Eight is Great

Millie is 2/3 of the way done with her first year of life. 

We were still in Boston for the big day so we are a little late with this.

 When I tried to take these pictures she kept rolling to her stomach so I got a lot like the one below.

 This girl has yet to do one imperfect thing in her whole life. At least, her charm is so strong that she makes me immediately forget anything imperfect she may do. 

 One thing she can't erase from my memory is the fact that she now has 1+ blowout per day. I don't get it. And these aren't just a little poop out the leg. These are up the back, up the front, down both legs, etc.  I have thrown away several onesies and even one pair of tights (we were away from home and I wasn't storing tights with poop all the way to the toes in the car). I am sure you are all upset I don't have pictures. 

Anyone have any diapers that are especially good for containing poop? I thought moving to size 3 diapers would help, but no dice. My other kids never had this problem. In fact, Sadie never once had a blowout. I think she may have been constipated her whole baby life. I sometimes wish Camille would get more constipated. 

 I love this sisterly love. I also love Camille's folded ear. Those ears are great.

This month Camille has improved her clapping even more. World's best baby clapper. It now seems to be second nature for her. If I ever have to wake her up from a nap early her first instinct is panicked clapping. Hilarious. 

She also sits up completely on her own.

Before we went to Boston Millie had settled into a schedule of 4, 6-ounce bottles per day and 3 containers of baby food, along with 2 naps and 12 hours of sleep at night, but everything has been off since our trip. I am hoping to get back to it soon.

Camille has also graduated to the high chair. We had a good run with the Bumbo but the huge tray is so nice.

We started giving her those baby puffs and she has thrown up immediately every time she eats them. She enjoys the taste and then hastily swallows them, which makes her throw up. She can handle graham crackers, ritz crackers, and those little baby Cheeto-like things (anyone know what they are called?).

I expected her top teeth to break through all month. She drools constantly and chews on everything. One night I couldn't get her to stop chewing on the table at the restaurant. She rejected toy after toy in favor of a public table.

 Camille tolerates all sorts of harassment from her sisters. 

Sadie has taken to forcing Mills to "walk" around the house. She remembers her cousin Addy doing this and really wants Millie to do this as well. The problem is that Camille couldn't care less about trying to move in a walking motion. Instead, Sadie drags her around. 

Elise has gotten less and less gentle with Camille. It's like once Camille hit the 15 pound mark Elise decided it was go time. She lays on her, pushes her over when she is sitting and just roughs her up in general. Millie cries sometimes, other times she ignores her. 

 This pic below depicts Camille's life any time we are out of the house. She generally stays in her car seat happily. She has started to express some displeasure at being in her seat if she isn't moving. As long as I am pushing the stroller she is happy, but if I put her on the floor somewhere (like Daniel's games) her max is about half hour.  

Official 8 month photo. Check out those bottom chompers

The Goofiest

Elise is the goofiest kid. She has us laughing all the time. And she knows it. 

A couple weeks ago I took this blurry picture because I wanted to show Daniel that Elise had stuck blue play doh in the end of her nose. I told Lou it was gross and not to do it again. Also, yes, she does have chocolate all over her face.

A few days later the girls were getting their craft on and Elise kept muttering something about "stuck". I ignored it until she told me her nose was hurting. When I asked why she said  "it's stuck up there". When I looked up it I couldn't see anything so I thought she was talking about a booger. I continued to clean up the kitchen and she kept whimpering. I finally pulled her head back and shined a flash light up her nose. Lo and behold, there was a tiny red craft pom pom. I ran and got some tweezers, braced her head back against the chair with my leg, and carefully pulled it out. It was like the game "Operation". If I stayed perfectly in the middle of her nostril I could get to it, but if I hit the sides then Elise would flail. It took a few attempts, but I got it. 

Afterwards I realized I was shaking from the adrenaline. Not sure why. I don't think there was much danger of anything terrible happening, but I feel like I have heard stories of kids going to the ER to get stuff removed from their nasal cavities. I REALLY hope this is the end of our adventures with Lou putting stuff up her nose. 

The End

My last of work at the office was December 19th. That week was crazy because everyone wanted stuff done before I left. I ended up working from home that night until midnight and then going into the office the next day (Saturday) for 5 hours to wrap everything up. It kind of feels just like I am on vacation for Christmas and I will be back in January. This month I have had several bouts of anxiety where I think maybe I shouldn't quit and try to come up with some way I can keep the job. I have to calm down and remind myself I felt very good about the decision when I made it. I just didn't anticipate I would feel this torn about leaving. 

We said goodbye to our everyday sitter Amber. We took pictures on a day when she came by to bring us all Christmas presents. Seriously? What babysitter/nanny does that when they don't even work for you anymore? 

It's on to the next chapter of life for me. Weird.

Go, go, go

December is always a busy month, but with me leaving my job it made things feel extra busy. 

Here are some pictures of non-Christmas and non-work related stuff that we did.

Date night to the BYU-Utah men's game. It's crazy how different the Marriott Center feels during the men's games.  

Obligatory gymnastics class shot.

