S, S, S

Shoes, Snow, Santa!

Gloria has become very confident and proficient in her walking skills, so now we've been putting shoes on her so she can become comfortable with having them on. The first time we put some on her feet (last week) she was unsteady and kept falling down - a very different sensation, not being able to feel the ground directly beneath your feet. Grammy brought some cute, flexible soled sneakers this week when she was visiting and we put them on Gloria. I thought Gloria would do the same thing as she did the previous time, fall down a lot and prefer to crawl. But she surprised me by taking off! She walked very well with them on her feet!

On Wednesday, we bundled Gloria up in her snowpants, boots, coat, mittens, and hat and took her outside into our white winter wonderland.





She wasn't quite sure what to think about all of it - she didn't fuss, but she didn't really smile. With all of her winter gear on, she couldn't walk and could barely crawl. We put her on her sled and pulled her up and down the driveway.



She seemed to enjoy the ride so we pulled her around the yard a bit. Gloria tipped over a few times, but luckily the sled has a seatbelt so she stayed in. We even pulled her up the big driveway and ran down, and she didn't fuss.



After sledding, we sat in the driveway for a bit playing with the snow. Gloria tried to pick up snowballs, but with mittens it was too hard for her. She leaned over, stuck her face in the snow and tried to eat the snowballs!




Last night, we took Gloria to meet Santa! She has seen pictures of him before and when we ask where Santa is, she can point to the picture on the window or get the stuffed Santa off the couch. When we got to the mall, there was a sign saying that Santa was feeding his reindeer and he would be back in 10 minutes. We decided it was a good time to take Gloria on the carousel. Rob and I stood by her while she sat on a horse. After a few times around she was ready to get off of the horse - it goes pretty fast. Rob held her for the rest of the ride.



After we got off it was time to get in line for Santa. Rob walked her around the display and showed her the snowman and Rudolph. Santa waved at her quite a few times too, as we were waiting in line. She was intrigued by Rudolph and his glowing red nose. When Rob tried to put her down to walk or switch her position, she clung onto him for dear life. She did not want him to let go of her. We were worried that she wouldn't want to see Santa by herself, that Rob would have to sit on his lap too! Luckily she loosened up a bit and let me hold her and walk her around. She stood outside the fence and just stared up at Rudolph and was walking all around.





When it was our turn, we wanted to see if Gloria would walk up to Santa. She didn't. She just stood there. Rob shook his hand and said hi to him, to show Gloria that Santa's okay. Rob had to pick Gloria up and place her on his lap. I took a few pictures and then Rob "rescued" her. She didn't cry or anything. She just kept looking at Santa and then looking at Rob.






Oh, and yesterday morning Gloria had her second flu shot. She cried for a minute and then was fine. We had her weighed while we were at the doctor's office. She was 22 pounds 15.5 ounces - pretty much 23 pounds! What a healthy girl!