Clinton's First Christmas...and many Christmas parties!

Forgive me....these pictures are grouped together, but not in order....and I don't have to time to get them that way....Clinton is sure to wake up any minute.

This is Clinton playing on his new zebra that he loves...thanks to Papa and Cindy.


This is how the gifts were housed through the month of December. We had some busy hands that couldn't leave them alone if they were place under the tree. I had to stack a few elsewhere...but we managed to have all our gifts in one piece before we ripped them open!




This was Christmas night at Papa and Cindy's house. You'll see Clinton and Rodney opening gifts, Clinton and Pop playing, and Chelsea and Alesha talking about how fabulous Emma's new horse is!





These pictures are of Christmas morning at Nana's house. There are pictures of the puffy vest family (totally an accident), me and Alesha and John (Nana's boyfriend), Keelan helping Scarlett open her present, and of course, Clinton.






These are of early Christmas morning at our house.





Me, mother and Chelsea all dressed up for our Feliz Navidad party on the 23rd. All yummy Tex-Mex food! If you didn't notice, we're all wearing matching shirts! We thought it was so funny and no one even noticed....we had to tell people how silly we were....except Alesha, she noticed and thought we were serious about it, so she didn't say anything!


Christmas Eve party at Nana's. Firing off sparklers so Santa will know where to park the sleigh.




Santa came!

Learning to Play with Trucks

Clinton was showing off for his Bebe, Pop, and Aunt Jzajzie and started playing with his truck like a truck. He had never done this before. He was even spitting to make the noise of the truck. I have no idea where he got this! We were so excited we wanted him to have another truck, so Aunt Jzajzie let him open one of her presents early.

Eating Like a Big Boy

Clinton has now learned to "snack" on apples. He doesn't eat too much of it, just little tiny bites at a time. The best thing is that it entertains him for a few minutes!






Love these puffs!! ...and so does Gracie Mae! ...and mommy loves cleaning up after us!?

We're walking!

Clinton has quickly mastered the art of walking, due to his lack of fear which I mentioned in the previous post. While a lot of babies start out walking cautiously, Clinton would just turn to the wide open and head out. He'd take a few steps, fall down, crawl back to his starting point to pull back up, and head out again. He gradually was able to add more and more steps and now he can go from room to room. He still loses his balance now and then, but that's usually because he's started trying to run and his balance isn't quite ready for that! At only 10 1/2 months, I was surprised Clinton had conquered such mobility...I thought we had a little more time!

Whew...that was close!

Tonight Gracie, Clinton and I had quite a scare as we were holding down the fort without Rodney! Our little neighbor, Addie, had come over to play with Clinton. When she left it was raining, so I think she hurried and didn't get the back gate closed good. Well, Gracie discovered it! I don't how long she was actually out...but about an hour after Addie had left, I was walking through the living room and heard a pounce on the front door. Our front door has glass panels, so I could immediately see Gracie soaking wet and in a panic, trying to get in....she rarely wants in!

I immediately panicked because I had no idea she was even out. As I got to the door, I saw a Rotweiler and a Pit Bull coming around the corner looking for Gracie. With Clinton on my hip I tried to get the door unlocked as quickly as possible. The big dogs had spotted Gracie and were headed onto my porch! I got the door cracked a little, but Gracie was already panicked again trying to decide if she was going to make it in or try to make another run for it...she was just running in little circles. I was screaming at her to get in as the dogs charged at us. Just as she got through I slammed the door (almost getting her tail) and hit the pit bull in the face with the Rotweiler right behind.

By then I was shaking. I was furious that the people who live behind us still don't have a fence for those huge dogs and I was scared because a million thoughts had run through my head. What if they get in the house? How can I protect Clinton? If they get Gracie, where is a safe place for me to put Clinton so I can get a weapon and rescue Gracie? Can I even take on those big dogs? What if they get me down, who will help me? What really makes me mad is that we live in a REALLY nice neighborhood...they can afford to get a fence! I know this is not the first incident, so I'm hoping others will be filing complaints.

You just can't have those kinds of dogs out without a leash at the very least. What if that had been a dog that doesn't have Gracie's unbelievable speed? Or worse yet, what if that had been one of the neighborhood kids? Oh...I just can't even let my mind go there....

And in case you were wondering, Clinton thought it was nothing more than pure entertainment for his viewing pleasure. He squealed and kicked his legs through the whole thing! I'll be posting more later on how my child has absolutely no fear....NONE!

Daddy, you stay away from Santa's reindeer!

I promise this is the last of our Thanksgiving pictures in Texas! Rodney took the annual Thanksgiving trip with the guys down to the river....the Rio Grande River. Rodney got his first deer....a 10 point mule deer. Everyone was very excited, but no one more so than Rodney. They don't take a lot of deer off of the land down there, so it is a privilege to get one.... especially a respectable buck. Clinton, who was very proud of his daddy, got an opportunity to pose with his daddy and the deer. Clinton told his daddy he did a good job, but he was to stay away from Santa's reindeer...he wants to stay on the good list!

Notables

Clinton has hit a few more milestones that I would like to document here in his "baby book".

During Thanksgiving week Clinton got 4 new teeth (now totaling 6), he suffered his first busted lip (which I can only imagine will be the first of many), and he learned to do chin-ups. I'm not sure where this kid got his upper body strength--must be his dad because I have zilcho--but he would grip the top of a table or the oven handle and pull his body up off of the ground.

Yesterday Clinton accomplished three great feats--he clapped, walked with help, and climbed to the top of the stairs (with me close behind, of course).

His clapping is adorable because he puts his whole body into it...but no noise is made. He can actually do it on command...most of his tricks he does when he wants to, not when I ask.

His walking was surprising. He's tried a couple of times when being a couple of steps from me, but rather than walking he ends up falling to me. And usually if you ever try to help him by holding his hands, he just collapses his whole body onto the ground into a puddle. But yesterday he pulled up on my pant leg and then was standing in front of me on his own. Then he reached out for my hands and just started moving his feet. We walked all the way from the living room to the kitchen. We were both so excited!

Clinton's new favorite thing is the stairs. He crawls as fast as he can to get to them when he thinks I'm not looking. I know when he's headed that way because any time he's on a mission or in a hurry, he crawls with his head down as if to get less wind resistance...but kind of dangerous, sometimes he runs into things. Still, it's really cute. So once he gets to the stairs, I stand behind him because I want him to learn to do it and to burn up his energy so he'll nap. So for a few days, we've done 2-3 stairs and then he's finished. Yesterday he climbed all the way to the top. It called for a big hoo-ray party which resulted in him clapping for himself. Too cute!

We're looking forward to more accomplishments!

...and we're back!

Sorry, I've been on a blogging break. Traveling, working, parenting, shopping, cooking, Christmas decorating, and unpacking got the best of me. Here are some pictures of our adventures in Texas. We are now back home and getting into the Christmas spirit. I will be posting more festive pictures soon. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Love to all--Courtney

A surprising snow day in Texas. We couldn't miss this opportunity for a photo shoot!







Thanksgiving Day with special guests, Grammy and Grampy Zimmer (this day also included our Christmas celebration with them)





Mother and Chelsea (aka Bebe and Jzajzie) took Clinton to the park. It was his very first time on a swing set (which was a preapproved activity) and on a seesaw (not a preapproved activity). After looking at the picture, I realized that not only was my son on one end of the seesaw, but my expensive camera was on the other.





Clinton loves brooms. He had played with the one stored here several times, but someone stuck it too far back for him to reach this time. The sad part was that his head was too big to fit in the space and it would make him really angry. Just look at that face!