New

Happy New Year!! I know it's late, but I've been a real slacker in updating this blog. We've been experiencing lots of new things, which is appropriate for the new year, I suppose. When we left for our holiday travels, Kera was scooting around, but it took her some time to get too far. And she didn't have much interest in going farther than her toys.
The day we got back, she was everywhere! I think she was excited to be home, and also to just be able to play on the floor and not going from place to place. We quickly realized that our living room was a lot less baby proof than we thought. I commented that at least she hadn't found the steps, but next thing I looked over and she was at the bottom of the steps. Then Troy said at least she hadn't found the kitchen, and within 12 hours she had found her way into the kitchen.
We had been trying to figure out how to better arrange the house, so this pushed us to get it done. We turned our loft area (which was an office/library/storage area) that we rarely used into her playroom. We can close doors to all of the rooms if we need to, and we have a gate at the top of the steps. I love having a safe place where we don't have to say no to everything she tries to grab. And I also like having my living room back without all of the baby clutter! Well, mostly. We have a little more work to do, but we love it so far!
My resolution for this year is to read more. I love to read, but I never make time to read. So, my goal this year is to read at least two books each month. I'm extending my resolution to Kera, too. So far she only likes to tear or chew on books. I keep waiting for her to start paying attention to stories, but she hasn't shown interest yet. Our library has a baby story time on Monday mornings, so I decided to start taking her. We went this morning, and she loved it! It was more of a fun/play time, but we sang songs and did activities and read a short book. I was really impressed by it, and Kera had a blast. I figure that going each week gets her exposure to other kids and activities and reading, and it allows me to pick out a book or two. And hopefully by my example she'll also want to get books and read them eventually.