Happy Birthday Florence

My baby girl is now one. This year has gone by so fast. Nothing makes time fly like a baby. We celebrated her birthday on Tuesday evening surrounded by extended family who are in town for Thanksgiving. Because it was a work day, we had it in the evening. She held up pretty good; however, she started breaking down right around the time we had cake. We went with an Elmo theme, not that she really cared - but she does recognize Elmo, so I got some Sesame trinkets to decorate her cake with and an Elmo pinata.

She continues to be a tiny peanut. At a Dr. appt last week, she weighed less than 18 1/2 pounds. Unless I can really fatten her up, she won't be able to face front in the car seat. We have another checkup this upcoming week, so we'll have another look. Truthfully, I'm reluctant to give up my pumpkin seat anyway. It's so convenient for if she falls asleep in the car or if she needs a place to be contained at church or Kindermusik. She isn't walking yet, but the last few days, she has really made progress with her balance, standing unaided and also making people walk her around holding her hands. No steps on her own yet, but it's just a matter of time. I have mixed feelings about this - on the one hand, I hate having to constantly clean her knees and hands because they get so dirty crawling around; on the other hand, I want her to be a baby as long as possible. Her only real word is "uh-oh" which she loves to say every time she drops her cup - repeatedly. She babbles constantly, but doesn't really use words for anything else. We're trying to teach her some sign language, but I can't remember much myself, so we've only done milk, bath, and grape. I think she does bath - it's hard to tell.

In other sibling news, Charlie's doing really well with violin. He's even going to learn a little song for the Children's Christmas Mass - talk about pressure...on me, that is. We really like his teacher - she is very enthusiastic and playful. At first, I thought this might not necessarily translate into a good teacher, but I really think she is doing a great job.

Lucy will be turning cartwheels for Tempe Parade of Lights again this year. Again, I don't really want to take the trouble to go, especially with so much family in town; however, last year we had such a good time, I know it will be fun. It was after marching around this parade last year that I went into labor with Florence...now we'll be taking her with us in person.

Alex is enjoying Kindermusik. We drive around listening to his CDs in the car...the overproduced, overarticulated silly children's songs with their incessant sound effects for EVERYTHING.

My parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister are all in town for Thanksgiving holiday. Through the week, we've been doing our normal stuff - eating at Moe's after church on Sunday, grocery shopping, gymnastics, karate, etc. We ventured out to a movie on Wednesday - Bolt - which was so cute. There were many laugh-out-loud moments, and the animation was, of course, Disney perfection.

Yesterday, we all gathered at Eileen's house to celebrate. There was tons of food, of course, and fortunately, the weather turned out gorgeous despite predictions of rain showers for the day. It was too muddy for the kids to play outside much, but Eileen had bought little crafts for them to do and somehow they occupied themselves nicely coloring placemats and glueing turkey crafts. Dad and the boys all watched the Dallas game, which we won, and then we all retired home for post-dinner snacks. After we got the kids to bed, Tony and I along with my brother and his wife watched Tropic Thunder, which I've really been wanting to see. It was hysterical, over the top offensive, and just plain funny.

Today, we're planning to head up to Rawhide - a country/western town just south of Phoenix. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us, it's suppose to. Then, hopefully this weekend, we will start decorating for Christmas. Everyone here really goes over the top to decorate for Christmas, I guess compensating for the lack of winter weather. Since Thanksgiving was late this year, we want to make sure and get our time in.