everything i learned about orchids, i learned from Adaptation

derek bought me a beautiful orchid a few months ago. i let it die. i was so sad about it. its my favorite kind of flower (ever since watching Adaptation) and i had really really wanted one for a long time. so i found one at Superstore, it had two stems with many unopened buds. i tried and tried to nurture it, and so far it has survived. its been a month or so, i have waited patiently as several buds have bloomed. its so gorgeous, i had to share my victory :)


beautiful orchid





so many blossoms

ok, just one more

happy milk smile. this warms my mothering heart...it also makes my heart hurt to think how big my baby is now! but anyway, i just had to share one more. so cute. my sweet baby D

video taped (in the dark--thats why its such poor quality) on march 26 2005.

standing

this video is from yesterday!

thanks so much to my big brother andrew for teaching me how to upload videos onto my blog. (i own the domain name for choice climbing and have been paying hosting for the last few months but have not used it for anything until today!)

how exciting :)

crawling

this video is from october 20 2005

the giggle

this video is from september 14 2005

Diedre's First Valentine's Day

"Be My Valentine Diedre, Love Daddy"


reading her card


opening her gift


kiss from derek


another kiss

Fun Times With Her Ride-On Car

enjoying her car


silly face


standing behind her car. she stood for the first time behind her car on sunday morning and took a few steps.


up and at 'em

We had a fun Valentine's Day. It was very cold out but we went to the park anyway. Diedre is really enjoying crawling around the children's play area and going down the slide.

We all went out for Japanese dinner and then home for a quiet evening in. We are looking forward to when Grammy and Grampa Salmon arrive next week so Derek and I can go on a date!

kitchen time

playing with tupperware


trying to climb into the tupperware, she did, but i didn't get a picture

surprise play date at the park

sharon & her children were at the park when we arrived. her kids were all very eager to help diedre have fun :)


getting pushes from riley


happy recipient of many pushes


inside the mouse mouth with riley


sliding with rahul


on the pony


down the slide with macey


sharon & diedre, i said "i can hold her" and sharon said "oh, i didnt even notice! she seems so light when you're used to holding a 30lb toddler."

AND a big THANK YOU to Auntie M for the great track suit. today was her first time wearing it since its a 12 month outfit that is quite long-legged. thanks :)

i fed myself

farewell ringo!

diedre loves the kitties


this one goes: ringo


this one stays: westley

now, that might seem harsh, but ringo is the toughest cat we've ever met. we have quite the history with him. he was left at our farm house by his previous owner and our housemate said he would keep him. then our housemate went away to work for nearly 2 years!!! so we've assumed responsibility for ringo. he eats alot, but he also is a big growly, hissy jerk to the other pets and although he went through a real lovey dovey stage (after an other animal dislocated his hip, and we paid for the x-rays, and he had to get surgery), he has returned to his natural grumpiness. he has lashed out at diedre twice and cut up the side of her face (pretty close to the eye). so i decided it was time for him to go. i put an ad in craigslist.org and within a week, someone responded who wanted an outdoor cat to catch rats in richmond (yucky) and she came and picked him up today! yay!

i was a little sad so thats why i documented some of his last moments at home. sleeping on our bed (which incidently he had been banished from because of his recent pooping incidents).


multi-tasking


grasping


super cutie pie

aargh

ok, i should have known better, never "celebrate" something that you don't want to change...

ie. diedre's napping.

the day i wrote the celebratory post, she actually had a 3 hour afternoon nap (yay!) HOWEVER, yesterday her morning nap was 30 minutes, awake for 15, asleep for 30 minutes. and her afternoon nap was 1 hour or less maybe...

then TODAY, oh dear, the morning nap was at least 40 minutes late (read: awake) and was probably only 30 minutes of sleeping. so i thought, if she's going to have such a messed up schedule, i will try to get her to have an earlier afternoon nap (1pm rather than 2pm) which i'm waiting to see if it is working or not (so far its been equal time silent and whining).

so now, this has got me thinking maybe she's done with morning naps and just wants and afternoon one, which would probably land closer to lunch time rather than 2pm. just when i thought i had her figured out...

10 more kids!

derek says we can have 10 more kids!

we have the AngelCare monitor which has a sensor pad that detects breathing or lack of it which causes an alarm to sound. well lately its been sounding alot, because diedre is trying out every nook and cranny of her beloved crib. pretty cute, but not so cute in the middle of the night!

cool mohawk

showing off her cool hair. derek dipped the top of diedre's hair into the water (her feet going straight up) and it made a very unique hairstyle.


i have crazy hair

napping

i just have to celebrate diedre's latest sleep, wake, nap patterns:

-she has been going to bed wonderfully at around 7pm lately (even over at the carabins!)
-she wakes up anywhere between 5am (eep) to 6.10am then plays and eats breaky for awhile
-she goes back down for a nap at anywhere between 7am to 8am and sleeps for 2 hours!!!
-then we play for awhile, eat again, then she naps at 2pm til 4pm and is up til bedtime after that.

its been awesome! yay! now i just need to get to bed earlier myself.

break from the rain--to the park!

too busy watching the other kids to smile


crawling up the stairs to the little kids play area (when she can walk, this wil be much more fun for her)


she made it to the top, yikes she looks pretty exhausted! hee hee

dinner at the carabins with the mellengers and us

same story, different angle. the carabins did a wonderful job recording the event too.





just chillaxin'


lookat that belly! so cute


kids want to escape--mostly because they were hungry


enjoying a tasty coaster


ready to eat!! (can you believe this is our old place? they've painted and decorated and done lots of cool things with soft lighting and stuff. it looks awesome)


diedre eating her steak bites (see the tile countertop in the back, that was a carabin touch too).


delicious?


miles, heather & i


miles gets a little help getting into his pjs


so cute, recently pajama'd


the guys & diedre


thats one nice truck you got there miles!


a nice mother-son moment


diedre was helping the mellengers get ready to go, just wants to make sure you got all your cd's here