Merry Christmas/5 months old!

Dear Savannah, you are 5 months old! You are changing and growing so much every day. You can sit by yourself for short periods of time before falling over. You still don't know how to roll over much. You love playing with your hands and feet. You drool A LOT. You poop thru your clothes daily. You wear 9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. You still adore your daddy and your brother. You can entertain yourself for long periods of time in your exersaucer. For Christmas, Gaga and Papa got you a Bumbo seat, and you really like to sit in it and watch us all do our thing. Santa brought you a tray for it so that you can play with your toys. You are finally interested in toys, so that you can put them all in your mouth! And you really like it when I read to you. You are accumulating a book collection of your own in addition to Jackson's hand me downs. You love to squeak and shriek and sing with your voice, and you can be VERY loud, though you haven't said Mama or Dada yet. No teeth as of yet, but we think they are coming due to your excessive drooling and putting everything in your mouth. You still sleep in our room and/or bed, but you are getting better at spending longer periods in your pack and play. You are such a sweet happy girl and you make our lives a more joyful place!

On other notes, we had a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated with my parents the week before, and did it gradually so that Jackson had a chance to enjoy all of his gifts without being too overwhemed. Santa came for the kids on Christmas Eve morning, and Jackson got a toolbench, which was his "big" present, and his favorite present was a tie between the veggie tales plush figures and Stretch the talking tape measure from Handy Manny. Savannah got a few books, her Christmas outfit, and a jack in the box. On Christmas Day, JW and opened our presents from each other, which was really nice--one of the big ones is that we are planning on running the Pittsburgh Marathon May 15th 2011--we are officially registered! So we will have a fun 18 week training period, we hope... Christmas morning we headed to Oxford to spend Christmas with Grammi, and the kids got lots more good stuff. It was very fun to spend time with family, and the kids did amazing, I was so proud of them. Jackson is becoming more and more like a little boy...we watched the video of him last Christmas, and he was just a baby! He is using his imagination more, talking to himself, and is obsessed with the alphabet, which makes me so happy. He also LOVES to read, and he reads to himself in bed every night. It makes my heart so happy. So far, he has told me he loved me by himself 3 times, and that makes me so happy, too. I just love my kiddos!

Well, I have to work most of the week, but I'm hoping to continue to delight in the holiday season and prepare for the New Year! May it be a year full of gratitude for my many blessings...