babies make things blurry

Paela's little grin Time flies and I'm not entirely sure how it can possibly be December already. We still have lots of Christmas shopping to do (well, some of us do). But Paela is napping better (most days) and sleeping pretty well (even if it is in her baby papasan instead of her crib). She wakes up in twenty minutes in her crib, but sleeps for hours in the papasan (or on us). Coincidence? I think not.

Our big success of the week is that Paela can fall asleep in the papasan instead of being put there after she's asleep already. She still needs some help after we put her down, but it is progress, for sure, to be able to leave her while she's in light sleep instead of waiting for deep sleep to do other things. She's also giving us lots of cute social smiles when we play with her or when she sees us. I can't help but smile back, even when she decides to coo and smile right after opening her eyes wide when we were trying to get her to sleep. It's hard to believe she's been around for almost seven weeks now.

Angela and I made it out visiting teaching with Paela and Thomas in tow Monday. Both kids were content during the visit even if they would otherwise have had meals then. The four of us also got a lovely walk together Tuesday. Half of us even got ice cream along the way. Any guesses which half?

Wayne and Paela and I went to campus and took a walk around downtown San Jose Saturday. He made progress on some projects with his brother's help, and we had a nice relaxed day. We saw half of a movie at Karl and Angela's in the evening. It got to be too late to try for the rest of the movie, considering some of us had lessons to think about. But the half we saw was pretty good. Karl made up the rest for us. I think he got it wrong, but we'll see who was right when we're able to go back over for the last half.

Auburn and Matt (some of my college buddies) came to visit us Wednesday through Friday. Well, he came for interviews, but we had the good fortune to be able to visit them and their son, Seth, as well. Seth is a walking toddler, so he kept Star on her toes for a couple of days. They were all fun to have around. We think more of our friends should get interviews out here more often.