I don't know why I always wait 'til the last minute to get these posts done- I should be jotting down her milestones throughout the month because now I can barely remember what they are. But here goes...
Although everyone is constantly telling me how much she has grown since she came home, she really hasn't grown at all! According to the doctors, she is still the same height she was at her first appointment (although she is usually screaming and squirming when they measure her, so I'm not sure how accurate that is). But she has gained about 2 pounds and I think her weight has distributed differently, making her look longer lately. I dunno.
One of her favorite things to do all day is to walk up and down the stairs and I finally gave in and began letting her do this unsupervised a couple of weeks ago (she's never fallen, thank god) and now this isn't good enough - she needs to bring her corn popper, or some other dangerously long object up and down with her. Great.
Her obsession with books continues to grow at a rapid rate. She recently began sitting for longer periods of time to actually listen to a book, whereas before we would get through about 2 pages before it was onto the next book. Have I ever mentioned that she licks her finger before turning the pages? It took me a while to figure out where she learned to do that (because I certainly don't!), and then one day I realized that during lunch I usually flip through any magazines or catalogs we get in the mail, and as I'm flipping I tend to lick my finger every once in a while. We've definitely reached the point where I am more aware that she is mimicking
everything I do and say. Her use of words is exploding! We were telling the pediatrician that she can say: uh-oh, all done, oh no, oh boy, oh geez, boo-boo, poo-poo, etc. And the pediatrician responded that she was really impressed that she is using 2 word phrases already (and Marc and I giggled to each other because we're pretty sure those don't really count as "phrases", but oh well, we'll take the compliment). She also says "Brrrrr" and hugs herself whenever she sees snow.
And yes, that is a pink Christmas tree in her bedroom. Every little girl needs one. She is totally into all things Christmas. She says "ho, ho, ho" when she sees a Santa, although she also says "uh, ho, ho", instead of "uh-oh" lately. And every morning she points to the advent calendar because she knows there is a treat waiting for her in it. She loves our Christmas tree and says "ahhhh!" when we turn the lights on. She has been really good about not touching the ornaments, other than the few at the bottom that we told her were hers to play with. Except that I do catch her trying to eat the cranberries off the popcorn garland we made, but she can't figure out how to get them off. And Marc even set up his trains under the tree, which we were nervous about, but she has been really good about that too.
Oh, and she is still sleeping in our bed, but after talking to a few of the mama's at the LTC Christmas party, we are trying something new this week. We brought a mattress into her room and all week we've been playing on it and reading books, and this weekend we are going to start sleeping on it. I'm going to sleep in there with her for a couple of weeks and then if that goes smoothly, we are going to bring in a toddler bed. Wish us luck! I know I am forgetting tons of fun and cute stuff she has done this month, but this is all I can remember.
Ok and now for our Christmas card picture...
Ha, ha, ha, we're not really using this picture, but it is cute, isn't it? This is the new look I get whenever she sees me reaching for my camera (which is why we don't have a picture for our Christmas cards). Can you see how dramatic she is? Look how hard she is scrunching up those eyes and even flaring her lips to show her teeth. That's my girl!
