning. The luxury of having her play in one spot while we do things around her has ended...and strangely...I am excited. She is such a big girl, standing up in her crib, crawling, picking up pieces of bread off the table and eating them herself...I can hardly believe it.

Well, I was looking forward to somewhat of an evening to myself. My sicky husband went to bed at 8, hardly able to keep his eyes open. But our baby didn't fall asleep until nearly 9. We tried to put her down at 8 as well, but when we left the room and it was strangely quiet...we went back in to find Wrennie just sitting up in her crib sucking her soother happily. So I brought her back out and we read every kids book we had that had hard pages. Crying it out was the only thing that worked and even then I had to go back in after half an hour of on and off checking on her to finally give her a bottle again and it knocked her out for the night.

 After a day of cleaning, laundry, park-going, reading (I had to finish Nurtureshock, it's due back tomorrow), playing, dinner making, dishes and bath time...and who knows what else in between, I am wiped...and going to head to bed myself, at 9:05pm.

Her bear and a brush

You might think that Wrennie is about to brush her little bear.

The bear and the brush actually have nothing to do with each other in her mind.

The bear was for throwing around, and the brush...for eating.

Standing doesn't get old

Like any skill Wrennie works on, there is no going back once she masters it. For example, standing. She has started, and obviously will not stop.

First, get into position. Grip railing with all my finger strength possible.

Oh shoot, soother falls out. 

C'mon, get back up here soother!

I must go on without soother.

Here I go!

I did it!

How about this cool face mom? Take a picture of that.

Mom, this angle is clearly emphasizing my cheeks.

Gimme that!

A Fun Project

I must have changed out these embroidery hoops a million times with different fabrics over the past couple of years. 

This time I am switching the fabric to match Wrennie's room. I full on stole the idea from Nokomis. It's a great clothing store in Edmonton. Anyway, it's a really cheap decorating idea that is so cute.

I bought the hoops from Michael's, garage sales, wherever you can find them. They aren't expensive.

Then you can use whatever fabric you like. I have a hunch plain old cotton works best...any slippery fabric would just give you a headache to put in. This fabric came from Etsy, an online store where you can find a lot of amazing fabric cheap.

Put it in...

Turn it over...

Trim off the extra fabric...

And nail it up on your wall however you like! I think it's pretty cute.

There you go.