Merry Christmas!

Erin and I were out in Portland for a week and got home on the 23. We had a good time, but our visiting was limited by the weather. Portland had rotten weather. It snowed 13 inches , with some ice thrown in there, and it was cold! If we wanted cold and snowy we would have stayed home. Portland was shut down, the buses stopped running and we did a lot of walking. Unfortunately while we got to spend a lot of time with Gramma Beth, we only got to see Papa Joey for a few minutes once. I think that we all got a bit of cabin fever and by the end of the week, Erin was a tad on the cranky side. She also struggled with sleep and was waking almost every hour during the night. On the bright side, Erin had many happy piano sessions with Gramma, had a blast playing with Lucy and Brennan, loved being fed by Muggy and got to take a bath in Gramma's new sink.







Erin and I made it home in time for Christmas. We had a great time with Matt's extended family on Christmas eve and over to Jan and Dean's for Christmas morning. Erin was totally spoiled by her Grandparents. She seemed to enjoy herself and loved playing with the wrapping paper.



We've continued to have a tough time with sleep since coming home, but I think that we're heading in the right direction. We gave up the swaddle cold turkey when we got back, so we've had 4 nights sans swaddle. Erin' s having a bit of a hard time adjusting to her newfound freedom. She swims herself in circles in the crib and I found her on her tummy this morning. She didn't really seem to enjoy either of those, but I'm sure she'll settle down.

Erin is getting really good at standing up against the couch, the coffee table and her crib. She will even take a few steps holding our hands. She also starting to seem frustrated about sitting still, but can't seem to get the idea of crawling. Her other new trick is thumb sucking. She still loves her pacifier, but I've caught her sucking her thumb several times over the last few days. Who knows if this is something that will stick around, but it's pretty cute.