Christmas- in photos

Christmas PJs are the best!

She was SO excited about this chair! she knew it was for her!


Christmas Morning with my loves. :)

9 month newsletter- abbreviated

Avonlea,

You are 9 months old. At the end of this month, we will visit our pediatrician for our 9 month appointment, and we are excited to see how big you've gotten.

Your cheeks have filled out, and you have a buddha belly now. Although you seem huge to us, we know that to strangers, you still seem so small and they often tell us so.

You still have not cut a single tooth, but your food choices are fairly endless now. Your favorites include cheese, ham, cheese, peas, beef stew, green beans, cheese, crackers, avocado and cheese. (just like mommy!) and refuse to be fed most of the time, only eating things you can pick up yourself. Which is fine with us...you are stubborn and it is just NOT worth fighting over the spoon with you! You also enjoy driving us crazy by taking your filthy foody hands and pulling your hair after every meal - resulting in nearly daily baths now. :)

Just as predicted, you started crawling 3 days after my last posting, and now you follow us around, pulling on our pant legs. In an attempt to regain our living room back, we turned our office into a playroom and our guest bedroom into our office, and in minutes, we were all much happier. It is great that you have your own space, and we have our space back from all of your toys!

You really are a joy to be around. You are always smiling, hardly ever difficult, and it is just so easy to love you. I remember being pregnant and being worried that I might come to resent you being attached to my hip (literally and figuratively)...but the truth is....I WANT to be around you. You are pure wonderment, and I love watching you and seeing you discover your environment. I love the way you peek around corners to see what's on the other side. I love all of this mommy-madness, even in the most sleep-deprived of times.

We love you baby girl!

where did this month go?

first came thanksgiving, then came christmas. then came new years, and then came my birthday.

and here we are.

let's start where we left off, shall we?

Christmas was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve with my family, relaxing and opening gifts, watching Avonlea help us rip the paper and bounce around on her new chair (which you will see soon in her newsletter, I promise) Christmas morning brought us to Justin's parent's house, where a delicious brunch and even more presents made us all smile, with round, full bellies. And Christmas night brought us back to my parent's house, where we feasted on roast beast with family and friends. It was a good holiday, and as a friend has said of her own family on christmas, "although we were missing what was missing, we enjoyed what was new. "

New years was quiet, we stayed in with delicious chinese food and appetizer spread, and watched movies and drank wine with friends and family. perfection.

And, it was the dreaded 30th birthday for me yesterday. And despite my lack of enthusiasm for this major milestone, it was the first birthday in probably 5 years that I did not cry...and so, that automatically bumps it up to the "best birthday i've had in a long time". Having worked the night before, I slept in, then woke up and got a pedicure with my sista friend before heading out for delicious mexican. We finished the night with homemade cake and ice cream, and an early bedtime.

so, now that we are caught up on the holiday season, i promise to get a 9 month newsletter in order. It will be in abbreviated form, since this month is halfway over and soon i will have to do a 10 month newsletter! *sigh*

and so, i bid you goodnight, and i promise to get my act together soon.