Week 22- Tis the Season

With Thanksgiving come and gone, we have gone full speed ahead into the Christmas season! We spent the last week starting up holidays traditions, spending time with friends and enjoying getting back into the swing of things after a nice long Thanksgiving break.


 

Christmas Traditions





This year since we are staying home for the holidays we were able to finally get a real Christmas tree. The past three years we've had our tiny 2 foot fakies to celebrate with, which is not quite the same thing. We took Karis to good ole' Costco to get her first ever Christmas tree and came home to holiday tradition #1, Christmas decorating and homemade soup!


Then over the course of the weekend we trimmed the tree (Greg spent about an hour trying to cut the bottom of the tree with a small hacksaw only to have it be totally not level!) and finished decorating the house while munching on some warm chocolate chip cookies.


I just love Christmas!!








Dairy Disaters
Of course all the Christmasiness seemed way too idyllic to be real life. It turns out that the homemade clam chowder by a freshly cut Christmas tree was not the way to begin the season merry and bright. Karis reaffirmed that while I'm ok eating cheese and small amounts of dairy (like sour cream or whipped cream), a whole bowl full of chowder is not going to go over well. She spent a large portion of the evening wailing while I tried to console her and Greg did work on the tree. Alas, ice cream will still have to wait!  

Footsies!


Karis has finally discovered her feet! It started when we put some monkey PJs on her that have monkeys on the feet and she was very intent on starting at them. Now she loves pulling on her feet when getting a diaper change and will sometimes stick them in her mouth. I'm thinking the bulky cloth diapers might impede her from doing this on a regular basis since she can't bend at the waist quite as well, but I guess it's the price to pay to save a ton!


Stranger Danger
Although it is a good sign of emotional development, Karis has now started to develop stranger danger and gets more nervous/fussy/scared around new faces. She no longer smiles at everyone, but has to size them up for awhile first. On Wednesday night I put her in evening service nursery since Greg and I were helping out with the youth program and as I handed her over she started to cry. Turns out, she was pretty teary the whole time and they had to move her from room to room to see if she would do better. Apparently she likes hanging out with the older kids and ended up watching the three year olds play! So thankful for our great nursery staff who loves our little ones as much as we do!  


Sleep Rolling 
Although Karis has only rolled over three times while awake (from front to back), this week she surprised us (and herself) by rolling over from her back to the front in her sleep. While it is great she is advancing and becoming more mobile, she is now startling herself awake since she is unable to flip back over. It may be a few rough nights ahead until she learns how to more aptly roll herself! Too bad she just isn't doing any rolling awhile awake!

She also has managed to somehow move around the entire crib 360 degrees over the course of the night. Greg found her head down one morning and after that we put her crib completely flat (the mattress was still slightly raised because she had a bit of a cold) and removed her towel insert. 

It has become a habit of mine to look at the monitor regularly and see what crazy poses she has come up with! 


Karis-isms
Nicknames- Since Karis is a genuine Southern Belle, I have been calling her "Little Darlin'", complete with a southern drawl.

Touch and feel- Karis has really been enjoying touching different textures which has come out a lot when I read to her. She now tries to grab at the pictures on the page, not realizing they are two dimensional. It is really adorable, but I'm sure very frustrating for her! Her current favorite is Fuzzy Bee with all the different bug textures. Thanks Auntie Kimber!
Look and Reach- Karis has now started to reach for items out of her grasp or toys that she dropped. She even plays a game with Greg where he pops out under her highchair and she looks over the rail to the left and right looking for him. 


Until next time!