Thank goodness just anyone can be parents

We figured out how to work the movie editor on the computer.



The gloves are officially off now (poor Livy -since she's the brunt of our experiments).

I'm pretty confident though that she'll thank us when she's 20 for all the great video clips we have of her.

These are a Few of my Favourite Things

Here's another 'fun' thing Livy has started. She's found out that she has feet...and she loves them.

She sucks on her toes when we leave her socks off (not easy in winter time) though she will pull off her socks if no other toys are available.

Its such a riot that we just had to take this video (and make the necessary edits):

'Tis the Season...etc, etc

How much chocolate can one person eat??? Seriously, there is something about the holiday season that results in neither Dwayne nor I being able to say no to all those wonderfully delicious empty calories. There was so much Christmas baking this year I still have 7 empty baking tins on my counter (and I didn't fill one of them with goodies, this all by other people - mmmm, lemon squares).

Regardless, if I stop today (ha, right) I should be ok in the weight gained over Christmas department (only because of two days of being ill from the flu).

Still, that means we have to actually stop eating all these treats and when there's still some left in the house, that's pretty much impossible.

Here's a few post Christmas holiday photos for those who want to catch up on the Livster.

One with Grandma Val:




















One with Grandpa Dave in the outfit from Grandma Val:




















Here's Livy getting the spa treatment from Daddy (its Dwayne's last resort when she puts up a fuss while they're hanging out just the two of them).













And here's Livy being her usual goofy/cute self.

Livy's First Solids

Yup, we're changing her diet. Breastmilk is obviously too good for her (aka her weight gain is off the charts) so we've decided to add solids. Since she's able to hold herself pretty good the 'book says' we can introduce solids.

Here's her first few bites (and of course even more entertaining is us as parents stumbling along with her).

Merry Christmas

Olivia's First Christmas was a blast!!!













We've had so much fun this week (plus a bit of a flu bug) its taken us a bit of time to get some photos up and we still have more.

Livy got a ton of presents and she thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts and thoughts they sent her way.



















Dwayne got a couple of great presents in particular a bouncy play set that will be set up on our front yard this summer for him to hang out with Livy in. Its still a bit old for her (+3 years) but with Dad's help she should managed to have some fun and I should be able to get a ton of photos for here.

Here are a few of the photos we took Christmas morning when we woke up to open presents.

(*Note the Christmas PJ's - the new tradition in our household only Dwayne either didn't get the memo or didn't make it to the store to get his).













Another of our yearly traditions (7 years now) is to get out and enjoy the outdoors on Christmas Day (while the turkey cooks in the oven). So we hit the cross country slopes and took advantage of the gorgeous weather with my brother Clint and his fiancee Heather (bumping into Dwayne's brother Mike while on the slopes).














PS - much more fun to follow when I find the time...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow Let it Snow!!!

Here it is, our first snowday of the winter and Livy's first snow EVER!!!

Yup, she's excited and took to making snow angels like a pro!

Happy 4 Month Day

Yup, she's already hit the 4 month mark. Its crazy how fast she's grown (to this advanced point of doing a whole lot of lying around) and how fast time has flown.

Today we finally got her rolling over on video and only because she's doing it more regularly.



She's now working on her back to front roll. Unfortunately she's practicing while on her change table, 3.5 feet above the floor - we're putting the safety strap to good use.

Merry Christmas from the Dogs

What more can I say...the photo says it all!!

Livy's Digs

I keep thinking I'm going to get around to finishing off Olivia's room but time is proving that its simply not going to happen. So we decided to share her room even though its only 95% finished.

We still need to make a sign and a diaper stacker (she's sure to be out of diapers by the time I finish it) but all in all the feel of the room will stay the same even though more will be added.

Since we didn't know if Livy would be a boy or girl we decided to go with a sort of neutral theme in as far as drawing pictures. We opted for gender neutral dinosaurs (remember mommy's a geologist - sometimes) and a bright green jungle feel to go with them. Everything else was based off the bright green and had Livy been a Leroy we would have kept the green, left the pink and added some blue.



Here's Livy getting comfortable with her 4-legged sisters. Tchula (guess which one that is) loves her and is already comfortable and mellow around her. Chiquita isn't so sure what Livy is but she's slowly figuring it out. Once she does I'm sure Livy's stuffed toys will no longer be sacred.

A few odds and sods...

Here are a few photos I know the Grandparents will love (and hate) that we didn't get on the blog earlier (stolen from another person's camera).

When I left for 3 days this is the kind of riff-raff Dwayne allowed our poor daughter to be subjected to while I was gone. Yes, I know...shameful!!



















On another note, better late than never - Livy's Trick-or-Treat'n outfit from Halloween (she looks very concerned with the phallic looking trunk sticking out of her head).

Jolly Good Fun

Yup, she's at it again. She's keeping us laughing and totally entertained with how cute she is.

