I can't believe it's so close to Christmas Day! This holiday season has really slipped up on me! This entire year has just gone by at warp speed, so I guess it's not so hard to believe after all. I hung on to summer so long, I didn't even get out my fall decorations until November, just to turn right back around and put up Christmas decorations. I have not done a very good job of which; I've gotten out a few large items, ran strands of colored lights along the curtains in the living room, and Aaron decorated two trees outside. That's about it. We didn't even get a tree (I can hear the gasps from here) because, well, Thanksgiving came just so doggone late this year, not to mention the fact that we're going to be out of town for nearly 2 weeks for the holidays. So what's the point? Might as well let the tree live for another year and minimize the stresses of the holidays. I didn't want to disappoint the children, but they're happy with the lights up around the living room and outdoors. Our living room does strongly resemble a tiki bar though rather than having a "Christmasy" feel what with the yellow walls and all. All I need is a little Jimmy Buffet in the background and I'll feel like I'm on some tropical island. Like I said, the sun never goes down at our place.
We did go to the local Christmas Parade on Saturday in the freezing cold temps with a gorgeous blanket of snow on the ground (well it was at our house, just not in town). The kids loved it and it was quite fun. I love living in a small town where you know half the people on the streets watching and half the people participating in the parade. It makes it more fun! (ok, so half is quite the exaggeration...)
The family is fine. Katie Mae is beautiful. She turned 7 months old on Sunday and is a delightful little butterball. She's about to cut her two bottom teeth, though they are taking their own sweet time. She started solid foods a month ago and she just loves it. So far she's had: butternut squash, pumpkin, rice cereal, applesauce, bananas, broccoli, peas, prunes, green beans, kale, carrots, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, new potatoes, oatmeal, and peaches. And cheerios of course. She love, love, loves to eat her solid foods. I'm just feeding her once at night and will not be in a hurry to increase her feeding times until I think she needs it nutritionally. She certainly is not lacking any extra folds of skin right now. She still is not crawling yet, though she looks like she'll take off any minute. Recently, we've been watching videos of when Alan young and he was ALL OVER THE PLACE at her age. Of course, he started way earlier; he was rolling over at 2 1/2 months and crawling and standing by 5 months, so he'd had a lot of practice by the time he was 7 months old.
Savannah is doing well in school. She is loving reading and loves learning in general. Our "school time" is very flexible and laid back, but she learns so much when we do sit down that I feel like what we're doing now is really working. We do reading, phonics flash cards, writing, math, money, time, and geography. We don't do each subject every day; we usually do 1-3 different topics each time we sit down for school. Then we also do things like memorizing days of the week, months of the year, counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's etc. The kind of thing we can do while we're cooking together or sewing. While we were in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, she and I went through Grandmother's quilting scraps and picked out material for her to start a quilt. We cut out the squares; enough for her to do 12 nine patch blocks with 3" squares. I am shocked and amazed at how well she can sew. She's nearly finished with the first block and is doing fantastic. She really loves doing what I'm doing (cooking, sewing, cleaning, etc) and I dearly love it as well. Not only does it teach her about the important things in life, not just playing with toys, but she's an excellent help and we spend quality time together. Right now, I'm reading aloud to her "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton and she loves it. Alan has even listened to the majority of the book with us. I love reliving my childhood by reading her my favorite books when I was young. I remember my sister, Amanda reading me this very same book when I was Savannah's age.
Alan is...well, Alan. A noise with dirt as Aaron would say. He's boy, boy, boy, and a little more boy. He wants to be involved in everything that we're doing all the time. If he can go climb in the skid steer with Daddy to go get firewood or come help me unload the dishwasher, he's in heaven. I just love it when he comes up and says "What can I do to help?" If he can't be off with Daddy outside working or inside helping, he's playing with his buckets of matchbox cars and loving every minute of it. I could take away every possession of that child's except his matchbox cars and he'd be fine. (Don't think I haven't thought about it either!)
Aaron has been home a bit more lately since he finished his big job in November. I LOVE him being home the majority of the evenings and the kids love it even more. I cherish every moment we can spend together and enjoy my family more and more every day!
Pictures to come soon I hope. This winter has been EXTREMELY cold and our office is not heated, coupled with the fact that I have been too busy to waste time on the internet, and I just haven't spent much time blogging or emailing lately. If you want to talk to me, call me in my warm house! :) Maybe I'll get some posted over the holidays anyway!
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