Merry Christmas

Ew--I completed a post, and for some reason it disappeared, so I have to start over...

Christmas was so fun. Augi was excited and very spoiled by Mimi and Papa. She got a book and dolly from Santa. We have contemplated the whole issue of "lying" about Santa. We have decided it is not an issue for us. We will pretend there is a Santa because pretending is how children practice so many things. It is their job. We will pretend a nice jolly elf called Santa brings little boys and girls a present on Christmas just like we pretend to eat pickles and cookies with the Monster and Ostrich. If she asks us if Santa is real, we will say no, he isn't real, but isn't it fun to pretend that he is! The spirit of Santa is what we will celebrate. As for this year, she couldn't care less about Santa. She loved opening the presents at first, but she got very tired after a while. Eventually, she would throw the gifts and shout, "No!" if we handed her one. We let her take her time.

Yesterday we went to the park to feed the ducks. Oh my god...those birds were hungry! As we walked to the pond, they spotted us. There were probably 300 birds walking towards us. They nipped my fingers a few times. Augi found it very amusing. I was a little frightened. I was sad for the gimpy birds. Augi kept signing "more eat" because she wanted to feed each and every bird.

Well, staying true to the T.B.Brazelton "Touchpoints" theory, Augi has had a cognitive spurt recently which always results in no sleep at night. She woke up the other night at 3 and insisted we play babies for a few hours. Last night she woke up several times to practice all her new words. It is now past 9 pm and she is bossing her daddy around as they play cars. Who knows when we'll get her back down. She is talking up a storm now and she is following all sorts of directions, and speaking of pretend play--she was playing with her doll house today. The dolls were sleeping, eating and going "poop". That's pretty much Augi's life, so she is playing what she knows.

OHHHHH! I PASSED MY LICENSING EXAM!! We just found out today. One more hurdle (the easy ethics exam) next week and I will be fully licensed to practice. Hooray!

Santa is Coming!!!!

Augi got to open one present tonight. It was perfect, "BeeBee!!!" She fed it (we're calling her Norm), changed it's diaper (the diapers are too small. Dumb.), loved it, nursed it, and pushed it all over in the new stroller. I think Christmas can be too overwhelming for kids, so we wanted to give her the baby tonight rather than tomorrow morning. I am including a picture of the Christmas extravaganza at Grandma-Grandpa's. Keep in mind, the Christmas tree and gifts are PRE-SANTA!!! Ok, there are 4 families included there, but it is still too much. We are single-handedly keeping Target in business. I am just as guilty as the rest. Buying gifts is so wonderful. Augi is going to have so much fun tomorrow. She is getting another baby from auntie Lester. Well, for those of you who can't be here tomorrow, especially Gramma V, I wanted to put these pictures up quickly. Have fun! We will.

Visiting Agi Classic

Big Agi just doesn't fit. So, we are calling them Classic Agi and New Augi. Anyway, we had lunch together this week.

Children's Museum

This place was great! We met our friends Patricia, Chiana and Julia there for some fun.

Snow

Augi went out to play in the snow a little today. She will hate these pictures when she is a teenager. Sorry, dear, but we are cheap and this snow suit was really really inexpensive. Maybe 1987 styles will be back in when she is 13 and we can tell her it was stylish. She loves to play in the snow. She also loves to have tea parties with her monster and osterich. Well, a pickle party anyway.

Tonight we celebrated her very old dadda's birthday. She helped him blow out the candles on his cake.

She is talking like crazy. And, boy is she bossy. The other day she was playing "babies" with her daddy. When he got up to work a little, she pulled him back and said, "Dit Down Dadda!" She told me her baby doll needed to nurse. I told her to go ahead. So, she laid it down and SHE nursed on the doll! It was really funny. Maybe I won't let her see this blog entry when she is big. Way too many embarrassing things. She is darling and I love every little thing she does.

Pictures

Happy December!

We are back! It has been over a month since I have written. Thanksgiving was fun--we spent it at Grandma Mimi's and Grandpa Papa's with Chelsie and her gang. We were very sad to see them go.
Augi's language has exploded! The other day she ran out of the bathroom naked. A few minutes later, she came back in to say, "I pee." Then, she grabbed a towel and ran out to clean it up!
She looooooves baby dolls. We heard Santa might be bringing her one, with a stroller, for Christmas. We'll see.
I am sure Augi is my daughter now: she has officially started to love shoes. She will now wear her boots, maryjanes, clogs, whatever! I can't wait to shoe-shop together. Her daddy had better be a millionaire by the time she is in kindergarten, or we won't be able to afford her collection.
I took my test on Saturday. I felt sick as I left. I get one more shot to take it before I have to beg for them to let me continue on. Sometimes I think I might study until I get the results, just in case. Then, I think HA HA HA!
We have some fun plans for Christmas. Believe it or not, I put up a tree with lights and ornaments and everything. We will get up early Christmas morning and head to Mimi & Papa's to open gifts with the cousins. Then, Grandma Valerie will come from California for a few days. We will visit people and have lots of fun. Christmas really feels much more exciting with a little person to share it with! Hopefully we won't be such strangers. Enjoy the pics from the last month.

We will be back soon...

No pictures tonight, just an explanation. For those of you who we don't see often, you probably don't know why we have been missing from our blog! I am feverishly (ok, at least 1 hour/day) studying for my exam on Saturday. I promised myself I wouldn't post to this blog until it is over. Besides my studying, Augi has been really sick twice with tummy viruses in the past 3 weeks. Chris and I caught the last one. I have also been doing some contract work so I haven't had my normal one day off each week. OK--wish me luck and I will post some pics on Sunday!