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Christmas!
Dec. 25th, 2007 11:25 pmIt is so good to be home! We had a great time this Christmas but no place is like home. Evelyn is still too small to understand what's going on, of course, but she was able to unwrap a few gifts with assistance and she was very excited by all the cheery happy presents.
She was so excited, as a matter of fact, that she grew a tooth and said "Mama". !!! All in one day!
It's her bottom left tooth. M found it yesterday afternoon while holding her on the couch. Her daddy spoils her and lets her chew wildly on his (clean) hands if she wants, even though she quite enjoys bearing down on his knuckle, causing great pain. This was suddenly less fun with the addition of a jaggedy sharp toofer! Fun fun! I was glad that he found it because I get most of her firsts already. She celebrated by biting me while eating dinner last night, but not hard enough to hurt. I was on heavy alert for the biting to commence. I am terrified of her now but she did go through a biting spell a couple of weeks ago, pre-teeth, and that has mostly passed, so maybe she won't be too bad.
When we arrived at my grandfather's house yesterday, she was beyond sleepy from missing out on most of her naptime during the day, and there was all these loud people and she was completely overwhelmed. She started crying and looking for me in a panic. Even my mom wasn't good enough, and she was making "muh-muh-muh" sounds while reaching for me. We discussed whether or not she meant to say "mama" or not but came to no real conclusions.. until later in the evening when I walked out of the room and she started crying and saying "mamama!!" Then I would reappear and she would stop crying. Aww! I made her cry, how sweet! ;)
(For the sake of completeness, I should say that M and I have been trying to figure out if she's been saying Dada for the last week or two. Sometimes she really seems to mean M when she says it but then again, it is just a random sound and sometimes she just says it, so we're not sure. I think she's brilliant and all, but I think that there has to be INTENT on these first milestones, otherwise, her first words were "a wing". She said it, after all! Certain unnamed persons of my acquaintance--none of you--claim a serious maturity on the parts of their young charges that I just do not believe is warranted, and I really don't want to be one of those people. Anyway, we're not sure about Dada but we're positive about Mama. We've also been questioning "hi" lately, and we're pretty sure she did mean to say that tonight too.)
It amuses us that she had two such big moments on Christmas. Nice present for Mama and Dada..
The loot was good this year, too. M and I were somewhat restrained because of the Wii, but he bought me snap dies for his drill press (and snaps) so that I can use polyacetal resin snaps (the plasticy ones) on diapers and so much more! I am absurdly excited about that. My parents bought us (among other things) a digital photo frame... which was particularly funny since that's what we bought them. ;) The one we gave them was a little larger and had a card full of photos to go along with it. Evelyn got piles of stuff, including two stuffed items that are bigger than she is. She also got clothes and more toys than one child needs. I guess it's a good thing that we didn't buy her that much ourselves, even if it was nearly impossible to keep myself from going wild with it. She also got a Cabbage Patch baby, which has made her ooh and ahh. As a Christmas gift to my baby, I.... (can you believe it??) actually let her touch stuff without freaking out too much! They all make fun of me because I don't let her chew on random items that have never seen soap before, like water bottles or brand new toys. On one hand, I do believe that it's not good for her immune system to have no exposure to germs. On the other hand, it makes my extremely uneasy to see her handle thongs that I know are dirty. I can't help it.
For the last few years, we've put together a game or special thing for my niece to get a money gift--she's hard to buy for. Last year it was an elaborate Deal or No Deal gameshow, once it was fifty dollar bills taped end-to-end and pulled through a slot in a box, one year it was a little contest where she "picked" the right envelope off the tree (it was rigged, but she was so excited about it that my mom didn't want to tell her the truth so we're still not sure if she knows.) Anyway, I orchestrated the game this year, which was a scavenger hunt. I wrote a dozen little rhymes that sent her all over the house to find the next clue until she arrived back at the tree to find an envelope hidden in the back with the cash. I really like that we do this because she loves it and I think it means a lot to her that we put such energy into it. We have fun planning it, too. I'm not sure what we'll do next year, though--I've had this planned for two years.
