Christmas Clips...

Here are some random pics from Christmas that I never posted...

Reading my Baby Elf book

Christmas Eve Morning

Fun with tissue paper

Me and Grandma T

Me and Uncle Alex

My new red chair

Pulling the hat off my head

Me and Grandpa Ken

Merry Christmas!

I ran out of cards before I ran out of people to send them to this year.  I saw this coming so I prioritized family first, then friends who sent us one, and then I was out of cards (actually a couple people in group two even got left out and I'm quite positive that I missed a couple in group one as well).  The end result is that I didn't get to send a card to a LOT of our dear friends.  Now I know with even more certainty that I am blessed and that I need to plan ahead better next year. 

All of this to explain why this is my Merry Christmas to you (if you are among all the wonderful people to whom I didn't end up sending a card).  On the upside, it's one less card you have to feel slightly guilty about throwing away at the end of the season.  So here is the digital version...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

the picture from our card

Our annual Christmas letter with highlights of the year:

We welcomed Naomi Katherine Culp into our loving arms on January 10^th of this year.  She is such a blessing.  It’s been amazing to watch her grow and develop over the past year.  She is a sweet, social, happy, smart, clever, and beautiful baby girl who babbles and cruises around the house.  I can’t believe we’ll be celebrating her first birthday so soon!     

Although we had two trips planned, we decided to forgo them to stay with our baby and to save some money.  So, our travels this year have included trips to Houston for a wedding and to Austin to visit Brian’s mom, Emily.  We learned a lot about traveling with an infant.  There were a lot of moments that weren’t funny at the time, but are now.  J 

Brian actually changed jobs in October of this year.  He is now a Service Delivery Manager with Vertex.  It was a really good career opportunity that he couldn’t pass up.  He’s been getting to know his new role and is really enjoying it. 

Brian continues to pursue his bachelor’s degree part-time at the University of Texas at Dallas (still making excellent grades).  We can see a light at the end of the tunnel – on course for graduation in spring of 2013. 

I was laid off from Microtune back in February while on maternity leave (yes, it’s legal as they laid off most of my department in a company acquisition).  I went on one interview and came home crying and hoping that I didn’t get the job because I just didn’t want to leave Naomi.  We talked… we crunched numbers… and, my new job of being a stay at home mom is what I will happily be doing until we decide otherwise.  I never thought I’d be a stay at home mom or love it this much.  I even got a sewing machine for my birthday (still figuring out what to do with it); just call me Suzy Homemaker.  Life can be pleasantly surprising. 

I returned to teaching Jazzercise when my medical leave ended.  It’s been challenging to get back in the groove, but good for me. 

In October, we completed the Dallas 13.1 (a half-marathon) with Team World Vision to raise money for a clean water project in Africa.  It was the hardest half we’ve done (it’s our 3^rd one, but the 1^st one post-baby) and we had our slowest time, but we are so proud to prevail and to have run for such a worthy cause. 

We truly can’t believe all the changes that have happened this year and how much we have been blessed through it all.  Looking forward to seeing what God has in store next year.  Wishing you and your family a very joyous Christmas and a great start to the New Year! 

Love,
Brian, Christine, and Naomi Culp 

Oh The Places She Will Go...

More blog catch-up...

This is a picture montage of all the various places I have found Naomi after letting her explore a bit on her own.  (Sorry for the quality - iPhone pics can only be so good.)

Playing with Mommy's magazines

Playing in the Pantry

Trying out cat food

Playing with plastic ware

Please ignore her blue socks - she had them on overnight and we weren't going anywhere, so...

Grabbing the toilet bolt cover (which she then trys to put in her mouth - ewww)

And, places that I haven't managed to catch on camera (since I was busy trying to remove her from said places) include:
the paper shredder (which is now off and unplugged when not in use)
attempting to get in the cat's water bowl
standing on top of the fabric toy container (she fell before I could snag a pic)
and a half dozen other places that aren't as gross or dangerous

My Pink Eyed Girl

Catching up on posting old blog posts....

Naomi started showing signs of pink eye last Friday and woke up with a raging case of it on Saturday morning particularly in her right eye.  

Don't I look pitiful?

So Saturday, we took her to an after hours pediatric clinic (the place was recommended by a friend and I really like it - regular co-pay and all about the kiddos).  She was her usual happy self.  

Wordless Wednesday

Riding my zebra... and sometimes sliding off my zebra... (once again, sorry for the camera phone quality pics, but it's handy).

