Tis the season

Leighton's first Christmas and we are OH SO EXCITED!! Daddy is a huge Christmas buff anyway but this lil gal has brought an extra spark to our holiday season. Not even just us, but both Grandma's and Grandpa's have an extra touch of holiday cheer; not to mention the friends around us too. She is just so fun to shop for. It will only get better with age!

This is the first Christmas that I won't be in KY or spending the holidays with my family so that is a bit hard for me. But I know that we are making new traditions with our little gal and that makes it all the better. My parents will be here to ring in the new year with us and I think they are just as excited, if not more, as we are. Although J and I know the excitement has nothing to do with the two of us! LOL!

There have been many things keeping the Bolden household a buzzin lately. I have gone back to work so we hired a nanny. Her name is Holly and she brings her 6 month old little girl with. They seem to have oh so much fun. We love Holly too and know that our little gal is in good hands while we are away. While it's killing Mommy to be away for so many hours during the day, it's good to be blessed with a wonderful job and great people.

Leighton (left) Kailyn (right) having some tummy time. 

We had a wonderful time seeing Santa. Daddy and I stood in line for some time, but it was well worth the wait. She did much better here than our home photo shoot. Trying to take pics of 2 dogs and an infant was a  bit of a challenge so we settled on separate pics for the family holiday card.

She did really well and didn't cry at all. 

In line to see Santa.
Luckily she woke up as we were approaching our turn. 

Mommy's attempt at photography. Long way to go. 

We had our first "roll" this week too! She is going from back to front! It's such a joy to see her accomplish one of her great milestones! I am such a proud momma! I show everyone the video!

Leighty-bug has started therapy once a week. She is in OT & PT. It's a nice place and she has learned a couple things thus far. We are only on visit 2 so it's just the beginning. We shall see how it goes. I am still amazed at how poorly educated some of the people in this field are on the "lingo" for Ds. You would think they would be a bit more on top of it. We shall teach them if we have to.

Testing out the soy... looks like she likes it. 

Our lil angel had her 4 month check up yesterday. A bit early due to some stomach issues we have had since her 2 month checkup. She has had diarrhea since she got the rhotovirus vaccine. They say that it's most likely not the cause of it but that's precisely when it started. So I took her in to start the process of finding out where all this gas is coming from. We will be collecting muddy diapers to have them tested and have switched her formula to soy. Pending the formula switch doesn't make things better over the next week, she will be going in for blood work. They will then test her Thyroid and other things. The Thyroid part makes me a bit nervous... but we shall see. Hope for the best and pray the soy works. Our poor little gal is just not comfortable.

She is now a healthy 13 lbs and 23 inches long. Growing well and still above average in the growth charts for Ds and around average for the typical charts. I thought for sure she would weigh more since she has outgrown all of her clothes and is now in 6 month gear.

As we wrap up this year, we are so thankful for the blessing we have been given. She is our angel, our princess and the thieve of our hearts. I am so blessed to be her mother and the wife of such a wonderful man.Our pups continue to bring joy to use daily and words can't express how genuinely happy I am with the life I have been given.

Happy Holidays to everyone!
Shona

ps - sorry for the random placing of the text... still working on my picture blog skills. :)