Merry Christmas #1!

Christmas with Grammy is tomorrow so this holiday is most certainly not yet over but what a start we had on the Day Itself!

We woke up at home and did a couple presents.  Fiona was RAWther interested in this big one so got to open a wooden dollhouse.  

Then we loaded up our stuff and headed up the lake to Aurora to Grandpa Rick and CB and Uncle Nick's house.

"I don't think I understand you.  NOTHING in this box is for me?"

By the end of the morning Fiona was in the full swing of things, wearing bows, watching present opening, drinking egg nog, and tearing paper.  It was entirely clear to us that we should open one of her presents every week for half a year instead of loading them on in a day.  I think it blew her mind. 

An elephant wrestling session cleared everyone's minds. 

She thought Uncle Nick putting his snowboard bindings on was pretty fascinating.  

This is not a reflection on her character.  She was absolutely wonderful to be with all day. 

We had a relaxed and loving day filled with generosity and locally raised meat.

Everyone was pretty spent by the end of the day.

Since I was working on Boxing Day we headed home to sleep.

Here's a mundane but endearing clip from Christmas Eve lunch.

The goose is getting fat!

Helping Grammy put up new birdfeeders.

Modeling her amazing new stocking from my mom.  

This kid's a book fiend.

But who doesn't love Richard Scarry?

Hanging out on the porch slide with festive wreath.

Thanks for the jacket, Carter!

Oh boy, oh boy, Christmas is great.  

Aaahhhh SHOOT!

Happy 19-month birthday, Squirty!

Working on exclamations with yogurt.

Trains, trees, snowballs, pony tails, and manners.

I've been sick this week (I missed THREE days of work! Can't remember the last time.), producing record amounts of snot.  I can hardly stay awake to type this at 7:48pm but it's been too long and a lot has happened.

We got a train set, courtesy of Grammy and the Ithaca Craigslist community and Nick and Fiona spent some time there together.  I can hardly stand the cuteness with which Fiona calls all her trains, "Thomees".   I think of this partly as exposure therapy and I think it's working.  She cries less readily when she hears the ACTUAL coal train passing outside.  We wave hello to Thomees.

Beautiful light out at Moore's Christmas Tree Farm in Lansing

Last weekend we spent down in Pennsylvania on a beautiful preserve where a friend from my post-bacc (aka "oops, I wasn't pre-med") program has a house.  Eight adults, a wonderful Golden named Hamilton "Hammy!", and four kiddos (oh, and that moose head on the wall) bunked up for the weekend and played and ate and adored each other and the dog.  

We performed child sacrificial rituals.  

Maisie (3 and a ballet student) had glow-in-the-dark skeleton PJs and, after soaking up some light, performed plies in the dark kitchen.  Pretty magical.  

Judy and Anton gave Fiona a set of tiny books about animals which she loves and reads to her friends.  

Unlike last year when we propped her in a bumbo and shoved a tiny horn in her mouth to make her appear festive, she's getting into fun Christmas stuff this year.  

The Santa hat is a hit.  

As is apple sauce.  

Look at these rosy-cheeked children stuffing their cute little faces!

No storm could keep us from the first Christmas party of the year at Dre and Karen's.  

There we discovered I am very bad at guessing the number of M&Ms in a jar and Fiona likes almond milk, especially when drinking it next to Oliver. 

"Hep?"

"Sure!"

Snowballs are fun. 

Warmed up and cozy in pony tails and leg warmers.

OK.  Did it.  

Oh, and school is going great.  She's had 4 full half-days at Montessori and seems happy and confident.  According to her daily toddler reports she's been focusing on her "pouring work" and having "much success".  She reportedly also said, "Excuse me" after coughing and "help, please" which I think they made up because we don't emphasize manners at home.  For instance, we celebrated a verbal victory when she strung together "poop" and "butt" for a 2-word phrase.  Genius!

"I'm about to poop in here."

