Baby's new year!

Well, I have been a very bad blogger for the last two months. Much has happened - Christmas, New Year's, new teeth, progress toward crawling. Melina went an entire day saying "nang nang nang nang nang" over and over. Her Yaya (Jeff's mom) was visiting and I think she thrived on all the extra attention. She was the belle of the ball at a Christmas party, smiling and flirting with all in her maroon chiffon and black velvet gown. She was grinning from ear to ear for most of the party, although she was too excited to sleep. She seemed fairly oblivious to Christmas itself, retreating for a nap in the middle of the festivities, although at Christmas dinner she enjoyed mashing potatoes in her fingers. She spent New Year's at Black Butte Ranch with Linnea, who is almost exactly a year older than Melina.

This past weekend Melina and I went down to Corvallis to visit my friend Tara, who just had a daughter as well. Melina welcomed the new baby with a firm handshake and a few general pokes. It's hard to imagine that in three years or so they'll be running around together!

Yesterday we took Melina cross-country skiing at Teacup Lake in her new Chariot sled. She did very well (that is, she slept) for the first half of the ski trip, and then after some complaining she spent the second half in a front pack on Dad's chest. All in all, it was a success, and I'm sure we'll be going on more ski trips in the future. The Chariot works very well, and we're glad we bought it. It turns into a bike trailer in the summer.

In terms of development, Melina has made lots of progress with crawling. I saw her take two crawl-steps forward today, though she prefers to go backward. She also has two new teeth, including one on top. That's four in all. And we finally bought her a crib last week, which she is sleeping in now. She won't sleep through the night in it, but at least we have one to work with.