Vacation Recap

Ok, so the long and short of our vacation:

Miss C got to go to the zoo 3 times during our grand adventure! That alone was worth the flight time involved! On the third visit, she even got to feed a giraffe! Yea!

While visiting with DH's family, Miss C built a snowman, made snow angels with me and participated in a snow ball fight (everyone got into that one!). She also got to taste her first strawberry shake (ala Jack in the Box following a wonderful Grilled Cheese Meal).

On our last day before we came home, Miss C and I had to drop DH off at the airport for yet another (albeit short) trip. After we left the airport, Miss C and I decided it would be grand fun to meet my side of the family that lived in the local area.

We drove to my Aunt's house but alas, no one answered the door (frown here). We did call later and left a message with my Uncle that we were in town and wanted to visit with my Grandmother. My Aunt called back later to arrange a good time for a visit.

Little did I know that the visit would turn into a reunion of sorts. As it turns out, two of my cousins still live near my Aunt and Grandmother. My aunt called them and they all came by with their families to see us (totally unexpected and quite a lot of fun). We all went out to dinner after a bit of visiting.

Miss C absolutely adores my cousin J. He has two kids (a boy, 9 and a girl, 11 who are both so sweet its not funny) and thinks my other cousin (C)'s two boys are supposed to come with us because one rode to dinner with us. She had no issues with this new crowd of people, probably because she had just visited with DH's side of the family and she understood me when I explained who everyone was.

Most importantly, Miss C got to meet my Grandmother. My grandma isn't doing great. I mean, she's doing ok, kind of. I was told that she was living in an assisted living facility so I didn't know what to expect but then when I talked to my Aunt, she told me that Grandma was out at the Casino playing poker so I figured, eh, really, how bad could it be? When I saw her using her walker, so frail looking, I realized how much time had passed. I decided to make the visit during this trip because it just seemed like the right time to.

To see the photos for the visit (there are quite a few) look here.

"Tis the season

'Tis the season to:
Make and ship 10 batches of fudge (a whopping 30 or so pounds worth!)
Appreciate pack and ship from the USPS (11 packages per trip, but not having to deal with long lines at the post office, priceless!)
Write and mail approximately 165 holiday greeting cards (totally worth it though)
Have your hubby sick and pretty much unable to do anything (finally got the right meds so he should, fingers crossed, be on the mend)
Listen to your adorable 2 1/2 year old sing "jingle bells" 10 times in a row (its terribly cute though!)
Make stockings for school
To help your 2 1/2 year old take pictures using your DSi (she loves it, too!)
Have half of your staff on vacation and the other half trying to keep up with increasing taskers
Try to stay on track getting your department ready for a huge inspection after the holidays
Figure out how to handle flying back from vacation with your 2 1/2 year old after your hubby has to fly off on another (albeit short) trip (we've flown alone together before, its just going to be, well, challenging is all)
To have one of your people run up to shake your hand, thanking you for the card and recognition of their efforts. (Blew my mind and made my hand hurt less)
Truly, honestly, it is the season.
Happy holidays, everyone!

First post of 2009 and Miss C is 19 months old (ok, tomorrow!)

First, let me apologize for not having posted in nearly, eh, forever? Yea. Been kind of busy with the holidays, travel, etc. Hope you all understand.

We got back from our vacation visiting with family a couple of days ago. Miss C had a great time with her Great Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie J. We are going to try and visit other family (Aunt A, her cousins B, M and J as well as Uncle W, Aunt L and her cousin A) sometime in the next couple of months.

Ya know, I thought last year was fun but this year was amazing! The changes i have seen in Miss C have been incredible.

I am sure she is probably at least 1/2 and inch taller than a month ago which puts her around 35 1/2 inches at 19 months! She is just at 28lbs and boy have her skills changed. She pretends to be all sorts of animals (cats, dogs, alligators!) and has her puppets pretend to be even more (we found these two super cute mittens for the bath, a purple monkey and a pink pig and she uses them as hand puppets) animals (namely Elmo!). When it seems like we don't understand what she is saying, Miss C not only signs her words but if the word has an action, she acts it out! Example? Well, we were talking about our recent airplane ride and Miss C was saying "airplane". Apparently I didn't understand so she signed it then used the sign and flew the plane around "rrrrmmm, rrrrmmmm" just for me! Too funny!

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we are potty training. Nothing too strenuous, just letting Miss C get comfortable with the potty. She actually used the one on the airplane and at her great grandma's both without her little seat on top. I was surprised and pleased. On the plus side, she held my hands rather than the potty so very little in the way of ickiness!

