Many more firsts ...

We need to catch up a bit here since somehow, three weeks have once again passed since I've been on here. Simply put, I blame the holidays. Between Piper's baptism (December 20) and Christmas, we hosted 33 people for dinner, and then there was everything else that went with the holidays. The candy making (so worth it), traveling to Middlebury, spending time with friends and family. It was all great, but definitely left me exhausted.

Backing up to the baptism ... Piper was baptized at Our Lady of the Annunciation Church in Queensbury, and clearly she found the entire process to be quite exhausting. She wore the same gown as my sister and I, which was very special. I was worried that it wouldn't fit her, but as long as we didn't button the top button, she was good to go.

And then Piper's first Christmas!! She was a rock star. We hosted the Hutchins' family Christmas dinner and she was passed around all day and loved by all. With a few intermittent naps, including in her cousin Ellen's arms, she made it through the day with mostly smiles. She did start to melt down late afternoon, but I don't blame her for that ... and then she slept for 13 hours straight that night to recuperate. So adorable. And even though this picture is blurry, I love it because you can see how happy she is that Santa came :-)

And here she is at Nana and Papa's house in her new chair with the stocking Santa brought her there. She's spoiled, for sure.


Also around Christmas, she started being less verbal. Before, she used to "talk" up a storm, but she's definitely chilled out on that and is working on physical stuff - mainly sitting up. It's crazy because she went from needing to be propped up by one of us or pillows, to all of a sudden she's her own little person, sitting up and playing with toys. Um, seriously?! It kind of freaks me out because she looks like a little kid when she does that. She does still topple over every once in a while, but she must have some core muscles under her Buddha belly because for the most part, she can hold her own. This was yesterday up in her room (and she's playing with the pants that had just come off instead of her toys, but close enough) ...

And I almost forgot! She also went for her first cross-country ski on New Year's Eve with Reid and I, Aunt Kendra and Aunt Sara. She rocked her backpack for the first time and appeared to enjoy every minute - that is, until she fell asleep, but that took a while.


So what's Piper up to these days when she's not sitting up or skiing? Well, she's still loving food (if you can't tell by her cheeks). She's added lots of additional fruits and a few veggies to her repertoire and has even tried to feed herself (huge mess). She's still sleeping like a champ, packing it in for about 12 straight hours a night, and then not doing much napping during the day. I can usually count on a 30-45 minute nap about two hours after she wakes up in the morning. Then after that, there isn't usually much ... maybe a 15 or 20 minute cat nap or two. So we play a bunch! She LOVES her bouncer and bounces for 30 minutes at a time. She's still into her exersaucer and has figured out how to turn around in it. And then of course there's sitting up and playing. Probably her favorite toy right now is the Baby See and Say that my parents got her for Christmas, but she has fun playing with just about anything - including the Wall Street Journal or an empty card board box. She's SIX MONTHS tomorrow. Insane. In some ways, I can't believe so much time has passed since she's joined our family, and then in others, I can't believe it's only been that short of a time because it feels like we've been loving her forever. She's our little peanut butter and we love her like crazy.