betsy carmichael bourgeois: Christmas is Coming

It's freezing outside and I love it--last week it was way too hot. My poor little boo has a cold. She woke up with a runny nose on Saturday and as of yesterday she's coughing and sneezing. We've been hanging out at home today and play with her favorite new toy--a pretend food set from Georgia. We have been playing with it all weekend. B is also really into hearing books read over and over again--she's loving all of her Christmas books. She likes pointing out the Santa Claus and Christmas cookies in each book. B loves Cookie Monster and saying cook-cook whenever she sees a cookie or anything that looks like a cookie--she kept pawing at Aunt Attie's necklace yesterday and saying "cook-cook" because the large, chunky beads resembled cookies. The other day B was pointing near her tummy while I was changing her and kept saying "cook, cook" and I thought maybe she wanted a cookie, but she was referring to Cookie Monster on her diaper.

Here's a rundown of the rest of last week.

On Tuesday we went to the Parenting Center and met Evelyn, Georgia, Ticia, and Will. We thought it would be fun to take the kids to Kyoto for lunch--huge mistake. The kids were loud and unhappy the whole time. I'm sure everyone in there wanted to kill us. B did enjoy the vegetable tempura, though. B went to Marme's in the afternoon and had a blast. Marme has sung a lullaby to us since we were little called 'Na no nee no." B holds her stuffed animals and rocks them and sings it to them. She has really been loving on her toys a lot lately.

On Wednesday we went to Jessica's house to play with Reed, Travis, Lauren, and Ryan. Since B is walking she can keep up with them more than she used to. At one point B was sitting in the corner of the living room and being very quiet. I thought she was playing with Elmo--nope, she was eating dog food. She was very mad when I took it away--she had dog food breath--it was so gross! B had her favorite for lunch--pizza (or as she calls it "pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza pie.")

On Thursday we hosted the playgroup holiday party. The babies looked so precious in their Christmas outfits, but it was impossible to take a picture of all of them together. I made cupcakes for the party and B was fixated on them. After I made them she kept pointing to them and saying "cu-cay"--later she sat in the kitchen pointing to the counter and crying and repeating "cu-cay" over and over again. I gave her a pre-party cupcake without icing and she loved it. The kids are growing up so fast and had a great time at their party.

On Friday we got almost all of our Christmas shopping done. Papa Vic picked B up in the afternoon and they went to Bee's then to Nacho Mama's--B's favorite. Peter and I went to Kyoto. Papa Vic and Bee said that Betsy was so good and ate everything in sight. B even passed Bee Papa Vic's cell phone on command. When they brought B home we all went downstairs and watched her walk around and pretend like she was going to give them Papa V's cell phone, but then she'd giggle and run away. She also danced and tapped her foot and smiled when B would call Papa Vic's cell phone--she loved the ringtone.

On Saturday we went to a family Christmas party. B was a hit and she loved eating chocolate chip cookies with Papa Vic and Bee. There was a Santa Claus there and when we approached him B freaked. I hope that her Santa anxiety goes away by next Christmas.

On Sunday we had lots of visitors--Katie, Peter, Lola, Beau, Attie, and Papa Vic. B loved the attention and cried when they left. P, B, and I went to lunch at Lebanon's--yum. Then we bought a couple more Christmas presents.

B has 2 new animal sounds--horse and cat. Her cat sound is so funny--she says "Me-nowwwwwwwww!" B has started to scowl when she gets mad. I have to capture it with my camera--she looks so funny. When B wants something opened she says "opp opp." I've been trying to get her to add please to the end of it, and I've been pretty unsuccessful until one day last week when she handed me a book and said "opp opp, peez." I was so proud! B is a dancing maniac lately--she shakes her booty and claps and wiggles around. B has been pointing at random people in books and photos and saying "mama" so I've started pointing to myself and saying "I'm Mama." So now B walks around pointing to herself and saying "I'm Mama." It's very cute.

Here are a couple of pics of the downstairs--almost done!