Last month we got our photos taken by a photographer. It was freezing cold out there and very windy. Poor Little Miss had a Rudolph nose for most of the shoot. These are some of the better photos that were taken. Unfortunately, we didn't get these back in time for the Christmas cards, but I was pleased with the way those turned out anyway. Enjoy!
We've established the Little Miss and Huckleberry are in the process of developing a beautiful relationship. A few times this week I witnessed the following scene...
Baby girl crawls on the floor and Huck walks in front, lies down and makes his belly available:
He then looks back to see if she's noticed:
Once they make eye contact he turns away again, so as not to appear too desperate for a belly rub:
Little Miss thinks about it a moment, and then obliges:
Huckleberry is in bliss. I hope they're always this way.
Today was a big day in our family. Hubs and I closed on the new house. Luckily, Grandma was able to stay at home with Little Bit while Hubs and I had the opportunity to sneak away and do the final inspection and closing all by ourselves. This picture was taken a little while ago- you know, back when we still had furniture in the house. But, all the boxes in the background are representative of what it's been like living in this house the past few weeks. Choose boxes, pack, stack boxes, repeat. All while trying to keep the house clean. I'm looking forward to going to the new house so I won't have to live in chaos while trying to stay neat. Tomorrow is the big day. The pod has been delivered to the new house, hubs hired a guy to help him unload, and Grandma will stay at the house entertaining baby while I try to clean the new house and unpack a little. Whew! The good news is that tomorrow we'll be sleeping in our new house and on Christmas morning Corn Pop will wake up for the first time in her nice new house. What an anniversary.
It seems that many of my recent posts are food centric. Giving Cocoa Pop food has provided many funny moments. Lately she's taken to taking food and just sitting with it in her mouth for ages. I think that I've mentioned it before. Here was one day's object of affection- a piece of lettuce. I love being able to feed her food off my plate (it makes meal times less stressful and super easy), but she does interesting things with it...like let it hang out of her mouth until I fish it out with my fingers and ignite a fuss.
I think I may have mentioned that my mom came back south with me to help with the big move. We've been doing some packing, but haven't been too stressed out yet. The hardest thing has been packing and keeping everything clean so that we can show the house to prospective renters. We don't want you to think that we haven't had any time for fun. Last weekend was the neighborhood holiday party. We invited Uncle Jon to come along and stayed for a little bit, but once bedtime rolled around, we split so we could keep Little Miss Sleepy on her schedule. Once she was down we decided to open a bottle of bubbly we had in the fridge. Since the glasses were all packed away, we had to enjoy them with a solo cup. It was fun singing 'Red Solo Cup' with my mom and letting loose a little- very college-like (except being with my mom). I'm not sure if the new neighborhood does fun things like holiday parties, so I'm trying to really enjoy stuff like that now.
Every couple of years our neighborhood has a holiday homes tour. I went a few years ago, but skipped this one. We were just back in town and seemed to have other things to do than tour the homes. However, it does make the rest of the neighborhood up the ante for their decorations. Here is a decorated sleigh in the front yard of some neighbors a few doors down. Yes, the tree lights up at night. I'm not sure why you would buy a tree just for your front yard decorations, but to each his own. Pardon Little Miss Mellow, this was taken just before her nap time.
This post is a shout out to the Peanuts. My little Peanut is quite the piano aficionado. This is one of her favorite toys. An ode to the baby piano:
First, make eye contact and crack the knuckles to show you're ready:
Then, get lost in your performance.
Bravo, little one, bravo!
After Thanksgiving I stayed up north with Little Miss so that we could attend the Festival of the Gnomes. When I was a little girl my mom took me to this, and also introduced several of my cousins. It's not anything huge- the lobby of the local theatre is transformed into a gift shop for all things gnome. You can buy a hat (red for boys, green for girls) on the first year. Each year after that the lovely lady volunteers will sew on a tassel. There's also a bake sale. When I was a little kid there used to be a gingerbread house display with one huge gingerbread house, but they no longer do that. The main focus is a play- all centered around gnomes. It's a series of shorter skits and many of the same people have been doing it since I was a child. It's a fun part of my childhood and I really wanted to share it with my daughter. Since Thanksgiving was late and the festival was early, the timing worked out well.
