Catching Up

So a lot happened in December...so much that it kept us so busy we weren't able to spend even a few minutes in front of a computer and write a blog post. Well, it seems that life is back to a predictible, regular, although a bit chaotic, routine. Below is a brief summary of the month of December:

• We sold the condo! We closed on the condo at the very beginning of December. We were so overjoyed to 1) have an offer on it before we moved to the new house and 2) close in about a month. It was a stressful period for us, and we are very happy that it is done.


• We got a tooth! Well, technically Ellie got a tooth. Finally a bottom tooth started to peek out. I'm having trouble getting a photo of it (baby teeth are quite small).
  
• Ellie got tubes. After continual ear infections for a few months we opted to put tubes in Ellie's ears. The ear infections didn't seem to really bother her, but we were going to the doctor weekly, constantly giving her medicine, and fighting low fevers. So, Ellie underwent general anesthesia (for about 5 minutes) at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and had tubes placed in her ears. I was in the operating room until she was asleep and with her when she woke up in the recovery room. The whole surgery and ordeal was much worse on us than it was on her. The next day she as back to normal (without antibiotics, a doctor's appointment, or taking Tylenol for a fever!)
  
  
  



• Holiday Party! We hosted a holiday party at the new house. We had a great turn out of friends (from work and beyond) and it was a very enjoyble evening!

• Christmas #1: On the evening of the day Ellie got her tubes put in, we celebrated Christmas in Boston at our place with Aunt Susie. We opened some presents, had a nice dinner, and relaxed a little bit.
  



• Christmas #2 - The evening after Christmas #1, the family jetted off to Chicago to spend a long weekend with Nick's side of the family. That Saturday Nick's parents hosted a holiday gathering for extended family. It was great to see family and meet Ellie's new cousin William (born to Nick's cousin on Halloween!). Ellie and I had a blast and even made time to visit with good friends. Nick, however, got sick with a stomach virus and was down for the count most of the weekend.

• Christmas #3 - Tuesday of the week of Christmas, we packed up and escaped freezing rain in Chicago to head to Santa Barbara. We did Christmas the VB way this year. My grandparents and aunt and uncle hadn't seen Ellie since August so it was fun for them to see a babbling, crawling, pulling up on anything Ellie. Again, we had great time. Ellie proved once again that she is an expert traveller and was awesome on all three flights (and the tubes apparently did their job).
  
  
  
• We started cruising! Little Ellie has started to cruise around furniture and even very carefully move from one piece of furniture to another (or to one of us). However, to switch pieces, she needs to have a hand on each piece at the same time. But we now make our way around all the kitchen cabinets, down the length of a bookcase to pull down more books, and circling around the coffee table is a great pasttime now!


• Dancing...Head banging...bouncing...Ellie loves music and loves to groove to the beat or clap along (slightly off rhythm, but we can work on that later).