cute baby coming up!

It really is crazy how fast time flies; it really feels like a week only lasts two days. Sorry for the lag in updates, everybody!

New in Rowan-land:
- Rowan is now really interested in sitting up and has much improved neck and trunk strength. She is offering her hands as a request to sit up. She sits up really solidly and immediately chomps on my hand. It's pretty cute, even with all the slobber.

I think Rowan was a bit lazy about her neck strength because Nigel and I were being coddling her a bit too much. We've stopped supporting her neck all the time and now Rowan is holding her head up really well and looking around. She's even trying to sit forward in her rocking chair and car seat; she leans a little forward and her head comes off the back.


Daddy playing the sit-up game with Rowan on her change table.

- Rowan is really chatty and smiley; she charms all the cash-ladies at the grocery store and, of course, our friends and family love her sweet gummy smile too.

- I think Rowan is going to teethe early; she is drooling like crazy and has been a bit crankier than usual. She also had particularly bad diaper rash this past week, so that may have accounted for the crankiness. Thankfully, the rash is all cleared up now. We kept her in disposables for a few days and it cleared up. We're not sure if some bacteria is left in the diapers after washing, or if her urine is just stronger, or what. We've been using a fragrance and phosphate-free liquid laundry detergent (Tide Free), so it shouldn't be an allergic reaction. We're doing to double-rinse the diapers from now on to see if that helps.

- Rowan's hand-eye coordination is much improved and she uses both hands consistently when playing with toys.

Rowan has been showing renewed interest in the Blue Hand of Chew now that she can manipulate it with both hands.




Her hands are also fun to play with all on their own. It kind of looks like she is plotting to take over the world.


Rowan is also been excited by mirrors, especially when she can see herself in them. I'm not sure what she thinks when she sees her mommy holding another baby in the mirror. I'm sure she recognizes me, but who does she think the baby is? Supposedly babies don't self-identify for quite awhile.



Happy 50th birthday, Nanny!
Last weekend was my mom's 50th birthday, so we went up to Killaloe for a visit. My sister came in by bus from Toronto on Friday night. Unfortunately, the weather was crap so the bus took an extra 2 or 3 hours to get here. Bleh. That's okay; Nigel and I got to hang out with our friends while we waited for Heather to come in. It was great to have a visit with my mom and celebrate her birthday. My grandpa came out from Shawville on Sunday morning and we all went to a fun community pancake breakfast. It was grandpa's first time meeting Rowan, so that was a nice surprise!

Nanny knitted Rowan a sweet new sweater; I'll be taking a photo of her in that in the next day or two.






Nigel took this nice photo of us at the pancake breakfast.

quick and dirty: the rest of the days of Christmas

Alright. I've put it off so long that I'm starting to forget... I'm just going to give the quick highlights of Christmas 2006 and, of course, the photos you've all been waiting for. :-)

December 24 and early 25th: Marshall-Gougeon family fun
My Mom, my brother Thomas and sister Heather were at our place until around lunchtime on Christmas Day. We did some baking - more butter tarts! - went for a nice long walk in the balmy winter air (it was 8 degrees or something crazy like that), ate lots of good food, and hung out and played with Rowan and had nice family time together. Thomas played guitar - he's so talented! - and Heather learned a bit of bass guitar. We even goofed around with word definitions - kind of like playing Balderdash without the board, just using a dictionary. Just so you know, the word "spume" means frothy or foamy. We use it when the baby is frothing at the mouth now.

The Gougeon-Marshall family gathered around Rowan

Mom and Uncle Tom with Rowan

Nanny enjoyed watching Rowan play

Uncle Tom had his turn too

Stepping away from our usual traditions, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve; Mom had to work on Christmas Day night and we figured it would be less hectic to do it in the evening while the baby was asleep. There was no snow on Christmas Day, and we had already opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, so it hardly felt like Christmas morning at all! That's okay; the day itself isn't very significant to me. Having quality time with family is the part that really matters to me.

My Mom knitted Rowan a lot of very sweet items - a very cute little purple sweater, a number of nifty hats, and an orange and green jumper. Here are photos!

Rowan smiling in the purple sweater and hat Nanny knit for her

Mom and Heather check out Rowan's new outfit

Rowan in her cute pumpkin outfit!

Look up "cute" in the dictionary...

It was great to have everybody at our place. It felt really good.

mid-day December 25th: Vezeau family visit
Nigel's parents and sister Erica arrived just about half an hour after my family left. Originally we had been hoping to have one big meal with everybody, but it wasn't in the cards. That's okay. Sometimes it's easier to visit with just a few people at a time.

We had a delicious traditional Christmas meal, thanks to Nigel's mom: roast chicken, mushroom stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce... and more stuffing!

Aunt Erica and Rowan

Grandma Val walking around with our little barfer

Grandma Val watching Rowan on the play mat

Grandpa Richard and his stripey grand-daughter

December 28: Toronto trip

On the Thursday after Christmas, we did our first ever long car trip with Rowan. We drove to Toronto to have a visit with Nigel's grandma Kay, uncle Ray and aunt Mary, and their kids Raymond and Nicole (Chris was working). We all went out to a *huge* Chinese buffet place called the Mandarin. The place was so big and bright, it looked kind of like a casino inside. We brought the baby swing, but Rowan was in a pretty good mood after all that sleeping. She socialised with everybody and didn't even throw up that much. :-) She's a real charmer; I think everybody enjoyed meeting her, especially her great-grandma.

Great-grandma Kay, Daddy and Rowan

The car trip to Toronto and back went much better than expected; Rowan slept most of the way there (we made one stop for lunch, change and baby feeding) and the whole way back. We thought her sleep schedule might be messed up after all that sleeping in the car, but she slept normally that night anyways. Yay!

On the second day of Christmas, Mom and Thomas came... (holiday post #2, Dec 23)

In the morning, we devoured the delicious crepes Nigel made us for breakfast. What a sweetie! There is really nothing like crepes filled with fruit salad, dulce de leche (caramel) spread, nutella, maple syrup, and whipped cream for breakfast. Wow. Now that's a decadent way to wake up.

Mojo and Vincent had to head back to Ottawa for family Christmas fun, so we had to bid them a fond farewell. Vincent would love to be the president of Rowan's fan-club, but I think he would have some stiff competition from the family... But he and Mojo are welcome to come cuddle Rowan any time.

My mom and brother weren't going to arrive until around suppertime, so Heather and I spent most of our afternoon playing with Rowan and making homemade ravioli. Oh my. Time consuming, but so very delicious!

Slow-food geekery with the Marshall sisters
First, we made two fillings: one was a simple mushroom and goat cheese, and the second was a sweet squash, pepita (pumpkin seed), cilantro and carmelised onion mixture. We made our own fresh pasta dough and rolled it out into sheets. Then we cut the pasta to made packets of tasty filling. We also made two different sauces - because we're suckers for extra time in the kitchen - a garlicky aioli for the squash ravioli and a fresh tomato sauce with zucchini for the mushroom ravioli. It took *way* less time to eat then to make, but it was fun.

When Mom and Thomas arrived in the evening, we spent time socialising and eating. Mom hadn't seen Rowan in quite awhile, and Thomas hadn't met her yet, so she was definitely the centre of attention until she went to sleep.