This year was a little more challenging in that Kayleigh came down with Roseola - high fever for 3 days (starting Christmas Eve) and after the fever went away for 24 hours, she broke out in a rash all over her body. 3 days later, she was fine and completely back to normal, but we're having some serious frequent night-time wakings.

Last year, Abby had an upper respiratory infection that led to a trip to Urgent Care on Christmas evening. Not wanting to repeat the Christmas excitement, we took Kayleigh to the doctor's on Christmas Eve as soon as she started showing a mild fever. The doc at first thought she had a sinus infection, but it wasn't until a few days later and a return trip to see the pediatrician when Kayleigh's rash broke out that we learned it was Roseola.

Santa was generous this year. Paul and I both allowed ourselves to purchase a couple of large gifts prior to Christmas - an iMac, a used Xbox 360, and a used Bugaboo Bee stroller - and Abby made out like a bandit, as usual. Both girls got some wonderful toys and much-needed clothes.

We had 2 Christmas dinners! Mom and Dad Newell came over for a Christmas lunch/dinner around 2:00 PM and we had our second Christmas dinner party at 6:00 PM. The evening party was a gathering of my childhood friends and family for our annual reunion. This year, we actually got to play Mafia! The mafia won a few rounds and the townspeople won a few rounds. This game really shines light on the duplicitous (new vocab word - thanks, Yu-Ching) nature of one's friends.

It was sad that my brother, Allen, was missing from the party, but don't feel too badly for him - he's on an eight-week, whirlwind tour of Taiwan and having a blast.

Christmas day was busy, yet so much fun. Abby was ill for last year's party, but was really able to enjoy herself this time. For me, watching her have such a great time with all the family and my good, old friends meant a lot. Abby absolutely loved spending time with Linda and Lily! She zonked out at 8:00 PM, completely worn out from the day's excitement. Kayleigh woke up with a fever shortly after, spent some time with the guests, and joined us in some photos, before the Ibuprofen kicked in and she was able to go back to sleep.

Next Christmas, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that every member of the family will be healthy.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here is our Christmas Photo Album.

Look at this cutie pie we found under our couch in the basement last week.

You would think that with 3 large cats in the house one of these little guys wouldn't survive! Yet, there he was, alive and well.

We set up a trap for him, but he cleverly figured out how to grab bits of cracker out of the trap and avoid getting caught. Eventually, peanut butter on a cracker did catch him and Paul released him in some tall grass in the foothills by our house.

Our house is situated among protected open space, so wildlife is prevalent. These tiny field mice seem to make it into the houses quite a bit, unfortunately.

We just pray that they are not carrying any diseases and try to handle them as cautiously as possible. Otherwise, they bring a bit of excitement into the house for our kitty cats.
Just for fun. This video shows what Kayleigh is like first thing in the morning. "Happy" about sums it up.

Halloween Morning (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

It's been very, very busy at our house lately. Lots of engagements with friends and family this holiday season, but sadly, the main reason for the lack of communication from us has been due to both Paul and I overextending ourselves at work. Just lots and lots of year-end deadlines for which we are responsible.

As of December 1st, Paul is officially out of the Naval Reserves. Although he is still considering renewing his military commitment later on, perhaps with the Coast Guard Reserves, we're just grateful that he has freed up a weekend in December without drill, which is turning out to be a very busy month.

Abby has transitioned early to the second preschool class for 3.5-4 year olds. In this class, she is now responsible for doing weekly homework assignments. The structure of the class and the amount of teaching that actually happens in this class is mind-boggling and we've been extremely impressed with the teacher. Abby is thriving and has a renewed enthusiasm for learning, which had unfortunately dwindled over the last few months.

The students (from toddlers through kindergarteners) are preparing for their annual holiday program, which will be held December 15th. Just one week in the new class Abby got an award for knowing the whole holiday program by memory - songs and dances. Thank goodness that girl inherited Paul's stellar memory and not mine!

Meanwhile, Kayleigh has been hitting some major motor milestones! It really feels like one day she was a sack of potatoes and the next day she's a mobile monster truck, plowing over everything.

On Halloween, she learned to pull herself up to stand. We were in Oklahoma to visit Peter, Nicole, and Annette - and to allow Abby and Annette to go trick-or-treating together again. On the 31st, we took the kids to a park and Kayleigh was playing in her stroller, which was fully-reclined and being used as a play-pen, when she pulled on the frame and canopy and stood up!

A few weeks later, she started sitting up on her elbows, but would lay on her belly and flap her arms and legs, trying to figure out crawling. Up until then, she had been getting around by pivoting on her belly then rolling to wherever she needed to go.

On November 19th, she got herself on her hands and knees for the first time and figured out how to do a pseudo-army crawl! No hesitations. It was almost as if she knew exactly what needed to be done, but was waiting for her muscles to get strong enough to support herself on all fours.

She was also able to sit up from laying down and transition from crawling to sitting on the 19th. It was a big day for her!

This first video shows her crawling on November 25th. Kayleigh is so dominantly right-sided that she was still struggling a bit with her left limbs and figured out she could move better by army-crawling on her left side and on hands and knees/feet on her right side.

Watch Grab (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

Just a week later, you can see the improvement she's made in crawling. Still a little weak on the left side, she would stumble a bit. You can also hear her frustrations as she wants to move a lot faster than she can crawl.

Crawl (trimmed) from Cecilia Newell on Vimeo.

By this week, she has become a mean crawler. We got a report from daycare that Kayleigh sees no obstacles when she crawls. In fact, rather than crawling around other babies, she tends to crawl right over them! Luckily, her baby friends don't seem to mind.

I'm shocked that it's December. This month will fly by as our weekends have already been booked solid with holiday parties, birthday parties, and visits with friends and families.

In case you don't hear from us again this month, we wish everyone a safe and joyous holiday!