Nila's First Christmas

Luckily for Nila, she won't remember this Christmas.

Not to say it was bad; it wasn't, but she didn't get to experience the traditions she would have been a part of at home. 

Sure, we had a tree (we even put it up the second week of December just like Grandma Tammy would have), but our tree was artificial and a little on the Charlie Brown side. You can see a little bit of the tree in the picture above. 

That's the office cook, by the way. Her name is Draxshan and she wanted a picture with Nila by whit is, I'm sure, the only Christmas tree she's seen up close. (Well, except for the foot-tall tree we keep in our office year round...)

We had a great Christmas Eve dinner (I made a turkey, but burned the cookies) like we would have back home, but without our wonderful family and we had a nice Christmas breakfast at a local hotel.

It was nice, but it wasn't home. 

Lucky for us, Christmas comes every year!

TaDa indeed

Early this week I put Nila down for a few minutes of tummy time, something she normally hates. This time though, she looked over at me and grinned... I should have known we were in for a crazy week.



The next day during some tummy time she lifted her head up on her arms and had a good ook around. The next morning she rolled from her back to her side. Later in the week, while on her tummy again, she pushed up on her arms again... then surprised us all and rolled over to her back!! I think (judging by the look on her face) that she was as surprised as we were!) Then this evening she proved that it wasn't a fluke and did it again! Good for her!



I told you she was getting bored...

Ladies and Gentleman!

And, no sooner was I writing that last post, than Nila began waking slowing, passing gas (both normal occurances) and...

rolled over!

TaDa!!

You asked for it.

Here are some pictures we took of Nila this week. The first is from an office Christmas party. I know it's small, but...at least it's something. She had a good time, but I think it was a little much. There were a lot of people there and by the end of the evening I think she was really tired.

The second picture, well...I think it's one of her best. I snapped it the other day to show you how she's been grubbing on her fingers lately! Even now as I type this, she's fallen half asleep with them in her mouth. Who needs a pacifier when you have fingers? No, we're not worried she's going to have a malformed palette or anything like that. It's normal. And, see the ceiling fan - she LOVES ceiling fans! She just stares at them and laughs! I think it's like a mobile to her.

Which brings up a point. The toys here are kind of not "approved by the American Pediatric Academy..." if you know what I mean. If any of you "Nila" readers out there are going to send packages in January, would you pop in some 4 month/5 month old appropriate toys for Nila? I think she might be bored. I mean, she DOES look pretty thrilled in that picture, playing with the fan and all, doesn't she?! But... some variety now and then would be good! hahaha...

ps. we have a really good picture of Nila with our cook that we'll post soon, I promise...Peace!

Not Nila, but...

...hilarious

From a Kurdish Photographer

From the IQ with Love