Our first Christmas

• Xmas eve with grammy and pops (and thom and steph of course)
  
• We slept late - not anxious to hurry and get to the presents as our best gift was snuggled up in bed with us laughing and talking as we greeted the day
• It snowed - our first snow on christmas ever (it's supposed to snow more tomorrow so maybe we'll get some photos of it)
  
• dalia totally enjoyed gift opening in the morning with mom and dad and in the evening with grammy and pops (wow did we get a lot of great stuff)
• we had a christmas bath (which she got a naked in front of the xmas tree photo for)
• we took a long nap in the sling that included a walk up the street to see the neighbors
• a super rad day, but we missed uncle jim and aunt ali

a horsey a horsey a horsey oh my

Here is a video of dalia's first xmas present. Thanks Grammy Karen. Hope this makes you feel better. More photos to come soon.

Dalia's great uncle

Dalia's great uncle Rob (Pop's youngest brother) came to town for business. We were so excited to get to introduce him to Dalia. He's our closest extended relative and we love seeing him. Come back soon and play some more guitar!

bumbo fun?

Now I'm cracking up. These facial expressions are priceless. She is a little small for the bumbo still, and was working hard to stay upright.

Cracking up

Laughter is really the best thing ever. I have a feeling Mark would do just about anything to get her to laugh. Notice, though, that as soon as she sees the camera it all stops. She is so aware of what the camera is now, it's hilarious.

Xmas tree day

The great and novel thing about living in Oregon is that we get to go cut down the tree that we would have had to buy in a parking lot in California. It's so much fun and usually doesn't take very long. We did our share of lolygaging just for the experience. It was a beautiful and cold day. Dalia slept the whole time.



This very same day we had a photo shoot AND she sat in the bumbo for the first time. What a strong neck! She seemed to like it for a few minutes. . . everything for a few minutes.

Uncle Jimmy!!!!!!

These are late getting posted. Jimmy was actually here before the crib action, which is going very well. We were so excited to have him here. Can't wait to see him and Aunt Ali soon. Aunt Ali gave us this awesome hat (unfortunately hats don't stay on Dalia long, but she seemed rather pleased to be in this one).

Woo Hoo!

Dalia has fallen asleep in her crib for the last four nights - all with minimal crying and fussing. We are so proud of her and us for believing it could happen. She slept for 5 1/2 hours straight last night. These photos have nothing to do with that, but they really capture the little girl we get to see each day.

A visit from the Nelsons

Anthony, Jen and Anders came to visit from L.A. It was a stormy weekend outside, but we had a blast. Grammy and Pops came over for dinner. Dalia seemed to love all the activity and was a total angel. Anthony was, as predicted, amusing enough to make a video. Can't wait to see you again. Thanks for coming, guys! We love you.

Dalia is 11 weeks old

Well, our lovely miss Dalia K had her two month check up last week. She turns 11 weeks on Tuesday. Thought we'd give you the brief summary of her adventurous life so far. As you can see, she has lots of friends and family that love her and have traveled both near and far to see her. We are so lucky to bring her into such a loving and supportive community.

After only five weeks of life, Dalia got her first cold, which turned into her first ear infection, which necessitated her first antibiotic, which caused ridiculous GI track issues, which caused thrush, which necessitated more medicine, which sadly turned into an gross overdose of an anti fungal (five times what she should have gotten, only once, thankfully), which caused us alarm, but all was well. She is now free from sickness or medication and is back to her solid regiment of breastmilk from mama only. Oji (Uncle Stan) told us she was strong when she was in the womb, and boy was he right. She has thrived amidst all of this and we are so proud and heartachingly in love.

In all of this, Dalia learned to mimic sticking her tongue out, talking sounds like "hi" and "la" and even learning to laugh. She smiles each morning when she sees our faces now and it is intoxicating. She is a happy and active little lady, needing lots of attention, but learning to love her play mat and swing. She also loves sleeping on mommy in her sling and going out to lunch in her car seat. We are happy to report that at her two month appointment she weighed a woppin 12 pounds 9 ounces and measured 24 3/4 inches. Her head is 16 cm around (big brain of course).

sitting up???

Seriously, folks, she's workin hard on her sitting up skills. I had to document it. The second one shows her leaning on her arm. She was not falling over, tho she eventually did. She looks like an old rocker in a bath robe, I know. We'd just been playing with her feet.

just sweet

Here are a couple of Mom and Dalia in yet another sling doing chores.

for Dad again

I found this photo when I was downloading. Look how happy she is with Daddy. Incidentally, we've been having Mark talk to Dalia on speaker phone this week and she loves it.

hangin' with zoey

I just needed to put her down so I asked Zoey if she'd hang out with Dalia for a couple of minutes. Dalia is actually watching television, tho I hate to admit it. But Zoey is lovingly looking at Dalia. She no longer freaks out when Zoey's fur touches her. Fast friends, I suppose. For those of you wondering, Casey just is not interested much.

smiling

so, clearly we can't get enough of this girl smiling. it looks like she never wears clothes, but it just so happens she tends to be quite happy when she is being changed. i think it's because she has our undivided attention on the changing table. what i love about this photo is how she looks like she is just cracking up. if she could laugh when she was awake (currently she is only doing it in her sleep) she would be.

stuff on my cat

this is for dalia's daddy who's on the road this week and needs a visual of what his happy family is up to in his absence.

Fun with Daddy

So, there are a couple of things that Dalia loves to do with Daddy. One is sit on the "daddy bench." We particularly like the fuzzy photo as it shows her shining eyes. Now that she smiles, so do her eyes. It's so cool. The other thing she loves is to talk to him. We just can't get enough of the talking. Here's a video.

Thanksgiving

Here are a few shots from thanksgiving at Deanna's (Grammy) with Pops, Thom and Steph. As you can see, she was sort of fussy. It was nice to have a few more loving arms to comfort her. We are thankful!

Sunbathing and push-ups

The sun is out in Portland! Quick open the blinds and grab your baby for some sunbathing time. Here's Dalia enjoying the sun and practicing her mini-push-ups. We are so proud of her.