December 2003
December started off easy enough with preparations for the holiday season. The month was filled with new experiences for both girls.
The big Phoebe news for this month is all the standing and beginning of cruising. It started off innocently enough with Phoebe pulling herself up on slide of the play house. She would basically crawl up the slide until she was more or less in a standing (more sort of stooping) position. Then she got fancy and used an over-turned toy box to get up on feet, then grabbed onto coffee table to stand on December 9, 2003. Just a few days later (December 14), Phoebe pulled herself up on my knee while I was sitting on the floor. She was leaning on my leg for a minute when suddenly, the weight lifted. I said to Jada, "she's standing". Then she took her hand away, and I called out, "she's standing". Then she grabbed back on. It was only for a second. Maybe 2, but we were so proud. A few days after that, she started cruising a little bit (12/21/03). She can only go forwards. She'll start on a box, grab a table or Ellen's bed, and then take a couple steps towards it to get her belly up on it. And on a couple of occasions, she has held on to Jada's hands and walked towards her. She already can crawl like the wind, we don't need her to be able to run already. Finally, as if standing and taking some first steps isn't enough, she has also learned how to wave. When I come through the door at night, and she sees me, she'll come crawling towards the gate and stop to wave and smile. It's such a wonderful sight after a long day. On December 23, she was able to do the hand wave where she opens and closes the fingers. So cute. She also really responds to her name. It's been like that for a while now, but I finally remembered to put it in here. This month has also brought on some new food to try: She can't get enough chicken or ham. She tried noodles both plain and with cheese. She also enjoyed refried beans with cheddar cheese.
Phoebe had her 9 month doctors appointment as well. No shots this time. She was healthy and where she needs to be development-wise. Here are stats: Weight: 18lb, 11oz (50%). Length: 28" (50-75%). Head circumference: 17" (10-25%)
Ellen has been adding to her mystique as well. Her tantrum continues to be on a hair trigger, but to be fair, many of the times she explodes follows either a day where she decides not to nap, or a day where we just keep her too busy. The lack of napping on some days has really been hard on her, but she just sits in there and talks and sings to herself and her stuffed animals for hours straight without taking a break. It's unbelievable. If she ever goes into politics she'll be the filibuster queen. Ellen also got to help with the sugar cookies this year for Jada's holiday cookie plates. She did a very good job using the cookie cutters to make cookies and then decorate them. She really enjoyed eating the end product as well. On the musical side, she enjoys singing "De Doo Doo Doo De Da Da Da" by the Police. This is her third favorite song behind the Beatles "Obla-Di, Obla-Da" and "Let's call the whole thing off" by Ira Gershwin. Sometimes on the way home when Phoebe is getting grumpy from riding backwards in the carseat, Ellen will sing to her. Songs like "Yes, mommy loves you; yes, mommy loves you; yes, mommy loves you; she loves you very much. Yes, daddy loves you;, yes, daddy loves you; yes, daddy loves you; he loves you very much." It is very sweet.
The awkwardness of youth continues to rear it's ugly head for Ellen as well. After years of not listening to her mom and dad, Ellen finally realized the error of her ways...she enjoys pushing herself back by using her feet on the table to which we always tell her to stop. This time she and the chair fell backwards. No physical injuries, just her pride was damaged a bit. It's one of those accidents I like to call self-correcting. At the same time, she still just falls into things some times. The day after Christmas we were getting ready to go out. Ellen was in her pretty dress so she was spinning in the playroom. She trip herself up some how and came out of the spin and hit her mouth right into the coffee table. Luckily I hadn't gotten changed yet because there was blood every where. No damage that we could see to her teeth, but her lip was split open in a couple places. Not bad enough for stitches, but still pretty nerve wracking for us to try to calm her down while still holding her down to keep ice on it for a few minutes. That's the horrible side of the parenting. Mom and Dad, sorry for putting you through all that I know I put you through as a child with my many clumsy mishaps. :)
The fun just kept coming this month too. We all went down the road to pick out our tree. Unfortunately, the guy who's lot we cut our tree from is selling to the developers, so this is his last year. We'll have to find somewhere else to go next year. Ellen got to help hang the lights and ornaments on the tree this year as well. It was easy to tell since in years past, there are hardly ever any ornaments towards the bottom of the tree. This month also saw the end of another swimming class. However, both the girls caught the horrible flu that had been going around (24 hours of vomiting followed by a nasty cold) so we had to miss big slide day not to mention a lot of sleep lost by us all!
