And we're back!

We have returned from our Christmas trip to Texas, and boy, do I have pictures to show you! It may take me several posts to catch up on the week since I posted last. Our story starts with last Tuesday (the 22nd) when Sonia hung out with five potential future ND Band members (four of which could be boyfriends). In the morning, the Murrays came over for a wee bit of fun, and Carol and I took the opportunity to dress Kieran and Sosi in their matching Old Navy outfits:

They were also wearing their matching blue eyes....


Aidan and Sophie tried to pose adorably with Sonia, but she was too interested in a pig rattle to look at the camera.


Then, later that day, both James Mullen (son of ND Band clarinet players Mark and Mary Jo Mullen) and Jack Schank (son of ND Band trumpet player Tim Schank and his wife, non-band ND alum Bridget) came over to play. They brought their parents, too, which is good because like Sonia, Jack, and James aren't great conversationalists yet! We had a great time hanging out and watching the babies play. It was an interesting age range-- James is almost one year old, Sonia is seven months old, and Jack is four months old.

Sonia thought Mary Jo was awesome!


We sat the babies in a semi-circle and then I decided to drop some toys in the middle. The grabbing that ensued reminded us of the cow being lowered into the raptor pit in the movie Jurassic Park.


Jack sat in a Bumbo for the first time-- his neck is so strong! We think he enjoyed sitting "on his own".


The next morning, we had a flight to Dallas that left at 6:45am. I have no idea why we thought taking a flight at that time was a good idea. We landed at 9:20am at DFW feeling like we had been through a war! Sonia was a great traveler, though. When Andrew strapped her into the Baby Bjorn carrier, she couldn't stop smiling and laughing. Pretty much no fussing occurred, and the TSA lady who checked our IDs said that Sonia was a "straight-up Gerber baby". That was a theme as we traveled-- on the way home, two different flight attendants declared Sonia a "Gerber baby". The agent who checked our bags called Sonia "well-fed".

When we got to Andrew's parents' house, Sosi's Grandpa Dick and Grandma Jenni wasted no time in getting down to the business of playing with their granddaughter. After an initial tiny bit of stranger-danger anxiety, Sonia decided that her grandparents are awesome and proceeded to smile, laugh, and squeal for 5 days straight.

Stay tuned for tales and pictures of more Christmas fun-- Sonia met her Aunt Ali, Uncle Daniel, and cousin Nicholas. Not surprisingly, she fell in love with them as well. Miles of smiles!!