Weeks 78 & 79

Dear Jorie,

Christmas and New years and Relatives and Friends Galore! These two weeks were jam packed with places to go and people to see.

The friday before Christmas, we hung out with Jamiee Bill and Zetta at their house. You and Zetta had a great time running around and playing with all the toys. We gave Zetta a little people set with hay bales and a tractor, and they gave you crayons and a drawing pad! You guys were so cute playing together, and you even were really good and went to bed easily so us adults could hang out for a while. We couldn't stay too late though, because Saturday was the Reindeer Run!

You and your father came out to watch me and Jenn run the 5k, and to watch Jenn's daughter Rose run the kids run! Rose had a great time hanging out with you, and took a lot of cute pictures of the two of you together.

Later, after I had gotten a shower, you had a nap, and we had eaten, we went back to the Strong National Museum of Play with Nannie and Grandpa. A lot of the exhibits were a little old for you to really enjoy, but you did have fun playing on some of them, and us adults had a great time too. We spent the extra money to go in the Butterfly
room, and it was REALLY worth it! you were very interested in the little quail birds that were running around everywhere, and the turtles and the koi in the koi pond. We spent a good two hours in the museum. By the end we were all really tired.

Christmas Eve was a blur of last minute shopping, and seeing all the grandparents. We had dinner at Nannie and Grandpas, and then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa R's where a bunch of your Father's family had gathered.

Christmas morning we woke you up and brought you downstairs to open presants. You saw the corn popper with a bow on it, and lost interest in any of the other packages! We did manage to coax you away from the corn popper for a bit to open some of your other presents. It was funny because it took you so long to open each gift. You would tear off a little tiny piece of paper, then hand it to me, tear off another piece, hand it to me, repeat. After we got your gifts open, and your father and I got ours open, we bundled you up and headed over to Nannie and Grandpa's for the Gift Opening Extravaganza Part One.  And an extravaganza it was. You got so. much. stuff. Way too much to list here. At some point I'll catalog all the stuff you got, maybe. We had breakfast, and put you down for a nap, and then had lunch when you woke up. Your father cooked blueberry pancakes for breakfast. They were delicious! We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa R's in the afternoon for Gift Opening Extravaganza Part Two. Again, you got so much stuff! Including a giant kitchen play set which we're still figuring out how to get back to our house. We had dinner there and then headed home since both your father and I had to work the next day. Boo.

Thursday we had dinner at Nannie and Grandpa's again, because the Girshes' were over! Brooks, Sid and Rose were in town from England, so we got to see them. You and Rose (who is just about a year older than you) played together really nicely, running around the house and sharing toys. It was really great to see them, and we're hoping we'll get to see them again before they head back across the pond.

Saturday and Sunday were kinda low key, just the normal amount of crazy for us. We decided to hit the "after christmas" sales and get you a potty. We were told by your doctor at your last appointment that if you were showing interest we should start in on the potty training, so we got you a potty. It sings if you go, and it has a flush that makes noise, lights up and then cheers. You are very amused by the flush. We've started having you sit on the potty when you wake up in the morning, before and after naps, and before bed. You have not gone on the potty yet, but you sit on it very nicely for us!

Sunday night, you decided to get sick, and were all stuffed up and had a crazy runny nose and cough. The cough got so bad that Sunday night you ended up puking all over your crib after we put you to bed. So your Father stayed home with you on Monday.

He was off tuesday as well so he got to stay home with you two days in row by himself. He loved it, but was completely and utterly exhausted by the time I got home Tuesday!

Tuesday was New Years Eve, and we spent it over at your Aunt Becky and Uncle Michaels house. They had a full house! Your Fathers Aunt, uncle and cousin from Seattle were there, along with your Cousin Sienna (up from boston), your Great Grandma Ross and your Great Uncle Howard were there too! We did presents with your Great Grandmother, who got you a cute baby doll and a cradle with a hand knitted blanket she made for it! You did not make it to Midnight, you were out by 9 I think, but you had a great time running around before that.

Wednesday, we had a nice low key day at home. You spent most of the day putting your new "baby" to bed in the cradle, while your father and I worked trying to get the house back to some semblance of pre-holiday order.  We went back over to Aunt Becky's for dinner to see everyone again. We missed your Uncle Michael and Cousin Sienna, they had left to take Sienna back to Boston about a half hour before we showed up. You had a great time playing with Wesley, and you said his name for the first time! It sounds like Esstey right now.

You've recently started saying more words, like Sit (Although that sounds like a dirty word right now) and wait. You've also started asking to watch signing time by either handing us the remotes or pointing at the tv and doing your version of the signs for signing time. It's really really cute.

With you getting bigger, we're having to rearrange our living room to accommodate your toys, and your need to run, jump and climb. It seems like every time I turn around you're trying to climb something. I'd like to get something for you to climb, but I'm not sure where we could put it right now. We may have to work on rearranging the living room yet again, or maybe start working to get the back room set up upstairs as your play room. (Right now it's storage and where the treadmill is.)

I know I'm forgetting a lot of the little moments from the past two weeks, but I did manage to take a lot of pictures...so I'll try to let them fill in some of the details.

I love you baby girl.