Of course Christmas was this month as well. We had a nice little dinner on Christmas eve with just the family. Then after the kids were in bed, I got to join the thousands of people who get to assemble gifts in the evening. Luckily this one (from Grandma Freeman) only took about 45 minutes to put together. On Christmas morning, we had a little breakfast before Jada's mom and dad arrived promptly at 7am for the gift opening. This year we remembered to charge up the camera battery the night before so we got to video almost the whole time...until we ran out of tape. D'oh! We had the girls open all of their presents before Phoebe went down for her nap. Then while she was asleep, Jada and I opened our gifts. Everyone did a really nice job with the gifts this year. We very much appreciated all the thoughtful presents. Ellen and Phoebe loved all of theirs, too. The hit of the morning was when Phoebe curled up with her little, very soft (Gund-like if not Gund) pink bear from Papa on the floor. She sleeps with it now.
After nap time for the girls, we went over to Mike and Carrie's for their annual Christmas day dinner. The Blazers aren't good enough any more to get to play on Christmas day so the TV wasn't even on. Mike's family was in town, so Ellen got to meet Mike's nephew, John Daniel. He and his parents had just flown in that day. They seemed to get along really well, but because of both of their over stimulation for the day, the sharing wasn't happening a lot. But that didn't keep them from having fun. Dinner was terrific as always, and the deserts were plentiful. We got to see a few of our friends whom we don't get to see on a regular basis any more so that was nice, too. The next night brought a visit to "grandma" Janet and "grandpa" Ned's which followed Ellen's shot to mouth which I already talked about. Their real granddaughters were in town visiting from Seattle over Christmas. Since they are Ellen and around Phoebe's age, they liked to play together. Kendra and Ellen get along very well, and have gotten to see each other many times over the last 2 years. Phoebe is 5 months older than Katie, but she enjoyed playing with her all the same. Ellen and Kendra sat in the kitchen at a little table all by themselves while the adults sat in the other room. Janet was keeping her eye on the girls, but they did just fine. We were all listening to their little conversation. It was adorable.
This past Monday, Mike's nephew JD came over for the afternoon while his mom got to go out to a movie with the rest of the family. I had taken the morning off to watch the girls while Jada went out with one of her friends, so I took the first shift. As soon as he arrived, JD and Ellen started playing. They played a little bit of everything: trains, grocery store, Lego's. Phoebe was trying to play with them all too. Then after I got the kids fed, Jada and I traded off so I could head into work for the afternoon. Ellen had her 1st sleep over during nap time, Ellen on her bed and John Daniel on phoebe's mattress on the floor. An hour later found JD wearing Ellen's pajama top and Ellen wearing her boots on the wrong feet. Quite humorous. Also, JD was missing a sock that he had hidden somewhere in the room... Phoebe found it a day later after Jada and I had searched everywhere for it. It was in a pickup truck that Phoebe always likes playing with in Ellen's room.
The other thing about that day was that it snowed. It actually snowed and stuck! It took me an hour to get home since it didn't even occur to me that I shouldn't go over the hill. I eventually had to pick my way through the abandoned and stuck cars back the way I had come to go around the hill to the other side. (The Subaru came through again.) It snowed again the next night. It melted a little bit today, but Ellen got to run around in the yard a little bit at least and pick some up.
The last day of the year 2003 brought the first New Year's at noon party. So the kids don't have to stay up late, one of Jada's friends hosted a party where the kids count down to "midnight" at noon. There were instruments and toys that make noise to celebrate the "new year" and all the kids enjoyed apple cider while the adults toasted to health and more sleep! The party was a great idea. Ellen and Phoebe had lots of fun, and there were several other kids there Ellen's age to play with.
Another year has come to a close. It has brought us a new beautiful baby girl who is already working on standing in just 10 short months. It has seen the development of a 2 year old terror full of fun, smiles, and song. It also brought Jada and I into our 3rd wonderful year of marriage. We have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to in the coming year. We hope to keep in touch with you all. We hope you all have a happy and healthy 2004.
Journal entry: December 31, 2003