Holiday Cheer

I have to admit that I'm usually the kind of person who has the Christmas tree down the day after Christmas easily saying good-bye to the hype of the holidays. Except this year. I found that enjoying the holidays with Corinne made me very emotional to let go of the green, the red, the lights, and even Frosty (which we watched a total of several hundred times). Of course, it wouldn't be connected to the pregnancy hormones which can set me emotionally off balance at any moment. :-)

We had such a grand time at Uncle D's for the holiday. They were brave enough to host all of the Rutledge clan for a week, including the dogs! (Personally, I think the dogs got the best end of the deal. If the house got too crazy, you just grabbed a couple of dogs and 'went for a walk.')

Corinne bonded very well with all of her cousins. Gus shared all of his costumes and took her under his wing. Owen observed her from a distance but warmed up enough to share his building blocks and keep a close eye on her for us. Corinne couldn't get enough of 'Baby Tess.' She even named one of her baby dolls after her upon our return. This was a good sign for Mommy. I was afraid she might pull out the jealousy coat, but she was all about loving on Tess, touching her and being generally aware of her whereabouts. But don't let Tess's sweet face fool you, she is quite a ham herself and will soon give those boys a run for their money!

So, I'll post my photos and say 'Bye-bye, Santa, bye-bye Frosty' for this year. (Sigh).

Two peas in a pod.

Getting goodies from gj.

See, Tess, these velcro together. I'll share this one with you.

Could you deny this face anything?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Road Weary

We arrived in North Carolina late Sunday night to a houseful of Rutledges all awake and eager to see us. Corinne finally dozed off in the car the last hour of our trip, only to awaken to two eager 3 year olds ready to romp! What followed was a very late night for all of us as we tried to finally wind three wild children down for bed. Corinne had quite a time trying to go to sleep. On top of being waaayyy overstimulated, she was in a foreign environment, and it was way past her bedtime. Long story short...we all (Roman, Corinne and myself) finally dropped off to sleep around 1:15am, on the floor, on her pallet.

Monday brought even more excitement. Corinne tried as hard as she could to keep up, but alas, during lunch, the lack of sleep overpowered her.

Here's to an early bedtime!

Kiss and tell

I hope we haven't tried to instigate change too soon for Corinne by altering her crib to a toddler bed. For weeks now it seemed we had a seamles transition with her often waving bye-bye to Roman or me, eagerly awaiting the night's slumber. The last few nights, however, have brought upon a screaming little girl who yells, NO! when we try to leave for 'night-night.'

We anticipated possible trouble during nap time, though. And we got some. She's been a little too eager to say 'bye-bye, mama' and have me close the door. I could usually hear her rummaging around and could tell what she was into. This day there were no snores, but a quiet child. Hmmmmmm......

Aside from sleep issues, Corinne continues to delight as her vocabulary expands. It seems her emotions have expanded also after a previous report from her day-care teacher. Roman arrived to pick her up last week only to be told that "Your daughter's been kissing boys."

Roman replied, "Oh, really? Like maybe, Wells?" (Wells is one of Corinne's favorite playmates at school; we also run into him at birthday parties and the beach).

Miss Mary said, "How did you know?!" Roman just chuckled as he looked over her shoulder to see Corinne walking right up to Wells with both hands outstretched, lips puckered. Poor Wells didn't know what'd hit him. Hey, at least she's affectionate, right?

Have a great week.