We seem to have managed to get behind on posting again. And again it's amazing how hard it is to remember what happened just 2 weeks ago! It's a good reminder for why we started this blog to begin with. I don't want to forget all of the little things that make us laugh now but so quickly get lost in the daily grind.
I guess we'll start with the week of Christmas. I can't remember too much of what we did that week before Christmas eve, but I know that Scarlett's daycare was closed from the day before Christmas eve until tomorrow (Jan 3rd). Paul had some use or lose that he needed to take so he planned to be Scarlett's primary caretaker, but he also had some meetings here and there and we both wanted to spend some time with her, get some things done around the house, and get some dental work done, so I decided to do a combination of working from home and taking some of the comp time I had built up through the fall. I ended up having to work more than I'd planned, but still got in a lot more quality time than I usually do with the family and managed to work out 5 days in a row (it has been a while since I managed that!). I am not looking forward to heading back to work tomorrow. It's going to be a very busy week and the days just won't be as exciting without Scarlett running around.
On Christmas eve we went to my sister Tracy's house for dinner. Before going over there, Jacy, Joel, and Liam came by and we exchanged gifts. They gave us an awesome painting of Paul and I and a shirt with Scarlett's name on it that is very cool. Juli also dropped by with some cute pjcs for Scarlett. It's tradition to spend Xmas eve with my family and Christmas day with Paul's family, so after Jacy left we headed to Springfield. It was a lot of fun and Scarlett definitely understands presents. Tracy and her clan got Scarlett a ride on car that has a bunch of blocks (she loved that), a glow worm (which is now my best friend at bed time), and a bunch of books, including a curious george collection and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Matt and Nicole got her an outfit. She was sufficiently spoiled with toys etc. but was probably even more excited about all of the attention. She loves her cousins, Alana and Stephen. Alana was pushing her on her new car and all I could hear from 3 rooms away was Scarlett cracking up over and over again. It's great to see them play together. Scarlett also really liked Nicole's dogs. They're smaller than our cat, so she gets a kick out of them. Once we got home, we put Scarlett to bed and prepared for Santa's arrival.
In the morning, she got up in a fantastic mood, had some breakfast and went in to see what Santa left for her. She got a big "anywhere chair" which is sort of like a baby couch, an activity cube, a sled (from west coast Santa), and a stocking full of little things, including tickets to see Blue Man Group (http://www.blueman.com/tickets?x=0&gclid=CLvwhYejnaYCFcqC5Qod42PSow) in April. Our families were also very generous! She got a bunch of clothes and a fish tank night light from Auntie Trish, a couple toy cell phones, some clothes and a scrap book from Nana, a savings bond from GiGi, the sled, a bath toy, and books from Nonni, a puzzle, clothes, and a toy teapot from Paul's Baltimore family, and some books, bath stuff, and Ann B. Dexterous (a Discovery Channel toy) from us. Scarlett was too excited for words. She was running around from one toy to the next playing, laughing, smiling, babbling... She couldn't get enough. It was hilarious. It was very clear that it was her favorite day ever. She loved digging all of the little things out of her stocking. She even loved playing with Mommy and Daddy's presents. For example, my mom sent me a hat that came with a clear plastic hat to keep its shape. First, when I tried the hat on, Scarlett definitely did not like it on my head. Every time I put it on, she looked horrified and immediately snatched it off of my head. Then she discovered the plastic hat. That, she loved. She kept putting it on and taking it off and then putting it on me. Then she started holding it up to her face and smushing her face into it. She thought she was very funny (and I guess I have to say we agreed).
When we finished opening presents around 11:15, Paul sent a text message to his cousin to find out what time we should get there. She said between 11 and 2... Hmmm.... He called her and found out that instead of the usual dinner, they were doing Christmas brunch, but his cousin had forgotten to give us the message. Luckily his Aunt was having dinner there and they were able to squeeze us in. Once that was settled, Paul made waffles and we pried Scarlett away from her new toys long enough to take a nap before heading to Baltimore. Dinner was great and Scarlett had a ton of fun with her cousins there too. She ran around the house and Paul's cousin Jen made Scarlett laugh her butt off again. Paul's uncle Mark taught her to "toss her hair" and she had a great time hamming it up and showing off her new trick.
We spent a lot of time just hanging out at the house, playing. We did some dancing, some chasing, and a lot of playing with new toys. Scarlett has become very verbal. She is constantly shouting commands at us; although most of the time, we have no idea what she is saying. Well, if it weren't for the pointing that accompanies it, we would have no idea what she is saying. She repeats the same "sentences" over and over though, so she definitely knows what she is talking about. She has been doing that for about a month, but in the last week or two, it has really become pretty constant. She is also picking up new words that we can understand, like "please" and "happy." Very cute! Of course, she won't say them when other people are around, but we did manage to get "please" on video today.
