New Year

I can't believe it is already 2011! I remember when we were at A&M, and graduating, and thinking that the class of 2010 was coming in and it sounded so weird, and here it is 2011. We're so excited to cheer on A&M tonight at the Cotton Bowl! BTHO LSU! I wish we had been able to get tickets, but I know watching from our snuggly couch will be even more fun! Here's our Aggie girl saying Gig 'Em Aggies!

Well after Christmas, all three of us were a little under the weather for several days. I was definitely the worst, having gotten even sicker after Christmas Day. I basically laid on the couch for 3 days. Stephen really stepped up and took care of Kemble pretty much by himself for those days. Not to mention, he was taking care of me too, and he was definitely not feeling 100% himself. I had what I would've sworn was the flu if I hadn't had a flu shot, because I was just so utterly exhausted, achy, cough, sore throat, congestion, you name it. Kemble had a cough and a runny nose, but got over it very quickly and never acted like she felt bad at all. Stephen had mostly just a sore throat and just was dragging a little. We saw Dr Adams while I was sick and she said some viral junk was going around. I'm just glad I got the brunt of it and not my sweet girl!

Anyway, that week we pretty much all stayed in our pajamas and hung out at home. Kemble really enjoyed playing with her new stuff!

New Years Eve we were all feeling better, but didn't make any plans, we just stayed home and played and enjoyed each other. Stephen and I did manage to make it past midnight to ring in the new year.

On New Years Day we drove to Waxahachie for Mamie's annual lucky lunch. She had black-eyed peas, cornbread, ham, macaroni and cheese, and salad/spinach/cabbage for your choice of greens. It was all delicious and it was fun to see everybody.

Afterwards we went to Jill's house and helped her with her computer problems, which ended up taking all afternoon! Kemble had so much fun with Callianne that she refused to take her nap. She loved her Paper Jams drum set! I have to admit, I did too! I want one!! We decided to spend the night so Stephen could finish up working on the computer, so we took Kemble to my parents' house to go to bed and then went back over for more computer fun, and squeezed in a physical therapy session for my shoulder as well! :)

Paper Jams!

The next morning we headed home after breakfast and got all of our Christmas decorations taken down. When Christmas is over, I am always SO ready to get my house back to normal. Of course, part of me is sad to put away my decorations, but most of me is just ready for it to all be GONE! I dread packing it away, but I always try to do it very organized so that it's easier the next year. I am kind of tired of my house and the way it looks... I used the opportunity to try and redecorate some things, but of course, without going on a major shopping spree for new stuff, it really doesn't look much different at all! I did redo our mantel....

Stephen had long weekends and so we got to spend lots of time with him over the holidays, and we all 3 loved that! We all were completely dreading him heading back to work normal hours and we miss him at home! I joked that he should just quit his job and stay home with us! Unfortunately, that would leave us homeless and penniless, so that just wouldn't work, would it?!

One day, BB came up to visit before she also headed back to work after the break. We had fun, enjoyed a yummy lunch at On the Border, and had an impromptu photo session in the front yard. I managed to capture some of my favorite pictures ever of Kemble, and of course a few with BB too!

laughing at the birds flying over

kisses!

Kemble has really grown up a lot, in no time it seems. She is using lots of signs all the sudden. She's been signing/saying more and bath for a while, but she's now signing all done (usually saying it simultaneously) and thank you - which I had not even shown her, I guess she learned it from Baby Einstein. We're working on help, please, and cracker. She isn't talking quite as much as she had been, but she's done that with everything (crawling, walking, etc) how she sort of regresses for a little bit then one day just starts again, so I'm not really getting too worried. Sometimes she is in a talking mood and will say all kinds of stuff, sometimes she doesn't.

She is really into reading books, actually more into me reading them to her. She has started bringing me books, handing them to me and then sitting down in my lap for me to read them to her. It is absolutely precious! About 90% of the time, the book she brings me is Purplicious. She just loves it. I think it's because of the voices I use when talking for the sassy mean girls who make fun of Pinkalicious in the book, because it always makes her giggle. Her other favorites right now are Superhero Me, Olivia books, Pat the Bunny, and an ice cream truck book that plays music. She wants me to read it to her over and over, to the point that it's given me a sore throat and sometimes I do a lot more coughing than reading during a story because my throat's so dry, and the cough from my cold or whatever I had is still lingering! She doesn't seem to mind though!

