Merry Christmas

It is always hard when you are away from your mom and dad for the holidays.  There is nothing like spending Christmas in Cleveland, being with my parents and sisters.  

Lucky for me though, I have wonderful in-laws.  Spending Christmas with them makes being away from "home" a lot easier.  Rusty and Alice have always treated me like I was one of their 

own, and I adore how much they LOVE Rebecca.

We had a wonderful Christmas with the Kimballs.  John, Rebecca, and I spent the night at Rusty and Alice's house along with Amy, John's sister, her husband, Sid, and their two girls, Lucy and Caroline.  It was one big sleepover.  

Rebecca loves being at her Mimi and Papa's house, especially when her cousins are there, too.  

 

We all went to bed early, or at least tried to go to sleep early.  I think I had more trouble sleeping than any of the children.  I was so excited about Santa coming.  I could not wait to see what he would bring Rebecca and to see what her reaction would be.   I could not fall asleep, and when I finally did, I kept waking up to look at the clock.  

Fortunately,  Rebecca woke up at 5:30 (surprise, surprise).  Santa was very good to her.  She got everything she never knew she wanted.  Her favorite was the Cozy Coupe.  She loves the one at the park, so Santa must have know how much she would like her own.  He is so smart!

The girl loves to vacuum.

 

She wasn't too sure of her Elmo she got.  He talks a lot.    She really did not know what was going on, but she liked it.  She also wanted to see what the big girls got.  She was into everything .

 

Strolling with her baby, right before throwing her down on the concrete.

Cuddling up with her Aunt Amy

It was a wonderful Christmas, in spite of missing my family.  I hope they all had a wonderful holiday.  We sure did.  

Help Wanted

I need your help. I need your advice. I am about to go delirious from lack of sleep.

We finally got Rebecca to go down at night and for naps without having to rock her to sleep. It has been great! Just a story, a snuggle, a song, a big hug and she goes to bed. It's so easy! I LOVE it!

What's the problem then you ask? She is waking up on average at 5:30 am every morning. Today is was 4:45. I tried going in there, giving her a hug, and laying her back down. It did not work.

It was so cold out. Rebecca was in her flannel pjs with her blanket on top. I know she wasn't cold. She had water to drink, so I know she wasn't thirsty. She just wanted to get up.

I was cold, and I wanted to be in bed. So I went back to bed and put a pillow over my head. I could still hear her crying out for me. MOMMY! I ignored it until 5:30. Then I could not take it anymore.

Once we got up, you could tell she was still tired just by looking at her. She sat on the couch and did not move until her Daddy had fixed breakfast. After breakfast she did not want to play. She just sat on her rocking horse and rocked.

She was back asleep by 7:30 (I was too!).

If only she would sleep to 6:00, it would be better. 6:30 would be great! 7:00 or anything later, I would be in hog heaven!

Please give me ideas on what I can do to help her sleep late, so I can sleep!

It is great that she still naps twice a day, but I do not need to nap twice a day. I use those nap times to get things done.

You should see my laundry pile! It is out of control.

And I do not need to go to bed as soon as Rebecca has gone down for the night. I need to spend that time with my husband.

Please help!

Santa Baby

I wish I could report that Rebecca loved our trip to see Santa. She absolutely fell madly in love with him. She ran right to Santa, jumped on his lap, smiled for a picture and told him everything that she wanted for Christmas.

However, that would not be the truth.

She was excited about meeting the big man. I would ask her, "Do you want to see Santa?" Rebecca would reply, "I do!"

She was very antsy as we waited in line, and when she was next to go sit in Santa's lap, I had to hold her back.

Rebecca did walk up to Santa by herself, but as soon as I put her in his lap, it was all over. She did not like it. The photographer was able to get a picture, but it will show Santa smiling and Rebecca red faced and wailing. I can't wait to see it.

I finally walked over to Santa and Rebecca and sat down, but the crying did not stop. Santa tried to give Rebecca a candy cane, but Rebecca gave her usual "NO!"

I apologized to Santa and took my screaming baby. I handed her off to her Daddy so I could order the picture. She continued to cry for a good 10 minutes. John thinks we scarred her for life.

John was in charge of taking pictures when Rebecca was on Santa's lap. They turned out a little blurry. He has no idea why.

Waiting to see Santa

Chick-fil-A makes everything better.

Playing with her new Manger Scene. We are trying to keep Jesus the reason for the season. Rebecca says Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

Perfect minus the sleeping

Yesterday we had Rebecca's 15 month check-up with the doctor. We saw Rosalyn, Dr. Knox's nurse practitioner. She was very impress with Rebecca and actually said she was perfect. Duh! I could have told her that. She could not believe Rebecca's walking/running and her vocabulary. She said she was talking above a 18 month old level. I always knew she was a talker. She weighs 21.5 pounds and is 31.25 inches tall. That puts her in the 25% for weight and 75% for height.

