A Secret Admirer

How scandalous! We have a secret admirer! This admirer doesn't shower us with gifts or good deeds (such as shoveling our driveway after the blizzard of '09). Instead, she (I'm pretty sure it's a she) sent us an anonymous Christmas card.

Going through the mail last week, I happened upon a Christmas card without a return mailing address, so I checked the postmark. Unfortunately, that was too faded to read. No problem. Surely the sender would sign her name. Oh no. She wanted to keep it interesting.

I opened the card and discovered... nothing except for the pre-printed message. Seriously! I had to laugh. No salutation. No closing. Nothing except for an envelope addressed to the three of us.

I've never heard of anyone anonymously wishing a Merry Christmas to someone. Maybe that's the gift: we get to play detective to determine the sender. Well, if that's the case, I do have a few clues and two possible suspects (but for privacy's sake, I won't reveal their names).

Clue #1: Red ink used to address the envelope
Clue #2: Very neat and pretty penmenship, much like a teacher's
Clue #3: Based on the minimal postmark, I'd say this is a local admirer
Clue #4: This person knows all three of us since she addressed the letter to all of us (not just me or Scott)

To whomever our admirer might be, thank you for the smile. And Merry Christmas right back at you!

Call a Spade a Spade

Each year about this time, Bill O'Reilly opines on the attack on Christmas. Obviously opinions vary on this topic, as evidenced by the overwhelming number of emails that he receives and shares on his show. However, Scott and I can't help but notice that what O'Reilly says has merit (and no, we don't always agree with him). Specifically, watching our favorite Thursday night shows on NBC verified O'Reilly's assertion.


Now don't get me wrong: I understand that there are other faiths that celebrate other holidays. I have no qualms with that. What bothers me is when people deliberately secularize Christmas, even though this season is the Christmas season. I mean, are we hitting all the sales because of some other holiday? No. What about the Christmas trees? Santa? Red and green? Are these for another holiday? No. Yet our society has been saying that despite all these factors, we can't say "Merry Christmas" for fear of offending someone. Why is that? Why is it that Christians are made to feel GUILTY for celebrating an important event in our faith, yet society bends over backward NOT to offend those of other faiths? Can someone explain this, because it doesn't make sense to me.

That being said, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Regardless of how you might celebrate, may your Christmas be filled with warmth, happiness, and laughter.

Nine Months

So, if Leah doesn't look too happy in the above photos, it's probably because she hasn't been feeling well lately. She's been battling a nasty cold since Saturday, so she hasn't been her usual happy self. Thankfully, though, this is nothing more serious than a cold (she had her nine-month check-up today, so the doctor also evaluated her sickness).

According to the doctor, Leah's right on track developmentally (which we already figured). Though she doesn't pull-up on furniture on her own, she will pull-up on our fingers. She's definitely TRYING to pull herself up, but she still doesn't have the upper body strength. That slight hindrance is not stopping our Leah. She knows we'll help her stand, and once she's up, she scoots right along. When she's feeling particularly bold, she'll hold onto me (or Scott) with one hand, leaving the other hand free. Because of her interest in standing (and moving!), Scott's teaching her how to sit down when she's tired. It seems to be working; she doesn't fall straight back as much as she used to. Don't worry; we still supervise her when she's mobile.

When she's not standing, she's exploring. Apparently she's grown tired of the family room and her many toys, so she feels a need to explore the rest of the house. This little adventurer will crawl right past the kitchen and head for the hallway, pausing just long enough for us to ask, "What are you doing?", before smiling, laughing, and taking off for the foyer and study. (Hmmm, I guess it IS a good thing that she's not walking yet!)

Oh, our intrepid explorer did find something of interest in our kitchen: gifts. There are two bags of gifts sitting on the kitchen floor. I didn't think she'd be interested, especially since she can't actually reach them. Silly me. Leah managed to pull one of the bags down (no clue how) and then proceeded to grab the bow off one of the packages. She did that not once, but twice, and then brought her "prize" into the family room to join her other toys. I can only imagine what will happen come Christmas! (Side note: surprisingly, she's not that interested in the Christmas tree, or the gifts under it, yet. She did pull a snowflake ornament off when I was holding her, but she then proceeded to "place" it on one of the boughs.)

Turkey Day

Our Little Turkey


Despite being sick, I think Leah enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. She was one of only three little ones at the annual Allen-Thorstad clan gathering, but she didn't mind, especially since she had plenty of adults to love on her. Plus, her (second) cousin Ben and friend Max kept her entertained (well, until they tired of it, and decided to do their own thing).

Leah with cousins Megan and Ben.

Hanging with the boys: Ben, Leah, & Max

8 Months

Yes folks, she smiled for ALL her pictures!!

