She was sitting with a glass of her favorite white wine when Morgan came up to her insisting that she get some of whatever mommy was drinking.

So thinking that she would teach her daughter a sharp lesson, she gave the glass of wine to Morgan.

Morgan took a good gulp…

…swirled it around in her mouth, and then swallowed it down.

She thought about it for a good 3 or 4 seconds before declaring, “Oh Yum!“.

We’ve been so incredibly busy with Kid Development that it’s hard to summarize all that has been happening.

Morgan hasn’t stopped growing and continues to eat as if she were a 13 year old boy.  She is skinny as a reed, but man, is she TALL (38+ inches for a 2.5 year old).  She is mostly day-time potty trained and seems to get a real pride from her skills =)  Beth made her cloth diapers with velcro snaps for her dolls and she is continually putting on their diapers, then declaring “wet bum”, taking off the diapers and then taking the dolls to the potty.

Her vocabulary has just exploded with development.  Although we’ve been eagerly awaiting this advancement, it has still taken us by surprise with how fast she is progressing.  The number of words she can say, the number of words she can combine into sentences, and the clarity of her speech is increasing daily.

Morgan has also stopped using much of her sign language.  We still have an interesting blend of spoken words and hand communication, but it is definitely leaning more towards speech every day.  She continues to teach her sister MSL (Morgan Sign Language).

Charlotte – oh boy, where to begin.  She has been crawling since mid-November, but now she is just flying down the halls.  She has mastered going up stairs and has some pretty good success on going down them.  She has also just zoomed through crawling to start cruising (9 months) and is just doing amazing.  She can reach just about anything she puts her mind to… and if she can’t reach, she gets her sister to fetch it for her.

When she is concentrating on something she can free-stand for about 10 seconds.

Charlotte is still having a lot of difficulty with her teething… which is affecting her sleep… which is affecting her mom’s sleep… which is pretty disrupting to the household.

When she gets her sleep, she is so happy and ready with smiles and the house is completely transformed… but this doesn’t happen too often =|

She has also taught her sister that if she makes this screeching noise she gets attention.  So Morgan has started screeching.  When they both get going – yikes!

We bought them a trampoline for Christmas – we have visions of sticking them out there first thing in the morning, leaving some food and water out for them, and then letting them back in the hosue sometime around bed time.  Right now Charlotte loves it but Morgan is a little reluctant to go on by herself… which is odd since she loves her cousins’ trampolines.

As the temperature increases, this should be a fun activity for them.  They now have a fenced front yard, a trampoline, and a wonderful new bubble machine from Grandma and Grandpa Lehmann.  Should be a kids dream yard!

For Christmas, we headed to Auntie Tracey’s for a wonderful get together.  Both Beth and I were pretty out of it as Charlotte hadn’t stopped screaming in about 10 months, including every second of the car ride to her house.  We were going to give her to someone to hold so that Beth could get some hands free time, but that wasn’t to be.  She just wants her mommy.  Wonderful child, but I cannot wait for these teeth to settle down.  (She has her two front bottom teeth, and about 3 on the way).  Morgan had a great time with her cousins.  They are so good with her.

And of course, the children were spoiled this year.  They got some of the nicest clothes you could imagine… and wonderful toys that they just love to share back and forth.  Charlotte is MUCH more into toys than Morgan ever was.

And the house is a mess =)   Our TV cycles through our photo library when it isn’t in use (think screensaver) and every once in a while a picture will come up that shows our house pre-children.  And Beth and I just stand there mesmerized by how clean and orderly things are.  We just sigh and stand there transfixed =)

New Years was fairly uneventful for us (bed at 10, iPod alerted me at midnight, Beth is in crash mode getting ready for her 4 am wake-up call).  Morgan had a strange melt-down but we fixed that up with a wonderful new invention: warm milk with a half spoon of hot chocolate mix…

Happy New Year to All!

Running

Noisy Toys

Riding

She has been helping with the dishwasher and the laundry for months now, but she’s starting to do even more around the house and out and about.

On Sunday Morgan and I went grocery shopping while Matt and Charlotte had some quality time at home.

