Christmas Funtivities!

We spent Christmas in St George and we had a marvelous time!

Christmas Eve

4:30 pm - Bryce set up a little "shooting" challenge with bb guns for my parents and brothers to try. Rose and I had a fun time watching and cheering.

5:00 Arrive at the annual Wilson Christmas Eve party where we eat dinner, share talents, sing songs, and open gifts from grandparents. 

8:00 Return home to parent's house - get into pajamas, share Christmas stories and thoughts, watch the train go around the tree and sing Christmas hymns around the piano. 

10:00 We all suddenly decide we are all hungry and so we quickly whip up some hamburgers and turkey sandwiches.

10:30 The boys (Bryce, Michael and Dallin) start hauling bedding, tvs, playstations, and snacks upstairs so that they are ready and prepared to stay up there all night. 

11:00 Rose and I finally go to bed. My parents begin setting up Christmas downstairs. Bryce, Mike and Dallin begin their Call of Duty: Ghost Protocol playing marathon. 

Christmas Morning

6:00 am The boys finally turn off the games and go to bed. 

8:00 I wake up to the sound of noises downstairs. Sounds like the parents are up getting breakfast ready. Also sounds like my grandparents have come over to see what we all got for Christmas but we haven't opened gifts yet. 

8:30 I get up and wake up the boys so they can get ready. Mike and Dallin both need to shave. That's right, shave. Bryce had shaved last night. After a few weeks of growing beards they were shaving everything off but their mustaches. It was going to be a surprise for my mom for all the Christmas pictures. 

9:20 We are finally ready to go downstairs together. We come down to find many presents under and around the tree. What a wonderful Christmas!

One Year Old!

Rose has started to make babbling and clicking noises that sound just like an African Bushman (think - the God's Must be Crazy). While visiting at Grandma and Grandpa's house she loved to have people carry her from place to place as she pointed out all the fascinating Christmas decorations and said "disth, disth." She also kept everyone busy by insisting on holding onto fingers and walking/running around. 

We celebrated Rose's 1 year birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house with brownies and ice cream, and then presents! Rose wasn't quite sure what we wanted her to do with the presents, but she loved the bows on the boxes.

The day after her birthday we did a "cake smash" photo shoot. Rose wasn't sure what to think of the strange white thing in front of her. Even after showing her and putting her hands in the cake she wasn't too keen to eat it. It was still fun and we got some cute pictures. Daddy helped Mommy make a pretty pink tulle tutu for Rose to wear for her photo-op, which she kept pulling, trying to get off.

11 Months

Rose now points to things she wants. She'll point to the fridge, so I'll open it and then she'll point to stuff on the shelves - sometimes her water cup or the cottage cheese. I started Rose on whole milk and she seems to like it fine. 

A 2nd bottom tooth popped through this month making 4 total. 

Rose has started clapping and it is so cute. I started to teach her how to high-five but she received so many cheers and claps for each high-five that now when I say "high-five!" she claps instead. Guess I need to work on it some more. 

She says the sound boo (as in book), so of course I think she is trying to say book, so every time she says boo boo, I say "book? book?" and then point to her books. 

We had a fun trip to St George for Thanksgiving, and got to help decorate grandma and grandpa's (my parent's) house for Christmas. 

10 months

Not too many new things to update you on - Rose is mostly just continuing to master her current skills. She now has one bottom tooth coming in to join her two top teeth. Grandma gave Rose her first "hair cut" when we were visiting. Just a snip off the front as she had a few strands of hair that went as far down as her eyebrows.

She still loves to hold our hands and walk/run around but now if we decide we're too tired to go anymore she'll shout her protest and kick her feet and tug our hands.

If she hears me laughing she'll start laughing too. Which of course makes me laugh even more.

She has learned to "climb" off of things - sort of. She'll get on her tummy and start scooting off the edge - sometimes sideways sometimes face first. She'll do it off her bed (we've converted her crib to the toddler bed) and she tries to do it off our bed occasionally but hasn't been able to complete her objective with that one as Mommy keeps restraining her. 

Her personality is coming out more now that she can express herself with kicking, crying, squeals and waving. She is so much fun!

Fun at the Bookstore

Rose and I went on a fun little excursion today. We left the house and went to this used book store with the intention of using a bogo coupon to get 2 new books for Rose. This is what I came home with: 2 for Rose, 2 for Bryce's classroom library, and 1 for me. 

I only paid $3.25 for all of them and they're all in great condition, so I think I did pretty good. Especially considering that brand new off amazon I would have spent closer to $30. 

I sure do love to get good deals on books. 

