It's late...

...and of course, rather than going to bed as I ought, I decided now was a good time for a blog update (I'm so contrary!).

First the new year and then my birthday - it's hard to believe another year has gone by already. I'm sure I say that every year, but it's always true. The next big milestone is Laurna's birthday - 2 years old! How did that happen?

We had a small birthday party for me today - we totally overbought pizza, so we'll be eating Zachary's deep dish for the rest of the week, most likely (what a chore!). As a few people were preparing to leave, Laurna started playing a game with me where I would tell here to go get someone, then she would go running off and "get" him/her (by grabbing a leg, mostly). She'd then come careening back down the hallway towards me giggling and saying "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" and I'd catch her in a hug - then she was ready to run off again. I wish I could capture the look of her running towards me in my mind's eye. It felt great to be part of her fun and excitement. Why is that so hard to recapture as we get older? That's just one way kids are amazing - they give us another chance to discover the magic.

Here's to another year.

Merry Christmas!

I was just looking at some of the photos from Laurna's first week of life, and it's hard to believe she was ever that small!

Back to the main topic at hand, though...

We've just finished our second Christmas as a three-person family. Laurna was much more interested in the goings-on this year, and had a lot of fun investigating her new gifts and, of course, ripping off the paper. We ended up spacing out her gift-opening over the course of the day, because once she opened a new toy she wanted to play with it. It was a great way to keep her occupied, actually - as soon as she started losing interest, it was time to open another gift!

We went out for Chinese on Christmas Eve, which was quite nice and different for us. Christmas Day was the typical whirlwind of food and family - I was happy but dead on my feet by the end of the day, and barely made it into bed before crashing at 8:45 PM.

I think the tree is going to stand proudly on our dining room table for another week at least. It's such a cheery sight.

October 2010 photos are now up! I'm on a roll!

Photos uploaded!

Hi again!

I've uploaded the November photos. Click on the "Everyday Life" photo link to the right to get to them.

There is also now password protection on the photo website - I was seeing way too many views for them to all be people I know. If you want to view the photos and need the password, leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I'll give it to you!

December? WHAT??!?!

How is it December already? I must admit that I'm slightly horrified!

We celebrated a good Thanksgiving with various family events, and I'm looking forward to the Christmas season, even if I'm probably not ever going to be the kind of person who redecorates her house around holiday time.

The weeks seem to be going by faster and faster - maybe we've gotten more busy? Whatever the reason, it's scary.

The biggest recent excitement in our family is that we got a new washer and dryer last week - we didn't have one in our unit before that, so we're thrilled! (It feels quite adult to make a purchase like that, too!)

Laurna is keeping us busy - she's trying to say more words each day, and though they're not entirely intelligible, it's still pretty neat.

In the photo department, I'm going to post some very recent photos now (I figure that's better than trying to post the older ones that I haven't gotten up yet). I'll update once they've finished uploading.

September Heat

It's almost October and it has suddenly decided to get ridiculously hot here. Of course, none of us have air conditioning, so we're sweating it out! We don't have screens on our windows, either, so we can't leave all the windows open at night without inviting in loads of critters. We're definitely getting a lot of use out of our fans.

I've been avoiding most of it because I've been in my air-conditioned office at work, but that makes it quite a shock when I come home!

Laurna's enjoying running around without her clothes - since she took her first steps on July 7 she's rapidly mastered the skill, and though she's not full-on running yet, I'm sure we don't have much more time before that happens. Sigh! At least we'll be getting more exercise, right?

How is it June already???

June has begun and I can hardly believe it! Our recent excitement is that we'll be moving soon - yes, it was something of a surprise to us, too - and despite the moving-associated headaches and our sadness at leaving our current place, it will be exciting once we've moved. We found a place with another bedroom walking distance from where we live now - just what we were hoping for! It was something of a whirlwind - we saw the listing on Sunday or Monday, viewed the place Tuesday, signed the lease the day after that. Whoa! At least they didn't need us to move in right away - that would have been a bit too crazy.

Aside from collecting moving boxes, I've been chasing after Laurna, per usual - she's getting increasingly opinionated and is definitely asserting her independence, as expected, which can result in impatience and hissy-fit-throwing when she doesn't get her way immediately. All part of the territory, but being annoyed with her is taking some getting used to! Overall she's still loads of fun, and despite the trying moments it's so interesting to watch her exploring her world.

She hasn't expanded her vocabulary too much yet, though (somewhat hilariously) she identifies bananas as "na" or "na-na" while all other fruits are "apple." If you try to tell her the actual name of the fruit, she says "ap-ple" back to you as if you're a bit dim. Ha!

She's still not walking on her own yet, and will not be rushed - if we try to get her to walk to us, she just continues to reach out her hands for support, or eventually gives up and crawls. Take that, mom and dad!

I have managed to post some more pictures (from December 09, ha!) - my uploader appears to be working again, so hopefully January will be soon to follow! (A girl can dream, right?)