Tying up loose ends

Oh what joy December brings...the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, the rush to create, order, address and stamp Christmas cards, that looming feeling of guilt to create the same wonderful holiday memories for my daughter that my parents created for us, the mess in the kitchen from baking cookies and the task of smothering Christmas spirit throughout the house in the form of garland, lights, fraser fur, wreaths, big and small Santa figurines, stockings and of course the Elf on the Shelf. I LOVE Christmas and I do all of this because of the spirit that lives inside of me. When Maryn walks past the 3 ft stuffed snowman in the foyer every morning and stops to give him a hug and says 'hi Frosty' or she stands in front of the t.v. stand, staring up at the large Santa Claus and says with a twinkle in her eyes 'Big Ho Ho'...my day is complete and I forget about the dishes in the sink or the mound of dirty laundry in our closet. I also seem to forget that I'm pregnant until total exhaustion sets in around 6 pm.

I'm tying up loose ends with this post because believe it or not, I do this blog for me and my family. So that one day when my children are off to college and my house is quiet and I have all the time in the world to bake cookies and pies and the holiday decorations are up the day after Thanksgiving...patiently awaiting the arrival of my children...I can sit on my couch and page through all the tender memories and probably shed a tear or two because I'm such a sucker like that. People always say that the prime of your life is when you're in your 20's and you have no responsibilities and you can back pack across Europe on mommy and daddy's bill but to me and my husband...THIS is the prime of our lives!

Merry Christmas Friends!

Though I'm 21.5 weeks today, I had to record my half way picture that we took last weekend. And if you think I'm weird because I count half weeks, come spend a day with me at work in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and you'll understand what a difference even a day makes.

She calls herself Mimi. I think she shortened Maryn Amelia.

After we established successful breastfeeding, I introduced the pacifier with hopes that it would give me a little bit of leeway at the grocery store when it was feeding time but not the most appropriate place to lift my shirt. She wanted nothing to do with it. But alas, I was cleaning behind her crib a week ago (because I have time for things like this in December) and we found a rejected pacifier. She adopted it for the day. With still only 2 teeth on the bottom and 4 on the top, I think it felt good to chew on it.

We're members at the Aquarium so if anyone wants to join us for an afternoon of fun, for free! let me know! We love it!

Happy Birthday Nanny! Check out Bode trying to get in on the action. We've been to 4 birthday parties in the last month and every time we sing 'Happy Birthday', she thinks it's Nanny's birthday! Sweet baby.

I'm really not sure how I've restrained myself from gobbling her up with this pregnant appetite of mine!

Time to jump in the shower and head off to a Christmas party!