Christmas 1 -Vancouver

This year we decided to split the family celebrations into Vancouver and Winnipeg/Sioux Narrows gatherings. My mom (Nana) wasn't working Christmas this year (she's a nurse, you know) so we spent the first part of our holidays with the Mantels. It was a whirlwind adventure, from December 19th to 26th. We saw friends (Ciara, Tanya, Muniz, Sheliza, Jacquie, Jen E) and family (Nana, Papa, Uncle Todd and Dea, Heather, Bob, Gary, Andrea, John, and Baba Libby). We wish we had more time there, as each visit was just too short. It was a wonderful visit, regardless. It is visits like this that remind us of how truly blessed we are by the people in our lives!

On with the pictures:

Sophia was having a great time waiting for the plane./ Thankfully the designers of the Regina airport had the forethought to include play structures for travelling kids. Makes a difference, especially when the power in teh airport shuts down, and you have a little bit of a wait. Too bad they didn't have anything for kids while we waited to board the plane --because the power was out they couldn't use the gate, so we had to walk up. Wanna experience chaos? Try that!

Dad managed to score us some Christmas Train tickets, so the entire family trekked out to dinner at White Spot on Georgia (we certainly weren't the only family with this plan!) and then with full bellies went to the train. Dining out with Sophia gets more and more interesting... Here was our request for the waitress: "Could we have a cup of water with a lid and a straw, plus a plate of ice." She took our order without a blink of an eye, and presented Sophia with her own plate of ice to play with. It kept her entertained for a very long time. And she didn't get too wet. She also enjoyed all of our dinners!

Sophie loved the lights, and ooohh and ahhed all the way through. It was hard to get good pictures, though.
However, she was not a fan of the bigger animals at the petting zoo. She did fine with the rabbits and birds and such, but once we got into the barn she started to whine a bit. She certainly did not like it when I went to pet the pony. Strange. She might have been tired.

Just a quite mommy and baby moment after dinner with Libby and Jen. There is hilarious video of Baba sharing a Ukrainian bouncy song with Sophia, which we will post later on.


This was taken while visiting Heather and Bob...not sure that being with them would drive her to drink. More like she snatched my glass in an effort to be a big girl!


Some good old fashioned play with Emily! Em and Joey were with us at Heather's, they got to spend the day not only with their grandparents but with the Mantels as well!

An early gift from Nana. We think she might have a future as the world's cutest boxer!

The Christmas haul. The only issue that we had this vacation was that a stomach bug took up residence in the Gerhards. It started with Sophia, who, to that point, had never thrown up. It was traumatic for all of us. She was scared by what was happening to her body, and we were scared (okay, I was the most scared!)about the ramifications. I was ready to pack her into the ER after the first round of sick, but thankfully David and Mom talked me out of it. She was sick all night, fine the next day while we visited Heather and Bob, got sick once more, and the slept it off. I got sick on Christmas Eve, right after service, threw up for about four hours, slept and felt yucky all Christmas Day. David got it on the 26th, the day we flew to Winnipeg. He never got sick, thankfully, as we were on the plane. There was a moment of fear though, when the carts were on either end of the aisle, effectively blocking both bathrooms, and David had an urge to toss his cookies. Tat would have been ICKY! We all recovered though, with out giving it to anyone else!

Christmas morning was FUN! I am not sure that Sophia really "got" the whole idea, but she did enjoy her self. She unwrapped each gift very carefully, ooohing each time a piece came off and revealed the hidden goody underneath. She LOVED helping everyone with their gift. She did spend time checking out what she got though...here she is looking over the Noah's Ark that came from Uncle Todd.

One of her new fuzzy friends, Hophop, and a new book, Puff the Magic Dragon!

Scoping out the goodies!

Seemingly reading her Blog book to Uncle Todd. David and I discovered a site (Blurb) that allowed us to download the first year of Sophia's blog and get it printed into a book. Each family got a copy. Sophia loves flipping through and looking at the "baby". It is a fabulous way to keep a hard copy record of our blog, so that she will have something to show her kids later in life.

cuddles with Hophop

Hanging with Dea (Todd's girlfriend) and Uncle Todd. Sophia took a little time to warm up to them, as she plays shy with new folks now. But once she warms up there's no stopping her. She had fun with these two, especially seeing they spoiled her.

We had a great time Vancouver, and like I said earlier, it was too short a visit. But all the requiste Christmas events happened, including a chance for David and I to sneak away to catch a movie (we saw "Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" -romantic, no?)

Tastes Like Chicken

Okay, so we are making up for some lost blogging time. Forgive us. A certain person, who will remain nameless, has been poking us about updating the blog, so here goes nothing. Keep scrolling and reading...there's lots coming in the next couple of days.

Sophia is becoming far more independent in her everyday activities...and this includes the food and feeding sphere. She knows what she likes and she knows what she wants to try. A couple of weeks back, I made Parmesan chicken, a favorite Mantel family recipe. I took a chicken, cut it up into pieces, dredged it in parmesan cheese and baked it until it was golden brown and delicious. David and I were savoring the meal, when Sophia started motioning with her hands, and making her "uh, uh, uh --I want that" noise. We thought "oh, okay she wants some chicken...here are a couple of pieces." Sure that was okay for her, she ate them, liked them and then wanted more. Not just pieces this time, but the whole drumstick...happiness ensued.

Snow Day

Well, to be honest, we've had snow here for a while now, but it has been quite cold so we haven't had the chance to really go out and play in the snow. It was beautiful last week, so we waxed up the runners on Sophia's brand new sled and went for a slide.

First step, of course, was to bundle up beyond recognition. Sophia had on a fleecy, shirt and pants under this beautiful red snowsuit, and she had gloves and boots on under the gloves and boots that snap to the snowsuit. When it's cold out and we want to be out for a while, and Sophia isn't at the point where she can say "I'm Cold", we have to bundle to the extreme.

This was also the first chance I got to do to Sophia what Mom always did to me before going out in the snow - the face scarf wrap! Now luckily, the scarf we used wasn't long enough to do the full one-pass-over-the-eyes-one-pass-under-the-eyes thing, but her toque was doing a good job of covering her forehead, and we covered her nose with the scarf, so all that was exposed were her little eyes. As if we didn't already know how expressive her eyes are!

Sophia in her sled, bundled up tight

Haley likes the snow, too!

Making snow angels! (kinda)

Daddy and Daughter

Let's do this more often!

PS. we do have video of the sledding, which I will try to post soon...

genius

Yes, you read right. our darling is in fact a certified genius. She can count. Tricia and I still have to coach her a bit, but it's clearly there.

Daddy (holding up one finger): "One!"

Sophie (holding up one finger): "Wun!"

Daddy (holding up two fingers): "Two!"

Sophie (holding up one finger on each hand): "Doo!"

Daddy (holding up three fingers): "Three!"

Sophie (using the finger of one hand to point to the other): "Doo!"

Daddy (looks slightly confused, holding up three fingers again): "Three!"

Sophie (looks at fridge): "Doo!"

Daddy (hopeful): "Four!"

Sophie (looks at haley): "Doo!"

Daddy (confirming): "One!"

Sophie (looks at daddy): "Wun!"

Daddy: "Two!"

Sophie: "Doo!"

Daddy: "Three!"

Sophie: "Doo!"

(daddy gives up, reads sophie a book)

Sophia: "Book-a!"

So she still has a way to go, but still... genius, right?

More Cake

I just finished the second course of the Wilton Cake Decorating class. This time I spent three weeks making royal icing flowers and then during the final class I created my masterpiece!