Miss C's favorite act now is tumbling. She does make mama and daddy do it too so she gets examples when she wants them. When we play, Miss C pretends to be the "mommy" and we are the "babies" (I asked her about this one day when she was rubbing by back saying "good girl!"). She also has a number of tasks for us. Example? She will tell us to "sit, wait, come, etc" including hand signals when she wants something. Too funny and wayyyy too much like her mama!

Well, that's about it for now. Busy, busy, ya know! We will try to post more regularly. Oh! Before I finish, I have uploaded our holiday photos, they can be seen here.

Happy New Year!

Sorry I am a little behind the power curve here, but we only got back yesterday.

We had a terrific time visiting DH's family! Miss C is getting used to her grandparents but apparently remembered her Auntie J very well as the minute J walked in the house, Miss C gave her just the cutest little grin! Its nice to know that Miss C thinks Auntie J is cool!

We spent our days visiting and opening gifts, lots and lots of gifts (thank yous to come, promise!) and just enjoying each others company.

Miss C got comfortable with her Grandma but still thinks her Grandpa is a little scary. We think its just that he is a very tall, broad man and he has a moustache, something her daddy doesn't have. We're sure she'll warm up to him the next time they visit. They did have an awful lot of fun playing together with either myself or DH there as well.

We, ok I, took lots of pictures and you can see them at our flickr account (just go to the badge). Its funny, I get teased about taking lots of photos, but I think everyone kind of likes them! As a gift, we put together some different collages for DH's parents, his grandma and his sister. They all told us they would put the pictures up once they came up with a location.

After we landed from our flight back, we stopped by Poobou's house to visit and take a break from the traveling. If you remember, we, Miss C and I, did this when we first moved up here. During that visit, the girls kind of ignored each other and when we took photos at the end, Poobou's Miss C petted my Miss C's head and tried to lick her.

Well, I think the tables turned this time! From the minute they were both on the floor, my Miss C kept trying to pull the other C close to her. She managed to grab onto her shirt while we were taking photos but it wasn't until we put the cameras up and were saying our good byes that she got what she wanted. Apparently, Miss C thinks C is another stuffed animnal or maybe even a baby, since we are always playing "kisses" we think that's why when Miss C finally did manage to get a hold of C that she kissed her face! It was too funny for words. Unfortunately, C cried. Luckily, Poobou managed to calm her down with some Tigger and Friends. Like I said, too cute, too funny!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I didn't post this on Christmas Day, but we were a little busy.
Let's see, the party at the neighbor's house went well. Everyone had to come over and meet us, but we are sure it was because of Miss C. She was the center of attention and loved watching everyone. She was quiet for the first fifteen minutes then started to play with a cup in my lap. She was just fine so long as no one actually tried to talk to her directly. She even got a very sweet teddy bear from the host and hostess as she was deemed the guest of honor.
I think we will be seeing these folks, the neighbors that is, more frequently than we did in SoCal. It's nice to have nice neighbors that aren't able to look into your backyard from their upstairs!
Miss C had a great time but I expect that she will have even more fun once we get to her Great Grandmother's house this weekend. We think her favorite gift so far was her remote control. It was from our old cable set. DH scrubbed it and boy, I don't think she has let it go more than a couple of minutes at a time. She was exhausted last night and slept well as usual.
As a gift to us, Miss C is now scooting backwards! Talk about a great gift. As I understand it, this is a precursor to crawling. We told her she is a little young to be doing this but she simply stuck out her tongue and gave us a raspberry! She is also saying "da" a lot more now so DH got his own Christmas gift from Miss C. I know she will be saying "ma" in time so I guess I will wait.
I am putting in a couple of cute pictures (go figure!) and then we're off! I have to work today so there are still a few things to take care of. I will try to post again soon.
Until then, hope everyone is having a great time!

Weekend fun

Hey there! Well, we made it through the mid watches so now we start eves on Monday. While I will no longer be at work throughout the night, I will have to miss Miss C's evening routine. On the plus side, DH gets a chance to settle a routine of his own with Miss C, get used to bathing her and all that. They are doing great regardless.

To make up for what i thought was a yucky two weeks of mid watches (those are 11pm to 8 am, roughly, by the way), Miss C and I made Christmas cookies today. Check out this picture. We were trying to frost some sugar cookies!

We did have a good time even though it looks like DH managed to catch Miss C between smiles.

We're getting ready for our winter trip to see DH's grandma. Everyone is so excited, I am not sure what Miss C will make of it but its bound to be memorable. I just wish she was able to see the rest of the family more often. Ah, well, maybe later, right?

That's pretty much it for now. Hope ya'll are having a great December and don't forget to toss me a comment every once in a while, ok?