January, February, and the last week of December.

Eliza: What to say about this little nugget? She's just passed ten months old. What?? Going to say the most oversaid thing about parenthood, but where did the time go? She is so close to walking. She could, easily, and did take one tiny step last week only to be pushed down by mom because dad wasn't there, but she is not very motivated. She loves pushing herself physically but hates losing control- she's always been her giggliest when you're dangling her from the couch or leading her to believe she's gonna topple over. You can see her try face- focused eyes with her tongue out- as she concentrates on using her little baby muscles to stay up. It's her most dominate personality trait. She is a great independent player (watch that change since I said it), and we often seclude ourselves in the nursery room where there is a floor level mattress. I'll read while she looks out the window and shuffles around on the floor. It only works if I'm ground level, though, as every ten minutes or so she feels the need to check in with you... i.e. crawl up onto your lap, grab your face, try to eat your book and maaaybe, give you a quick cuddle. Unless I'm reading the Jason Bourne series, I always make sure to set down what I'm doing when she does this and give her my full attention. Those books are just kind of addictive and I have to watch myself with them haha. She loves the game "I'm gonna get you," where you chase after her while saying that, especially when dad is holding her while being chased by mom. Or when she's found that the baby gate is down and she's making a break for it only to be caught a few steps up. She survived her first high fever and has had some rocky sleeping periods as of lately, but I think we are starting to move past them. A growth spurt, fever, and then teething followed by a one night stomach bug just really brought us back to a worse than newborn stage level of tiredness.

^^She's been making this face a lot, lately. I'm glad I got photo of it because she cycles through the funniest facial expressions and they can be hard to capture.

Charles and I: Charly continues to work at Amet. As of the end of January, he has been there for five years- the same amount of time we've owned this townhouse. That feels crazy as well. We are both looking forward to warmer days, although probably me more than him. I love winter but the very end just kind of gets you. I am dreaming of days where Em, dressed in her swimsuit, is loaded up into the bike trailer, and with a spare set of clothes and lunch in tow, off to the splash park we go. Where we, while soaking in the sunshine and embracing all green things will play all day with a midday picnic to keep us going. These winter walks will just have to do, for now. Also, a few more things I don't want to forget:

^^We had a family get together at our pool.

^^We also celebrated February birthdays up at the Hill residence as well.

^^Chuck out snowmoshredding/ backcountry snowboarding. I asked him to give me the photos he took and he told me he didn't take any, because everyone else had nice cameras [so why bother]. So, arrows to nothing on that one.

^^We have dinners with our friends, the Elmers, twice a week. I cook Tuesday, Jenna cooks Thursday, and they are usually all vegetarian, low in dairy, plant based meals. Jenna doesn't eat meat and while I do it's more when eating out vs cooking with it and doing this weekly meal thing has been  a healthy blast. It's true that when you eat healthier you start to taste the natural sugars in food and everything just tastes better. What am I going to do when they leave in a month?!

^^We have become [temporary] regulars at this Asian Fusion restaurant that just opened up and have made the drive out Ashton for 5-11 Main Pizza and Huckleberry shakes a few times as well. Also, that last picture...Jenna tells Stephen to get out of the background and then we turn around and Charly's like "done, took it, won't take another." I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did and it wasn't until a week or two later that I zoomed in and realized Stephen was holding Em's sippy cup.

^^The night we got home from the cabin Eliza spiked a 102.7 degree fever and she was not the "sick but happy" baby you see pictures posted of. More like the "by the time you gotmeasleepIhadonehourbegoremytykenolworeoffandIwokeupscreaminghystericallyandshakinguncontrollably. Weirdly, though, she had no other symptoms. No runny nose, congestion or cough. Just a fever that freaked us out- usually when we call Charlys dad about various baby things it's always been because we were over worried and she was completely fine. So when we called to find out what the basics of a fever were and he was all "103-4 is when you start to worry" you can bet I over panicked at 102.7 and kinda just carried that panic for three days straight.

^^I got a lot of books for Christmas that I am slowly working my way through. Eliza used to be really sweet and play around me as I read as long as I was ground level, but she has since started her transition into toddlerhood aka she literally never stops going. Never.