World here we come, let's start with Ontario!

Here's Alexiss with the Fingerless Glove Fanatics (FGF) Traveling Mitt. I started the group on Ravelry. com, a huge community of knitters and crocheters (1,382,112 members to date) with pages to keep track of finished projects (with photos), patterns we want to knit (there's a database of 223,020 patterns from books, magazines, websites and some just on Ravelry....anyone can add a pattern if they are knitting something not in the database), needles and hooks, yarn and books/magazines. On top of all that, there are groups that have their own forums, I created the FGF group in Dec of 2007 and we are now 7500 members strong. This special mitt travels from member to member and we take pictures with it. I had planned on a geocaching event, but the event is in July not June.

Alexiss continues to surprise us! She's now pointing to communicate what she wants, so far it's been pointing at the TV to watch Baby Einstein's in the morning, she usually watches it while I make her breakfast. It's nice to know she enjoys it. :)

Yesterday she wasn't too interested in her formula, perhaps she's weening herself? We'll see if it's a trend that continues.

She's definitely getting around the living room with her little commando drag, it looks like she's got a lame leg in a zombie kinda way....kinda gross... but it does the trick! I've started saying "brains..brains" when she does it. What a cute little zombie she is!

Last night she was so tired from all the zombie crawling that she didn't finish her bed time bottle before falling asleep, which meant she was napping rather than sleeping. An hour later she woke up for more food/formula (no, it wasn't brains, I swear) and when Mark went into her room (I followed close behind, bottle in hand), she was sitting up in her bed looking around.

There's no stopping her now! Sitting up, pointing and zombie crawlin, the world is hers!

One more sleep until our trip home! I wonder if the airport's ready to deal with the Rydersons! I wonder if Mark's arms are ready for all our shtuff!

There's a few things I'm looking forward to doing with Alexiss, most of them are special things I did as a teen in Niagara. Geocaching for sure, I've got to get her a few finds on her profile! I can't wait for the Newfie Boil Up (and meeting Sammy!), a drive along the Niagara Parkway, a drive along Lundy's Lane on a weekend, stopping at Tim Horton's to sit in the parking lot and watch the classic cars drive by and going to a car show! Selfishly I'm looking forward to lunch at a fry wagon. I'll have to get some touristy things in and get pictures of her..for her.

Besides that, it's the people! I haven't been home since moving away 7 or so years ago. Introducing Alexiss to her great grandparents! My Nana is beside herself to have such a little treasure. None of us Ryder's seemed to make it a life goal to have kid's of our own and Nana never thought she'd get to be a great grandmother. I think Nana would really enjoy us attending church with her. We'll get to meet Rylen and see Sue, Darryl and Adam! We'll also get to meet Sean, Christina Bellon-Graves son born shortly after Alexiss and Violet Smith, Ryan and Linda's little bundle of joy.

Heh, it's funny, I'm looking forward to seeing the people but for some reason I'm looking forward to Alexiss meeting and playing with other kids. Ack, I've become a mom. lol

Rex is no longer safe!

Poor Rex, Alexiss can now get around using what I've heard mom's call commando style. She pulls herself with her arms. Last night she followed Rex around the living room intent on touching him. Rex got a few licks in himself too.

But Rex is getting compensated with extra rice crackers that Alexiss drops. Nom.

Alexiss is sitting up on her own now too, on the soft cushie bed during change time she rolls around and pulls herself up to a sitting position, it's only a matter of time until she can manage it on the floor.

Two more sleeps til Ontariariaro!

Alexiss helps The Momma knit

Those beautiful chocolate button eyes

A friend likens Alexiss deep brown eyes to an English chocolate treat called Cadbury Buttons... mmmm...

http://www.atb-bargains.co.uk/cadburys-buttons-33g-2491-p.asp

Alexiss is...

• Super cute! See!

