Tis the season to undermine childproofing fa la la la

It is finally the first Sunday in Advent, hooray! Merry Christmas season to all.

I'll post the pictures later, but we went to Snickers Gap Tree Farm today (thanks Johnstons for the recommendation) and cut down our Christmas tree. Jack and I have generally cut down our own tree since we started dating (though last year we bought one from the nice local place on the corner--being very pregnant and a tree farm do not mix). But, this year we were back out at the tree farm. Caroline hung out in the baby bjorn and had a great time grabbing at all of the tree branches.

Of course, the necessary follow on of cutting down your own tree is putting it up. And thus comes the great parenting dilemma--wrap the entire thing in bubble wrap and hope no on hurts themselves OR set it up as best you can and gird yourself for moving a baby away a lot of the time.

We opted for the latter. You can't see it well on this picture, but the decorations on the tree essentially stop at Caroline's height (plus the length of her arm). We tucked the lights well into the tree and got LEDs. (Ours were dead anyway and LEDs don't get hot). We're going to follow a time honored Gurley family tradition--using fishing line to give the tree some anchors to the curtain rods. And we didn't put up the pretty good size collection of ENORMOUS glass balls that we've gathered from all over. The mental picture of a venetian glass globe crashing all around Caroline was not a good one. So, metal and wood ornaments (without small parts) it is this year. We'll see how it goes.

The Christmas tree in the corner is, I think, silently mocking my outlet covers.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We are a little behind here. I don't have a Thanksgiving picture to post because Grandma and Grandpa Koller were in charge of picture taking. But, we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Kerry and Barbara are in town, we have seen Jack's siblings, my dear friend Deborah came to visit (and cook 1/2 - 3/4 of the Thanksgiving meal) and we had wonderful guests at our table. We have much to be thankful for--two great extended families, a fantastic addition to our own little family, a wonderful church and so much more. We are truly blessed. We hope you all had a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving yourselves!

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Nine Months

Caroline is nine months old today. And, as you can see, standing up on her own.

Most of the pictures I take of Caroline these days are a little fuzzy. Nothing wrong with the camera...she just doesn't sit still. The pediatrician commented today that Caroline has excellent muscle tone (i.e. wow, this kid clearly never sits still).

She's grown like a weed and figuring out new things every day (just like she's supposed to). She's now cruising around the furniture -- coffee table to chair to couch to coffee table. And her new favorite trick is making "motor boat" noises. She thinks that's just hysterical. She also really likes to clap for herself. No self-esteem issues here! :-)

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Well that was a lot of work

About this time last year, I decided that then "Cheez-it" Koller, aka Caroline, would need a stocking. So, I dutifully got a kit so that I could needlepoint one. My mom made me one (it is a very cute Santa face). I love it and wanted the baby to have a great stocking of her own.

Like almost everything with being a Mom, the endeavor gave me all new respect for my own Mom. Wow did this take a lot longer than I thought.

But it is finally needlepointed! As you can see, I picked the gender neutral nativity (We didn't know that Caroline was a girl when I bought it). And it is done just in the nick of time since we're hoping to get a tree and decorate the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving.

I am told that putting it together with the felt backing isn't too hard. We'll see. For now, I'm going to bed. Finally getting this done is enough for one day. (Feel free to post any helpful hints if you've ever put one of these things together. Well, Mom you don't need to. Let's be honest, I'm going to call you in any event!!)

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The Things We Do For Love

I know that Christmas is fast approaching, so new toys don't seem to be the thing to be doing. But, when you're 8 months old the 6 weeks till Christmas is an eternity. And Caroline largely had toys that were much too young for her (i.e. boring). So we thought it was time to supplement a bit.

Which brings us to the cardinal rule of presents--you never buy a child something that makes noise (unless your the grandparents, of course). The theory behind this, of course, is that parents don't want to listen to the repetitive noise that is sure to follow. But, the beauty of being the parent (and the curse) is that you have control over the noise making toys. Clearly Jack and I are rather enamored with our little one. We bought her one of the loudest toys around...I actually thought that she might have a hard time figuring it out and/or making noise for a while. That's a lot of coordination for a little person. As you can see here, she had no problems at all. She is now all "music" all the time.

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A Little Drink

I still haven't been able to catch Caroline standing up (or the clapping for herself that happens after she sits down). But, we had another milestone last night. While she was eating her dinner she started actually sucking on (rather than chewing, eating, biting) the straw. Ah the things we grownups take for granted.

She seems to have it all figured out (this is her today at lunch). We're still working on sippy cups, but we have water through a straw, so we're doing well.

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And The World Stood Still

O.k. the world didn't really stand still, but Caroline did! For about 5-10 seconds she stood all by herself without holding on to anything. First time I (or any of the ladies in day care) have ever seen her do that. The funniest part was that she didn't seem to realize that she had done something cool. She had been looking for a toy, let go of my hand to see where it was and then dropped to her knees and went off after it. She was totally unfazed by the fact that she stood up. I clearly didn't get a picture of it, but when it happens routinely I'm sure I'll get a chance!

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A Young Good Citizen

Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia (as the interminable robocalls, volunteers and other annoying telephoners keep reminding me). So Caroline and I went and voted. You can only barely see it in this picture, Caroline has a "future voter" sticker on. It is hard to get a good picture without getting the voting screen in the picture (which would have elicited frowns from the monitors, so I refrained).

I remember very clearly going with my mom to vote when I was a kid. It was definitely more awe inspiring then. There was that big machine with the lever that my mom occasionally would let us help pull. The curtain would close behind and then...we got to watch my mom vote. Wow was that cool.

Sadly, Virginia has no such cool bells and whistles. We have touch screen voting. (And Jack had to vote absentee because he is out of town--even MORE boring for a little kid.) Caroline was not impressed. But, hopefully she will learn the same lesson my parents taught me -- no matter who you vote for, it is an important right and privilege that we should all exercise. As I watched the news today and listened about the voting in Afghanistan, I was really blessed to be in a place where absent something really wacky, my vote will be counted.

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