December brought cold weather and snow, illness for all three of us, and of course the holidays!
By the end of the month, Aurora had begun to ask "why?" a lot. She is also much more
skilled at taking her clothes and her diaper off. We are sure to have many accidents in
the future as she prefers to run around as naked as we let her be! Even though we finally
bought Aurora her own "potty" she has yet to successfully use it. She does like sitting
on it and chats with us or reads a book when we are using the toilet.
December 6, 2009: First major snowstorm in the Boston area! We thought Aurora would love playing in the snow,
but she wasn't too excited about heading out into the cold.
Video: First walk on the snow
Aurora enjoyed shoveling off the solar lights, but refused to help us with the walkway.
We taught her how to throw a snowball, and she really liked doing that.
Video: Ready for a snowball fight
Jon makes one last attempt to get Aurora to help us shovel.
December 8, 2009: Aurora had a slight fever for several days prior to this, but this evening her
temperature shot up to 105, prompting another visit to the Newton-Wellesley Emergency Department.
After several hours, a chest X-ray, and a urine sample, they told us they were calling it the flu since
she didn't have anything else they could detect.
December 10, 2009: Aurora has spent the entire week at home with either Jon or Kathy. We
are lucky to both work at places that are pretty generous about taking family time as we
juggled our schedules and split our time between home and work. Here Aurora and Jon are
sleeping as Kathy gets ready to go to work. Notice how she instinctively snuggles herself
over to be as close to Jon as she can!
December 12, 2009: Aurora is (finally!) feeling better and helps Kathy prepare apples for applesauce.
Her main jobs are to make sure the apples are OK and to mix them up.
Video: Helping Mama in the kitchen
December 13, 2009: The apples were cooked the night before and now that they are
cooled, it is time to turn them into applesauce! Aurora insisted on trying to use the
food mill to grind up the apples.
Video: Making applesauce
Ready for the taste test!
Mmmm! Mama and I made great applesauce!
That night, we headed to the church down the street to buy our Christmas tree.
December 15, 2009: Aurora helps Kathy make sugar cookies that evening.
Time to take a break and eat some smiley fries!
December 17, 2009: Aurora attends a performance of "The Nutcracker" at Walnut Hill,
followed by the annual holiday dinner. Here she is back at home, proudly holding
on to the tiara she won in a raffle (she also got to meet the Sugarplum Fairy after the show).
Aurora's favorite part of her outfit? The sparkly red shoes!
December 19, 2009: On most mornings, when we ask Aurora what she wants for breakfast, she tells us "oatmeal!"
But not just any kind of oatmeal - instant will not do! She has to have steel cut oatmeal, which takes an
hour to prepare. Here she is helping Jon measure out the oatmeal.
December 20, 2009: Another snowstorm! Yea! Aurora will have a white Christmas!
Aurora emerges to help Baba make a snowman.
Where did Baba's car go?
Oh there! I'll help you clean it off, Baba!
Jon and Aurora invent two ways to clean the snow off his car.
Video: Sweep off the car
Video: A new way to slide
That evening, we started putting a few ornaments up on the tree. Kathy realizes that her
love of delicate handblown glass ornaments and Aurora do not go well together. We are limited to
the handfull of unbreakable things we have acquired over the years.
Aurora discovers the joy of playing with a long garland of plastic beads.
December 21, 2009: Aurora and Jon goof around in front of the camera.
December 22, 2009: Aurora refuses to put on clothes that evening. We are lucky to have
finally convinced her to put on a diaper!
December 25,2009: We had put some ornaments on the tree earlier in the week, but hadn't fully decorated it yet.
Jon and Kathy finished the job after Aurora went to bed on Christmas Eve, stringing up lights, making
popcorn garlands, filling the stickings, and putting out the presents.
After breakfast, Aurora (like many other folks) decided that she needed a beer
to help her deal with the holidays. Seriously, the bottle was empty before she found it
waiting to be recycled!
She finally makes it into the living room and sees the tree and all her presents!
Video: Wow!
She first starts to make a pile of her presents, then sets to ripping open the packages!
The first gift she picked to open is from Will.
Video: Opening the first present
The second is a puzzle from Mama and Baba. Aurora had to play with
each new gift as she opened them, before moving on to the next one. She also
took a few breaks to dance to the music we had playing. It took about
3 hours to finish opening presents!
Video: Hop! Hop!
Video: Swaying to the music
Here she is enjoying a new book. Aurora loves books, and has memorized several favorites.
A doll! Lego-like blocks! Wii sports active! (oops! that's a gift for Mama)
Wooden blocks! Oh man!
Video: How many blocks do you have?
Video: Hiding
A red purse!
Bye-bye! Can I borrow the car keys, Mama?
Jon was totally shocked to get dark chocolate covered cherries (not!)
Another set of wooden blocks!
After opening presents, we all bundled up and headed out to Walnut Hill to go sledding.
Here Aurora is showing just how excited she is!
She really liked sledding, especially the part where Baba had to push her uphill!
Video: Whee!
December 27, 2009: Princess Aurora fights off the papparazzi.
Does this outfit make my butt look big?
That evening, Uncle Anthony brought over more gifts for Aurora.
Video: Another present for me!
Aurora can't wait to play with her new tractor and puppets!
December 29, 2009: We packed up the car and drove down to spend the rest of the week in
New York with Kathy's family. Almost as soon as we arrived, it was time to open more presents!
As usual, Aurora loved ripping open packages and then wanted to immediately play with or read
every present.
Video: Safari Animals
Imagine everyone's surprise when Dad opened up his gift and it was a Wii (from himself)!
Aurora helps Wai Po open her Wiimote.
December 30, 2009: Wai Po and Aurora stayed home while everyone else headed into
Manhattan to see "Mary Poppins" on Braodway. We had lunch at the Mars Cafe, where Wai Gong
met an alien.
December 31, 2009: Happy New Year! There was just enough snow to build a small snowman and to
go sledding in the backyard. This is the first time in at least 25 years that Kathy
took a sled down the backyard hill.
Video: Aurora and Mama
Video: Jon's solo ride
Video: Aurora and Baba
Here's Elena enjoying a ride down the hill.
Aurora and Jon work on their snowman.
Video: Aurora supervises
Everyone pose by the snowman!
Later that night, Aurora stayed up with the whole family to welcome in the New Year.