New Old Traditions

Growing up, it was a yearly tradition for my family to take a trip to Kraynaks in Pennsylvania, where each of us kids were allowed to pick out our own Christmas ornament. I remember painstakingly combing the aisles of Christmas decorations to find the perfect ornament. Today, those same ornaments adorn our Christmas tree and provide me with so many memories of those trips with my family. Today we took Maribelle to our favorite Maryland Christmas store to pass on that very same tradition.


Although she wasn't in the best of moods (she's cutting three or four top teeth and has been having a heck of a time!), she was pretty amazed by all the shiny, sparkly offerings. And she wanted to touch all of them. Which is exactly what I wanted! I had grand visions of her gravitating toward a beautiful, whimsical ornament (possibly one of Santa, since he's her new bestie, except not in the flesh form). And initially she had some great contenders for ornament of the year -- one was a sparkly motorcycle, and the other was an equally as sparkly wolf perched on top of a mound of snow. I mean, hey, they wouldn't have been my first choices, but I'm all about encouraging her individuality at a young age.

However, neither of those ornaments will be found on the Moorhead Christmas tree this year. No, of course not. Because somewhere along the way, Maribelle got her hands on a small box of German incense cones. And she wouldn't let go, no matter what sparkly baubles we tried to entice her with. So, the decision had been made: A box of German incense cones was exactly the festive touch that our Christmas tree had been missing.

Once we got to the cash registers, my sentimental self had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that a box was going to live on in history as her first ornament (although it is a pretty charming box, if I must say). I debated with Jeremy about whether or not I should just go back and grab the motorcycle or wolf that she originally had in her hands. But no, there was no taking this box out of her little hands without the entire store thinking we were somehow hurting her. So, this jolly little box made it's way home with us. And now, I'm tasked with the chore of turning it into an ornament befitting for a tree.

You better believe I'm turning to Martha Stewart for help on this one.

First Snow

We got our first taste of winter today, so Maribelle and I spent the day indoors watching the fat flakes fall and enjoying cheesy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel. However we've been anything but lazy! For most of the day we've been working on pulling up and TRYING to get this little girl to crawl (so ok, I take back the "we" part. Maybe I'm the only one who had a lazy day. Maribelle worked pretty darn hard!). It's just not happening, folks. This crawling stuff? She just doesn't want to do it. She gets so frustrated and miserable. I actually think she might figure out how to get into a sitting position from her tummy before she even figures out crawling. Or she may ditch the whole crawling thing and hold out for walking. Oh this little girl. How she has a mind of her own.


So when Daddy came home from work, Maribelle demonstrated her pulling up abilities. And of course she chooses to use his guitar as the perfect object to pull up on. She's such a daddy's girl.

RosaLita MamaCita Productions Presents...

Where's Fancy?

A Movie made by Dada.

Guest Post #1:

Hola familia y amigos!

I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting another Maribelle video. Well, the reason it took me so long has been a secret, until now.

I have been diligently plotting out and scripting a new story. The idea came to me in a dream. It is a very deep storyline. Many of you may be confused with the two babies in one scene. But do not worry, Gina and I do not have two babies. I assure you though, if we did, this is how our living room might look. OK, I'm not going to give anymore away...

Please sit back, relax and eat some good n' plenty's!!!

ENJOY!

** For some reason, Blogger cuts off the right side of the video, so for optimal viewing, click on the "Where's Fancy" link that pops up in the left-hand corner of the video to watch it in YouTube. **

Fail

Maribelle's first visit with Santa:

FAIL

Major fail, you might say. At least we didn't pay $20 for her to sit on some mall Santa's lap, only to be traumatized at the mere sight of him. This was a free Santa, so we had a laugh about the whole thing while she was in tears (is that bad?!). I tried to salvage the moment by jumping in the picture, but even that didn't help much.


Just so you don't think her entire day was ruined, here she is showing off one of her (many!) new tricks: giving kisses. They may be big, open-mouth, fish-like kisses, but they are super sweet nonetheless.

We spent most of the weekend consumed with Christmas preparations, mainly of the decorating kind. Our house is officially festive and bright, and I'm so excited to share my most favorite time of year with our Little Miss. And she'll be relieved to know we have no plans of subjecting her to another visit with Santa (at least for now).

Gobble Gobble

This little girl has given us so much to be grateful for this year. So we're giving extra thanks this holiday for all the love, light and life that Maribelle has brought to our lives.

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Chillax

Life has been so full and busy lately. And with the holidays and a certain someone's first birthday just around the corner, our days are bound to move at an even faster pace. I can hardly believe my Little Peapod will be one in a few month's time! All the moms at daycare keep saying how Maribelle is losing her baby face and starting to look like a toddler now. Where has my baby gone?!?!? It seems like it wasn't all that long ago that she was this noisy little grunty lump of a baby that we would swaddle and carry around the house in the crook of our arms. And now, that same little girl wants to do everything for herself, without much of mommy or daddy's assistance.

Yes, the days go so fast.

So Jeremy took us to his favorite spot over the weekend so we could take it slow for a few hours. I have to admit, there was a bit of resistance on my part because frankly, I have an issue with relaxing. I would much rather run some errands or do something that puts us ahead of things. But then I just end up cranky and exhausted, and that's not what makes for a good mommy.

So, on Sunday, we played.



We slept.


And we enjoyed the view.


We relaxed, as a family, and it felt oh so good.

Phasing

In the 10 short months we've known her, our Little Miss has been through ALL kinds of phases. There's been the super sleepy phase, the no napping phase, the "I hate my stroller" phase, the "I can't poop phase," the tantrum phase, and now, regretfully, we are in the "I can't stand baby food and just want to feed myself" phase. And my hunch is that this phase is a little more about gaining independence than it is about the squishy, mushy stuff called baby food. Needless to say, mealtime takes a bit of extra effort these days. If it's coming at her mouth on a spoon, she either clamps her mouth shut, shakes her head or just plain makes it IMPOSSIBLE to get it in her jaws. However, if it's finger food, she's much more interested. This morning she tried scrambled eggs and scarfed them down. Earlier this week she devoured (as much as a baby can devour) Grandma A.'s meatloaf, and we've been loading her up on her old favorites, cheese, crackers and blueberries. In fact, we've resorted to shoveling spoon fulls of vegetables or fruits in her mouth while she works to pick up a morsel of her favorite foods. Yeah .... meal times take FOREVER these days.

Here's a sample of the head shaking tactic she's been using to shun away any sign of baby food (no thanks to Grandma's encouragement and her amazing impersonation of Amy Winehouse!).