On this particular grocery trip Morgan got to be out of the cart for the first time ever. She did really well. She didn’t run off and she really helped with picking out the groceries.

She helped to pick out the oranges and the onions. Then when we went down the cookie isle she wanted to get special cookies for Daddy.

When we got to the deli she told me she wanted to get rice wrapped in grape leaves. She told me to get one for her and one for her Daddy

The best part was when we were down the cereal isle. I asked her to pick a box of the purple Raisin Bran. Morgan has never seen a box of Raisin Bran before but she picked it out right away.

It was great having such a good helper, however we did end up getting much more than I had expected

Best Friends

Charlotte got her 4 month shots in July.  She was 15 lbs. and 25 ” long and just keeps getting bigger.  She is growing by leaps and bounds.  She loves to spend time in her Jolly Jumper (even if Morgan does see it as an opportunity to try to pick her up).  She is also desperately trying to sit up on her own.  No more leaving her propped up anywhere!

In mid-July we had a great visit with Robyn, Raven, Mason, and Cordelia (we missed Jon, Brandi, and Isobel, but we’ll have to try to get in to Vancouver to see them sometime).  The kids had a great time running around and playing, while the Moms and Dads got to chat.

The same day that everyone visited, I got my hair CUT!!  It felt so good to finally make a change.  For those of you who don’t know, or can’t tell from the pictures, my hair was down to my bottom.  I really got it chopped off, it is now just a little longer then chin length.  I have to say that it is really nice how fast I can take care of it in the shower!

We went to Matthew’s parent’s house for his Mom’s birthday party early in July.  Morgan had an absolutely wonderful time with her bigger cousins.  She just adores her big cousins.  We had a great time too, we both managed to have our hands free!!  With all the family at the party there was always someone to hold or watch both the girls.  We even briefly considered just going home and leaving them there

Earlier in the summer we pulled Morgan’s tricycle out of the shed for her to try out.  She loves it and she is almost big enough for it.  She has the concept of pedaling down but her legs just aren’t quite long enough.  We even went out and bought her a beautiful blue helmet to go with the tricycle.  Unfortunately we had to put the tricycle away for the season when Morgan decided that she could ride it on her own all the way down the driveway.  She didn’t have an accident, but it was close enough that we didn’t want to chance her playing with it on her own.

We bought a power washer in July.  We had been uncertain if we should get one or not.  When the gentleman we were going to get to do our driveway told us we should just get one and do it ourselves we went for it!  After spending a good hour putting the thing together Matt took it out for a little test drive on our old grey fence.  WOW!!  The difference was amazing!  The next weekend Matt did our driveway.  It started out black and now looks brand new.  Morgan and I watched him from in the house and I have to say it was hypnotizing to watch.

I guess that brings us to August.  It may only be half way thru but we have been just as busy in August as in July.  Matt finished insulating our shed on the long weekend.  This is a project we started last year so we are very happy to finally have it finished, well almost finished.  I still have to go thru everything and find a proper home for it all.  The next weekend we had a great BBQ at Tracey’s.  Once again Morgan just had a blast playing with her cousins.  She also had a great time on the trampoline all by herself (it looks like we may need to get one sooner than anticipated).   The next day we went to the Hackett Park Arts Festival.  We have visited the fair every year since Morgan was born.  We always pick up a little something for Morgan, and now for Charlotte too.  This year we got a beautiful ceramic dragonfly (for Morgan) and an adorable ceramic ladybug (for Charlotte).

The best part was when we all sat down on a little grassy knoll for lunch.  We each had a hotdog and we shared a lemonade slushy.  This was the first place the Morgan was allowed to run free and she had a great time.  It was so strange seeing her like that.  It was like a glimpse of the little girl that she will be.  After we had lunch we did one last tour of the festival and Morgan got her face painted.  The woman who did the face painting was so good!  She was just amazing with the kids.

The final big event of that weekend was feeding Charlotte her first solids!  Of course this was a big family event with Morgan needing to play a big part.  Charlotte did great, she just gobbled it up.  She was also very patient with Morgan shoving the spoon into her mouth   Ever since we fed Charlotte she has decided that she likes food.  She is always trying to steal food from us anytime she is in our laps.  It looks like we will have 2 big eaters on our hands very soon!