While Paul and I were working out, Scarlett spent some time at the Kidz Klub at the gym (3 days in a row for her!). The sitters there say that she is really well behaved. The only problem is that she has become really clingy, especially with me, and now she starts bawling when I start to leave. It is SO SAD! It's really hard to run out the door when she is chasing after me, crying, with her arms extended. I usually spy on her for a few minutes later on and she is always fine, usually playing on the slide.
This was a really fun week to be home with her. In addition to becoming more verbal, she seems like she is always in a fantastic mood. She laughs a lot and is always doing things to get attention. She loves bending over (what I call her "downward dog" position) and trying to get you to look at her through her legs. She makes faces and cracks up at the littlest things. Tonight the big giraffe in her room kept falling over, so I decided to pick it up and put it in the corner of the room behind her rocking chair. She thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen (me moving the giraffe, and then it being somewhere new). She laughed, and laughed, even after we went downstairs. Then a few hours later when we went back into her room, she looked at it again and started up again! She's crazy. She is really affectionate right now too. Lots of hugs, kisses, and snuggling. Plus, thanks in part to Tracy getting her the glow worm, she has been much easier to put to bed at night. I sort of wish I could stop time and keep her at this age forever.
In addition to the gym, Scarlett accompanied us to the dentist and to the post-Christmas shopping. She was really well behaved through all of it except that she has developed a new habit. Whenever you grab her hand in a store, she goes limp. That's right, she essentially tries to get you to drag her around on the store floor. First at an angle, but then she flops down on her back in the middle of the floor wanting to be dragged. I have to admit that it might have started with innocent playing in the comfort of our home, but my dear daughter doesn't seem to distinguish between our floor and the one trodden by millions. Plus, we tend to get some pretty strange looks. She thinks it's very funny. In general though, we tend to get comments about her being cute or well-behaved, so I'll let it pass for now. Hopefully we can break her of that before she hits her teen years.
Scarlett and I went to Bonnie's to see Bonnie, Caroline, Leila, and Kazia. After eating way too many Chik-fil-a nuggets and destroying Bonnie's house, she was ready for a nap. It's pretty crazy to hang out with all of the kids. My, how times have changed!
Paul and I went out on a date (dinner and jazz) on Thursday, the day before New Years eve. My coworker and I decided to take our significant others out on an appreciation date for being supportive throughout the semester while we were teaching at GWU. Scarlett got to stay with her favorite sitter, Abigail. On New Year's eve, we didn't have a sitter so we decided to just make dinner at home and have Joel & Jacy and Paul's friend Victor and his date over. Scarlett stayed up until 11 or so, having a great old time, doing quite a bit of dancing. Luckily she slept through the night, despite all of the ruckus below.
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Well, Shonna pretty much summed up Christmas week. One thing that I would add is that Scarlett is becoming more like a little person every day. There is always something new, and we may have to start a daily journal so that we can remember all of the details as the week rolls by (or in our recent blogging, multiple weeks...) Some of the things I can remember are
1. trying to suction a pretend bowl to her face (I think she watched a kid at the Kidz Club do it).
2. Dancing "head banging style" to ANYTHING. We could be singing "kumbaya" and she'd start bouncing and shaking.
3. Chase. She purposefully grabs things so we will chase after her. Any excuse to play that game.
4. Asparagus, Edamame, radish, mini pickle, squash soup, tomato soup, brie on crackers, cucumber ginger lemonade.
5. Running
6. Unable to run straight up an incline. She goes sideways and backwards! Hilarious.
7. Dunking in the pool! We were able to successfully dunk her head under water while she held her breath (much cooler and safer than I made is sound).
8. Learning "shhhh" with her finger over her mouth.
9. Pointing to her belly, nose, eye, chin, hair, ear etc. on command
,
So we did spend quite a bit of time with her last week, but the one thing we regretted was not taking her outside to play. Sure the weather was cold and wet at times, but we missed some decent days. We did take her to a park Saturday late afternoon (albeit for less than 30 min due to darkness), and we took her to the pool Sunday for a long overdue swim lesson. When we arrived at the park, she was truly excited and couldn't wait to have some fun. At this particular park, her favorite would have to be the swings because little miss daredevil doesn't care for slides as much unless they are more than 10ft long. So off to the swings we went after an attempt with the slides. She would have let us push her for hours, so when we had the audacity to stop and take her off the swing, she was none too happy. At least there were some other things for her to do, like running up and down the parking lot when we were going to the car. There was a slight incline and that's where the comedy began. She ran downhill just fine (although I held her hand so she wouldn't fall face first while traveling faster than she ever has to that point.) Shonna was standing up the hill near our car, so when I was able to turn Scarlett around to face her mommy, she started running up, sideways, backwards, then back down the hill. She repeated this cycle quite a few times until we finally grabbed her against her will and put her in the car and headed home.
