5th & 6th Days of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas, my loving family gave to me --

a pink, butterfly purse from my Grandpa and Granny;

a Baby Einstein Book and a Laugh & Learn camera from a friend;

Crayola Tadoodles Markers from Mommy;

a Christmas bear from cousin Meg;

a book from my Grandpa and Granny;

and a Hokey Pokey Elmo from cousin Robbie.

On the 5th night, Emma picked out her own gift (partially on accident). She was eating a cracker and decided to drop it in a gift bag. When she went to get the cracker out, she discovered a book and was very excited! She immediately forgot about the cracker (not a small feat) and ran over to me with the book so I could read it to hear half a dozen times. After that, she went back to find the cracker and found the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn camera. If you press one of the buttons, it occasionally sings "If you're happy and you know it", a song we've discovered Emma is quite familiar with and she knows to clap at the right part! It is pretty adorable.

The 6th night was when she finally seemed to understand to rip open the wrapping paper. However, once she got to the point where she could see the gift, she froze. We still had to take the gift (a fuzzy, pink butterfly purse) out of the paper and give it to her. At that point, she was very excited about it.

Obviously, I missed a few nights posting. The 5th night I came down with the stomach bug Dan had earlier. I guess he wasn't just being a baby about it - it was pretty horrible. I ended up going to bed at like 6:30. Luckily, it passed within about 24 hours for me instead of 72 like his and I was able to deal with work on Tuesday. Last night I was still worn out and decided to finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows instead of posting. After watching Pt 1 at the theater last week I realized that I'd only read the book once and did that very quickly just to get to the end. I couldn't believe how much I'd forgotten/missed the first time. It just may have pushed it back to the #1 spot on my Favorite Series list. Percy Jackson had crept up there, but it just doesn't have the same magic (for lack of better word) that Harry Potter does.

I think that Emmaline is starting to cut another tooth (although I haven't been able to inspect her mouth recently). She's getting a bit more cranky, drooling more -- luckily she has never been a super drooley baby, and keeps her finger in her mouth constantly. A big part of me wants to just give her the pacifier back because I know it gives her some relief, but we've gone almost 2 weeks without it. If only she would give up needing to be rocked to sleep as easily! :)