We took some photo ops before the festival began:
You can see that my hat isn't pointy at all. That's because it's really old and a different style. I suppose that I could buy a new one and move the tassels over, but I'm kind of in love with it just how it is. Little Miss Gnome now officially has her hat and can have a tassel the next time she attends. We were lucky that my best friend from high school was also able to come with her niece:
My little Biscuit was mesmerized when the show began and watched as much as a baby could before getting distracted and then eventually falling asleep in my nap. Thank goodness for the carrier. She was able to tuck in and snooze away under the hood while I could enjoy the show without my arms breaking from holding her. Poor Laura had a different fate. By the end of the show she was calling her niece Wigglebutt. She said she'd never been so restless. Moral of the story: skip the festival when Corn Pop is 2:) It was a fun festival and I'm glad that we were able to go. I'm not sure if we'll make it an annual event, but it sure is fun to be able to introduce my daughter to things that I used to enjoy when I was a little girl.
are these two friends. I've shown pictures of Little Miss with her friend before, but this was a precious moment from a recent impromptu playdate/storytime. Mama Mandy started reading a book to her son and Little Miss Scooter couldn't wait to hear it herself. Look at them with each other. I'm sure that we'll hang out once we move, but I'll definitely miss this on such a regular basis. Hopefully the new neighborhood will have some great mommy/baby friends.
Love the smile on her face. It's clear that I need to get to the store for some onesies, because I didn't have any that fit her for this picture! She didn't really seem to mind and actually had fun posing for these pics.
This past month flew by quickly and was unique in that I kept Little Miss in Chicago for a week while Daddy went back home to work. It was a fun week, but utterly challenging. I'm not sure that I'll be trying that again for a while. Two words: sleep deprivation.
Anywho....here's the month by the numbers:
Weight- 20 ish (she's heavy to carry)
Diaper Size- 3
Bum Genius- Still 3 snaps on the middle, buttoned on the middle rise
Clothes Size- 6-9 mos., moving into 9-12 mos
#oz drunk/day- 5 6 oz bottles a day and we give her a 4 oz bottle during the night
Road Trips- 1, Chicago for Thanksgiving
Favorite things- her xylophone piano, books
Things that make her laugh- play dropping her while holding her, spinning around
Foods Tried- yellow squash:) zucchini:) cauliflower:) pizza crust:):) corn bread:/ lentil sloppy joe:/ Huck's rawhide:):) apple:) cucumber:/ black beans and rice:/
New Discovery: rocking on all four legs, teeth!
#Teeth: 2 (bottom middle)
Biggest Challenge- getting her to stay asleep
Interesting Fact- because I usually carry her on my left hip, my left arm is much stronger than my right
We've had some pretty cold days this year. I thought she was pretty bundled up when I took her for a walk dressed like this.
But that was nothing. When it got really cold I pulled out the snowsuit that Mamaw sent and we went out like this:
I love the expression on her face. She reminds me of the little boy in A Christmas Story. Hopefully this'll be as cold as is warranted because the only other thing I can do is bust out more blankets to throw on her while out walking. I'm hoping that won't be necessary- we do live in the South, after all.
Last month I finally acknowledged that Little Miss is big enough to go in the shopping cart. I still usually wear her while in the stores because studies show that 70% of all carts have fecal matter and I just find it easier. However, I wanted to commemorate the occasion that she was able to ride through Kroger in the cart.
While in IL, my mom and I were out doing errands one day when we pulled into the driveway only to discover that Little Miss was snoozing away peacefully in the back seat. We decided to make the most of it and go on a long drive to lunch. We went to Starved Rock State Park, about 40 min away. It wound up being perfect- just as we pulled into the parking lot, our little bundle of joy woke up. It happened to be game day, so Little Miss played with toys, snacked on vegetables and watched the Bears play happily while her Grandma and I had a tasty lunch. She didn't have any beverages (maybe a little milk)....we'll have to save that for another day entirely.
This year for turkey day we went to my family in Illinois. As it becoming typical, I forgot to take any pictures because I was more absorbed in spending time with my family than taking pictures of them. It was fun to see the aunts, uncles, cousins and my grandma. This year was fun because my uncle took all the VHS tapes he had of Thanksgivings past and had them turned into DVD. It was fun reliving old years, although I'm sure it was more entertaining for hubs to see his young bride.
Little Miss didn't actually partake of any of the food at the Thanksgiving meal because we're not yet giving her meat, and all the other food wasn't plain enough to give a baby. Oops. However, Grandma bought a bright new high chair to be kept at her house when we come visit. It's pretty cool because it can convert to a table and chair when Sugar Pop outgrows the need for the high chair. I'm all for things that serve multiple purposes and can grow with the child. However, I digress. Here's Little Miss Messy eating a meal with us. Sometimes we find it's easier to take off her clothes and let her go to town than to cover her up with bibs and deal with stain removal later. We hope that your holiday was great.
When we were putting together the nursery, we came in possession of hubs' dresser when he was a kid. Kinda cool, but it was very 1970's and needed some attention. After scouring the boards on Pinterest and sending out to the garage for 'treatment,' it came back with a shiny coat of cream paint. I added the polka dots for some fun and got some new sparkly knobs at Hobby Lobby. We were trying to have Little Miss spend more time in her nursery in preparation for the full transition to sleeping in her crib there, so have given her lots of opportunities to play on the floor in there. One day she scooted over to the dresser and started reaching for the knobs. Turns out the love of shiny things starts early.
