Christmas Elf

It's almost here.... our first Christmas with Anya. I have to say, even though she won't really "get" Christmas for a few more years it still is fun having a baby to share the holiday with. I didn't go crazy with presents for her figuring she will be more interested in the wrapping paper and ribbon anyway.

What has Anya been up to lately. Well she sits up totally unassisted and has been doing this for some time now. She is almost crawling. She gets on her hands and knees and slides forward. Backwards she can really get around but the forward movement is still slow moving.

She talks A LOT! I wonder where she gets that from? :)
Basically she makes one main sound- it is a mix between a growl and a roar. She demonstrates it here in this video. We call it her Pterodactyl noise and hopefully she will add some more sounds to her vocabulary soon.

Our daughter is a narcissist. She loves her own reflection and kisses herself in the mirror when ever you allow her to get close enough. Actually one of the only things she will make a real effort to crawl towards is her own reflection in the mirror. But hey, who can blame her, she is the center of our universe now and thinks that is just great!

We have been busy feeding the little monster. She basically eats anything put in front of her at this point. We have introduced squash, sweet potatoes, yams, avocado, banana, apple, pear and other misc items. We usually mix it with cereal but sometimes she chows on the veggies or fruit solo. It is a messy endeavor and she of course enjoys it more when she has the food in her hair and on her clothes. Myles and I tease about designing a suit that is similar to what adults wear to go into crawl spaces- a light weight zip up with a hood- to put over babies outfits when they eat. We would leave the face and hands exposed but nothing else. They would also be disposable so no laundry either. Sounds like a good idea huh!

Her laughter is contagious and can be brought on by the most ridiculous things. Sometimes all it takes is a look from me and she cracks up. She is ticklish and loves to have people "eat her feet". We played this game in the grocery store yesterday and she was hysterically laughing causing those around her to smile and giggle as well. We try to spread the cheer since she is such a happy baby!

We went and saw Santa a few weeks back and she was happy to sit on his lap. I'm not sure what she asked for but I'm sure she will get it!

She still wakes once during the night and I feed her. It is not that bad to wake up once for 15 minutes and I really enjoy our quiet time together. Since she is so busy now during the days, this is our only time to cuddle. I NEVER thought I would still WANT to wake up at night to feed my baby- oh what a change of perspective.

One of her favorite activities is sitting on our bed and eating my pajamas while I get ready.

Anya has had her Christmas with Myles's side this past weekend and spent some time with her cousins. It is fun to see all the kids together and Anya just loves them all.

Traveling with Anya

Lots to update: Anya successfully flew to LA and back without major incident. It is difficult to fly with a baby. It starts with the packing.... a three day trip to LA should require no more then a carry on bag and a purse right? WRONG when you take a baby you have more stuff then you thought possible. From bibs to diapers, toys to breastpumps- everything must go.

Security is an interesting process now. Not only do you still have to nearly disrobe yourself in front of perfect strangers but you must remove the baby's coat and shoes as well. Was there a baby shoe bomber.....I think not. Safety first yada yada yada. So we wake our peacefully sleeping child, remove her from the car seat and take most of her clothes off. Meanwhile no one is telling me what to do with the collapsible snap and go and car seat. Do I wheel it through the metal detector? At least I was smart enough to take the baby out. Oh no, you must break down the entire stroller and somehow shove it through the conveyor belt detector. Once on the other side of the x-ray machine they confiscate my bottle of breast milk to test it. We are busy passing Anya back and forth, reconstructing our stroller, putting our shoes and clothes back on, what a mess.

So the major message in all this is PLEASE be patient with the people in line traveling with children- it is much harder on them then it is on you to wait a couple extra minutes while they try to organize themselves. OK I'm getting down off my soap box now.

The plane ride was fine. Myles would get up (if the seat belt sign allowed him too) to swing Anya if she was getting fussy and needed to sleep. I fed her on take off and the pressure change never seemed to bother her on the way up or down. There was very little crying either way but that was mainly due to our maintenance of the situation trying to head off any fussiness before it began. Kudos to those that travel singly with their baby, I don't know how you do it.