Naomi and her Dino

As I mentioned in her 11 Month Post, Naomi is cruising and loves going around the living room on her Dino.  This is from a couple of weeks ago, so she is a lot more agile on it now, but here is a video... (oh and sorry for the iPhone quality).  

Naomi and the Christmas Tree

Naomi loves the Christmas tree... a little too much.  


We are constantly having to pull her out from under it - 
"No pulling the tree"
"No unwrapping gifts that aren't yours"
"No eating lightbulbs"... 
"Pulling is bad"
"Lightbulbs are ouchy", etc.  


It is definitely a full-time job.  


She finds the handful of things in the house that we wish she wouldn't play with and she goes after those things.  I'll have more pictures to prove it soon.  (As a responsible Mommy, I try to photograph the bad behavior before stopping it.)  :)  


These are pictures of her first supervised trip to the tree a couple weeks ago.  

Wordless Wednesday

Naomi at the bookstore waiting to see Santa...

11 Months Old

Stats?
About 18.25 lbs (?%), ? in long (?%), and ? cm head circumference.
She's in size 3 diapers and her 9 month clothes. 
(We'll have more complete stats at her 1 year well-baby visit.)


How is she sleeping?
At the beginning of this month we noticed she was pushing up on the crib bumpers in an attempt to stand up (yes, I know they're not supposed to be in there), so we removed the bumpers and dropped the crib down to the middle setting.  The one bumper free night was horrible and I came in to find her with her leg between two slats; she moves a lot in her sleep.  So, we put in a breathable crib bumper and that works great.  She can stand up in her crib now, so we'll be dropping it to the lowest setting in the near future.  Otherwise, no change in her sleep as we're on pretty much the same schedule.  


How is she eating?
She's still rocking out the finger foods and sippy cup.  We've been trying more table foods this month.  She's choked a couple of times (which results in barf since she has such a strong gag reflex), but mostly she's done really well.  She's had various types/styles of potatoes, eggs, chicken, tilapia, various pasta/bread products, and various little veggies.  I'm still nursing her about 4 times a day, so we have dropped a feeding.  Around her first birthday, I plan to get her down to 2 a day and we'll go from there.  Sometimes I can't believe I made it this long.  


Doctor Visit
No check-ups until 1 year.  She got her flu shot booster which caused some grumpiness for a couple of days, but that's it.  


What new tricks does she do?
Her army crawling is fast and furious and she has tried standard crawling some.  
She pulls up on things other than Mommy and Daddy. 
She is a very proficient cruiser.  She goes all over the living room and even sometimes into other rooms holding anything she can including walls, etc.  We got her a Dino walker and she has gotten really good at pushing it around and using it in various ways to get where she wants to go.  
Sometimes when she's hungry, she'll grab my hands and walk over to her highchair and then put her hands up so she'll get fed.  
After a summer and a semester of Tiny Tots, she finally shakes her little shaker instead of just eating it, so I'm proud.  
Verbally, she's still babbling away and we still can't make sense of it most of the time.  Occasionally we've thought that we've heard an actual word, but we're not sure if it's just wishful thinking on our part, so we'll just be patient.  We've attempted teaching signs, but she doesn't seem to have any interest, we'll see.  


General Observations?
She has 6 teeth so far - 2 on bottom and 4 on top though her lip keeps them from view so far.
We're planning her first birthday party and it's just mind boggling.  
She is still such a happy and gregarious baby.  She seems to make friends everywhere she goes.  She is such a shining light in the world (at least to us).  


Until next time... Enjoy!  

Naomi's First Trip to See Santa

We had talked about going to see Santa at Northpark, but we happened to be going up to Allen today, so decided to just try to see Santa at the Village at Fairview.  There was a virtual waiting line that we called into, so we were able to eat lunch while waiting.


Once we got to the front of the virtual line, we checked in with the front desk and got in the short Santa line (generally about 5 families at a time in line).  It really was a pretty good system.  The only hitch for us was that the camera malfunctioned while we were in line, so the photographer had to get it going again which resulted in some delay.


At this point, we are right during Naomi's naptime and I'm a little worried, but she seemed pretty entertained by all the surrounding people and stuff.  Once it was our turn we got Naomi ready, handed her to Santa and they snapped away.  They gave us very specific instructions as sometimes babies in her age group don't do well with Santa.  Naomi was her usual gregarious self and did great with Santa and took a bunch of great pics.


So without any more blabbing by me, here are the rest of the best ones.... Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

The kitties thought they should be included this week:
Noel in foreground, Panther in background