While Rebecca might be perfect health wise, her night time sleeping is less than stellar. After a few nights of crying it out, we finally got her to go to sleep on her own without being rocked to sleep. Now we need to work on the not waking up in the middle of the night.

When we were in Mississippi for Thanksgiving, we got in the habit of putting her in bed with us when she would wake in the night. This has now become a habit for Rebecca. While snuggling with Rebecca in bed is super sweet, it makes for a super tired Mommy in the morning.

Rebecca is a kicker. I have no idea where she got this from! (I know my Mammaw is up in heaven laughing at me. She use to say I was the worse bed kicker on the planet. Karma!) So when Rebecca is snuggled next to me, she is constantly kicking. Rebecca gets all the sleep, I get none.

Rosalyn said we have to put a stop to it. So now, when Rebecca wakes up in the middle of the night and calls out "Momma, Momma, Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY" I am to go to her, lay her back down, and walk out without talking.

I was dreading this last night. I was prepared for her to cry and cry and cry for hours. But I knew I had to be strong.

So last night when she woke up and called out for me, I went in her room, hugged her without picking her up, laid her down, and never said a word. To my amazement, she just rolled over, grabbed Bubba, and stuck her bum in the air. That was it. Not a peep until 5:50.

On my agenda next, to get Rebecca to sleep past 6:00.

Blah, blah, blah!

Rebecca is talking more and more these days, which really amazes me. She understands so much of what we say to her and is talking back to us. Her favorite word continues to be no, but she has added a few more to her vocabulary. She does know how to say yes, but does not use it very much. Instead she says, "I do!" For example:

Me: Rebecca do you want some grapes?

Rebecca: No!

M: Do you want some raisins?

R: No!

M: Do you want some yogurt?

R: I do!

It is very, very cute!

She also talks a lot about her good friends Joshua and Ari, or as Rebecca says, Joshie and Ara. She will say, "Blah blah blah blah Joshie Ara blah blah blah!"

I would love to have a translator.

She still will not say Rebecca, but Joshua calls her Rebubba. I hope that nickname does not stick.

She also says bubbles, watch (This is accompanied by handing us the TV remote control.), eat, go, bless you (after someone sneezes), mercy, and gees. I do not know where she got mercy from, but I say gees a lot in the car when talking to the people who do not know how to drive. I could say worse, but then she would repeat it. That would not be good.

When I Grow Up

I think that if you asked Rebecca what she wanted to be when she grows up, she would say a maid. She has turned into a cleaner. I have already told you about her love of the vacuum cleaner. Now she loves to sweep. I get the big broom, and she gets a small feather duster and uses it as a broom. She is always picking things up off the floor and bringing them to me. She loves to get a damp paper towel and scrub the counters, the table, the cabinets, the floor. You name it, it needs a good scrub.

If only I could get her to do the bathrooms.

We put our Christmas tree up on Sunday. I was sure that Rebecca was going to try and climb it, being that she is part monkey. She hasn't done that yet, but she loves taking off the ornaments and bringing them to me. Then she wants them back so she can put them back on.

I tried to put all the fragile ornaments at the top of the tree, but a few were in her reach, and are now in the trash can in a million pieces.

Oh well.

Laid out after a hard day at Mother's Morning Out and playgroup.

More! More! More!

Rebecca know a few signs of sign language. We taught her eat, all done, and more. Now, she is able to sign all done and more while saying the words.

She is also very good at filling in the blanks. For example,

Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o.

A cow says moo. A sheep says baa. Three singing pigs say la, la, la!

Lenny, Tuck, and Ming Ming too, we're Wonder Pets and we'll help you!

The itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Now I only wish she would fill in the blank after More _____!

More what? Last night at 2:30 she said MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE.......!

I never figured out what she wanted more of.

We had a great trip to Cleveland for Thanksgiving. All I can say is "Thank God for portable DVD players!" It was a life saver in the car and on the plane ride back.

Rebecca loved playing with her cousins, John, Carrie, and Mae. She loved being with her Nannie and Pop Pop. She loved Kato the cat. The loved going to the hunting camp. The loved seeing the ducks. She hated sleeping in the crib. She loved sleeping in the bed with Mommy and Daddy.

On the floor meowing at Kato. She would get in his face and say " Maow, maow, maow! Oh, Kato!"

Taking a bath with the girls.

Daddy holding Rebecca back. She really wanted to get the ducks. She would run after them and say, "Oh ducks! Oh ducks!"

John, the super star basketball player. I got to go and watch him play. He was awesome. He scored at least half of his teams points. The final score was 23-10. The Bulldogs beat the Rebels in this Egg Bowl.