We took the official Christmas pictures this week, and I can say it's the only reason I went to the mall on "Black Friday"! Otherwise, I would have been home sleeping in. Well, not exactly. Seems that JoJo didn't get the memo about days off and doesn't realize that if Daddy doesn't have to work that day, he doesn't have to get out of bed at 6 am to read to her and try to feed her breakfast (whether she eats it is a hit or miss proposition). Wanna see our pics? Ask me, and I'll tell you the password and where they are posted.

But, except for the day I snuck out to play ball at 8 am, I was up at 6 every day of my "break" reading to JoJo. Her favorite book has changed. It is no longer If I Were a Moose, which I have practically memorized. In fact, she seems to be out of her Eric Carle phase as well. She only listens to select pages from those books - the final page of Brown Bear and the long food page of Hungry Caterpillar. Otherwise, she skips through him pretty quickly. She currently enjoys Elemenopeo, When Mama Comes Home Tonight, Where the Wild Things Are, War and Peace and Dr. Seuss's Foot Book (all of which get read at least 5 times a day!). The foot book confused her at first because she is convinced that feet, socks, and shoes, are all called "shoes," but I think she's coming around. She has taken to playing with her toes while I read the book, so maybe there's a connection being made there.

She is also getting to that talking stage where she repeats words. She has said "cupcake" (in Hungry Caterpillar), "turkey," "chair," "stars" (when she sees them in a book), "dream" (last page of Elemenopeo), "green", and actually said "nana" for banana, while pointing at the fruit bowl.

She tries to say "drink" (dink) and says "dingding" for any meat. "Ice" is still "dice," even though she says it 20 times a day and we correct her each time.

She is getting better at sleeping through the night and actually has spent a few nights in her crib all night, which is very nice for mommy and daddy!

I think she is also becoming more aware of when she is included in things or not. She had a hard time on Sunday when Sheryl, Cedar and I played Monopoly with Zoe. Although we gave her toys, food, bottles, etc. she seemed to realize she was missing out on the action, and she kept trying to get involved any way she could - which usually resulted in her chewing on a game piece, us taking it away and her crying again.