See her teeth?

Our little monster/ boogs/ two-teeth/ bugger is quite the mover and shaker now. She's still as happy as ever, but she's even more fun than she was last month. I love watching her discover the world around her, especially when she finds the joy in simple things (like the ties on my apron).

Leah's become rather proficient at the army crawl, and doesn't seem to be too interested in the traditional crawl. Every so often she'll get up on all fours, but then she doesn't go anywhere. Which makes me wonder if she'll skip the traditional and go straight to walking. After all, she DOES like standing. We'll extend our fingers to her and she pulls herself right up. Sometimes she'll crawl over to us so that we'll help her stand (whereas in the past it was so we'd hold her). I know, what have we done?!

Accompanying these moves have been some new sounds, too. I'm not sure if it's because of the teeth or not, but Leah now purses her lips and blows, almost as if she's trying to whistle. Granted, nothing comes out, but it's so cute to watch! Oh, yes, she has her two bottom teeth (and she's been working on some more). Because of the teeth, her tongue is regularly sticking out due to her feeling the new additions to her mouth.

I feel as if there's so much I could say about Leah, but I'm not even sure what else to include. After all, as a first time parent, everything that she does amazes me, so it's hard to filter the really amazing from the somewhat amazing.

One last note about our little explorer: she loves hanging out with me and Scott. I know, most babies prefer their parents, but what makes us laugh is that we could be sitting in separate spots in the family room while Leah's playing on the floor, and she's perfectly content. She'll just hang out with her toys. But the minute the two of us are sitting next to each other on the couch, Leah's over there, wanting to join us. Once she's on the couch, she's ten times happier than when she was playing (happily) with her toys. That goof. She knows how to make us smile.

Capturing the Moments

Yesterday I realized that I wish I could capture every moment with Leah so that I could re-live them years later. She's growing by leaps and bounds now, and her little personality is really starting to shine. Our eight-month-old (as of yesterday!) is quite the explorer, which is why I wish I could capture every moment. Here are just two moments (from yesterday) I wish I could re-live daily:

Leah has discovered the bottom shelf of the bookcase that's in our kitchen, so I recently moved some non-breakables to it (I thought that might be better than letting her play with the ceramic mixing bowls that had resided there). One of those items is a tin of recipes... and Leah LOVES it. She'll crawl over and pull it off the shelf so that she can "drive" it on the floor. So yesterday, I was sitting at the kitchen table writing while Leah was playing with "her" tin; soon it became strangely quiet (anyone with a baby knows that type of quiet), prompting me to turn (after all, Leah's also started venturing down the hallway or into the living room). There was my baby girl, pulling herself up on top of the tin. She had managed to hoist her upper body onto the tin and was trying to stand (oh, have I mentioned before that standing is her new favorite activity? She can't do so on her own, but she will with our help). Scott, who was in the family room, and I just watched her, cheering her on to success (yes, we're crazy, and no, she didn't quite make it all the way up). If only I could re-live that moment.

Later that evening, Scott and I were eating dinner and Leah was entertaining herself in the family room (for those of you who don't know, our family room and kitchen are basically one big room, so it's not like Leah was unsupervised). Anyway, as most of you know, Leah loves exploring underneath the end table. Well, that's the one on the right side of the room. She hasn't really expressed an interest in the one of the left until now. Up until recently, there were two packages of diapers (unopened) stacked underneath it, thus preventing our little adventurer from getting very far. That wasn't the case yesterday. While we were eating dinner, I happened to glance into the family room only to see a little panda butt sticking out from underneath the end table. The little bugger had climbed onto the one package of diapers and was trying to make her way completely underneath the table! Scott and I both laughed out loud, as I rushed over to redirect her curiosity, but not before I snapped a picture. When I sat down next to Leah, she looked at me and grinned. She was so proud of herself!
Now that's a moment that will always bring a smile to my face.

Trunk or Treat

Our Little Pumpkin

Leah and her girlfriends (fellow March babies) convinced us parents to take them to Trunk or Treat at church, even though they are MUCH too young for all that candy. Being the doting parents that we are, we agreed, despite the rain and the crowds. Luckily, we were able to duck into an empty room so that the girls could hang out and take pictures. This is one motley crew, and I just hope that they "remain" friends as they grow older. Enjoy the photos!Lizzie, Kate, Leah, & Evie

Let's try this again with ALL the girls. Can you tell this was rather entertaining?
Lizzie (chick), Kate (princess), Leah (pumpkin), Evie (clown), & Avah (peacock)

Leah really had a thing for her friends' costumes. (Above) Grabbing Kate's princess costume. (Below) Munching on Avah's peacock costume.