Baby’s first Christmas – and New Year’s

A last-minute proclamation by still-president George W. Bush giving all federal employees the day off Dec. 26 allowed Kate, Elizabeth, Pecos, and I to make the Christmas visit to Jay and Linda’s an extra, extra long one, stretching from 23-28 December. It also allowed us to gain some extra, extra poundage as Linda – whose culinary conventions involve doubling the serving size and then cooking for twice as many people – made WAY too much food, playing host to us, her kids (Brandon and Breanna), a family friend (Paul), a coworker (Bill), and four dogs.

It was Elizabeth's first Christmas, but she seemed like an old pro, playing with new toys, trying on new clothes, and posing for festive pictures.Elizabeth is still cute, Kate insists I add to this blog. As if the photos didn’t clearly illustrate that.

Oh, and Elizabeth is still definitely spoiled, as evidenced by this photo, with four of us (Dusty dog, included) all wanting to be close to her.
One NOT cute thing she did was institute a Boxing Day policy of throwing up on her daddy (aw…), peeing on her daddy (hey!), and then finally having explosive diarrhea on her daddy (WOH!) – all within the course of five minutes. It was the Trifecta of Unpleasantness. And afterward, daddy needed a drink.
During this holiday season, Elizabeth also discovered she had control over her hands and, thus, mastered the art of batting, gripping, and bashing things. Although adorable at first, I can see how this talent can quickly lead to troublesome things. We have a cute video on that that we'll post soon.
Our New Year’s Eve celebration was kind of tame this year. We were going to attend a “Parents with Young Children” soiree, but that ended up being canceled when the hosts (mom, baby, and dad) developed a contagious cough/cold. So, instead, our fête involved watching half of Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (bad dvd), giggling uncontrollably at the unashamedly terrified Pecos – who kept creeping under furniture and trembling every time fireworks would explode – and having Elizabeth sleep for almost seven hours straight. Sorry, Pecos, but if the popping sound of fireworks is the white noise Elizabeth needs to coast into a deep sleep, then I just found a new hobby.
Oh, we also took some cute shots of her bathing!