A bunch of pictures

Here's a shot of Livia's two bottom teeth.

Reaching with all her might for our camera case. (She got it, by the way)

Grinning.

Playing in her Christmas outfit.

Check out all her hair! This is her "I-look-like-I'm-about-to-crawl-but-I'm-really-going-to-fall-flat-on-my-belly" stance.

Another shot of her teeth.

Side note: Despite my best intentions of sending out Christmas cards this year...it's not going to happen. Next year, I promise.

When disaster strikes

I've learned a lesson in vigilance this week.

On Monday I left Livia alone in the living room for a few minutes while I moved the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I can't count how many times I've done that before, and every other time I've returned to find her sitting in exactly the same place I left her, playing with her toys. This time, however, Livia took the opportunity to...explore...a little bit.

She rolled all the way into the kitchen and pulled over the bag of trash I had been about to take out. So when I came back from changing the laundry, I found her lying on the floor, wallowing in garbage! Aggh!

I cleaned Livia up first, and then turned my attention to the disgustingness that was my kitchen floor. This was when I realized that the trash she had been exploring included egg shells and raw meat packaging. Holy gross!!

Then, yesterday, she was playing on the living room floor and suddenly started coughing. Obviously, she had found something off the floor and tried to swallow it. I did a finger sweep but didn't feel anything. She was crying and coughing now, so I grabbed a flashlight and peered into her mouth. What did I find? A pine needle, sticking up out of her throat. I didn't know what else to do, so despite her sputtering and gagging I just reached right back there and plucked it out. I could swear she gave an almost audible sigh of relief. As did I.

Apparently, I can never let her out of my sight ever again.

Because it's been awhile...

First of all, Thanksgiving was wonderful. The food was delicious, the company was great, and Livia entertained herself during dinner by eating peach puffs. What more could you ask for??

Here is a picture of us, taken just as we were about to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner.


Chase's oldest brother, Richie, and his wife, Whitnie, came up for the occasion, and it was so much fun to all be together.


My parents also happened to be in the bay area for Thanksgiving, visiting my grandparents. So we spent Friday morning with them and were able to fulfill the Self/Fitt family tradition of sitting on Santa's lap! My Uncle David has a full Santa suit costume, and doing this is a major highlight of every Thanksgiving.

I was worried that Livia would start to cry, but there were no tears! Here they are, checking each other out.

Even Chase got to sit on Santa's lap!

We met up with the Baldwin side of the family in San Francisco later that day, and took a jaunt down Lombard street.

Thanksgiving was over all too soon. It's a good thing Christmas follows so quickly! Chase put me on a tight budget for Christmas decorations this year, so I settled on a Christmas tree ($20 for a 6 ft. tree at Target!) and a wreath. I'm not a very crafty person, but since our budget was too small to buy an elaborate wreath, I went to Michael's and bought some ribbon and a $3.00 wreath. I thought it turned out rather well, and I used the leftover ribbon to make some bows to put on our Christmas tree, as it was looking a little sparse. Pretty thrifty, eh? In other news, Livia is becoming increasingly mischievous. The other day she managed to get into my diaper bag and pulled everything out.

I still haven't figured out how she managed this next one. One minute she was playing quietly on the floor, and the next she was going through our medical records!

Livia is also becoming increasingly mobile. She still doesn't crawl, but she's come up with her own way to get around. I usually have her sitting up on the floor, but if a toy rolls out of reach, she'll fall over onto her stomach, roll onto her back, and push herself along with her feet (probably rubbing half the hair off her head in the process). Then she'll roll back onto her stomach, and if she's still too far away, she'll flip right back to her back and scoot some more.

Here she is napping...she was facing the opposite direction when I laid her down. Apparently, the blanket stayed in one place and she just rotated underneath it.Ü