Hope loves Christmas lights. A few weeks ago, my mom, Carissa and Hope trekked to the Mission Inn in Riverside to check out the decorations. It was pretty packed, but we were able to maneuver the stroller around with Hope bundled up inside of it. If you've never been, you should pay it a visit next year. The historic building is decked out for Christmas and the surrounding plaza has all kinds of festive little shops and places to eat. They had an ice rink and some entertainment in the courtyard. Hope was a bit overwhelmed at one point with all the lights and music. She slept great on the way home.
Another evening, Carissa, Hope and I cruised Candy Cane Lane near our treehouse in Upland. It is pretty impressive how all the neighbors put a drain on the local power grid for the holidays. We got there early and were able to drive through it all without having to park a mile away and walk it. Hope got to see just about everything from her seat in the back.
Hope got to visit Santa a few times this year. I am not sure she was all that thrilled with him. Once she figures out his role for this time of year, I am sure she'll warm up to him. Carissa took her to see him at Victoria Gardens. I think she cried there. At Disneyland the first time, she was a little leery. At Disneyland the second time, she did fine, but the guy sitting between us could have been anybody.
The extended family had a great time with Hope this year, too. Really cool gifts but, as usually happens, she wanted the paper and box more than the toy itself. I did notice how the grandparents seemed to pick out really loud and somewhat annoying toys. I get the feeling that was on purpose, but I can't be sure.
Christmas Eve is the fruit soup and lefse party at Carissa's folks' house. Fruit soup is a unique dish. It is very flavorful and can be a bit overpowering to the taste buds if you are not ready for it. We gave Hope a spoonful and the face she made was awesome. She scrunched up her nose and twisted her face a bit. But, after she swallowed, she opened up her mouth for more! The second bite was a lot better.
Christmas Day is at our house and this year I made a ham. It was my first one, and I think I overcooked it. Oh, well, it'll go better next year. Either that or I will make hot dogs instead. All the grandparents and great grandma came over to play with Hope. I think she enjoyed all the attention and tearing up the wrapping paper. Getting her to nap with a houseful of people is a bit challenging. She got a couple cat naps in here and there, but it wasn't enough.
The Saturday after Christmas is the pasta party at my mom's. All the cousins come, too. Hope got her first taste of homemade pasta. She seemed to dig it. She did really well with all the people and playing with Daisy, my folks dog.
Hope loves animals, too. She does this weird Dr.Doolittle yelling thing when she sees an animal. I think it started in the Tiki Room at Disneyland. When the birds started moving and talking, she stared right at them and let out a sorta grunt-yell. It was really strange because we'd never heard her make that noise before. I didn't know she was even capable of producing a noise like that! Our church puts on a living nativity every year complete with live animals. Hope let out a couple squeals at the lambs and goats there, too. At my folks, she made one similar noise at Daisy, but then just laughed at her the rest of the time as they played.
The morning after Christmas, Hope decided it was time to get up at 7:00. I was thinking that maybe 10:00 would be better but I couldn't convince her of that. We had such a good time playing with all the new toys though. This morning was pretty fun, too. Watching her progress through thought processes and how she relates to her environment is so amazing. It almost changes week to week. As tired as I am sometimes, I really do look forward to our morning play time. She is so bright and alert. I love watching her mature.
We received a touch-and-feel book a while ago and she wasn't much interested in it then. Last week, I sat with her and showed her, by example, how to touch each of the areas in the book. Hoped understood right away and it has now become one of her favorites. All you have to do is open it up to one of the pages and her little hand jets out to the area to touch. We both prefer the bumpy frog and fluffy bird to the soft duck and shimmery fish. It may seem simple and stupid, but it is so cool to see that she is now capable of comprehending what I am trying to teach her and that she has the capacity to take in the textures and colors of the book.
Hope figured out how to crawl on her knees. She still falls back to the Marine crawl most of the time. Scooty Puff can motor around really well. The days of turning your back on her for a few seconds are now over. We've rearranged our living room furniture to create a sort of closed perimeter she can play in. This morning, I left her to her toys and went to make a cup of coffee in the kitchen. As soon as I had turned around to see what she was doing, she had already pulled herself upright next to one of the ottomans that act as a gate to the indoor play yard. She was smiling at me and happy as could be waiting for me to come back. I went back, picked her up and took her into the kitchen with me to explain to her how to make a perfect cup of coffee...put the creamer and sugar in first, then pour in the coffee (it works just as well with tea, too).
Next Christmas is going to be a little different. I think she'll start to get the concept of presents and what to do with them: destroy the wrapping paper and extract the contents of the package. I'm sure she'll still want to play with the box though.
