As I post this picture of our building dusted in snow, it already feels like the distant past since the past few days have been balmy enough to melt everything. We have been quite busy this holiday season. It seems like each day of the month was jam packed with great time with family, wonderful visits from friends and fun holiday gatherings. One of my favorite lines from any Christmas song is "there's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy, when they're passing out the coffee and the pumpkin pie". Random and maybe corny, I know, but I feel like this line captures what I love about this time of year: truly enjoying the season for all that it means, with a sense of contentment and thankfulness. Here's a little glimpse of that...
Lucia is 10 months old now. She likes crawling, exploring, using her walker, using other items as a walker (such as stools, empty boxes, vacuum cleaners, etc.), crawling under things, 'reading' and 'talking' to herself, singing games, hide-and-seek, having 'conversations', playing on her own, playing with others, being with her cousins and talking on Skype. She getting less clingy and more snugly...a good combo.
She has two teeth now and loves to eat. She eats anything I put in front of her but her favorites right now seem to be cottage cheese and various veggies like butternut squash and corn. She does like meat a lot too. You can tell that she loves something when she eats it with both hands, alternating little pieces into her mouth as fast as I can supply them. With spoon-fed favorites, she makes her own little yummy noise "minnah, minnah" to let us know she wants more and she wants it now! Because she can be pretty impatient when it comes to eating, we tend to use a rice krispie tactic of giving her a whole bunch of rice krispies while preparing the other food since it takes her so long to pick up each piece (cooked quinoa is great for this too, even smaller and more time consuming than rice krispies). This tactic buys us a bit more time before her little "minnah, minnah" and "mmm, mmm" noises turns into screams and shrieks. I'm enjoying this new food phase of making new things for her to try and being able to take her to restaurants since she can eat off our plate now.
And speaking of noises, she makes a lot of them and it seems she can now connect some noises with their meanings. She says "dada" and "mama" and it actually seems that she is connecting it to us...half of the time at least. Matt seems to have taught her 'ball' because when she sees one she says "ba" and has done so enough times that I am half-way convinced. Some other new things this month: she can stand on her own, clap and can mimic gestures and sounds. It is so fun to see her do and learn new things.
While it seems that we are lucky parents to have a pretty content baby, she is not always this way. She usually hates having her clothes changed (a trait that was noticed by nurses on the day she was born), hates having her coat put on, having her hands and mouth wiped after eating and being put in her car seat. And sometimes when we are changing her diaper it sounds as though we are torturing her (I have found that the music mode on her noise maker or a toy seems to mesmerize her for long enough to get things done). Luckily, any screaming she does is usually short-lived. Now that she has mastered the pincher grasp, she is putting everything in her mouth. But sometimes it seems that she is starting to get that there are some things that you aren't supposed to eat, like dust bunnies (ahem...I guess that's my little reminder that it's time to vacuum). Matt and I find pure joy in watching Lucia grow although it always seems too fast. We find ourselves having more and more moments of laughing at the little new things she does and we look forward to the many more we will have.
Here are some pictures from this past month of Lucia and of our December activities:
Lucia's first Christmas!
Lucia got to eat by the fireside at my Uncle Scott and Aunt Nancy's on Christmas Eve. And Brandy sat next to her to join her.
Playing on Christmas morning at my mom and dad's house
Addison and Caroline
Lucia loves her new toys
Enjoying her gift from us, a Radio Flyer wooden rocking horse.
Practicing standing on her own!
Some cousin time. Notice how everyone is blurry...a lot of action and chaos when they're all together.
I love this picture of Naomi!
Lucia sits like this a lot now.
Or like this, ha!
My cousin Beth got married to Rob Anderson on December 29th. It was a beautiful wedding and fun to be with family to celebrate another cousin's wedding.
Beth looked gorgeous and I loved her dress!
Gwen and Sonja had fun watching the wedding ceremony. They both said they're favorite part was the kiss. At the end of the night when they ran out to the limo, Sonja asked me "are they going to live in their own castle now?"
Roger's speech was awesome!
Of course golf was involved
First dance
Then the real dancing began...grandma always has a fun time
Gwen and Sonja did too! It was a great night! Congratulations, Beth and Rob! Welcome to the family, Rob!
Another special event this month was celebrating my dear friend Janine and her baby due in February. Emilie, Corrie, Ingrid and I had fun hosting a baby shower for her at our place.
Janine looked beautiful!
Lots of yummy food
We can't wait to meet you, Baby Wilson!
One super fun part of the shower was having great friends in town. Ingrid was in town from Alaska, Carolyn and Ashley (with son, Manu) came from MN and Christine was in town from Africa! Janine's surprised reaction to Christine was priceless. Here we all are together like we were last year.
Not pictured is Lucia with Christine which also makes me realize that I didn't take any pics from hanging out with Jaime and Ryan either (I guess when I took a picture of the food, I should have also taken some other pics). Lucia warmed up to Jaime instantly so she obviously already loves her. We were also lucky to spend lots of time with Dave who was in town and stayed with us for a week plus we got to see Eddie as well for a bit.
What we were trying to do above was recreate this picture from last year.
Then Ashley, Christine, Linnea and I had fun taking the kids downtown to see the tree in Macy's, go to the bean and the christkindlmarket. Skating was nixed once we found out the line was 2 hours long. Hard to wait that long with a 4, 5 and 6 year old. We all had fun nonetheless.
