A Very Croupy Christmas

Like the Ghost of Christmas Present, Kelly's Christmas Eve post foreshadowed what was in store for us. Unfortunately we couldn't just buy a big goose and stop the coughing.

Shortly after Audrey put Santa cookies out and went to bed, we heard the neighbor's dog barking. At least that's what we thought it was until we realized that our neighbors are too far away for us to hear their dogs. Kelly and I looked at each other and asked "Is that Audrey?!?"

If you've been following for long, you'll remember that Audrey had a cough last year that lingered for 8+ weeks. We did a lot of reading and the subject of croup came up many times. All of the articles mention that the croup cough is distinctive and sounds like a barking seal. We never thought that description fit the bill previously but when Audrey started up again, it sounded like we were a few hundred miles south, smack dab in the middle of Sea World.

Up at 7:30, a full 3 hours after her Cousin Emma (sorry Brian and Sarah), Audrey did o.k. with her stocking and first few presents. Though, like any sick person, she was a little sensitive and soon little things started setting her off. Us taking away the super sharp pencil from her was the final straw that sent her into her first major meltdown.

These sort of events are interesting with a little one. Even though we know she wont remember it, we still try to make things special--maybe more for us than for her. But like anything with a 1-year old, you are at the mercy of the gods and all you can do is put as many pieces of the puzzle together as you can and hope the rest falls in place. Sometimes things are just not meant to be and that family vacation you have been planning for months, or the visit with the Easter Bunny, or the magic of the first time opening Christmas presents just doesn't materialize like you expected.

We were just about at the point of throwing in the towel, taking a few frowny faced pictures to document the event (see the vacuum picture below), and just letting her watch T.V. all day, but in a last ditch effort we brought out the secret weapons - a change of clothes and some Tylenol. We took a twenty minute break and a whole new Audrey appeared. The smiles came back, the grumpiness went away, and she became interested in all the fun things going on.

The remainder of the day was spent video-chatting with family, eating sweets, and heading out for a drive to see a massive Christmas light display flashing in sync with a broadcast of Trans-Siberian Orchestra-esk music you listen to on your car radio. It was a bit cheesy but Audrey really enjoyed it so it was well worth the drive in the snow. After Audrey went to bed, we partook in the raspberry, chocolate, and almond tart Kelly made. A truly delicious way to finish off the evening.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was food heaven for Audrey. She started off with a breakfast out at a local cafe where she devoured almost an entire pankcake and some eggs. For lunch she enjoyed 1/2 a PB&J and some sauteed zucchini with a lot of garlic. We couldn't feed her dinner fast enough (a roasted root veggie soup). And then there were the sweets.

Audrey got to help decorate her first Christmas cookies today. She had a lot of fun shaking as is evident by the mountain of sugar on the cookies and tray. But they taste delicious and were the obvious choice to leave out for Santa this evening.

We also gave Audrey her first candy cane. Well, we held it while she sucked on it. She did finally figure out how to bite off pieces and then the rest of it was gone in about 5 seconds.

A fun Christmas Eve bath and she is now tucked in bed. Unfortunately, she started coughing this evening so hopefully she gets a good night sleep and is ready for all the fun tomorrow!

Santa's Lap

My company held a sweet kids Christmas party today. There was punch and cookies and a special visit from the guy in red. At least 50 kids were in attendance; each one got to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas and they each received a present.

As you can see from the picture, a visit with the big guy is serious business. She really does great with strangers but it is sometimes tough getting her to crack a smile.

And fulfilling a personal request from yesterday, I submit for you another comparison between this year's events and last's. I can't believe how small she was! (I apologize in advance for the snobbery, but I also can't believe how horrible of a picture they can get away with selling at the mall. I'm glad I had my own camera this year.) I still remember Santa saying that Audrey asked for "one of everything" last year and judging by the mess we pick up in our living room each night, I think she got what she asked for. If not at Christmas, then throughout the rest of the year.

If Santa didn't make her smile, the huge ballroom with lots of things to explore did. She spent over an hour running around, investigating every nook and cranny, dodging and ducking between people's legs, and getting in other families' pictures. The present she received was almost bigger than her but that didn't stop her from pushing it around the room. She was definitely more interested in the small pieces of shiny wrapping paper than actually getting to the "good stuff" inside. I guess we have a bit to teach her before next weekend.

Crafty Christmas

Kelly wanted the world to see that when she puts her mind to it, she can actually complete a sewing project. These stockings were started a month before Christmas and they are already done! That means it only took, hmm....let me count. Only 13 months to finish!

