Happy Hanamus!!!

Is it Olive or Rudolph?

Is it Tyson or Santa Claus?

Delaney's "My First Chanukah" outfit sports a dreidel on the bootie.


We had an excellent Chanukah at Nana's house. Everyone said they had cut back this year--but I have never seen a bigger pile of presents in my life. Delaney got so many wonderful things. She got so excited she fell over into a gift bag and we were all laughing so hard we forgot to help her at first. It didn't bother her too much though because she tried to climb back into the gift bag a couple of minutes later.
In this lovely pic we have Nutty and Randy going for a classy pose while Stan decides for a different look.

Nana and Delaney hang out at Chanukah.




Grammy and Delaney with the "My First Dreidel" book that plays the dreidel song over and over. Delaney loves it.

Nana bought Delaney her first baby doll.

Delaney being multicultural with Santa hat and Chanukah bib.


Little Santa monkey



We had Christmas Eve at our house with Renee, Jack, Cheri, Dave, Davis, Morgan and Grammy. The tradition meal of fried chicken was had and enjoyed by all. Delaney played so hard with Davis as seen here by the amount of drool on her outfit.



Randy and Delaney in front of the tree on Christmas morning.

Sleepy me on Christmas morning. Poor Delaney had a cold so she and I spent the night on the couch. One of us slept good (Delaney) and one of us had someone's finger up their nose. It's okay. I love snuggling with her.

Nana bought Delaney her sweet little Christmas outfit.


Delaney got the sweetest little Sophie la Giraffe from Ann, Jessica, and Maxie. She loves it.

Delaney gets ready to chow down on Christmas.





Jack's parents, Big Jack and Dorothy, came over for the Christmas meal. Delaney just loved Dorothy.



We bought Delaney a personalized bookshelf for Christmas. Delaney loves to stand up at it and look at all of her books.

Sweet little doll baby in her Christmas dress.

The whole fam

Delaney a.k.a. Peanut Extraordinaire

This week has been an eventful one. I finally figured out Delaney's eating real food schedule which has been quite stressful for me. I never stressed out during pregnancy, delivery, or all of the baby stuff until this eating solid foods stuff. Delaney has been eating, but sometimes she is not interested, and I didn't know whether to give bottle or food first, etc....The whole thing got me stressed because I just can't understand when people don't eat. It makes no damn sense to me considering eating is my favorite pasttime. Anyway---we have done it. Delaney has a good eating schedule and is loving most foods presented, except those wicked peas.

Delaney is now up to 16 pounds 3 ounces. I actually weighed her when I was at the vet with Mia today. Whatever works!!

Delaney is now not only crawling, but pushing up on objects to stand up. She can pull herself up onto her knees by herself and then pull up to stand. She will definitely be an early walker. Delaney is all over the place and loves being able to stand up. It is so funny watching her do it because she is such a little peanut and can do so much.


Now that Delaney is mobile, she wants to chase after Tyson and Olive all of the time. They are usually quite fearful, but we can occasionally capture a moment like this.


Here is Delaney pushing herself to stand up at her new musical table. This is pre-putting the legs on. When we saw she could now stand up, the legs were placed on.

Delaney is shaking her bootie at her musical table.

The little sneakaroo races over to the stairs the second I am not looking. She made it up one by herself. Is that an innocent face??.......I don't think so. :)

Delaney is a Crawling Machine

Delaney and her daddy prepare for the ring

Christmas at Bubba and Nonnas

We went up to Bubba and Nonna's house on Saturday to have Christmas festivities with them. It was awesome!!!! Nonna a.k.a. Tinker made so much good food: pimiento cheese spread, Amish Friendship cake, macaroni salad, peppermint bark, cookies, etc.....And we had fabulous wings and chicken fingers and wonderful punch and it goes on and on! We brought Davis up there with us and all of us had so much fun. We played games like Guess the Christmas Carol and a fun card game called Slide. Davis also had us involved in a game where he was the ruler and it was basically stealing candy canes from each other. It was so festive and fun and we thank you Bubba and Nonna!!!

