Christmas Video

Here is a video from Christmas morning at our house. I didn't make it fancy, but hopefully you can see that we had a wonderful day. We are looking forward to many more fun and exciting Christmases together!

Alia's Second Christmas

Well, even though this was technically Alia's second Christmas it felt like the first to me. Last year, Alia slept through most of Christmas day, since we had only gotten home from the hospital the day before and I was on a lot of pain killers and honestly don't remember too much. I was so excited and really wanted to make the day special.

Alia woke up VERY early on Christmas morning. I think she knew that she had been a VERY good girl. Alia had so many things to open that Mommy and Daddy had to do quite a bit of helping. She wasn't a big fan of opening presents, just playing with them! Some of her favorite toys were the tunnel and beach ball from Santa and ALL of the books from family (especially the piggy book from Aunt Pooh).

playing with her beach ball

checking out her new bear that talks and sings

Mommy enjoying her new Snuggie!

Daddy and Alia playing in the tunnel

Alia spent most of the rest of Christmas day inside here. She LOVED it!

The family out for a walk on the first sunny Christmas day in Portland in 20 years or something!

Christmas Eve

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve at the Douglas house:

Alia playing with her stuffed animals and showing off her pigtails!

Ready and waiting to go to church with Mommy and Daddy

Trying to tell Mommy and Daddy that it's time to eat

Helping Daddy put some sprinkles on top of our sugar cookies

Alia got a tiny taste of some frosting and sugar cookie and then bounced off of the walls for about an hour!

Cookies for Santa :-)

12 Month Check-Up

Alia went to see Dr. Nash for her 12 month check-up yesterday. She had to get a ridiculous number of shots, but she was very tough. She did cry a little, but I would have cried too if I had to get that many shots. Dr. Nash said that she looks great. Here are Alia's current stats:

32 inches (100 percentile)

23 pounds, 5 ounces ( 83 percentile)

More Presents

Here is some video of Alia opening presents on her actual birthday... December 21. The puppy is from Alia's Great Granny and the guitar was from Mommy and Daddy. Her friend Carson has the same guitar at his house and Alia loves playing with it. We knew it would be a hit!

Party Pictures

Mommy trying to get Alia to blow out the birthday candle, but Mommy had to do it.

Then Alia did it just one second too late.

Alia discovered that birthday cake is yummy.

Why hasn't Mommy given me some of this yummy stuff before??

Alia playing with one of her new toys.

Working on her drumming skills!

Birthday Girl posing for the camera!

Birthday Party Fun

Here is some video of Alia opening presents at her birthday party on Sunday. As you can see, she had lots of help from friends. They were all kind enough to show her how to play with everything too! I'm not sure who has having more fun, the kids or the grown-ups watching the kids.

Here is a clip of Alia enjoying her birthday cake. It didn't get smashed all over her face, but it certainly was enjoyed ... A LOT! The sugar rush seemed to be a good time too, except for when it didn't wear off and Alia needed to go to bed. She hung out in her crib talking to herself for about 45 minutes before she fell asleep that night. There was just too much excitement!

Pre-Party Video

Here is a little clip of the house and the Birthday Girl before the party!

The Pre-Party Activities

Here are some pictures of us pre-birthday party. I actually made an iMovie with all of the pictures and videos that is on facebook, but I couldn't get it to load here so I will post as many of them individually as I can muster up the patience to do.

Birthday cake and cupcakes homemade by the mommy.

We've been teaching Alia to hold up one finger when we ask her how old she is :-)

Posing with Daddy before the party. In this picture she is doing the sign for "please" because she wanted Mommy to let her play with the camera.

Mommy and her big one year old girl!!!

Standing and Steps

This is a little clip from December 12th. Jason and I wanted to get video of Alia standing all on her own, because it is so darn cute. She gave us a fun little surprise and took two little steps all by herself. Nothing more than that since then. Now, she grabs onto our fingers immediately so that she can walk around with help. We are putting in lots of practice each day! I think she will be walking all by herself soon.

