Christmas at home

Today was icy and cold...but we made it out anyways! We desperately wanted to get out after being cooped up for 4 days last week and we had a playdate all arranged with my friend Andrea who has a son, Logan, who is just over a year older than Kaelyn. We braved the weather and made it and had a great time. The two kids even appeared to play together for awhile instead of just co-existing! And Andrea and I got to chat which makes the time go SO much faster. It was a great day.

Speaking of great days, Sean and I (and Kaelyn) had our Christmas at home this weekend. We're heading to my parents house to celebrate with them and my sister and her husband and kids the weekend before Christmas. And we're going to Sean's parents house the weekend of Christmas. Two weekends before Christmas was free so we thought we better open our own gifts and have some time to ourselves for the first Christmas.

Sean took lots of pictures of Kaelyn in the middle of presents and by the tree etc. We took some video too. Cameras often seem to distract Kaelyn. You get the video camera out and she stops doing what she was doing that was SO cute and just stares at you.

I thought Kaelyn would just love the tissue paper and boxes involved in unwrapping presents but she didn't really seem to care too terribly much. She did really like her gifts, though. Sean gave her a dog that you pet and it starts barking and raises his paw. The box says its name is Coco, but I have dubbed him Caramel. Kaelyn can rename him (or her) when she's old enough if she wants. Coco is the name of my cat growing up and I just couldn't name a dog the same way! When Kaelyn opened Caramel the dog she stuck her tongue out and grinned. They have since become friends. I think she's teaching him how to sit. Or maybe he's teaching her how to crawl, I'm not sure.

As cool as all her toys are, I think Kaelyn's favorite gift in the whole wide world are the package of whiffle balls her daddy brought her. These balls have HOLES in them! Lots and lots of HOLES! As you may remember from the earlier post about hand-eye coordination, Kaelyn LOVES putting her fingers in things. Most kids put everything in their mouths, Kaelyn doesn't. Instead she puts her finger in everything. Don't worry I have all the light sockets covered! Since the gift of the whiffle balls she has not been without one for long. I find the come in especially handy during diaper changes. Since Kaelyn started crawling it seems as soon as I take her diaper off she rolls over and takes off. Well, now I give her one of these holey balls and she is too busy sticking as many fingers in them as possible to think about going anywhere so I can change her diaper in peace!

We also gave her a ABC apple toy. It's really for 3 years and older, but it has lots of pretty lights and music so Kaelyn has been enjoying it plenty. It helps kids learn the alphabet, learn about animals, that sort of thing. She pretty much just bangs on it and watches the lights but someday it will help her to become very smart. The other toy from both Sean and I was a farm animal contraption of some sort. It has a bunch of animals on it and a little keyboard and some lights. It sings and lights up and you can move the little animals back and forth. It tells you what the animals are and what noises they make. The cow and pig actually sound quite rude and are much more funny than they are realistic. I think Sean and I have had more fun with that toy than Kaelyn has so far, but she's liked it a little too! :)

I got Kaelyn a ride and push toy. She can scoot around on it or it can be converted into a toy she can push. We tried to help her push it around and she just kind of slumped over. Not quite ready for that yet! But she loves the riding part! She can't scoot it herself just yet but she loves being pushed back and forth on it. Again, she sticks her tongue out and just grins and grins.

A friend of mine originally from South Dakota, now hailing from Tennessee recently drove through and brought this teddy bear. It had some REALLY good-smelling lotion and body soap attached. Once I took that part off Kaelyn has enjoyed bumping foreheads with the bear. I get it out and show it to her and she just leans right over to rub foreheads with the bear. Sean thinks he taught that to her. She does it with lots of various toys on occasion. It's pretty cute. Her way of shaking hands, maybe?

Overall our Christmas at home was a great success. Kaelyn had a great time playing with her new toys and reveled in all of the attention. We pretty much played with her ALL day. However, after an hour or two she was back to playing with her old favorites, the car horn thing that beeps and beeps as she beats on it, the pink diaper pin that she puts her finger in, the jello box, those sorts of things! Oh well, at least we have new toys for Sean and I to play with when we get bored of all her old ones!