RIBEIRO

Where do I start....I really wish I was putting more effort into this lately. I feel like I'm connecting with all of you when I write more frequently, thank you again for reading/keeping in touch with us through our blog! My thoughts lately.....I really wish we lived close to family and I'm wishing we lived in a bigger place( I've been hooked on mls for weeks now!) They sound like selfish wishes. Yes, I should be satisfied with where we live because there are many who live in alot smaller home. But in terms of the family wish, well....I'm always telling our friends who live close to family, how lucky they are. I really wish we lived closer to my parents or my sister. At present, we've been given tickets to a FABULOUS event and I'm stuck with childcare issues. This is where family comes in....sigh. There's a saying in our family, " You chose your life"....and I have to believe there are reasons we are here and not living elsewhere. Okay,

As summer winds down we have been even more amazed at the progress Jonas has made not only letting us know what's going on in his sweet head, but actually verbalizing it to us. He has repeated several words back to us like 'tetch' (stretch), 'fich' (fix), 'duck', 'quack', 'moo', something like E-I-E-I-O (Old MacDonald's farm song). When hungry he now gestures to his mouth - sign language we have been trying to learn and teach each other. Oh yeah, we also discovered a way to get veggies in him - conceal small pieces of lettuce, peppers, peas, corn or carrots in a flat bread wrap with a bit of chicken or ground beef and voila! He has also learned to hold it with both hands and chomp down on it like a man. Jonas still prefers to crawl - often as fast as we can walk. We know one day he will run from us so we will cherish this time for now. We have made bath time one of "Dad's" things - something Jonas and I both enjoy.

We have had such a nice summer but I'm thinking it's coming to an end. This weekend has been very cold and rainy with the leaves coming down, all signs of fall! I do love fall though. I love the start of new programs, new beginnings, even more so than what New Year's is to alot of people. Anyways.......back to our wonderful summer, as you saw from our entries, we've been busy. We've been able to spend alot of time this summer, including the last two weekends, with Cara, Nuno and Olivia. The picture above is of Olivia and Jonas enjoying Yaletown together. Even though they live in Victoria, we make a real effort to see eachother quite often and we're very thankful for our friendship. Jonas' vocabulary is expanding constantly, his latest words include "close the door" and "go outside". It's amazing that he can put 2 or 3 words together! I'm not sure if this is normal.....probably, and I'm just an over excited parent thinking her