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We spent a nice quiet weekend this weekend as a family. We had a babysitter (under supervision) come in and look after Edzea while we worked around  the house on Saturday/Sunday mornings. His name is Cole. Edzea loves him. He is the owners of SSI’s son and Edzea has known him for a while but this is the first time she’s had his undivided attention. He just finished his babysitting course and only lives a few blocks away and he was a great babysitter. She didn’t bug us at all while he was here playing with her. He brought a knapsack full of new fun toys for her to play with as well.

As you can see from the photos, she quite likes him. Notice the stamps on her face….well, Cole is still only 11 and he was painting with her and I brought out some scrapbooking stamps/ink and I wasn’t really thinking. The next thing I know she is stamped all over her face and arms the next time I see her. Luckily they all washed off easily even though they weren’t washable! They had fun anyways and he makes her laugh a lot.

On Saturday night, we went to Javaroma for a music night with Edzea and Tracey and Markham and Mackenzie. The girls danced all over the floor and were quite the favourites with the crowd. We kept them up past their bedtime as we are trying to get out and do something on the weekend and had heard this coffee music night was baby-friendly. They liked the music more than we did and were happy to be out.

We are gearing up for Betsy Jones visit tomorrow and our H1N1 shots. Edzea has her second gymnastics class tomorrow morning and we have Kindermusic in the afternoon.

We’ve decided that Edzea is not a Princess at all. She is a Queen. The boss. Each day it becomes more clear.

She is now reciting her ABC’s by repeating after us. I have an art history ABC book for her and we go through it daily. She loves her ABC puzzle and her numbers puzzle. She is no longer interested in simple puzzles. They are too easy. So, we keep trying to get things a little more complicated for her. It’s hard to know what is too difficult and what is appropriate. It’s a hit and miss game. I didn’t think she was ready for ABC’s and 123’s last week and this week…I was proven wrong. I need more simple reader books too. She loves the simple reader of the three little pigs and follows along with words.

The words/phrases are too many to count. Basically she will try to say any word you say and will usually use it again if it is interesting to her. Example: Money…she says this one a lot now.

1. Banana
2. Vegetables
3. Queen
4. Game
5. Puzzle
6. Mackenzie
7. Work-Daddy Work
8. Bed, Crib
9. Rose
10. Eggs
11. Zoo

The list goes on….she recites every word in her alphabet book so at least 26 new words right there.

That’s all for now.

Last night, during dinner, Tim called Edzèa a “wacko” as she was goofing around. She looked at him and said “wacko” right back. We all laughed so hard that she did it a few more times for effect.

So here’s a brief update of new things I can remember that she says now. I’m way behind on the list and every day she says more.

She has dolls that she dresses up and yesterday came to me and said “naked”. She repeats this a lot as she gets laughs from this one too. We tell her that when it is bath time she is “naked” so “naked” is also a new favourite word.

1. Turkey
2. Pumpkin
3. Downstairs
4. Upstairs
5. Jacket on
6. Hat on
7. Boots on
8. Lots of “ing” words-she’s added these to her list of most verbs ie. eating, walking, running,
9. playing, sleeping
10. Phrases like: Mommy put hat on
11. Zaya potty too
12. She adds “too” to lots of phrases
13. Zaya too
14. Couch
15. Table
16. Rice
17. Grapes
18. Clothes
19. Off/on
20. In/Out
21. Counting: up to Ten (she repeats after you but can’t do five or seven very well)
22. Wake up-like this week she wanted Bruce to wake up each morning
23. Drums
24. Kiss
25. Sorry (she can’t say “s” at the beginning of words yet though)
26. What’s That?
27. See ya
28. Fork
29. Tea Party
30. Go Home (Zaya go home)
31. House
32. Names of all of her friends almost perfectly: Haydon, Natalie, Mackenzie (Menzie) , Dylan (Din), Georgia
33. Kids

The big jump in the past two weeks has been her ability and attempts to sing the songs she knows with us: Frere Jacques, Twinkle, Twinkle, Bumblebee, Happy and You know it, Itsy Bitsy Spider and a variety of other ones.

Every day she says something new and connects words into phrases, unfortunately I can’t remember many off the top of my head right now.

We are probably at about 200+ words now not including phrases/songs etc.

The sentence of the week is: ” Zaya do it.” Everything this week is Zaya do it.

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Bruce and I walked downtown today and it was cold! We took Edzèa in to a gym program at one of the schools. She played hockey with Uncle Bruce, rode a trike, played ball and ran around. It was the coldest day we’ve had in Yellowknife so far. Winter is here. Yuck. Bruce was a bit shocked!

Here are some pics of Edzèa that her Daddy took of her vaccuuming last week, dressing up and wearing Nana’s Halloween Mickey Mouse costume today.

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW! It officially started snowing small flakes yesterday. Today we were frosted with an ample load! Bruce arrived and commented that he had just been at the beach in Vancouver last week. He’s finding it a little chilly! and it’s only -1. We still have plans to take him on a hike to Cameron Falls on Monday and some walks around town.

Edzèa is thrilled to have her Uncle Bruce here. In fact, she makes sure he plays dress-up, tea party and that he reads to her. She wanted him to give her her bath tonight but was hijacked by Daddy. Lucky for him. He says he’s prepared to buy ear plugs at Walmart as Tim warned him that we are having night wakings again. LOUD night wakings! And his room is right beside hers.

Here are some pics from the past little while. Playing play dough with her Daddy, Family Centre Snack time and playing in the kitchen (her favourite thing to do), dressing up with Uncle Bruce and reading some new books that Nana sent up to her.

Bye for now. Wish for warmer weather for us please!!

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Tim is going to scan our 20 week ultrasound pics and I’ll post them here when he does. The baby looks like Edzèa from the profile and is healthy and normal looking so far.