Finally started getting the office put together. We had the toys in here when the Salazars lived in our basement. Then it sat empty with an old recliner for 6 months. It was basically a pass through space because it has doors to our front hall and kitchen. I had to give my work laptop back so we needed a computer. Also, with Sadie in school now we figure a desktop will be useful. We decided to go with a somewhat basic all-in-one desktop. It has a big screen and plenty of storage, but nothing fancy. It also has a touch screen so the girls immediately felt comfortable with it. So far we love it. I spent hours perusing the KSL classifieds for a desk. We paid more than I had budgeted, but after checking out a few cheaper desks in bad condition, I decided to scrap the idea of refinishing something. You can't see the whole thing in the picture, but the desk is exactly what I wanted- an l-shape with filing drawers on either end. 

The girls were playing "doggy". They crawled around fetching toys for 20 minutes and rubbed their legs raw. Silly kids.

Sadie still makes us signs to express her feelings. This sign shows real progress to me. In the past when she was mad she made lots of signs about not loving us, or us not loving her. I think we finally got through to her that being mad or frustrated with your family members doesn't mean we don't love them anymore. 

This baby girl though....

I really don't think I have ever been so obsessed with one of my babies. Camille, aka Millie, aka Millie Mays, aka Millie Moo, aka Millie Mills, aka Mills, aka Camilles bo billes, aka Billes, aka Bills, just makes it easy to be sweet on her.
I seriously cannot say anything negative about her. Except maybe the fact that she has poop blow outs every other day. Not her fault.

 But it's not just me. Everyone in the Nielson house is a little obsessed.

Her big sisters were thrilled to have her in the big tub with them. They also frequently try to get her to watch shows in the iPad or tv and she just isn't that interested. Sadie loved watching screens from about 3 months on.

Dad happily takes her during church (that could also have to do with the fact Elise is a terror during church). And they both love when he throws her in the air. She giggles every time.

It's easy to see why she has all of our hearts, right?

She freely gives out smiles like this:

 And sleeps like this:

Never change, Camille. Never change.

Hoops and More Hoops

We spent 2 Saturdays in a row up in Salt Lake for Daniel's games. One game was at the Energy Solutions Arena and the next was against Utah at the Huntsman Center. Both games were at noon so I packed a huge lunch and dragged the girls up. 

I am deeply disappointed I cut the top of Elise off in this. She was singing along to the BYU fight song complete with hand motions. 

Sadie insisted on sitting with Nate and Crew (another assistant coach's husband and son). 

Also, it's just kind of ridiculous to play the women's games at Energy Solutions. It makes the crowd look even smaller! 

 I always enjoy watching Daniel move back and forth trying to peer around Juddy.

 The girls excitedly played on the court after the game until the Jazz security kicked them off.

The Utah game was close, but BYU pulled it out, which isn't impressive because the Utes are not good this year. BYU always struggles against them. This picture is with 26 seconds left and I think BYU was up by 1 or 2? 

Not pictured: Elise getting stuck in a folding chair on the court after the game. Sadie and Elise rode on the team bus back to Provo afterwards. They were on cloud nine.

 I forgot to post these pics of me and Mills watching one of Daniel's games in Hawaii during Thanksgiving week. Millie clapped her little heart out. Don't worry about it not being in response to the game in any way.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Here is some Christmas-related stuff we have done this month.

Picked out a Christmas tree at a random lot in Orem. All Elise wanted to do was run between the rows of trees. Camille was happy to be along. When we got home we realized how massive our tree was. Not just tall, but sooo full and fat. I really love it. It is super heavy and the girls knocked it over while playing with ornaments the morning after we got it home. Once it gets going in one direction the whole thing goes. Daniel ended up putting some dumbbells on the legs of the stands and then tying it on the backside to the piano.

Two things I am obsessed with: my Millie and my tree.

Polka-dotted Christmas nails. Entirely necessary. Duh.

Blurry pic of delivering treats to neighbors. It was great this year. Sadie happily jumped in and out of the car to deliver them while I sat in the warm car with Christmas music blasting. My kid is finally good for something!

Christmas program at school. Christmas was mentioned in every song. Nothing Christ or religion related, but Christmas all the same. A little different than my elementary school did it. I distinctly remember learning a song in 4th or 5th grade with the words "Let's celebrate the season, Christmas is finally here." After working on it one week, the next week we got new words. Everywhere it said Christmas, it was crossed out and "winter" was written in. 

The program was adorable and Sadie did great. None of my pictures of the kindergartners performing came out. She is towards the left in the middle row in her green striped shirt.

Graham cracker houses with our carpool friends. These girls end up playing together a lot because we carpool to and from school each day. I don't mind at all because they are two really nice, well-behaved girls. I love listening to them giggle in the back seat on the way to school. 

Anyway, they ate an impressive amount of candy, but did manage to put a few pieces on their houses. Elise would put candy/marshmallows on; then pull them off and eat them a few minutes later. She wound up with just a few marshmallows on hers at the end.

Watching Elf, which Elise was inexplicably terrified of beforehand, then laughed the whole time during, and then insisted it was scary when it was over.