The Naked Chef

Micah has been so excited about Christmas this year. The lights, the decorations, the treats... He's been "helping" with a lot of Christmas baking this last week - some with Grandma and some with me. I got a classic picture of him the other morning as he was helping me make cookies:


We also made sugar cookies at Auntie Rosanna's on Saturday night...



Micah inspecting Grandma & Grandpa's tree from underneath. I think he was remembering his Christmas tree adventure with Uncle Nathan last year (you can see pictures if you click here and scroll down the page)...


Keziah has finally cut another tooth - not surprising after how cranky she's been this week. Her top right is poking through and the top left seems like it's close behind.



She gets such big tears when she cries!


We tried to get some footage of Keziah walking this afternoon. She's been venturing out on her feet more and more in the last couple of days, taking about 8 steps at a time. Here are two videos of her on the go:



This one is funny. She's so excited to get to the toy that her body gets a little ahead of her feet :) (Apologies for my annoying laughter in the background...)

Elfin' Around

Well, 2nd post in one day, but you have to check out our elf family. Thanks Janelle for the great idea :)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1188025223

Baby Steps

Keziah has started taking little steps over the last week. She hasn't adapted to this new mode of transport as quickly as Micah did, but she loves the praise and attention she gets when she successfully takes 3 or 4 steps. There are no pictures of this yet - it's a little hard to hold the camera and be ready to catch her at the same time :) But we'll try to get a video in the next few days.

Micah discovered a fun use for his toy basket yesterday...

Keziah's tear-filled eyes after Micah tried to put her in the basket.

Last night before supper the clouds cleared for a moment and we saw a rare December sunset.

The snow is entirely gone now and the backyard is a soggy sponge. At least with the snow we could play outside, but this is much too wet. I finally went for a walk this morning even though it was raining. If we waited for the rain to stop, we would never get outside!

Snowy Days

Keziah discovering the snow from inside the warm house.

Micah discovering the snow up close and personal.

Making footprints.

Having fun with Mom.

Our little snowperson.

Now it is pouring outside and the snow is melting fast!

Keziah's 1st Birthday

Here are the pictures from the party we had for Keziah on her birthday. It was mostly the Toews family, but our friends Jeremy & Christina were able to join us as well. Times like this make me wish my family was closer so that they could be in on the celebration too!

We ordered pizza and I made cupcakes using the family favourite banana cake recipe. I dyed the cream cheese icing pink and purple and used marshmallows to make cute little flowers for on top. It worked pretty well! I found some perfect "birthday princess" balloons and then the party was ready!


The birthday girl:

Here is Keziah's first experience with an entire cupcake all to herself. I like how tentative she is with the icing at first and then how her fingers start digging in a little faster once she has a few good tastes :)

She picked the whole thing up shortly after and thoroughly enjoyed it:

Then it was present time. Micah was very willing to help with this part. Thanks Granny & Grandpa Harder for the fun piggy bank!

Here is Keziah trying on her new vest from Uncle Doug & Auntie Elissa. We may have to teach her to love it :) And also watching her new glow-worm from Grandma & Grandpa Toews.



As you can see, Micah was a bit of a present-hog:


Jeremy got a little snuggle with the birthday girl while she drank her milk:

Here is Keziah the morning after. She has been SO happy the last few days and I've concluded that she must just LOVE being 1!

Missing Uncle Nate

November 22, 2006

One

Happy Birthday Keziah!

I still feel shocked that Keziah is a year old already. She's my baby! But the calendar doesn't lie... One year ago today I was pacing the hospital halls waiting for my induction to "kick in". It wasn't until the doctor came in to break my water around 8 pm that things started happening. Keziah was born in record time - about 75 minutes later - at 9:15 pm. I can still remember the wonderful and surreal realization that I had a baby girl!

I browsed through the pictures from this past year and pulled out a few favourites from each month of Keziah's first year:

November 2006 - Newborn

December 2006 - 1 month

January 2007 - 2 months

February 2007 - 3 months

March 2007 - 4 Months

April 2007 - 5 months

May 2007 - 6 months

June 2007 - 7 months

July 2007 - 8 months

August 2007 - 9 months

September 2007 - 10 months

October 2007 - 11 months



November 2007 - 1 year!

Keziah is pretty average for her size, resting in the 50th percentile for her weight and 75th for her height. This week she weighed in at 20 lbs, 10 oz and was 30 inches in length. When I looked back to Micah's 12 month stats, he was almost exactly the same: 21 lbs and 30 inches.

Keziah still has only 2 bottom teeth but eats pretty much anything we give her. She'll take gigantic chomps from a banana but always manages to get it all down :) She is a good eater but is recently in the "food-dropping" phase (eat one bite, drop one bite...) and we have to do a pretty good sweep job after every meal. She is down to three cups of milk per day, some in a bottle but most in a sippy cup.

We thought Keziah might be walking or at least taking some steps by her birthday, but it looks like it's not going to happen - unless she decides to do it yet today! She seems quite happy to crawl though, so that's fine with us for now.

Keziah is our serious child who doesn't smile easily for others and has rarely laughed until recently. She loves her big brother even though they seem to be always at each other. Micah's a big tease and Keziah's a little over-dramatic :) Her favourite toys these days are books, blankets, clothes, shoes and pretty much anything that Micah is playing with. She has developed an interest in the Baby Einstein videos and, in our house, they are played daily at 4 pm :)

I feel so blessed to have such a beautiful daughter and look forward to deepening my relationship with her as she continues to grow up before our eyes. My prayer is that she would be both confident and kind-hearted with a love for Jesus and for others. I am excited to see how the coming years will shape her as a person and I pray that God would make me into the mother that she needs.

Happy Birthday Keshnooku, Bunny Bear, K-Diddy, Koo-Koo Bear, etc... :)