Santabelle

Santabelle wants to wish everyone a very merry Christmas!

She is loving this holiday with fun music, pretty lights, jingle bells, and wrapping paper.

This one is more Grinch than Santa.

Letter from Santa

A few weeks ago Baby A got a letter in the mail from Santa. It was really sweet, so I thought I'd share a bit of what he wrote.

"Since this is your very first Christmas, you get a special spot on my Good List! When you are older, you'll have to be sure to listen to your family, be kind to others, and do your best to be a good girl, but for now, being a sweet, cuddly baby girl is just fine! The joy you bring to your family is one of the greatest gifts of all, even better than the toys I bring!"

Thanks to Great Grandma D for checking with Santa to make sure Baby A had been added to his list this year!

Oh Christmas Tree

I realized today that I have not shared our Christmas tree yet. We went to a Christmas Tree Farm near our house to find Baby A's first Christmas tree.
She thought the sled ride around all of the Christmas trees was super fun!
Here is our tree! After walking all around the farm, we decided on the first tree we saw. Just before we left, we saw this jolly old man. Baby A thought he was amazing. She had no fear of him, she kept getting right up in his face to check him out.

Favorite Things

Just a few of her favorite things...

wooden blocks

duckies (a wedding shower gift from my aunt)

kicking her little feet on the hardwood floor

8 Months

8 months old and Baby A had her first Thanksgiving and her first little cold. We still managed to coax a few smiles for her 8 month pictures.

Baby A has been in to everything within reach this month. She is especially fond of electronics (E's blackberry, my ipod, the remote control). Her favorite toys are a set of wooden blocks (especially the Q block). Apparently they are quite tasty, because they're always in her mouth.

When Baby A gets excited now she kicks her legs like crazy. She gets very upset if E or I walk through a room without giving her some attention. When I pick her up from day care now she dives at me and slobbers all over my face. She gets E when he gets home from work too. Daddy is fun to play rough with. E tosses her up in the air, and she loves it. Sometime she kicks her legs out when she's in the air.

Baby A is about 19 lbs now! That explains why the car seat is getting so much harder to carry. Clothes are a little weird right now. Most 9 and 6-12 month pants are a little short, but the 12 month pants are too big overall. Some long sleeve onesies are a little short in the arms too. So, we're dressing Baby A in a lot of dresses with tights.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am so thankful to have such wonderful and supportive family and friends. I have a wonderful, caring husband and a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I have a job that I enjoy, but I only have to work part time, so I have extra time to spend with Baby A. I'm thankful for all of the support I've gotten as I've started my photography business. Of course I have many other things to be thankful for this year, but I think this one wins...

Let it snow!

I am not a winter person. I don't like the cold or snow. But, when the first snow came last weekend, I was excited to take Baby A out to play. We first brought some snow in and let Baby A play with it in her high chair. Later, we bundled her up and took her sledding at the elementary school by our house. She didn't know what to think of the world being covered in white, but she did seem to enjoy sliding down the hills.

Leaves!

Baby A thinks leaves are pretty fantastic (and pretty tasty too). She's had so much fun playing outside all week. She watches me as I gather all of the leaves up and then rake them over to her. It sure makes raking a whole lot more fun when there's a laughing baby nearby!

Good Morning Sunshine

Baby A and I were the first ones up on Sunday morning. She was just so cute sitting in the sun, I had to take a couple pictures. She's (almost) always so happy and content in the mornings. It's so much fun to just hang out together in our jammies.

Daddy's Pumpkin

Of course, for Baby A's first Halloween we had to carve a pumpkin. And we had to find a pumpkin that was getting close to Baby A's size. She was pretty intrigued by the pumpkin, before carving, and thought the guts were fun to stomp around in.

I saw this post, and had to steal the idea for carving the pumpkin. So we traced Baby A's hands, and used them as the pumpkin's eyes. Here's Daddy's pumpkin with her pumpkin.

All lit up for the trick-or-treaters.

Mommy's Cupcake

My wonderful friend Heather sent me this costume idea for Baby A about a month ago. Given my love of cupcakes, I couldn't resist! I think it turned out really well... maybe a little heavy on the frosting, but isn't that the best part of the cupcake anyway? And Baby A won 3rd place in the costume contest at the party we went to. The first person under 21 ever to place in many years of the party. Her prize... a box of Count Chocula and a small Target gift card.

Heather also came up with the idea for Mommy and Daddy's costumes. A quick stop at the uniform store Saturday morning, and some pink ribbon later, we were ready to go.

7 Months!

The littlest one (in our house) hit the 7 month mark this week!


Just a couple days after Baby A turned 6 months, she mastered sitting up. And she loves being able to sit up! At first, she would dive at toys that got too far away from her, or arch her back and fall over, but as the month went on she got better and better. I don't know why, but seeing her sit up makes her seem much more like a real person, and less like a baby.

Baby A is still in a combination of clothes... 6 month, 9 month and 6-12 month fit depending on the particular outfits. I have noticed that some of the pants are getting a bit short though, so I think she's getting even longer.

Our 7 month old little girl has two (very sharp) teeth now! Teething has made her a little upset, but I managed to sneak in a few happy pictures before the monstering started.

We've got quite the chatter on our hands. Any time we take Baby A to a store, she squeals like crazy! She's also big into blowing bubbles and fake coughing. We think her fake coughs are laughs (or at least that's what we tell ourselves).

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning when A woke up, I was still very sleepy, so I brought her to sleep by me. She loved being in the big bed! And I got to enjoy a little more rest time.

Mommy's Little Helper

Last night I hosted my neighborhood book club, the Queen Bees, at our house. So Baby A and I spent the afternoon getting ready. She was such a good helper with the cleaning!

Welcome Home Daddy!

What better way to end a long day at work?

Crafty A

A few weeks ago, I posted a little peek at Baby A's first craft project. Here's what we did...

I covered the floor and put Baby A in her jumper. I then painted her feet red with washable finger paint and let her stomp her feet on the paper. I switched out the paper a few times so we'd have a bunch in the end. I let the paper dry a little bit, and then repeated, painting her feet yellow and green.

After the papers were all the way dry, I cut tree trunks out of brown construction paper, and glued them on the page where they looked right.

Beautiful Fall Trees, by Baby A!

Once everything was done, we sent them off to the grandmas and grandpas, and covered the fridge too!