Hi everyone and HAPPY NEW YEAR! We’re sorry that we skipped last month, but factoring in the chaos the holidays bring along, we’re sure you’ll all forgive us.
As you can imagine a lot has happened in these past two months so its best to start where we last left off. I celebrated my first Thanksgiving at Grammy Wukitch’s and Grammy DeLabar’s – I had a lot of yummy food and Mommy and Daddy decided that it was time to start me on regular table food and I haven’t looked back yet!
At the end of November I started to stand really well unassisted and even started to stand up by myself without holding on to anything. I’ve been playing a lot of new games with everyone; I’ve perfected the “climb up the stairs without anyone noticing” game and I have been working on rolling a ball back to you. I find it easier to just hold on to it while crawling to you and just handing it over, but Mommy insists that I roll it back (I don’t see a difference.) I’m also starting to get the whole “Let’s put our toys away” game. I’ve gotten really good at putting things “away” even if they don’t belong where I put them,  ie- phone in the play cookie jar.
The first weekend in December, we all went waaaaaaay up north to find a Christmas tree. We drove all the way up over Blue Mountain to find a tree farm with trees big and fat enough for Mommy’s taste (and take up at least a quarter of the front room). We went with Grammy and Pop-pop Wukitch, Great Aunt Anne and Great Uncle Barry, and David and Heather. I got to ride around in a backpack, it was cold, but a lot of fun! At first I was a little afraid of the tree when Daddy brought it in, but I got used to it, and after that I had a great time taking off the tinsel and ornaments.
In the middle of December I impressed my parents by taking a spoon full of food and eating off of it the way big people do. They tried to capture it on film but I felt like being shy then so I just smiled and threw the spoon, and food, over my shoulder. I also have been taking a few steps here and there. My first official step was on December 15th. I “walked” from my play table to the sofa where Grammy Wukitch was sitting. Since then I’ve taken a couple together, but nothing that anyone really considers “walking.” Although I do have the climbing and catapulting myself onto the sofa down pat. If there is anything remotely steady enough for me to climb onto (my little chair, my activity table, one of the dogs, etc.) I will try to climb onto it and use it to reach something higher up. Daddy swears I have monkey in me. 🙂
My first Christmas was magical and so much fun. We went to a lot of parties and I even got to meet Santa Claus. Mommy took me over to see him at Cousin David’s house and he gave me a present, to which I replied with a great big smile, but that by no means meant that I wanted him to hold me. I let everyone know about my feelings as soon I felt my mom shift my weight closer to him. Luckily for everyone in the room, my mom heard the sound of my deep 
intake of air as I got ready to voice my opinion and decided that I have had enough and took me back upstairs to the rest of the party. The following weekend we were back at David’s house to make the famous pierogies for Christmas Eve dinner. I was very honored and happy to accept my new role of official taste tester. The pierogies were delicious (even though David was experimenting with the recipe) and I had a lot of fun watching everyone pitch in to make them. I can’t wait until I can help!
Other than that, I really liked seeing everyone and because of all the practice I got really good at opening presents. I had a lot of fun Christmas Eve at Great Grammy Siekonic’s, I got to play with Maisie, Maddux and Julianna. Christmas morning was even better; even though I had no idea what was going on when Mommy carried me into our front room with the Christmas tree and all the presents I had a huge smile on my face. Mommy made cinnamon buns from scratch and Grammy and Grandpop DeLabar came over for breakfast, it was a lot of fun. Later in the day we went over to Grammy Wukitch’s to see everyone and then we ended the day at Nanna’s house.
I don’t understand the New Year’s holiday. Why anyone would want to stay up until all hours of the night is beyond me. Mommy and Daddy went to Kelly’s house and although I was there, I did not stay up until midnight like the rest of them. However, I was woken up by the sound of fireworks from their neighbors, just like Santa, I let everyone know how I felt about that. Thankfully, we were home and in our own beds by 12:30am so no real harm done.
The days since New Year’s have been pretty low key. I’m having a blast playing with all my new toys. Most of them came with little balls, so I have fun throwing balls around and pressing all the buttons on the toys at once so its a constant stream of noise. I can’t tell if Mommy enjoys it as much as I do though.
Well, that’s about it. Next month I’m turning one and I can’t believe it’ll be here in a few short weeks. It seems like only yesterday I was just this little bundle that just slept all day. Now I’m an energetic monkey that lives for goldfish crackers and loves to torment the dogs.