Christmas 2008

Lucy wouldn't sit with Santa for the Funk (Ryan's mom's side) Family Christmas, but she tolerated him enough to get a candy cane from the big guy.

enjoying her new table and chair set

the only time Bridget actually opened a gift instead of eating it :)

having fun with Grandpa Bill

beginning her 'big girl' lifestyle!

I'm too lazy right now to think of a fun title for this post, so oh well. :) Overall we had a wonderful Christmas, mostly because we did not have to travel anywhere outside of Bloomington. Since our new house has more space then my mom's house, she, my sister, my brother, and a close family friend, Sue and her son Tim came over to our house for christmas. This is the first year ever where we have had a fireplace to hang and open the stockings by. The rest of the morning was spent opening the many many presents that Grandma Sophie and Aunt Gigi (Regina) had brought. Both of them love to spoil the girls, and lucky for Lucy Aunt Gigi bought her the interactive Elmo toy that I told them not to spend the money on. But, Lucy loved it, so oh well. :) Grandma Sophie also got the girls a child size gorgeous table and chairs, much like the one my siblings and I had when we were young. Besides those bigger items, Lucy's favorite gifts were an Elmo shirt from Uncle Mike and Aunt Jackie, an Elmo phone from Grandpa and Grandma Herr, and an Elmo 'boom box' from Grandpa Bill and Grandma Nancy. Can you see the trend here?

Mommy and Daddy's favorite 'present' was that Grandma Sophie helped/forced us to finally finish the girls room (which is just Lucy's for now) and the nursery (currently Bridget's). Finishing those two rooms makes the entire house feel so much more like home! Speaking of Lucy's room, yesterday we started Lucy in her 'big girl bed,' a twin bed and boxspring on the floor with cute pink bedrails. She went down fine in it for her nap yesterday, but then 10 minutes later got up and was walking around. So, I reverted back to the paci after deciding that I would rather have her not get out of her twin bed while having a paci, then having to lay next to her to have her fall asleep everytime she needed to go to bed (which is what happened at that nap yesterday). And with the paci in her new bed, she has been doing remarkably better then we expected. :)

Besides sleeping, we've been having a rough time with Lucy lately. For about the last two weeks, since before Christmas, every few days she has had some horrible screaming, crying, yelling, uncontrollable fits brought on by nothing and ending with nothing (just her finally letting me hold her and 'giving in'). When she has them nothing will stop her - we've tried giving her the paci, giving her really any kind of cookie or treat that we have, letting her watch Elmo...everything. But, we don't want to call them 'tantrums' - they are not because she is being forcefully stubborn or mad at not getting something she wants. It just seems like somehow she isn't able to control her emotions for that 45 minutes to 2 hours. Has anyone gone through this or have any ideas?

oh, and more pics to come on facebook sometime in the near future!