Blessed Christmas

Annaliese did great on her first road trip to San Jose to spend Christmas Eve, Day & day after with Andy's parents, brothers and friends in the bay area.  We had a sweet time at the Christmas Eve service and a low key time at the house with family.  So low key that we somehow didn't get a pic with the whole family, oh well!  Good food and fellowship was a treasured blessing from the Lord.

Hanging out with Uncle Joshie...

At this point, she was over wearing the little Christmas dress that barely fit and taking Christmas pics in front of Christmas trees :)

Love the Mary Jane socks that look like shoes!

We are loving getting to see more of her little personality each day!  She is smiling and laughing (or at least what we count as laughing :) and can even play a little bit after she eats and before she goes down for her naps.  As you can see from the pic above, she is also continuing to work on gaining multiple chins and chubby cheeks and legs - love it!

Btw, I am learning which breastmilk "flavors" my daughter does not appreciate.  So far I've found that apparently, onion, garlic, chocolate, unpasterized cheese and any spicy (including Mexican and spicy tuna sushi) "flavored" milk is a no-no.  Major bummer- since I love all these foods, but at least it has helped with her occasional inconsolable crying episodes that we've experienced many nights.  Sometime when we plan to have a babysitter for a date night, we'll have to go to a place that serves spicy salsa, spicy tuna sushi, garlic bread and decadent chocolate desserts and pump and throw that milk away.  Know of any good places? ;-)

Her current record is going 7 hours between feedings at night, allowing me to sleep for over 5 hours straight!!! Hallelujah!  She is still having a harder time learning to go to sleep without being held or rocked to sleep each time, but she's making progress.