Christmas Part I

Willow will get to celebrate Christmas for two weeks - one week with grandparents in PA and one week at home with grandparents from CO. Christmas has definitely been different this year, with Willow showing a greater interest and ability to open the presents herself. Willow is soaking up time with Gramma and Gramps - usually not allowing them to leave her sight. Here's Willow begging for Gramma to come out of the bathroom:

Willow has started to enjoy playing pretend. She'll have a tea party with all of her stuffed animals or feed her baby doll. We're now even reading books to our baby!

Aunt Linnie and Uncle Paul got her a stroller for her baby, which she's really enjoyed pushing around the house. It's strange to see her being "too big" to sit in it!

We stopped by to visit our friends, the Shannons. The girls were great with playing with Willow. They enjoyed playing dress up and playing the piano. Chris had to cringe when he saw Willow come downstairs with a Rothlisberger jersey and a terrible towel.

Eating Christmas dinner at a table just the right size for Willow!

Willow is starting to smile/"cheese" for the camera.

Willow looking like quite a grown little girl!

We had a chance to go outside and play in the foot of snow this afternoon. Again, Willow was indifferent to playing in it herself. Dada and Gramps enjoyed a snowball fight - Willow can't quite understand that they're "playing."

Willow's doing a good job of keeping Gramma and Gramps smiling!

Making Cookies

We had a couple more inches of snow so we enjoyed making cookies today! Chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips and sugar cookies!

Of course we had to test the batter to make sure it was worth baking!

"Hmmmm...I think I like this."

Willow loved sitting in the middle of the action!

Quality control on the sugar cookies:

Willow had her turn with the sprinkles...

I'd say the container needs smaller holes!

YUM!!

Of course after eating all of those cookies, you need to run around a little. In the video she only says "Go," but earlier she had been making a couple grunts ("ready, set") before saying "go."

First Snow

We woke up this morning to see a snowing surprise! About an inch of snow had fallen overnight! We enjoyed the day at home together in our pajamas. I had already called in sick since I was still recooperating from the stomach virus Willow "shared" with us this weekend (the 3 of us combined for a total of 5 throw-ups in 21 hours...make it 10 in 32 hours if you count Auntie Kim!). Willow was still feeling under the weather so we're hoping she'll warm up to the snow more next time (fingers crossed for LOTS more snow!!).

Christmas Parade and Santa

We ventured out into the cold to watch the Christmas Parade. We were pretty impressed with the size of the parade! Willow especially enjoyed the inflatables and horses. She would say "bye bye" to her favorites as they passed us. We didn't quite make it through the whole parade, but maybe next year...

Later we put up our Christmas tree. Willow helped put on 3 ornaments. I didn't quite get the camera in time but here is her contribution...all on the same branch =)



We went to see Legendary Santa this afternoon. After calling her a HE last year, we figured we would eliminate that possibility with her red dress this year. We weren't quite expecting this, though:
After watching about 5 toddlers cry on Santa's lap, Willow figured he wasn't exactly a nice guy and followed suit. We asked if we had to pay ($20 for a screaming picture? I don't think so...) and she told us "no," then the other lady behind the counter slipped the picture to us as we walked out. I guess she figured they had it printed anyway...

Willow found these huge teddy bears in the same room and would have rather climbed up on his lap instead!

(even the monster in the book isn't as scary as Santa!!)

18th month

Here's an update from November, Willow's 18th month:

- Willow has started using her hand to motion for people to come. The first time was at Inflatable Palace when we got Chad to come back on the big inflatable with us. Willow looked back at Chad, who was the last one coming, and motioned for him to come. It was priceless. Since then she's done it to Alli asking her to come inside (she didn't listen) and did it all of Thanksgiving weekend with Gramma and Grampa in town. She would make a good shepherd because she easily got all 4 of us into her playroom by motioning for us. She'd even point to where she'd like us to sit on the carpet. It's hard not to oblige when she's so darn cute motioning for you to follow her.

- Communicating with Willow has become a lot easier. She's said a lot of new words this month, including Amen (love it!!), happy (my fav.), apple, pop, purple, "I love you" (not clear...yet!) booboo, yah, up, down, "Lo-lo" for "Willow," as well as attempts at numerous words from books that we ask her to repeat. She's now saying animal sounds for a cow, sheep, dog, cat, and lion/tiger/bear/"vicious giraffe."

- Willow has shown some interest in using the potty. She's very proud of herself when she does and will clap and say "yah" for herself. It's pretty sporadic but she did use it 4 times one day then 3 times the next day (then not at all for the next 5 days).

- We had our first parent-teacher conference at Willow's daycare. Ms. Frances had nothing but nice things to say about Willow. We were proud to hear how well she gets along with the other kids and how happy she is (apparently she's saving all of her meltdowns for at home!). For various reasons they have moved Willow into Ms. Libby's group starting this week, but she's adapted very well to the change.

- We've been impressed with Willow's fine motor control but were pretty shocked this month when she unlaced and laced part of Chris' shoe without being shown how.

- We haven't pushed drinking from a regular cup too much but since they've started practicing at school, we've started trying more at home too. One of Willow's daily notes from school mentioned that she would say "yah!" every time she drank from a cup without spilling. So cute!

- Willow is quite the helper around the house and generally does a good job of cleaning up or doing things that we ask. She's recently started helping with refilling Alli's food which is so, so cute!

- Willow's tooth count is now up to 16 with the addition of her two bottom canines this month!

I have received a few comments about how the monthly updates don't include pictures, so I've intentionally saved a couple for this post =)

My grandpa used to make wooden toys and furniture. He made this stool for me when I was a little girl. I can vividly remember using it to reach the bathroom sink at our house growing up!

It's the perfect size for Willow to stand on to reach the sink to wash her hands!

We bought this easel for Willow on her 1st birthday but felt like the stool was a little too tall for her at the time. While Willow doesn't sit still for long, it does fit her much better now!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Willow and I were able to meet the Murrays out for lunch last weekend and the girls enjoyed a little playtime in the play area at the mall. Afterwards they joined hands for a stroll and confidently walked around together while listening to the Salvation Army band play Christmas music.

We took advantage of the free member night at the botanical gardens to see their Christmas lights. The pictures don't quite do it justice.

We bundled Willow up and got to walk around with the Murrays for a little while (yes, this is the best picture I got of them).

Inside they had a model train display. Willow added the "choo-choo" sound effects as the trains rode by.

Not so sure about Santa, but at least you could tell she's a she!