Check out the 3 online albums here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/mainstaycomputing/LazyJuly?authkey=Gv1sRgCOj44_nu4d2-bg

https://picasaweb.google.com/mainstaycomputing/Driveway2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGvi_uB-JChXQ

https://picasaweb.google.com/mainstaycomputing/August2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCImJu-70jofdKw

Bird Seed Fever

We took an afternoon and headed back to the Sechelt Duck Marsh.  Morgan just loves feeding the birds and seems to thrive on the frenzy of birds feeding.  Doesn’t seem scared at all.

More pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/mainstaycomputing/June2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCKTHmoTLsq6LjQE

Beth and I are grateful that we can share this evening together and enjoy good company and good food.

I for one am very thankful for this feast that has been prepared before us.

Together, we’ve had a lot to be thankful for this last year.

Our business has  prospered and grown, tough economic times not withstanding.

We’ve had our wonderful little girl who is an absolute delight and who has brought us tremendous joy.

We would also like to share with you the wonderful news that our family is about to grow a little larger.  This spring we are expecting the arrival of a new baby Lehmann.

We have much to be thankful for.

Family is the wine of life; Let’s drink of it, and to it.

Zum Wohl!

Morgan was in the master bedroom and I was in Morgan’s room just down the hall.  She and I would take turns poking  our heads out the door.  She thought it was a hoot!

I then thought I’d try to get her to come back to her room by closing her door (she usually can’t pass up a newly closed door).  Much to my surprise, she didn’t come to find me.  I opened the door to find that she had also closed the door to the master bedroom.

I guess she’s starting to get a little too clever.

Not the least of which was a visit with Jon and Brandi and Isobelle Snow and Raven, Robyn, Mason, and Cordelia Kopelman. We had shish kabob’s on the bbq and a great visit after spending some time down at Porpoise Bay Beach with the families. Morgan got her feet wet in the ocean for the first time(!)

Morgan played in her pool that she got from her birthday from Jim and Sherry and she managed to eat most of the sand that Jim and Annika gave her (mmm, nice sandy diaper’s).

We also went to Cliff Gilker Park for a day in the park. Morgan had a great time in the waterfall.

Here are a few pictures (w/ a few videos).

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We had a absolutely wonderful family evening tonight.

Morgan and I went with Matthew to drop of a couple of computers to a customer.  Then we got a fabulous dinner at the Feastro Taco Truck in Davis Bay and went down to Roberts Creek Beach to eat.   Morgan had a feast.  She had her first taste of fish, shrimp, and lemon.  It goes without saying that she loved every bite.

After our awesome dinner we did a little bit of grocery shopping.  Daddy showed Morgan how to eat the produce before we have paid for it   We just couldn’t keep her out of the grapes.

When we got home we had another big first for Morgan.  She took her first unaided steps!!  Well, we did stand her up to get her to try to walk to Daddy, but she took the steps without holding on to anything!

We finished the evening with a nice bath (to get rid of all the leftover fish), and then off to Morgan’s room for a little bit of reading before off to bed.

All in all I think it was one of our best nights ever.

She struck a pose on her big rock so of course we had to grab the camera.

Pictures available here.

Morgan had her first tea time with her cousins (she was really confused with the very real looking fake strawberry).

We headed back for ham and scalloped potatoes.

Pictures available here.

The Google / YouTube combo is actually less powerful that Google Video (and very very frustrating).

We discovered that many of our videos that were uploaded never actually made it onto the web… so here are the [new] Morgan videos.

starting with an oldie (October 10, 2009) 4 months old:

vs 9 months:

vs 9.5 months

We then went to the pool for a great afternoon of swimming and jacuzzi time.

Pictures available here.

Pictures available for download here.

We had a beautiful day with our girl and of course took a few pictures.

We plunked her down in a pile of leaves and then had to figure out how to stop her from eating them all.

Some photos: (Picasa Album Available: here)