Sock Monkey

Sofie received a very special sock monkey as a gift this year from her Great Grannie Gracie. In fact, Evander received one too since Grannie Gracie has been a very busy elf this year and made one by hand for each of her seven Great Grandchildren. As you can see, Sofie lost no time fixing up her monkey, girly girl that she is. Monkey has become a dignified lady complete with sweater, hairbow, and earrings (yes earrings!) And is it just me or does her monkey mouth suddenly look like it's got a fresh coat of red lipstick? Silly girl!

Merry Christmas!

We must have a couple of very nice children because Santa sure did leave us a lot of fun things to play with this year! We woke up to presents galore beneath the Christmas tree...


...and a special surprise waiting for a sweet little girl in our kitchen too! (Rumor has it that one of Santa's elves spent several hours putting it together at our house on Christmas Eve. Those elves are just so dedicated to making children's faces light up on Christmas morning!)


Evander enjoyed all the commotion, bows, and wrapping paper, and a special Santa hand-me-down from his big sister...




Sofie seemed to be in shock, but had a merry time opening up all her packages and spent lots of time playing with each one's contents before moving along. Here she is in baby doll heaven...


We let her discover her new kitchen on her own and we were nearly an hour into our festivities when she finally exclaimed, "Wook at dis!" and set to work trying it out. I could swear I saw her peering at it several times before she actually acknowledged it. I wonder what she was thinking :) In this picture you can see she's busy cooking with some makeshift pots and pans. Later she got some real ones in another package, but she was too busy playing to open presents at this point!




Here she is showing her babies how the oven works. What a little mommy!


After everything was finally opened Sofie and Daddy had a fun time exploring some books with Sofie's new Tag reading system.


Here are the requisite pictures of the aftermath!



And...somehow I never seem to get a decent picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits. I don't have a single picture of Sofie in her Christmas dress last year, and this is the best picture I managed this year.


Once we were all "dooded up" we rounded out our day with a visit to Nana and Grandma's house for lunch and more presents and then an evening at Grannie (Great Grannie!) Gracie's house. Absolutely exhausting, but in the best sort of way! It was the most wonderful Christmas I can remember since my own childhood. Can't wait for next year!!

Four Months

Moose you are four months old and you've spent this month charming our socks off. Just a few short months ago, when I was having an exceptionally rough time transitioning from a parent of one to a parent of two, a kind midwife told me that things would get easier in stages. "Things get a little easier at six weeks," she said, "and then easier still by twelve weeks. By the time you hit the six month mark things will feel normal again." So far she has been absolutely correct, and your grinning and giggles certainly have a way of making me forget about the hard stuff!

You are getting so strong. You spend your tummy time locking your little arms firm to push your chest right up off the ground. You grab everything in sight and it all goes straight into your mouth for a nice coating of slobber. You are rolling with ease from your back to your stomach and you've accidentally rolled from your stomach to your back a few times too. When I put you down for a little play time I usually return to find you flipped over and half a circle from where I left you. It will only be a matter of time before you'll be my constant underfoot companion.

You're pretty easy going most of the time and you love to watch what's going on around you. You'll sit in the swing or the Bumbo seat intently watching us go about our daily activities and when I glance up to check on you I'm always greeted with an instantaneous grin. You seem to think Sofie is magical and you are pleased as punch when she takes a moment to goof around with you. She is the lucky recipient of most of your laughter.

You've got me pretty convinced that you'll teeth earlier than Sofie did because you've been coated with drool for the past few weeks and you want everything to go straight to your mouth. Your hands are still the easiest target and you're often gnawing on your thumb, but you will attack my hands, shirt, arms, face, and any toys within reach. You sit on my lap during mealtimes and you get so excited each time I take a bite and the food comes towards you, kicking your legs and leaning in for the kill. We gave you your first taste of cereal this weekend and you were so thrilled to see that spoon finally coming to your mouth. You grabbed for it with both hands and guided it right in...and then you were so monumentally disappointed! Thank goodness there are tastier things in the world than rice cereal :)

Van, when we brought you home and set to work learning how to manage a second child a friend commented that having another baby makes things, "exponentially harder." He was right, but what he failed to mention was that your presence here would make our lives exponentially better too. Your little glowing face has helped us muddle through the rough spots and we look forward to spending each and every day, good or bad, with you.

O Christmas Tree

We put up our sad little Christmas tree (which I secretly love) tonight. This was the first year that Sofie was really able to participate in the trimming, hence:

In case you're unsure of what you're seeing here, it is no less than ten tree ornaments all hung on the same two bottom most branches. Now, those of you who know me well will not be surprised when I admit that I am a wee bit anal about some pretty silly things like, oh I don't know, ornament spacing? But every time I look at those poor sagging branches I have to stifle a giggle and so there will be absolutely no rearranging while my sweet unsuspecting little girl sleeps.

I'm not particularly fond of decorating the Christmas tree but one of my favorite things to do every year is pull out all the Christmas ornaments and reminisce. I've been collecting ornaments for awhile now, picking one out each time we visit some place new, and almost every ornament has some sort of story or special significance behind it. I'm really looking forward to the days when I can bore the kids with all my tales :) This year the most poignant ones for me were all Vance family-centric. The small collection we've got going from my niece and nephew, beginning with Lillie's tiny baby hand print from '04. The log cabin ornament Janna gave me on my birthday when we were vacationing in Colorado the year I was pregnant with Sofie, and the one from Mohican Lodge I got last year when we all stayed there for Kyle and DeAnna's wedding. I suppose I'm missing the crew this holiday season more than I had realized. I feel very lucky to be near so much of our extended family and to firmly look forward to the days when we get to reunite with those who are far in miles, but always nearby in our thoughts and memories.