Posts Tagged ‘Guilliana’

12th April
2011
written by bob

Well…it has been an incredible year! Nothing this year is the same as it was in 2010. Katherine and I have new jobs, live in a new country, reside in a new house…and best of all…have a new addition to our family, Guilliana, our first child! Miss G is now 1 year old! Wow, can you believe it? A lot has changed and it is all very welcomed.

Guilliana turned one this past week, we still can’t believe that she is already a year old. Boy, time really does fly by. We didn’t really have a big party for G but more a family party; we have only lived here in Antibes for 5 weeks and don’t really know anyone yet. On Friday, we both had to work BUT we were sure to get home early and quickly so we could take G to the Carousel in the Square. She just loves riding that. Every time we walk by it, she gets ALL EXCITED and starts giggling, laughing, kicking, and pointing to it! That’s her new thing; pointing to something that she wants and saying, “daaahh”. Well, at least that is our interpretation of what she’s saying. It’s very cute.

We hopped on the Carousel and rode the horse round and round while having her picture taken. Take a look…isn’t she just the cutest little thing?!?!

Mommy with G for her birthday ride.

Saturday was G-Monkey’s day. We took her to the park down by the beach where she gets to slide, pretend drive, run up & down the ramps, and play with a puzzle…all in the same huge piece of playground equipment. After an hour or so of tearing up the playground, we headed over to the beach so G-Monkey could walk/play down by the water. Funny thing…along the walkway we saw a cute elderly couple sitting on a park bench together where both of them had fallen asleep! Off with the shoes and down to the water went G and Mommy. What a great day to hang at the beach for awhile!

After a quick stop at the Intermarché (market) we headed home for birthday cake. We had a local Patisserie make G a strawberry cake. A French cake; however, isn’t like a traditional cake we think of in the US. G’s cake was more like a glazed, single-layer cake with a custard layer below and fresh half strawberries placed all around the edges. Talk about delicious! Mommy & daddy sang “Happy Birthday” and G dug in! She doesn’t believe in using utensils or hands, G goes straight for the cake with her mouth.

Who needs utensils or even hands?


Following cake and a little dinner, it was time for G-Monkey to head to bed. What a day…G plays hard and just continues to go, go, go until the last minute of the day! Once in bed, G was asleep in minutes.

Au revoir! Enjoy the slideshow & we’ll see you soon!



25th February
2011
written by bob

Guilliana is just itching to get into the Information Technology world; so much so that she’s already decided to start giving mommy a hand with her duties at work. G is blazing fast and puts daddy to shame from a perspective of how much (and how quick) she gets “everything” completed! Watch her send out email and faxes…check her out in action! That keyboard is about to light on fire!

2nd February
2011
written by bob

Well…Katherine and I knew this day would come. We find it both a blessing and a curse but obviously inevitable. Miss Guilliana decided she has had enough futz-ing around and this past weekend showed us that she is ready to walk – on her own!

Guilliana has never had any patience for that crawling shenanigans, she just refused to do it and has been walking around for the past 2 months holding onto our hands. Next to getting married & Guilliana’s birth, this is one of the proudest moments of my life. It is truly amazing to watch G grow up and learn the various “skills” she will need throughout the rest of her life. Katherine and I are truly blessed (I’m sure most parents feel the same)!

We took Miss G-Monkey out for a lakeside walk at Tempe Beach Park this past weekend and found a nice “green” patch of grass to play in. I don’t think “antsy-pants” could have stayed in her stroller much longer. So we got out and walked around holding onto mommy and daddy’s hand, one-handed even! Walking never gets boring for G, she is ALWAYS ready to get up and GO! Since the ground was soft and lush, we decided to see if Guilliana could walk between Katherine and I. Heck, what’s the worst that could happen even if she fell, it was a soft landing as opposed to the hardwood floors in the condo.

So without further adieu, I give you the amazing G-Monkey…

We are so in trouble…

16th January
2011
written by bob

Yes I know…I said that I was going to be better about blogging more often. Ummmm, yeah well…that isn’t going to happen overnight…BUT I’m working on it. I promise.

Today was a great day for weather in Tempe! Local temps must have hit about 70-75 degrees and sunny all around. I love winter in the desert! Katherine, Guilliana, & I decided to go out for a nice long walk today and enjoy this great weather. We put Guilliana in her backpack and enjoyed a stroll through the neighborhood & downtown Tempe along Mill Ave, a place we haven’t been in quite a few weeks.

Mommy & Guilliana

How CUTE am I?

We found a new Candy Shop that had some retro candy that Katherine and I haven’t seen since our childhood. While there, the owner of the store gave Guilliana a purple balloon. She wasn’t too sure what to think of it at first but then warmed up to it.

