Merry Christmas (belated)

All right. It's been a while, I know. In fact, several items that would be of particular interest have come and gone and faded from memory to obscurity. And yet, posts remain scant. I apologize. Things haven't exactly been hectic here, but I have been busy.

First of all, let me talk about what you want to hear about the most: my daughter. She clearly says "mama," now. She says it when she's unhappy, hungry, or in her arms. Sometimes she'll just say "ma ma ma ma" on and on. It's lovely. First, she said it to me. I said, "No I'm 'Da da.' Can you say 'Da da?'" and she smiled and shook her head. When I would ask her to say 'Da da' later, she'd spit. Kate saw all this, and she said, "Aislin would just rather say Ma ma instead," or something implying her preference. In response, Aislin said "Yeah." Goodness. Today, she started saying Da da to my immense pleasure. She also says "Bah bah," which could mean any number of things, but could be "Baby." She says it to her dolls, mostly.

She has five dolls now. Christmas came and went, and when the dust settled Aislin had five dolls. Two Raggedy Annes, a tiny doll, a doll whose body could also function as a pillow, and a more traditional doll. She loves them all. Here we were trying to be all gender-neutral, but when my mom brought out the doll she had growing up, Aislin went ballistic. So we all knew what we were getting her for Christmas. She got those five dolls, some clothes, and an illustrated Grimm's Fairy Tales from me. She likes the dolls best.

She's much more mobile now, as well. She crawls quite well. She's a little shaky still, but she can really get moving if she feels like it. Yesterday, Kate tried standing her up next to the coffee table, and Aislin can totally hold herself up. It won't be long before she's cruising the furniture.

As for me, I'm transcribing and reading. I'm enjoy my doctor's orders to a glass of red wine at dinner (I still can't get over that) and trying to walk more. Last week, I walked from our apartment to the public library, checked out a few books, then I walked down to Fred Meyer to check out the Redbox, and then I walked home. About a 45 minute walk, and it felt great. Towards the end, Aislin was getting a little sick of it, but it was cold and rainy. Haha! Taking a baby for a 45 minute walk on a cold, rainy morning. Parenting FAIL. Ah, she survived. Didn't even get sick. That's my girl. There's a book I put on hold at the library waiting for me, so I may make the trek again tomorrow. It will probably not be raining, just freezing cold. I may hold off to the afternoon, when it inevitably breaks into sunshine, like it did today.

I really like these winter days. They're freezing cold, it's true, but it's because the cloud cover that was functioning as a thermal blanket for the Willamette Valley lifted and we have these clear blue skies. Everyone complains about the cold. Well, I've noticed that a lot of people also complain about the heat. I, for one, don't mind the cold. This is Oregon. Sometimes it's cold.

Before Christmas, our friends Joel and Heather moved to LA. On their way out, they spent the night at our place because they had packed their bed. It was great seeing them one last time, though it would have been nice to spend more quality time with them. It felt like as soon as they got there we said goodnight. Then, they left early in the morning. Their company did what it seemed to always do: Leave us wanting more. A few weeks after, our friends Tim and Elisha stayed with us for a couple nights on their way back home to LA (LA!!) after spending Christmas with their families up here. Elisha and Kate used to live together, and they are some of the greatest people. Kate keeps saying how she hadn't realized how much she missed them, Elisha in particular.

Kate got some good pictures of Aislin, but I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet and it's late. I'll post them on my facebook tomorrow and include some in my next post. Sorry to leave you hanging like this, but you've got to be used to it by now. Aislin will be nine months old on the 14th, so I'll try to post at least around then.