Giggles + The Grump: December

It's amazing how fast time has gone by the last couple of months. For three weeks now, Jessica and I have been saying how we need to write the blog post for December. Now that January is almost over, we've finally finished getting caught up with December.

In early December, we packed up and drove down to St. Petersburg to spend the weekend with Trevor's family. It was great to see everyone and it was LC's first time meeting a lot of the extended family--Aunt Meghan, nieces Alyssa and Alexis, and her Great-Grandmother Evelyn. LC was a lot more fussy in the car this trip, which is a little worrying for any future trips. She was great once we got to St. Pete, but the two hours of screaming through Orlando and Tampa traffic made for an interesting trip. Regardless, it was a fun trip and everyone was thrilled to see how much LC has grown.

LC with Dad, her aunts and cousins

LC with her great-grandmother

After St. Petersburg, we had a few hectic weeks in town and finally managed to put up our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree. Although the box says 6 feet, the actual tree is closer to 4 and looks pretty sad in the living room. LC didn't seem to mind, at least this year. I figure next year we'll have to invest in a nicer tree and a more "festive" display of lights.

Maybe not the best parenting job...

Christmas was a low-key affair at our house; exactly what we all needed. We spent the morning helping LC open all of her presents and watching her eat the wrapping paper. She eventually warmed up to the actual gifts, but the paper was a big thrill for a couple of hours. Trevor got ambitious and cooked a wonderful glazed turkey and we had a nice Christmas dinner at home. Since LC is old enough to eat meat, we tried blending up some turkey and giving it to her...epic fail. She had never (and still hasn't) spit anything out so fast, and the look she gave us was absolutely priceless. She was completely suspicious for the rest of dinner, making sure we hadn't snuck in any more Turkey.

Gifts?!?!

Nope. Wrapping paper only.

Christmas afternoon we took LC to her first Jacksonville park and pushed her in the swing. The weather was perfect and she absolutely loved being pushed in the swing. She seems to really enjoy being outside, so hopefully that will continue as she gets older. She struggled a little bit with being led down the slide, but loved the swing and loved being pushed around the playground in her stroller and watching the other kids.

After Christmas, we were able to spend time with our wonderful friends Jamie, Andy and Sadie who were in Florida for the holidays. We drove to Orlando and spent the afternoon at Lake Eola. It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed being outside in the wonderful Florida winter weather. LC and Sadie were hilarious together; they seemed to have their own language that none of the adults could decipher. They had met a few months ago in Chapel Hill, but it was fun to see them interact more this time. And of course, we loved catching up with Jamie and Andy, and can't wait to see them again.

Baby chatting...

turns into wrestling for a toy

All the lovely ladies

For the 7-month onesie competition, Jess and I decided to go with the "7 deadly sins" theme and chose sloth. We were both so exhausted and lazy that we ended up only doing 1 onesie and trying to mix styles on it--needless to say it did not turn out well. Clearly team creative collaboration is not our thing. LC looked at the onesie with a mix of confusion and pure disappointment for the first hour; it was tough trying to get a smile while she was wearing it. To get back at us for our poor performance, she took a poop of biblical proportions while she was in her Jumperoo. Thankfully, everything was "contained" by the diaper and the onesie, but she managed to cover the entire back of the onesie with poop; it was absolutely hilarious. She showed us; I guess that's what we get for giving her such an ugly onesie.

Nope...I don't think I like this one

Yep, I hate it. I'm going to poop all over it

December was a pretty big growing month for LC. She tried "puffs" for the first time and absolutely loved them...perhaps a little too much. We went through a period where all she would eat were Puffs and Oatmeal. The Puffs were great if we were out somewhere, but when she started demanding them for dinner, we knew we had a problem. Fortunately, we seem to have gotten her back on track with fruits and veggies.

Her sitting improved tremendously and was her favorite position; no more back or stomach. She learned where we keep all of her toys and how to wiggle herself over to the basket, tip it over and select the toy she wants. She loves playing with Mommy and Daddy, but also loves her "independent" play time. At first, this usually only involved her selecting her seahorse bath toy, but that has progressed into her taking every toy out of the box, putting it in her mouth, playing with it for a few minutes, screaming and then throwing it. Once all of the toys have been taken out, she'll wander around the room and repeat the process with each toy. It's funny to watch and the mess afterwards is pretty impressive.