Help A Sister Out?

Hey Humble Readers...

I need some assistance... and I'm hoping that one of you might be able to help me out. 

We had Ginny's birthday portraits taken today, and they gave us one of the unedited images on CD.  Super cute, eh?

I want to turn it into the invitation that we're going to email out to family and friends for her birthday party, but I don't have the know-how or the software to doctor it up. 

Is there a website that you know of that's user friendly (not to mention free) for cropping and adding text?  I would really appreciate any input...

Ginevra @ 8 Months

Good Morning Humble Readers...

Ginny rockin' the bikini!  (Auntie S hiding behind)

Like every month, I am truly astonished that so much time has passed.  Here we are, eight months into this grand adventure, and I honestly can't imagine life without my wee girl.  (Fair warning: this is a long post, with lots of pics, as I'm talking about my favourite subject... Ginevra!  And my favourite pic is at the end of the post, so you have to read all the way tot he end)

Bath Time!!!

She's growing so much, and everyday she's learning something new.  Just this morning she started making clicking noises with her tongue on the roof of her mouth.  It was hilarious!  (or rather, it was until she started doing it while I was trying to feed her her cereal and strawberry/kiwi applesauce).  She's actually sitting by the window right now clicking away...

Hanging out in her 'toy box'

Ginny's pulling herself up on the furniture and surfing allong the couch and sides of the coffee table.  She still hasn't figured out how to take corners yet, and often gets very upset when she gets to the corner of the coffee table and can't figure out how to get around it. 

Standing like a big girl

She's teething hardcore.  She did have a short go round early on, between 3 and 4 months, with lots of drool and some general fussiness, but then it stopped.  I found out from one of the nurses at the public health clinic that some babies go through teething this way, where the teeth come through the bone first, and then stop for a while and then they'll start coming through the gums.  Her gums are sooo white and I swear that first tooth is just seconds away from popping through.

Hanging out with 'THE GREAT' Uncle Homer

Ginny eats two solid food meals a day and is an amazingly good eater.  She still loves avacado and banana, but she has tried meat (roast beef ground up with some potato, parsnip and carrot, with a bit of gravy) with great success.  She has cut back on how much formula she drinks (about 25 ounces at the most) which has caused Mommy some angst, but she's still having all kinds of wet diapers and she doesn't look or act dehydrated so I guess all is well.  And don't get me started on poopy diapers now that she's established on solid food... pee-ewww-eee!

Our little fam

She sleeps really well at night, but napping has begun to be a challenge again.  She did great while we were in K-town, but now she just doesn't want to sleep during the day.  *sigh*  And I swear she has started having nightmares.  Ginevra will be in a sound sleep, and then all of a sudden she'll be screaming.  It takes a while to calm her down afterward, but she goes right back to sleep.  Odd...

Always on the go

The wee girl weighs in at just shy of 18 pounds and she still looks super tall to me.  The funny thing is, she's still able to wear some of her 3-6 month clothes (mostly onesies). 

Mommy, Ginny, and G.G.

She hates wearing shoes.  She loves her bath.  Her favourite toy right now is her stacking ball, but she still adores her Sofie giraffe and her plastic keys.  She's started turning pages in her books.  She crawls like a speed demon and is into everything.  I'm not the type of mom to pack everything away, I feel she has to learn what she can and can't touch.  (we did move a few things, just for safety reasons)  She has an immense attraction to part of our entertainment unit where we store our wii games and my workout dvds, and she loves the books on the lowest shelves of my bookcases.  It means that Mommy is constantly saying "No Ginny!" and moving her back to her toys. 

Mommy, Ginny, Daddy, Mama, G.G., Auntie S, and 'Felix'

And she waves.  Oh how she waves.  It is SO. DARN. CUTE!  She rarely waves at my Beloved or I, but she will wave at the people on the street, at people in pictures around our home, and at people on tv (she loves Rach.ael Ra.y and waves at Miss Rachael all the time. 

Ginny and her big cousin, Z-Man

Ginny has a big event this weekend.  She's going for her first haircut!  It's so time... If I don't put her hair up in a pig tail, then it's hanging in her eyes. 

Z-Man & Ginny in the pool

Ginevra @ Seven Months

Hey Humble Readres...

Again, a too-long gap between posts, but I do have a few ideas for things to keep me on track.  I have plans and hopefully starting on Wednesday, I'll be able to put some of them into effect.