Play Group Christmas Party

Today we had a Christmas party with our play group friends. We did a lot of playing and eating and we painted Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, Alia was not feeling 100%. Mommy figured out later that it was because she is getting a new tooth. All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth :-)

Showing off her cute outfit before we left for Miss Jamie's house.

Posing for a picture with her best friend Carson.

Hanging out with her good buddy, Davis.

Nice teamwork ...

Alia, Aoife, Davis and Carter playing together

Children's Museum

On Monday, Alia and I went to the Children's Museum with our friends Carson (and his mommy, Jamie) and Davis. We had fun playing in the store, the baby garden and in the water play area. I have a feeling that the Children's Museum is going to become a regular destination soon. Alia had a great time!

Painting

Mommy was feeling particularly brave this morning. After letting Alia attempt to feed herself some yogurt, I figured we might as well just keep the mess going. So, we did a little painting! Alia is getting much better at it and really wanted to try using the paint brush this time too. She loved it! As you can see, all of this fun did end with a bubble bath :-)

New Stuff

There are lots of new things going on at our house these days. Alia seems to be considering dropping a nap and going down to one a day. Some days she takes two naps and some days she doesn't. We are back to just guessing what she needs. Hopefully we can get back in a groove sometime soon. And, now that she is almost a year old, we are starting to make the switch over to cow's milk. So far it has received a very mediocre reception. We are taking it slow and steady! We learned with the transition to formula that going too fast will only lead to a big fat rejection!

Alia is very interested in walking right now although I think we still have a little while before she does it on her own. She loves standing up all by herself and not holding on to anything. She thinks its great and will clap her hands and laugh!

We went to the mall and attempted to get Alia's picture taken with Santa. It didn't really happen. It ended up being a family picture. Alia has some VERY serious stranger anxiety right now and we had a pretty good feeling that Santa just wasn't going to happen. Here is a picture of Daddy and Alia before the Santa trauma of 2009.

Alia is such a big girl! She loves to eat her meals off of a plate now. She saw her friend Carson do it and its been a big hit ever since. I think we could get her to eat just about anything as long as we put it on a plate for her!

Mommy and Daddy caved and let Alia have a toy about a week before her birthday. The whole family is getting VERY bored with the current toy selection and we needed something to hold us over until Birthday/Christmas. Alia loves taking the "food" out of the basket and pretending to eat it. She likes to hand it to Mommy to taste as well.

I had to get a picture of Alia doing her favorite playtime activity. She LOVES taking all of the books out of the cupboard. She will examine each one closely and if she wants me to read it to her she hands it to me and sits on my lap, if she doesn't it goes on the floor. She does this and empties out the cupboard several times a day.

Snoopy

Alia received this present from Grandpa Max and instantly fell in love. We took this video moments after opening up the package and about two minutes after this video was taken Alia had already figured out how to push the button by herself to make the music start and stop. Yesterday she started giving kisses to Snoopy and Woodstock. She's in love!

I LOVE BERRIES!

Walking With Daddy

Alia is not walking on her own yet, but she sure loves to walk around with some assistance. As you can see, she gets very excited and talkative when going for a walk.

I Don't Need A Spoon

Well, very shortly after attempting to use her spoon, Alia discovered that there is a much fast way to get that applesauce into her mouth!

Big Helper

Alia loves to "reorganize" things. She is particularly helpful at arranging the DVDs and her books in the playroom. It is one of her favorite activities.

11 Month/Holiday Pictures

Here are some photos taken by the wonderful, Randi, who took Alia's newborn pictures. Alia wasn't feeling particularly smiley that day unfortunately. She was very interested in Randi's camera and really wanted to touch it. By the time we were wrapping up her little photo shoot she was just starting to get the hang of it. It is so hard to believe that our little bean is almost one year old. She has grown and changed so much! We are loving each new stage that she enters and are having a ridiculous amount of fun being parents.