My Week Back Home

Christmas was wonderful. Joel did an amazing job this year, he was truly my Santa. I arrived home from Florida sick and miserable feeling, and if it wasn’t for Joel having gotten the Christmas tree a week earlier we may not have had one. By Wednesday I was well enough to decorate the tree, but I had done no shopping. I really didn’t “get” much for Joel, He got some Screenwriting Software and a book both ordered online that he knew about, but no surprises.

While we were in Florida Holly picked out a Wall-e Figurine for Joel, so that was the only thing he got that he didn’t already know about, and since I had two huge boxes of toys coming from Florida for Holly I didn’t buy her anything extra either. But before we got home Joel got presents for Holly and Me. Here is my post about Holly opening her present: http://hollyzzdavis.blogspot.com/2008/12/opening-presents.html

In addition to the pop up animal game she got the 6 rolling ball vehicles which she seemed to like. Joel got me some Yummy Dark Chocolate Covered Walnuts (which I have been eating all week) and a cool Snow Globe where you can put any picture you want into it. He also got me this really pretty necklace. It has a silver chain and it was a black pendant with intricate silver lace around it and in the middle was a white tree with roots. It was very antique looking.





A co-worker of his had a friend who made it. I also got a necklace from Joel’s mom. It was very pretty two layered a brown wooden type pendant with metal work on top. I also got from her some gift cards to Borders and Micheal's, so I am looking forward to picking out some books or art projects to start in the new year. She got for Holly a Babies-r-us gift card which will be fun to use.

My big present however, totally unexpected was Rock band 2 for the WII. I was so excited… I mean I did say like 5 times in the last few months that we should get it and that I wanted it, but it was totally impractical, and I never bought it, so I didn’t expect to have it under the tree, but I tell you, or well Joel would tel you my face was so excited and surprised when I opened and saw it.

It was all I could do to contain myself and get Joel to open it up and set it up right away, but alas we ate breakfast first, yummy eggs, tofu bacon with cheese and salami, and hot cocoa, and it was late in the afternoon before he got around to it. Holly decided that she was going to be my #1 groupie, and immediately found her very own use for the cool drum kit.

That night we played many a song and I created two awesome singers and sang “on tour” in many venues. Holly sang with me, she would chew on the microphone and I would hold her and be able to sing into it while she was holding it. We had fun but after a while she got a bit overwhelmed and we turned it off, it is of course loud rock and roll music and all.



Earlier in the week, on Monday Holly had a session with Sally. It was pretty awful. She was still on Florida time, and hadn’t been home more then 24 hours, so was still getting adjusted. Plus she hadn’t seen Sally in like 2ish weeks, so most of the appointment was a getting to know you again session. Sally did get to see a few of Holly’s new tricks from Florida, but didn’t get to work with her too much. She had a red horse with her which Holly bounced on a bit and that was fun.

The following day we watched Bolt, one of the free screeners from the VES. We really enjoyed Bolt. It was much better then I expected it to be and I highly recommend it.

On Christmas Day evening we watched Miracle on 34th Street, the original 1946 version. I had set my Tivo to record a bunch of Christmasy stuff the night before, including all three versions of this movie (I have only watched the original so far) also a Oakland Children’s Christmas Parade, the Disney Christmas Parade, and a Mickey’s Christmas Story, Frosty and Rudolf, and even a Scooby Doo Christmas, ooh and the Simpson’s Christmas Episode.

We obviously didn’t watch all of these on Christmas, but we have been watching them since during the Christmas break. Oh I also recorded some cool music shows, choir’s singing, and one with Christmas lights from around the country. Those were fun to watch too. Later in the week we watched a Mickey’s Christmas Carol, its only 40 minutes and its not my Favorite Christmas Story, but the 40 minutes was perfect compared to an entire 2 hour live action version, so I was happy to see it.

