Weeks 26 & 27- Baby's First Christmas

This post has been a long time coming due to holidays, illness and travel but always better late than never!

This year is the first year we decided to stay in Kentucky. In years past we have either gone home or used the break and time off to travel. It was so nice to have a nice quiet holiday with just out little family, especially for Karis' first Christmas.

Here is a recap of our yuletide:

Christmas Eve
Greg had a half day off so after having a normal morning we celebrated the evening with a delicious steak dinner, evening service at church and family time around the tree.

We kept up the tradition and let Karis open one gift.

I think she liked the wrapping better than the gift!

Christmas Day
Karis gifted us with an e/tea hour of sleep in the morning followed by a fun, festive morning. We stayed in our PJs and ate yummy homemade cinnamon rolls and thick cut bacon.

Yum! Of course we didn't forget to sing happy birthday to Jesus!

After her first nap we opened up gifts. Karis got some wonderful presents from friends and family.

We love books!

I think she was especially excited about this plaque from Auntie Charissa. So cute! Check out the amazing works of our friend Phoebe here or at www.littlecarpenter.com.

We got dressed up and made it to a late lunch with our dear friends the Barringers. what a blessing it was to be able to celebrate Christmas with such a sweet family!

Other News from Week 26 
Funny Face- Karis has been making this scrunched up face lately. I think it is hilarious and think it is combination of me making faces at her but also some congestion and her trying to get it out.

Happy half birthday! Karis celebrated her half birthday to my shock and surprise. 6 months have gone by sooo quickly and she has changed so much. It definitely keeps getting better and better!

6 Month Appointment-Karis had her 6 month check up and to our surprise still hasn't broken 15 pounds.

Here are her stats:

Such a small fry! Thankfully even thing looks great and we got the approval to continue on with solids.

Cami Cuisine- After trying out pear and avocado, I ventured to make my own baby food with the help of a sweet gift from family, the Baby Bullet.
Before:

After:

It was so easy to make a small batch of sweet potato and Karis seemed to like it! 

Happy customer:

Protestation- Although Karis has never been shy about letting me know when she is unhappy, this week was the first time I saw her get angry at me for taking away a toy. I had let her hold a candy cane for a picture and when I took it away from her she started yelling at me in her baby talk. Willfulness is starting already!

Let it Snow!- Although we didn't have a white Christmas, the day after Christmas is snowed pretty heavily so I took Karis out to experience her first real snow.

She was relatively interested and handled the cold on her hands well. Just one of the fun perks of being in the Ville!

Week 27

This week was basically a blur as both Karis and I were sick for the third time in the past 8 weeks!!!

The day after Karis received all her vaccinations, including me requesting influenza, Karis ran a high temperature of 100.5. I called the doctor to make sure she was just responding to the vaccines and the said I could give her baby Tylenol. Thankfully the meds kicked in and she was back down in temp by the evening but the whole day was pretty sad for her. Unfortunately the next day instead of the temp she had developed congestion, sneezing and a cough. Baby girl now had a real cold! Over the next few days she got worse and I tried my best to make her more comfortable with rigorous nose sucking, baby vics vapor rub, 24/7 humidifier action and staying in all day so she could get as much rest as possible. Unfortunately I ended up coming down with a cold as well and although New Years Eve was memorable with chicken wings and finishing off our annual  movie series (this year was the Star Wars series), by New Years Day we both hit a low point and were pretty pathetic. Thankfully it was the beginning of the end and from there we both improved with much prayer. I was getting nervous we would be sick for our travels home!

(so gross, but I couldn't resist putting this in!)

Silver Lining- The silver lining to our whole bout with sickness was that Greg came up with a great idea to help soothe Karis with an evening bath (normally I just gave her two to three baths during the week during the day) Turns out she loved it! She is now starting to play with the water and loves trying to touch it with her hands or drink out of the spout. Bath time just got fun! We just make sure not to use soap or wash her hair every time so we don't dry out her skin.

Cause and Effect- I broke out some soft blocks for Karis to play with and she ended up loving them. Every time I would stack them she would knock them down with a hearty launch and squeal. She is definitely loving learning about cause and effect. So much fun, even for a sick baby!

Tooth!- Since month 4 Karis has had this tooth threaten to come in (incisor 32), but it got usurped by another tooth (incisor 31) that seemed to have popped up over night. This one has actually broken through her gums and is a bonafide tooth.
Self Soother- After church we try really hard to keep Karis up in the car so she can make it home to nap (if she catnaps in the car she won't go down and will just be overtired). Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, she resolutely stuck her fingers in her mouth, closed her eyes and refused to budge. She loves sucking those fingers to soothe herself to sleep!

Until next time!