Things have been so crazy busy here!
Natalie's birthday was fun. Lissa flew in from Albuquerque on Thursday and Jon and Maya drove down on Saturday. We went down to Steilacoom and found a great little bar & bistro where we had lunch and then we took the ferry. It was a short trip, but perfect for Lauren's attention span. Then Jon, Ben and Maya went out to pull up the crab pots (they only got one keeper) and we all met back at the house. They made a crab stew and smoked salmon on the grill and I made the Pioneer Woman's Fettucini Alfredo. I made Natalie a small angel food cake with whipped strawberry frosting and a bit of whipped cream around it. The rest of us had german chocolate cake. Natalie wasn't really sure about her cake, she put her hands in it and then seemed a little grossed out by her sticky hands. She spent more time playing with her fork than trying to eat, but I got her to take a few bites. That's ok, though, she's one and doesn't really need all that sugar, anyway.
I wish Lissa could have stayed longer, I feel like we hardly got to show her anything around here. But, we'll get to do some more touristy things when my dad comes in a week.
Natalie finally got started with physical therapy at the pediatric physical therapist. I took her on Tuesday and it looks like we'll have a standing appointment on Tuesday mornings, except next week since we'll be taking her to Seattle for her MRI. She has been doing so great! She got herself up into a sitting position on her birthday two times in a row and has been doing it more and more the past few days. Ben babyproofed a couple corners (walls and coffee table) and we're going to have to start doing more soon, I'm sure.
Her eye surgery was successful. They look straight now and seem to be healing pretty quickly. The day of surgery she napped a lot, but I did pull her out of bed before 6 am, so I don't blame her. I wanted to nap the rest of the day, too. She is still wearing her glasses, we'll go back in February and they'll check her eyes again and see if she needs a new prescription. I think her depth perception is already better, she's grabbing things with the first reach now and hasn't been overshooting things like she used to. I can tell how much stronger she's gotten just in the past few weeks. We have a lot to do still, but she's such an amazing little girl.
Lauren is still doing ballet. She has been paying attention and is able to show me moves at home now. I got to go observe her class at the end of last month and she did great. She's going through some quite dramatic three-ness right now, which kind of sucks and makes me want to lock myself in my room sometimes, but then she can be very sweet and funny and I can forget about it for ... well, a few minutes. She comes up with the funniest things sometimes. The other day she told me she was full all the way to her neck. Last week she asked me how old I'd be when she was grown up, and when I answered 40, she said, "Then you won't fit in the car!"
My cookie exchange went really well. I had four ladies over, one brought her 12 year old daughter and one brought her 5 year old daughter. I made the melting moments I mentioned before, and the other ladies made sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, pecan blossoms and snickerdoodles. We have some great cookies tempting us here at the house now. We sat around and ate and played taboo and talked for a while. I really liked the girls who came over and I'm glad I did it. I get so nervous about meeting people, but it helped relax me a bit that it was at my house, I think. Today was the Christmas party for Ben's work and I saw two of the ladies there. The Christmas party was pretty low key. The girls got their picture taken with Santa in a Blackhawk and there was food and desserts and Lauren sat and colored for a while.
I think tomorrow we're going to head out and cut our own Christmas tree. I put red ribbons on the columns in front of our house today so they look like candy canes. I also put a strip of ribbon on the wall under the window in the living room so I can display Christmas cards on it.
I love it. Really, I could have divided number one into one and two and separated shawl collar sweaters as one and cable knit everything as two. But this sweater is the reason I kept them together. It's comfy and warm and I just love it. I think the shawl collar is such a cute little detail, and on this sweater, the little woven-look leather button is adorable. It's the details that make clothes special, and this sweater has the details I like.
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