When You Have a Christmas Baby

When you have a Christmas baby . . .

1. She stands by the Christmas tree all day long saying, "Prehy Chismas twee, mama? So prehy! So fun! Wow!" etc.
2. After you put the star on the tree she tells you, "Where angel?" Apparently, she wants an angel topper, not a star.
3. Later she looks at the lighted (but otherwise naked) tree and says, "Oh no! Need decorations." (Yes, she used the word "decoration.")
4. She has been wishing random people merry Christmas periodically since October.
5. She pretends to fall asleep on the couch and then wakes up and asks, "Christmas here now? Santa come?" for 10 minutes straight.

The craziest part is that Christmas babies, well, they just know. Nobody teaches them these things. They just seem to figure Christmas out all on their own. It must be running through their veins. But regardless of how my little Christmas angel knows, I am just glad she knows. We are having the best holiday season ever because she is enthralled with everything about Christmas. And frankly, so am I.

Picture taken by Robin Lee http://portraitsbyrobinlee.blogspot.com/

Toddler Manipulation

We are slowly (VERY slowly) getting settled. We are starting to feel more at home too. Well, I am. Ryan and Angela adjusted weeks ago, so it's just slow-to-adapt me left.

Since the day she was born, Angela knew what she wanted and has done a fairly good job of telling me what that is. She can be pretty smart (=sneaky) about it too. For several months now she has been telling me things like, "Mommy? TV? TV? Okay! TV!" or "Outside? Okay? Okay! Outside!"

I guess that is supposed to settle it. I should add that I take no part in the conversation until after she has settled the matter. Telling her no after that never goes well. I mean, hey, didn't we already decide?

This week she added another element. "Do you want cupcake? Okay! Cupcake!" or "You want upstairs? Upstairs? Okay!" I'm left confused how I could have both asked about and agreed to her having a cupcake without uttering a word.

Little Lady Bug

The house is filled with boxes! My head is filled with frazzled lists. Moving day approaches. I get so sad when I think of leaving our first house. I asked Ryan if it's sad at all to him to come home to increasing bare walls and shelves. "No." Well. I'll be sad enough for the both of us then. Anyway, I thought I'd take a break from business and give an update. Which means me telling everyone that I'm doing a lot of packing and talking about Angela. Because that's pretty much what's going on.

At 18 months children are old enough to go to the church nursery. Angela peaked a-practically-out-of-nowhere case of separation anxiety right about that time. I was so stressed and taken by surprise, since she has always LOVED other kids. It worked out that a sub was needed, so I went with her to class for a few weeks. When a permanent teacher was found, I knew it was time.

Today was her third week without me and she is going great! I credit her fabulous teachers for helping her feel loved and excited about being there even without her mama. I do have to say though, Angela was made for nursery. Snacks and singing time are two of her favorite things in this world. I wish I could record her during the singing time. She is a riot. Every time we pass a chapel she shouts, "Chuch! Chuch!" Anyway, it's been a huge relief to me, and I really do appreciate her teachers. I am pretty nervous about the move, but hopefully she'll do fine.

Little chatty Cathy says says some pretty hilarious things. Today she called me Christie (now she knows both Ryan and Christie). A few days ago she was asking for something I know for a fact she doesn't like. I told her she wouldn't like it. "I like it! I like it!" she yelled. Oh, and I think she is finally saying "I love you." Sorta. Twice she has said something that sounds like "I leaf you." Even though I don't think she knows what she's saying, and it does sound like leaf, it still melts my heart!

Oh, and one last thing. Angela totally stole an apple at the market when I had my back turned. Since she'd licked it, I thought we should hold on to it. When we got to the checkout counter, the lady wouldn't let me take it away from Angela, so she insisted we just keep it. I'm sure it was just because Angela was looking especially cute that day, even for her. Here she is eating her stolen loot.

Another Comparison

That nutty baby found her old playmat. She was thrilled. She kept chanting, "Amals! Amals!" (animals--it's jungle themed). I pulled it out to indulge her. I don't think it was as fun as she expected, but she did enjoy finding then identifying all of the animals. A year ago she couldn't even sit up on it, and now she doesn't fit. Goodness.

By the way, I came across this one while looking for a flashback picture. It makes me giggle. Angela figured out how to collapse the whole playmat. She would just lay there for a few minutes before fussing. I laughed every time she did it.

Bathtub Then and Now

We borrowed an infant bathtub from a friend, and I finally returned it this weekend. Angela was super excited when I pulled it out of the closet. She thought it was a car and kept saying, "Beep! beep!" while pushing on the foam cushion. It really hit me what a big girl she is getting to be. The last time she took a bath in it, she was seven months old--so just over a year ago. I promise she's just as loud as she was then, although she does use words now. :)

Pirate Baby

Over the years Ryan has accumulated several books about pirates. Angela loves them. They aren't baby books and some aren't even children's books. But she loves to sit on the floor "reading" the pictures for hours (okay 5 minutes--she is a toddler) at a time. Yesterday I was fanning her with a little black instruction manual. Angela grabbed it away, covered her right eye with it, and shouted a very-hearty-for-such-a-tiny-peanut "Aaaaarggg!!!" Then followed up with a deep little, "Ho, ho, ho!" (=yo, ho, ho). Some people have princess daughters. Ours is apparently a pirate.

Starting Again

I'm not going to lie. Life revolves around this little one. So blogging will too. Sorry. But let's be honest, she's the prettiest part of my life anyway. I'm not going to rehash the year (+) I was away from blogging. If I did I'd never start again. Instead I'm just going to pick up where we are now.

This little munchkin is full of words. She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night just to practice the words she knows. Some of her recent ones include hat, Angela (said A-la-la, which I love), swirrel=squirrel, heady=hedgehog, and dillo=armadillo. Uncle B gave her a wooden woodland creatures set, hence some of the non-farm animal creatures. Another funny little thing she's doing is calling Ryan by other names. Dada was one of her first words, so maybe she is tired of the same old word. She sometimes calls him Wynie because she's heard me call him Ryan. Ha!! I didn't think that would start for a few more years. But lately she stated calling him Waggy. We have NO IDEA where this came from! It is hilarious.

In other news, we are going to be moving. Angela loves to go to the new house and run around like crazy. Nothing like going wild in a construction site. We have several "wocks" that Angela's collected from the backyard. I've already started packing (the close date isn't for two more months) and am trying not to be a ball of stress. Ryan would tell you that I'm not doing a very good job. But we are excited for a new adventure!