What we've been doing

Here is a video I made of all the things we have been doing. It is about 8 minutes long, and I am mainly posting it because tomorrow night when Asa gets his phone back he can come here to watch it! Enjoy!

The Past Couple of Weeks from Jillian Shaw on Vimeo.

Blog Catch-up

Marley has two new teeth (molars) that have come out on top and two more that are about to come through on the bottom!

Which bring me to my next point: Marley has been the queen of temper tantrums lately. I don't know if it's the teeth or the congestion or the changes in her life, but this kid is learning to throw herself a fit! Her favorite is to stomp her feet and wave her hands in front of her face, screaming like a wild animal.

She is obsessed with her baby dolls. She loves to hug and kiss them, put them to sleep, put them in their stroller or the shopping cart. She even wanted me to nurse them! She takes such good care of them most of the time, but then it cracks us all up when she gets mad and chunks them on the ground. I guess she's not quite ready for all the responsibility!

She has been much better than I expected about not touching the Christmas tree and presents. She will walk up to the tree and think about touching it, but she only rarely actually takes an ornament off. The presents are a little more tempting to her. We had a few smaller presents with bows in front, but they were way to enticing for her, so I had to move them around back. She has made a few small holes in some gifts trying to figure out what they are, but hopefully those people won't mind! If we spend three weeks telling her not to touch the presents, what is she going to do Christmas morning when we want her to tear it up?!

She loves to give hugs and kisses now. She wraps her little arms around my neck so tight, and I can forgive her for anything when she does it. If she accidentally hurts me or I am crying for some reason or another, she knows just what to do to make me smile again. And she has really been into giving me kisses when I am nursing her. She will just stop and hug and kiss me and give me the biggest smile in the world. It melt my heart. I hope she gives Asa one of those hugs on Friday.

My mom and I taught her the sign for "cold" the other day. This one really surprised me, because most of the signs she knows go along with a tangible object.Cold is a feeling and I wasn't sure she would get it. But today when we were walking in the WalMart parking lot, a bug gust of wind hit her face and she immediately did the signf or "cold" and smiled at me!

I have never seen a child who wants to brush her teeth as much as Marley. She is obsessed.

I had an ElfYourself video for my mom and Joel that has the two of them and Marley in it. We showed it to Marley and now she is also obsessed with that. She will sit in my mom's lap and watch it 6 times in a row, thinking it is absolutely hilarious every time.

I have noticed that when my mom comes home from work, Marley is always really excited to see her but she doesn't usually run up to her to kiss her. She gets my mom's attention and then she points at everything she can think of. We think it is kind of like her way of telling my mom about everything she has been doing and what toys she wants to show her. Then my mom will say "Did you do (blank) today?" And Marley will shake her head "no" to any possible question. I think it is so adorable though that she wants to show her everything.

He's Coming Home!

Marley and I are this happy that Asa will be home soon! We pick him up Friday at 1:05! In some ways it feels like he just left last week, but in other ways it feels like it was forever ago. I can't send him any more letters, because they wouldn't get to him in time. So, it feels weird to not be writing to tell him what I have done each day.

A few days ago, I got a letter from him and in it he sent back his "Future Soldier" ID card. It has a picture of him on the front. I left it on the counter and when Marley woke up from her nap, she spotted it and gasped.
She has been ooohing and aahhing over it ever since, hugging the card, staring at it, and kissing it. It is so incredibly adorable how much she misses him and loves him! We also still have our nightly routine of kissing the pictures of him to tell him goodnight. And a few days ago i taught her the sign for Daddy and I have been amazed at how much she thinks about him during the day! She will just randomly sign Daddy and then I will either show her a picture of him or talk about him and she always smiles so big!

We are both so happy he will be home for the next two weeks. It will go by more quickly than I want it to, but we are going to enjoy it as much as possible without dreading what is coming. Saying goodbye the second time will be harder than the first because we know how it feels and he will be gone for longer. But, I just can't think about that while he is here, because it will make me sad. I want this to be the happiest Chrsitmas it can possibly be!

Say "Cheese"

Cousin Love

Marley's cousin Billy was in town this past week. We went to Donna's house to see him Thursday night and the kids had a lot of fun together. They both worked on their sharing skills with the toys and grapes, and then we took a few pictures of them in front of the tree. Marley did not want to cooperate for that, so we didn't get any good pictures of her. But Billy loves the camera! The second I picked it up he was tapping me and smiling trying to get me to take his picture! Marley did like to snowman next to the tree, though.
And this was the best picture we could get of them together! At least they aren't fighting over the toy!
When it was time to go, they gave each other the sweetest hug. I wish Billy lived closer, because Marley loves him! Isn't this the cutest hug?!

Sign List

Since Asa left, Marley has had a burst of new signs she knows in order to communicate with us. Now, she isn't really saying any words other than "uh-oh" and "eewww", but she sign over 20 words!

baby, bear, milk, cup, car, book, bath, apple, flower, hat, shirt, dog, cat, train, all done, more, ball, shoes, ice cream, cheese, duck, cookie, Cheerios, eat, brush teeth, tree, sleep, phone, Daddy!

So, that's 29! When Asa left, she could do four or five! I am so impressed with her every time I teach her a new one, it only takes her a few tries to get it. She will talk soon, I'm not worried about it, but for now it is amazing to be able to communicate with her.