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Sophia's first dance recital

Grandpa reading "Too Many Mittens" to his granddaughters

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teeth in (she's got a total of four now)

teeth out (one gone, another wiggly)

The Adventures of Polo

I've wanted to write a library book of the week post in the style of inchmark's blog for a long time. When it was time to return The Adventures of Polo to the library (we'd renewed it twice already), I knew this was the book I was waiting for.

The Adventures of Polo is a wordless book that takes you on Polo's fantastic journey from his little island home to worlds unknown. He brings along his very helpful backpack that contains items like an umbrella to help him keep his balance on tightropes. He's very prepared.

 The book is full of surprises (what you think is an island becomes a whale) and it's a real page turner.

 Polo eventually leaves Earth and meets some little green guys on the moon. Fortunately, he has his lantern that he can fill with phosphorescent mushrooms so he can find his way through the sublunar tunnels. All in a day's work for Polo.

Personally, I love it when he takes an elevator in a tree and finds a group of monkeys partying on a platform that eventually takes off into the sky. That's my kinda party.

 Happily, all ends well when Polo eventually returns to his idyllic island home.

Sophia loved this book and after we'd "read" it together a few times, I heard her whisper the entire story to herself. The good news is that Regis Faller has illustrated several more Polo books, so we'll be enjoying this series for months!

Halloween 2011

This year we carved Shaun the Sheep pumpkins and Sophie loved how they turned out. Shaun the Sheep is one of her favourite shows and it's great for adults too (especially adults who are kids at heart!). From left to right, we have Shaun the Sheep, little Timmy, Bitzer the dog, and one of the pigs.

I carved Shaun and this is my best attempt at his lopsided smile (it's hard!).

Dean carved Bitzer and the pig. But his real job was ...

 Costume creation! 

Dean made Sophie's entire costume this year and he did a wonderful job! She wanted to be a skeleton, so he made her a custom costume using fabric paint on a black outfit. He drew all the bones himself and then cut the shapes out of freezer paper to create a stencil. Then he painted in the bones with fabric paint. We used the steps from the Freezer Paper Skeleton tutorial on Instructables. It took way longer than anticipated, but the results speak for themselves!

 Ellie was a cow for her first Halloween (thanks to Mom and Dad for the cowbell!). Our poor little cow had a cold and didn't have a great night, but was a trooper during trick-or-treating and slept in the Ergo most of the time.

Sophie and her friend Sophie (the blurry cheeseburger) went trick-or-treating together and lasted for nearly an hour and a half on a windy, chilly night.

For the first time, Nonna and Nonno were in Vancouver to see Sophie on Halloween. It was great!

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The girls with their Dad. Above, Sophia and Dean work on her skeleton costume. Below, a night-time cuddle with Ellie.

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Sophia ready for her first bike ride

Eleanor was fascinated by Aunt Kristi's spinning pumpkin game

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Happy six month birthday, Ellie!

Our little Ellie is half a year old today and I thought I'd give you an update on Ellie at six months. As you can see, drool is a major part of our lives!

All the drooling has shown some results! Ellie's got one tooth (it popped through about a week ago).

 She's started "crawling" but doesn't lift the front half of her body up, so it looks like she's doing downward facing dog (she is a Kitsilano baby, after all!).

She's made some major strides in length and weight since her one month photo shoot. As you can see, she is longer than her baby quilt now and previously she had tons of room to grow! I'll get her weighed soon, but our guesstimates from the old "weigh yourself with and without baby" trick have her at around twenty pounds.

 She's nearly sitting up (prop pillows were used to get this shot), she giggles and coos non-stop, she'll be starting solid food any day now, and she truly lights up our lives.

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At Sarah & Dylan's wedding

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Sometimes you just have to eat dessert first.

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I made a face with my sandwich! (note raisins are glued on with yogurt)

First family of four self-portrait

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Game on!

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Happy Easter!

Twins born four years apart

Sophia, 2007

Eleanor, 2011

You can see why we've been calling Ellie Sophie by accident!

Lots of snoozing going on

I think newborns are a natural sedative. They should be prescribed if you're having trouble sleeping. Ahh...