Our sweet Isla Rain is 10 months old. As we near her first birthday, I can't help but be sad how fast the time flies. But at the same time, each new day is so fun with Isla as we are privileged to watch her grow and learn and be the ones who guide her in this world. I am so happy to watch her grow... but it sure is crazyness that she will be a toddler in 2 months!

Isla is such a sweetheart with a hilarious sense of humour. The past month she hasn't hit any major milestones but everyday her dance moves get better and better...lol. She LOVES people yet she does this adorable thing when she sees someone new and they talk to her - she snuggles into my neck but smiles at the person. So bashful but it doesn't take her long to want to show off and interact with new people. She seems to be quite the social girl and is in a very social stage, whereas a month or two ago she hit a shy stage where she would cry if someone else held her other than me before she had time to warm up to them. Now she is like "bring on the attention!" Her smile is so contagious and we love watching her bring smiles to people all around her. People can't believe how happy she is - she sure brings us a lot of joy and light. Many parents have warned us to soak this all up before the toddler drama starts... so we definitely are doing that!

As for what she loves, she hasn't really taken any liking to any specific toys over others but she does love her walker and loves using her range of motion to move toys around from left to right and back again, while seeing whats underneath everything, what each item does or how heavy it is, etc. She seems to really enjoy inspective everything and comparing toys and then moving them from side to side...not totally sure what that is all about but she is definitely eager to learn! Bath time is her favourite time and we just tried dunking her under the water which she was fine with. She loves splashing and when I "throw her into the water" ie. when I put her down on the surface of the water fast enough to make a splash around her. She is eating solids routinely now - basically whatever we eat, she eats...unless we are being indulgent and eating something crappy or food that I worry is too acidic or spicy for her, in which case I offer her some homemade puree from the freezer. Making our own pouches has been such an awesome experience and saves us a lot of money!

We are still breastfeeding and cloth diapering and love it! We are going to do as long as it works for us basically - hopefully we can cloth diaper right to potty training. We still use disposables when we leave town and go out because without fail, we would forget to bring the cloth diapers in from the car and that was just gross. We are both pretty forgetful lol so throwing the disposables out while we are out of town is just way more convenient for us. We use Naty eco-diapers and if not those, then Honest diapers. As for breastfeeding, I plan to just do it until she weans herself or eventually I will work her down to only morning and bedtime so that all day long she is eating meals and water and eventually another milk source. I am still not sure yet what to do about whole milk, but I don't need to decide quite yet! I know nut milks do not offer enough nutrients to be a good substitute for whole milk...so I thought maybe I'd try locally sourcing goat's milk instead but we will see where we end up on that whole discussion after she hits one year old. I don't think I've done enough research yet to make a decision either way. Any thoughts on that or experience, please share in the comments!

The weather has been unusually nice lately so we have gone for nice walks and enjoyed some mild winter temps. Sadly Meadow is not feeling so great - her symptoms seem like arthritis but we are keeping an eye on her... another sick dog is really anxiety inducing for me since we only lost Milo 6 months ago :(

Isla just had her first flu which was scary - she kept running a really high fever but thankfully I was able to keep bringing it down at home and didn't have to take her to the hospital. She had some rough days between that and teething - it seems 4 top teeth are trying to make their way down!

She loves talking and is sounding out new consonants and working on new words all the time, though it's hard to really make out what she is trying to say. She is the babble queen right now and it's so cute. Her fav things to say are "uhhhh....ya!" "mamamama" when she wants to eat, "da da da" especially when she is getting her diaper changed (a sign that Scott should change all the diapers...lmao) and she loves to wave, clap, and give high five.

We had a photoshoot done with my friend Heather of Filled With Light Photography and some of those phoots are in this selection below! Also, many of the images feature Canadian made products from small shops - if you want to know where anything is from, just ask!