A December to Remember

Christmas portrait

The Christmas tree is NOT going up this year. If the tree went up, Shay would figure out a way to bring it down. Likely right on top of herself! So, even though the tree won't be up, this will definitely be a December to remember. At this point, all of our Christmas shopping and wrapping is done! Looking forward to my Mom and her boyfriend coming to visit the 24th-26th and going over to Jeff's folk's place on Christmas Day. I can't wait to see Shay amidst all of the gift wrap and bows.

Baby Land continues to be THE best place to be! Shay Bug is learning and growing so fast! She's getting stronger and more coordinated by the hour it seems. She crawls at super speed and is pulling up and cruising around everything she can. We've caught her standing by herself on occasion but only when she's not aware she's doing it on her own (i.e. while busy passing a toy from hand to hand). If we try to get her to stand on her own and she knows it, she'll immediately drop down on the floor.

Squash, sweet potatoes, apples, pears & oatmeal continue to be among her favorite foods, but she also likes her YoBaby yogart, bread, Cheerios, yogart melts (aka "baby crack") and, most recently, chicken. We make roasted chicken and give her very small pieces of it. She really seems to like it and will sit and happily munch away. We call her a little "Chicken Chomper." She's also busy trying to learn how to feed herself finger foods. She has her pincer grasp down and has made the connection that she needs to bring her hand up to her mouth. However, she hasn't quite mastered the art of releasing the food into her mouth. She gets it in about 50% of the time (although, she did manage to snatch one of her organic apple puffs off of the floor and eat it before we could grab it!). It's so fascinating watching her and realizing just how hard some things actually are. We take so much for granted as able-bodied adults.

Trying her hand at eating toast

She also has 6 teeth now! Those little pearly whites just keep popping out. We've been blessed that teething isn't the ordeal for us that we've heard it can be for others. She'll get a little fussy a day or two before a tooth breaks the surface, but that's really it. She doesn't run a fever or anything like that and continues to sleep like a champ (about 11 1/2 hrs. straight at night!

Oh, and remember those baby showers I blogged about?  "Big" Shay had her baby on Dec. 3rd!  A beautiful baby boy named Liam Gabriel.  Congrats to the proud new parents!  Comje on Burke & Sarah...Baby S. needds to join the December fun!

"Big Shay" and newborn baby Liam!

We don't really get white Christmases in Tennessee, but we did get some snow the other day.  I had to take some pictures of Shay's first time out in the snow!

 Daddy & Shay

Little Snow Angel