A White Christmas

What a Christmas! We've had more snow in the past 3 days than we've ever had at this time of year, and it's beautiful - big, fat, fluffy flakes of snow covering everything and putting you right into the holiday spirit. Gramma Pam is in town for the week and has experienced her first white Christmas ever...and she survived. :)

Addison had a wonderful time today. The morning started with her coming into the living room to see her Pottery Barn retro pink kitchen set and opening gifts that went along with that (play dishes, play food, a tea kettle and toaster) and opening her stocking. She went down for a nap before DJ's parents (Ba and Nana) arrived, but woke up just in time to eat a delicious brunch of roasted vegtable quiche with gruyere cheese, homemade Belgian waffles with fresh whipped cream and berries, fresh squeezed OJ and crispy bacon...well, she didn't have any bacon, but everything else she loved. Then it was time for more gifts and play. It was a long day of fun, and now it's time for a little dinner, a bath and bedtime.

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful gifts and Merry Christmas to all!

Sledding on Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve at Ba and Nana's

First things first on a snowy Christmas morning! Luckily our neighbot came over and bailed DJ out with the snow blower.

Presents!

The table is set for brunch!

She's Walking!!

Addison is a quick study. Within two weeks of her first real attempt at truly walking (see last post), our little peanut has gained the confidence she needed in order to take some long-awaited steps on her own. She's so proud of herself, and we are even more proud. She's getting better every day. Go Addison!

Our budding photographer

She loves, loves, LOVES Elmo

Chicken Little Takes a Step

Well, our little chicken is still a chicken, but she had a mini-breakthrough on the walking front on Saturday night at our neighbor's Christmas party. The moment we walk into one of the neighborhood functions Addison is immediately swept away from us by either a.) an overzealous mother who misses those baby years b.) a bigger kid who wants to prove she can be a babysitter c.) a younger kid who wants to prove she's not lowest on the totem pole by showing she can be a big sister or d.) a dad of a bigger kid now and again, but that never lasts too long! So although Addison will rarely walk for us, the kids got her going and she actually stood in the middle of the floor for a good 60 seconds, on her own, and upon realizing how excited everyone around her was, started clapping for herself, then proceeded to take a couple of steps before crumbling to the ground. We were all going wild, because everyone knows she isn't walking yet. It was a tiny victory, but progress nonetheless. Baby steps...no pun intended. We caught one of the less exciting attempts on our camera.

Oh, and by the way, I'm not sending out holiday cards this year. I know, boo on me, what a horrible mother, blah, blah blah, but I just can't muster the time, energy or money that it would take to create the cards I would really like to send, and then address them all and send them out. I'll start saving for next year, promise! Give me a break, I'm pregnant! Only one more month until we find out what little Barat #2 is!

Addison's first picture! She really snapped this herself - Delaney was teaching her to use the camera

The camera face