Well, I had quite the "first Christmas" this year. Everyone keeps asking Mommy and Daddy "how was Oliver's first Christmas?" with a smile on their face expecting to hear wonderful things. Mommy wishes she could tell them it was so much fun, cause it would be a lot easier to tell them that. But it would be a lie. Yes, a lie.
It started out okay...after I went to bed on the Friday night before Christmas, Mommy and Daddy had their own little Christmas together.
Then it just went downhill from there. That whole week I had had the sniffles, but on Saturday, I got my first fever. Since my Dr. office wasn't open cause it was the weekend, Mommy didn't really want to take me to the ER unless it was absolutely necessary. Her very smart friend that's in med. school said I needed to go if I got a 103 degree temperature. They gave me tylenol and put me to bed, and at 2:30 in the morning, Mommy heard me talking and came to check on me. I was burning up, and when she checked my temp, it was 103. So she went and got Daddy, and we loaded up and went to the ER. The people there were super duper nice. I didn't have an ear infection, and the nice Dr. thought that I had a cold virus. She gave Mommy some prescriptions, and off we went to Walmart at 4:00 in the morning. By the time we got home at 4:20, Dad had an hour and a half to sleep until he had to get up to go to church and lead worship for 4 Christmas Eve church services. Mommy had been so excited to take me to church, but since all this happened, we couldn't go. Selfishly, Mommy was very sad we couldn't go.
The plan had been to leave right after Daddy finished with church and drive all they way to Colorado to Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere's house just in time for Christmas morning. But my nasty fever wouldn't go down, and my parents didn't really want to get in the car for a 12 hour drive with me having a bad fever. So we waited. And waited. We had a good night on Sunday, and Christmas morning woke up well-rested. I still had a fever, but it wasn't quite as bad, so they decided to load up and go. We drove all day on Christmas day and got to Grandma and Grandpa's house at 9:30 that night.
Here I am on the way to Colorado. Whenever my fever would spike to 103 or 104, Mommy would put a cold washcloth on my head. I kind of liked it...it helped me cool off. I was very pitiful.
And here is Bella in Mommy's front seat while Mommy was in the back with me keeping me company. Bella was very good in the car.
So when we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, we opened some presents and talked for a little bit. I had a pretty rough few days. I couldn't breathe through my nose cause it was so stuffy and runny, but while I slept, I tried and tried and tried to breathe through my nose. When it wouldn't work, I would whine and fuss and cry until Mommy picked me up, and then I would go right back to sleep in her arms. When she would try to lay me down, I would cry again. Mommy and Dad aren't huge advocates of me sleeping in bed with them, but this was a different story. I got to sleep with them for a few hours each night we were in Colorado. Mommy thought that me sleeping on an incline on the pillow might help, not to mention the fact that she was super tired and didn't want to hold me standing up. So, pretty much the whole time in Colorado, I was not very happy. I didn't really smile, and I was a little bit fussy. Not myself at all. Poor Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere didn't really get to play much with me.
Then, another thing happened. There was a huge snow storm coming to Colorado for the second week in a row! It was gonna be a bad one. So, we had to leave a whole day and a half early to beat the storm. It was a good thing we did, cause we would have gotten stuck at Grandma Lou and Grandpa Jere's house if we hadn't left. So, we got out there a day late and left a day early, and I was sick the whole time! What a Christmas. Mommy and Daddy kept remembering that Christmas is really all about Jesus coming to the earth. This year was not about traditions for us. It was a little bit hard for Mommy and Daddy without any of their normal Christmas traditions, but they tried to keep good perspective. All in all, it was still really fun to get to see Grandma and Grandpa and cuddle with them for a few days.
I did so great on the car trip back home! It was a 12 hour drive, and I slept for 8 hours of it. I didn't sleep well in Colorado cause I couldn't breathe, so I was catching up on my sleep. Here is a picture of me when we got home, and this is pretty much what I looked like the whole way back!
This morning when I woke up it was nice and dry outside. But today while I was at my class, Dad came to pick me up early. He took me out to the car, and there was snow everywhere! And it was falling hard from the sky. This is a picture looking outside our backyard at the house behind us when Mommy and I got home this afternoon.
And here is Bella outside a few hours later...the snow is still falling! (You can't really tell in this picture, but it is still coming down) Bella loves the snow. She likes to run around and get rowdy in it. She's such a fun puppy!
Here I am playing with Dad. Dad got to come home early too because of the snow, so he's working a little bit from the couch. I'm trying to help him send emails, but he didn't think that was a very good idea. I really want that laptop!
And this is me wearing one of my presents from my Aunt Jenna - Baby Legs! They are great for keeping your legs warm without a bunch of extra material. These days while I'm practicing my crawling, it's easiest for me to practice without big baggy pants on, so my Baby Legs are perfect! We particularly like the argile print...thanks Aunt Jenna! 
This is just me looking cute in my high chair today after lunch. I'm doing so great with all my foods so far - we just added our first fruit to the mix of vegetables - pears! I'm quite the eater, and I continue to love my high chair. It's great for playing in, too!
