Yeah cousins!

My sister and her family are visiting for the holidays. It has been super busy but super fun so far...here are a couple photos. Ella is absolutely loving playing with her cousins, and I'm getting a nice break from being the primary source of entertainment.

Reindeer Ella with Auntie Donna

Ella with cousin Katie

Family Christmas photo

We went to a Christmas party on Saturday and took this photo before we left.

Merry Christmas!

Santa and his reindeer

I took Ella to see Santa again on Friday. This time it was a bit more successful and we managed to get a decent photo.

This isn't so bad

A few seconds (seriously, seconds) later, however, it was a different scene.

Changed my mind - this totally sucks

I like to attack my friends

Ella loves to maul other babies. Case in point - molesting her buddy Andrew this morning.

Come here you!

Here are a few older photos of the Maul Monster in action.

Claire gets a paddy whack

Fish hook for Winston

I want mush

Ella's pediatrician told us that now that Ella is nine months old we can give her "real" food (i.e. not pureed food). I tried to give her some bread yesterday - it didn't go so well.

Ho ho ho

Who are you and why do we match?

I took Ella to see Santa today. She didn't love it. She didn't cry, but at the same time she seemed pretty confused by the whole thing. I'll take her again to see if we can get a better photo.

Snow? C'est what?

It snowed for the first time this season in Toronto this morning. There wasn't nearly enough to play in so we just took Ella for a walk so that she could experience Canadian winter for the first time. She seemed perplexed. I think she'll like snow better when there's enough to play in.

Not sure about this snow business. Dad's not digging the snow either. Yes, that's a MOvember mustache on Dad.

Ella on the run

Ella has been able to crawl for about a month now but she only mastered crawling forward in the past week or so. Before that she could only crawl backwards. We wanted her to be Michael Jackson for Halloween because she could moonwalk so well. Unfortunately we couldn't find all the pieces for the costume so she was a butterfly instead (see the first post for a photo).

We are having so much fun with Ella right now. She is at such a great stage. Ella is incredibly curious and gets into EVERYTHING - every little thing amazes her (dogs, music, walls...my freckles) and she in turn amazes us. Just this morning she stood up by herself for the first time. It was pretty special to see. Paul had not left for work yet so he was able to witness it too. I'm not sure what was cuter - seeing Ella stand by herself or seeing Paul get so excited about it.

Our daughter the marshmallow

My mom kindly bought Ella a snowsuit but it's a bit too big for her still. Regardless, it is chilly out today so I put her in it so we could go for a walk with some friends. Puffy puffy.

Ella's new scrunchy smiley face - she started doing this a few days ago

Ella can stand

Well, she can kind of stand. She can stand while holding on to large objects for support.

I need a better idea for Christmas cards

I thought it would be cute to take a photo of Ella in a Santa hat and use it to make Christmas cards. I don't think Ella liked the idea.

Take this stupid hat off me mom

Ella destroys my "set"

 I'll need to get Paul to help me take the photos or come up with an idea for Christmas cards that I can execute solo.

Our Daughter Casper

We received a free photo shoot a few weeks ago from an amateur photographer who needed some photos for her portfolio. The photos recently arrived in the mail and unfortunately they didn't turn out very well - Ella looks like a ghost.

Can you tell the difference?

I should have thought of this 8.5 months ago

I’m setting up this blog so that we (Paul, Ella and I) can
more easily share updates, photos and videos of Ella with our friends and family
who live far away, and those who live not so far away. It is easier than
emailing photos out all the times and will allow us to provide more details
than we can by posting photos to photo sites. I also think (hope!) Ella will
get a kick out of it when she’s older.

This first post is going to be a fake mini archive with some
photos from the last 8.5 months of Ella’s life.

Day 1

Week 1

Fan of a loser team

First Easter

First smiles - April 2010

I have teeth - August 2010

Shower - May 2010

Four Generations - May 2010

Cousins - May 2010

Father's Day - June 2010

Cottage - July 2010

Mmmm...rice September 2010

Leaves! October 2010

Halloween - October 2010