I just realized I never posted her real 15 month stats from her checkup with Dr Adams. She weighed 20 lbs, 6 oz (20th percentile), was 30-3/4 inches long (50th), and her head was 18.75 (88th). I was a little alarmed when I saw that she had only gained 6 ounces since her 12-month checkup (especially since they said she weighed 21 lbs at a recent Urgent Care visit), but the nurse and doctor both said it was normal since she is so active she is just burning more calories, and she didn't actually lose weight or anything, so they neither one seemed the least bit concerned. Dr Adams said she's just petite and has lots of brains, and that was a good thing! She had to get 3 shots, but they said we're in the homestretch and she will only have one or two more at 18 months, then will be free of vaccines until she turns 4! For the first time ever, Kemble freaked out when she realized we were at the doctor's office. She did NOT want them to put her on the scale, and she did NOT want anyone touching her and by the time Dr Adams came in and started checking her out, she screamed the rest of the visit! I guess she remembered those brutal shots at her one-year checkup! She got a good report overall! Dr Adams was not worried about her talking, and said for her to be saying the number of words she is saying is actually pretty good for her age, despite her going back and forth on if she's actually using them or not.

She is walking so well, sometimes almost running. She is so funny, when she falls (or hurts herself in any way), she grabs her head and says "ow" as if she hit her head. Unfortunately, I can think of about 5 different knots she's already had on that noggin.. I'm sure there are more to come. I'm getting more calm with each one that happens for sure!

She has learned to blow kisses, and it's so cute! She often claps for herself after each one. She can drive her Little People car really well, she picked it up immediately and cruises around the house. Occasionally she gets stuck on it and forgets how to get off, or will get going backwards and can't figure out how to go forward again, and that really frustrates her. She is just a busy girl, playing with everything in sight. She's all over the place! She is a sneaky little thing, and she loves to hide. She still loves to talk on the phone, or hold it and push buttons anyway. She loves to steal daddy's mouse from his computer and type on his keyboard. She's still loving to dance all the time!

As always, she's a happy, sweet girl and she amazes us every day with the things she does. I'm so excited with all her new tricks, but also sometimes get sad that my baby is not much of a baby anymore!

I updated the blog again with a new layout... Mamie, I should've had you print the blog pages for me while I still had the Christmas one up so it would've shown up! Oh well.

I'm going to finish up with a few of my goals and plans for 2011.... I am pretty sure I did this last year, and I am pretty sure I didn't do many of them...... but here goes!

1. I want to take Kemble to the zoo!

2. Stephen and I are considering a real vacation to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We miss traveling. The last time we went somewhere was to the Dominican Republic in 2007.

3. Stephen and I are going to have to have a pre-vacation small weekend getaway just to make sure we are going to be able to handle leaving our girl before we book it! We've never left her overnight, unless you count the NICU.

4. We HOPE that Stephen finds a new job and we move to Waxahachie this year. Pretty sure I said that last year!

5. We can't wait to go to Galveston in July!

6. We are supposedly on a diet, according to Stephen. We really do need to lose weight. I just, for some reason, can't get myself motivated. I really want to lose weight, and know I need to, it's just so hard and I guess I am dreading the fight.

7. Unbelievably, Kemble will celebrate her 2nd birthday this year. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but I have started to brainstorm party ideas!

8. We need to cease use of the paci at some point this year. I'm putting this off, because she only uses it to fall asleep and in emergencies such as when she screamed her head off at the Dr's office or the grocery store, so I really don't think it's hurting her that bad - it's not like she walks around with it all day. I really don't think it will be a huge adjustment for her, but I just don't want to take away something that makes her life easier, or makes her happy, you know? But I do feel like we should take it away before it becomes a huge battle and she begs for it, right now, I think she'd get over it pretty quickly.

9. I'm going to try to get out and do more with Kemble. We have a tendency to spend a lot of our days, still wearing our pajamas, playing in the house, especially now that it's gotten colder outside.

10. I really am going to try to blog more often and keep a better record of what we're up to.

I hope everyone's year is off to a wonderful start!