She loves the jolly jumper though admittedly we have to move it out of the bathroom door.

She should have been a newfie with the way she can jig!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

While I can't say she was 'beaming' and 'brave' sitting on Santa's knee, I can say she didn't start crying right away (she lasted about 30 seconds). Just enough time for us to click off a few stunned looking photos.













I don't think it helped that I changed her right there with Santa helping (she didn't know what hit her). He was a trooper...he held her in her diaper while I put her dress on her (seriously, the only way to avoid her puking up on it is to minimize the time she's in it).

These are a few of my favourite things...

To add a few...

1. Livy is a talker....just like her Dad! We simply can't shut her up now that she's realized that she can make this much noise. And she LOVES doing it and I love listening to her! She's recently realized when she wakes up from a nap she doesn't have to cry...she just starts talking.

&

2. I'm incredibly in love with Livy's smile. There's nothing quite like that innocent smile telling you that she's absolutely content.

A Happy Rider

Well it is certainly looking like the Riders are taking command of the game, CFL football for Saskatchwan people is not just about the game. One should really spend a summer in Sask to know what I am talking about, anyways things sure look good for the Green team. I managed to get a short video of Livy just after they scored to go up 23-11.




-Dwayne

Sleepless in San Fransisco

Today's post is for two people, Renee (Mommy) and Mom (Grandmommy).

Renee is away from Livy for the first time ever and although I had hoped to get some new content on the blog for Renee to see while she was away, I am only getting to it now for the last night that Mommy will be away.


Grandma had requested a photo of Livy in the Saskatchewan RoughRiders slippers that she sent out earlier. Right now the Riders just scored and now they are UP!

Renee, we tried to load some video for you but because Livy put on such a good show, the file ended up being too big to be able to post.

Note for next time Livy, keep your performances short.........

Happy Livy - for now.will she be happy when the game is over

So you know which team she is Cooing for.
I hope Daddy is making snacks..........

-Dwayne

Letting go... even for just a moment.

Today's a hard for me. Today is the last "day" I'll have been with Livy every day of her whole life.

Tomorrow I'll be heading out of town for 3 days and 3 nights. Sounds simple but I'm scared and I'm sad and I'm excited (for Daddy to bond with baby) all at once.

Happy Daddy bonding with Happy Livy - for now...













All in all, there's no place I'd rather be then wherever Olivia is and I'm going to miss her dearly when gone.

(as you can see she's a bit scared too).













So, in the spirit of saying goodbye for a few days I've logged onto the blog to post a few recent pictures and a few videos so that I can watch them over and over while gone.

In the last few weeks Livy is starting to do some amazing things (ok, maybe just amazing to me because I'm her mom but I'm going to share them anyway).


Some of the more 'cute' things are her taking her pacifier out of her mouth (will need to get a video) and thinking she can get it back in....and she can, 1 out of every 10 tries.

She also has signs of becoming a bulimic. Often if she's without her pacifier (at times she even spits it out just to do this) she'll stick her hand in her mouth with her little index finger straight out and cause herself to gag. She'll do it again and again. I'll pull her hand out of her mouth and her extended little index finger will slowly curl with the others into a little fist (as if she's hiding the evidence) then slowly she'll put her hand back in her mouth while extending that index finger again. The sound isn't pleasant but its certainly funny to watch (maybe not the greatest video to try to get but hey, that's what being parents is all about...getting too bribery material for later in life).

Other little ACCIDENTAL milestones are her 'rolling over' and 'crawling'.

We don't have a video for the rolling over. She did it twice in a row and by the time we got the video camera out she wouldn't do it again but she did 'crawl' (granted on her belly the entire time with no arm movements but it was forward motion nonetheless).

Taken November 11, 2009


Another video taken the same day. Here's Livy bouncing around in her jolly jumper. While we haven't spent much time in it we will be soon and we've been giving her a taste of what's to come. Once Grandpa Dave gets here (tomorrow) we're going to have him mount the jumper in the living room so that she's not stuck jumping in the hallway all the time.



Livy 'tricked out' in clothes/boots Grandma Helen sent. She loves the toque and the boots are rockin'. Can't wait till she can walk in them.

"Family Day"

A lot has changed since we said "Hello" & "Goodbye" to Dayne and Daniel 2 years ago today. A lot of tears have been shed and a lot of smiles have graced our faces in the last two years.

Today is Dwayne and my unofficial "Thanksgiving" and we do have so much to be thankful of.

We have a wonderful home that's often full of laughter and love - and when that's on short supply, at least its still full of ... well, lets not go there :).

We are surrounded by warm, fuzzy balls of energy (our dogs) that unconditionally love us to pieces. If yesterday's farewell to Max is any indication of how much love they bring into our lives, that alone is enough to make us incredibly lucky.

