Christmas in Colorado

We took a trip to Colorado for Christmas.  Almost as soon as we got there you spiked the strangest fever that lasted for several days (some of your friends back home got it too, so it obviously just a bug going around).  For most of the trip you were lethargic, clingy, cranky, and all around not feeling well.  We felt so sad for you!

Here are some of the things we did on our trip:

You're not too happy, but you certainly are adorable:

You have your eyes firmly fixed on Riley's Rapunzel cup:

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner's house. 

You loved your new baby swing!

We opened more presents at Grandma and Grandpa Brison's house.  Partway through though you needed a little break and fell asleep in my lap.  You NEVER fall asleep in my lap (you like to be alone when you sleep) so it just goes to show how yucky you were feeling.

We also got to meet Little Heidi for the first time on this trip!  Here is a picture of you and Heidi hanging out together on Uncle Erik's counter:

Christmas in Virginia

Since we spent Christmas in Colorado, we had our own little Christmas in Virginia before we left.  At preschool you made a chain to count down the days until Christmas.  You LOVED ripping those links off the chain and really struggled with the concept of having to only do one link per day.  Finally, on the day we did our VA Christmas we just let you go wild and rip it all.

You were very serious about opening your presents:

We started a tradition (borrowed from some awesome friends out here) of wrapping a whole bunch of Christmas books, and opening and reading one book a night for the month of December. One night I came and found you sitting by the Christmas tree opening ALL of the books.  You ripped the paper off of one of them, looked at it for a minute, then moved onto the next one.  It was so funny I just let you do it.

Bear Take Fish

One of your (many) current favorite books is "Me and My Dad" by Mercer Mayer. It's a story about a boy and his dad who go on a camping trip. On one of the pages there is a bear that steals the fish the boy caught. You think that's SO funny. You crack up when you see that page and now you'll grab the book and say (or sometimes just randomly say) "bear eat fish!" And you laugh and laugh.

Sad, Happy Soon

When you're throwing a tantrum sometimes I tell you "I know you're sad, but you'll be happy soon." You've started repeating that. Sometimes when you're crying you'll take a big gulp of air and say "sad, happy soon!" Or when you see someone on TV that is sad, or one of your friends is crying, you'll say "sad, happy soon!"

Crazy Sleeper

You get turned around funny ways in your bed sometimes.  

Gingerbread Houses

Our friend Emily has a really fun tradition of making AMAZING gingerbread houses every year.  You were old enough to understand how to put candies on the house (at least until you realized how delicious the candies are).  

You focused on making the roof:

Our amazing friends, Christen, Emily, and Michelle:

You posing with our creation:

Funny Things Dad Sees and Hears You Do

Paige,

Every other week your mom works at the farmer's market in Falls Church. Because of that, you and I spend our Saturdays doing the good stuff:

- we go for a walk after breakfast

- we ride the bus

- we eat at Chipotle

- we go to Barnes and Noble (where I used to work) to visit friends and look at books

- we usually run one more errand and then pick up mom from work

- you then take a nap

What's most fun about those days is watching how much you grow from week to week. At first you seemed most interested in riding in the stroller and would fall asleep going over the bumps and cracks on the way to the farmer's market. Now you get most excited when you know we're going to get on the bus, where you stand up on your seat and introduce yourself to other passengers and look out the window.

Since you can talk much more now, you have some interesting things to share. Take, for example, a recent monologue, given when you were supposed to be in bed taking a nap:

daddy toot

paige toot

[every]body toot

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

body toot

Abby book

Henry house fun

Finger stuck

Mommy!

mommy stuck!

oh no! oh no!

*Mom goes in to check on her -- she's not in bed, her finger isn't stuck in anything*

Poop! *checks diapers, no poop*

Purple dog! *gets purple dog, Mom puts her back to bed*

sounds of purple dog

(30 minutes later)

sounds of purple dog stop

daddy, mommy, paige, mommy, daddy, mommy, paige, friends

two doggies, two doggies, two doggies, lucky!

two doggies

Love,

Dad