Adventures in Calgary

Aunt Helen passed away last night. I think that Aunt Barb was with her in the hospital. When I think of Aunt Helen I think of Christmas, chinese food, and great conversation. I wish that Molly could've met her but I'm so glad that she has passed on without too much pain or suffering. I think that Ronin and Conner will miss her the most. She was so incredible with them. It is hard to believe I won't get to see Aunt Helen again.

I love you Aunt Helen and I will miss you very, very much.

We had a great, relaxing weekend. The weather was nice. We got out for some walks. We hung out with some neighbours. We had a bbq with G. Andrew, Auntie Jess and Uncle Adam. It was just what we needed. Molly ate pizza for the first time and loved it. It was a frozen pizza from a place in Canmore that distributes to organic food stores. Delicious! Molly was walking all over G Andrew's house. She still can't figure out how to get up to standing from a sitting position but that is a hard thing to do. She sorta said "Hi Jess" to Auntie Jess and that was the first time she'd ever attempted anyone's name. She's loving opening and shutting her bedroom door. She's also loving wearing real shoes instead of Robeez. Yesterday she was set on wearing these denim shoes that were too big for her but there was no distracting her. God love her determination.

Noel has posted some video of Molly walking and rocking on his blog

jitbag.blogspot.com

Molly is walking more and more everyday. She still hasn't figured out how to get up to walking unless she has something to pull up on but she's trying. She understands so much more of what we're saying now too. It's just so cool to ask her a question and have her respond. She's not talking yet but she totally gets what's going on. She's also sleeping well again - thank god.

We had a great trip to BC to visit Nancy, Roth and little Scarlett. We stayed in a place I can't spell in a gorgeous condo that Nancy found. Molly and Scarlett got along great. It was so neat to see them interact and start to look for each other. Scarlett is crawling like there's barbed wire hanging above her but by the end of the weekend boy could she motor after Molly. It was wonderful getting outside for walks in the sun and even in the rain. Noel made us all some fabulous meals. The babes were pretty good about napping and sleeping for the most part. Nancy was a super-trooper (it was hard to remember she is actually pregnant when she was motoring around). Molly made some serious walking progress in the Vancouver airport. We ended up getting there super duper early for our flight so between eating and wandering Molly figured out how to use the chariot as a walker and even started to walk from one chair to another without any assistance. It was so cool watching her figure it all out. She's still prefers to walk on her knees but she's getting more surefooted each day. My favourite part of the trip was going to Robert's Creek for lunch. It's such a cool little hippie colony.

Molly got lots of great gifts for her first birthday but the coolest gifts were the beautiful tricycle from Auntie Rapper and the super cool rock'n roll t-shirt from Zoe. Too bad about the birthday rash - turns out it was a reaction to some detergent we used while we were away in BC. Serves us right for trying to keep Molly's clothes clean while traveling!