What's that funny smell coming from the Christmas Tree??

As you most likely read below, we are kinda into our Daughter. She's pretty awesome. I never thought I'd be okay with cleaning a poo covered rear-end, but here i am.

The poor girl was sick this week. We spent most of the day yesterday chasing her around the house with a box of tissues. Every sneeze sent us running to catch things before they hit the floor.

My job has been even crazier in the last few weeks. I've finally gotten to the point where I know what is broken in the company and how to fix it. It's just a matter at this point of getting everyone else to align themselves. I have a big presentation on Tuesday to launch my plan to our executive team. Hopefully it goes well and I am successful. If not, I might not make it another year...

My stunning wife and I had the pleasure of spending the evening with my coworkers in an inebriated state in what was labeled our company holiday party. It was at a trendy place downtown and there were really good appetizers and an open bar - need I say more? (that's actually what the invitation said). Reva was gorgeous (as she always is) and I wore pants.

Other than that, our life is pretty normal. We are excited for the christmas season and even purchased a christmas tree from a local hardware vendor. We named him Harvey and haven't yet had the courage to tell our daughter that he's dead - so we will just leave him where he is until after the holidays (we figure why ruin her second Christmas with such a gruesome fact).

Harvey has 3 whole presents under his boughs - all of them are for Mommy. Baby is a little jealous (I can tell). She keeps trying to take them and hide them from us.

Our big girl has graduated from Formula to Thin Mints. Here's mommy giving her some of the yummy treats. Yes, she is stoned on them.

Have a great time shopping for presents for me!!

Our baby vs. the world

Today in Relief Society, mom made the comment that her children's blogs were a great way to stay strong and together, and that she checked them twice a day she loved them so much. So dagnabit, I figured I needed to give y'all something to read. No interesting pictures this week, unfortunately.

Tonight dad and I played at the Festival of the Nativity at our old ward building. Playing for half an hour to a MUCH larger crowd than I had anticipated - plus a nice huge introduction at the beginning with an extensive bio - made me pretty dang nervous. We pulled it off and people seemed to enjoy it, so all the education and years of learning to fake my way through performances paid off! Dad was a trouper too and played fabulously.

Afterwards I got to help wrangle Solei with mom and Jared as we tried to maneuver the crowded halls and talked to our friends from our old ward. We saw a few people we'd known that had children around the time Solei was born and I broke a cardinal rule... I KNOW you're not supposed to compare your child to other kids, but hey, how else am I going to tell if she's on the right track? Being patient and reading books just ends up getting me all nervous.

First off - Solei is way more mobile than most of the kids I saw. People say she was an early walker, but really, she had wanted to walk far earlier than when she did, so it couldn't have come a moment too soon for her! And she seems to run a lot more than the other kids I saw tonight. She doesn't really like to stop, poor thing. And when I say poor thing, it's because we wouldn't let her run around like she wanted to (Jared stopped her from demolishing a nativity set just in time).

And second - she's getting a hang of this talking thing kinda fast. She's mastered the words "Pease??" and "Up" and "Down" and she uses them like nobody's business. It's remarkable - she knows what they mean and resorts to screaming way less than she did before she figured out the word "Pease??" meant Mommy will give me Gerber Cheetos if I say this enough!!

And lastly - she's a big kid. I'm not saying she fat or an Amazonian or anything, but she comes up to 2 and 3 year olds to give them hugs, and they only have an inch or 2 above her. Maybe we just have short friends, but regardless, she's no tiny gal. People often ask "What do you feed this kid??" and the answer is simple - milk, croutons, Gerber cheetos and pork rinds. And peas and corn, but we've calculated only 3 pieces actually get in her mouth, so they don't count. Yes, the pork rinds are Jared's fault.

I could be way off on this, maybe all kids are this vocal and mobile, but I swear the kiddos we've been running into lately have been lethargic, mute and short. Maybe I should see if I can hang out with some genius babies to give me some perspective.

(oh, and she's also the most social baby in the history of babies. But that part isn't a surprise, seeing as her mommy is a bona-fide people addict too.)