We have each other. Best friends, there's no one else we would rather laugh with or fight with and even a bad day with each other is better than any day alone.

We have Olivia. We're always amazed that something so small has the incredible ability to put a smile on our faces, make our eyes weep when she's hurting, our minds fill with wonder when she smiles and our hearts fill with love just by her being there.

And last but not least, we remain thankful for the boys. Though we had to say goodbye far too soon we are so incredibly thankful that we got to say hello.

To our beautiful Angels - our two in heaven and our one on earth, "We love you".

"He'll be missed"

Today was a sad day in the Kress/Brickner household. Today we said goodbye to a very well loved friend, Max (Maxie) Kress.

When I first met Dwayne back in 2002 Maxie wasn't just "his dog" he was an extension of Dwayne and went everywhere Dwayne did.

We have some awesome memories of the Ol' Bastard (as he's affectionally called on occassion - usually when food has gone missing or he's marked his territory in the dining room...) and as Dwayne always said whenever Maxie disappeared on one of his neighbourhood trash walks or in the forest on a walk and we feared he may not find his way back "He'll be missed".

And he is.

Max & Dwayne in 2004 when Max got an ear infection. Dwayne decided that tying a sock around his head would prevent him from scratching.














Fortunately Dwayne never quit his day job - any vet would be horrified!! Still, like a good dog Max put up with anything Dwayne dished out.




















Max never liked puppies. Here he is doing his best to ignore another one...2004.
















Max doing what he always loved. Playing with his Dad at the beach - 2004.









































Maxie being a good Co-Pilot - 2004 (one of my favourite pictures of him).














Max was always a crafty one and whenever there was something missing off the counter, chances were that Max instigated the theft. Here's a prime example of how much trouble he could get into...leave the pantry door open even just a little and you were asking for it. Feb 2005




















Never quick learners it took us another "Pantry Attack" for us to learn our lesson - and make the decision to remove our carpet. March 2005 Not long after this he also learned how to open the stove.



















Halloween 2005















He just never gave up!! November 2005














Christmas 2005



















Halloween 2006














Christmas 2006



















Halloween 2007

Boo!!

Happy Halloween!!

As previously mentioned, we had a full month of October and we took full advantage of dressing Livy up in all kinds of Halloween related things. The problem of course was getting those pictures on here (there's more but because of technical difficulties we're limited to 'only' the ones you see below...mind you, there's plenty to see so its not necessarily a bad thing that we had to limit them).

So, its a bit late in coming (sorry Grandma Helen but thanks for the reminder) but finally here are a few great shots of our Halloween month (since celebrating only one day isn't nearly enough - don't forget to click on the picture to make it larger).

During the month of October there are a number of fun things to do. One being the Stanley Park Ghost Train. Here are a few shots of us at the park and a few shots of the entertainment from the 'safety' of the train.

Family photo just before boarding the train.















Daddy and baby Giraffe (thanks uncle Mike).














Getting ready for the train ride.














Three headed dog (something or other in Roman mythology).














I'm going to hazard a guess and say its a Japanese demon.














A Hindu evil goddess...















Pagan devils...














And a tired little Giraffe at the end of it all...

These are a few of my favourite things...

I've been thinking about wanting to do this for a while and finally I'm getting around to it.

How many times in the last 3 months have I looked at Livy and found new reasons to smile and fall in love with her. So many little things that she does that I absolutely LOVE and swear that I will never forget. Of course, I know I will so I'm going to write them down so I'll always remember them.

So, here are a few of my favourite things that our darling Olivia does that makes me smile...
1. Grunts like a T-Rex (see September 10th video clip).

2. Coos on my chest after a feeding (she's doing it less and less now but it was something I loved when she was smaller and so I now cherish it when she's relaxed enough to settle down and tell me how content she is).

3. Stretches after a nap with her little bum out and arms stretched out (we're trying to get a picture of this before she stops doing it).

4. Flays her arms out and because her arms are so long, I call it her 'Albatross' pose.













5. Talks - yup, she's a little chatter box...another thing we're working on in the photo department.
6. Settles down from a crying spell with a foot massage. And yes, if I were to stop, she'd start crying again. At least something works!!














7. She easily falls asleep if I'm gently breathing on the top of her head (its a wonderful thing to put her to bed like this but it has the potential to have dire consequences...imagine a 10 year old needing someone to breath on the top of her head to sleep...)

There's so many more things, the above only being the ones I can remember off the top of my head. But we'll keep adding more as we remember them.

Loch Ness

This next entry pretty much speaks for itself and very little introduction is needed.

Its titled Loch Ness in part because our darling Livy is 'swimming' for the first time in this video and also because, as we've previously mentioned, the speed in which she is growing results in us often referring to her as a "Little Monster".

So here she is in her swimming debut:



Here's another shot which pretty much sums up our experience.