Holy Holiday Season Batman!

Phew - we have now fully realized that the Christmas season will forever be insane for us! Between Sabrina walking in early November and mid-January, our lives have been a complete whirlwind (as evidence by my terrible blogging! my apologies)

Here are several albums that show what we've been up to between Christmas in WI, 2 birthday celebrations for Sabrina there, followed by 3 birthday parties here in CO, New Year's Eve, Tim's 30th Birthday party in Breckenridge, followed by Christmas with the CO fam. Our little girl is walking (nearly running) and talking up a storm. Brent and I have counted about 30 words including:
"ball" (that lasted several weeks - everything was a ball)
Mama & Dada (for real this time)
"uppie,"
"more,"
"pease" (please)
"tank tu," (thank you)
"bubble,"
"ish" (fish)
"duck,"
"happy,"
"HI!!!!"
"bye bye,"
"night night,"
"dog,"
"kitty,"
"rawwwrrr,"
"hot,"
"bear,"
"meow,"
"nay," (Auntie Nay, we're sure!)
"pow pow,"
"ooooooooo" (a favorite)
"neat" (just tonight...not sure if we can count that yet but it sure was cute) "door,"
"yes," (with an emphatic nod)
"bottle,"
"yogurt," (or something that sounds kind of like that)
"babo" (Pongo, we think)
....and more come out every day! It's been an amazing couple of weeks.

And, her newest favorite, "no"...often said while stomping her feet! We try to remind her that she turned ONE not TWO but she doesn't seem to get it. We just bought a parenting book today called "Love and Logic" at the suggestion of the pediatrician.

Speaking of which, we took her to her one year appt. in the midst of all the craziness and she got a glowing report once again. She's dropped to the 20th percentile for weight (but normal for an early walker) and remains 50/50 for height and head size. The doctor also told us (after hearing Sabrina say "door" and point to the door) that she has a lot more words than most 12 month olds, and with that comes discipline issues. Ahhh fun! She said that she'll likely get frustrated because she's understanding a lot, but she's still emotionally a one year old. And we took her seriously because just the night before an older kid took one of Sabrina's toys at her birthday party and Sabrina stomped her feet and said "No no no no no." We all stared at her and then cracked up, but I don't think that's what we're supposed to do! So we're figuring that out too.

We're curious to see how her transition at daycare goes from the infant to the toddler room. She started to transition last week spending about half-time in each room, but having a few good days (including nap time!) in Toddler 1. They nap on mats on the floor and Sabrina actually did pretty well with it two days this week. We couldn't believe it. She even slept for 2 hours on Friday and they caught her snoring! ahhh...thanks for that trait, Dad! She misses her friend Lexy terribly though and I think it's made the transition harder for her. If she only had a buddy to move up with!!! They moved to Reno at the beginning of this month and we're still not used to seeing their house empty and dark and not seeing them at daycare drop-off and pick-ups. Sabrina had a few rough days at drop-off this week and we're not sure if it's classic separation anxiety or the transition, but it was pretty hard for all of us. Brent and I both tried drop-off and she cried and cried for both of us. So hard to leave her when she's bawling, but we followed the book and left quickly. We hope this stage is short!

Even with her occasional bouts of two-year-old ness, she continues to be a complete charmer to everybody. She's happy, funny, sweet, and smart. On to year #2! Enjoy the photos from Christmas, birthday parties galore, a wedding we attended in Estes Park, and a wonderful 50-degree day in January when we went to the zoo!