• A Box Collector

I have fond memories of my doll collection and during our trip to Lake Louise I wanted to start Alexiss collecting something. They still bring a smile to my face and almost bring back a feeling of kid-like awe when I look through them. Among ideas I threw out were gemstones and decorative bottles, or perhaps things with a specific animal on it, none of these ideas stayed since decorative bottles are too fragile, we couldn't decide on an animal, and gemstones are nice but not quite right. We settled on decorative boxes and calendars. Mark and I reasoned that the calendars are a good way to mark the date of the trip, most have many photos and we could even put in our own pictures between the pages. We will be buying Alexiss's boxes from different places when we travel to places, family and friends are welcome to add to her collection too!

• A Rocker

She rocks in her bouncer now when she's tired, it'd be nice if she fell asleep to, but noooo, she still needs Momma's help for that one. First step is to start putting her down for naps without a bottle, which does happen from time to time but needs to start being the norm, then I can transition her to quiet time to fall asleep to, then hopefully we can take the Momma out and have her fall asleep on her own. I know some parents who made this switch by the crying method (let her cry for a period of time, then go in and comfort them..etc and lengthen the time each round) but my stance is that right now when Alexiss is unhappy, I can't reason with her and why would I want her to think she's alone when I'm close by. I want her to trust me, to come to me when she's older, not tough it out on her own while I stand by watching/listening. So that connection and trust starts now...even if other Mom's think it's wrong or I'm "spoiling" her. To me there's no such thing as spoiling her when she doesn't know what that means, all she knows is she's unhappy and she can trust me to try to make her happy or help her on her way. No, this doesn't mean she will get the chocolate bar in the grocery store after I say no and she carries it around not trusting the no, neither does it mean as she gets older that I will give in to tantrums or manipulation or whines. Whines I let go and let her figure it out, what I step in for is cries.

She's been rocking on all fours for a few weeks, no crawling yet but she's definitely getting more mobile scootching around.

• A People Watcher

I've noticed that when Alexiss and I are out and about that many many people stop to talk to her. Now, all Mom's think that their child is special and would probably leave it at that, cooing to people that she's so cute people MUST stop to see her, but me.... I knew either I was making it up or there was a reason over and above how cute she is. During our stay at Lake Louise I mentioned it to Mark and asked him if he noticed that more people seemed to stop us than other parents with babies in tow. To my amazement he agreed that more people talk to Alexiss than other babies, so now I had to figure out why. It came to me while standing at the elevator with Alexiss in her stroller gaping up at the other people, smiling away. Alexiss is a people watcher and is blatantly obvious about it, so her "subjects" say hello and smile at her. I mean really, a baby making eye contact and staring isn't rude, it's a connection with the world. She even has small children come up and touch her and the wonderment and love in their eyes is so powerful I can't help but let it play out instead of being protective and standoffish. They are always supervised and are never rough and I don't get the feeling she is in danger in the least. It's really magical to see.

• Ba-Ba-Babbling

She's usually muttered and mumbled, but her favorite this week is Babababababmmmbabab. I've got to see if I can record video and audio on the computer before she gets too old.

• A Geocacher

Alexiss did her first geocache at Lake Louise! It was called Lake of Little Fishies and was a virtual cache, meaning there was no actual cache box, we had to answer a question. I've made her own geocaching account to keep track incase she is still interested when she gets older, she is LittleMizzA! Here's a picture of her infront of her first cache

• One of the Pack

Rex got protective of Alexiss when Matt's new dog Genghis stopped by to check her out

• Giving Toothy Smiles
  

In a week Alexiss has managed to cut 4 top teeth! The first was at Lake Louise and I was absolutely shocked yesterday to get a glimpse of 3 more!!! I haven't noticed a huge amount of symptoms from her when she's cutting teeth, she's a tough chicky! But three at the same time have made her a bit crankier than usual. She's been taking lots of little naps and not playing alone as well as she has. Yesterday she bit her teether and there was a little spot of blood, I'm hoping that's the last of the three actually coming through. She's been grinding them together a bit which has me concerned, but I think it's just because they are new and the gums are sensitive.

• Sleeping

....and I've got stuff to do!