gimme five

Happy 10 months little Big Guy!

we headed out to the Toddler Gym for an hour today. Ezekiel really developed his ball throwing abilities while visiting Grammy and Grandpa. he absolutely LOVES throwing a ball and he has really good aim too!

diedre wore her tiara for a fun run time

getting a basket

ezekiel really enjoyed the hula hoop today

wow! he sees every type of ball here!

at 10 months ezekiel has said a handful of words: dada, daddy, dahdah (for diedre), get that, good job, mama (he said it on the plane while i was in the restroom, the lady across the aisle confirmed it "oh ya, he totally said it!")
he can furniture walk and is pretty steady on his feet. he has let go a few times and stood on his own.
he is very social, adores his family and other kids.
packs a real punch (as he always has) and ouch, he also pulls my hair hard!
he's pretty long, wearing 12 month clothes and weighs just under 20lbs.

we are loving the age he is at, very busy busy all over the place. he and diedre are so good at playing together too.

visit to ontario

travel day one: ezekiel playing with toys at the calgary airport

some friends from San Mateo, CA stopped in for a quick visit before they headed home from a 2 week vacation near derek's parent's house!

ezekiel loved to eat and eat and eat. perhaps he was celebrating the arrival of his fourth tooth!

we took a trip to the free zoo one day

two leaves!

camel

diedre loved the long tube slide there

me & zekeo

diedre and daddy having a blast

cuddles back at home

ezekiel (and all of us) gets a surprise visit from Auntie M (from Van Nuys, CA) who stayed for a week.

diedre and i stop for a nursing break (she has good positioning and she was patting baby's back)

watching a movie

Grammy reads a story

diedre loved her fun auntie M

Family Reunion

we took a detour one day of the reunion to visit Grandma Salmon. she loved ezekiel, who is built just like her son bruce.

us and Grandma Salmon

back at the reunion, ezekiel got lots of attention from the family

Grandpa loves his boy, and his boy sure loved him! he also loves to pull hair!

pretty in pink

a princess in a far-off land...

diedre with one of derek's second cousins. they played really well together. last year diedre was a little too young for emma's liking, but this year diedre's height and royal dancing and rolling-down-hills abilities gave her favor in the eyes of this little princess.

diedre went kayaking with daddy, canoeing with me & grandpa, and again with daddy and i.

a big surprise for Grammy and Grandpa's 35th wedding anniversary (it was May 6th) but we were all together with family and wanted to celebrate.

the whole family together! auntie m's surprise visit and joining us for the reunion was such a blessing and touched Grammy and Grandpa's hearts so much!

the general report:
both kids and derek got really sick a day into our trip. they were all coughing, snotty, and not being themselves (well, ezekiel was okay as far as disposition goes). anyway, it was really sad as a mother to see my daughter being so sick that she was not acting like herself. its kind of embarrassing when she is rude to our family when she gets such a short amount of time with them. we know she loves them and has fun with them, but she was really suffering and acting like such a diva...i really tried to stay on top of discipline, but she just didnt have the energy to obey sometimes...
there were some good times of course, but her sickness really did change her personality for alot of the trip.
derek and i were so happy to have sleep in times while the kids played with Grammy and Grandpa every morning. we also got to get out on a few solo outings to town which were nice too. i got to see one girlfriend who lives in the same town and derek got to catch up with two friends locally.
now we're on the countdown for three months exactly from the day we left until they come to our house for Christmas.

staff picnic at Cultus Lake

diedre throwing rocks near a gorgeous art piece

little zekey and daddy

derek's boss brought his speed boat for us to ride and go wakeboarding, tubing or skiing. here is derek wakeboarding. i tried it too but could not get my body to figure out how to do it, so i opted for waterskiing, a sport i am much more familiar with thanks to summer camp and a few friends who lived on the lake when i was growing up. i got up on the skiis right away and went for a very long trip.

diedre enjoying the speed boat

diedre made a new friend. it only took three hours for the other little girl to acknowledge that diedre was even there.