What that noise?

This morning at church there was a baptism. During the baptism, the priest asks the congregation to renew their own baptismal vows by responding, "I do" to several statements of belief. With Sweet Pea in my arms, I say, "I do" after the first statement. Sweet Pea looks at me and repeats, "I do." After the next statement, I again say, "I do." Emphatically, Sweet Pea shouts, "I DO! No, Mommy, ME!"

Later in the service, Sweet Pea hears a baby squawk a little. She turns to me and asks, "What that noise?" Not getting an immediate enough response, she yells, "WHAT that NOISE?" Well, honey, right now the noise is you!

She loved Christmas. We opened stockings on Christmas Eve. My favorite part was when she unwrapped one stocking stuffer and said, "Oh! Cute socks!" and carried them around for awhile. She also had her first Hershey kiss, of which she was a fan!

On Christmas day we spent some time as a family, opening gifts from each other and from grandparents who are out of town. Sweet Pea opened one from Mamaw and said, "Oh, I love it!"

That afternoon we had my parents and some of my siblings over. It was great to spend time with them, and Sweet Pea got to play with some of her cousins.

We took down the tree this week, but Sweet Pea is still talking about Christmas, and has asked to open more presents almost every day.

My new semester starts tomorrow. I've been working through break, but haven't had any shareable stories. Maybe the start of clinicals will change that!

Oh, I know!

Upon hearing that we were out of cereal one morning, Sweet Pea proclaimed, "Oh! I know! Stir stir stir!" and pointed to the pancake mix.

When looking unsuccessfully for something, she'll say, "Ummm, nope!" with each place she looks.

As we drive past houses with lights up, I hear an excited, "Oh! Oh! Ah ah more merry Christmas lights!" as she points to each and every display (no matter how small).

She randomly inserts specific parts of Little Einstein episodes into conversation. "Baby chimp ah down down down down, waterfall!" as she wiggles her fingers like the chimp does.

When she's picking up her toys, she sings, "Keen up, keen up, keen up, keen up, body keen up.." I can't stand that purple dinosaur, but her version of the song is pretty darn cute.

We've had a grand total of maybe two inches of snow so far this winter, but she's enjoyed it. We got out the snowpants from last winter (which fit perfectly this year, yay) and went outside to "dig in the snow". Throwing snowballs was her favorite, I think.

Traditions

We did more tree decorating tonight. We finished putting up the garland, then we got out some ornaments (mostly R's from his childhood, and a good handful that Sweet Pea has somehow accumulated.. I have misplaced the box of my old ornaments).

It was nothing fancy, but just sitting by the tree hanging those ornaments, seeing Sweet Pea's excitement at all the new things as she touched them (mostly) with one finger (new rule ala MckMama), hearing some of the stories behind my husband's ornaments.. It warmed my heart.

Maybe in future years, we'll make it more of a defined tradition, by playing Christmas music or drinking sparkling grape juice or something, but for this year, it was enough.

There is something special about breaking from your past (no matter how wonderful) and establishing your own new present. Tonight I felt FAMILY.

November gone already?

Busy busy month; time for more bullet points:

-Sweet Pea pointed to the tv during a random commercial (maybe even about the health care reform) and said "I want that!"

-1st time doing post-mortem care on a patient, almost had another opportunity to do so

-applying knowledge from psych (current clinical) to my job

-traveled for Thanksgiving, Sweet Pea thoroughly enjoyed herself there. She spent much of her time wrestling with her cousins (11 and 7 year old boys) and "playing" the Wii with them (she had her own steering wheel that was not hooked up to anything). She also loved the quality time with her grandparents, who she doesn't see as often as we'd all like.

-put up the "Merry Christmas tree" (Sweet Pea's label), added some garland. Will gather the ornaments and hang those up eventually. The tree is a little Charlie Brown-ish, but is sufficient for now.

..There's probably more I meant to write about, but I'll have to save that for another time.

Study Buddy

Attempting to motivate myself to study on a more regular basis, I now get out my notes to review them even while Sweet Pea is still awake.

The other day she "helped me study".. She climbed up on the couch next to me and I gave her her own piece of paper and a highlighter. I highlighted my notes and she highlighted hers. Worked fairly well! Kept her occupied for a while anyway, and she's generally a fan of "helping".

Sorry for the lack of regular updates. School and work is certainly keeping me busy!

H1N1

There was a clinic at my university this week, and I was able to get the H1N1 vaccine for Sweet Pea and myself (from one of my classmates, no less). Both of us had already gotten the seasonal flu vac a month or two ago.

I didn't warn Sweet Pea ahead of time because 1) I didn't know if they'd run out, so didn't want to work her up for nothing, and 2) she freaks out at the sight of medical personnel anyway..

She started crying as soon as we walked in the door, and I had to hold HER arms down to get MY shot, so she wouldn't slug my poor classmate.

After getting her shot, she was ticked, of course, but thankfully she calmed down pretty quickly. ("Sweet Pea, do you want a sucker?" "*Big sniffle* ..yeaaaah *sniff*")

She and I have compared "stickers" (bandaids) many times since then. She likes that we both have the same one, and likes to feel mine and hers, but heaven help you if you even mention touching her sticker!

Another random development is that she is FINALLY letting me put pigtails in her hair! It is a battle I had given up on for a while, and it took a lot of sweet-talking, distraction, and mirrors, but she now asks for "tangles" most mornings.

How could you ever say no to this face?

Parking Spots

Sweet Pea and I went grocery shopping the other day.

We waited several minutes to park, as the driver in front of us slooowwwwly pulled halfway into a spot, backed partially out, pulled back in, backed out again, etc.

Once we had finally taken the open spot two spots away, I looked a little more closely.

Our friend, a gentleman pushing 60, was parked in the "Reserved for Expectant Mothers" spot. Would it have been rude to congratulate him and ask when he was due?