After Christmas we had our friend Donna and her new boyfriend Dan over. We have known Donna for like 3 years now I think, but it had been months since we had seen her, so we were excited for the get together. She brought over a board game called Race for the Galaxy, really more of an elaborate card game that plays like a board game. We decided to play it when Holly went down for a nap, but it took us a really long time to learn it and get started so we were only half way through when she woke up.




Joel had made some yummy Christmas Sugar Cookies with the Green Christmas trees on them and Coffee for everyone, so I took a break to feed Holly and then she actually sat and played with her toys while we finished the game. We were right at the table, so I was able to keep an eye on her and if she wondered off too much I could get her before she got into any trouble. I put on a Baby Einstein Video for her to watch and that also distracted her some, at least long enough for us to finish the game.

I ended up coming in 3rd, but it was only my first time playing a very complex game. Once we finished we Played some more Rock Band which was nice to have more people to play with. Dan did Guitar and Drums and Joel tried out the drums. I mostly watched and played with Holly and Donna sang, but I got in a few songs myself which was fun too.



Now that I was feeling better and Holly was more settled in I decided it was time to start feeding her again. We started with some Apple Cherry which she ate and enjoyed. Joel was giving me a little orange for a snack so I gave Holly a slice and she actually really liked it, she gnawed on and sucked it, and then Joel decided to cut a slice in half so it would be more juicy for her.

The next morning we gave her some YoBaby, the kind I have is Yogurt with Fruit and Cereal. It was Raspberry pear fruit and after eating half of the container I added 3 spoons of her oatmeal on top and mixed it in to make it thicker and stickier and she ate all of that too. Yesterday she ate an entire large container of String Beans in one sitting, I was amazed. And this morning she had another entire container of YoBaby.

I gave her some carrot flavored wagon wheels from graduates to chew on, but she ended up gagging and threw up, she liked them, but doesn’t have the whole chewing thing quite down yet. I gave her some Saffron rice that she gummed a few nights ago and she was able to eat that without choking, so I will just have to keep trying bit by bit. My new plan is to give her the finger foods before a bottle or baby food so when she gags on it there isn’t anything for her to barf up.

This week we also watched Madagascar 2 which was a fun movie. I think though that it barely has a plot at all, and is sort of completely over the top ridiculous at times. Don’t get me wrong it was fun and had a good story and a moral but the narrative was sort of wild and not very cohesive. I guess its an animated movie for kids, but that really shouldn’t be an excuse.

That night for dinner Joel tried out the new grill he got for Christmas from his mom. The food was delicious. We had Turkey burgers grilled and buns toasted with cheese and rice a roni. We used the grill the next night also to make some chicken which was super tasty.

This Monday I finally left the house for the first time since I got home 8 days prior. It had been nice to have been holed up in here hidden away from the world for a spell, but I also enjoyed getting out. We went shopping for some after Christmas sales, we went out to lunch, and to the bookstore and to Target to get Joel’s some new jeans and we stopped at the supermarket on the way home.

Holly got cranky about half way through our adventure and was super ready for a nap that she wasn’t taking but then I finally got her to fall asleep, and she stayed that way for about an hour and was in a much better mood after she woke up. We also this week watched Sound of Music, which I think it my all time favorite movie, I know the entire thing by heart, and so we watched it in 2 halves with Holly and I sung every song to her. I hope to make it a family ritual, so as she gets older she too will love it and know it by heart.

Katie came over on Monday and was so excited to see Holly after nearly 3 weeks. She said she changed so much and was thrilled by all of her new skills. They had a ton of fun playing. We have two sessions with Sally this week to make up for the ones we missed earlier in the month. Today was one, and she came just as Holly was waking up from a nap. She asked us, is she always this active.. HAHA yes, she is. She wouldn’t sit still the entire time, but it was great, they had a wonderful session and she practiced all of her stretches and standing and kneeling and pulling up and bouncing. It was a good session.

Mostly we have just been playing and enjoying the time off together.. I wish Joel never had to go back to work, this has been the best holiday ever.

(Holly Drinking Cocoa)