Baby's First Christmas

 We spent Christmas with my family this year.  

Leland opened his first present and was more interested in the paper than the actual gift.

He crawled around from family member to family member as they opened their gifts,

 eventually he wore himself out.  He's hardly bigger than his stocking!

 My mom took Leland for a ride around the yard in her wagon.  He loved it!

 Bryce joined us on New Year's Eve and we headed up to Mark's parents house to celebrate Christmas all over again!  We enjoyed our time at the Peoples' it was perfectly relaxing.

* Merry Christmas *

* CHRISTMASTIME *

Bryce was here for a week during Thanksgiving break, so we took a family trip to the Johnson Tree Farm in Boulder Creek.  If you have not been there, you should go.  They are a delightful, family owned and operated local tree farm.  Farmer Ron (Johnson) greeted us as we brought our tree down the hill to the shaking machine.  He told us he has been caring for our tree for 7 years and that he had given our tree a "haircut" in January to shape it into its perfect Christmas tree shape.  We drank hot chocolate and apple cider near the picnic area and firepit (where you can roast marshmallows).  There is a quaint gift shop too in case you need to pick up any more holiday decorations.  And we took a hayride up the hill, led by our very own neighbor and hayride conductor Tim Folkert!  

At Johnson Tree Farm

Bryce found our "perfect" Christmas tree.  Its name is "HOLIDAY"!

This is "the one", we are sure of it!

Success!

Pumpkin Rolling 

Leland checking out the goat.

* HALLOWEEN *

This Halloween our costumes came together at the last minute.  On Sunday afternoon (the 30th) we were busy creating.  Well mostly Mark, he always goes the extra mile for his costume.  I didn't, I found mine at the used clothing store Moon Zoom downtown Santa Cruz.  All I had to come up with was Dorothy's ruby slippers.  Mark had some red spray paint left over from some job and I bought a bottle of red glitter and voila my gold heels are now ruby slippers!  Leland's warm costume came from the Little People's store in Scotts Valley.

We headed downtown for dinner at Hula's to celebrate Brenda's birthday then on to the informal parade down Pacific Avenue.  We felt famous, everyone wanted to take our photo or be in a photo with us.  It was fun for a while, until our cheeks hurt from smiling.  We've already started tossing around ideas for next year... though I'm sure we wont get started making the costumes until the last minute.

Here we are with Glenda the good witch and the wicked witch of the east.

Here we are with a wicked witch, the scarecrow and a flying monkey.

We even stumbled across the gate keeper to Oz!

* Firsts *

How fitting to write about Leland's "firsts" on November 1st. 

(Where did the entire month of October go???) 

Since the last post Leland has has his FIRST taste of real food.  He is enjoying rice cereal, pureed carrots, broccoli, sweet potatoes and banana.  He LOVES to eat, he wants anything that his daddy & I are eating and when you feed him, you can't shovel the food in fast enough.  He had his FIRST drink of water from a sippy cup.  He can roll and scoot and maneuver anywhere he wants to.  He hasn't quite made it to his FIRST crawl, but he gets up on hands and knees and rocks quite often.  At 6 months old he broke the 12 lb. mark by 1 oz.  He had his FIRST Halloween yesterday!  I'll blog about that tomorrow.  I'm afraid if I don't record these firsts somewhere I may never remember them.

 

* working mama *

Its been almost 2 months since I started back to work 4 days a week. It has been quite an adjustment.  Every morning I find it hard to say goodbye to Leland and so far it hasn't gotten any easier.  I don't expect it to get easier, really.  Today is my day off though, and I plan to enjoy every minute I have with him.  And to do irrational working mother things like... hold him in my arms for the entirety of his morning nap.  Why put him in his crib when I can snuggle him in my arms until they go all tingly?  

* where has the time gone? *

My baby is 5 1/2 months old already and not a single post on this little bundle of cuteness!

Leland James Peoples (taken June 9, 2011)

I am determined to blog more, mostly because I want to have a record of photos and stories of Leland's babyhood. So I start today and hope to be a frequent blogger.

My little baby is not so little any more. He weighs 12 lbs now, is 24 inches long and wears 3 month clothing and some 3-6 month outfits too. He smiles often and with his whole face not just an upturned mouth. He loves his satin monkey blanket and his pacifier to go to bed. He rolls over front to back and back to front. I even caught him rolling straight into the living room closet (I left the door open and he was curious). He loves to look out at the world, up at the sky and the trees, and to be read books.

The picture above is one of my favorites, its the screen saver on my desktop at work but my baby doesn't look like that anymore, he looks older. His looks seem to change from week to week, sometimes over night!

Leland being kissed by Aunt Victoria

Leland sitting upright, with lots of help from his little seat.