This afternoon we tried to take some Christmas 2008 pictures as a family. The problem was that we had no one to take the picture, so we were trying to get a perfect picture by ourselves (right background, right placement, right Vivian smile...), by setting up the camera with the timer. What were we thinking? It was a fiasco! But we did get some good pictures of the baby by herself. Here are some outtakes of our Christmas photos:HA! I just noticed how bloodshot Aaron's eyes are...he had just woken up from a nap. Everything about the situation went wrong. Vivian spit up on her dress and my sweater, for example (and after the photo shoot pooped down her tights and up her shirt).

What a helpful, patient husband and dad! And handsome, too! :)

"Mom, I'm getting tired of this! What are you doing to me?" (I fixed her up, went behind the camera to make her smile, Aaron snapped the picture, it wasn't good, I went back to fix her again and start the whole process over again for many times)"Well, maybe this is kinda fun..."

Merry Christmas!

Today we went for Vivian's 6 month well-check. Quick stats:
15 lbs, 9 oz. (5oth percentile)
26.5 inches long (75%)
17 inches head circumference (75%)

She got more shots and turned purple in the face, but was okay 1 minute later. I also took her down to the lactation consultant's office so we could do a before-and-after weigh-in, so I can know how many ounces she's getting when she nurses. It wasn't great news...just as I suspected, she's only getting about 4 ounces! Dr. Beazley said not to worry about it since she's growing well, but I'm waiting to hear back from the LC to see if I need to do something different. She never cries because she wants more, and even when I try to supplement with formula she won't drink any, which tells me she's full. ??? Maybe 4 ounces is enough to fill her little tummy?

Well, everyone's in bed (yes, even Aaron...he crashed around 8 pm! He's been working a lot) and I finally have a chance to catch up on blogging! Sorry for the dry spell. Life has still been happening, though! There are several posts below to make up for the recent lack. Today we had a pleasant surprise...Aaron came home during his workday for about 30 minutes to hang out with us! He and I decorated the small tree together. We use this tree to display all of the special ornaments we've collected. Check out how Vivian just sat and watched while we did all the work...how rude! :)
Whenever Aaron comes home, Vivian is all grins. She turns her head or body however she needs to just to stare at him.

The day after Thanksgiving another one of Vivian's friends was born at Roanoke Memorial! Adam and Kathleen Renard welcomed their baby girl (surprise!) at 6:49 a.m. Her name is Charlotte, and she weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz. (someone correct me if I'm wrong on the ounces...). Tonight was my first chance to meet her. Vivian and I took dinner over to their house. She is a sweetie! They are a happy family :) The church (Crystal) organizes meals for new parents for 2 weeks after the birthdate. It was so awesome to have that when we were trying to figure out how to take care of Vivian in those first weeks.

On Sunday night Billy and Crystal came over to eat. We were glad they brought their two girls, Gracie and Ava! These girls are so cute and full of energy. It was fun to play with them while the men had their theological conversations about sacrifice and evangelism after dinner.

Papa came to see the little Vivi girl on Saturday. It was a short but sweet visit!

We were pretty relaxed on Saturday as a family...all three of us took a nap at some point during the day. And that night we all went to the mall to see if we could find a Christmas dress for the baby. Success!

On Friday night Ryan, Sarah, baby Hurley, Carissa, and Keagan came over for a dinner date at our house. It was a great combination of friends. We hadn't had a chance to get to know Keagan yet, so that was fun. He and Carissa have become really good friends. We talked a lot about babies (because Ryan and Sarah are having one in March), and Starbucks (because Carissa just got a big promotion there!).

The lovely CarissaBaby is full and happy! We had chicken chili for dinner...it was perfect since it's getting so cold outside.

If you live in near Salem, come to our church's Christmas celebration! Aaron will be singing and it should be awesome. I can't participate this year because I haven't been to choir practice since Vivian started having an earlier bedtime. But I did help Gretchen teach the children how to sing Away in a Manger in Spanish! It will be precious! Let me know if you need directions.
Thanks for letting me steal your scanned image of the invitation, Shannon :)

Last night I was blogging the picture below and Aaron wanted to participate. He wrote his caption, and I also posted what I would have written... can you tell which post is his? :) We need him to post more often, I think.

If Vivi's awake when I'm doing laundry, she sits on the bed while I fold. Today she was practicing her blogging skills.

Vivian learned about the infinite amount of infants on facebook. She now has 583 infant friends (that is the equivalent of 32 adult friends). Vivian's screen name is tolaparci. You can find out the meaning of this screen name by reading it backwards.