From the Candy store, we cruised over to Tempe Beach Park on our way home. As we approached the park, Guilliana became increasingly giddy while playing her balloon. She a good hold of it close to the mouth of the balloon. I reached back over my shoulder and gave the balloon a couple of swats. Guilliana started to giggle hysterically! The more I swatted her balloon, the more she laughed uncontrollably. It was so adorable and only made Katherine and I laugh just as much. Katherine captured this quick video before our fun and games ceased. Have a look.

So we recently purchased an iPad so that I could start developing apps on it through our company. I also figured that I should try out publishing a blog post from the new iPad using the iPad WordPress app and see how the iPad stands up on its own (compared to a laptop). Thus far I have to say that I’m quite impressed. Typing on the iPad seems very easy especially for someone with bigger hands and an on-screen keyboard. Very nice. The WordPress app is pretty simple but that’s okay in my book since it’s not hard to figure out how to use. Simplicity is better in this case.

Ok…now for the not so good. iPad WordPress could certainly stand to improve. In landscape mode, word wrap doesn’t seem to always wrap where it should. Oddly, there are instances where it wraps after the right margin of the screen essentially leaving a word or two in an unviewable area. The second and more important issue (bug) is the one when you accidentally touch another blogin your side posts. What happens here is, unless you have saved your work, the blog changes to the selected post and you lose all of your current work. I speak from experience on this as this is the second time I have written this post! Lastly, upon one attempt to save my post, WordPress crashed and I lost a few changes but nothing major like my earlier accident. I think that WordPress should really ask you if you would like to save prior to navigating away from your current post. This would have saved me!

In conclusion, while simplicity is good & easy, I rate WordPress a “generous” 3 out of 5 based on the fact that the bad out-weighs the good in this case. I would like to give it a better rating but I think that will have to to wait until the next bug-fix update when I rate that version.

8th December
2010
written by bob

Oh boy, FINALLY! This didn’t take forever…NOT! Mommy & Daddy have been neglecting to write regular posts in our blog so I, Guilliana, had to take it upon myself to blog now! Seeing how both my parents are total geeks, looks like I have inherited these essential qualities too! Whoohoo!

Now let’s get to it…

G's monkey costume

Guilliana's first halloween 2010.

Lately my parents think I play with my toys however, over the past few months, I have been watching my dad and studying what he’s been doing on the silver, rectangle-thingy. Daddy calls it his “Mac”. Oh SWEET, he has decided to detour to the bathroom so I’m going to play “with his Mac”. :)

A couple weeks ago my mommy and daddy dressed me up in this silly monkey outfit. Once I saw myself in the mirror the only thing I could think was, “E-gad, I look like the sponge monkey I have in the tub at bath time!” But they kept telling me I was “cute”. I don’t know, what do you think?

At least when they put me in the dreaded car seat, I had a padded behind in my monkey suit! That made it a nice, comfortable ride! Then to top it all off, mommy & daddy dressed up in clothes I have NEVER seen either of them wear (in my 7 short months of life so far)! Hats and all, you should have seen them. What a pair! Shhhh…don’t tell them but I think they looked funny! Oh wait, let me grab daddy’s “iPhone” and upload one he took of all of us. Looks like they were opting for a “Safari” theme for Halloween this year. Well, DAMN…mission accomplished, Steve Irwin! Just look at our pic.

Daddy, G, & Mommy all dressed up.

Anyways…we drove to Dave & Carrie’s house so that I could hang out with Sydney, Londyn, Dominic, and Blake. Us kids needed to get our sugar-fix and trick-or-treating was our first order of business that night. We perused Syd’s hood in our wagons/strollers with our parents in tow and were out for a couple of hours! MAJOR CANDY SCORE! Heck, we even saw a live band playing in some dude’s driveway! Not a bad night at all, in my honest opinion. We made out like bandits with candy and saw all kinds of others with great costumes too. It was sooooo much fun! I can’t wait until next year…then I’ll be able to walk on my own. Buahahahaha, lookout world!

OH CRAP!! Speaking of walking, I hear mommy or daddy footsteps coming so I need to grab one of my “noise-making” toys and look busy…’til next time, this is G-monkey!

29th October
2010
written by bob

Well…it finally made its first appearance. Guilliana’s first tooth cut through on her bottom right side! It’s only really been…oh…a SOLID 4+ month of drool and constant wiping. Hmmmm…maybe that’s why G has been a bit of a ‘Crank-o-potamous’ lately and waking up a few times throughout the night for the past couple weeks! Needless to say, it’s been a bit rough on mommy and daddy’s sleep schedule and amount.

Last week it was family portrait day for all of us! Guilliana is now 6 months and we figured since she is sitting up all on her own and much more engaged than she was at 3 months, it was time for family pics. A couple of months ago we called our amazing photographer, Alan Mermelstein of Moments Found Photography to book a photo session with him.

Alan did such and incredible job at our wedding that we wanted him to photograph our new family. While he had an extremely busy schedule with weddings and vacation, we decided to hold out until his schedule fit ours. Yes, he’s THAT GOOD!

