I [heart] PEI

My mother, my brother's family and our family rented a house together in PEI last week. I have several hundred photos of the trip on my camera, and only one of Amos and Carolyn. Ridiculous how the kids get all the glory. Anyways... here are some highlights of the kids in PEI....

Ben and Gabrielle having a snuggly moment at a local community centre concert.

Ben and Amelia enjoying their surroundings. (Mark and I weren't much better - we took proper advantage of the satellite TV to watch the Tour de France for several hours each morning.)

Still smiling after six consecutive rides on the carousel: Wheee!...

Gabrielle loved the beach and especially the waves: Whoosh!...

Cool shot of cousins "Milly" and G.

Gabrielle digging into the Ruffles after polishing off an Oreo ice cream bar. Daddy was supposed to be supervising...

At the Charlottetown Airport at the end of the week, [semi] relaxed and tanned.

More genetic tendencies

Could Mark's love of everything plaid have carried through to G's chromosomes?

BFFs

Gabrielle has a new Best Friend Forever and her name is Georgia. Gabrielle loves her soooooo much, she tries to squeeze the stuffing out of her.

Macdonald girls with G

I keep asking Erin to take photos of herself and Gabrielle while they're out and about. Going through the photos on the camera today, this was the closest one I could find...

OK, just kidding, but I did think it was hilarious that Meaghan somehow got a photo of herself and Gigi onto our camera. I love that she still hangs out with her on occasion, and talks to her on the phone most days. 

Here's the real deal - the one and only recent photo of Erin with Gabrielle. As we will be transitioning to a daycare centre in two weeks, this may be the last shot of Erin for awhile. I sincerely hope we stay in touch with the Macdonald clan after Gabrielle moves on to daycare. Put early January in your calendars for G's second birthday party - you're all invited...

Bluesfest

Bluesfest is, in my opinion, the single best thing about Ottawa. Forget the Canal or the Parliament buildings or anything like that - Bluesfest is where it's really at, and I don't like blues, so you know it's got to be good. Anyways, as per our newest family tradition, we all went down on the weekend to check out the scene. 

Here are Mark and Gabrielle taking a self-portrait in front of some random hillbilly band. I mostly love how similar they look, squinting into the camera.

Me and my lady.

And here's a good sign: my friend and work colleague Nicola came by to visit and after only a couple of minutes, Gabrielle jumped right into her arms. Could this be the easing of her stranger anxiety?

Future Solid Gold dancer?

And featuring Mr. Matthew Macdonald on guitar.

Helping out around the house

I guess this is a fairly common toddler phase, but Gabrielle is very into being helpful right now. She always wants to help me sweep and toss the garbage into the can, but laundry is where her real passion lies. Here she is "helping" Erin load the washing machine - one piece of clothing at a time...

Happy Canada Day! (and happy birthday Grandad)

Mark and I have (temporarily?) left behind our past Canada Day debaucheries and have firmly joined the family crowd. Here we are, heading out to join the festivities. This was G's first time in the backpack since last fall. We were worried that: a) she wouldn't enjoy it; and b) that the extra 15 pounds she now weighs would be too much to carry. Luckily, things worked out on both fronts, although Mark now has strap marks permanently embedded in his shoulders.

In front of the Rideau Centre, with thousands of Canadian revellers in the background.

Enjoying a mother-daughter ipod moment. Technology really does bring people closer together.

The skies opened up and we sat under a tree, waiting for the downpour to stop. We broke open the french fries we were all snacking on and G went at them. She sat under this tree, mowing down french fries, getting soaking wet, while people passing by looked at her with amazement and pity...

Neigh!

Erin told me that Gabrielle spends alot of time on the rocking horse at playgroup, so I combed the usedottawa ads and found a nice horse for cheap. So far, she doesn't ride it very much, but she acknowledges and "neighs" at him all the time. 

She is also modelling a little jumpsuit I made for her. It's very "Sound of Music" in my opinion - I find it looks like drapes turned into clothes.

At the beach

We took a little family outing to the Westboro beach a few weeks back with Angie, Derek, Logan and their newest family addition.

The water was absolutely freezing, but G didn't seem to mind. She ended up going in up to her shoulders, at Mark's coaxing.

