Santa came early!

Santa came a little early at the Postlethwait household. We will be traveling and spending Christmas in Kansas with family this year so today was the only morning that we had to wake up and open presents. (Tomorrow morning, we'll be waking up and hitting the ski slopes!) Anyway, Linkan thoroughly enjoyed ripping wrapping paper off her presents and all her gifts were met with "whooooo!" :)

Rock Climbing Ellis Girls

Here is a link to my sister's blog of some rock climbing that we did during their visit to Denver in November! Jessica and Molly got up the rock and did amazing! I really was impressed. It seems that none of the Ellis girls have the fear of heights. :)

http://therippleseffect.blogspot.com/2010/12/rock-climbing.html

Daaaad!

To live in my house, is to hear constant chattering from my one year old. It makes me smile a million times a day. A few weeks ago, Ben was in the garage and I was yelling for him to come to dinner. Linkan picked up on that and started yelling for dad too. Ben is in Tennessee all week for work and she started yelling for dad tonight. Come home, dad!

More pics from Linkan's 1st birthday

In her birthday suit, ready to party!

Posing with Grandpa and Grandma P before the mayhem begins. If you look really close, she is already tasting the frosting. :)

She is possessed with sugar!

After she destroyed her cake, she decided to rip the table cloth off the table.

Table cloth is now on the floor and Boss is reaping the benefits...

Opening presents from Grandpa and Grandma.

Woooo! This is cool!

Macy's Santaland

While in Chicago, we decided to take Linkan to sit on Santa's lap. Santa was at Santaland in Macy's in downtown Chicago. We were in the area the day before we had planned to go so we thought we would go scope it out. Finding Santaland was an adventure itself! It was like unwrapping a very complicated present!! So, when we finally found it - we had spent so much time trying to get there that we decided to go ahead and get some pictures. Unfortunately, Linkan didn't have her cute little dress that I had ready for her to wear for the pictures but thats okay. She was very intrigued with Santa and didn't even cry! It was a memorable "first picture with Santa" for sure!

Deciding whether it was ok to sit on Santa's lap.

Petting Santa's furry coat.

Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas.

Posing for the Macy's camera crew. Thats all the...er...smile that you're gonna get! :)

Little love turns one!

"Coloring at Red Robin"

Yummy sundae for the birthday girl!


Our sweet baby girl turned ONE year old today! We can now switch from referring to her in months to years! She ushered the birthday in with a sleepless night due to some incoming teeth. Considering that she only has two teeth right now, that is a good thing! :)

We are in Chicago during her birthday. Her daddy had business here so we decided to take some vacation and extend the stay. We're doing some shopping today together and then going out to Red Robin for dinner. Her Grandma and Grandpa Postlethwait visited us last weekend to celebrate her birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Ellis, Aunt MoMo, Aunt Jessica and cousin Brody visited a few weeks ago to celebrate. It is hard to believe that one year ago, she had just been born! What an amazing ride her birth was...and it was all worth it. I would do it over again in a heartbeat!

At her 1 year doctor's appointment, she was 30 inches tall and 18 lbs. 6 oz. She lost a few ounces from her last appointment at 9 months. She is really turning into a tall, lean little girl. All that cute baby chub is all gone and her look has definitely moved from "baby" to "toddler". :) When her 6 month old cousin, Brody was here a few weeks ago - we laughed because they are about the same weight! We have started weaning this week and so far so good. I've been able to drop her 3rd feeding so we are only nursing when she wakes up and when she goes to sleep. I think these two periods will be challenging for her to let go of. We're not going to push her super hard and make a battle out of it but we are definitely moving in that direction and that is a good thing! ;)

