first Christmas

Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone, and I have a week of vacation, I finally have a little time to catch up in the blog. The last few weeks have been very hectic, but have also had a bonanza of wonderment in them.

Aria is growing and changing so quickly that it is impossible to keep caught up with her. Just when I think I have something figured out, she's past it. She's such a lively girl now, all full of smiles and even giggles when she's really on fire. She grabs and holds things with her hands all the time now, puts anything she touches into her mouth, and really wants to sit up (but won't be able to for a long time yet).



She's grown to at least 26 or 27 inches now. (See the picture above, where she's lying next to a 2 foot inchworm toy.) She continues to eat well, and her sleeping schedule is settling in pretty well for us too. Now she is asleep between 9:30 and 11 most every night; she then usually wakes up about 4:00 to eat, then sleeps until 6:30 or 7. Most mornings she sleeps again after eating. She also takes a couple naps, one late in the morning and one late in the afternoon. Occasionally her sleep cycle gets interrupted because she is starting to teethe and it keeps her awake. Those nights are a little bit harder. But, we hit a major milestone today - she finally sucked on a pacifier. So now we have someplace constructive for all the drool to go. :)

Our friend Kristin sent us the absolute cutest outfit we've ever seen. Here's a couple of picures of Aria modeling it. Also, there are more pictures of her and us on snapfish.com.



We had a super chill Christmas at home. We did a tree with all the ornaments (Kathy has a seemingly endless supply, which is good, because Hosanna and I are still ornament-poor) and put up lots of lights in the yard. Our neighborhood has started gravitating toward these huge lawn ornaments that Kathy calls "The Inflatables." We think they are weird. But there ya go, times change. Aria doesn't mind The Inflatables, but she definitely prefers the lights. She has had some good times with the lights.

But her favorite times these days are with her two best buddies, Mutt the dog and Spike the dragon. Mutt's a great little dog that came her way courtesy of Nathan and Sara. Out of all the toys that have come her way, for a while, she only liked Mutt. But for Christmas uncle Adamen gave her Spike... now Spike is the top dog, and Mutt is the underdog I guess. Spike and Mutt are pretty fun. In fact, now that she's asleep, I'm going to go play with them.

Oh, I almost forgot the other cool thing that happened. The eleven year old girl from next door brought us christmas cookies. They were really yummy. We have nice neighbors. :)

P.S. For those who are counting, Aria is now 14 1/2 weeks old, and about 15 pounds.