Dakota trying to fit in the wagon...no wonder it's broken.

I like this photo of Ceili and I. We were curled up on the floor and she was giggling uncontrollably whenever I tickled her. Even though this photo is only about a month old, she looks so small compared to how big she is now.

Some more photos in the pool:
Ceili's one year birthday party:

Ceili learned to walk at 10 months old, by 12 months she was running, and now at 13 months she's unstoppable.


The Whirling Dervish:

Grandma and Ceili at work:

During that hot spell we had a month and a half ago, Shelly bought an inflatable pool. It was fun, and Ceili loved flinging herself backwards against the edge of the pool.

Oooh, some good news! Here's a picture of Mel and Mike on the day they announced their engagement to us. We were at the Millarville farmer's market.


Ceili and I at the Canada Day festivities at Prince's Island Park:

Dustin and Ceili playing at Mom and Dad's house. She really liked the slide and being pulled around in the wagon.

These are some photos from our trip to Vancouver in June 2007. Our friend Scott married Lana in a very nice ceremony on Grouse mountain. We stayed with another friend, Mike. Mike and Shelly's friend, Linda, brought her daughter over and the two cuties posed for a lot of photos inbetween chasing Mike's cat around:


Here's a photo of Ceili at the wedding wearing her first veil!

And a photo of Shelly and her old roomie and the Groom, Scott at the wedding:

We had some great weather for the wedding. The clouds parted for the wedding and we got some sun. It was really a great day.

Time for some new photos. I'm way behind schedule on this. Even though it's a holiday Monday, I should be doing some work for work, or fixing my lawn mower that broke yesterday, or going for a bike ride, or anything else except sit here in the basement on the computer. Some of the photos will be out of order because I'm not too organized today.

Anyway, here's a nice shot of Ceili on the deck at Mom and Dad's house. She liked the wind blowing through her hair.


This is a photo of Ceili at her "Dedication" (infant baptism). She's wearing her pearls and her fancy white dress and was as happy as a bee in clover.

Not the best photo, but is shows what actually goes on around here. Grandma looks a bit surprised :-)

Here's a photo of Mom and Ceili because Mom says that there aren't any good photos of them together.

And lastly, a photo of Grandma and Grandpa Fin at the mall with Ceili.

In China Again

Well, I'm off to China again. This time for about two weeks, mostly in Luoyang. I hope to get a day or two off to go sightseeing, but that depends on the work. The weather is extremely hot at the moment (38°C), but it is not too humid. I did not bring any shorts (my bag was already full of paper and drawings so there was not room for shorts and sandals).

It was very hard to leave Ceili. She got clingy at the airport, which she almost never does with me, and I think she knew I was leaving. I miss her already.

We finally lucked out and Air Canada has upgraded their dodgy old 767 to the new lay-flat style beds. Very nice. I got about 4-6 hours of sleep on the flight and was actually very comfortable. Much nicer than the old seats. The shot of Gord is a bit fuzzy, but I did not want to use the flash on the airplane.

Once we arrived in Beijing, it was off for the compulsory meal at the Paulaner Brauhaus. Ian ordered his usual Swinehaxen and bratwurst plate. About 1 lb of fat and 2 lbs of meat in that meal.
We met the next morning for breakfast. The weather was very nice so we sat outside. Gord and Ewald are fuelling up for the next week of meetings.

Things change so fast in China. The Luoyang airport is being renovated. The baggage handling area is being re-done. They've painted the walls, installed new ceiling tiles, and actually have the lights turned on. It was very hot and the car that was sent to pick us up would not start, so we had to wait 30 minutes at the airport for a second vehicle to pick us up.

That's all for now. Tonight we will go for dinner and hit the sack early. There's about 3-4 hours of work for us to do on the drawings tonight so that we are prepared for the meetings. Kind of a pain travelling all weekend.

I don't know why Blogger insists on using the Chinese language version, but whenever I'm in China it won't let me use the English version. Probably something to do with sensorchip. Hopefully I hit the "post" button instead of the delete button - all the buttons are in Chinese, so I'm doing this blog entry by remembering where I think all the buttons are located in the English version.

Cheers,

Steven

Walking along the river

Mom and the kids dropped by the house on Friday for a visit and Shelly took a few good pictures. This one of Mom and Ceili is pretty good, but slightly grainy.


Twyla and Ceili were running back and forth to the mirror. Ceili loves this.

Ceili was in a particularly good mood today. We went swimming this afternoon and had a great time. After swimming we dropped by Inglewood, had a spicy sausage sandwich as Spolumbo's, then went for a walk along the river. The weather was warm-ish, but overcast. There's lots of birds returning to Calgary. Today we saw a small woodpecker, and those pesky falcons that want to live in our back-yard returned. I'll have to convince them to move along again. Last year I convinced them to live down the steet by waving my arms at them like a mad-man every time I saw them.

Half way though the walk Ceili got into a fun mood. She wanted to kiss you, or grab your hair, or grab your cheeks, or scratch your eyes out. Here she got a lip-lock on my nose.

February update

It's been a while since the last update. Things have been pretty busy here between big work projects coming due and Ceili being busy all the time. I also suffered a small computer failure (both USB ports died), making it impossible to download any photos for a while.

Looks like I won't have to go back to China until May, and I narrowly avoided a trip to Egypt this week, so I have some time at home. We've been busy here with Ceili. In the last two months she has been swimming for the first time, has used the potty (which makes her Mom really happy), and she's really started to get around. At 8.5 months only she's walking along the furniture and crawling like you wouldn't believe. She's pretty fearless, but she has got a few good bumps and done a few good faceplants into the linoleum.

Well, here's a few photos in reverse chronological order. First was Ceili's first trip to Banff. It was a bit cold that day, but she really enjoyed the Banff Hot Springs.



Next is Mom looking proud and Ceili saying "Oh come-on, Mom, I can go potty whenever I want"



And the little cutie being cute Saturday morning after Dad's big project at work was completed.



Shelly spent Friday evening and all day Saturday at Camp-Croppin', a scrapbooking retreat. I think she had a great time. Dad and Ceili had to ferry back and forth to the hotel so that Ceili could get something to eat. Inbetween feedings we went downtown, walked down 17th ave, had a gelato ice-cream, and went swimming. By the time we were finished that, Ceili was so tired she passed out in the car before we got out of the parking lot, and then slept all evening.



This was Ceili's first time at the public swimming pool. She really enjoys swimming.

And Ceili and Mom in the wading pool (where it's warmer).

Smiling because it's fun to pull Dad's hair.

The biggest toy in the toybox.

A nice photo of her walking along her little playtent.

Ceili and Mom in the basement; both pretty in pink.

Twyla, Kathie, and Ceili and the Ukrainian Dance night. Twyla's group all dressed up for the dinner, then changed into their costumes for the dance.

The mandatory picture of a baby enjoying eating peas. Ceili loves to eat.
And a visit from some of the Manitoba relatives.

That's all for now; it's time to go to sleep. There's a video or two to add to my youtube site, but I haven't edited the video yet, so that will have to wait for another day.

Cheers,

Steven & Shelly & Ceili