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.