Happy New Year! It's amazing what can change in the span of a year. At this time last year, I was writing about flying cars and about how I hoped that 2009 would be the year that we would bring you home. While flying cars never really reached the mainstream group last year, we definitely were able to ring in the New Year with an extra special someone to kiss: you.
Before I get to that, though, I should back up a bit, to Christmas Day. By the time Christmas Day rolled around, it was our sixth celebration and frankly we were ALL a bit tired of the merriment. Regardless, Santa Claus still paid a special girl a visit:
...it's the Laugh & Learn Puppy, and it sings songs and giggles and does tons of fun stuff that truly amazes you. Santa definitely scored with that toy, so score one for the Jolly guy!
You also "opened" a few other presents from dear old mom & dad: your first DVDs (Clifford), and your very first doll:
...the yawn on your face says it all. I think that dolls won't really be your thing for another year or so, but it was important to me that we give you your first doll...so I jumped on the bandwagon before everyone else tries to get you dolls for your birthday in a few months.
The rest of the day was spent at Nonni & Poppa's, where we opened up some more gifts and spent time with the Pullen side of the family. Great family, great food, great times; but as I said earlier, by the end of the night all I wanted was to go back home with our little family and mediocre food and moderately boring times.
Our little family of three:
Fortunately, we've been able to spend the week between Christmas and New Years being the most boring people ever. And I'm really, really okay with that.
Staying home with you while daddy works on his car has made me realize more than ever what I miss when I go to work each day. There's nothing happening and everything happening all at once. We aren't doing anything remarkable, but that in itself is the coolest thing of all. Each morning, I wake you up (by the way, you treat every morning like Christmas morning with the level of excitement that comes out of your little body when you see me come into your room). After a diaper change (of which I'll spare you the details...but you should be grateful that 2009 was not the year that smell-o-vision Internet was invented), I plop you in the high chair and give you breakfast.
As I write this, I don't think I've talked in this blog before about the major milestone you've hit in this past month: eating solid foods. A week or so before Thanksgiving, we started giving you food beyond the standard bottles. I've been waiting for you to start to reject a food group, but frankly my dear, you love it ALL: peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes...literally, EVERYTHING. You also don't have an 'full' button because you could eat until the cows come home. Then you'd throw the cows on the BBQ and eat them, too.
This past week, under the advice of our most awesome pediatrician EVER, we started giving you the puffy cereal for babies that you can pick up with your hands. At first, you didn't quite know what to do with the star shaped food on your tray. You'd pick it up, keep it in your fist, get distracted, and suck your thumb. In the last few days, though, you've made remarkable progress and about 90% of the food that approaches your mouth in your hand actually makes it in your mouth.
The cool side of it is that you've mastered the art of self-feeding. The not cool side of it is that you've mastered the art of self-feeding and find it only fair that everything WE eat you should eat, too. Mealtimes, while already rushed, have become a marathon event as we gulp food down with one hand while tossing cereal puffs in your direction with the other hand.
We did just that today when we stopped at Taco Bell this afternoon on our way up to Shaver Lake with some friends of ours. I swear, Sammie girl, that if you could have thrown your high chair tray out of the way and wolfed my grilled stuffed burrito down, you would've in a nano second. Fortunately, we gave you your cereal puffs, and this kept you appeased in between your grunts of displeasure.
Our reason for going up to Shaver on New Year's Eve was simple: to play in the snow and get some cute snow pictures of a certain cherubic looking baby.
Check, check and triple check:
At some point, though, you started to look a little too cold so we wrapped my scarf around you and sent you off with daddy to the car to warm up a little:
Once we were back home in the early evening, we continued our New Year's festivities by whipping up the last of the Holiday foodstuffs (and I can now truly say I'm STUFFED and don't want to eat anything that's not a vegetable or meat for a long, long time) and playing games. That's when the *real* fun began as a parent because a certain someone whose name rhymes with "Mamantha" wasn't about to let the party continue on without her. At least, that's what the screeches from your room led us to believe.
So...I got you out of the crib and let you "play" Apples to Apples with the rest of the crowd.
Despite three separate attempts to put you down to bed, your little seven month self managed to stay awake until midnight:
...and yes, those two pictures really were taken minutes apart. The first one was taken in the last minutes of 2009, and the last picture was taken in the first five minutes of 2010. If you're wondering what you were doing when the clock struck midnight, well, here it is:
(you were getting a kiss from your mommy & daddy).
So, my darling, it's the wee small hours of 2010, you've finally accepted that you need some sleep, and I think I should follow your cue and go to sleep, as well.
Happy 2010, darling!
All my love and more,
your mommy
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