Aurora Wells

While Daddy was away on a business trip in Asia, Aurora and I went to stay with Grandma Shaun and Grandpa Bill in Armstrong. We took an early morning flight to Kelowna on Monday the 20th, and G&G picked us up at the airport, about an hour from their house. We had a wonderful time, despite some sleep disturbances, and Grandma and Aurora got on like a house afire.

The autumn colours in their neighbourhood made going out for walks such a pleasure, especially since there was almost no rain while we were there, and the temperatures were cool but nice – sweater weather!

Going for a walk on Lockhart Crescent to visit the nearby farms. When she’s between two people, Aurora likes to go 1-2-3 Swing!

Look! Goats!

Too bad the goats didn’t feel the same way about us. They scurried away pretty quick when we approached.

A pensive moment, looking at a great big horse. (Thanks to the Virginia Zats for the nice, warm jacket).

When we were indoors, we had fun exploring G&G’s house, including the recycling bag. You never know how much fun free stuff is until you have a kid.

We drove into town a couple of times, and discovered the cool kids section at the Armstrong Public Library. What a great storytelling chair! I think Aurora is a little overwhelmed by all the company.

Aurora was excited to meet the big brown bear, just like in our bedtime stories, Bear Snores On and Bear Wants More. She appears to have won another wrestling match!

On Friday we flew home and met Daddy at the airport, coming home from Japan. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful visit (and putting up with the night wakings). We’ll see you again at Christmas!

Aurora had a fantastic birthday celebration this year. Grandma Gail and Grandpa Larry came up from California to visit for a whole week, and Uncle Steve came for a long weekend, and to celebrate his birthday, too. Grandma Shaun and Grandpa Bill drove in from Armstrong, and stayed for Thanksgiving, and Uncle Jim, Aunt Lori, and Cousin Kayden came for Aurora’s party. Rounding out the attendees were Andrew-Bruce (who came all the way from the basement) and Cousin Valerie & her new beau (or at least new to us), Ryan.

Aurora got some help from Grandma Gail on the slide at the park near our house, and here she models the adorably fuzzy outfit Aunt Ashleigh and Uncle David sent to keep her warm in our cold Canadian climate (she loves stroking the pink bow on the teddy bear’s ear when she wears it):

We enjoyed panini sandwiches all weekend thanks to the loan from Leanne, across the street, of her panini maker. But let’s face it, a baby’s first birthday is all about watching her try her first piece of cake.

And the verdict? Yeah, cake is pretty good, but ice cream? That’s where it’s really at! When my brother David was little, he was a little bit nuts about ice cream, with resounding cries of “I-Peam! I-Peam!” whenever the dessert in question came into view.

Here Aurora is trying to suck every last molecule of ice cream from the little bowl it was served in. She may share her uncle’s predilection for the cold, creamy sweetness of that particular treat. Somewhere in my mind I harbored the fear that once she had cake and ice cream on her birthday that that would be it for all other foods. I thought that she would no longer be willing to eat anything nutritious, ever again. Fortunately, my fears were put to rest when scarcely an hour later, she ate a whole serving of peas, carrots and corn. And in fact, the next day her Thanksgiving dinner was quite healthy, and went down without much fuss at all.

It was wonderful to share my favourite holiday with so much family, all sitting around the table with Aurora. Happy Thanksgiving!

Aurora wasn’t the only kid turning one this month. Our whole prenatal class had birthdays within about a month of each other, so we threw ourselves one big party for all six kids. Thanks so much to Signi and Ken for hosting it at their house.

Magnus has a fabulous play room for himself and his cousin Finn, who is just a couple of months older. Right next to the kitchen, with a washable cushy play mat wall-to-wall, it’s the perfect place to have a rompin’ good time. After months of sleep training at home and a lot less socializing, Aurora’s not eager to let go of Mommy and Daddy when lots of people are around, so she clung to Daddy for most of the first hour.

Ryan and Kalan get engrossed in the Whirly-Twirly Garden, which was indeed mesmerizing, even to us adults.

Quinn sticks close to Mommy Lu for a minute while he sizes up the other partygoers.

“Aargh! Get this hat offa me! You know I hate hats!”

Signi shows Magnus his new stacking shapes toy. Awesome!

Aurora is very happy with her cool new books; The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, and Red Fish, Blue Fish, Old Fish, New Fish, a bath book adapted from Dr. Seuss’s classic.

Hilary, Peter, Robyn, Kalan, and Shawne (with Ryan, out of frame) enjoying their new books and toys together.

I thought it was hard to get them all together for a picture when they couldn’t sit up straight, but it’s even harder when they can crawl away! Here’s Peter, Magnus, Ryan, Quinn, Aurora and Kalan at one year old. For reference, here’s the original picture from last November, with Peter and Magnus in the middle (age order):

It’s been a long month without Julio, but we’re back, and back in blogging business. Some things that have changed:

1. Aurora is one year old (see previous post)
2. She took her first steps
3. Mommy got a haircut
4. We visited with lots of family at Thanksgiving
5. Aurora and Mommy went to Armstrong for five days while Daddy was in Asia
6. Sleep training is not working so well at night anymore

Some things that have stayed the same:

1. We’re still nursing 5x a day because somebody doesn’t like to drink milk from a cup
2. Nap training is a frustrating exercise in how long Aurora can scream and how long Mommy can stand listening to it
3. Aurora is still as gorgeous and charming as ever (albeit with slightly longer hair)
4. She’s babbling quite a bit but hasn’t settled down to use one word for one thing yet – it’s still kind of random

If I seem a little crabby it’s because I only got about six hours sleep last night and Aurora’s screaming all the way through her morning nap. I’m beginning to wonder whether it was a good idea to breed together the Nestor and Wells traits of stubbornness and willfullness.

