November and December

These two months have been all about learning to crawl and explore. It all started at the beginning of November when we went to Seattle to visit friends.

November

Chris was in the Czech Republic over Halloween and the first of November. Elizabeth was figuring out she can scoot on her butt forward and backwards while she was sitting and scooting backwards on her tummy. She couldn't get the forward thing when she was on her tummy so she would end up in corners and under bookshelves frequently. She mastered the art of turning in circles and scooting backwards. The destination was always a mystery for her.









That weekend Chris came back and the three of us went to Seattle to visit friends. We had a fabulous time seeing Seattle sights and being with Laurel and Tony's family. It is fun seeing their two boys grow up. It happens so fast, especially when you don't get to see them often. David is just 6 weeks younger than Elizabeth. He sure got Elizabeth thinking about moving. He would scoot, army crawled, everywhere without any fear. Rolling over, which Elizabeth doesn't do, was no problem. Elizabeth watched and watched him go. She even tried a little to scoot forward. I think she only got two inches but she tried.












We went on several long walks around Seattle including a hike to a waterfall in the misty rain which left us very wet and cold. Laurel, Chris, and I each took a child on our backs for the hike, so it was also good exercise. We also went to the Boeing airplane museum near their original airfield/shop. I think Chris enjoyed it most, but Elizabeth was also pretty impressed by all the planes to see. And of course before we left Seattle, we found a garden to walk through. The colors of fall were beautiful. We had a lot of fun. It was a great trip.













Thanksgiving came up on me fast. All of a sudden we were going to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. There were a lot of us like normal. Elizabeth loves going over to grandma and pappa's house. They have a lot of toys to play with and her cousins are usually there to entertain her. It is fun to see her cousins want so much to show and teach her things. The best part is that in front of everyone she just gets up and starts crawling for the first time! The week before she has gotten in the crawling position but had not gone anywhere. It was great. She just went ahead to get a toy. I called for Chris and he didn't believe me but she kept crawling like she has always been able to do it.

Thanksgiving night we drove up to Tahoe. We were all packed and ready and figured it would be easier to get there while she slept. It was a quick drive up, getting there in just a tad over four hours due to a couple slow downs from stalled cars/accidents. My parents came up the Friday. We had a relaxing time. Went on a hike and enjoyed being in Tahoe. It was quite warm for Tahoe. Elizabeth just kept on mastering her new skill of crawling.

We got back Sunday evening. Monday she learned she could stand herself up at the hearth (it is 2 feet high). Tuesday, two days at home, she learned how to go up the two steps we have between the living room and kitchen. Here we go into the chasing stages of babyhood.

December
Ahhh.. the holidays. Don't you love them? I do. They are full of family and friends, hot chocolate on a cold winter's night next to the fire. Well, family and friends and hot cocoa but the cold part.... It was a very warm December. I miss snow. And going to Tahoe wouldn't help either as they haven't had snow. Chris and I reminisce a lot about Germany around Christmas time; with the markets and true winter weather it has such a wonderful Christmas atmosphere.

At the beginning of December I joined a moms' and tots' group. I haven't done much with them yet as they have events that just haven't worked into our schedule. I went on a stroller walk and it was nice. I'm planning on doing that again now that the holidays are over.

Elizabeth had her 9 month check up (wow, nine months). She was 23 lbs and 28 in long on the 6th of Dec. Her height has slowed down but you couldn't tell. She keeps having these one nights here and there that she goes for 7-8 hours between feedings, which mommy loves. I'm still hoping that it'll become the norm soon. She has gotten comfortable in crawling all around and up the stairs. She stays away from going down as she is scared of them. A few falls backwards has taught her that. So she spends most of her time up in the kitchen or in the hallway. I keep telling her to come down, safely, to where her toys are.

One afternoon she snuck away down the hall and I came to find here eating something and brown stuff coming out down her shirt. To my horror, it was cat poop! A cat missed the box. Clothes changed and face and hands washed, but couldn't get rid of that breath for a while. Yeah!

The weekend before Derek's birthday we took Derek and Hazel to dinner and the symphony as a birthday present. Well, it turned out not to be an actual symphony but the symphony choir (sans orchestra) singing Christmas songs and a band playing the bells. It was fun. Different than what we expected but very nice anyways. The choir director was very pleased to have the spot light with the conductor elsewhere with the rest of the symphony.

Here begins the crazy yet fun two weeks that made Elizabeth completely out of wack (not that we would change a thing!). On the day of Derek's birthday on his day we had brunch at their house, immediately after which we went to my parents for a Christmas gift exchange/dinner afterwards. The next day we had a work Christmas dinner. The following day we went over to our friends for a dinner/white elephant party. On Wednesday Chris went to LA for the day for work and got back late. Thursday was the only somewhat normal day. Friday, Chris took off work and we spent the afternoon/evening at Hazel and Derek's as Andrew was in town. We went for a walk and had a nice dinner.












Christmas Eve was that Saturday and we went over to my parents for dinner and games. Christmas day we went to Chris' parents for breakfast and gift exchange. We went over to my grandma's for the extended family gift exchange and went back to Hazel/Derek's for dinner. It was a long day but lots of fun.












Monday we relaxed and went to H/D for dinner along with my parents for boxing day. Tuesday, we went to San Fran, taking BART in (we miss train rides too), and did some touristy things. Wednesday, Derek showed us around NASA Ames. Thursday, we went to Napa and did some wine tasting. Friday, we stayed around here and went for a walk around Quarry Lakes. Andrew made some great enchiladas at our house.









New Years Eve we went to Alcatraz. Then Andrew, Chris and I went over to my brother's for a party. We didn't stay too late as we were quite tired from the day's activities. New Years day Andrew made a very yummy dinner at H/D.

The last week of December Elizabeth started to talk, jabbing constantly. Like before but this time she is starting to form words. She was really concentrating on them. Do for dog, dad, te'i for teddy, and mom so far (oh, and mustn't forget ki 'e ka (kitty kat). More firm on those words came in January. Next post...