Christmas Decorations

Being at home with Andrea, I decided to take some time to put up our Christmas decorations. I have spread it out over the past couple of days. (As a side note, decorating has taken longer than expected, because both Mommy and Daddy now have Andrea's virus; plus, Mommy is fatigued, and has nausea!). Today was really the first day that Andrea became interested and involved in the process.

Andrea went for the silver bead string as soon as I removed it from the package. She loves jewellery, so she was in her glory with this huge strand of shiny silver. Of course, it was really difficult to string it on the tree, as she was clutching one end, until I made her give it up!

After the beads were on the tree, and I started in on hanging the ornaments, Andrea wanted to be in on the action. I gave her a safe ornament to distract her, hoping she'd want to play with it; but she crawled right over, and tried to figure out how Mommy got these things to stay on the tree!

Before the next set of ornaments went up, I decided it was time to introduce Andrea to a family heirloom: Daddy's Christmas Ball, which he made in Grade 1. Daddy and I have an annual battle over this monstrosity; he tries to put it right out in front for everyone to see, and I bury it in the middle, or back. I let Andrea look at it, and waited for her opinion. The result: I guess she has her Daddy's test in decorating. She loved it! ;p

When the tree was pretty much finished, we took a lunch break. Andrea and I shared a bowl of macaroni and cheese. I've got to say, she has become very independent with her eating. She'll say "No" or "All done" when I'm feeding her, but if I hand the fork/spoon over, then she'll eat! Actually, I thought we were done eating, but turned around to find her sitting there, helping herself to leftovers!

After lunch, as Mommy sat relaxing, Andrea started to notice the other decorations around the house. Her favourite is a little Santa wind-chime hanging from the railing. When she figured out that she can gently clink the metal rods together to make music, I couldn't keep her away from it. I don't mind; with all the other things she's not allowed to touch, I figured I could make one concession. :))

Finally--I knew this was going to be the toughest part--Andrea spotted the gifts. The instant I started putting them under the tree, she got right into them. Andrea loves paper; she had watched me wrap these gifts, and was into all my wrapping supplies then. The pretty paper is just too tempting, I guess.

Well, at least it was her own gifts that she started clawing at!

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Overall, I think Andrea is really enjoying the festive decor around the house. She keeps looking up at the tree and saying, "Oooooooo . . ." It's a lot more fun this year, seeing her excitement about the decorations.

On the other hand, it's also more challenging. Last year, at this point, she wasn't moving at all. Now, she's into everything. She's already pulled down part of my porcelain village off the window ledge, tried to take ornaments off the tree, gotten into the presents, and cried when I put a pretty snow-globe out of reach. Yikes.

Andrea also has a quirky little personality; I'm not sure if she's testing me, or playing jokes, or what, but . . . For example, she will go up to where the lights on the banister wrap down towards the plug, reach out to touch the lights, say, "No," then look at me, and grin. It's like she's either saying, "Ha ha, I didn't really touch it," or, "You can't say no, because I'm not touching it!" She was also doing this weird thing earlier, where she'd crawl up to the tree, pretend to touch it, speed back over to me, and pretend to hand me something. That one made me laugh. Was she pretending to decorate, or just showing me she really hadn't touched anything? I don't know. She's so silly sometimes. :))