December 2010

After Vita's birthday weekend, we started to get really into preparing for Christmas. Here we all are doing our best to pose for some Christmas pictures, but most of them didn't come out because we are all very squirmy and at least one of us was blinking or jumping or moving or crying in just about every shot. These two were the only salvageable photos.

Also throughout the month, Anabelle's personality has REALLY started to blossom and she has become much more smiley and easy going.

Anabelle is also rapidly developing new skills. In fact, Anabelle rolled over for the first time at only 6 weeks old! It took her a couple more weeks before she repeated this feat, but now she occasionally will roll from either her tummy to her back or vice versa. Anabelle seems to focus on one new skill at a time. There was one week where she focused on rolling over, one week where she seemed to add a lot of new sounds to her "vocabulary", and one week where she really focused on her hands (holding and batting objects, and getting her fingers into her mouth).

She also loves toys.

And she loves being part of the action and just watching whatever is going on.

A few days before Christmas, we had a visit with Grandma Marianne, Grandpa Vito, Uncle Pat and Aunt Mary. Here's Mary with the girls.

And here is Mary and I having a dinner time hug with Vita.

On Christmas Eve, gifts were exchanged, and Vita received LOTS of really wonderful gifts. One of the first two gifts opened were this red velvet dress (which Vita wore the rest of the day) and this princess tea set (which Vita played with all weekend long).

Vita was so overwhelmed with all the fun that she took a two hour nap in the middle of the day!

Here's Vita opening one of the other gifts that was also a big hit... a music box with hearts on the outside and a ballerina on the inside!

Vita opened gifts with a knife (from her tea set) just like her dad does.

Later, Vita got everyone involved in a tea party.

And Vita even got Grandpa Vito to smile for the camera.

Later that night, Vita left cookies by the fireplace for Santa, and she kissed each cookie. We all went to bed hoping to get a visit from Santa and listening closely for the sound of reindeer feet on the roof.

On Christmas morning, Vita woke up early and climbed into bed with us, wondering if we could all go to the living room together to see if Santa had come. Vita discovered that Santa had left gifts and had filled the stockings too! Here's Vita emptying out her stocking.

When it was time to open the gifts from Santa, Vita looked at the boxes. None of the boxes looked like they contained a scooter, and Vita said she thought Santa must have forgotten to bring her one. Luckily, Santa DID bring a scooter and Vita was so excited we couldn't even get a picture of her with it. Vita was scooting through the house like a pro all morning long. Here's Vita with a new knit Santa doll.

We ended up having a quiet and relaxing rainy Christmas day. Vita and Anabelle played with their toys all day long. Here's Anabelle playing with her new mirror.

One of my favorite memories of this Christmas is the stomp stomp stomp sound of Vita's feet as she ran through the house going from one new toy to the next all Christmas day.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too, and wish you all a healthy and happy 2011.