Morgan's First Christmas

It was a busy holiday week at the Saucier household, to say the least.

Earlier in the week, Morgan got her first tooth, and really got the hang of crawling. On Tuesday, she woke up with a chest cold and had to make her first unplanned trip to see the doctor.

Despite a bad cough and a runny nose, Morgan was all smiles for Christmas Day, and enjoyed visiting with Aunt Lindsay and Jenny, Mayie and P-Paw, Aimee, Russ, Henry and Alex.

(And, of course, she enjoyed opening all the gifts from Santa.)


On Christmas Eve, Morgan and Dad read her Christmas book before she finally nestled all snug in her bed. Not sure if Morgan had visions of sugar plumbs dancing in her head that night... but she was taking her medicine at the time, so anything is possible.


On Christmas morning, Morgan woke up at 5am, partly because she was congested and partly because she was excited to see what Santa had brought for her. (Later on, Ariella and Andy realized that 5am is as late as they'll get to sleep on a Christmas morning until Morgan is a teenager.)


We kept Morgan occupied for a little while. But by 7am, there was no keeping her away from the presents under the Christmas tree. So we got started on the first of three present-opening sessions on Christmas Day.


Morgan got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly. She seemed equally excited about what was in the present as she was about ripping the paper.


The most interesting thing for Morgan, though, was the picture of the baby on her Busy Ball Popper. She smiled at her, and patted her face.


By 8:30, Morgan had opened up new blocks, new toy animals, and so much more. After all that excitement, it was time for a nap.


Around 10am, Aunt Jenny and Jon showed up for present-opening session #2. This time, Morgan cleaned up again, with more toys and a clothes. Here, she's modelining her "NFL Baby" onsesie (non-team-specific, since Morgan is still weighing her options -- will she be a Patriots fan like Dad, or root for the hometown Philadelphia Eagles...? Decisions, decisions)


In the afternoon, Mayie and P-Paw arrived from Connecticut, and Aunt Aimee, Uncle Russ and Henry & Alex drove down from North Jersey. So it was time for present-opening session #3.


Morgan's favorite gift from the afternoon was her "Lil' Superstar" musical sing-along toy from Aimee, Russ, Henry and Alex.


After all the presents were opened, Morgan had hugs and thank-you's for everyone.


After dinner, Morgan and Alex played by the Christmas Tree. Finally, it was time to get a good night's rest after an exciting first Christmas.

Here She Comes...

Morgan's crawling skills took a big step in the right direction this weekend (pun intended.)

She's still doing "the worm" a little, but she's getting the hang of pushing with her knees -- just in time to get her little hands on whatever Santa leaves under the Christmas tree.



Even though Andy is coaching her in this video, Morgan gives a shout-out to Momma at the end. (Thanks, kid.)

All I want for Christmas is...

... My two front teeth.

Well, we're half way there.

Morgan's first tooth broke through on Friday morning. It's still barely visible, but you can definitely feel it when she chomps down on your finger.

We tried to take a picture of it. But Morgan didn't think that was such a good idea. Oh well.

Morgan's First Christmas Cookie Extravaganza

Morgan enjoyed her first Christmas Cookie Extravaganza this weekend. Aunt Lindsay and Aunt Jenny came to town for the festivities.

Morgan started the weekend by practicing her ever-improving crawling skills. Every day she gets closer and closer to crawling. (And closer and closer to the Christmas tree.)



Andy left work early on Friday and got some story time in with Morgan.



The fun officially started on Saturday morning. Morgan watched all the baking and did her part by holding the measuring cups and slobbering on a wisk.



Aunt Lindsay took a break from baking and played Morgan's new favorite game: hanging upside down.



Back to work for everyone, including Morgan. (Well, kind of.)



On Sunday morning, it was time to get down to decorating.



The littlest elf supervised Santa's cookie workshop.



By the time we were done, the whole table was covered with cookies...



... so it was time to hang upside down again.

Morgan at 7 months

Morgan hit the 7-month mark today.

This month, Morgan started talking much more, and made us both really happy when she started babbling "Da-da" and "Ma-ma". (Yeah, we know she's not really saying our names, but it's still really nice to hear her say it.)

This month, Morgan also got much more mobile. She's still not crawling yet, but she wiggles, leans, lunges, and rolls herself all over the place... as you can see by all the "out-takes" from our 7-month photo shoot this morning.

First Turkey, Then Fish

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we decided to take Morgan to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. Aunt Lindsay, Aunt Jenny & Jon all came too, so it was a big family event.



We went outside, where Morgan enjoyed watching the seals and penguins.





Back inside, Morgan checked out the smelly hippo room. She liked the jellyfish so much she bonked her head on the glass leaning in to get a closer look.



Our last stop was a trip through the Shark Tunnel, where Morgan came face-to-face with a 6-foot, 200+ pounder... lucky for her, it was a scuba diver.

What we are Thankful for....

Today, we were very thankful to cook our first Thanksgiving in our new kitchen. And, more important, we had our first Thanksgiving with Morgan. There's nothing we're more thankful for than that.

Our morning started off with Morgan watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade with her Aunt Lindsay and Aunt Jenny. Her favorites were the Sesame Street Float, and Rick Astley.

After a nap, Morgan was ready for the big meal!

Our Thanksgiving table (notice the little hand at the bottom).



The happy Pilgrim



While we gorged ourselves on turkey roasted with herb and bacon butter and apple cider gravy, parsnips, mashed potatoes, and cranberry-cherry chutney. Morgan's meal consisted of sweet potato and oatmeal, which she decided to eat with her hands. (Hey, it's Thanksgiving... she's thankful for her ever-improving hand-eye coordination.)



Most of the meal ended up on her face but she got some in her mouth too.



She was pretty pleased with herself.



After her big dinner, Morgan asked Aunt Lindsay to help her with her crawling technique. Morgan thought this was hilarious. (See video below.)



Morgan capped off day by kicking off her socks and reading a story with Mom.

A Visit to Cooper's House

Last weekend, we made a trip to Upstate New York for a friend's wedding, which gave us another chance to get Morgan and her ol' pal Cooper together for a play date.

As the kids get older, they get more and more excited to see each other, as the video below proves:



Our friends Jeff and Nicole volunteered to watch Morgan while we went to the wedding. We were very glad to hear that she was very well behaved, ate her dinner, and went to bed at her normal time. (So, if anyone wants to invite Morgan for a sleep-over, you just let us know.)

Morgan and Cooper got plenty of time to play together over the weekend, and try out each other's toys. They took turns playing with Morgan's octopus...





Morgan tried out Cooper's bouncer...



Cooper shared some tips for "almost crawling", which Morgan found very helpful.



And finally Morgan shared Dad's silly tongue tricks, which Cooper found fascinating.