LA was nice and a bit warmer than here- the Ritz at Marina Del Rey was gorgeous as expected. We were excited to swim but the pool was too cold and the hot tub too warm so we took a swim in the bathtub. The groom was one of Myles's good buddies and Myles was in the wedding. Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner and left the babies with some sitters the Ritz recommended. Along with Anya we had the Piskel's baby Lucy, and the Boswell's baby Owen all staying at the Ritz. When the babysitters arrived none of us wanted to leave our kids with them. They were scary to say the least. But we had no choice so off to dinner we went leaving our precious babies with scary strangers. We called every hour or so and within a three hour window all three babies had woken up at least once. The hardest part was knowing we would be leaving them again the next night for even longer. Thankfully the wedding was at the Ritz so we could check in and the second set of babysitters were so much better.

If you can't tell from the pictures we spent a lot of time in our hotel rooms and Anya loved all her time on the king bed. She and Lucy had a great time playing together too.

Returning to Seattle on Sunday we were exhausted and so was Anya. Her schedule was all wacky and none of us had slept that well but we all had a great time.

A Thanksgiving to remember

Anya celebrated her first Thanksgiving last week. We hosted in our home and had both sets of grandparents, Anya's great grandparents and great aunt attend dinner. All went well- the turkey cooked perfectly, gravy wasn't too runny or too thick, and Anya was well behaved. As with all Thanksgivings though, there had to be something memorable. So Charlie, great grandma's dog, decided to take that task upon himself. It starts during cocktails and appetizers in the living room. Karl sat down next to me and I immediately smelled something foul. Knowing Karl is usually a pretty good smelling person I didn't suspect it was him right at first. Everyone in the room smelled it simultaneously and sure enough Karl had stepped in poop and walked around the house with it on his shoe. Naturally we believed he had accidentally stepped in some outside- oh no- the poop was inside on the kitchen rug- our first present left by Charlie. Myles and Karl cleaned up the the house and we continued on with our dinner celebration laughing off the incident.

After dinner, dessert, and all the dishes I trudged upstairs exhausted from the day and sat on our bed removing my shoes. After changing into my pajamas I noticed a small pile on my bed. It couldn't be I thought to myself- IT WAS! OH MY GOD THE DOG POOPED ON OUR BED! I nearly sat in it without noticing at first- that would have been a huge disaster. I called down to Myles who ran up and disposed of the offending sight. I stripped the bed and proceeded to start the laundry. At this point all we could do was laugh. It didn't make any sense to be mad at the dog and it was Thanksgiving for god's sake. So Anya will have a wonderful story about her first Thanksgiving for years to come.

My parents cleaned out their attic recently and found a few articles of clothing I had worn as a baby. We put Anya in a dress I wore and Mom brought over a photo album to show me a picture of me at 6 months wearing the same dress. We reenacted the photo of Dad, Mom, and instead of me Anya in the dress. She does look a lot like I did as a baby especially when we are the same age wearing the exact same clothes- it is eerie.

We are having a blast with her now. She turned 6 months today and is starting to scoot a little across the floor. If you put something solid behind her feet (your hand, leg, foot, a wall) she can propel herself forward. She does a plank and occasionally puts her knees down but primarily lays on her belly and slithers around. Scooting backwards is coming along a bit faster then forwards- weirdo!

We have our first plane trip and hotel stay this weekend. We are headed to Marina Del Rey for a wedding outside LA. We are excited to go and very interested to see what it is like to travel with a child. I'm sure we will have lots of good stories and fun pictures when we return from our trip. Poor child has to stay at the Ritz for her first hotel experience- how spoiled- is that a silver spoon?

Christmas is up and running at our house. We have lights up outside and decorations up inside, all we need is the tree and all our shopping to be done. Thankfully Anya is not moving yet so we don't have to worry about childproofing the decorations- next year will be a whole new ball game!