a little tea party for our little lady

Autumn's first birthday party was amazing! So many of our family and friends helped us to celebrate her first big year and I think everyone enjoyed the tea and plentiful snacks that we had laid out. Our friend Kelsey is a pastry chef and she made an incredible cake for the occasion. My only requests were that it be relatively nutritious and that it be fun. She made us a chocolate black bean owl cake and made it entirely organic. We love you, Kelso! It was delicious. My mom flew in from Toronto for the party and was a HUGE help in the kitchen and with getting decorations up on schedule and for helping to keep the squish machine occupied while Teddy and I got ourselves ready for show time. We actually even managed to sneak in a little Saturday night date to the hockey game to see our friend Brad kick the butts of the Vancouver Canucks. Exciting weekend! I even randomly met the dude from The Notebook--Not Ryan Gosling...The other guy. Hahaha! Back on track---The Party---It was awesome! So many good people, lots of good eats and Squish cleaned up! I have been wanting to collect these animals for Squish and mentioned it to a few friends...She got so many and they're SO AMAZING! The blue whale and the donkey are my personal favourites. She also got a Melissa and Doug band in a box, which was a serious crowd pleaser and Autumn has been using her instruments to make plenty of noise all week :) Huge HUGE HUGGGGEEE thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us. We are so grateful to have so many loving and generous friends and family members. It was wonderful to see all of your faces. We love you!

I'm sorry it has taken me all week to get these pictures organized on my computer, but here is what you came to see...

Busy Squish wanting to help with set-up

All ready for the party!

Autumn and Grandma

This dress actually inspired the tea party! Thanks Rachel and Lee!

Autumn and Grandpa

A big sloppy kiss for Daddy

Really not sold on the pointy hat

So happy to spend some time with Nana

Beautiful Cake!

A house full of friends.

Autumn and her brunkles

Cake face loves chocolate

We love Holztiger animals!

Look at that beautiful whale!! and the skunk is super cute too!

Lovely Heather and Royal

Brunkles

<3

Spoiled Squish

Auntie Jody

Tanis and Memphis

Karina and Ryker

I don't know what I would do without these people.

The nana

The Nana and the Daddy

Auntie Mai and her adorable Baby Bump

Autumn LOVES baby Billy. So cute!

Autumn and her first pals.

Ryker, Squish, Memphis <3

Again, thank you to all of our friends and family for the love, well-wishes and support over the last year. We couldn't have done it without you. You've all helped to make Squish the happy, affectionate and fun little girl that she is. xoxox

Happy Birthday Squishy Baby Squirrel

Happy First Birthday, Autumn Elizabeth! This has been the greatest and most important year of our lives so far. You are such a sweet, happy and fun little baby and we can't wait to watch you grow into a sweet, happy and fun little toddler. Mama and Daddy love you to the moon and back, little squish. xoxox

A few of my favourite pictures...

Another lovely weekend on the best coast

It was so lovely out yesterday so we decided to pack up the hounds and the squirrel and hit the beach to soak up a few rays. Yes, it was freezing and windy but in these parts, we take what we can get when the sun is out during the winter months. So off to the beach we went. We have been basset-hound-sitting for a sick friend for the last few days so Homer joined Elliott for a romp in the sand. Good times were had by all of us.

A little less wise

So I went in for my first post-baby dental check up and left the appointment two wisdom teeth lighter. I have to go back in a couple of weeks and have the last two extracted as well. I really should have done this years ago, but was able to repeatedly convince myself that I could postpone the procedure. Man, it sure hurts! Though I have been diligent with my rinsing and eating soft foods so I haven't had any issues with infection or swelling or anything...Thank goodness for that, as in typical Squish form, she decided that she was going to go entirely off of her routine after my little surgery...Waking up in the middle of the night with a huge poopy diaper, going on nap strike, etc. She seems to be back to her old self today though. She slept from 7:30-6 poop free and without a peep and is now talking herself back to sleep in her crib. She has just figured out that she can easily stand up in there so her new trick is to stand up and stare at the door waiting for someone to come and get her in the morning. I sometimes peek in the video monitor and she just looks so tragic! Poor little squish. At least she doesn't typically get super worked up in her bed. I'm glad that she is comfortable in her crib and that she knows we are close by and I thank my lucky stars that she was successfully sleep trained before she figured out that she can pull herself up in there. PHEW!

So in just over a week, my Squish will be one year old. She has already kissed two boys and has been on a plane over a dozen times. She can crawl and wall-walk and she clapped her hands for the first time two days ago. Impressive little squirrel.