Found a Doctor

Yesterday Rose had her 9 month doctors appointment - our first one with a doctor here in Kingman. I've been pretty worried about it as the two pediatrician's here in town were not taking new patients so I had to find a family doctor. I tried getting recommendations from other mom's in the ward but they either already were patients of the pediatricians or they took their kids to a clinic where there were only nurses on staff - no dr's. So I had to just google and find a family clinic and hope for the best.

I wasn't too impressed at first - at least with the staff. Instead of taking us back to a room so I could undress Rose and then go get her weighed, they took me to a nook in the hallway where I had to put the diaper bag on the floor, and undress my wriggling baby on my lap. Then they wanted me to stand her up so they could hold a measuring tape up and get her length. Uh... that seemed stupid to me so I asked if they had any tables to lay her down on to measure her. The nurse said they did in the room, and we could go there to measure her but then she'd have to come back out here to the computer to enter in the information (as if that is such a big deal). I told her we should do that. On the way to the room I asked if they deal with very many kids in this office and she said no. Sigh - not a good sign.

Thankfully, I did not have to wait very long for the doctor to come in. Right away I felt at ease. The doctor was very friendly and Rose smiled and jabbered at him. He spent 20 minutes just talking with me, asking lots of questions about Rose, offering advice for what to expect the next few months. Then he checked her out. He was so good with her, showing her his stethoscope and whistling to her to distract her.

Rose needed to get her hemoglobin levels checked and they did do that in their office, but he said that he didn't think his staff was confident enough (as they don't have a lot of babies in there) and he suggested I take her to the lab at the hospital. I really appreciated that he was honest about his staff's inexperience so that Rose would get the best care, even if he had to send us somewhere else. Then he gave us a follow up call when the lab results came back to confirm that her hemoglobin levels were good. I did not expect him to call - maybe his staff but not him, so that was another point for him.

All in all I am very happy to have found a doctor that Rose and I are both comfortable with. It's a very big relief as I was not happy with our doctor in St George and I was worried about finding a good one here.

Rosie Updates

I'm behind - again :( but I don't want to forget these these milestones so better late then never.

6 months:

Rose is army crawling now and is enjoying her new sense of independence. She has also began to experiment with crawling onto her toy piano. The thing I am most excited for is she has actually been sleeping in her crib at night - all night. She might wake up once or twice but then she'll go back to sleep. It's amazing.

7 months:

Well, sleeping in crib lastest one whole month, and now it's over :( Rose was doing so well with it, but then we went on a 5 day trip to St George and Bryce Canyon and she had to sleep with us during that time and it just messed it all up. So we are back to co-sleeping.

Rose is now full out crawling on hands and knees, and is pulling herself up to stand (with the help of the couch and ottoman). She has also learned how give kisses - her mouth is wide open when she gives them so you get lots of slobber on you but it is the sweetest thing.

8 months:

Rose is getting to be more and more fun. She will follow me around the house. If I leave her in the front room she will come looking for me and be so proud of herself when she finds me. She absolutely loves the fridge. As soon as I open the door she'll start crawling as fast as she can to get there. She also is such a great helper when I do dishes :) She'll stand next to the dishwasher and pull out the utensils as I load or unload. It's nice that she is so content to do that for 10 min or so so I can get something done. She is still sleeping with us. I think I've given up hope she will ever sleep in her crib. She has learned how to wave, and had lots of fun waving at Grandma and Grandpa when they came to visit.

9 months:

Bryce walks to work, and so everyday as he is on his way home, Rose and I will walk to meet him. When Rose spots him walking toward us she gets so excited and will wave her arms around and squeal. It is so cute! She really loves her Daddy!

She is starting to understand different words, like "hungry" and "no" and "stay". Doesn't mean she always obeys the "no". Sometimes she'll just smile and continue doing what she's doing. Whenever I pull out some baby food, her spoon, a banana, or cracker, she gets so excited and will squeal and wave her arms because she knows food is coming.

A few days ago, she learned how to drink with a straw, and last week she got her first tooth. It looks like she'll be getting in another one soon as well. Both are on the top, instead of the bottom which isn't the norm for most babies - or so I've read. Boy is her little tooth sharp! If we are visiting don't let her suck/chew on your knuckle or finger. You've been warned.

I've been trying to read to her on a more consistent basis. I have about 5 books I read to her over and over, but there is one she just loves and she will get so excited, and wave her hands and squeal when I open the cover and start reading. Which of course makes me happy. I want her to love books as much as me :) She loves to play - if I sit on the floor, she will stand against my back and walk back and forth as I keep turning my head trying to "find" her and tickle her. She just laughs and laughs. :)

Only a few more months and our little girl will be a 1 year old! It's going by too fast!