Slowly, but Surely

I am working to complete my December Daily slowly, but surely.  Even though I have been off from work for the last two weeks, life sort-of got in the way of putting anything together.  We have been up to all good things of course; wrapping up presents, traveling, visiting family and friends, going to museums, and of course just enjoying the holidays as a family.  So, I guess with work starting again on Monday I will be back to trying to complete a page here and there.  My goal is to be finished by the end of January!


December 12th
PROJECT - Last year, Michaela received a kit to make a handprint ornament in the mail.  Surprise, surprise we did not get around to making it last year so this year it was a MUST!  We wanted Michaela to get involved as much as possible which really meant she helped pour the water into the plaster and then made her handprint.  She didn't love putting her hand in the plaster, but the finished product turned out great!

Dated Cover Sheet

December 10 & 11

Today Michaela spent the day at home with Ryan.  I was eating lunch when a picture message came through on my phone from Ryan.  I couldn't quite tell what was going on, but I could tell she had her mittens on!  For whatever reason, she just loves those mittens.  When I got home from work I heard the story behind the photo and just had to include it as today's story.  I also love that Ryan's voice is included in the album.

Homemade slide mount

Here's the text next to the photo...
Michaela is such a peanut; she is still in her infant car seat.  At the doctor yesterday, we noticed she is almost to the weight where she can switch to her big girl car seat.  I set it up and left it out for Ryan to double check.  He spent the day with her at home today.  At lunchtime I received this picture from Ryan.  I had to wait until I got home to hear the full story according to Ryan...
Michaela was having her lunchtime bottle and happened to see her mittens lying on the floor.  She pointed to her mittens and Ryan put them on her.  Then he asked if she wanted to try out her new chair.  Ryan went over to meet her at the car seat, but she did not come over right away.  After calling her name a few times, Ryan went to see what she was doing.  She was trying to pick up her bottle, but with her mittens on it was causing her some difficulty.  She finally picked the bottle up, but could only take two or three steps before dropping it again.  She continued the process of picking up the bottle, taking a few steps and then dropping it.  She eventually made it to the chair, backed her way in to the seat, and then motioned for Ryan to try out the buckles.  I guess she likes the seat!  



December 11th

Michaela finally started to act like her old self today, but we still spent the majority of the day in recovery mode.  Today Michaela received a gift from my friend Elsa in the mail.  She knit Michaela a cute little hat.  When we went out in the evening to do some errands, we tested it out.  It looked adorable with Michaela’s winter coat and she didn’t mind wearing it!  Elsa included a embossed note card with a message on it and I was happy I could include her message.

December 9

We have been busy participating in holiday events so I am still playing catch up with my december daily pages.  The 9th was a sick day for Michaela.  I stayed home from work with her and later took her to the doctor.  We found out that she had a pretty bad ear infection.  She ended up in her jammies and in my arms for the majority of the day, so I took this opportunity to talk about her cute winter jammies. 

Clear cover page with handmade tag

December 8th

My career path has allowed me to learn a great deal about human growth and development, but to watch it play out in front of my eyes is remarkable.  I am constantly in awe of all the things Michaela understands.  It is no exaggeration to say she learns something new everyday.  I love this December daily project for helping me to document where she is in her development.  


The evening of the 8th was the first day Michaela showed true signs of not feeling well.  This is yet another thing that amazes me about her, her upbeat attitude.  Here she is with a fairly severe ear infection, which is leading to a skin infection and she merely whimpers a little.  Thank goodness for physical symptoms or I would probably still not be sure what was bothering her!  Our first concern on this evening was trying to comfort Michaela and I didn’t really feel like documenting a miserable sort of day, so I chose to use this day to record the things that Michaela was currently doing.  Here is what I wrote to her…


Michaela-  I am amazed at all the new things you are learning.  You are adding so many words to your vocabulary.  Included on your list of new words are cheese, please, down, star, and no.  You have also started to try and repeat many of the words we say to you.  You know what sounds a cow, kitten, and sheep make.  You are quite an independent eater.  You have started successfully using a fork.  I have learned that the easiest way to get you to eat more is simply up giving you your fork.  When you have had enough food you wrap your hands around the edge of your food tray and tap your fingers as if to say, “all done”.  You also tap your finger like that when you are hugging your bear at bedtime.  I just love that!  You communicate easily by shaking your head.  You mostly shake to say no, but we are working on that.  Running, rather than walking, has become your preference.  You can do your shape puzzle easily (ages 2 and up, HA!).  You pretend to read, even if the book is upside down.  Most recently, you have started to treat your stuffed animals as if they are real.  You feed them, lay them down for naps, and read to them.  As your care for your stuffed animals demonstrates, you are smiley, happy, SWEET little girl and your Dad and I love you so very much!   

