susuwatari

I had many blessings this year big and small. Some of the highlights are the following:
1) Bought my First House

2) Became an Aunt for the 1st time of my adorable niece Elliot

3) Got my new dog Hobbes from Pet’s Second Chance Corgi Rescue

(Freya adores Hobbes though the cats wish he didn’t exist)

4) Freya passed her Foundation and Beginner Agility classes. We are now taking classes from Deb Frank at Laughing Wolf Agility. I really enjoy how easy going and fun Deb is. I don’t have a picture of Freya and I doing agility so you’ll have to make due with a regular picture of her doing what she does all day, stare out the window so she can bark at all who dare to walk in front of our house.

5) I started taking horse back riding lessons again in October.

6) I threw and awesome Halloween Party with the help of my friends Meghan and Kristin.

7) Got a new role at work which I’m enjoying developing, and basically just feeling lucky that within these economic times I have a job I enjoy and some stability.

8 ) Generally been blessed with wonderful friends and family.

In closing I will include pictures of my kitties Sano and Boo so they don’t feel left out, also because they are adorable.

I craved blueberries like a fiend for my entire pregnancy with Elliott. I ate at least two cartons of fresh blueberries a week, plus blueberry muffins, blueberry bagels, blueberry waffles and pancakes, blueberry bread, and even blueberry syrup that I dumped on all of the above. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my little six month old has decided that she would like to steal my breakfast foods – so far consisting of a blueberry muffin on Sunday and a blueberry bagel this morning. So much for sticking to baby food out of the jar! She now expects me to sit her in my lap when I am eating and give bites to her. I guess I’m going to have to get used to sharing!

Also I feel compelled to update and let everyone know that Elliott is sitting up very well now. Maybe she didn’t like my post about her last week? It seemed like the next day she just sat and played without falling over as if it was no big deal. Like OMG, Mom. Falling over is for babies, duh. Now she just needs to learn how to get to a sitting position on her own! After that world domination can’t be too far away!

Just got back from my weekend trip to Branson or as Campbell (my friend Kristin’s 4 year old niece) calls it BIG DOLLAR CITY! The last must be shouted, you may also hop up and down in excitement. We stayed in an awesome resort called Big Cedar. It was beautiful there with all the lights and you even drive over two rivers made from waterfalls crossing the road just to get to the registration area. They had so many activities to do in the resort that we could have spent the whole time happily doing just that if we hadn’t been so busy sleeping in, eating, shopping, drinking, relaxing, going to Silver Dollar City, and just being in the best company. Many pictures were taken. Some I might even be willing to share if Meghan, Kristin, or Gloria sends me any of the pictures they took. I even was good and started my first day of week 1 of my sit-ups as can be seen here. My totally awesome neighbors kindly watched my pups and kitties for me while I was gone. Apparently Steve has started a list of things he can help me fix like how one light switch actually turns off the TV when you use it along with the light. I can not even begin to say how grateful I am to them and told them so but they just shrugged it off. A little elf will be leaving some candy and wine on their porch tomorrow if she finally stops blogging and starts unpacking. Also Hobbes looks like he has gained some weight finally. By the begining of last week I felt he had gained a little and while I was climbing into my lap with joy that I came back and was giving him treats I actually couldn’t see his ribs jutting out! GLEE! Ok Hobbes just told me to stop typing and start petting woman!

So I’ve decided to try this two hundred sit-ups program. I just did the initial test. I first did about 70 sit-ups the wrong way and then when I went back I could only do about 13. I rounded down to the up to 10 sit-ups category level honestly because I am lazy. You can track my progress here. Monday I start with week 1. Here’s hoping I’m ready for my swimsuit by May when I join my folks who are chartering a catamaran around St. Marteen.

And now to start packing for Branson which is what I SHOULD have been doing instead of getting distracted with this.

How did this happen??? How did my tiny little infant turn into a real life doll baby?

I took Elliott to her six month check up last week and she weighed in at 18 pounds 6 ounces and was 27 inches tall! That’s still in the 90th percentile for both height and weight. She’s a big girl, but she’s proportional! And seriously, I wouldn’t want her any other way… even when my arms are shaking from lugging her around. (Please don’t even remind me about adding the car seat in to the equation because my arms start screaming in pain at the thought.) But those CHEEKS!!! And those chub chub feet!! Oh, they are so wonderful. It’s totally worth the constant back pain. I’m not even kidding.

So, some new developments at six months. First, Elliott is obsessed with our dog, Popper. She wants nothing so much as to pet that pooch and be licked. However, our little dog has an aversion to the shrieking and the hair pulling that is often involved and usually runs in the opposite direction if Elliott starts reaching for her. On the few occasions where Popper has actually sat and licked Elliott’s hands, I swear to you, you have never heard such cute giggles.

Other things that make Elliott giggle include: Daddy playing peek-a-boo, Daddy putting her feet on his face, and Mama blowing out her cheeks and popping them with Elliott’s feet. These are things we repeat often because we are in love with the little giggles and we can’t get enough of them.

