Post Christmas Happenings

Tally had to leave on December 28th to go back to Switzerland. It was really hard to see him go for a lot of reasons. I knew it was too short of a trip for him, it went by so quickly. He also helps me so much with Kels, especially when I'm sick and prego and I wasn't sure how Kelsey would do without him. He came back to a very gloomy Switzerland, but luckily got to go Snowboarding with some friends. Meanwhile, back in Cali, Kelsey and I enjoyed our last bit of sunshine.

FIVE Generations

We drove down to see Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller to say hello and snap some pictures.

My dad, my great-grandma Miller, me, Kelsey, my Grandma Lang

Kelsey petting her great, great grandma's ceramic dog

Hi Doggie!

Hanging out with Great, Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller. If you're wondering why Kelsey's arm is in a sling, keep reading. Kelsey's arm was hurt so we used one of Grandpa's old shirts to make it because she would whimper every time her arm was left unsupported.

Kelsey's 1st ER Visit
It was my fault. We were walking down the stairs at my parents' house, on our way to see my Great Grandma & Grandpa Miller. Kelsey was walking down with her right arm holding the railing and her left arm in my hand. She jumped from one step to the next, but kept holding on. Then she suddenly let go, swinging her forward. So in order to keep her from flying down the stairs, I pulled up on her left arm, and she twisted around. This caused her elbow to come out of the socket, giving her "nurse-maid elbow." She cried for a bit, but since we weren't sure if it was just sore, sprained, etc. we continued to Grandma & Grandpa's. Once there, we realized it was probably worthy of an ER visit. My mom, an ER nurse, volunteered to pop it back in but since we didn't know if it had broken or not, we thought it best to have a doctor take a look. Sure enough, my mom was right, and the doctor was able to just pop it right back in. Within minutes, she was using her arm and happy as can be! It was such a relief. When I called Tally to tell him what had happened, I was bawling. I know it wasn't big, but I felt completely responsible for causing her pain. Anyway, for 15 minutes in the ER (my mom works there so they got us right in), we got a $500 hospital bill and a $500 doctor bill. How are people who don't have insurance or even GOOD insurance supposed to afford that!? I hope our Swiss insurance covers it! Time will tell...

Learning to play the piano with Great Grandpa

My grandpa taught/teaches himself to play the piano. Now he's passing on his knowledge to the great-grandkids!

Kelsey, James, & Great-grandpa Lang

Hitting the high notes!

Rough-Housing with James

Amber and I got to go see Twilight together while my parents and Ryan watched the kids. I was so glad she wanted to go because I would not have seen it otherwise. We were late, had to pay at the machine, and they ran out of adult tickets so I went in as a senior - $1 off! I would have paid full price, but there was no time for debating... we had a good time together!

Kelsey loved running around, chasing James. They are only two weeks apart so it was fun to see them play so well together.

Kelsey would lay down and let James attack her

Until he got too rough!

Caught red-handed - what were you guys doing?

James playing with her face, and Kelsey letting him!

Night, Night!

Good Night, Gorilla

This is her favorite bedtime book

There's a Wocket in my Pocket

This is the extended version, we just have the board book. I can remember my dad especially reading this to Julia at least 3x a night for a year. I'm surprised the book is in such good shape!

Santa Barbara Zoo

Watching the otters with Aunt Juju

Said otters, cuddling up for a nap

Watching the lemurs play

We had to peel Julia away, she's a lemur at heart

Flamingos doin their thing, Kelsey putting her hands on the gross bird poop

Watching the elephants with Grandma

I think these were her favorite. This is one of the rare pictures of her looking at the camera while in the vicinity of the elephants' home.

Penguins - Kelsey wanted to jump in

Kelsey and Julia playing at the zoo park

Julia teases her and she pretends not to like it, but always goes back for more

The Cactus Garden

Time to leave Kelsey with the wild animals where she belongs

It was sunny, okay? Good 'ol SoCal. Kelsey enjoyed the giraffes too.

Back to Switzerland

The flight back was better than anticipated. We had two legs of the trip and both times, they said the plane was full which meant Kelsey would have to sit on my lap. I was stressing out because not only was I still nauseous, but I was by a window (and knew I would need to get up several times). But then, miraculously, the plane would not fill up and I was given a whole row. Kelsey was a good traveler and took a few naps with me, although not for as long as I would have liked. We didn't sleep much on the NYC-Zurich flight so once we got to Zurich, we were both exhausted! Kelsey was started to get drowsy as we were about to land and I mentioned that we would see daddy soon. After that, she fought the tiredness and didn't crash until minutes after seeing daddy at the airport. They lost one of our bags, luckily Kelsey's, but returned it to us in a few days. Kels and I fell asleep from 9am-4pm that first day so it took us about a week to get back on schedule. We were having parties from 1am-4am for a few days in a row. We got to see a lot of movies though! The gloomy weather didn't help. But we did have somethings waiting at home to cheer us up!

We are loved, even in Switzerland!
Kelsey's Christmas present
All of her old toys were suddenly so cool again too