Thanksgiving at home!

Yes! At home! We have so many things to be thankful for in our lives, but this year, I was thankful for some probably very minor things. I was thankful to be home. To sleep in my own bed. To sleep next to Andrew. To sleep with my baby down the hall in her own bed. Instead of in Arizona. In a guest bed. With my baby in the NICU.

So this year I have to say was one of the best Thanksgiving's I've ever had.

Since I am big on the compare/contrast type things, I have to do this. I know you are probably bored with it and going ok ok I get that she's bigger. But just for fun, I dug up our first family photo on Thanksgiving.



And decided it would be neat to take a picture this year. Since Elisa obviously would not fit in her first Thanksgiving onesie this year (when she swam in it last year!) I pinned it to her shirt.



We spent the day at my side of the family's and even had a very playful time with my brother's dog, Elvis. I was bit nervous at first since Elvis is a boxer and a rather large dog, but Elvis seemed to be very aware of the fact that Elisa was very little and therefore was very gentle with her. She, however, thought Elvis was just the best thing ever. She giggled and outright belly busted laughed when he came near. She loved it when he licked her fingers, but shied away when he would try to lick her face. She would always look through the room to find him, or go searching for him when she didn't see him. It was very sweet watching.

And for the last few days, Elisa has decided she did not want to crawl, but walk to where she needed to go. However, she refuses to walk without holding onto either Andrew's or my hand. If you try to sneak your hand out of hers while she's going she instantly stops and sits down, then crawls over to you, pulls up and reaches for your hand and whines until you give it back. And this is ALL she wants to do anymore. She's not interested in her toys. She just wants to explore this new world standing up.

The thing is, she is not really using us for balance. In fact, she's taking several strides with just the tips of our fingers touching. Most of the time she's just using us for confidence. So we know she can do it, but she doesn't think she can. So we thought we'd try giving her something to hold onto that wasn't us in order to hopefully show her that she can do this on her own. We caught a couple steps on video.



So maybe by Christmas she will realize she can do it on her own.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and decorating the house for Christmas. I didn't get to last year so I find myself extra excited to get started this year. And the added excitement of seeing Elisa looking at all the lights and decorations. I just can't wait!