Santa and other updates

Today, we went to our local 'dead' mall which happens to be a few blocks from our house to see Santa. There was NO LINE and no pressure to buy the $10 photograph. I had very low expectations, so I didn't even bring the camera. I figured IF the girls decided Santa was okay, then we could come back with the camera on another day. Elijah actually got pretty nervous about meeting Santa. He was really unclear on the concept that he would be a real person and not some animatronic gizmo (which freak him out!!). Once he saw Santa, he ran right to him and hopped in his lap. Well, almost. He was a tiny bit shy for about a millisecond, then he turned on the Elijah charm. Hannah hid behind me for a minute or so, then Santa coaxed her with a candy cane (I found that a little disturbing that she could be lured so easily by candy). Even Leah wanted to sit on Santa's lap, so I took a couple of pictures with that handy dandly, new-fangled camera phone. For those of you who know Leah, you realize what a big deal this is. She doesn't go to ANYONE.

For the updates (hopefully, I'll remember a few things)... I stupidly put the beeswax lip balm on Hannah's lips last night, and guess what, her lips swelled again!! So, it wasn't just the impetiego last time, it really was the lip balm. The allergist thought it might be the flavor oil, and suggested she steer clear of all mint and camphor lip balms. I definitely feel like I should be up for World's Worst Mother today. After some Claritin her lips deflated, but they are still red ten hours later. They look like they want to have impetiego again (YUCK!!), so we started the antibiotic ointment this afternoon as well. Hopefully, we'll nip that in the bud before it starts.

Leah is into EVERYTHING these days. I had to go buy a different trash can yesterday because I couldn't keep her out of the old one (we hated it too, so it was going to be replaced anyway). Now we are the proud owner of a stainless steel, foot pedal, lidded trash can. Hopefully, she won't be strong enough to open it for a couple of years! Leah is more ambitious in her destruction than the other two were. She has better large motor skills than the other two and very little fear. Those two things do not bode well for me!! She's also very verbal, even MORE than Hannah and Elijah (if you can even imagine that!). We estimate that she uses about 50 words at this point, and she's even starting to put two words together. She is learning new words all the time! The other morning her mitten got stuck when I was putting her in her car seat, and I said, "Oh, your mitten is stuck". About two hours later, she got herself into a predicament and she was shouting, "I'm stuck!!". She is an amazing baby!!

We are now the proud owners of a Wii, and we are really enjoying it!! Now, if I could just find a Wii Fit...