A Place to Land

Karen

           

"See I never had any trouble falling"

It's two days before Christmas and, Jimi, Aubree and I are all settled in our new house. We were determined to be settled before Christmas that way when we come home from visiting our families, we want to relax and not have to worry about unpacking. We are spending our first Christmas together as a family here in Nashville and then the day after, we're going to make our rounds down to Georgia and Alabama. We're excited to share the news of Jimi adopting Aubree and us buying a house. No one, except Melissa knows about Jimi adopting Aubree and Kim is the only one who knows about the house. We got the print from the courthouse and we're copying it and creating a Christmas card. We also added a family picture of us in our new house. We had Kim take the picture last week. We decided to take it in front of the fireplace. It turned out really good and Aubree was actually sitting still and smiling for that split second. We put the picture from the courthouse, our picture in the house, and a picture of Aubree when she was first born on the Christmas card. We put a Christmas card in everyone's present that way we can see everyone's reaction when they find out about everything. We're going to write about what has happened throughout the year including all of Aubree's milestones. 

We have been working on Aubree's speech and she has been catching on well. She can only say a handful of words, but that's to be expected at her age. She is also not as wobbly when she walks now. It's crazy how fast she is growing. It seems like yesterday she was this teeny tiny baby and now she's almost a year old. Aubree also loves to try and climb the Christmas tree. We realized as we were putting it up, that she would pull off all of the ornaments that she could reach, so we decided to decorate it with lights and garland and not waste our time with the ornaments.

It was about 5:30 and I was in the kitchen making dinner. I had chicken baking in the oven. I decided to fry up some potatoes and sauté some carrots. We've been trying to make some softer foods that Aubree can eat that isn't from a baby food jar.

While I was cooking, Jimi was in the living room playing with Aubree. The living room and kitchen are an open concept so I can look over to the living room while I'm cooking to make sure those two aren't getting into any trouble.

I looked over at the living room and Jimi had Aubree laying on the ground and was tickling her. Her little laughs are so infectious I couldn't help but laugh myself.

The timer went off for the chicken and I had just finished the potatoes and carrots.

"Babe, dinner's done. Can you get Aubree in her high chair please?" I asked and he nodded.

"Alright Aubree, let's go eat some yummy food that Mama made" he said.

He brought Aubree to her chair and strapped her in. I had already set aside some potatoes and carrots for her so they wouldn't be too hot.

"Mama" she said excitedly when I walked over to her. I smiled at her.

"Hi baby girl. Are you hungry?" I asked and put the food on her tray.

She immediately started eating and Jimi and I laughed.

"She eats like she's never been fed before" Jimi said.

"I know" I said with a laugh.

"A least she's eating the carrots" I said and Jimi nodded.

We spent the next half hour eating dinner. I had Aubree try a piece of my chicken and she liked it. I didn't want to give her too much because she has trouble chewing tough foods.

After dinner, Jimi offered to clean up while I took Aubree to get a bath. I carried her to the stairs then set her down because she likes to crawl up them. It takes us a good five minutes to get up them, but she loves it. We finally made it to the top and she stood up. She followed me into the bathroom and I started the water. She was so excited she tried to climb in with all her clothes on. I grabbed her before she went in and she got a little mad.