Here is a little video of my girl with her pal Royal from yesterday. I was trying to get them to smooch for the camera but they wouldn't cooperate. Haha!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is Autumn's Dad's least favourite holiday. To spite Saint Valentine's Day, Teddy brought us home a lovely potted tulip last week. haha! Anyway, Autumn celebrated her first Valentine's Day with a cute new outfit from her Nana and a brand new tooth--her 7th! She was restless and irritable last night so we weren't shocked to find a brand new pearly white poking through her gums this morning. Anyway, hope you're all being spoiled and loved today. Kiss kiss!

Autumn started crawling on Feb 9th!!

All my single ladies...

So some of you may know and others may not but we had a bit of a family medical situation a few weeks ago. All is well now and things are on the mend but Teddy has spent the last two weeks taking care of his dad in Victoria so Squish and I have been hanging on our own (with Elliott of course) for nearly two weeks. These couple of weeks have taught me a little bit about what it must be like for my single mama pals... No, "Hey, can you hold her for a sec?" or "I need some solo time, can you hit the park with baby and pooch?" At least in Teddy's absence, I have still had moral support over the phone and via skype but it's definitely not easy going it alone. I had a conversation awhile back with a single girlfriend who thought she might like to get knocked up and do the whole single mom  thing voluntarily. She said the company would be nice and she would have the opportunity to share her life with somebody special...A tiny little somebody. I thought she was courageous and super ambitious then as I was in the throws of new mamahood with tons of night feedings and the whole nine. I don't know how I would have gotten through those times without the support of my hunk of a man to make me a smoothie every morning and tell me that I'm doing a good job...To do a few little midnight bum changes and cuddle her majesty while I ran a comb through my hair...Now, with a baby who is super busy learning all kinds of new tricks, about to walk, getting into everything possible, I have an even harder time imagining myself doing this whole mama thing on my own. I have a really laid back little girl and I'm super lucky for that but she certainly has her moments and my man is always there to lend a hand, give mama a break, whatever we need. I am grateful.

Squish and I did have a lot of fun though these last two weeks. We are successfully night weened and are working on nap training for when I have to head back to work. Autumn was a good napper until she was about 9 months when she decided that she would put up a fight whenever nap time hit. We've powered through the last two weeks with a bit of tough love and so far my girl has been a super champ. She has slept from 8-8 the last five nights consecutively. YAY! Yesterday, she took both of her naps with only five minutes of fussing at the start and today's morning nap was the same. Goooooood times!

The downfall of night weening is that my milk supply isn't a plentiful as it always has been, which is sad for me because it means my girl is growing up. I still plan to nurse well past a year...At this point, it's hard to imagine myself not nursing.

In cute news, Autumn had her first kiss yesterday. Liz and Arlo came over for brekkie and Squish decided to plant a big wet one on her beau while they shared some space at the coffee table. SO CUTE! Here are a few little pictures of Autumn and her man:

We also had a nice visit with Kelsey who is always full of good yogi energy and positive vibes. She's a good egg. Here she is posing with Squish:

Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend. I'll sign off here. Squish and I are waiting for Teddy to get home! Excitement!! xox

Little Comedian

Autumn seems to get more personality by the day. I guess this is a pretty typical thing with babies and pretty typical as well for parents to think that their baby is brilliant and totally unique. haha Anyway, Squish is both brilliant and unique! ;) She has now mastered furniture and wall walking and can stand on her own without help or support for a good 30 seconds or so. She also can pull herself up to standing from the floor and can make her way in an army crawl from one end of our home to the other. She can also open and close the fridge. Not so thrilled about that one...
Her latest talent is feeding the dog out of her hand from her high chair while laughing like a total maniac as Elliott licks her sticky little fingers clean. I'm not sure who needs to be trained here...Baby or beast? I try not to laugh, but it's really difficult. So that's where we are right now. She'll be a whole year old in just over a month and she has come so unbelievably far. From wrinkly, fuzzy little preemie to big, pudgy one year old. Insane. So many more adventures ahead, I can't wait.

My sister sent this picture the other day and it made my heart stop for a quick second.

Look at those wrinkly little elbows!!!!!!! She was so big compared to the other NICU babies at the time and I really struggled with grasping the fact that she was pretty underdeveloped at two months early. Looking at this picture now, I definitely see a little preemie. Though, it's highly possible that any new born would look like a preemie at this stage compared to my tank of a baby. Autumn is now five times the size she was when we brought her home from BC Children's.

Here is a recent picture of the little piglet showing just how much of a ham she really is. Love her too much. 

We are really looking forward to celebrating the first year of our girl's special little life with our friends and family. I've been planning and plotting away like a crazy person. It's gonna be pretty great!! Stay tuned for details :) Ciao for now!