Delaney loves her new frog---Frogalicious. It plays lots of songs and lights up which is right up her alley.

Delaney climbs up the diaper tower from Bubba.

Delaney is totally fascinated by anything Davis does.

The cousins played together all day.

Davis shows off his new Gamecock football uniform. He is trying out for the quarterback position and already has his Heisman pose down. Davis actually has quite an arm. Spurrier needs to check him out.

Watch Out World. Delaney is crawling.

Yes everyone. My little pumpkin is now crawling. She LOVES it and gets so excited that she is now mobile.
This is my favorite little outfit of Delaney's. She looks like she is going to do the hippie dance at a show.

Delaney poses in her hip jacket from Nutty.

Bath time is always a blast.

The Roberts' girls new game Part Deux

The Roberts' girls new game---we both find it highly entertaining

This one is for you Auntie Jessica

Delaqney was more enthusiastic than the actual Gamecock football players during the Carolina/Clemson game

Delaney laughs at Daddy and the jumping fish

Getting Started on the Holidays

Delaney dresses up and poses to celebrate Thanksgiving.

We got our Christmas cards out and these three pictures didn't make the cut but are pretty darn cute anyway.






Because of the computer glitch---I am playing catchup from last weekend. Here is Randy and Delaney wearing matching outfits to watch the ridiculous Carolina/Clemson game.

We went to visit Bubba and Nonna on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Delaney loves her some Bubba.

Delaney definitely hammed it up at Bubba and Nonna's house. She loved being there and showed them her new tricks.

The Roberts family went to Sweet Seasons in Forest Acres this week. We had free food (a.k.a. a chicken nugget) and listened to great steel drum music. They lit the big Christmas tree and everyone was very festive. Delaney got to meet Santa. She was fascinated by him. I could tell she really wanted to pull on that big fluffy beard.

Sad Day in Ho Ho Land

I am very sad about something. Our laptop where I had ALL of Delaney's pictures stored, got water damage and we lost our hard drive. This means that ALL of the pictures are now gone. Thank goodness I had printed the ones from May-September, but I have lost October and November and a lot of the videos that I didn't put on You Tube or other sources. This means that the only pictures and videos I have from that time are on this blog. Thank goodness for this blog!!!!!!!
I asked Randy and Santa to try and restore the hard drive for my Chanukah/Christmas present, but it looks like it's not going to happen.
At least I have my memories. I am just sick about not having the video of Delaney's first bath though. It was a wonderful moment.
Sigh.

Eating and Running and Eating, Oh My!

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This week Delaney tried real food. This is her trying peas. Delaney is definitely not a fan of peas. But honestly, who really is?

Green beans were a much bigger hit.

Randy, Delaney, and I did the 5K walk called the Jingle Bell Trot at Saluda Shoals park on Tuesday night. The lights were absolutely incredible. They were about a thousand people there and everyone was festive with hot chocolate and sleigh bells. I think this will definitely be a family tradition.

Speaking of traditions, I did my annual Turkey Day run on Thanksgiving morning. Now considering I had been sick for a week and hadn't run or gone to the gym or anything---this was a big feat. It was a 5 miler so that is basically enough in itself. I was a trooper though, and did the run. BUT, my stinkin' I-pod died after 2 songs in. Now some people might enjoy running in quiet and looking at nature and all of that nonsense...but not me. It was absolute hell. But I made it. My time was a little higher than normal, but considering the factors going in...I was quite proud of my self.



We spent Friday night at Jackie's house doing Thanksgiving. Delaney was a bit cranky because she didn't nap good and then was overwhelmed by the people and everything...but the food was delicious and the company was great.


Grammy and Nana pose before stuffing their face with stuffing.


***Oh, and the winner so far in the veggie category is....SQUASH!!!!! We will be trying sweet potatoes tonight. And yes....I am continuing to make my own. Makes me happy. :)

How much snot can a woodchuck have?