Afterwards, we hung out on the grass with the littlest Stibbard. Gabrielle really wanted to pick him up - Mark had to keep intervening to protect the little one from Gabrielle's *love*.

The big test

At Gabrielle's 15 month doctor's appointment awhile back, the doctor went through a list of the usual milestones that she would have expected Gabrielle to have hit, including whether Gabrielle can stack blocks. Mark realized he had never seen her stack blocks, and so we decided to buy her a set, just to make sure.

Yup, she can. 

And she can say "blocks" too. 

This one's for Katharine

22 weeks 

At the park

My mom and her friend Leonard drove up for a visit a couple of weeks ago, and so we decided to break up the eating with a trip to the park. Gabrielle is still pretty nervous around water features - her brow was furrowed throughout. 

She likes this little bouncy fake see-saw thing.

I'm on the other side of the see-saw, except it has a giant spring in the middle, so no more getting off the see-saw with the other person high in the air. Kids are so sheltered these days.

Don't think my mom didn't enjoy herself too. She got herself up as high as the swing would go. Are you sure you're 71??

Faces of G

Family self-portrait

Change of baby

I know it looks like the same old Gabrielle, boldly eating whatever is in front of her, this time California Roll sushi. But looks can be deceiving...

Suddenly, it's "yuck!" all the time. This piece of sushi, along with the rest of her meal, was pushed onto the floor accompanied by her yelling "yuck yuck yuck!" at high volume. I'm sure the restaurant owners appreciated it.

Anyways, I'm praying her newfound pickiness is shortlived. Seriously, praying.

Change of title

Sorry for the long delay since my last posting - it's truly been a month of activity. First we put our condo up for sale, then 3 days later we took it down, due to the upcoming levying of a "special assessment." At the same time, I got some gastro bug, as did Gabrielle. Work has been nuts for me, and Meaghan turned into Erin (although that was easily the least stressful part of the last few weeks) so all in all, a crazy few weeks. 

Those with a sharp eye will notice we have changed the name of the blog (see above). Near the end of October, Little Boy Draper will arrive into the world. That was also part of the craziness of the last few weeks - I ended up having amnio and found out the next day that: 1) Baby Boy is fine; and 2) Baby Boy is a Boy!

And making his video debut on the Babies Draperes blog:

SPF 50

Gabrielle patient while being slathered down by her pals Katie and Erin Macdonald, sisters of Meaghan. Erin (on the right) is going to be taking over as Gabrielle's nanny once Meaghan "retires" on May 22. We're pretty lucky to have happened upon this big family with endless numbers of excellent caregivers for Gabrielle...

Society girls out on the town

"... so I was telling him, there's no way I'm going to Lauterdale again this year...."

"Call me... we totally have to do lunch!"

"No pictures, please."

Glam squad.

Those music lessons have really paid off

(in case you're wondering, they're sharing a pair of iPod earbuds)

Family time at the park

First of all, sorry for the delay in posting - we've been preoccupied with getting the condo ready to put on the market, so blogging has fallen by the wayside. Not that G hasn't been up to all kinds of adventures. On Easter weekend, we hitched up the Chariot to the bikes and pulled Gabrielle all over town, including to Stanley Park, which we just discovered not far from our house. Gabrielle is seriously into animals these days, and loves "woofing" at passing dogs. 

This little one was just her size. Unfortunately, right after this photo was taken, she tried to choke it. A love squeeze.

After the dogs got sick of her, we checked out the various cool apparatus in the playground. This is a still picture, but Gabrielle was rocking back and forth on this thing for quite a while. But the real fun began once she got on the swings...

Happy Easter

Mark terrorizes Gabrielle with the huge, fabulous "Passover" duck Meaghan gave to Gabrielle.

But Gabrielle eventually was victorious...

New shoes with a surprise ending

Gabrielle loves these new squeaker shoes we bought her. She got a bit over-enthusiastic showing them off.

Just like the Queen of England...

...carrying a purse, but no one knows why...

Our multi-media artist

I think of it as a post-feminist response to Marcel Duchamp's seminal work: Untitled (urinal). Working title: silver eye pencil on toilet seat.