December 7th

I didn't include this photo in the album
because it is not a great photo, but it shows
how awesome her tower was!

 The evening of the 7th was all about allowing Michaela the opportunity to put her decorations on the tree.  Although we knew it would be a stretch for her to actually hang her own ornaments, we thought we would give it a try.  I pulled the boxes of ornaments out of storage and laid them on the ground so that she could pick out which ones she wanted to hang up first.  She instantly viewed the boxes as blocks and began stacking them like a tower (building block towers has become a favorite activity in our house) and not only did she stack them up, but she also manipulated the boxes to give her more height.  It was so funny to watch.  Once we showed her there were things inside the boxes, she got on board with attempting to put them on the tree.  She never did grasp the concept of hanging the ornaments, but did a lovely job of placing the ornaments on branches.   

Underneath the larger photo I included a story about our family ornament tradition.  Here is what I wrote, it will help to explain the Halloween pictures!

The Wielgus family has had an ornament tradition for as long as I can remember.  Every year we would get to pick one ornament out of the Hallmark catalog.  Although she can't quite pick out her ornament, the tradition has been passed on to Michaela.  The ornaments given to her this year were to commemorate her first two Halloweens.  Great Aunt Barb gave Michaela a Jessie ornament marking her first costume and Grandma and Grandpa Wielgus gave her a mini Piglet ornament for this years costume.  She loves them both and shows such excitement when she sees them hanging on "her" section of the tree.  

December 5th & 6th

Sunday, December 5th we had breakfast out to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  We met at Wildberry, a restaurant half way between us both.  It was the first time Michaela had food from the menu with us!  She had some French toast and pancakes and did an awesome job feeding herself with her own fork.  Breakfast ended with a birthday toast to my Mom.  

I used another clear page and attached a homemade tag for the cover page

Mondays are always busy at our house.  So, on the 6th I decided to document some of the ways we decorated for the holidays this season.  Two simple pages, but I really like how the photos of the decorations turned out, especially the mantel.  

You can't tell in the picture, but the Holiday Decor picture (taken of some ornaments from a centerpiece on the dining room table) is raised with some foam squares to add dimension.  

Playing Catch Up

We have had a fairly sick little girl for the past few days.  She has her first ear infection and has only wanted to be held.  Today was the first day, with the help of meds, that she showed signs of being on the road to recovery.  So, I was able to get a few things done on my december daily album.

December 4th ~

We had our first snow fall of the season and spent a family day inside.  The fourth is also my Mom's birthday, but with the snow we decided to make plans to celebrate on the 5th.  We did make sure to call though and sing Happy Birthday.  I may add a few more items to the pages below, but right now I like the simplicity of the pictures from our balcony.

Acrylic cover  page 

Calling Grandma to sing Happy Birthday

December 2nd & 3rd

The second is Ryan's birthday and we spent the evening celebrating.  We picked up some sushi and brought it home.   Then we sang "Happy Birthday" and gave Ryan his gifts.  Michaela was so cute walking in with her present for Dad in hand.  My favorite photo from the day was definitely Michaela sitting with Ryan while he looked at his gifts (full 8x8 page below).  After Michaela went to bed, Ryan's Mom arrived and we enjoyed some birthday brownies together.

The top page is a Grafix Clear Craft Plastic page with the 2 ribbon embellishment added

On Friday the 3rd, Michaela got to spend the day at home with Grandma.  Grandma kept track of the day's events and I wanted to include a copy of this.  I scanned the original, resized it, and printed it out.  I LOVE that I could include something written by someone else documenting the day.

enlarged scanned copy of the day's schedule

Celebrating the Season ~ Daily

For the last few years I have observed Ali Edward's December Daily project online.  This year, I finally decided to participate.  Of course I am already behind, but I have really enjoyed documenting the daily life of our family.  Michaela is at the age (14 months) where it seems like she is growing everyday, both physically and intellectually.  This project is already a great way to document this growth.  I have also found that the project is helping me to be more 'present' and aware of our family's daily routine.  It allows me to put the work day aside and focus on the special time we spend together in the evenings. 

December 1 ~
Michaela loves to play with her Little People Play Sets and the Little People Nativity Set  was no exception.  It was so fun to watch her play with the people, practice saying Baby Jesus, and discover that putting the angel in her spot results in a short instrumental version of "Away in a Manger".  The best part has been to watch her take the Nativity Set people and introduce them to her other Little People.  She likes to try out different people in the angel spot and has the tiger from the train set visit Baby Jesus often.  My personal favorite is when she puts Mary in the airplane and takes her on a "trip".   

A better look at the pictures...