Pooping and reviewing the Audubon guide with Grammy (my mom's NOT pooping, to be clear).

Quadruple rapt.

For some reason we biked to Julia's on the coldest day of the month.  

I think she wants a balaclava for Christmas.

Dude!  We should have worn hand-me-down snow pants from Stacey.  

Are these on backwards?

There's been a lot of cozy snuggling in the cold weather.  Yummy. 

Getting every last Cheerio.

Junco and Fiona both really enjoy trickling tubby water.  

"I'm about to poop in here."

A half birthday and a first day of school. Wow!

We've been working on a lot of good skills at home. 

And we've been practicing sharing with others.

She's been on countless field trips to explore people, textures, and activities.

But today it was time to start the process of doing this WITHOUT US.

I dropped Elliott and Fiona at Ithaca Montessori School for "phase-in" this morning.  

We all walked up to Willow Room and saw this sweet sign: 

Fiona knocked on the (very low) door knocker, Teacher Beth opened the door as planned, and Fiona peeked in then strode with confidence, without looking back, to the far end of the room and started playing with a new friend at a craft table.  Elliott followed her in to observe and be a comforting presence for the first of a few transition days. 

I closed the door after them and immediately started crying with the pride of seeing her fly off to her next big adventure, with the dear nostalgia I have for the babyhood we shared, and for the big parting of ways that this little hour of school portends.  I drove home crying to Raffi's Greatest Hits, hugged my own mommy, and got an hour's work done.  

Meanwhile, Elliott sat in his wooden chair trying his best to be "boring" for an hour and taking notes.  Fiona spent 3/4 of her time in the snack area, retrieved a dropped bead for a girl doing beading work, exerted her physicality only once (moved Miles' arm that was in her way; I cut her nails really short last night in case she went in for her signature affectionate corneal tickle on some unsuspecting new classmate), went to the door with her teacher and said, "Mom?" once, checked in visually with Elliott once, spilled a glass of milk (which Miles kindly mopped up), checked out the bathroom facilities, and generally had a good time in a peaceful and busy classroom of 9 kids ages 18 months to 3 years.  

All is well.

Willow Room, are you ready for THIS?

(Thanks to Uncle Nick for the IHS Senior Class shades.)

Happy 18-month birthday, our wonderful girl!

Onto every toddler's bathroom floor some poop must fall.

Right?

All of a sudden she's into potties.  

But it's far from seamless, like yesterday when she didn't want to sit down then did a standing turd in the little corner where she's standing below.  

We're of the "No pressure, but isn't this fun?" camp of potty training.

She's into sitting, reading a book, dumping the products of her success into the toilet, flushing, washing her hands ("wub-wub-wub"), and moving on with her day.  

We ordered 3 $10 potties for my mom and dad's houses - so they can share the joy.  

It was pretty fun to open the box.

And everyone wanted to try them out.

Since she's so mature now, we put her to work outside.  

We kept her out of the cement mixing.  

There have been some fantastic Fall Creek playground days.  Judging by the attire, this must have been Sunday. 

First Hawks poop. 

Yesterday we went to adventure camp, aka, "Karen and Dre's house" and did baby slacklining and Yo Gabba Bounce-housing.   (All photo credits to Karen.)

She did her observation period for a few minutes, watching how the 4 2yos handled this craziness...

...then got in on the action.

I just want to take a second to say how in love with this little kid we are.  She's got the sweetest, most robust and loving nature, is a growingly squeezy hugger, uses a few new words a day, goes with the flow, stands up for herself (perhaps a little more aggressively than will fly on the Montessori playground next week), bounces back with giggles from big head bonks, eats spicy hummous like a champ, sleeps like a champ (last night excepted), and so clearly loves being here in this life that we get to spend our days feeling like total parental successes.  It's really gratifying and peaceful and exciting to love her.  

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, are we ever lucky!  

And we've only known her for a year and a half.  

xo