Linkan took her first steps in early October but it's only been since 11 months that she has REALLY been walking. She is loving her new found freedom and mobility! She has been able to go down steps all by herself for about 2 months but she really prefers to walk down the steps like a big girl so she will go to the top of the step and hold her hand out for help. She talks and sings. She likes to sing with me in the morning and it melts my heart. She can say dada, mama, and hi. Her FAVORITE thing to say is hi. We hear that ALL the time. I wonder if that means she is a budding extrovert?? She waves hi and goodbye to everyone. She loves Boss and Stella. She is constantly joining Boss on his dog bed. He is a good pillow for her. She is fascinated with dog beds...or anything that seems like a mini-bed. She'll go and lay her head down like she is taking a nap. I think one of her Christmas presents will be a fun play mat/bed of her own. Ben said to just get her a dog bed. I don't think I will... ha She loves to mimic everything that mom and dad do...she tries to put her own headbands on, clip her toe nails, brush her hair, feed herself. She is eating like a champ. I have continued to make her baby food and lately, have just been blending up whatever we had for dinner for her. Her favorite foods are spinach and potato puree and any combination of fruit. She started drinking cow's milk and seems to enjoy that too. She mastered the straw a while ago and that is her preferred way to drink things. She loves to play with daddy. He does things with her that mama won't do...including flips and spins in the air. It looks scary to me but she eggs him on with giggles so it's her own fault! She loves to climb on everything and has had quite a few bonks already. She generally sleeps from 7:30p to 8a and takes one afternoon nap. She is an average sleeper (sleeping through the night) but lately has been doing really good. She is learning what "no" means. When we tell her no very sternly, her bottom lip quivers and she cries. This usually makes us laugh so we have to turn our backs to her. We love her sensitive heart and consider this a good quality for her to have. :)

Each stage of Linkan's life gets more and more fun for us. I keep wondering when we'll get to a stage that we don't like...hopefully it won't be until the dreaded teenage years. haha :) We love our precious little daughter and look forward to many many more birthday celebrations!

Swing Swing!

While we were visiting in Kansas, my dad put the baby swing back up for Linkan. I remember when Tim was little enough to use this very same swing. :) Molly was making Linkan laugh and cracking us all up.

Playing horsey with Grandma

Bahama Mama

For our 10th wedding anniversary at the beginning of September, we took a family vacation to Florida and the Bahamas. We spent the first half in Orlando. My sister (Jessica), BIL (Bryan) and Brody (nephew) drove down from Georgia and met us there. It was the first time that we got to meet 3 month-old Brody! We tried to let the kids plays but all Linkan wanted to do is pinch Brody's face and lick him! We had a great time together, lazing in the pool and visiting Sea World. (I broke the pics up. The first group is from Orlando and the second group is from the Bahamas.) After visiting with the Ripples for a few days, we all said our goodbyes. They went up to Daytona Beach and we flew to the Bahamas. We spent a week in Freeport, eating everything in sight (the conch salad is to die-for!), lazing on the beach and in the pool. We slept in and went to bed early. haha - now that is a vacation! We did some amazing scuba diving in "Shark Alley" where the reef and nurse sharks were too numerous to count! We did some sightseeing in downtown Freeport and the Lucaya National Park. It's a beautiful island with lovely people and we hope to go back someday.

ORLANDO PICS

Climbing the ship in the hotel pool

I'm in love!

Watching Shamu!

It rained on us a little but it was a nice cool-down!

Having fun with daddy in her new stroller

Brody and his daddy

Linkan giving Brody a big ole sloppy kiss!

The cutest lil Ripple I know!

BAHAMA PICS

Beautiful beach right outside our hotel room

Linkan was 9 months old and still crawling at the time. She loved playing in the sand.

I found out just a few days before we left that Ben's cousin, Jennifer would be at our very hotel for a day at dock. What an amazing coincidence!

Enjoying some yummy fresh conch salad in the Freeport town square.

Exploring the Lucaya National Park

Gold Rock Beach in the National Park

Checking out a tiny crab.

I worked hard to get into that bikini! ;)

Up close and personal with a reef shark.

Coolest dive ever!