Twirling

Yesterday afternoon, Brad was picking December up, twirling her around, and dropping her on the bed. She thought it was the greatest!! Here they are at the beginning of the twirl...

Spinning...

Almost completed the spin...

Flying high in the air! A great live-action shot.

She's about to be dropped on the bed

Back on safe ground again. She LOVES being tickled!

Got milk?

Last Saturday was a fun day for all of us! I went to the parenting conference (which, by the way, was not by Ted Tripp like I had thought -- it was by his brother Paul Tripp. So confusing!) Paul Tripp did an awesome job, though. There were five separate lessons, with 15-minute breaks in between. The first two lessons were on how to get at the heart of parenting -- how we need to focus on changing our child's heart and not simply changing the outward behavior. Discipline needs to be focused on how we can reveal her heart and show her Christ and her need for Christ. If we just punish her outward behavior, she will learn that she can't do those types of things in our presence. So as long as we're not around to see her, there's not alot stopping her from doing those things. BUT by focusing on her heart, she'll (hopefully) no longer want to do those things anywhere. Then the rest of the lectures were on the various age groups and how to apply these thoughts when your child is at various ages. It was really a wonderful conference!

Brad and December went to the Wild Animal Park with the other husbands and babies. It sounds like they had a great time, too! They went into the Petting Corral and pet various types of African deer. December had so much fun with Daddy that she really wasn't all that excited to see me back again! She was just fine with it being the two of them. I'm glad of that. December loves Brad alot!

December and Daddy

December, hanging out on the couch and watching her new favorite video -- Dora the Explorer


Daddy and December reading books together. I love these pictures of Brad and December together. Brad is such a great father, and he loves December incredibly much!

December loves playing games with her two special blankets. Here they're getting cozy under the blankets and just looking at each other

Then they hide under a blanket and suddenly, they become completely invisible -- Mommy can't find December and Daddy anywhere!

Oh! There they are! Peekaboo

December sitting in a bucket/basket of some sort, as she always loves to do! Here she is holding a green star, which is part of her newest favorite toy (even though we've had this toy for over a year and the batteries are dead on it). You can see the toy in its entirety in the next picture.

She loves this toy! December recognizes herself in pictures now, and whenever she sees a picture of herself, she'll point to it and say her name: "Memer! Memer!" It's pretty cute.

Tomorrow is going to be a December and Daddy day. Brad will be watching December all day while I go up to a conference with my friend Naomi. We'll be attending a parenting conference by Ted Tripp, the author of Shepherding a Child's Heart. I'm really excited about going to the day-long conference! Hopefully I'll learn alot about how to shepherd our beloved strong-willed daughter's heart! :)

I've learned that even California has a cold/flu season. I was not expecting one, since the weather's warm enough for people to be outside still. That means we're not all locked up inside with each other because of the weather, sharing various illnesses with one another. But I was wrong. It seems like everyone around here is sick right now! Brad and I are both losing our voices, and I've had a sore throat for the past three days, and Brad and I are still not completely over the stomach bug that's attacking our digestive systems. December, on the other hand, has completely recovered from her Pink Eye and has finished her eye drop treatment, thankfully! So I'm glad she's healthy, at least.

Yesterday was fun -- we went and found December her birthday plates, napkins, invitations, etc. Her birthday is exactly two weeks from today! I'm excited to get her invitations out. We're going to have her friends and their parents over for dinner and hang out and eat birthday cake. You are invited, too, if you want to fly down here! We'll pick you up from the airport, and you can come to December's birthday party, too! That'd be nice...

December and Her Friends

December and her friend Noah playing together. December calls Noah, "No," and Noah calls December, "Beber."

Here's my friend Naomi blowing bubbles for December and Noah

Popping bubbles with their feet -- lots of fun!

December and her friend Gabriel playing together. When we left for Christmas, we were gone so long that when Gabriel's Dad asked about his friends, Gabriel told him, "Well, I used to have a friend named December, but she left." I thought that was pretty cute :)

December and her friend Samuel. December calls Samuel, "NaNa," (can't really figure that one out), and Samuel calls December, "Cember/Cemba."

On Thursday, December got to see all of her favorite friends in one day! First Noah came over to play, and then later, Gabriel came over, and while Gabriel was over, Samuel came over to play, too! She had quite a fun day with all of her friends! Unfortunately, yesterday we had to take December to the doctor, so I'm really hoping she didn't contaminate all of her friends in one fell swoop.

Brad and I suspected December of having Pink Eye because her eye was really leaky, the area surrounding her eye looked like she was wearing pink eyeshadow and was swollen, and the white part of her eye was pink, too. So we called the doctor, and we were told to come in, even though they were really booked and falling behind. The office closes at 5:00pm, but one doctor was willing to stay late and give us an appointment at 5:20pm. We arrived at 4:30 because we haven't taken December to a doctor since we've been here and had to fill out new patient paperwork. The doctor's office was really behind, and we actually finally got home around 7:30pm. We we were waiting a looong time! I had been worried about the long wait with December. But it actually went smoothly, because December made a friend that she played with while everyone was waiting! This little girl was named Waverly and was two and a half. She and December chased each other around the waiting area and copied whatever the other one was doing. Then Waverly stood in the middle of the waiting area and seranaded everyone with her version of "A Whole New World" (the movie Aladdian had been playing in the waiting area). It was pretty adorable! It made me wonder if December would ever do something like that.

Another one of the sick little girls noticed that Brad and I were calling our daughter "December," and she became confused. Brad overheard her say, "Mommy? December is the month for Jesus' birthday! Is Jesus' birthday right NOW??" hehee. We thought that was cute, too.

So now we have eye drops for December, and you can imagine just how much she enjoys getting eye drops put in her eyes three times a day! We have to pin her down just to get them in her eye, and she fights us like a banshee! It's like Brad said -- it would have been far better for either he or I to get Pink Eye rather than December, because the treatment would be quite easy for us to take but is quite horrifying for December to take!

December the Masseuse

December in our closet, just being cute

We have this little massager thing that has a vibrator in it, and December thinks it's pretty fun! Here she's messaging her tummy, and it's tickling her.

She really likes her back being massaged, too. Brad was studying Greek and massaging her at the same time, but whenever he'd pause for a moment, she look back and say, "Mow? Mow?" (= more? more?)

Then December was very kind and massaged Daddy's back for him (for all of about twenty seconds or so). See the pacifier in her mouth? She has never been a pacifier baby until she decided to try to pick up the habit a couple of days ago. Her friend Samuel uses a pacifier and calls it "pass," so now she goes around the house saying, "Pass...pass. Where's pass?" and sucks on it. But I do NOT like this new habit! Starting the use of a pacifier would be major regression, so now the "pass" is in hiding, to hopefully never be found again by December!

Then December decided to take over the Greek studying for Daddy, and she gave him a Bible to look at instead. She likes to help Daddy study.