I’ve got photos, photos, and more photos to share. In fact, it took me two days to load and organize them all. Well, two days of that plus taking care of Aurora, doing laundry, food shopping, cleaning up, catching up with Pushing Daisies and Smallville, etc.

For a start, Junkyard Wars was on September 26, 27, and 28. The competition this year was to build a “Junk Orchestra” which could play a number of tunes without human intervention. Daddy’s team, the Organ Grinders, came in second place, losing by a hair to another organ team whose name is a bit too raunchy to mention on a family blog.

The winning team had a cool xylophone made of pipes in addition to their pipe organ and rather bombastic flame-throwing percussion, which shot fire several feet into the air. A bit showy, don’t you think?

Team Joe, in this year’s incarnation as Joey and the Junkyard Catz, also had a showy finish as their entire machine self-destructed.

Daddy’s team’s junk orchestra included a 2-octave organ, a horn section (made of, you guessed it – car horns) and a few drums for percussion. Although sadly out of tune, it performed a rousing rendition of the Raiders March from Indiana Jones, as well as the 2001 theme, Hockey Night in Canada, and other timeless hits.

Our team: Tan, André, Brian, Alex, Owen, Bruce, and Henry in the back row, Selena, Hardy, and Ram in front. Aurora and Sam thrown in to increase the appeal of the photo for you baby-loving types.

Since Selena and Alex were both involved in the competition, Barrett’s grandma set up a little home-away-from-home for him out by the railroad tracks for three days. Here Aurora visits him in his pack’n'play.

Well, it’s been an hour, and Aurora shows no signs of ceasing her vehement objections to the concept of napping, so I’d better continue this post another time.

Stay tuned for more! Birthday, Thanksgiving & Travel coming soon!

Aurora and I were talking today about how much we miss Daddy, although he’s only been away for two days so far (he’s on a business trip to Asia). Aurora misses how much fun he is in general, how he’s always willing and eager to devote his whole attention to her, and how he crawls all over the floor with her and cries, “Body check!” as he bumps into her against the door frames and walls (it sounds weird but it’s actually totally cute and she loves it). I miss their laughter together, and two-sided hugs, as well as more practical things, like showers and grownup talk and somebody else to help me with dishes. We’re heading off to visit G&G W. tomorrow, so hopefully the frequency of the Bloodcurdling Scream of Terror* will decrease once she has the full attention of three adults instead of just one.

I also miss Julio because he’s my connection with the rest of the world. Right now I’m borrowing Bruce’s junk laptop, which is really a desktop because it cannot be moved from place to place without risking malfunction. I should be getting Julio back next Saturday (crossing fingers here).

* The Bloodcurdling Scream of Terror (BSoT) is the scream that launches a parent from a deep sleep all the way out of their bed, out the door, down the hall, and into the child’s room, and before they can form any conscious thought they are already holding the child that made the noise. This happened three times last night, so what the heck is up with that? Nightmares? Is there anything I can do to prevent it? The sleep training is completely out the window because there is no way in hell I can NOT pick her up when she’s letting out the BSoT. It’s like Westley’s scream when he lost 50 years on The Machine and Buttercup is marrying Prince Humperdinck, but if I pick her up it goes away, so what? I’m supposed to just let her cry it out?

This morning at 5:30 a.m. Brian and I were awake, lying in bed, thinking about where we were a year ago. And what we were doing. Relishing the relief of an epidural, to be exact, in a posh birthing room at BC Women’s Hospital. We had no idea who, exactly, Aurora was, nor even if we were having a girl or a boy. I had some idea that she was a tiny bundle of energy, and I’d nicknamed her “Bruce” after the shark in Jaws, due to her tendency to thrash around so much inutero. We hardly dared hope that we’d get a little girl as lovely and lively as the sweet munchkin that arrived at 10:19 a.m. one year ago today.

When Aurora is happy, she lets the whole world know. She squeals with delight when she sees another child or a doggie; she howls with laughter when she’s on the swing or playing with Daddy; her mouth gapes open and takes up half her face, like a muppet, when she’s in awe of any new delight. She’s constantly in motion – we call her “industrious” because she can never just sit quietly. She rearranges the VHS tapes (shouldn’t some of them go in the laundry basket?), reorganizes the recycling box, adjusts the tuning (and volume – ouch!) on the stereo, and inspects the workings of every new object she can get her hands on. We try not to forbid her too much, because she’s learning so much about the world around her. Yes, there’s some gratuitous screaming going on, but we’re hoping that someday, when she learns how to talk, she’ll be better equipped to deal with her frustration.

We’ve got a lot of family visiting this weekend, for a dual birthday (hers and Uncle Steve’s) as well as Canadian Thanksgiving. It’s unfortunate that Aurora, Mommy and Daddy are all sick with a head cold, but c’est la vie. Hopefully we’ll keep the germ-spreading to a bare minimum.

I’m too sick and tired to post pictures right now (I should already be in bed), but as soon as my computer is back from the shop, you’ll be the first to see all of our exciting adventures – Junkyard Wars, the Prenatal Pals’ 1st Birthday Bash, the big Birthday/Thanksgiving weekend, and whatever else interesting happens. Stay posted – we’ll be back in about a week!