To my faithful blog readers, I did not post this weekend because I was filled with too much snot. I have been so sick since Thursday with fever and a cold and whatever else you can possibly get.
I did lose those 5 baby pounds I have been wanting to lose...bonus!....but it sure wasn't worth it. I am back in the land of the living but still not 100%. I have a 5-mile race I was going to do on Turkey Day but right now it is looking like it is not happening. I am quite depressed about that.
Anyhoo---just a quick update on the peanut. Yesterday she had real food for the first time---peas. Let me preface that by saying that I thought I was mom of the century by actually making her real peas. Yes, me in my feverish state bought real peas, shucked them, steamed them, processed them, etc.....and 4 hours later a pile of green mush was born. It took Delaney about 4 bites and some hilarious faces where she squished her entire face up, and the peas were done. Oh well. Tonight it will be canned peas, that's for sure.
Pictures of this will come at a later date. Because I missed an entire weekend of doing anything productive, or basically anything at all, the blog got moved down on the priority list.
Catch ya on the non-cold side!

Dressing Up is Fun

All dressed up and no where to go

This one is for you Aunt Judy. Delaney loves her jacket and gets so many compliments on it. A lot of the teachers at her daycare would like one in their size.

Currently Delaney does not have a lot of hair but she seems to grow more each day. Because we are not able to put bows in it and really style it right now, we take advantage of the after-bath hair styling salon. Delaney here is sporting the mohawk look.

Davis came to stay with us on Friday night. He and Randy played the Wii for a long time and initially it was frustrating for Davis until I spelled to Randy to let the "k-i-d w-i-n". My poor sweet competitive husband. They also had a treasure hunt in the backyard on Saturday morning. Randy had buried a thing of old coins and Davis thought it was pirate treasure. He also found this old rusty circular thing (which honestly I think was an old part to a lawnmower) but I was told it was a "shackle" for pirate's captives. Kids imaginations are priceless.

My Snotty Child

It had to happen eventually. Poor Delaney has a cold. I had to pick her up from Daycare yesterday because she had a fever. She has been congested for the past several days but hadn't had a fever until yesterday. Thankfully she did not have a fever today but still sounds awful with her coughing and shnooking. Randy and Grammy are taking shifts taking care of her today while I work. Delaney is still playful and happy but she is a little out of sorts. It makes me sad when she doesn't feel good. I would trade spots with her if I could. Wait...I am a little snotty too. Oh well.

Delaney eats "real" food

Funny Faces

Delaney Sits Up By Herself

6 MONTHS OLD!!!!!!

Delaney is now 6 months old---I can't believe it. She is doing new thing every day. When you pick her up, she does this thing where she reaches for your face like she is a person with visual impairment. She feels your different facial features like that is the way she determines who you are. It is really cute. Delaney is now dancing too. When you hold her, or put her on her stomach and say "wiggle" she moves side to side and shakes her head like she is saying "no". It is her form of dancing.


Delaney can now sit up by herself for short periods. She then tends to topple over backwards and giggles.

Delaney loves to stand up with one hand assisting. I call it her surfer move and we like to sing the Beach Boys during this activity. Poor girl. I am so obnoxious.

Delaney went to her 6 month checkup on Friday and she is now 15 pounds, 1 ounce, and 26 inches long. She is still tall and skinny, but Dr. Moore said she is healthy and looking "perfect". Dr. Moore gave the A-okay to start food, so Randy and I cooked up the rice cereal and Delaney was ready to go. We bought her one of those cool Space Saver high chairs that fits right at our breakfast table and we love it. Delaney was excited about eating and really loved her new "candy" spoons as Randy called them.

Delaney shoved the spoon in her mouth. She really wanted to be independent and do it herself.

Delaney gets really messy and then upset at the end after the food was gone. Just like her mommy....ready for the full buffet.


***** Videos for sitting up and her first meal are coming soon. They are soooo entertaining.