Merry Christmas!

This will be a post in parts because Amelia just woke up from her Christmas nap.

About ten days ago we all came down with something and it was looking like Merry Sickmas. It's amazing how things just can't get done when you're dealing with a sick toddler and you're also sick.

Amelia came down with her first ear infection. Her eyes got watery and then gummy like they always do right before she gets sick. Turns out that this is the way a virus shows itself for her (whereas I always get a sore throat). When the doctor told me this, I had this awful vision of her waking up one morning to go to a proming job interview to find her eyes glued shut and oozing all day. Whereas I could medicate and hide a sore throat, I don't think gummy eyes (or rescheduling) would make a good first impression. Her doctor thinks the ear infection is viral and not the result of anything else. I just pray it responds to the antibiotics (which thankfully Amelia enjoys taking) and doesn't recur. This other Amelia who is also tres adorable just had tubes in her ears, poor thing!

We did not go see Santa this year since Amelia is at an age where she loves people - but only from a safe distance if she doesn't know them. We did get her picture taken at JC Penney along with two of her cousins. I was terrified she was going to go head first off the table and she wouldn't sit or stand still. We got one shot of her by herself and it was great. There were a few shots of the three of them and one of them came out pretty good. She wore this dress yesterday for Christmas Eve and it's the same dress in her JC Penney picture.

We went to the candlelight service last night and Amelia did pretty good for being held (at times against her will) in my lap the entire time. She was fascinated by the hymnal for a while - turning pages without bending or tasting any. I took her "Baby's First" Christmas stocking, pinned (will sew later) some muslin leftover from our wedding several years ago over the top and then did the glitter and glue thing with her name. I really liked the stocking Grandma sent her last year and this way she will truly be able to use the same stocking for as many years there are until she decides on her own she needs a different one. She wasn't so sure about hanging it up, though.

She had fun opening her presents - until she got overstimulated and walked to her room, came back with an old, familiar book, plopped down and proceeded to read it to herself with no interest in any more present opening. And that was fine - we took a break and finished later in the day.

Here she is enjoying Christmas Day. She immediately got the lion toy to sing and kept going back to him, but it didn't take her long to get into discovering new things - and she wanted to try everything out, including her new sippy cup which I had to remove from its packaging, wash and fill before moving onto anything else!
















And then we wanted to try our new shoes on, too!
















Last Thursday we visited Daddy at work. Amelia had lots of fun!
















And here she is patting the reindeer on its bottom after putting it on her shoulder. I can't help but wonder if she is imitating me!