December Then and Now

Feeding the Ducks

We took Autumn to feed the ducks at the pond in our neighborhood. I wasn't sure how she was going to react, but she was so excited! Towards the end she fed a duck a piece of bread and it nipped at her finger. For the rest of the day she was saying, "Feed the ducks! Bread. Get the finger!" She still talks about it and we have a bag of bread waiting for the weather to warm up just a bit so we can take her back without her hands turning blue!

December - Feeding the Ducks from Deb on Vimeo.

December - Ducks and Her Finger from Deb on Vimeo.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas, Autumn!

This year we went up to Gram and Grandpa's house for Christmas. Everyone had some sort of sickness at some point in the week we were there. But we managed to have a great time. Santa brought Autumn a dollhouse!

December - Stocking! from Deb on Vimeo.

Autumn enjoyed passing out gifts to everyone. Richard would gather up a round of presents for everyone and she'd take them to all of us. She seemed to like doing that rather than opening presents. But she did get the hang of opening her presents after a bit. After awhile she started refusing to open any more presents. She still had a few to go, so Gram sat down with her and they opened them together.




The next day she helped Gram stir some soup.

Christmas Eve Snow

On Christmas Eve day it started snowing! Here is Autumn outside when it first started. Nothing was sticking, but it was COLD!

She only spent enough time out there for Richard to get his jacket and shoes on before she was ready to come back inside. Here they are warming up by the fire.

Later in the day

Grandpa's Birthday

We celebrated Grandpa's birthday two days late due to various people being sick. But the partying commenced, and Autumn enjoyed it very much! She talked about parties for the next week!









Here are the two cats that my parents adopted. 2 of Phoebe's babies. Sissy is on the left, and Rudy is on the right. They are about 2 1/2 years old here.

Here they are just a few days old with the rest of their siblings. They are the two in the center all cuddled up since the beginning. #2 is on the left, and #1 is on top of #5 on the right.

23 Months

Dear Autumn,

One more month until you turn 2! With the holidays and sickness and travel it has been rather hectic around here. Things have been progressing the same as the past few months. You love "school", Christmas decorations and FROSTY THE SNOWMAN!!! We sing it all the time, read the book all the time, and you play with your Frosty mechanical dancing/statue thing all the time.

December - Frosty the Snowman! from Deb on Vimeo.

December - A Christmas Medley from Deb on Vimeo.

Teeth count is still the same, though sometimes you stick your fingers in your mouth and I wonder, but when we brush them I don't see any new ones. A few months back I bought a ladybug that you stick on the mirror and it holds your toothbrush. This has made brushing your teeth a joy! So much fun to get the toothbrush out of the ladybug and use it. You say, "ladybug in the toothbrush!" Backwards, but so cute!

Still going to eating therapy, and we have added occupational therapy to try to strengthen your core. Still filing it away under "can't hurt, can only help". We'll see how much you weigh at your 2 year appt. It seems like you are getting bigger, but are still small compared to other kids. We went to a birthday party where most of the kids were older and you looked so tiny!

Here are my notes from this month:

December 5
We'll say, "frosty the snowman, was a" and you say, "joldy-happee-stol"

December 9
Baby Chee! (Baby Jesus)

December 10
Cute, Pretty

December 12
You sing, "frosty snowman" and then we say, "was a" and then you say, "joldy-happee-stol, corncob-pie-button-nose-two-eye-coat!" all very fast.

December 14
I cute!
Is snugging (snuggling)














Retrospective Perspective:
One Year Ago

Love,

Momma and Daddy

Christmas at MDO

Here is our decorated Christmas tree. The next morning we woke up to find that it had fallen over (or was helped by Phoebe).



On December 8th we had a Christmas craft evening at Autumn's Mother's Day Out. It was a foggy night, and really HOT in the sanctuary, so when I turned on my camera the lens fogged up. That is why there is a certain glow to these pictures. Autumn seemed to enjoy it, but it was so hot and crowded that we got in and got out really fast.



These pictures are from December 16th. Her class had their Christmas party and got to see Santa. I showed up just in time to see her class standing up with Santa. One of her teachers was holding Autumn and another little boy, both on the verge of tears. At one point the teacher had to put Autumn down because the other little boy really started crying. They got their picture with Santa, but there wasn't much joy! When Autumn saw me she was a little weepy and I had to hold her for awhile once we got back to her classroom. But if you ask her about Santa, she'll say, "Autumna sit Santa lap!" Which couldn't be further from the truth!

Christmas Tree Farm

We took Autumn back to the same Christmas Tree Farm we went last year. But this year it was COLD! Autumn's little hands were turning blue. I think it was about 47 degrees with some wind. She enjoyed walking among the trees while we looked for the perfect tree. We might have overlooked a few and overstayed our welcome because the sun started to go down and that is when we noticed her hands. Back on the second to last row was "Our Tree". Richard got to work cutting it down (with a very dull saw).






This is the result of Autumn running all over the tree farm. A tired girl:

Last year's photo

December - Christmas Tree Farm from Deb on Vimeo.