Krysten Meets Santa

Krysten had her first visit to see Santa Clause yesterday and things went better than I expected, despite the long wait. We arrived at the mall in around 4:00 and got in the long line and then were told that Santa would go on break at 5:00 to feed his reindeer. Well, at 4:50 we were no where near the front of the line, so we decided to go finish up some last minute shopping and sit down for a snack. We got back in line around 5:50 and she was finally on his lap around 7:00. Krysten was a sport through the whole thing, although she was jealous of the kid in line behind us whose parents were letting him play with a cell phone. She doesn't really looked thrilled with the Santa experience, but at least she's not crying ... Merry Christmas!

She's on the Move!

Life in the Ulmer household will never be the same ... Krysten is now officially mobile! She actually had her first success with forward motion the day after Thanksgiving at Dave's mom's house in Jersey when she took two or three crawls, no more than a week later she was officially on the move ...

Now that she can get around, it didn't take her long to discover the entertainment center and all the goodies stored inside.

An sense she is such a good explorer, we had to take measures to keep her so that she won't explore the cat door leading to the basement or decide to conquer the stairs on her own.

Before all this excitement began, Krysten had her 9 month birthday on November 21st. Here she is on that day.

She had her 9-month check-up at the Pediatrician around that time and is proving to be right on schedule (you can see her latests stats on the sidebar), although she is starting to show signs of having some pretty sensitive skin that we need to keep an eye on.

As much as she likes to explore the world around her, she also is enjoying the wonderfuld world of food beyond formula and baby cereal. She eats baby food on a regular basis, but we also are slowly introducing table food that are gumable (she still only has her two bottom teeth). She loves bananas, crackers and cheerios the best.

Krysten experienced her first plane ride when we flew to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with Dave's family. She had fun hanging out with both Mommy and Daddy on the plane.

Who knew that a baby could pass for carry-on luggage?

Krysten had so much fun on the flight that she wore herself out enough to take a nap before landing.

During our visit we were able to head down to Cape May for a short visit to the shore, where we had lunch at the Ugly Mug and did some shopping on the outdoor mall.

Although it wasn't exactly beach weather, we still had a nice time.

Krysten got ready for her first Thanksgiving Day celebration by enjoying a nice bubble bath ... I guess this is the way they do things in New Jersey :-)

And I think this picture just sums it all up ...

... Mmmmm, Turkey!