First Christmas

 We were excited to celebrate Annika's first Christmas, even if she did confuse the seasons.

We headed to California so that Annika and cousin Ha Jyn could spend their first Christmas together. 

Her third plane trip was not the charm -- the way there was a bit difficult.

 At least she loved the overhead lights.

Santa was pretty cheap this year.

Annika got a stocking full of baby food (yum!) and one present...

 

...a new orange, round toy to replace her pumpkin! 

Annika enjoyed a delicious Christmas meal of green peas.

She then settled in for a long winter's nap...

...for awhile.

Although Santa was frugal, Annika's friends and family were not. 

Here's just some of her loot. Thanks everyone!

Videos Only a Mother (and a Father, and maybe some Grandmas too) Could Love

It's been a long, long time. I'm hoping to add more posts this weekend showing Annika's first Christmas, our California trip, 7 and 8 month updates, etc. We have just been really busy and having a lot of fun! Unfortunately, we haven't taken as many pictures or videos as we should have, and by the time we realize we should capture something Annika's doing, she's often moved on to something else. I tried to rectify that this morning with my trusty phone camera. Annika is SO close to crawling, and I wanted to catch some of her pre-mastery attempts. (It was right before she took her nap, hence the fussiness.)


I realize that grainy, poorly-lit videos of a baby wiggling around are not everyone's idea of fun (I've watched some myself and lamented that I'd never get those minutes of my life back), so consider yourself warned.


Witness her backwards scooting skills:



See her start to move into a sitting position here. We didn't know she knew how to do this, until we went to get her out of her crib one morning this week and found her sitting up and playing.



She's moving backwards, side to side, up on her knees, and even trying to move forward on her toes. She is now starting to get frustrated -- surely, crawling must be coming soon!



Oh, and did I mention that she's started saying mama? It's very exciting. She mispronounces it, but that's ok -- after all, she is a baby.

Random Sightings, Random Photos

We've seen some strange things lately while walking around the streets of New York.

 

 This was the window display of a first-floor apartment we walked past last weekend.

 Luckily they provided an explanation.

We've been getting ready for Christmas, with Annika dressing the part.

Here are a few outtakes from our Christmas photo shoot.

Yes, we let our baby play on the floor in our building lobby.

Aside from getting ready for the holidays, 
we've just been staying close to home and keeping warm.

Annika has changed a lot in the past couple of weeks. She's now putting on weight well. We first tried feeding her solid foods on Thanksgiving. She wasn't so interested then, but now she's a pro. She gobbles down every fruit and vegetable we give her. She likes them so much that she cries between spoonfuls, which is annoying, but I'm glad she doesn't appear to be a picky eater.

She's getting a lot bigger, too. She was 13.5 pounds at her six-month checkup, and we've had to retire a lot of her clothes that she's outgrown. I crammed her into this outfit one last time and made Scott take pictures.

 

 She tries to grasp anything and everything. At a restaurant last weekend she took my empty cup and put it to her mouth like she was going to take a drink.

I tried to get a picture of her wearing her Yankees pants, but she loved the texture so much she kept rubbing her hands up and down and so you can't see the logo.

She also loves to be held (and thrown) in the air. 

Sometimes she'll play in her jumperoo for a very long time. 

 After awhile she checks to see how we're doing.

We also finally looked at our wedding pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.