It's Saturday morning, and everyone is asleep in the house except me. I would love to join them, but Ada woke me so that she could have a diaper change and some playtime, but now she has played herself back to sleep but I'm too awake now to sleep. Even the cats are sleeping - Calvin in the bathroom sink and Max under a dining room chair (the change table shift isn't until the afternoon). I would consider this peaceful except for the loud drilling going on in the construction site across the street.

We have had a whirlwind of a Christmas season, and it was all wonderful. The most exciting part was being able to see Melissa and Tom again, still smelling of England and excited to finally meet our little Ada. As you can see, Melissa took to being an aunt very easily...



...and Tom enjoyed the Baby Bjorn. Maybe a little too much...



Ada was a little gem throughout the whole Christmas week. It started off with a trip to London on Christmas Eve after picking up Melissa and Tom from the airport. We had Christmas with the Howards on Christmas Day, where Ada had at least half the presents under the tree with her name on them, then Christmas with my family on Boxing Day, then back to Toronto to check on the cats. Back to London on the 28th for Christmas with the Fuerths and a birthday celebration for Jonathan's dad, a day of recovery, then back to Toronto on the 30th. We spent New Year's Eve at Andrew's new condo for an evening of yummy food and lots of Wii playing. Meanwhile, Ada slept in three different beds, stayed out past her bedtime, and was passed from one smiling relative to another for a full week. Considering the changes to her usual schedule, she did very well, but we paid for it this past week. She must have wondered where all the smiling faces and new environments went to, and why should she go back to her normal routine now? It took me a couple of fussy days, but she has finally realized how much she needed her old routine.

The potential for a peaceful Saturday morning is definitely gone now - a large marching band has just started practicing right outside the Skydome... er.. Roger's Centre. The brass is blaring the Rocky theme (there is one trumpet player who should be considering an alternate career), while the percussion and bass section are randomly tooting and thumping to who knows what. Ah, the joys of living downtown. :)

Here is Ada is with her favourite second cousin, Ethan. Ethan couldn't get enough of Ada - he is going to be a real people person. And it was the first time I've seen Ada take interest in another baby.



Ada received an abundance of lovely gifts from everyone, and I want to thank everyone again for everything. Jonathan and I looked at our collection of photos from Christmas last night and were shocked to see how few we took. I guess with all the other cameras flashing (and there were a lot of cameras flashing!), we didn't think to take many of our own. I will try harder at taking more pictures so that I will have more to post! But to finish off, here is a picture of Ada celebrating her four month birthday, this time with a Belgian beer. She has good taste!



Well, the marching band has come to a climax, and Ada has decided she can't sleep through it, so that means I get to play with Ada some more! Lucky me!