Sunday we managed to take her to Washington Lee Pool. We were trying to decide between the pool and another park, but I think we made the right decision. I mentioned her excitement as we approached the park on Saturday. Multiply that by 10 and you get her reaction when she noticed we were at the school parking lot. She knew exactly what was going to happen even though it had been a at least 6 weeks since her last swim. Her excitement continued as Shonna carried her down the hall and onto the pool deck (she bounced and giggled the entire time). We walked down the kiddie ramp into the pool and I realized that this was mommy's first pool time with Scarlett (the first was postponed by an "accident".) Mommy was a pro. We went through some of the warm-up routine I learned, then we hit the water running. The good thing about the class was that it taught the basics of getting the baby comfortable in the water. The bad thing was that the instructor did the same thing over and over and over... to the point where Scarlett and I had more fun in the 5 minutes after class than we did in the 30 min lesson. Shonna and I were able to get Scarlett to do things she hadn't quite mastered in class. As I mentioned, we were able to submerge her completely in the water many times with no intake issues. She also moved her arms and legs in a swimming motion much more often and much stronger than she ever did in class. Yes she is 6 weeks older, but I think its safe to say she has outgrown that class. Unfortunately the class is basically the same until they reach 3 years of age, a nugget I discovered when talking to a bitter mom who entered her toddler in the next stage of classes. Different class name/level was actually the exact same class with the same instructor.
Well, that's about all I can think of/remember for this blog. Hopefully Shonna and I can keep this blog going on a weekly basis from her on out. We will certainly try!
Well, Shonna pretty much summed up Christmas week. One thing that I would add is that Scarlett is becoming more like a little person every day. There is always something new, and we may have to start a daily journal so that we can remember all of the details as the week rolls by (or in our recent blogging, multiple weeks...) Some of the things I can remember are
1. trying to suction a pretend bowl to her face (I think she watched a kid at the Kidz Club do it).
2. Dancing "head banging style" to ANYTHING. We could be singing "kumbaya" and she'd start bouncing and shaking.
3. Chase. She purposefully grabs things so we will chase after her. Any excuse to play that game.
4. Asparagus, Edamame, radish, mini pickle, squash soup, tomato soup, brie on crackers, cucumber ginger lemonade.
5. Running
6. Unable to run straight up an incline. She goes sideways and backwards! Hilarious.
7. Dunking in the pool! We were able to successfully dunk her head under water while she held her breath (much cooler and safer than I made is sound).
8. Learning "shhhh" with her finger over her mouth.
9. Pointing to her belly, nose, eye, chin, hair, ear etc. on command
,
So we did spend quite a bit of time with her last week, but the one thing we regretted was not taking her outside to play. Sure the weather was cold and wet at times, but we missed some decent days. We did take her to a park Saturday late afternoon (albeit for less than 30 min due to darkness), and we took her to the pool Sunday for a long overdue swim lesson. When we arrived at the park, she was truly excited and couldn't wait to have some fun. At this particular park, her favorite would have to be the swings because little miss daredevil doesn't care for slides as much unless they are more than 10ft long. So off to the swings we went after an attempt with the slides. She would have let us push her for hours, so when we had the audacity to stop and take her off the swing, she was none too happy. At least there were some other things for her to do, like running up and down the parking lot when we were going to the car. There was a slight incline and that's where the comedy began. She ran downhill just fine (although I held her hand so she wouldn't fall face first while traveling faster than she ever has to that point.) Shonna was standing up the hill near our car, so when I was able to turn Scarlett around to face her mommy, she started running up, sideways, backwards, then back down the hill. She repeated this cycle quite a few times until we finally grabbed her against her will and put her in the car and headed home.
Sunday we managed to take her to Washington Lee Pool. We were trying to decide between the pool and another park, but I think we made the right decision. I mentioned her excitement as we approached the park on Saturday. Multiply that by 10 and you get her reaction when she noticed we were at the school parking lot. She knew exactly what was going to happen even though it had been a at least 6 weeks since her last swim. Her excitement continued as Shonna carried her down the hall and onto the pool deck (she bounced and giggled the entire time). We walked down the kiddie ramp into the pool and I realized that this was mommy's first pool time with Scarlett (the first was postponed by an "accident".) Mommy was a pro. We went through some of the warm-up routine I learned, then we hit the water running. The good thing about the class was that it taught the basics of getting the baby comfortable in the water. The bad thing was that the instructor did the same thing over and over and over... to the point where Scarlett and I had more fun in the 5 minutes after class than we did in the 30 min lesson. Shonna and I were able to get Scarlett to do things she hadn't quite mastered in class. As I mentioned, we were able to submerge her completely in the water many times with no intake issues. She also moved her arms and legs in a swimming motion much more often and much stronger than she ever did in class. Yes she is 6 weeks older, but I think its safe to say she has outgrown that class. Unfortunately the class is basically the same until they reach 3 years of age, a nugget I discovered when talking to a bitter mom who entered her toddler in the next stage of classes. Different class name/level was actually the exact same class with the same instructor.
Well, that's about all I can think of/remember for this blog. Hopefully Shonna and I can keep this blog going on a weekly basis from her on out. We will certainly try!
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