Christmas with my niece.

One of my favorite things this Christmas has been spending so much time with my little niece. She’s so full of life, curiosity, excitement, and love. As much as I’ve enjoyed seeing Christmas through my little one’s six-month-old eyes, seeing the holiday with a two-year-old’s perspective is even better!

She helped me put ornaments on my tree, and undercoating and redecorating it many times over the past few weeks.

She loves her little car, so my sister set up this fun, quick photo shoot.

Her spunk makes me laugh!

These are two of the strongest, most resilient people I know. {Beautiful in everyway.}

A week or so ago, my niece and I made some gingerbread cookies. She was a baking pro!

The poor pup was covered in flour by the end of the process…

And I’m not sure how much icing actually made it onto the cookie versus in her mouth…

Works of art!

And my very favorite time is when we do cousins bath time, pj’s, and bedtime stories with “Uncle”…

I mean, seriously; is that not the most precious thing ever?!

All this cousin time was not planned, but it is most certainly one of the best indirect blessings of the year.

Her first visit with Santa.

My sister, Eugene, and I visited Santa Land with the little ones.

When we got there, the line was slow. We thought that by the time we reached the end of the long room, we’d see Santa, but we soon realized that the line was actually double that length. The little one took a bottle and a nap, all while waiting in the line! When we finally caught a glimpse of St. Nick, I couldn’t help but exclaim with joy, “He does exist!” ;)

I had to wake the little one up from her nap to see Santa, and I was afraid she’d scream her head off because of the sight of a stranger right after being asleep, but she did great. {She’s so chill.}

And her big cuz was so brave. She was very excited the entire time we waited, but when we were next in line to see him, she changed her mind and said that Santa was scary. And right when she got next to him, she said, “Mommy, I have to go potty.” Oh my! Luckily she was brave and sat on his lap, whispered her wish list to him and then quickly ran to the bathroom. {What a memory it would have been poor Kris Kringle had a wet lap!} I’m so proud of her facing her fears and sitting with Santa. She’s a great example for her little cuz.

It’s been so fun to see Christmas through a 6 month old’s eyes. Such delight & wonder!

Not a bad first visit to Santa – no tears and even a good picture to keep!

Merry Christmas to you! I pray you can see the holiday through a child’s eyes and with a child faith.

Six months

My sweet pea is half a year old now. In some ways, I can hardly believe that she is six months old already, but in others it seems like we welcomed her into this world forever ago.

I love this age! She is so full of life, and her personality is coming out more and more each day. She is sweet & silly, stubborn & snuggly. Her smiles are frequent and contagious, and everyone from family to strangers loves to say hi to our girl because she beams so big at them. She gets a kick out of pulling the pup’s hair, and {luckily} he loves her so much that he lets her. She always laughs at her pup playing and her cousin jumping.

She’s a cuddler {which I cherish}, but she’s definitely showing signs of separation anxiety. Some days, I can’t look away from her without her throwing a fit. And unfortunately, we’ve reverted to no longer sleeping through the night. She’s harder to get to sleep and she’s been waking up at 2 am to take a bottle & then back to sleep again. I’m not sure if she’s teething {no teeth showing still}, just hungry, or her stomach is still getting to the new veggies, but I’m open to any suggestions. {I feel like I’ve tried a bajillion different things, with no avail.}

Oh, and her hair is finally coming in with a thick white-blonde poof. No more reddish tint; this girl’s a blonde all the way! She’s still 90% in height {at least she gets something from her momma} at 27” and 75% in weight at 17 lbs.

Oh, thank you, God, for blessing me with six months with this beautiful, sweet gift.

Starting solids.

Last Saturday, the little one started eating solids, and avocado was first on the list. I am making my own baby food for numerous reasons – it’s fresh, less expensive, doesn’t have preservatives, and is made of “real” fruit/vegetables. The avocados were simple, just half them, mash them with a fork, and add a little formula/breastmilk to thin them enough.

I learned a tip about avocados {I don’t eat them, so I haven’t ever worked with them before} – if you leave the pit in the mashed leftovers, they will stay green and fresh longer. I decided to bake a bunch at once to make life easier on me. I halved the squash, put them face down into a pan with about an inch of water. Then I baked them at 400 degrees for 40 minutes, or until they were soft and tender…

Butternut squash and acorn squash…

Once they baked and cooled, I spooned the goods out, placed them into my magic bullet and blended until smooth. I didn’t add any formula at this point because I knew I wanted to freeze the food.

I filled a couple ice cube trays with the veggies to freeze. I also learned a tip here, it’s better not to fill the trays this full and twist them when you’re trying to remove the frozen cubes ‘cause they tray will snap in two. {Noted.} ;)

The cubes are apparently about an ounce each, which makes it easy to tell how much the little one’s eating.

What a mess, especially when she tried to “zerbert”all the avocado out!

After a day or so, she really started to act like she enjoyed the avocados…

First day of squash was yesterday. She wasn’t so sure about it…

She cracks me up!

Merry and bright.

It’s that time of year – glitter, lights, evergreens, family, giving. Here’s some of my instagrams, mainly my daily wondrous things…

1. she’s been a bit stubborn and independent with her bottle lately {I can’t complain because she probably gets it from me.} 2. coffee, snickerdoodle cookies, balsam candle, and Jesus Calling. 3. weather in the upper 50s, warm enough to dry cloth diapers outside in December in Ohio. 4. My little helper decorating the tree {the lower limbs are totally decked out}. 5. Free Starbucks and my little one’s picture on my computer monitor. 6. My little one rooting for the winning team.

This little elf was such a good helper decorating my trees!

And the little one has surprisingly taken zero notice of the lights on the tree. Go figure.

This picture makes my heart glad. Oh my, I love her smile.

So merry!

My crazy dog.

I was reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? to the little one. She loves pressing pounding on the buttons to make different animal noises.

All of the sudden the pup started “singing” every time I hit the button to make the elephant sound. His singing quickly turned to a full-out howl.

Apparently, he wasn’t a fan. And the little one wasn’t a fan of his howling – gave him the pouty lower lip. Maybe it’s one of those “you had to be there” things, but I thought it was ridiculously funny!

Black Friday.

Unlike last year, I didn’t participate in the rush to begin Black Friday craziness. We did make a purchase, but we didn’t venture out of the house until later in the afternoon when the lines were gone. Honestly, I didn’t feel like there were any deals good enough to fight the crowds.

The little one picked our a new washer & dryer for her cloth diapers. {I know, she looks like her daddy so much in this picture.}

Our current set is our second pair of hand-me-downs from our parents. Both sets are old, not efficient, and one died and the other is on its last leg. Finally time to bite the bullet and invest in a new pair.

We bought this Samsung washer from Lowes.

And this dryer for a little over a grand total. We debated on spending about $250 more for a front load Samsung set, but settled on this version as our final choice.

Eugene researched a lot of models, and these got very good reviews. Oh, and they’re huge! I’m looking forward to testing them out soon. :)