Elliott’s not quite sitting up on her own yet. She’d still rather stand up than sit but she’ll sit by herself for a few seconds before leaning over.

She is a pro now at flipping from her belly to her back. She’s working hard on turning over the other way but she still needs assistance to get there. I can tell she’s just aching to learn how to move on her own.

Elliott really enjoys playing in her jumparoo and the walker too. She hasn’t quite figured out that she can control where she goes in the walker so most of the time she just cruises around bumping into things and looks up surprised that she is suddenly across the room.

She’s also started making a loud lip smacking noise and sometimes clicks with her tongue. She thinks it’s funny when I make that sound for her so I think she’s starting to mimic it. Last night she woke up for a middle of the night bottle (happening less frequently now) and we heard her going “SMACK SMACK SMACK” over the monitor. Her pacifier had fallen out and she was sucking away, trying to get it back. Wes and I were cracking up. She’s also been sticking her tongue out almost every moment of the day and when she’s not got her tongue out, she’s sucking her lips in and making “MMMmmmmmm” noises. This makes me excited that there is a slight chance she will actually be able to say mama soon!

Here she is eating like a big girl.

And this is Elliott modeling the super cute hat that Shiloh made for her.

She is growing up so fast! I’m just thankful that I get to be at home with her so I can watch her learn and grow!
~Christina

This morning we woke up to 30 mph winds and a temperature that felt like 4 degrees so of course I thought “Let’s go swimming!” Just kidding. Sort of. A new YMCA near us just opened and offered a free swim playdate today. A few people in our playgroup decided to take advantage of it and go. I’m considering enrolling Elliott in the baby swim class there so I was excited to check it out. The indoor kids pool is super nice. They have a mini water slide, a shallow area for sitting, splashing equipment and a small lazy river. I was smart enough to wear my swimsuit under my clothes so I only had to change Elliott before we went swimming. I was a little nervous that she would freak out in the pool (the last time we took her swimming she was 3 months old and screamed bloody murder… Of course that might have been because the water was freezing.) However, Elliott did great! We sat in the shallow water for a long time and splashed and watched the other kids playing. Then I took her to the deeper water and let her kick and get her face wet. She was awesome! We stayed in the pool for an hour and then headed back to the changing room so she could get a bottle. That’s where I started to realize that getting changed back into our dry clothes was not going to be so easy. I managed to get Elliott all cleaned up but then I sat there wondering how I was supposed to change while holding her. Luckily a friend from our playgroup came by and rescued me so that I could get dressed. This has made me seriously reconsider our baby swim class. I was going to go during the day but now I’m thinking we’re definitely going to need Wes’s help! Looks like he’s getting roped into swim class!
Let’s see, other than that, we played with some toys at home and Elliott ate some mashed up bananas. She’s been pretty tired out from all our excitement this morning so I’ve been given a little break while she’s been napping.
So there’s a day in Elliott’s life. I will now conclude with an adorable picture of my dog.
~Christina

I have finally downloaded the Word Press ap for my iPhone so I can blog from my phone now! I know, amazing right? It only took me six months to figure it out. Anyway, hopefully this will mean that you will hear more from me since I play with my phone about 40% of my day. It is my connection with the outside world. You know, the one that doesn’t involve baby drool and reading the same peek-a-boo book 5,000 times in a row. (that place still exists right?)

Also here are some pictures from my phone from the last month or so. Enjoy!
~Christina

We had our family holiday pictures taken yesterday at Forest Park. This was also Elliott’s 6 month photo shoot. It was pretty cold outside and I was worried about her bald head freezing but it turned out that we got most of our pictures done inside so everything turned out fine! Now we just have to order some holiday cards and we’ll be all set. Thanks again to Michelle from Under Grace Photo for the pictures!

Standing up! Love those chubby legs!

Kisses!!

Showing off her tongue – her favorite thing to do!

More tongue!

Sweet eyelashes.

Mama’s little elf!

Why do you keep making weird faces at me Mama?

Okay fine, I’ll smile.

Hiding her mouth.

One last drooly smile!

love, Christina

Tonight my friends Kristin, Gloria, Debbie, and I have our wreath making class offered by the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I did this last year and had tons of fun and thanks to Kristin’s patience and talent actually managed to make a half way decent wreath. The wreaths are made from evergreen cuts along with whatever berries, pretty twigs, pinecone, and what not they find out in the woods as they gather the supplies. They also have a hot glue gun which Kristin and Gloria have banned me from using. Basically the whole evening is Gloria and I trying to put the evergreen cuts around our ring and then getting frustrated and calling Krisitn over to fix it for us. Kristin is pretty amazing, she basically gets 3 wreaths done in 2 hours! At least I know that Gloria and I will have fun. :p I’ll see if I can find a picture of my wreath from last year and will take pictures of this years attempt.