The Holidays, Part III: Winter Wonderland

The month of January has been snowy, snowy, snowy. We take Iris out for adventures as much as we can, with cold little hands being the major limiting factor. She is a pretty good sport, and likes playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, making holes and shapes in the snow, and getting hauled around in sleds and sleighs. And she looks so darn cute in her snowsuit.

The Holidays: Part II, Christmas

Iris had her first full-blown Christmas experience at Oma and Pa-Pa's house in Boise. We maintained our own house in a decidedly un-Christmasy state knowing that we would be subjected to the Full Christmas Immersion in Boise. Oma did not disappoint, with two Christmas trees, a train set, and all manner of holiday knickknacks for Iris' entertainment. She woke up each morning and said, "Get up. Toys!" Another favorite word was 'noise' since her favorite new toys made plenty of it.

Other favorite activities were playing with Madilyn and Abigail, Iris' cousins, and getting in some more snow fun. She didn't much go for relaxing to watch the bowl games - "No football. Boo-Boos!" Instead, Mama and Dada actually got some exercise over the week, since Iris refused to nap in her temporary nest/fort. So we packed her up in the stroller or ski trailer for a daily walk in the neighborhood, on the Boise greenbelt, or on our X-C skis. Iris typically zonks out in a moving vehicle pretty reliably, so it makes for a great napping back-up option.

Photos show Iris with family - Oma and Pa-Pa, cousins Madilyn and Abigail, and big cousins Chloe and Beau - and our fancy bike trailer converted into a sleigh. It's definitely been worth buying the conversion kit. It has been a snowy winter!

The Holidays: Part I, Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we did the full cross-country flying thing, to Gloucester, VA, for a Thanksgiving week with Granny. Iris did really well with the travel, although the return flight included an extra hour on a runway in Philadelphia resulting in a missed connection in Denver, and a VERY, VERY long and late day. Iris still enjoyed goofing off in the airports. And she had a nice time with her Granny and Uncle Austin. She couldn't quite manage the word, 'Granny' so tried Grandma and came up with 'Ama.'

When we returned from Thanksgiving in Virginia, Iris decided she no longer would sleep in a crib. So we spent a few weeks of nighttime chaos as we tried to figure out alternatives for a VERY ACTIVE sleeper. She is now sleeping in a makeshift bed/fort on the floor and this seems to be working for the most part, though she does venture
into our bed on some nights. On some occasions now she will reject her booster seat at the table. It's funny that, although Iris wants to be treated as a big girl, she also occasionally asks for her milk in a bottle, by saying "baby milk!"

At the beginning of December Iris got 'promoted' to the next room at daycare, with 2-3 yr olds. She is adjusting to the change and making new friends, and coming home with new words (and behaviors!) every day. She is quite interested in letters and numbers, though right now every number is '2;' she knows a bunch of colors when they are on her pens and crayons, though has some difficulty on unfamiliar objects. Her first sentences appear to be moderately intelligible versions of "Pick it up," "I love you," "I'm a girl!" and "I'm a boy!" (she states the latter two with equal conviction, while signing 'girl' or 'boy'). Iris likes balls and trains, playing in the snow, playing the piano, and drawing. She's around 34 inches and 26 lbs. The belly is shrinking!

And Iris has some Terrible Twos coming out, too. She gets obsessed with something, and if she can't have it, the noise is tremendous and rather theatrical. But then sometimes she will give herself time-outs - ask to go 'night-night.' We put her in her little nest-fort-space and she rests until she's ready to face the world
again. Of course, this only works when we're at home....