Christmas... Here & Gone

That went fast! We had a terrific Christmas with my parents and family. Peter got out of work at 11 am on Thursday (awesome!) so we finished packing and headed out.

We all went to Christmas Eve service. I can't remember the last time I went! It was so nice to see people I knew growing up in church and to show off our sweet girl. Carina slept through most of the service but she still got a glow stick like all the other kids for the candle lighting. After we got home Carina opened her Christmas Eve present - pajamas (a Merrill tradition!).

Christmas morning we made cinnamon rolls (another tradition) and by the time Mom woke up Carina was ready for her morning nap. We just couldn't wait to open presents so the adults went to town on the gifts while Carina slept. Once she was awake and happy she opened hers. She preferred eating the wrapping paper to opening and playing with the presents.

Later in the day I made sausage balls and Mom made a fabulous dinner. Ham, baked pineapple, sweet potatoes, veggies, mac-n-cheese... yum! My brother's family came over and we all soaked up the joyful chaos. Later in the evening we went to my Pop-pop's and visited with lots more family. It was great to see so much family in one short day. Many hadn't seen Carina in a few months.

With all the Christmas excitement, Carina didn't nap well at all and her exhaustion reared its ugly head at bed time. She screamed and screamed and refused to be consoled - so unlike her. My Mom finally quieted her down but between being wound up, being in a strange place and having a bad cough, she didn't sleep well all night. She spent much of it in bed between me and Peter. It took a couple days of extra sleep but she made a full recovery, haha.

When we came home Saturday, the rain had depleted most of our snow. We weren't sad to say goodbye. Sunday I made cheesecake brownies - a recipe from my new cream cheese recipe book from Mom. We delivered them to some friends. We did a ton of laundry. Other than that it was a fairly quiet weekend. We had Peter's car towed to the shop because he started having brake problems last week. We picked it up yesterday and "Lucille" is now in perfect working order again. Sadly we had to spend our Christmas money on the car (not nearly as much fun as a Wii) but fortunately we had it. There's always the tax return, right?

Peter went back to work today - a sad day for the Jones household. Carina tried bananas for the first time this morning. She gagged a bit (as she did with the apple banana flavored oatmeal) so I'm wondering if maybe bananas aren't her favorite, haha. She's peacefully napping now. We have no intentions of leaving the house today as the wind is seriously crazy. I saw on the news this morning they saw 60 mph gusts in Lancaster! Hope my Dad doesn't blow away delivering the mail.

So now Christmas has come and gone... but not completely. I still light up our tree every time I'm downstairs. I hate the thought of un-decorating. Maybe next weekend. Till then it's time for hot chocolate and Elf.

Yup, That's Snow

What's with the crazy big snow storm before it is even officially winter? We probably got 8 inches or so. Our plans for the weekend included babysitting, hosting my parents overnight, teaching Sunday school and celebrating Christmas with my Dad's side of the family. Every single one fell through. So I made a chocolate cake, Peter shoveled for nearly 2 hours and then we did absolutely nothing all weekend long. Heaven.

Carina tried peas, prunes, pears and carrots this past week. She seems to love them all! Since we started solid foods she's had a little trouble with constipation. Rebecca said "P" fruits and veggies will help with that (peas, pears, peaches and prunes). Hence all her new food introductions this past week. I read today that carrots can constipate so we'll see what happens. I'm wondering if her cereal could be the main culprit so I plan to replace her multi grain (possibly rice based, I'm not sure) with flavored oatmeal tomorrow. Might help keep things moving.

Wow - I can't believe I spent an entire paragraph discussing my daughter's bathroom habits. Sorry sweetie (and sorry to those readers who have absolutely no desire to know such things)! In other (not so embarassing) news, Carina has started to roll over in her crib. For the past couple mornings she has been asleep on her tummy when I go in to wake her. I know she's strong enough to sleep safely that way and move her head or roll back over when she wants to but it still makes me nervous for some reason. I have to keep in mind that Peter and I slept exclusively on our bellies and look at us - all alive and well. Can't help but worry as a Mom I suppose.

Today was my last day of work till 2010. Woohoo!!! Twelve wonderful days with my favorite girl (with some hubby, family and friends thrown in for good measure too). If I don't write again before the 25th, have a warm, safe, love-filled, blessed holiday.

Bring on the Holidays!

Tree? Up and decorated. Cards? Sent. Cookies? Baked. Gifts? Bought. C'mon Christmas. Let's dance.

Last week Carina had her 6 month check-up. My Mom spent the night and came with me. Carina now officially weighs 15 pounds, 6 ounces and is 22.75 inches long. 50th percentile for weight but still below the chart for height. Our petite chubster. She got her usual 3 vaccines plus 2 flu shots. She took it really well but was fairly cranky for the rest of the day. The Dr. advised against giving her Tylenol because it could make the vaccines less effective but after 7 or so hours with a cranky baby... we figured we'd take our chances with the Tylenol.

She has been a little on edge ever since. Mostly happy but just a bit crankier than usual. Our best guesses include a) she's still sore and off her game from her vaccines, b) she's teething and/or c) she's hit a growth spurt. The past 3 nights she hasn't slept through the night. She cries in her sleep 2 or 3 times and then around 4 wakes up. I feed her and she goes back down really easily but for parents who haven't been awake in the middle of the night in the past 5 months - this is tough!

Banking on the "it's a growth spurt" theory, we've started adding cereal to her morning routine and fruits and veggies to her evenings. She eats apple and yogurt flavored cereal and she likes it alright. She has tried sweet potatoes, green beans, squash and peaches. Green beans appear to be her favorite and she makes funny faces for the peaches. She is such a good little eater (aside from sticking her fingers in her messy mouth every chance she gets). It's so much fun to watch her enjoy these new foods!

One of Carina's sitters, Rebecca, recommended trying to get Carina on a nap schedule just in case she's sleeping too much during the day and it's preventing her from sleeping well at night. It's worth a try I suppose! That's the plan over my 12 days of Christmas vacation.

Ok, my dear hubby is looking lonely on the love seat so I'm going to go join him...

A New Perspective

Carina is sitting up almost entirely on her own now! Six months old and taking the world by storm. Watch out!

The Joneses are Getting Fat

Or we will if we don't stop keeping junk around the house!

Exhibit A: Our candy dish... within a candy dish.

Exhibit B: Our other candy dish.

Exhibit C: Our pantry.

And I won't even go into the Starbucks ice cream in the freezer... or the cookies on the counter... or the cake I plan to bake and slather in two * that's right * TWO tubs of frosting.

Perhaps we will try to be healthy after the holidays?