Upwardly Mobile

It's official -- Elena is walking. It all started over the long holiday weekend. Her courage kept building and building, and now she rarely chooses crawling over her newfound bipedalism. I think that once in a while she goes so far as to actually try and run which is really quite funny to watch. I'll try to capture some video and figure out how to post it so you can all experience the chicken madness that is Elena's walk.

In other news, Elena started sleeping in her crib on Wednesday night. For those of you who didn't know, we had been co-sleeping with her since about, oh, I'd say, The Day She Was Born. And we've been trying to get up the courage and MEANNESS to crib train her for about six months now. Finally, the weekend arrived. I thought I was going to be in for hours of screaming and kicking and crying -- but it turns out, I was wrong. I laid her down in her crib on Wednesday night, she cried for about 3 minutes, and then she was quiet. Now, after nearly a week, she cries until I leave the room and she's silent. I don't think she's getting the same quality of sleep as before, but I'm hoping that will come in time. And I'm also PRAYING that the screaming will stop eventually, and that she'll be happy to go into her bed.

So now it's Christmastime. We've got the tree up, and Elena thinks it's pretty great. She likes to make bee noises, and cow noises, and squeal at the top of her lungs when she does anything that she thinks is fun. I'm excited for the first real snowfall of the season so that we can dress her up in her snowsuit and take her sledding. That reminds me....I should probably buy a sled...

That's the news for now.

Happy (December 1st) Birthday to "Gramma" Carol and "Cousin" Audrey, and Happy (December 7th) Birthday to Uncle Tony.