The cake was also a hit, though it took her a few minutes to warm up to it as well. We think the icing was throwing her off, but by the end of the day she was more than happy to devour even the slightest crumb of cake. Here she is diving into it — or, rather, sharing a piece with someone just off-camera. Ella is a very good sharer, you see.

Tonight, for her actual birthday, we’re serving her spaghetti. I’ll be sure to post a picture of the ensuing mess, which I am sure will be epic.

Update: No picture of the ensuing mess will be posted. We opted to let Ella have at the “pasketti” wearing just her diaper, and we’ve got a standing policy against posting “bare baby” pictures to the Intertubes.

She’s just about a year old now, and has been walking for about a month. She’s gotten pretty good at it too, and can even remain upright after breaking into a run…some of the time.

Yes, that’s a nectarine. And yes, she did eat pretty much all of it.

For an eight month-old, that’s pretty impressive.

I hope to be updating the site a) soon and b) a lot more frequently in the days and weeks to come, so please be patient with me!

Being in Wyoming at present, I haven’t had the chance to see this for myself, but it’s exciting news all the same. We’ll be able to start her on solid foods soon!

Plus many, many more in the gallery!

She’s doing very well, but please do offer your prayers for her healing, that it may be expedient and complete.

Also, please feel free to use the contact form to send congratulatory or encouraging notes to Grace, who — next to God — deserves all the credit and recognition for this event. She has approached this whole experience with courage, determination, and boundless love.

I’ve got a few pictures of both Mom and baby, and I’ll be posting them soon-ish. For now, though, we’re just going to take some time to welcome Ella into the world, and will get around to pictures, and introductions to friends and family, in due time. So if you’ve called, emailed, or otherwise sent in a word to see how things are going…thank you for your care, and we will get back to you in a bit. But please just give us some time to ourselves, that we might rest and that Grace might heal.

Oh, yeah: for those family members who registered a guess in the baby pool, we would just like to say that nobody won, in that nobody actually guessed the correct date. Guesses ranged from about the 17th to the 31st, and covered almost every day in between…but nobody picked the 26th. A couple people did guess the exact birth weight, however.

Thank you so much, you two!

Father Stan presided over our marriage, and was a faithful, earnest priest who brought God’s word to his parish in Vermilion, Alberta with a reverent love for Christ. He was also a gentle person, a giant teddy bear of a man. His funeral will be on August 15th in Edmonton, at St. Joseph’s Basilica, and his ashes will be sent back to Poland following that for interment there.

We’ve no less than six weddings to attend (well, five now — one was last weekend) between now and the middle of August, and Grace is a bridesmaid at one of them. On top of that, and on top of our normal working lives, we’ve got to get the apartment ready for our little one, which means boxing up some things and moving some furniture out into storage.

It doesn’t sound like much, but believe me — it’ll keep us busy!