In an earlier post when Vivian turned 5 months, I wanted to name some things about her at this age. I know I'll forget important things, but here are a few things we want to remember:
Vivian:
-is still eating every 3- 3 1/2 hours. She could do well on a 4 hour schedule, but her naps make it difficult to do that
-naps poorly...continues to wake up at the 30-45 minute mark and can't get back to sleep, even though she's still so sleepy! We're working on it.
-sleeps 12 hours at night, from 7:00 to 7:00 or 7:30. She usually wakes up somewhere between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. to eat.
-loves her exersaucer. She can play in it for 20 or more minutes by herself and be very content. It helps when I need a shower or to do laundry! Most of the time she isn't as interested in the lights and sounds as she is in what she can get in her mouth.
-is easily persuaded to smile. She is very social with everyone.
-figured out that she can move her wrists about a month ago. It's hilarious because I catch her just moving them back and forth...I'll have to take a video of it so it makes more sense. It helps her to manipulate toys.
-plays with her feet when she's eating. She rubs them back and forth together...another video to come on that!
-loves her dad!
-reaches for your face when you're holding her. I love it because once she's got her hands on you, she brings your face to her mouth and give you a big slobber kiss. It's so sweet!
-gets her paci to her mouth and sometimes gets the right end in, but even if she does, she hasn't figured out that she needs to let go with her hand, so she just pulls it right back out
-has been playing around with solids for more than a month (well, her mom has...she did great with rice cereal from the beginning, but I haven't made a progression towards anything else). We plan to get serious this week...she had avocado yesterday and did okay!
-is sitting up very well, and rolls over sometimes.
-is a drool machine. I have to change her bibs 4-5 times a day because they are soaked!
-is a sweetie! We are loving to see how she is growing and changing!
think it's time to put away the infant bouncy seat? I caught her trying to sit up and get out of it last night :) The sad thing is that she never really got in to bouncing in it much.

Dad gets crazy at bathtime!

These posts below are out of order and I'll fix that soon. But enjoy pictures of the little girl's first Thanksgiving! She had a great time seeing so much family. We have so much to be thankful for!

On Thursday night we drove to Raleigh to stay the next two days with Grandma (Mama Dot). She's always a great hostess and we feel so at home with her! On Friday we just relaxed and let Vivian stay in the same place for a while, and Aaron and Michael went to walk around the mall. Friday night we took advantage of the in-house babysitters and went out to North Hills for a date...we ate at Firebirds restaurant with Joey and Sierra and then Michael met us for a movie. Poor Angel had to stay outside on the porch most of the time we were there. She's a sweet dog, though.On Saturday afternoon we had our big Thanksgiving with this side of the family. Grandma prepared an elaborate feast for us. Granddaddy and Grandma Carolyn came from Pinehurst, and Frank and Sylvia, Danny and Nan, Grand Auntie Nancy, and Marie were also there to party.Handsome brothers waiting for lunch...Michael came in from UVa and Stephen from DC. In fact, Stephen had to work on Friday, so he drove down for Thursday, went back, and came right back on Friday night! Vivian met this family for the first time. Nan is holding her while her granddaughter Emily shares her bunny. Emily's older sister Lauren was also there to play with Vivian!

Grabbing at the face, like always :)

Nancy talking with Vivian was a sure way to get a smile!

with Grandma Carolyn (she helped a lot by holding Vivian the whole time I ate...I even took the time to get seconds!)

On Thursday evening we drove to Lucama to have another meal with Granny's clan. Needless to say, Vivian had a lot of faces to slobber-kiss! And also imporant to note...she served a great turkey, so I wasn't without! Vivian is Granny's 3rd great-grandchild.
Hannah, Lucas's daughter and Aunt Stella's granddaughter (will turn 3 in a couple of weeks) was the highlight of Vivian's first Thanksgiving. Keep reading to find out how I know that.

Look at her face! She was so excited to have a friend to play with.At first Hannah wasn't crazy about Vivian's playfulness...don't blame her since all Vivian knows how to do is grab at her face! But then things got rolling and Hannah was having fun playing "put the paci back in her mouth and watch her drop it again"

And here it is, the video we've all been waiting for! :) The story is simple: we have been anxiously awaiting to hear Vivian laughing. She has always been very squealy when she's excited, but never to laugh out loud. Well, Hannah made it happen for us. It was the sweetest sound to our ears! And the best part about it is that everyone was able to hear her first time. It was more precious than I can explain, so you have to watch the video. This went on for about 30 minutes. Praise God!

On Thursday morning we drove to Parkton to Aunt Julie's house for the Fernandez Thanksgiving lunch. We had fun seeing all the family and eating everyone's best recipes. The crazy part, however, was that the turkey that Joey and Johnny deep-fried was eaten before I could get any! Aaron's cousin Casey was the first of many to play with Vivian. She is a great mom to Emma, the sweet, sweet girl sitting beside her. Emma will be 3 in a few months. Vivian loved to watch her play! All of the cousins sitting around the fire pit. It was a pretty mild day for the end of November, but notice how Ben is all wrapped up in the blanket...I think he said he was so used to being in the hot desert in Iraq that our 55-60 degrees is cold to him!

I found Abigail and Maria upstairs playing with their American Girls.The adults (if they dared) talked politics after lunch.

Peggy wanted to take a family picture for their Christmas card. Aunt Julie's house is in front of this beautiful lake!Siblings :)

I think Ben will be back from his deployment for good (at least for this time) in April. It was a fun afternoon, but Aaron and I left early to get to my dad's family's meal. I heard we missed a poker tournament for the men and Mary Kay facials for the women!

I couldn't get the middle video to work on the previous post...here it is!

The first one is from our trip to Raleigh last week. I caught a few seconds at a stop light and recorded what it was like for more than 1/2 of our trip down there. Ahhh! She had gotten tired of being in that seat, I think. Needless to say, she slept really well that night. The other two are just of her playing yesterday and this morning.