Back into the Swing of Things

The New Year always brings lots of changes, both expected and unexpected. We rang in the New Year around here with a big change for Holly. I knew the night we got home from Christmas break was going to be a long, trying one. Holly had been sleeping with me some of the time, had been spoiled rotten, and had been getting all the attention for two weeks.

I put her to bed the first evening and she went down just fine. She woke up in the middle of the night, I let her cry for a little bit, and then all of the sudden (and I mean ABRUPTLY!), it stopped. I was perplexed as to why, because Holly doesn't just decide to plop down and go to sleep without a little fuss. I was just crawling out of my nice, warm bed to go see what was wrong, when in trotted Holly saying "Mom! Mom!" in the most pleased manner ever. In my mind, I was thinking "What the heck is she doing out of bed?!!!" and how did she get out? I took her back to her room, rocked her for a bit, then put her back to bed. She woke up one more time during the night, and proceeded to get out of bed and come into my room.

So, the sad news in this new year is that I had to move Holly from crib to toddler bed. I was hoping that we could wait until she was closer to three instead of not quite two. Her new big girl bed does look cute though.

And here is the little angel taking her first nap in her crib. When she woke up, she even yelled at me to come get her and just barely had her toes over the edge of the bed, like she wasn't sure if it was ok to get out by herself. That has changed now, and she hops right out, but at least I have a gate at her door so she can't go get into mischief during the night!

Van gave Holly a Hokey Pokey Elmo for Christmas. She was scared to death of him for the first few days. I guess she didn't think Elmo was actually supposed to talk and dance. She has gotten over that fear, and now thinks that doing the hokey pokey with Elmo is super cool! She does it a lot. Here is a picture of her "turning it all about" with Elmo.

Yesterday, Van had her second ice skating lesson. She improved a lot! She spent far less time falling, although still a fair amount. Afterward, we went to the mall for lunch and to let Holly run off some energy at the play area. She really loves to go down the slide. Here she is climbing up the steps, but was kind enough to stop and smile at me while she waited for the little girl in front of her.

And then going down the slide!
She did try to take off out of the play area once after she saw another girl leave and go into the store next door. Actually, some other lady had to come over and tell the mom of that girl that her daughter had left and where she went, because the mom was just looking at a magazine. When Holly tried that, she and I had a little talk about staying inside and that she couldn't leave without her Mama!

Recently, Holly has been smiling on command. Here she is showing off her pearly whites for me. Her real smile and her posed smile are so different, but the posed one cracks me up!After rearranging the family room, Holly has a lot more room to play. She likes to sit on the coffee table to play. Whatever makes her happy, I guess! Here she is making her little girl climb up the barn after visiting all the animals inside. The little girl had quite a conversation with the horse and the cow before getting up on the roof of the barn.
Holly must have thought something was funny about this! She laughed and laughed that her little girl was up there. I often find myself wondering what is going on inside that little brain of hers!
Anyway, things are back to our usual routine and the little miss is as fun and happy as ever!