Christmas #2!!!

Our Christmas was the second Christmas of Irelyn's first =). We celebrated our Christmas on Thursday the 23rd. It was a nice night of yummy snacks and fun presents. Mostly though, we had fun just being together as a family having a little quiet time and fun celebrating Christ's birth. It's a time of year that definitely reminds us of His birth, but now as a parent I am reminded that I have this little person who needs to learn about Him and His love, and how now we have this exciting task of showing her what that means. It seems like you get to a point in life where you are comfortable because for the most part we are surrounded with people and family of similar thought and belief, but all of a sudden there is this little girl who has all of that to learn...

When Casey got home from work we celebrated together. We had our snacks and opened our presents. Irelyn was overjoyed at her new toys =)... She told me... Before I get into all of the toys she got that night I need to explain a little gift she got early... the bumbo seat. So, people like my sister and mom know how I originally felt, and no offense to those who may have these, but originally they just struck me as kind of weird or dumb looking. I honestly don't know what it was... probably just my raging hormones... but I decided we would never have one. Well, Irelyn really likes to sit up and she obviously can't so it without something supporting her, and then I read about them on Target.com and found out they are good for kids 1+ months! And then I read the reviews and people raved and raved about how wonderful they were. There were seriously like more than 400 reviews of all of these people that love them! Well, after that, I couldn't let all of these other kids have this wonderful seat getting a head start of my baby girl =) but for real, it's just a great place to be able to set her that she likes. All of that to say, I broke down and bought one. Bummer is, we tried to keep it gender neutral and bought this horrible mint green color one. Oh well, I don't think Irelyn or any of our kids will care (Although, we probably should have just gotten pink, since it's unlikely that we will need anything blue or gender neutral in this family! =)) Phew, the bumbo seat took a long explanation! Back to our Christmas... Irelyn got her blocks, phone, and crawl ball, which I talked about earlier in another blog.

Yes we took pictures of Irelyn next to all of her toys...

Yessss... Just what I wanted!

Hmm, what can I build with these?

A cool new (old) phone- kids aren't even going to know what a rotary dial is these days!

Not looking too interested in the crawl ball, but some day she will love it

She also got a little play kitchen (which is adorable! I love it!). Her kitchen has all of these nooks and crannies and baubles. It speaks Spanish, has shape slots, colors, and even makes squeaky sounds when you open the oven and fridge. =) It plays music, talks, and flashes lights. It's a toy Irelyn will probably appreciate more in a couple of months, but there is only so much you can buy that made for babies under 6 mos.

Her sweet new kitchen

Her other present was a baby play gym with the little toys that hang down. It also can turn into a tunnel when she is mobile, so it offers several developmental pluses. Right now I can really tell that her interest has grown in playing with those toys. She is experimenting with batting her arm at them and lasts for a decent amount of time playing with them. And is even starting to deliberately reach for some of the toys. It's definitely fun watching as she learns something new each day.

She likes it better out of the box

All together it was a great first Christmas with Irelyn. She mostly stayed awake for it, and I think she will keep very busy with her new toys. Up next, Mima and Opa's Christmas!