December Happenings!

We had a pretty busy month in December with all of the Christmas gatherings and happenings! Hard to believe that it is already a new year, and our little baby is now 4 months old. Here's what happened during our past month...

It appears that we may have not one but two finger sucking lovers in our family. Grace has discovered a great love of her hands and fingers. She chews on them throughout the day and sometimes sucks on them to help her sleep as well. She still takes her binky, but we'll see if the fingers become her favorite thing like big sister! 

We visited Santa at the beginning of the month and had a much better experience than last year (which was when Bella clung to me and screamed terrified of him). This time, she was very excited and was somewhat starstruck when sitting on his lap! (Hence the solemn expression on her face.) But she did whisper ever so quietly what she wanted for Christmas to him: "Princesses." 

This picture is not good, but I took it quick at Dylann's birthday party and didn't get my settings fixed in time. Great-Grandpa Zeke with little missy. :) 

In pictures where Grace's eyes don't show up blue, these two look soooooo much alike! It continues to be so much fun to see how Grace is her own person, but yet bears such a resemblance to her sister. 

Just as sweet as ever. :) 

Bella was pretending to be Jasmine while eating her lunch one day- the blanket over her head is a cape I think. We went through a week or two of major Aladdin obsession! I think she has now rotated a love through all the Disney Princesses- but Cinderella remains her first love. 

Grace even got to hold on to Raja for her. :) 

Grace has been learning some new tricks this month! In addition to chewing on her hands constantly, she has now started to grasp and suck on toys. Bella enjoys giving her new toys every few minutes and rotating them for use. 

Grace also perfected the art of rolling from her back to her belly. That brought about some sleeping issues as she did not remain sleeping at first when she rolled over! Thankfully, she has now become a belly sleeper and moved past that little stage. You could definitely say this past month had extreme highs and lows in terms of her sleeping. She would have days where she would sleep great at night, take good naps, but then the next day she'd wake up the second we laid her down and not go to bed until 1 am. Yikes. Thankfully, this past week has been great so I'm hoping we are now on a good trend. Typically, on the "good" days, she's sleeping between 6-8 hours before waking up to eat at night, and taking 3 naps a day- 2 longer ones and a catnap in the evening. 

We started doing several Christmas traditions with Bella this year, one of which was building a gingerbread house! This was not the easiest task as we had a mishap with our frosting tube. But Bella had fun decorating and eating her little house. :) 

Bella got to play hair salon with Mommy this month and had her first experience with a curling iron! She actually cooperated very well and informed me how beautiful she looked afterwards. Easy to curl hair with natural curl in it, and it looked adorable! 

Even posing like a little model. :) 

Gracie is a very happy little lady! Unless tired or hungry- then she can exhibit a ferocious temper! And once she is worked up, it is a task to get her calmed back down. 

On her three month birthday! Getting ever so big. 

Grace loves to interact with people- being talked to and "talking" back! She discovered how to make a lovely growling noise this month- so lovely. 

How sweet- sucking on thumbie. :) 

Tummy time has been going better. She still gets mightily ticked if left on her belly too long, but she tolerates it for at least 10 minutes. Her main problem is that she never puts her head down to rest, so it obviously gets tired! She did roll over from her belly to her back this month as well, but hasn't figured out how to do it more. Once she does, she will be a happy camper rolling along the floor! 

Again- sucking on that little thumb! 

Grace has been working on her sitting up skills and does quite well if she wants to- here she is zoned out watching the tv with Daddy, so she was cool with sitting! 

Grace is now wearing 6 month clothes, which means she got to start wearing Bella's old clothes. (All of Bella's 3 month clothes were summer stuff, so we couldn't use any of that). It has been fun to take out all our old outfits again and see Grace in them! This Princess outfit was a little favorite, so I had to try it on her. She is a princess as well after all! 

Grace also loves to be held and carried around- she has a pretty laidback personality so far, unless that temper comes out. She is pretty content to just watch what is happening around her though! 

Big sister sometimes cooperates and lets me take pictures of them together! More often than not though, she runs and hides when I get the camera out. Naturally, now that it is easier to take pictures of them both! 

Hee hee. :) I adore this. Bella is about a month older than Grace here though. 

Our littlest gal in her festive Christmas dress! 

And some semi decent pictures of them together. :) I don't dress my girls in red often, so they look different when they are in it! 

Bella cheesing it up of course. :) 

But we did coax a natural smile out of her eventually.