photo shoot

This past Saturday we had a photo shoot with our one of our dearest friends, Sandra Vander Schaaf.She is not only an incredible friend, she is a professional photographer, writer, Wade's dread technician (yep, she did 'em!) and permanent dinner guest. Everything she does is art and this time was no exception. We haven't seen the whole lot, but here are the first few photos she sent us today. While it was meant to be a bit of a 'pregnancy' photo shoot, it is quickly apparent that best photos are not of Wade and I...enjoy!

A note of professional courtesy: these photos are sized for viewing online and not a good file size for printing. All of the photos are copyrighted to SandraVander Schaaf
Photography. Should you wish to use, copy or buy any of these prints,please contact Sandra at www.onceuponalifetime.ca
You can also see photos of us both before and after Sophia's birth there too.

blue loves me

The other day Sophia told me she loved me for the first time. This was the first time that she has initiated the thought, I mean, as opposed to her saying "I love you" in response to us saying it first.
The only thing about it was that at the time she was pretending to be Blue, the puppy from the TV show Blue's Clues. Sophia often pretends that I am Joe, one guy from the show, Wade is Steve, the other guy from the show, and she is Blue. For example, when Wade went to Seattle last time she actually said "Where's Steve?" when she was asking for Wade.
So she was hugging me and she said, "I Love you, Joe, I Love you, Joe." I was so touched, but I couldn't get over the fact that this lovely moment was happening and she was calling me the name of an over-enthusiastic TV host who hangs out in front of a blue screen all day. I actually did say, "Can you say it again, and call me Mum?" So she humoured me and said, " I love you Mum." Then she said, "I love you, Joe."

snowmen, pedals, and stripey tights

We've got snow here this week again. During the last snowfall our downstairs neighbours built a great snowman in the front yard and it became a daily activity to check in on it. This time when Sophia woke up to snow she looked outside and said "Where's the snowman?" I had to explain that they don't just come down with the snow, that someone has to build them. We decided to build these ones out of playdough. They are a Daday snowman and a Sophia snowman. Please note the Daddy snowman's dreads.



Speaking of Daddies, there was much joy in our house this week when we figured out there was enough money in the "gear" savings account to buy the bass guitar pedal Wade has been dreaming of for four years. This is the moment when Wade brought it home and told Sophia it was a new toy. She began jumping up and down and said, "Play your guitar, Dad! Make a party dance! Make a party dance!"



When we were on tour in 2003 there was a little girl we loved who always wore fabulous stripey tights. I remeber thinking if I had a little girl I would love her to have some too. Look at that....
By the way, Sophia eats a lot of pretend ice cream. Here's another cone of pretend love.

this year on new year's eve, wade was in seattle and sophia and i settled in to watch the movie 'cars' for a treat. she liked it after a few viewings, but the first time she got bored and wanted to fingerpaint. then she decided to get naked and paint herself, like the pigs do on one of her favourite books, 'the pig's weddding'. usually i make her pretend, but i figured it was a special occasion, and boy did she get into it! in the book the pigs hose off and paint fancy clothes on themsleves for a wedding, including glasses, watches, etc. we cropped the image above for internet viewing, but let's just say the full body one will be in her wedding slideshow for sure.




sophia and i baked two pumpkin cheesecakes for her god mother, angela's birthday this past week. soph is so great at helping in the kitchen. here she is decorating her cake. you should have tasted them, they were amazing!