New Toy

For Christmas, Pumpkin got a push bike from her cousins in Utah. To say she likes it would be an understatement. She spent a majority of the afternoon scooting around the living room and giggling in delight. To be fair, she doesn't quite understand the steering function, and instead pivots the bike around when she invariably runs into the couch or a wall.

Chairs

The little one learned another skill over Christmas: getting into and out of her little rocking chairs. While not the most graceful exercise, she got quite good at climbing into and out of the chair, and smiling like a crazy person in how impressed she was with her feat.

Playing with Grandma

Pumpkin very much enjoyed all of the attention over the holidays. One of her favorite games was knocking down the block towers grandma built. Grandma would exclaim "Oh No!" causing pumpkin to squeal and laugh in delight after she knocked down the blocks. On another note, I think this may be why she now knocks everything down at home as well...

Animal lover

The bugs fascination with dogs only continued as she was so excited to meet Howie while up in Idaho. Along with endless pointing, kissing the glass and babbling, she also found her first word after Da! (Dad) and Mamama (Mom) which fittingly was Dog. I am worried she will break us eventually.

Opening presents is fun

To my surprise, the bug really enjoyed opening presents Christmas morning. I really enjoyed the displays of awe and excitement as she opened each new present. She was particularly enamored with a pair of white dress shoes from grandma and grandpa, though I think she mainly wanted to eat them. She also had a great reaction to the baby doll. She immediately put it on her shoulder and patted the dolls back. She's going to be such a good big sister. Though to be fair, she did also try to rip out the eyelashes as well. Guess we'll just have to keep an eye on her!

Friendly

Pumpkin was making lots of friends on the flight home to Moscow. Hopefully the friendliness trend continues on.

Merry Christmas!

We've been having a great time up in Idaho enjoying family and snow. Last night we had the Berglund family celebration. We had a big dinner and then did a white elephant exchange. Popular gifts included fake teeth, a flying pig and duct tape. After white elephant, we lit fireworks as has been tradition. Pumpkin was not a fan of the loud booms and cried unless I hugged her close. After a few mortars we went inside so she wouldn't be so scared and cold. This morning we opened presents as a family and much to my surprise, the bug really got into it! With each gift she would make excited "oohs and ahs". Completely darling to say the least. Baby girl made quite the haul and we will be shipping back at least one box full of books and puzzles.

So far it's been a great holiday and we are excited to attempt some sledding tomorrow.

Traumatized by Santa

She didn't like Santa even a little bit. We had real tears.

Reading books

This is what her bookcase looks after about 5 minutes. So much for any sort of organization.

12.12.12

Happy 12 day! Pumpkin further confirmed her Einstein status today as she followed instructions for the first time. I asked her to bring me her diaper so I could change her pants (it was on the floor from where she had been playing with it). She hesitated at first but then walked over, bent down to pick up the diaper and then walked over to me, with the biggest grin ever. I know it is small, but it really made my day. Oh how I love my cuddly, brilliant little bug.

1 Year Photos

For Pumpkin's birthday, we had Kimmy take some photos, mainly of the bean, but of the rest of us as well. Again, Grandpa Jim's chair saved the day, as she just loves sitting and rocking in it. I love the way they turned out, and am excited to get some prints up on the wall. 

 

Visit's from Auntie Kasi

So I've gotten a bit behind, but a few weeks ago Kasi came to visit, and oh what fun was had. The bug pretended to be all serious  at first ...

 

But once she had a wallet, all was right in her world.

Pumpkin very much enjoyed the extra attention and playmate. 

I love this one, because it kind of looks like she is trying to get away (she actually just wanted to play with her animals).

Now that's better. Loving on her "O"wl. Of all the animals in her alphabet train, the owl is her favorite and she always grabs it first, generally followed by the skunk and rabbit.

We were daring and tried to get some shots of the bean in the chair Grandpa Jim made for her last Christmas. There were so many I loved, especially the clapping ones.

Oh how we love visitors! We look forward to Grandma Karyn coming next week and then visiting more family for Christmas at the end of December!!

What a difference a year makes