Baby's First Christmas

We had a great Christmas! We began our celebration with Grandad and Nona on Christmas Eve. Genevieve had a great time opening her first presents of the season. She figured out quite quickly that biting the wrapping paper off was the most amusing way to open her presents.

On Christmas morning, Genevieve was so excited to see what Santa brought her!
After opening presents at our house, we then traveled to Yaya and Papa's house for a wonderful brunch. Genevieve had a fabulous time playing with Austin!

We ended our Christmas Day festivities by traveling to Sumter to visit Mammy, Pappy, and Grandmammy. Somehow my camera missed all of the action so I don't have any pictures from our time in Sumter. All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas with our little angel.

1 More Day Until...

Family Traditions

During my first year of college, I learned something very interesting during one of my psychology classes. Childhood family traditions can sometimes be a source of confusion when you become an adult.

The example the professor used was that he and his wife would often walk around little shops in town. As they would walk by the windows, his wife would peak in and point out all of the items that she wanted. Weeks later, during one of their outings my professor’s wife commented on something she wanted from one of the stores. With growing frustration, my professor snapped and told his wife that there was no way they could afford all of the things she wanted. With a shocked look, the wife told my professor that she did not expect to actually own any of the items.

After a short conversation, the pair realized that when the wife was a young girl, she and her family would go window shopping through the streets of a small town. They would pick out all of the things they “wanted” fully understanding that they would never actually purchase the items. On the other hand, my professor’s family was a bit different. When he was young, if he and his family went to a store that meant they were going to buy something. They never walked around to browse stores just for the fun of it.

Therefore, during my professor and wife’s little walks through town each adult was reacting the way their family traditions had taught them to react. However, since their traditions were so different, mass confusion ensued.

Now that I have a child I am eager to begin our own family traditions. After conversing with my partner-in-crime, we have come to realize that our individual family traditions differ a bit. You see, Santa was always an important figure in my house around the holidays. In hubby’s house—not so much. So now it is our job to meld our two traditions into one for our beautiful daughter. Whatever we decide to do for our new family tradition there will be no confusing the fact that no gift Santa brings could ever compare to the original gift that began this glorious season. God gave us the greatest gift of all when he sent His Son, our Savior, JESUS CHRIST to this world.

Christmas Pictures

We finally had a chance to get Genevieve's Christmas pictures taken. Unfortunately, nothing turned out the way I had hoped. Oh well...such is life (and I am glad about that)!

I ordered her adorable outfit from a very creative woman who sells her stuff on etsy.com. Unfortunately, the outfit is slightly too big.




Then, when we arrived for our portrait appointment we realized that we had been assigned to a male photographer. He was an amazing person, with the patience of a saint; however, Genevieve is not so fond of men. In fact, I'm fairly confident that she thought he was her doctor. Needless to say, our sweet, happy baby showed her little hiney the entire time. He had to work hard just to get a couple of decent pictures. And, wouldn't ya know it, as soon as we walked out of the studio, our exuberant baby returned!



The Santa picture should be loads of fun!

Eight Months Old

Genevieve, you're EIGHT months old!

• You still wear 6-9 months clothes and size 3 diapers.
• You weigh 18 pounds.
• Your hair has really started to come in this month. It appears that you are going to be a little blonde baby just like your daddy was.
• You love to go places! It doesn't matter where we go--restaurants, grandparent's houses, craft shows, grocery stores--you love being around people.
• You are such a good baby. As long as you have someone or something to study, you are the happiest baby in the world.
• You are a side sleeper! When we put you in your crib you immediately roll to your side, snuggle with Lovey, and go to sleep. Cutest. Thing. Ever.
• You have been sick with one thing or another every week since the middle of September (darn daycare). The latest illness was "not RSV but something like it." Seriously--that was the official diagnosis. You had to use a nebulizer for several days and you were such a trooper. Thanks Aunt Cameron for the great tip about the bouncy seat in front of the TV!
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• Your favorite letter right now is "d" so of course you say "dada" all the live long day! You've only uttered "mama" a handful of times and the majority of those times were when you were crying. Daddy thinks it is loads of fun when I tell you to say "mama" and you immediately say "dada." Awesome.
• Everytime you see Layla you say dog!! Well, you really say "dod" but I know you mean "dog"--mother's intuition, you see.
• After a few weeks of sneaking fruit into your veggies, you now eat fruit all by itself. Also new this month--PUFFS! You love to feed yourself, but I think you might like to tease the dog with your food a little more.
• You've become quite the rolling machine this month. You have realized that you can move from place to place just by rolling. Who needs to crawl when you can roll?
• Since you decided to enter this world a little earlier than expected, you have officially been "out" longer than you were "in." My, my, where has the time gone?