I am beginning to type really badly so it's time to go pass out in bed for as long as my talking, tooth-having baby will let me. I hope you all had an excellent Christmas!
She was so excited, as a matter of fact, that she grew a tooth and said "Mama". !!! All in one day!
It's her bottom left tooth. M found it yesterday afternoon while holding her on the couch. Her daddy spoils her and lets her chew wildly on his (clean) hands if she wants, even though she quite enjoys bearing down on his knuckle, causing great pain. This was suddenly less fun with the addition of a jaggedy sharp toofer! Fun fun! I was glad that he found it because I get most of her firsts already. She celebrated by biting me while eating dinner last night, but not hard enough to hurt. I was on heavy alert for the biting to commence. I am terrified of her now but she did go through a biting spell a couple of weeks ago, pre-teeth, and that has mostly passed, so maybe she won't be too bad.
When we arrived at my grandfather's house yesterday, she was beyond sleepy from missing out on most of her naptime during the day, and there was all these loud people and she was completely overwhelmed. She started crying and looking for me in a panic. Even my mom wasn't good enough, and she was making "muh-muh-muh" sounds while reaching for me. We discussed whether or not she meant to say "mama" or not but came to no real conclusions.. until later in the evening when I walked out of the room and she started crying and saying "mamama!!" Then I would reappear and she would stop crying. Aww! I made her cry, how sweet! ;)
(For the sake of completeness, I should say that M and I have been trying to figure out if she's been saying Dada for the last week or two. Sometimes she really seems to mean M when she says it but then again, it is just a random sound and sometimes she just says it, so we're not sure. I think she's brilliant and all, but I think that there has to be INTENT on these first milestones, otherwise, her first words were "a wing". She said it, after all! Certain unnamed persons of my acquaintance--none of you--claim a serious maturity on the parts of their young charges that I just do not believe is warranted, and I really don't want to be one of those people. Anyway, we're not sure about Dada but we're positive about Mama. We've also been questioning "hi" lately, and we're pretty sure she did mean to say that tonight too.)
It amuses us that she had two such big moments on Christmas. Nice present for Mama and Dada..
The loot was good this year, too. M and I were somewhat restrained because of the Wii, but he bought me snap dies for his drill press (and snaps) so that I can use polyacetal resin snaps (the plasticy ones) on diapers and so much more! I am absurdly excited about that. My parents bought us (among other things) a digital photo frame... which was particularly funny since that's what we bought them. ;) The one we gave them was a little larger and had a card full of photos to go along with it. Evelyn got piles of stuff, including two stuffed items that are bigger than she is. She also got clothes and more toys than one child needs. I guess it's a good thing that we didn't buy her that much ourselves, even if it was nearly impossible to keep myself from going wild with it. She also got a Cabbage Patch baby, which has made her ooh and ahh. As a Christmas gift to my baby, I.... (can you believe it??) actually let her touch stuff without freaking out too much! They all make fun of me because I don't let her chew on random items that have never seen soap before, like water bottles or brand new toys. On one hand, I do believe that it's not good for her immune system to have no exposure to germs. On the other hand, it makes my extremely uneasy to see her handle thongs that I know are dirty. I can't help it.
For the last few years, we've put together a game or special thing for my niece to get a money gift--she's hard to buy for. Last year it was an elaborate Deal or No Deal gameshow, once it was fifty dollar bills taped end-to-end and pulled through a slot in a box, one year it was a little contest where she "picked" the right envelope off the tree (it was rigged, but she was so excited about it that my mom didn't want to tell her the truth so we're still not sure if she knows.) Anyway, I orchestrated the game this year, which was a scavenger hunt. I wrote a dozen little rhymes that sent her all over the house to find the next clue until she arrived back at the tree to find an envelope hidden in the back with the cash. I really like that we do this because she loves it and I think it means a lot to her that we put such energy into it. We have fun planning it, too. I'm not sure what we'll do next year, though--I've had this planned for two years.
I am beginning to type really badly so it's time to go pass out in bed for as long as my talking, tooth-having baby will let me. I hope you all had an excellent Christmas!
