Our Little Avala - 11 Months Old

Our baby is growing fast. We can hardly believe that we will be celebrating her first birthday in a month. She is just cutting her first tooth - on the bottom and is really beginning to develop more rapidly. She still doesn't walk - but she will stand and hold on to something if we help her and she crawls like a maniac.She loves food - all food. She eats fast and is always yelling for more. I haven't really found anything yet that I can say she really doesn't like - sometimes she needs time adjusting to new textures but once she has a new food a few times, she is happy to eat it.She still has those piercing blue eyes - I really have a hard time believing I could create a blue eyes baby - but apparently I can do it.She is starting to babble more and repeats the important syllables - mamamama and dadadada and she is starting to point to a few things as she understands them.
We look forward to her learning to walk and are thrilled to have her in our family.

Much Improvement

After our little talk about Jasmine being able to do whatever she puts her mind to - the Campbell's Motto - I Can and I Will! - she much improved at swimming class and started to get more confident in her swimming. She had a great teacher and he was very patient with her. It also really helps that there are only 3 kids in this first class so she gets a lot of individual attention and is learning more rapidly because of it.

Annual Saint Patty's Day Festivities

As always, we had our annual Saint Patty's Day Party filled with all things green - green food, green decorations and friends dressed in green! It was even better this year because my friend Liz came in for the weekend to see us and be at our party! It is always fun when we get out of town visitors.Ava looked darling in her Saint Patty's Day wear and Jasmine too looked festive and cute. We had fun with all of our friends who came and we watched another bomb of an Irish movie - Finian's Rainbow. It was a musical and it was tough to sit through but with everyone making jokes, it was still fun. It has now become tradition to show bad Irish movies at our parties. We are starting to run out of ones we haven't seen so at some point we may have to start over!We even had the chance to celebrate Jay & Cindy's birthdays - I made a special cake and we sang to them - it was fun to be able to do that!

Little Swimming Rosemary

When Jasmine was 7 months old, we did a Mommy and Me swimming class and she loved it - so I wanted to do the same with Ava. Ava seems more fond of water overall than her sister and she was so excited to get in the water. She absolutely loved being in the water and she showed no fear - she also looked super cute in her swimsuit!I had so much fun being in the water with Ava and taking an opportunity to spend some quality one on one time with her. I think finding these moments is so important - especially with the second child so that she feels special and knows you love her too.

My Big Swimming Bee

We decided to enroll Jasmine in a swimming class because we felt she wasn't super comfortable in the water and we wanted her to feel secure and like she knew what she was doing. We also feel it is a vital life skill that we wanted to make sure was taught to her by someone who knew how to teach.
Our local Rec. Center offered classes at a good price at a time of day that worked out. Jasmine was super excited to go. I think she thought she was going to a pool to play.
Her first day was interesting because she was bouncing off of the walls - almost literally. She also complained a lot to the teacher that she couldn't do things. This made me upset because I think when you say you can't, you surely won't.Still, when class was over she told me she loved it and asked if we were coming back the next day. She was sad when I told her she had to wait another week before the next class. Ava loved watching and she was sad she didn't get to go in - little did she know her first day of swimming was the next day with Mama!Jasmine and I had a little talk at the end of the class when I explained to her that Campbells always say, "I Can and I Will!" I made her repeat it and since that day she always tries something new with this attitude! Love that kid!

Pizza Party Field Trip

Jasmine has the most amazing teacher at her Preschool. Mrs. Markman is amazing and always packs the kids days with neat learning experiences. I am so glad I chose her to teach Jasmine - she has been a key component in Jasmine's development.I also love my job because it allows me some flexibility to do things like chaperon my daughter's field trips from time to time.
This day, we all went to Domino's Pizza so the kids could learn how they make pizzas. It was such a neat process and the kids had a blast. You could tell they had done this before because they got those kids in and out of there pretty quickly.
Jasmine was a riot when it was her turn. I got to watch all the other kids go before her and they were cautious and timid making the pizzas. Not Jasmine. She dug right in and was the only child (ever as far as Mrs. Markman's field trips there) to try and taste the toppings. She also covered her entire pizza full with Pepperoni and Pineapple which is the family favorite and her personal favorite.It got even better when they said I could make one too! I too made a pepperoni and pineapple and I must say it was delicious. I took it home and shared with Lorne. It was so fun to be able to participate and have that time with my daughter. Life is just good around here.

Chocolate Lovers Festival 2010

We were invited to participate in the Chocolate Lovers Festival in Fairfax to be in the Chocolate Challenge and we thought it would be fun to compete in the professional category. The festival was supposed to be in February but because of all the snow, it got moved to the beginning of March.
I had a lot of fun designing the cake for the competition and I looked forward to competing and doing well. I titled the piece Chocoholic's Breakfast. I was very pleased with the outcome.I got to meet up with my friend Norm - I hadn't seen him in over a year and it was fun to chat with him again. He was one of the judges for the competition. He also did a demo of how to make a purse cake and Jasmine had a blast heckling him from the front row. He thought it was so funny he had her come up to help hi and later we got a picture of them together.I ended up winning Best in Show and Best in Taste and we also won the People's Choice award as well. It was a great day and worth staying up late the night before to finish it!