Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Being from the Midwest, I often lament the lack of snow in Phoenix in the winter. But as the years have progressed, I realize I don't really miss the snow as much as I miss what I associate with the snow: Christmas, time with family, memories of sledding with friends, watching Brinkley romp through the snow on walks in Lawrence. This year we're staying in Phoenix for Christmas. My first Christmas outside of the Midwest. No snow (or threats of snow), no Christmas Eve service in a familiar church, no roaring fireplace. And at first, I was completely bummed out about it all. Christmas is all about traditions, right? Where are my traditions this year? They're all imbedded in the Midwest Christmas I've grown up in. But then I realized, as I thought about Ellen's first Christmas, that this is our opportunity to start our own traditions with our new little family. Much like I grew up expecting and looking forward to certain things at Christmas with my family, Ellen will do the same. This year we're easing into it a bit, still incorporating familiar traditions like Robin's Christmas Eve gumbo and the Cox family tradition of meatballs and lil smokies in the Crock Pot on Christmas Day (I promise we also have traditions that don't revolve around food...but not many). Christmas tradition is what you make of it, and I'm happy Sean and I have so many years to draw inspiration from to establish our own traditions. We're very much looking forward to an extended visit from Robin, Jim and Grandma Joy, and excited to celebrate our first Christmas with Ellen. While we'll miss spending time with the rest of our family and friends, we know you'll be taking part in your own Christmas traditions, whether new or old. Merry Christmas!

A little photo to brighten your day: Ellen doing her best "senior photo" pose:

Ellen laughing

She had tired a bit by the time we got the camera out, but she was still having a good time.

Ellen chatting

Here's video of Ellen "chatting," as we call it in our house. As you can see, we have a very loose definition of the word. I tried to include this video in the last post, but it didn't work. Here you go!

The new routine

Before we had Ellen, Sean and I had a fairly regular routine during the week: go to work, cook dinner together, walk Brinkley, watch some TV, hit the hay and then get up and repeat the process again the next morning. The weekends might include a movie or a dinner out, but mostly just time to relax after a week at work. Although this routine was pretty nice, I like our new routine even more. While much less predictable, it's so much more fulfilling now that we have Ellen to share it with. Before, the end of the work day was just that...the end of a day of work. Now the end of the work day means we get to pick up Ellen from daycare and spend a couple hours with her in our new nightly routine: get home from daycare, feed Ellen, spend time with her doing tummy time or playing on her play mat or bouncy chair, maybe a short nap, sometimes a bath, another feeding and down for the night. Weekends are eagerly anticipated even more so than before, because weekends mean two whole days to spend with our little lady. She's a good sport, tagging along for grocery shopping, hikes up A Mountain, walks around the neighborhood with Brinkley, church and visits to friends' houses. One of her favorite activities to date is watching football with her dad on Saturdays. We've heard all too many times that we need to enjoy this time while we have it--it's fleeting and we'll never get it back. I can honestly say that we're savoring every moment of our new life--spit up, poopy diapers, crying, you name it-- while looking to the future with excitement. Life with Ellen is so amazing now, it's hard to think it can get any better, but I know it will! My next post may very well be a 180 of this gush-fest, at my wit's end because my baby won't sleep or I can't figure out why she won't stop crying. But for now, I have to say life is good, we are so blessed with the family and friends we have, and all I can ask is, what the heck did we do to deserve all this???
Below you'll find some videos of Ellen. The first one is of Ellen staring at her hand for literally almost two minutes. But if you love babies and you love Ellen, those two minutes will just whiz by! The second video is of Ellen batting at the toys on her bouncy chair...one of her newer skills. Enjoy!

Watching the fan

Ellen is transfixed by the fan. Sometimes she'll track the fan's movement with her feet. We understand that's not the most interesting viewing, so I've thrown in a couple of sneezes and her show of surprise following Brinkley's bark.

Robin's Kvellin' Over Ellen

This video is kind of long and mainly features backs of heads. But you do get to see Gangy go nuts over Ellen.

More videos

Here's a video of Grandma and Grandpa Cox (that's Ellen and Bob to us grownups) meeting Ellen for the first time. In this clip, they're talking about baby Ellen's unfortunate growing resemblance to me.


Minutes later, (baby) Ellen gets fussy. Probably because Brinkley was trying to steal the attention.


And here's Ellen being a bit of a restless sleeper a week later. Check out the cute blue cloth diaper (and the cute dress from Gangy O'Hara). But if you're inclined to complain about how boring it is to watch a baby sleep, go ahead and skip this one.


At this point, I think we've cataloged just about everything she can do at the moment--save for nursing and messing up diapers, neither of which is really suitable for this venue.