But in the mean time... it's that time of the month again (no, not AF, thank heaven!).  Ginny is officially 7 months old today.  I just can't believe it.  I swear to heaven above that I was just in the hospital in labour yesterday. 

Ginny is such a little person now.  She's outgrowing the baby stage so quickly.  I was actually just going through some pics from November when she was first born, and the changes are quite pronounced. 

It seems like she's always in motion.  She army crawls all over the house, and currently is infatuated with the tower fan we have in the living room.  She can't get into a sitting position on her own unless she's got something to hang onto (like the side of her crib), so she's developed this funny little lounging position. 

Just the other day, she decided that it was time to give Mommy a heart attack.  Because she hasn't been able to sit up on her own yet, we hadn't lowered her crib mattress and we still had the bassinett level in the play pen.  The other day, I had set her down in the play pen and after a few moments she started playing peekaboo with me.  I was taking some pics of her looking like that little cartoon Kilroy dude, and then all of a sudden, she just STOOD UP!  I was snapping pictures and ended up dropping the camera and diving across the room to grab her before she took a tumble.  Now she's trying to pull herself up all over the place. 

We started her on solid food a month ago and she loves most of it.  Her favourites are avacado and banana, and she's not so fond of carrots.  Every meal time is an adventure now.  There was one particular occasion when she had a mouthful of avacado and then sneezed.  I ended up covered in the green sticky mash.  Ick!

One glorious side effect of being on solid food is that Ginevra now naps during the day.  It's been quite some time since that happened.  She usually goes down for a long nap in the morning (about 2 hours) and then a shorter one (45 minutes to an hour) in the afternoon.  Quite often I will cuddle with her in our bed for her morning nap, and I will read while she sleeps.  The thing that I love most is the way she fits perfectly snuggled up against me.

In terms of weight gain and growth... well, I'm not really sure.  We go to the doctor and for her six months shots (yes, I'm late) on Wednesday, so we'll find out then.  I'm pretty sure that she hasn't gained much weight in the last few weeks, likely due to the fact that she's so active.  I do think she's gotten a fair bit taller though.  It's been hard to gauge her growth since we stopped using the cloth diapers, because I got so used to her big padded behind.  I can't use her clothes as a gauge any longer because many of them got stretched out by the cloth diapers. 

Her hair is still a point of amusement.  She's sporting a kind of reverse male pattern baldness.  The hair she had at birth around the sides and back fell out but the mop on top is still original.  I've taken to putting it up in a Pebbles Flintstone-esque pig tail.  The really humourous thing is when I take the hair elastic out, it often still stands on end.  The colour changes daily, definitely much lighter than when she was born, varying from light brown to blonde to red. 

She's more vocal now than what she was a month ago.  Her laughs are still rare, but slightly more frequent now.  I often find her, in the morning, talking to the two stuffed bears that reside in her crib.  I can't help but wonder what stories she's telling them. 
Well, Humble Readers... the hour grows late, and our wee girl will be up with the sun.  Thank you all for your comments on the last post.  I so appreciate your support and kind words. 

More Randomness & Some Pics

Howdy Humble Readers...

Because there are still so many things to bring you up to date on, I'm going to continue in a hobbit-ish potpurri type format.  Hope you all don't mind...

*****
Ginevra has the worst case of baby acne I've ever seen.  We're supposed to have some professional photos taken next week, and I'm hoping that the spots are at least down to a dull roar by then.  Interesting to note... mommy has also started to break out again, for the first time in 8 months or so.  Connected? Perhaps...

*****
That cake I mentioned the other day... OMG!  It turned out soooooo good.  And it was super easy.  For someone like me who is baking-challenged, it is by far the best cake recipe ever!  And the recipe is totally alterable, which you can never really do with baked goods.  Love it!  Here's a pic...

The only thing that didn't really work out was the ganache I made as a glaze.  I wasn't thinking and used half & half rather than heavy cream, and the ganache didn't turn out very smooth.  Still tasted great tho...

*****
We're heading to K-town to visit my family at the beginning of next month.  Ginny's first airplane ride... I hope and pray we don't end up being 'that' family with the ubiquitous screaming baby on the plane.  And I'm also praying that the week before we have to drive to Calgary (the airport) we get a nice big chinook.  Bonus hobbit points for anyone not from western Canada who knows what a chinook is!  (no cheating and looking it up online!)

*****
Big news in this hobbit's world... New Kids On The Block are coming to Edmonton again!  Woohooo!  The teenage girl that still lives in a small corner of my heart is ecstatic!  Hopefully my sister and I will be able to go.  Yes, I am that big of a geek, but you all knew that...  (and if you didn't know, let me tell you about when we camped out for tickets when we were in highschool...)