Yes, they were started last year, but can you blame a mother of a 2 month old for not finishing a project? Now, the mother of a 14 month old has loads of time, so it was no problem sewing up loose ends.

Kelly just seems to be excited that there are no misspellings and no holes in the seams. I think she should be super proud because they look wonderful!

Annmarie Gardens

Trying to keep up with the Santoki's, we are working hard to fit in our five Christmas activities before the big day. Our first was Christmas on the Square in Leonardtown. Our second was The Festival of Trees at Leonardtown High School (too lame to warrant a blog post). The third was our frigid morning cutting down the Steffen Family Christmas tree at Friendship Forest. And we just completed our fourth, an outing to Annmarie Garden and Lights.

Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center is, as the name suggests, a sculpture garden and art center. Imagine that! Their outdoor sculpture garden walking path plays host to the local annual "pay $5 to come see Christmas lights" festival. Previously, we have gone to the zoo for such events, but with the nearest zoo over an hour away, Annmarie figured there was a market for an exterior illumination extravaganza down here.

If I was to judge the lighting display alone, I'd give it a 3/10. It was a walking path lined with themed scenes, made mostly from light-bright-like displays of Christmas lights mounted in pre-drilled black painted sheets of plywood. There was probably a grand total of 25,000 imported Italian twinkle lights. But when you factor in Audrey's experience, it was a solid 9/10. Despite the fact that it was extremely cold and past Audrey's bedtime, she was a giggling fool the whole time, pointing out all the objects she recognized (elephants, balloons, fish, etc.). It only took 20 minutes to do the full walk, but that was the perfect amount of time for Audrey. Any shorter and she would have wanted more, any longer and she would have been bored.

We are starting to have more and more "Remember last year when..." nostalgia moments now that Audrey is over a year old. Tonight was a big one. The first picture below is our 14 month old little girl mesmerized by the lights tonight at Annmarie's and the second is our little 2 month old last year asleep on Kelly's shoulder at Hogle Zoo.

Art: The little lights aren't twinkling
Clark: I know Art, and thanks for noticing.

Those Hippy Parents

She's wearing cloth diapers, doing yoga, and has a horrible sense of fashion. Definitely our daughter!

Friendship Forest

Our little girl is sick...again! Another nasty cold picked up from who-knows-where. A few sniffles can't put a damper on her holiday spirit--she dragged us to the Friendship Forest bright and early this morning to cut down the Steffen family Christmas tree. She quickly honed in on this beauty:

It was cold enough to see your breath and we couldn't get this quote out of our head:

Clark: Isn't it a beaut, Audrey?
Ellen: She'll see it later Clark, her eyes are frozen.

We told her we'd come back for that tree in a few years and settled on this one instead:

Rusty: That tree wouldn't fit in our yard!
Clark: It's not going in our yard, Rus. It's going in our living room.

Winter CSA

I admit, I was a little jealous that my sister started taking part in a CSA-like produce delivery program before we did. We have wanted to be involved in a CSA for the last few years but signing up for one involved committing to an entire growing season and reserving your spot with a hefty down payment almost a year in advance. When the probability of moving within a year is greater than zero, it's tough to make that commitment. It was our inability to commit that led us to gardening ourselves as abandoning a small garden mid season was a little less costly. As it turned out, it was less costly, but a bit more traumatic.

Our arrival in Maryland was such that by the time we finished (mostly) with our first priority - unpacking, it was too late to start a winter garden from scratch. We checked around and got on a waiting list for Even' Star Organic Farm's Winter CSA. They eventually called, we jumped, and now we're getting a half-bushel of hearty winter produce every week.

What grows here in the winter? Greens, and lots of them. Every week we usually get one thing not green (radishes, sweet potatoes, etc.) and the rest is salad mix, stir fry mix, or hearty greens. It's pushing us to eat a little healthier and expand our cooking comfort zone. So, here is Audrey enjoying the homemade arugula and parsley pesto Kelly whipped together for dinner the other night:

13 Month Vocabulary

It's been amazing to watch Audrey's communication skills advance over the last month. She went from saying/signing just a few things to learning something new almost every day. Since this video was made, she learned how to sign "frog", and she has her own sign for "sun" (picked up from the itsy bitsy spider song).

Below we just breezed through as much of her "vocabulary" as we could remember but it is more impressive to see her use all of these things in context. She is constantly letting us know there are squirrels outside the window or that she just heard a dog. And books...she spends half the day going through books pointing out everything she can.

And of course a number of things didn't make it on the video: "bird", "duck", "help", "down", "feet", "toes", "belly", and "belly button".