Both Katherine and I would HIGHLY recommend Alan for your wedding which is pretty much all he photographs. Here are the final photos put into a slideshow with music on Alan’s site:

Wilson Family.

However with our adventure, he might be looking at doing some family portraits in the future. All we can say is…”You will not be disappointed!” Check out his website and drop him an email to find out about a potential appointment for the best photos you’ll ever have taken. Alan and Moments Found Photography can also be found on Facebook. Be sure to check out his page!

24th September
2010
written by bob

Hanging out with G over the past couple of weekends, she has been getting very good at sitting up all on her own. Playing in her room one Saturday morning, we captured this video on my iPhone. Judging from the mediocre quality of the video, it looks like Katherine and I need to get the software installed on our laptops to download the HD video of our new HD camcorder! I have no excuse…I just need to do it.



Guilliana wants so bad to get up and start running for things especially Teemu (‘tee-moo’), her kitty, who happens to be one month older than she. He really loves her and is always coming around to see what she’s up to. On the flip-side, you can forget keeping G’s attention once Teemu prances into the room. She is just totally interested in whatever he’s doing. Surprisingly, he has been very gentle with her despite G getting a handful of kitty-fur and pulling on his stomach, tail, and ears! He’s a glutton for punishment as he keeps coming back for more. However, he has figured out his ‘safe’ radius from Guilliana’s reach and takes advantage of it here and there. In the end, Teemu just can’t help himself, he walks a bit too close and is reminded where that radius is again. Silly Teemu…but he loves Guilliana!

20th September
2010
written by bob

In mid-August, Guilliana received her first birthday party invite. Good friends of ours, Ken & Raquel,

Daddy & Guilliana Ice Skating

organized a 4th birthday party for their son Owen at a local ice rink. Though Guilliana doesn’t know how to skate at the moment, you should have seen the excitement on her face when she learned the party including public skating! Owen, being a huge hockey fan, couldn’t have chosen a better place to have a party. Guilliana picked out the perfect gift for Owen since he loves our arcade-sized Chexx Canada vs USA bubble hockey game. G selected the Sure Shot table hockey game and she told Owen that next time we stop by, he will have to play her daddy, for the title of “Table Hockey Champion”. Here are some pics from G’s first ice skating experience.


20th September
2010
written by bob

Following my last post and continuing on the topic of new things Guilliana is now doing or has done, this was taken at 3.5 months and this was her first giggle(s). It was both precious and hilarious! I think I laughed just as hard, if not harder, than she did. Some of you may have seen this already but, for those who haven’t, enjoy…I know I did!

4th August
2010
written by bob

Ok, so it has been a while since our last post. Yeah…I know what you’re thinking, “Bob & Katherine aren’t too frequent in the blogging arena.” Well, you’re right but in our defense, we are first-time parents adjusting to life with a 4-month old. While the adjustment was abrupt in the beginning, it has become a bit easier as time goes on.

It’s hard to believe but our Guilliana is now 16 weeks old!

G standing tall!

G showing off her Canada Bear!

For whatever reason time seems to move so quickly now with her. Just the other night Katherine and I were discussing ‘gone are the days where G slept on our chest’. She’s even graduated from the pack-n-play in our room and sleeps in her ‘big girl’ crib in her own room. At first we were a bit leary of moving her since one always has worrisome thoughts when she wasn’t in sight. But, that was just something we, as new parents, had to get accustomed to. There was something comforting about having her in our room with us. Let me assure you, things are just fine now…we have baby monitors! ;)

I would honestly say, at this point, the toughest period we’ve had was the first four weeks. Having to get up every 2 hours for feedings was rough! I’m not kidding. We are both used to sleeping until whatever time we want on weekends. Now…our sleep schedule is dictated by our daughter. However I have to say that from the time that she was 4 weeks old, G was sleeping 6 hours a night. Now that’s something we were able to cope with. I can easily live on 6 hours of sleep however Katherine, in the other hand, requires at least 8. Of course she has learned over the past 4 months to live on less and, I should say, she has adjusted well!

Fortunately our saving grace with G’s sleeping pattern is that she takes after the two of us! On any given night she usually sleeps a minimum of 9 hours but, like last night, she slept 11.5 hrs! Can you say, “WHOO HOO!!”. Let’s hope she keeps her nightly minimum of 9 hours sleep up and we won’t complain one bit.

Guilliana is now completely supporting her head and wants to constantly sit up and see what’s going on around her! G is also now standing albeit with our ‘balance’ help for about 5-6 minutes at a time. She loves it! She is actively engaged in ‘conversation’ with us and certainly likes to talk. Her ‘coos’ and ‘squeals’ are comforting and enjoyable to listen to all day! Last weekend while entertaining her with my various ‘fart’ noises, she giggled! It was the one of the most incredible noises I have ever heard in my life! It was magical! I laughed and cried at the same time. Believe me when I say, ‘there is nothing like the laughter of your own child(ren)!’ Enjoy this video of my conversation with Guilliana.



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