Back to Life...Back to Reality

We've been home for almost a month - but it feels like only yesterday we were basking in the heat of the Australian summer sun...ah...the long hot days, cool breezy evenings...the amazing wine!

Reality check - it was -10C yesterday here in the Loops with blowing snow and wind and a general terror of the thought of venturing outside. We stayed indoors most of the day. Good thing too - I think Fletcher got frost-bite!

Our first week back, we went to Golden with Daryl and had a blast! We stayed at this isolated little cabin in the wilderness with no TV, no Internet, no heat (we did have a wood stove) and it was amazing. Gabrielle and I went for nice long walks (her in her wooden sleigh, all bundled up), only after did I hear there were cougars all over! We had a chance to visit our friends the Klotz' in Calgary for a brief over-nighter, which was great. They have 2 beautiful girls and are the kind of parents that Daryl and I hope to be to Gabrielle. They love the outdoors and being active and are planning on taking their kids to Base Camp of Mt. Everest in a few years! WOW is all I can say!

Gabrielle is growing like a weed. She is well over 70cm tall but still just 16lbs. She looks so petite when she is racing around the house -mostly on her hands and knees - or pushing her new walker. She really has no driving sense of direction, so she slams into pretty much every wall around her. Sometimes the dog gets run-over...10 points for road-kill!

Despite only having 4 teeth, our little jack-o-lantern is eating up a storm. She eats everything we eat these days, including (but not limited to) pasta with all sorts of sauce, pork chops, ground beef, lasagna, chicken finger, veggies (favourite being mashed potatoes, peas and spaghetti squash), cheese, yogurt, cereal, toast, bananas (which were ridiculously funny this morning!) apples and pears, apricots, did I mention cheese? She also loves scrambled eggs - with or without cheese, and Grand-mama's crepes! Also, grilled cheese sandwiches are AWESOME!

Gabrielle and I have a great time playing at home. We have set up quite the play area filled with all sort of things to do and explore. She loves magazines and ripping the pages from them! She loves her new gum-ball machine, and her age-old favorite is the jolly-jumper. She loves books and is now starting to appreciate them a bit more by NOT eating them all. Although, the touch-and-feel books are still fun to taste - we ask "what does the koala taste like" and she licks the fur...we never said we didn't have a weird child!

Gabrielle loves to play games, especially peek-a-boo and "chase me". She loves to dance, loves music and now mimics us when we cough with a fake little throat-clearing sound. It is very cute because she looks at us as if to say "see, I can cough too! I'm a big girl!" Gabrielle loves her baths and goes mental in the water trying to see if she can empty the entire tub just by splashing us! She isn't walking yet, but we know it is only a matter of time. She stands up holding on to furniture etc. very well, and sometimes even lets go! What balance!

While in Australia, Gabrielle loved Tante-Helene's fish. She would spend so much time watching the fish swim round and round - and now does the same with her aquarium in her crib. Not quite the same, but I don't think she really knows the difference!

I'm in the process of figuring out my return-to-work program, and quite frustrated by it all. I was thinking of a career change - I think I would make a great lottery winner! It looks like I might be going back on a part-time basis for the first 6 months (filling in for someone going on maternity leave) and then...who knows. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'm just really torn about leaving her with a stranger from 8am to 5pm and seeing her only 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. Why have a child then when someone else has to raise them? It's not that we really need my income anyhow - we can make due with Daryl's...it would just mean a few sacrifices of the "fun" stuff that we had planned. Anyhow - as I said, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Now that we're back in the Loops and back to reality, updates will happen more regularly. I apologize to all our readers from around the world...but I do hope you understand! Talk to you soon!