6 months 22 days

Here are some pics from the last week:

The thumb obsession continues, though she's still not a big sucker-more of a gnawing or she uses it to stretch out her smile. Fine by me!

The Pottery Barn Kid's employee (not Chaney) guilted me into purchasing this little plastic rope thingie called the Winkel. Pretty low brow stuff here, just a lot of plastic tubes connected at the center with a cube rattle thing, but according to the toy Nazi, she would grow to be a social deviant if we didn't purchase it. It is constantly thrown to the ground and then placed in the mouth and despite regular cleaning, I am not confident I get all the parts. I will be sending future doctor bills to PBK.

One thing I have not discussed here is the fact that while we have all decided that Annie's hair is coming in blond, the jury is still out on if she is going to have curly hair. She has a long tuft on the top of her head that is decidedly curly, but there's not enough anywhere else to really tell. I decided not to brush it after bath night on Sunday, and this is what we got. Annie didn't like it either. She looked like a cross between The Fonz and Gary Busey's crazy mugshot pic. She kept touching it with a this confused look on her face. By Monday morning even I couldn't stand to look at it and had to wet it and brush it out. This could get interesting.

And it is officially 10 days until CHRISTMAS! Now, I have never been one of those crazy Christmas people, and I hate people that say "It's different when you have kids", because it has always struck me as a little condescending, but the thing that really is different with kids is Christmas. I find it easier to get excited about gifts and I am even tolerant of Christmas music. Those who know me know that this is a big deal. I was even dancing around like an idiot with Rick and Annie to a Michael Buble Christmas album. Michael F-ing Buble. I hate myself.

I guess until I had her, I hadn't thought much about how exciting Christmas was when I was a kid. As if being out of school wasn't enough, we always got to spend time with our awesome cousins. And the fact that there is an entire day dedicated to receiving gifts is just enough to make a kid's head explode. If you were the child of one Virginia Loyd, you can be assured there were LOTS of gifts. Now I can't help but be excited for her, because clearly she has no idea what is going on this year. I can't wait to make Christmas lists and letters to Santa and homemade ornaments and ice Christmas cookies. I am a little ill by how excited I am by all of it. I am neck deep in this Christmas biz, yo.

With all of this being said, I am trying to not be disappointed that almost ALL OF MY FAMILY will be absent on this very special year. That's right. I am calling you out on my blog. While I understand why everyone is away this year, it still sucks. I guess it sucks for them too, that they will miss Annie's first Christmas and all this stinking Christmas cheer that is coming out my eye holes. But still, it's a bummer. I am happy that Annie will get to spend time with her awesome cousins (thankfully the Hagemanns are not going anywhere on Christmas day, and she will get to see Cousin Chase when we visit the Erwins) and open a handful of presents that she will quickly discard and likely opt to try to eat gift wrap. It will be excellent. I am just sad they won't be there.