6 Months Old

Look who is 6 months old! Wow, time--it is a flyin'. Sally Sharp started daycare on January 3rd, and before I dropped her off, I knew she was the youngest in her class. When we got in there, it was quite apparent because all the other children were sitting up, and most of them were crawling around (some even pulling up!). I reminded the teacher she wasn't even sitting up yet, and as I left her there I felt sorry for her (for many different reasons; I thought I would cry when I left her the first day, but we had such a time getting out the door the first day that I didn't come close to crying!). Anyway, I think she realized that day she'd better get it in gear. Pretty much by the very next day she had started sitting up pretty well on her own. We still don't let her sit up on her own without some type of protection around her, but she is doing GREAT sitting up. She loves her floor nanny, and so do I! Now, if she could ever learn to roll over...I know, usually that comes before sitting up. Not my children, though! Avi did the same thing--she sat up before she ever thought about rolling over. Oh well. I guess it doesn't really matter!

I was trying to take some pictures of Sally Sharp on her 6th month birthday last night, and she wasn't in the best of moods. She was pretty sleepy--thus the not so great faces. Avi was having fun, though!

She's been doing a lot of this the past few days...biting, drooling, fussing. I think we are in full teething mode right now. I'm just not sure they are ever going to pop through!

Sally Sharp in her awesome floor nanny playing with her toys.

A little snow

So, I'm a little late in posting about the snow we got (two weeks ago). First, we had huge snow flakes that lasted for hours on Christmas day (that didn't stick), and then we found this when we woke up on Monday, January 10th. Avi was pretty excited to play in the snow. As you can tell, she and Drew made a snowman, which she promptly named Frosty. Very original! We had a hard time with our buttons we used for the eyes, nose & mouth. The "mouth" didn't want to stay on. Too bad we didn't have a carrot for the nose. As Avi said, "That's okay."

Sally Sharp & I stayed inside while they built the snowman and then joined them to take some pictures. I had to bribe Avi to take a picture with us. I guess she'd had enough picture taking by the time I asked her to take a picture with me.

I didn't post it, but when I asked Drew to take a picture of Sally Sharp and me, he was aiming the camera at the house. I said, "What are you doing? We are over here!" He said, I'm getting y'all in the picture. When I looked at the pictures later, he had this great picture of the house, and we were these little ants in the right corner of the picture! What?! Thankfully he also took another one of us, but of course it is not centered. Oh well.

I love the way the snow made Avi's tricycle and the swing look.

Fun times in the snow. Very out of the ordinary for us to have snow twice in one year. I started back to work on January 3, so we had a snow day a week later that gave us a little break. It has been quite a challenge getting 2 kids and myself out the door in the mornings. We are getting into a routine, though. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it just as the semester is ending, ha!

Rice Cereal & Great Memaw

I can't believe Sally Sharp is already old enough for baby food. She had her first rice cereal on Christmas Eve. She actually did really well with it on her first eating. The first couple of times we fed it to her, her hands were all in the way, but she has learned to keep them down (most of the time) while she is eating. She loves to put the bib in her mouth when she gets full, but at least we have a sign she doesn't want much more.

She has also tried and likes Squash, Peas, Oatmeal & Apple Sauce. I gave her carrots today for the 2nd time, and she smacked her lips as she ate them. She also was holding her mouth open before I could get another bite on the spoon. I take those as signs she really likes them!

We visited with my Grandmother (Memaw Wilson--my mom's mother & Sally Sharp's namesake) the Monday after Christmas. It was nice to see her feeling so well. She was in the hospital for several days a couple of weeks before Christmas. She had a pacemaker put in; she's 94. She has recovered very well!

I love this picture. Sally Sharp didn't sit with her long, but this is such a sweet picture of the 2 of them together.

And last but not least, little miss is reading Purplicious to her babies, Amy & Penny, as she wears her "fairy princess" costume. I wish life was that simple at 34 :).

Christmas 2010

Sally Sharp & Avi in their Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve

We had an eventful Christmas (4 different Christmas celebrations). I have to admit, (even though there are a lot of pics here), I did not do a great job at taking pictures this year. I missed taking pics at Christmas with Granddaddy & Shug, with the Elliott extended family (Nana's extended family), and with Nana.

Avi with Mimi & Nana on Christmas morning.

The loot from Santa and Mom & Dad on Christmas morning.

The big item this year was dress up clothes, and she LOVES them. She puts on at least one costume a day. I've tried to limit it to one a day--so we are not changing every 5 minutes. So far that has worked well. Her favorite thus far is her Silver Mist costume (a friend of Tinker Bell). We believe Santa thought he was bringing a Tinker Bell costume, but in his hurry, he left Silver Mist instead :). Avi also got several classic Disney movies. We are watching Beauty and the Beast as I type this. She loves Snow White as well, but she had a hard time getting into Mary Poppins. The first part is a little less than little kid friendly...we will have to try that one again soon, and I will start it where Mary Poppins comes into the movie.

Another favorite gift was Avi's camera (this was actually a gift she got for her birthday when she turned 2, and I'm glad we waited to get it out now because the button is kind of hard to push~thanks Jack Fountain.) It is actually a really cool camera that has different "pictures" you can put in it. When you push the button, they come out the bottom. Although she really has no idea that a camera used to really work that way, she likes it nonetheless! She is used to looking at the pictures on the camera right after they were taken.

We were late getting our tree up and decorating it this year. It is kind of a pitiful little tree (picture on the right), but truly we have NO room at the Inn for a tree any bigger than this one...until next year when we are in our new house!

A tradition we started this year was singing making a cake and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. In true Kelli fashion, we spent Christmas Eve day at my parent's house, and I was just sure we had a cake mix at home. I knew we had chocolate icing (I had seen it earlier in the week). However, when we got home, come to find out what I thought was a cake mix box was actually a mix for muffins. Disappointment. Drew was already about to make his favorite crumb cake, so we decide that would have to do for Jesus's birthday cake this year. You might be able to tell in the picture that Drew ate part of our cake before we sang Happy Birthday--just typical in our household!

On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story out of the Bible, and we also read Twas the Night Before Christmas. These are some of my favorite pics. I love watching her listen to Drew read her books.

Pics with Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve.

Avi wore her Cinderella costume with her rain boots all Christmas Day. I honestly can't remember exactly what she was doing in this picture, but she was dancing, I'm sure...AND enjoying a snack of cookies.

And, of course we opened more gifts at my parent's house. She got a Tootsie Roll Ornament with her favorite tootsie rolls inside! She also got some new books from Abbi & Joel--Purplicious & Goldilicious, the sister books to Pinkalicious that Nana gave her for her birthday. Madison came down with the flu on the Wednesday before Christmas (we were supposed to go visit her in Brandon that day but didn't get to go), and we thought we would not get to see Sheri & Madi for Christmas this year, but she made a miraculous recovery and was fever free for 24 hours by Christmas morning, so they were able to join us by lunchtime. We were so thankful they were able to make it.

Avi telling Papa something with her wand, and Abbi & Sally Sharp.

Sally Sharp was a trooper through all of our adventures. While she totally got off her schedule, and her once great morning naps disappeared, we are slowly trying to get back on track. She started daycare last Monday, and overall she had a really good week. I also started back to work last week. Classes started Wednesday. It will take us a while to get back in a routine, but I look forward to creating and maintaining that routine!