My first Christmas

I just had my first Christmas. Mommy called it Christmas, but Daddy called it hitting the jackpot. I got lots and lots of toys this weekend and I had the greatest time seeing lots of nice people. I didn’t like Santa much. He was at the mall and Mommy had the nerve to let him hold me. No way!!! I made sure she knew that I was not happy and I kept an eye on this Santa bloke the rest of the time.

On Christmas Eve we went to Grammy Sue’s to open presents.


Carly helped me out a bit,


I loved ripping the paper, but every time I got the perfect piece someone would take it away from me. It looked so tasty too. Oh well, I got to play with my new dinosaur toy and my M&M Darth Vader from Uncle Allen. It was fun.

Then we went to Nana’s where the rest of the family was waiting to play with me. I had a nice dinner of squash and Joe’s O’s and a bite of plotke, (I don’t know how to spell it, my Polish is rusty). After dinner I got to open more presents.


I liked the ribbon the best at Nana’s.

Dad played jungle Gym with me. I am getting so good at standing. I love to stand it is so fun. I can wave now too. I am learning so many things. Everyone loved my new tricks. I crawled for everyone too, but it was tricky in my dress.


I got into my PJ’s before we went home because it was getting late and I didn’t want Mom to wake me up when we got home. I had so much fun at Nana’s. I got to play with Aunt Cheryl and this snowman guy and then Uncle Jack played Bongos with me.



On Christmas morning I got to play in my new tent. Daddy put it together for me when I was sleeping. It is so cool in there.


Then we gave Daddy his present. I picked it out. I thought the tiki guy looked pretty cool.


Mommy got this really neat keychain that had lots of pictures of me on it. I am so cute. We opened even more presents in the morning. I was getting pretty good at opening presents by this time.

After breakfast we headed to Aunt Lea’s house for even more of the Christmas thing.

I got to play in the tree house for the first time. Mommy pushed me on the tire swing, but I liked the slide best.


It was so fun. Daddy took me down lots of times. Of course after dinner I got more presents.


I helped Becca pass them out and then she helped me open mine.


I didn’t need much help, because I had lots of practice by this time. It was so fun playing with everyone. Uncle Chris gave me a ride in his chair and he helped Becca take off my tights cause I was hot from all the playing.

I love this Christmas thing. I hope it happens again soon. It is so fun and I get to see all these people that I love. Everyone is so nice and Mommy said generous too. Merry Christmas everyone.

Catching Up

This past few weeks have been pretty crazy. Between the layoffs at work and the hustle and bustle of Christmas, we have hardly had a chance to take a breath.


Aisling went to her first baby shower, on the outside that is, a couple of Saturday's ago. My old Defense partner Cindy and her husband Roger are joining the parenthood club any day now. It was fun to get to visit with them. Cindy is going to have a little boy. With all the hockey babies popping out we are going to have to put a team together.


Sienna and Greg came for a visit last week too. Aisling got to open her first gift bag. She loved the tissue paper. After Aisling was tucked away in bed, the grown ups played Guitar hero and had a great time catching up.


Aisling and I have also been going on walks with our buddies Rhiannon and Arianwen. The girls are so cute together and are really starting to take notice of each other. Rhinanon has to go back to work after the holidays. Poor thing, it is so hard to leave our precious babes. It is also amazing how fast the time flies, I can't believe Arianwen is almost 5 months old, but then again I can barely believe Ais is nearing 9 months. Wow!!!


Last Saturday the folks came over and we opened some presents with Aisling. And we had tickets to the Kings vs. Dallas game. 4th row!!! They were awesome seats, thanks Aunt Angie!!! It was so fun. We went with my parents and Aisling had a great time and even ended up on the jumbo tron for a while. She looked so cute up there 20 feet tall and dancing around in her King's hat. There was a 1 year old girl behind us named Madison. Aisling loved smiling at her when she wasn't watching the action on the ice.


To continue the skating theme we went to Riverside and took her cousins Deli and Gavin out on the ice for their first try at skating. It was so fun. There was this little outdoor rink set up near the Mission Inn. It was my first time skating outside as well. Gavin did great and was getting pretty good by the end. Delianna decided it was more fun to fall then to skate so she kept plopping onto her tushie and then she would start laughing. Deli loved Aisling. She kept giving her hugs and kisses and helped her drink her bottle and gave her some Joe's O's. She was a regular little Mommy. It was so cute to see them together.

And last but not least. Uncle Mike came into town for a quick visit before the holiday. Norma hurt her back and couldn't make it to work so I got to take the whole day off to visit with him. Aisling still adores her Uncle. He had her laughing almost the whole day. We had lunch and then he helped us go to the market and Trader Joes. When we got home they played for the rest of the night. He had her in hysterics with a game of peek-a-boo with Elmo.

What a week!

It is finally Friday and I am so happy to put this week behind us. We had a really rough one. It began with news that Norma's father passed away on Sunday. Poor thing it was really hard for her because she couldn't go back home to pay her respects. On Tuesday our company laid off nearly 200 people. We had to wait by our phones all day for the call, while all around us our colleagues were getting massacred. It was brutal to endure, but luckily we both still have jobs. Although the bitter-sweetness of that fact is that I have to go back to being an ATD which is really heart-breaking to me. I loved being an artist and am really tired and unchallenged by the tediousness of being a TD. Ah well, considering what a lot of our friends are going through I am lucky. It is just more motivation for me to work on our wedding business and pay off our bills so I can stay home with Aisling. The good news is that every night until I can stay home I get to come home to the sweetest little girl in the world and she will always cheer me up.

I think the luck pendulum must be swinging back up as we just got tickets to the Kings game tomorrow from Aunt Angie. I am really looking forward to the game and the upcoming Christmas holiday. They are giving us the week between Christmas and New Years off. I am so excited to have such a bonus time with Ais and Brian.

Night of a million accomplishments

Just an update. Last night Aisling sat up by herself, crawled, and pulled herself to standing in her crib and stood by herself for a second of two. This morning she also learned to grind her teeth. What a sound, like nails on a chalk board.

8 months old

Aisling is all better now and over her cold.

She is now officially 8 months old as of yesterday. Still no crawling, but she pulled herself up to standing on Saturday. She loves to stand and walk when we hold her up. She babbles allot now too. She is getting shy around strangers and has some separation anxiety. Her favorite toys are tags, zippers and water bottles. She still is not the best sleeper, but is in her crib most the night. She likes to fall asleep with her hand in my mouth, not very comfortable, but cute. She really likes eating now too. Her favorites are apples, bananas, pears, sweet potato, squash and carrots. She isn't a fan of the green foods. She loves little Gerber cereal puff things, but she had an allergy attack last week and it may be to the wheat in them. So those are on hold for a while. She is getting quite the personality. She loves to squeal and screech when she is happy. She also dances and bounces around too. She is just an amazing girl and we love her so much.

This weekend we had her Christmas pictures taken. She got all dressed up in her dress, shoes and tights. She was fascinated by her shoes and kept kicking the ground with them and trying to eat them of course. Here are her pictures.

On Sunday she went to her first Christmas party at my friend Tina's. We had a fun time. Aisling played on the floor for a while and Brian and I got to enjoy Tina's yummy cooking.