We're leaving....on a jet plane

We introduced Gretta to tinsel....maybe this bodes well for the Christmas tree! Hopefully she won't like the feel of that either and won't tear it down!

Or maybe she just needed a nap.

Or if its far away that helps....

Christmas in our lobby

Christmas in the mall


Christmas outside! Ahh...bubbles and sunshine...

We're leaving this....

and are going home to something like this!

Looking forward to being home soon!

Firsts....

Josh is in Bangladesh again until next week so its up to us to get ready to go home a week from today!

Right before Josh left, this little tough gal got her first "shiner". It looks worse in person I think. She and I were playing on the floor and her confident self didn't think she needed to hang on to something when she was standing and unfortunately or luckily (not sure which would be worse, the floor or my nose) she face planted onto my nose, we both cried it hurt so bad!! I really thought she might have broke my nose, but all is well.

FIRST TOOTH! Finally!! The first week of December we noticed that it was starting to break through and she doesn't let us look at it so I finally caught her making faces and you can kind of see it, its just barely breaking the skin on the right side.

A woman said to me today "Her eyes are so beautiful, what color do you call that?" I said "Blue", and she repeated "Blue".....I watched her amazement and awe at trying to understand what the color "Blue" was by looking at Gretta's eyes and it was like what she was looking at was something never discovered before!

Note to parents everywhere: The votes are in on most popular toy for babies this year! Gretta gives two thumbs up on this plastic water bottle. She loves to look through it and have others look through it at her, or roll it around on the floor and chase it, or gnaw on the top, or bang it on the table. She is entertained by it in so many ways. It's a very practical, versatile toy and also gives you another use for plastic water bottles before recycling! So throw out that Toys 'R Us catalog and go out and get yourself a water bottle.

*Bonus for parents is that it doesn't play annoying music or cost that much!*

8 months old!

Time flew by since Thanksgiving! Josh got to have pretty much a four day weekend that weekend of Thanksgiving with all the political drama so we had some fun family time. He didn’t have to leave for Bangladesh thanks to the PAD and the airport being closed for a week. Thank goodness we weren’t planning on going anywhere and good thing Josh’s parents got out when they did.

This week, on Friday, we did some Christmas shopping. Josh had the day off as it was a holiday. It was the King’s 81st birthday and Gretta turned 8 months old! We did take pictures that day, but we just haven’t had time to post them until now. She is keeping us more on our toes lately with her new found mobility. She has discovered there are other rooms in our apartment. She was content just crawling around the living room, but now she has found out that when people leave the room, she can follow! She is also still having fun with food. She is starting to like a more solid texture to food, so we got some Cheerios and then we have been giving her little bits and pieces off our plates and these new indulgences have included pasta, ham, eggs, bread, hummus and couscous. All of which have been greeted with much enthusiasm! Her other favorite is applesauce and she will eat pretty much anything mixed with it.

Also, has acquired a taste for paper and thinks it is the funniest thing to eat it.

Ah Ha! I've got it!

When JOSH was "watching" her, she got a chunk and we couldn't find it anywhere so we're pretty sure she swallowed it. She seems to know that she did something wrong by the expression she has, hopefully her first and only "mug" shot.

What we saw a lot of today....she gets sick of the camera sometimes.

Fireworks for the King's birthday celebration (or for Gretta, whichever you prefer to think)

Just in case you thought she was ALWAYS smiling......

We’ll be home in less than 2 weeks now and can’t believe how fast it actually went if we think about it. We are really looking forward to eating some comfort foods we’ve missed, CHRISTMAS COOKIES, seeing friends and family, snow, skiing and wearing cold weather clothes….not necessarily because we like the cold, but we do enjoy snuggling up on the couch with a favorite blanket in our cozy sweaters, with a cup of hot chocolate and the Christmas tree lights and candles as the only lighting in the room.

Now that the drama is over and the airports are open, Josh will be heading to Bangladesh sometime this week but only for a short trip. Then before we know it we'll be heading home!