This week

This was a big week for Annabelle.
Sunday she did a lot of her play standing up at the table or couch

Tuesday I went into her room after her morning nap and found her sitting in the middle of the crib with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. She was so proud of herself for figuring out how to sit up!

Last night she waved goodnight to Daddy, not once . . . but twice! You can imagine how happy that made him.

Bronwen made up a song about Santa Claus. It went something like this, "Amma cloudy, Amma cloudy, Amma cloudy . . ." Mom found her off by herself with this little toy, singing to it. Mom asked her, who is that? and she replied with a serious nod, "Comma Slauce!" She quickly wrote down what Bronwen had said so we could remember those words. Earlier in the day, all the kids were together playing - two of mine, the little girl I babysit and my two nieces - and of course the topic of Santa came up since Christmas is so near. One of the girls told Madie that there is no such think as Santa Claus.
GASP! There it was, the crash of Christmas philosophies. Our family doesn't do Santa and Madie's does. Fortunately Madie just told her she didn't know what she was talking about and I think it ended there, but she went home and told her Mom what was said. Her family wants to continue "believing" in the magic of Santa since she's only four, so I sat down with Noah and Bronwen later and talked about how some families include Santa in their Christmas celebration and some don't and reminded them that there really was a man named Saint Nicholas who was a rich young man who believed in God and his love and was very generous to children in his town. (For one of the best stories of this Discovery, check out my best friend's blog. Her boys recently came to her with thoughts on Santa.) Anyway, I think it all turned out ok and the crisis of beliefs was satisfactorily averted.


Noah got his hair cut with clippers for the first time. The girls have always scissor cut his thick locks, but this time I gave the "ok" for clippers. I think it is too short, but it should be perfect in a couple of weeks. He loves it and that is important since he was telling me he wasn't ready for a hair cut yet.
Bronwen loves it and keeps asking him where's his hair cut? She wants hers cut too, but there's no way I'm ready for that! Her hair is the longest in the house now.

And we made some Christmas cookies, Noah and Bronwen added the sprinkles.