December

New Year's Eve's Eve she spent with Grandma & Grandpa... New Year's Eve with Yiayia & Papou and New Year's Day with Aunt Keri & Uncle Peter. By January 2nd our party girl was officially pooped.

Category 5 Hurricane Adrienne

Our junkyard dog. She used to do this ALL the time with her little plastic key ring. Back then she was only doing mini push-ups - I never managed to get a shot of it though. Now that she has teeth she can chomp down on bigger stuff.

Yippie! It's CHRISTMAS!!!!

She's mastered "F's". Along with simultaneously spitting absolutely EVERYWHERE.

So many new toys.... So little time.....

Christmas Day.... The next generation of 'The Cousins' picture....

This really was the cutest little velvet tuxedo but none of the pictures do it justice!!

Greg wanted to get her picture taken with Santa. I wanted no part of that debacle. Here she is with a stuffed Santa. And 2 seconds away from tears. Same outcome, but I managed to do it in a matter of a minute vs waiting on line at the mall for an hour!
Talk about party favors!!!
She attended her man Garet's first birthday party on Saturday. As I was packing up to leave I put her down next to me. All of a sudden I hear Garet's dad say "Umm, I think you might be a little young for those." She had reached into the purse next to her & took them both out!! So not only is she up to 2-packs-a-day but she's also a clepto!!!

"Hey, want to crawl over to my crib and split a bottle of formula?"

The birthday boy in his moment of glory! You may also remember him as the frog that Adrienne spent Halloween with...

The little party animal even attended my office party!

And at yet ANOTHER party....

Cindy's dad wears red socks. Period. As he put it, "If there are shoes on my feet then so are red socks". Needless to say he was quite impressed with her fashion choice this evening...

I may have to install video of this... It's just the cutest thing (well, not for Ringo who just wants to take a nap)... Every time he lays down she scoots over to him & puts her head on him. He's a Ringo-pillow...

Oh, by the way... a little tid-bit for all my girlfriends who are *thinking* about entering into the world of babydom (T.H. this means you): This past Sunday, 12/16, was the first time Adrienne slept PAST 8am. Ever. EVERY DAY for 10 1/2 months our 'little bundle of alarm clock' has had us up BEFORE 8am. And 99% of the time BEFORE 7am. That's all I'm sayin'....

The obligatory baby-in-front-of-the-tree picture. BUT.... she IS a Billows and therefore must contemptuously stick out her tongue to turn this memorable Currier & Ives moment into a Bart Simpson fiasco.

Hanging her FIRST CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT EVER (direct from Disney World thanks to Aunt Elena, Uncle Glenn, Corinne & Cassandra!)

Out & about yesterday picking out her FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE EVER!!!

Here she is opening her FIRST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!!!

Actually, it was her FIRST CHRISTMAS PARTY EVER at Nouno & Nouna's last night...

And she got to spend a little QT with Aunt Keri who ALWAYS makes her laugh (even if she's trying to put her in pjs 2 sizes too small....)

One last party trick she added to her repertoire this week... Paying homage to Macauley Culkin's scene-stealer moment in Home Alone...

Seriously, we have NO idea where she picked this up. Maybe she was trying to clap & her head got in the way... Or maybe she's trying to do peak-a-boo but doesn't exactly know where her eyes are. Whatever the case, it's pretty funny. And she's starting to do it on cue if we say "Oh no!".

Notice the peak... "You're still looking at me, right?? All attention MUST be on me at all times. Even if I'm not looking at you, you have to be looking at me."

And what's THIS look all about?!! It's somewhere between "SERIOUSLY now why are parents so ridiculous" and "Preeetttttyyy pllleeeaasseee". Why do I have a feeling we'll be seeing this look a LOT more through the years...

She also mastered clapping this week! There's just no stopping this child. Next week she's taking over the world. No doubt.

Big news!
She learned to pull herself up! I went to pick her up at day care yesterday (12/10) and saw her STANDING next to the toy shelf. She got to play in the 'big kids' room (big kids = 6-8wks older than her) who are all pros at crawling and pulling themselves up.

We've been working with her on doing this for a month. She spends one day with a couple of babies and they manage to teach her in 8 hours. Nice to see all our effort pays off.

Anyway, no pics of this yet... Hopefully we'll 'catch her in the act' soon!

Oh, she also learned how to flip her tongue over this past week... No picture of that yet either but it's pretty amusing to watch her try to talk with an upside tongue. Especially when she BITES her own tongue! Now THAT'S a face I need to get a picture of!

An impromptu dance with dad...

Usually she sleeps with her face buried between the bumper & the mattress... How precious is that little face!?

Early exposure is key.

Episode V of course.

She's been 'standing' for a few weeks now - still a little (ok, a LOT) wobbly. And the only time she'll 'walk' along while holding on is if Ringo is in the grabbing vicinity.

"I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!!!!"

Yes, another bath picture. But this month it's a bonus with her chubby butt in frame! And yes, she's deliriously happy because Greg just walked into the room.