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.

Week 79

Dear Jorie,

This letter is a little late because you were a little bit sick this week. I ended up staying home with you on Wednesday. It was great getting to spend the entire day with you, even if it was exhausting trying to keep up with you!

It was tiring mainly because we have our Christmas tree up in the living room, and you are fascinated with it! You want to touch it, to touch the lights, to pull needles off, to bat at the branches, to pick the needles up off the ground when the fall off, and to eat the needles. Just keeping you away from the tree is practically a full time job.

Family dinner was also moved from Tuesday to Thursday, which threw off our schedule a bit. The week has actually been relatively low key and relaxing. No big events, no rushing around, with the exception of a short Mall shopping trip on Monday. Short trip because by the time we got you fed and ready and in the car and to the Mall it was 7:00, and by 8:00 you were most definitely in need of bed. Hopefully you'll give us some more time to shop this weekend, since we still have quite a bit of Christmas shopping left!

This week on Thursday they had Santa at the Daycare. I haven't heard how you did with him this go around, but you did get this little blue Beanie Baby Teddy bear. You haven't let it out of your sight since. You carried it home from daycare, and whenever I try to take it away from you (for instance to change your diaper) you start going "no no no no no!" and whimpering and reaching for it while signing "please". It's heartbreakingly adorable.

This weekend is going to be a busy one, and of course Christmas is coming up next week. You're still a little young to really enjoy Christmas, but I'm sure you'll have a blast tearing paper and playing with new toys and boxes.  We're kicking this weekend off right by heading over to see some friends (and your best Daycare buddy) tonight.

I love you so much!

Week 78

Dear Jorie,

Another busy week! I have a feeling all our weeks are going to be busy ones for the rest of the year.

This past week, you moved up to the bigger kids room at day care. You've been coming home tired but happy most days. There have been a few bumps, like this morning when I dropped you off and you had a meltdown, but for the most part the transition has gone smoothly.

Saturday we headed out to the Garden Center with Nannie and Grandpa for their indoor winter carnival, and also to buy our Christmas Trees. You had a great time at the indoor carnival, even though most of the stuff was for kids a little older than you.

Our first stop at the Carnival was the Petting Zoo. They had chickens, bunnies, a mule, a pony and your favorite this time, Llamas! Unlike the last time we were at a petting zoo, you were actually interested in the animals this time! you had a great time petting the Llamas in particular, who were very friendly. You also spent a bit of time watching the chickens zooming around in their pen. I couldn't help wondering if you were remembering the "Busy Chickens" book we read to you sometimes. We spent quite a bit of time trying to get the pony interested enough to stay put for you to pet him, but you really just wanted to go back to the Llamas.

After the Petting Zoo, I took you on the Carousel. You were not a huge fan at first, as soon as the carousel started moving you started signing "all done." Once you spotted your dad and Nannie and Grandpa on the side you perked up though. It was really cute, you'd look for them, smile when you saw them, and then get unhappy when you couldn't see them any more. You seemed to be having a good time for a while, but I think the ride went on a little too long for you, and you started signing "all done" a little while before the ride was over.

The highlight of the Carnival, however was the "light show." There was a "room" made out of black tarps, and inside was an entire light show of LED Christmas lights set to music. You absolutely loved it! You were dancing to the music on your Dad's lap and laughing hysterically. We unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that.

We also got a Christmas tree for us, and Nannie and Grandpa picked one out as well. This may be the only year we're able to have a Christmas tree in our living room, since the puppy is on 'cage rest' for his leg.

Sunday we went to a "Brunch with Santa" put on by the company I work at. You had a great time watching a (bad) magic show, and being cute for everyone at our table while we ate. One of my coworkers kids even shared his super cool "Toddler laptop" with you for a bit. Then Santa showed up! My boss had everyone sing some christmas carols, and then it was time to line up to sit on Santa's lap.

You were fine right up until the moment I put you on his lap. Then the tears came. You locked your arms around my neck and buried your face in my shoulder. I tried kneeling down next to Santa, but you were having none of it! Not even the nicely wrapped present he handed you would sway you, so I thanked him and brought you back to your Dad, who you launched yourself at as soon as you saw him.

You calmed down after a few minutes and we sat back down at the table to open your gift. It was a very nice little people car, with two little people in it! You've been playing with it non stop since you opened it, which is only slightly annoying as it sings. I can now sing along with it whenever you push the driver and make it sing, it's worth it though, since it makes you so happy.

This tuesday at Family dinner, we used your booster seat for the second time. You seem to be much happier being able to sit at the table with us while we eat, although you usually have to go to bed not too long after we sit down to eat. It's hard to believe you're big enough already to sit in a booster seat. It doesn't seem that long ago we had to prop you up with towels when we put you in the highchair.

We got some more snow last night, and hopefully it will stick around. Nannie and Grandpa got you some gloves and some more snow pants, so I'm hoping to take you out into the snow again this weekend, and see if we can't have a better time than the last trek out into the snow!

I love you baby girl!

Weeks 76 & 77

Dear Jorie,

Oh boy what busy weeks! It always seems like whenever there's a lot to write about, I can never find the time to write it down, and then when I do have time, trying to remember everything is so hard. Last week was thanksgiving, with all the craziness that comes with it. There was a lot of family time, and your first trip out into the snow to play.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, we had both your fathers family and mine at my parents house. Your cousin Sienna even came up to visit! You had a lot of fun running around and playing with your cousin Wesley. We dressed you up in a nice red dress, and I tried to put a bow in your hair, but you weren't having any of that. You just kept pulling it out and handing it to me and saying "more", wanting me to put it in again, so you could pull it right back out!

That Saturday there was a lot of snow outside so we bundled you up and took you out into the back yard at my parents. You really weren't enjoying the snow so much, so we tried bringing out a sled for you. You did fine until your father dumped you out into the snow accidentally! It was all over after that.

On Sunday we had brunch with some friends who were up visiting from NYC for thanksgiving. They were totally enamored with you! You did very good at brunch and only got a little fussy at the end.

Besides all of that, you've been "visiting" up to the next room at the daycare. Every time you spend the day in the "older" kids room you come home exhausted from playing. Even though I will be really sad when you're not with Miss Darcy anymore, I think you're outgrowing her room quickly.

I'm having such a hard time remembering everything we did, it's all just a happy blur. I'll have to let the pictures tell the story.

 I love you so much baby girl.