The holiday season

The holidays are definitely in full swing around here! We put up our xmas tree right after thanksgiving. Forgot to mention that around the actual time. Been so focused on baby and functioning our daily life that, yes, we did put things up on time! We used our first ever artificial tree, just a small 4 footer. Comes pre-lit and everything, no dropped needles. Nice! I remember being disappointed when our trees in my childhood home went to artificial, must later - once i was out of college i think!. But as an adult, i really appreciate the fake tree:). Laurel picked out a Sleeping Beauty ornament at the disney store and she sits atop our tree this year. She was very enthusiastic about decorating. She has been that way for each holiday this fall She hung ornament on top of ornament, crowding all of the bottom branches, but she had a lot of fun doing it:). She's also helped me start on some wrapping. Audrey's room isn't really occupied yet, so it's turned into xmas prep central! Wrap, ribbons, etc cover the floor. Laurel is in charge of the tape and picking out packaging labels for each gift. She also picks out the paper for each person.
We also got our elf on the shelf right after thanksgiving as well. After much encouragement, and rejecting names like "chair" and "tv", Laurel named him Beepbo. He keeps watch over her in various locations each day and brings a tiny gift in her advent calendar each morning. Laurel is somewhat into it. Most days she doesn't remember until I point him out. Maybe next year she'll be more excited for his "visit".
We had a run in with Santa at the mall, just a quick lap sit. Last year she wouldn't touch him with a 10 foot pole and this year she's very excited. She was still reluctant to sit and wouldn't talk with him, too bashful. But she did sit on his lap! We'll bring her back again right before xmas to have a better photo opp.
Things continue to be busy at Copper Willow, printing holiday cards and getting items ready for 2011 wholesale. I'm definitely feeling behind. Planning for the holiday event last weekend and having Audrey come along has put me far behind. But again, I feel lucky that she's an easy baby. She comes to work and sleeps in the carrier. She has a good schedule of about 1.5 hours of wakefulness and then she is ready to eat again and jump back into the carrier. So when things get really tight on time, I know she is going to be easy to deal with. Eventually she will be bigger and it won't be so easy, but we'll figure out a way to make things work then. Audrey's hair is starting to grow back in already. She was pretty much bald on top and a nice fuzz is growing in fast. Unfortunately, at the same time, her skin has broken out in a bad case of baby acne. Pretty much all over her face and patchy across her scalp. I keep her baths mild so that there's no irritation, but she definitely has sensitive skin. She will get rashy reacting to heat as well. Poor baby. But it doesn't seem to bother her, so we'll just wait it out. She's already growing as well, most of her newborn things are starting to be too short on her. Wow, time flies!