Much Better!

Well our little girls hand went from the picture below (one week after the initial incident) to almost completely healed. We removed the bandages after 2 1/2 weeks and began the process of showing Luella that her left hand is back!

The Right Direction

Luella learned to crawl (forward)! And we've learned that as soon as she crawled forward, she looked for things to crawl up. We're proud of our little mover.

Go Broncos!

Luella got a cheerleader uniform for Christmas, so we put her in it the following Sunday to cheer for the Denver Broncos with daddy! The game ran late so I went to put Luella in her jammies but daddy convinced me not to change her (for luck's sake). Because of that I'm thinking of looking for Denver Bronco jammies too! Unfortunately her outfit wasn't as lucky as daddy had hoped that evening. But she sure did look cute!

Parade of the Christmas' 3

Christmas number three! Grandpa Jim came over to visit before we headed off for a Christmas dinner with my family...

Parade of the Christmas' 2

Christmas number two! We spent the night with Jon's parents on Christmas eve, Luella woke up bright an early (and I slept in!). After spending time with Grandma and Grandpa opening gifts we went to visit some extended family on Jon's side and had a wonderful Christmas breakfast.

Below is Lu Lu showing off her new giraffe slippers.

Parade of the Christmas' 1

Christmas number one! We went to my parents for Christmas eve dinner...I don't really remember eating dinner come to think of it. I remember eating fudge. I was at my parents house though, I guess I should have expected that.

The picture below is a bag of pudding that requires an entire gallon of milk...THANK YOU mom and dad!

New Parenting Trick

If one doesn't work...try two. Just fyi She is smiling, but you can't see it behind all the pacifiers.

Still In Reverse

We've read that crib bumpers are a danger to babies, but I'm wondering if the new problem we have isn't just as dangerous? Since Luella doesn't know how to crawl forward, she backs herself out of her crib... It's okay though because mommy is always close by to rescue her!

Prayers for Tiny Fingers

Our baby girl had an accident last night, she touch an oil heater. She's still to young to understand cause and effect, so once she touched it she just stayed there crying. Thankfully we were close by and pulled her away within seconds. Our baby girl has never cried so hard for so long before. After cold water, burn cream and Aloe were applied she is left with 2nd degree burns (blisters) from the tip of her thumb down to her wrist and on her ring and pinky fingers. We took her to the ER today and they said she will be just fine, with some doctoring and time.

I think the worst part about this situation was that it was preventable. Jon's comment last night after we got Luella calmed down and sleeping, was 'welcome to parenting' and I responded with tears. I didn't think it was possible to hurt so badly watching someone else in pain.

As bad as it was, were thankful it wasn't worse. Our little girl is a trooper. The morning after it happened, with blisters nearly doubling the size of her fingers, she was chatting, smiling and giggling as she laid in our bed that morning. We thank our Lord for sparing her any more pain from this accident.

Here she is getting loves from Grandpa

Letter from SANTA!!

Luella got a letter from Santa Clause today!! Santa thinks she's been a good girl. Santa is pretty smart! We sat Luella down beside the Christmas tree to read her the letter and she started squealing. It was pretty funny. We learned in the letter that Santa likes milk, cookies and... coffee. Looks like we'll have to buy a coffee maker someday...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

My first REAL tree (and Luella's too)!! I wasn't able to go pick it out with Jon because Lu Lu needed to nap, but he picked just the perfect one. It is beautiful. I had a great time decorating it and was so excited to see Luella's reaction, unfortunately she wasn't nearly as interested in the lights as I thought she'd be. Maybe next year.

I can't wait for the Christmas' when Luella and I can listen to Christmas music and decorate the house like my mom and I used to do (actually I can wait, we don't want her to grow up any faster than she already is). It will be wonderful when it happens.

Jon was on a roll this week and ended up decoring the outside of our house too. We have a pretty competitive neighborhood when it comes to decorating. I think our association even gives out prizes for the best decorations. One of the many over-achieving decorators lives just across the street. I hoped eventually all the pretty lights around would inspire us to join in on the fun, unfortunately it was guilt that drove Jon to Fred Meyers to buy lights. Either way, I'm happy they're up!

Recaro

Well after much research we've decided on the Recaro Como G2 seat for Luella. The biggest selling point for us was: Recaro (for you motorsports fans) builds race car seats as well as other motorsports equipment, so their seats are designed (and tested) to withstand MUCH greater gforce than the US requirements. They also hire independent companies to crash test their seats and they publish the results, which is highly uncommon. Britax was a close runner up, but after all comparisons we found that Recaro seats sit lower and have a more slender frame than Britax which were selling points for us.

So after much anticipation, here it is! (One of) Luella's early Christmas presents from Grandma Lorie and Grandpa Joe. She seems to be much happier in this seat than the infant seat we had previously. I'm guessing it's all the extra padding! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!