My Christmas Present (Complete With Pretty Bow)

This One's For Nonny

Photo Essay Of Your First Christmas

Making friends at the airport.

Grams, Georgia & Daddy.

Pops, Georgia & Daddy.

Daddy may enjoy stacking blocks, but you prefer putting them on your head.

Some sweet photos of you and your daddy.

You with your tree. All the ornaments were put on with ribbon so it was safe for you. You seem to enjoy their taste.

Ready for church!

Standing up by yourself these days.

Getting this present opening thing down.

The force is strong with this one.

Mommy, Georgia & Nonny.

Taking time out from presents for a story with Grams.

Yup, they're all yours.

Topping off the visit with a family photo.

Whenever We Go Out, The People Always Shout: John Jacob Georgia Sidney Schmitt. La la la la la la la la.

Sunday we went to your first kid birthday party at Gymboree. It was a double birthday party for your friends Zander and Jackson. I think it was the first time you've been overwhelmed. You usually jump right in and play with the other kids, but this time you spent most of the party sitting around on the floor watching all the big kids run around. You weren't upset or scared, just interested in watching the other kids, rather than playing yourself. You seemed to enjoy yourself, though, and the pizza that was served.

That's One Way To Clean The Baby After Spaghetti Dinner

Quick Family Snapshot

Georgia Cannot Be Contained

Growth Spurt

The shoes on the right were purchased yesterday to replace the shoes on the left, which were purchased two weeks ago and are now too small.

Mobile Baby

You'll use anything as a walker, including chairs, stools, strollers and puppies. We love watching you shine with pride at your ability.

Tippie Toes

You are into EVERYTHING these days! You've started stretching up to your tippie toes to reach high things that you shouldn't get into, like the stove. You've even tried pulling on the oven handle in an attempt to open it up. Needless to say, the oven and stove have now been Georgia proofed.

Mohawk

Sitting Up And Sitting Down

A couple of months ago we were all excited that you had mastered the skill of sitting up. You enjoyed the new perspective, and we enjoyed the freedom that your newfound skill gave us.

Today we’re excited that you have learned how to sit down. You’ve been standing and cruising for a while now, but it wasn’t until this weekend that you have regularly sat your self down from a standing position. In our humble opinions, this skill is equally as important and exciting because instead of screaming at us to help you sit down, you simply plop onto your bottom.

So Proud!

When I picked you up at school today your teachers told me that you like to pull off the socks of the boys in your class and crawl around with them in your mouth. Pancho and Lefty like to run around with socks in their mouths, too.

10-Month Review

Dear Georgia:

In addition to being the anniversary of the invasion of Pearl Harbor, today is your 10-month birthday! What better way to celebrate the big occasion than to sprout your first freckle? We’ve had first freckle false alarms before, but this is a bona fide sighting! You have a little brown freckle on the bottom of your right leg. Just like the rest of you, it’s adorable.

Our biggest challenge with you these days is simply keeping up with you. You are so mobile! You’re crawling everywhere and getting into everything, so we’re in full baby proof mode. The gates, door locks and other baby proofing supplies have been purchased. Now if we could only figure out how to install them….

You have begun climbing up the stairs, which is especially frightening given that at the bottom of our stairs are 12” ceramic tiles. You also enjoy pulling yourself up against tables, chairs, sofas, etc., so we have to keep surfaces clear of non-approved items. Your new mobility has also prompted us to take house cleaning more seriously, so I’ve been disinfecting things more regularly and purchased a turbo carpet cleaning machine. Neither are much fun, but it is a relief knowing that things are pretty clean.

You’re in a bit of an experimental phase right now when it comes to food. Applesauce is your favorite, followed closely by these puffy fruit things and dog food. I can see why the dog food would be so tempting; it’s the perfect size and sits in a bowl on the floor just waiting for you to pick it up. Even so, it’s really gross and off limits.

One of your favorite things to do is to bang things on other things. Whether you’re slapping your hands on the coffee table or bashing two toys against each other, banging things together always makes you smile. You’re also taking more interest in books. While you still like to chew on them and rip them out of my hands to toss them to the floor, your attention span has grown to allow for me to read about four pages before you lose interest.

You have a lot more hair these days. It’s longer and thicker, but there’s still not enough of it to justify fancy bows everyday. Honestly, I’m surprised at the large amount of hair you have. I didn’t have a noticeable amount of hair until I was about two years old. You must have gotten your daddy’s hair genes.

You’re also comprehending a lot more of what we say and are more demanding when we don’t give you what you want. It’s a bit of a guessing game at this point because you understand some of what we say, but you can’t tell us what you want. We try to figure out what you want, but it’s tough. It’s like playing charades but never getting to learn the correct answer. I think your communication frustrations are a big reason why you require a lot more attention these days than you ever have before. It’s quite exhausting.

Some days I look at you and marvel at how big you are, even though you’re still quite small. But not a day goes by that your daddy and I don’t tell you how much we love you, and how blessed we feel to have you in our lives.

Love,
Mama

It's The Little Things

Today when you saw me in the doorway of your classroom to pick you up, you scooted at full speed (approximately 1/8 mph) across the room to see me. When you reached the door you craned your neck to see me and whined until I opened the door to pick you up.

My heart melted!

Loves Pancakes, Loathes Papa Noel

Saturday we enjoyed a lovely pancake breakfast at your school...


followed by a not-so-lovely visit with Santa.

Lunch With Daddy

Testing Out The New Front Porch Rockers