First Thanksgiving!

This year we are definitely thankful for our beautiful healthy family. We had a great first Thanksgiving at my parents house with Idella. She has been eating solids for awhile now so she snuck a few tastes during the day from grammie. I believe I caught her trying chocolate cream pie, sweet potatoes, and at one point some of the pumpkin roll, of course she liked it all. When we were eating dinner she was watching me ever so carefully and every few bites I took I could see her opening her mouth like I should be giving her a bite to.


We also had a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner with Jacob's family at our house. His two sisters and their families came (along with Idella's three cousins), his grandmother and great aunt and uncle. It was great to be able to see everyone. The kids all exchanged Christmas gifts early since we were all together and everyone is so busy. I think they all enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the presents! It was so much fun to see Idella trying to unwrap the presents; she would grab the paper and rip it off then either throw it on the floor, or stick it in her mouth. This is one of the first presents she opened (with assistance from daddy), as soon as it was open she was mesmerized. We had to take it out of the box right away so she could then look it over carefully and then immediately try to fit it in her mouth.

Of course the best part was getting to spend time with family that we don't see often enough. Idella's cousin is only 13 days younger than her and she loved getting to see her. This is a great picture of them, it looks like they are shaking hands.

There were more great things that happened near Thanksgiving including Idella rolling over. She has been rolling back and forth onto her side for awhile, but hadn't really conquered the complete roll over. However, one morning she was on the floor in the living room on her back while I was packing the car to go to work with her and when I came back in she had rolled over and was pushed up looking at me. Over course I flipped her back over and she immediately rolled back over. She has been non-stop since then.

Christmas will soon be here and I'm sure she'll be crawling or close to it. We have many more firsts to enjoy with her and Christmas will be one of them. It's amazing to watch her and how excited she is about the most simple of things. She is definitely teaching me to slow down and take a few minutes to enjoy something instead of just rushing to get it over with, and this is the perfect time of year to learn this lesson.

Construction site, Walker, Bumbo Adventures

So we started construction on the new store in Northport this past week. It is exciting to finally be starting this since we've been waiting a year and it's been a long haul since we tore down the old building. I am excited to have Idella around for all of this and think it's great that we're going to be able to take all kinds of pictures of her around the new store. It's ironic because my parents tore down their original business in Brooks and re-built the existing store shortly after I was born. There are tons of pictures of me in peoples arms during the construction process, and even more of me inside the building while everyone was stocking shelves and building counters.

We went down to visit Jacob at the site a few days ago and took Idellas first construction site pictures. I am sure there will be many more to come!

We also got Idella a walker and even though her feet don't quite reach the floor she loves sitting in it. She swings and kicks her feet like crazy and I know that the minute her feet hit the ground I'm in trouble. It's hilarious when she hits the rattle ball how excited she gets, she starts to kick her legs and her eyes get so big.

Idella also has another favorite thing to do; she has learned how to lean over and out of her bumbo like she is trying to escape. We can't leave her unattended for 2 seconds, crazy child. This is a picture of her trying to get out and help put away groceries at grammies house. She's so cute some days I can't even stand it!

First Solids & First Shopping Trip

Idella ate her first solids a few days after Halloween. At first she seemed to not really understand what the funny textured stuff in her mouth was but then she caught on. We tried feeding her before bed but she actually started getting up earlier and it threw her whole eating schedule off. We moved it back to lunch time, but that didn't really work either, so she is now eating the cereal after her first bottle in the morning. This seems to be working and she seems to like it more since she's a little more awake.

This picture is from the first time she had cereal. The look on her face was so cute I had to get my camera and interrupt the feeding.


Idella also participated in the long Dubay tradition of the annual Portland shopping trip. Only girls are allowed, and you have to be either under a year old or over 18. The participants are all the women on my mother's side, my sister, my mom, my Aunt Maureen, Aunt Cheryl, my cousins Amy and Charlene and usually my nana. This year nana wasn't able to go since she was just in the hospital and didn't want to push it; she is almost 80 but still teaches two classe at the YMCA every week. Anyway, Idella went this year and was fantastic! She loves shopping, all the bright lights, colors, and sounds really entertained her. It was great being able to bring her this year, and I know I'll miss her next year but I remember how exciting it was every year when mom left for the weekend. She always brought back a gift for when she got home to go along with all the Christmas gifts that were hidden until the big holiday came around. When I finally turned 18 and was able to go it was like being part of a secret club. At that point it knew it was about more than just shopping, it was about taking the time to be with family, eating good food, and catching up since we don't always take the time to see each other the rest of the year. I hope that someday Idella feels the same way about it that I did and still do.













This is a picture of Idella in her new hat that we got on the first day of shopping. She likes to sneak it off her head and suck on the pom-poms.

And this is her napping after a long day of shopping. Obviously it's been a hard day, she managed to lose the socks and shoes and cover her own face with her blanket giraffe. Good thing she was strapped into the seat or she would have probably been on the floor.

I'm sure there will be many more shopping trips, but she's going to have to wait a little while to go on the sacred shopping trip again!