Our Trip to visit the Wrights/Leeths

Been a year since we saw the Wrights...the kids grow sooo fast! I had blast hanging out with my "second" family. We laughed, chatted, played games, had PIZZA-thanks Jim!
Beleive it or not Simon is only 5 months older than Alice. They were so sweet together watching the big kids through the window and sitting on the bottom step together and playing with trains.

Julia and Lil fed the horses that the Leeths board on their property...Girlfriend and Suddenly.

Alice was not daunted by the size of Kara's great dane Tucker and decided to climb all over him. Tucker was, of course, unfazed.

Liliana enjoyed every last bit of the popcorn while waiting for her turn on the rope swing

The Last Christmas Post...I promise I will move on!

I just want to say that I have always loved Christmas, I love everything about it! The shopping, the decorating, the food, the family, especially family and of course celebrating the birth of our Savior. I often wish we could bottle the wonderful feelings that we have during the season and pull them out on our bad days! Those of you with children of your own know that kids make every holiday bigger...especially Christmas. I know I just want to soak in every minute and record every cute/sweet/hysterical/new thing that is happening.

Alice's gift to me this year was independent walking! Being a physical therapist and having some background in pediatrics my concern was growing about her gait development (coupled with her small size). In my heart I knew Alice was developing normally at her own rate, but the inner PT voice was distressing. I even choose her big Christmas gift around the goal of gait. So imagine my joy when she LET GO and walked across the room like it was NOTHING!

Alice's first encounter with a piano...she's a budding composer!

Alice was Nelson's new best friend after he discovered that she drops food.

Okay, more Christmas stuff....

On Christmas morning all of the Grandparents and Robert's brothers Michael and Thomas as well as cousins Alan and Nik all piled into our cozy living room for breakfast and gift opening. Alice tickled us all by digging into her gift wrap, boxes and presents with the appropriate ooohhhs and aahhhs!

Alice zonked out on the way to Great Granny's in Lumberton, NC...zzzzz

Alice didn't hesitate helping Great Granny open her gifts.

Alice struck a pose at the front door in her adorable Christmas outfit...Robert calls those pants her clown pants!

Christmastime in Charleston

The Santa at the SC Aquarium really freaked Alice out!

We had a grand time at the Toogoodoo Tree Farm choosing our tree and taking a train ride around the farm. Alice had a blast on the toys that the family keeps around for the visiting kids!

Alice is Walking!

Alice started walking last week! She just decided it was time...she still has that wobbly unsteady gait with the hands high up in the air, it is just soo cute.

We took these photos about a month ago when Alice first discovered that she

could climb up into her rocking chair on her own.

Look at how Proud she is of herself!

I just Love that she has that little book

upside-down in her hands!

She sat and rocked, and rocked, and rocked !

I know, I know...I haven't been keeping up regularly with the blog. I hate that I haven't because so many really neat things have been going on here. Alice is such a smart little girl...it just amazes me to see her develop into a little peson with her own ideas and opinions. One evening after bath time I was getting her ready for bed and she was holding onto the bottle of lotion that I had just finished applying and said her version of balloon (which sound more like baaoon) So I of course said "no sweetie, that's not a balloon, that is lotion." At which point she said balloon again, a little more forcefully...I looked at the lotion and sure enough there were 3 balloons on the front of the bottle! She can say up, down, mom, dad, dog, ball, balloon, rock/rock, book, hot, fish, some kind of version of please which I can only identify because she signs please at the same time, of course "no", ho ho ho in honor of Christmas and some others that we have only heard once or twice like truck and tickle. She has remained very cautious about walking and has weaned down from requiring both hands held to just needing a pinky finger in her right hand...she likes to keep the left one free to pick stuff up with. She has walked stretches as long as 10 feet without any help, but she still likes us close. She is changing so much...less my little Baby, more my little Toddler.

Koi Pond

While touring the historic homes in St Augustine we came across Alice's favorite sight seeing...Fish.