*****
Something to ponder... I'm still on the Zan.tac that I was put on during pregnancy.  I've tried unsuccessfully to wean myself off it a few times.  Every time I'm stop taking it completely the heartburn comes back, and surprisingly, I get an IBS flare.  Can an antacid control IBS?  Hmm...

*****
If I continue losing weight, I'm going to have to take my rings in to be sized.  And I seriously need to do some shopping... I have exactly two pairs of pants that fit, and I don't like either one. 

*****
And now for the really good stuff... pics of my girl

Dressed Up for Christmas

Isn't my flower divine?

Rockin' her first pair of jeans!

100% Organic (the baby that is!)

I adore this face...

Daddy and his girl

Ginevra with her cousins, Oscar & Felix

(I hate me in this pic, but...) Mommy & Baby Girl catchin' some zzzzz

Asleep in the wrapping paper

In the cradle

My future's soooo bright...

Blog Challenge Day 9: A Photo I Took

Happy Friday Humble Readers!

Today's assignment is to share a picture that I took... the thing is, almost all the pics I post on here are pics that I took. 

So, in going through my pics, I decided to show you a couple of my favourites from our trip to K-town this past summer.

Grey Monk WInery
Looking North from the Deck

Grey Monk Winery
Looking South from the Deck

I have no idea of the name of this mountain!
Taken from the Trans Canada Hwy - Heading East

I love my home town.  So beautiful!

Picture Tag

Good Morning Humble Readers...

I have been tagged!  By the wonderful Mrs. Dreamer at The Dreamer and the Realist!  The world cannot go on until I tag others!

So here's the deal...

1) Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.

2) Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

Now the eighth picture in my eighth folder is one that you all have already seen.  It was a picture of the beautiful evil pot that crushed my toe a few months back. (btw, my toe still bears the marks of that pot, and it aches from time to time.  Cast iron and human flesh should never come in contact.  Full Stop.)

So, instead I played a little picture roulette.  Just spun my little mouse around until I landed on something... and it ended up being this.

So, obviously this is a shot from Christmas time.  It's a close up on one of my 12 nativity sets.  Yes, I said twelve.  This is my cutesy little snowman nativity set.  Pretty darn adorable if you ask me. 

I got started collecting nativity sets several years ago when I was working for a Christian bookstore.  I ended up being the gift product buyer for the store, so I was always able to bring in different and interesting sets to add to my collection. 

My favourite set is my Jim Shore set.  (You've probably seen some of his work in your local Hal.lmar.k store)  It always gets set up under the tree.  I still need to get the completer set for it... the little drummer boy, the palm tree and the camel.  Too bad I don't have a pic of it, huh?  Maybe next year.

Now, because I'm a little short on time today, I'm going to just toss this one out to all my bloggy friends.  Check out your picture files... you know you've got stuff you haven't shared! 

Spring On the Flatland

Good Morning Humble Readers...

Before you scroll down, I want you to take note of the date at the top of this post.  It's May 4th (Star Wars day, as I learned earlier... May the Fourth be with you!)... well into spring, wouldn't you say?

This is what my world looks like today.  I just took these shots from the warm-ish comfort of my cozy condo ten minutes ago. 

Not very pleasant, don't you think?  They are saying that the snow will be gone by tomorrow mid-day, but sometimes I really wonder about this place.  Nuts!

So, instead I choose to look at a little taste of spring that my Beloved brought home last week.  Have I mentioned that I adore him?

Show & Tell: NYC in Pictures

Greetings Humble Readers!

This post is very long in coming, and for that I apologize. I PROMISE, there will be a post about Terwilliger Turtle's Traveling adventures. He saw and did some fun stuff. But for tonight, you all get just a random sampling of some of my favourite pictures from our trip.

The Empire State Building. I loved this veiw.

Central Park... the most amazing urban greenspace ever!

The Chrysler Building... one of my better nightime shots.

Some navy boys in Times Square...

I don't know what his deal was... but we saw him all the time in the Park.

Some street performers... very cool to watch!

Lady Liberty... but why did she turn out white in this pic? Enquiring minds want to know!

From the top of the Empire State Building, at around 9pm.

An Italian cheese shop... I drooled buckets over those huge wheels of parm!

Us... waiting in line at the Letterman Show! Very Cool!

Now, make sure you head over to Mel's place to see what the rest of the class is showing!