That's ladies dancing, for those of you racking your brains for the ninth verse of one of the best ever Christmas songs.
And ladies dancing it is these days as our baby-adorable becomes more adept at her pliés and pirouettes. The last weeks have been a blur of turkey and music and lights and family, all infused with the laughter of our twirling toddler who has been more than pleased to execute her ballet positions for anyone willing to watch. She had plenty an audience with visits from both sets of grandparents, three of her Aunties and her Uncle Tony who, bless his heart, willingly worked the same puzzle 32 times in a row - just to keep a smile on the face of his niece.
Our second Christmas with baby-sweetheart was filled with wonder for all of us. We-the-family spent nearly every night driving around to see the 'wi-iiights' and the angels ('bye-bye an-johs' was a sweet and sad refrain as we passed any such display on the road). The girl attended her first Christmas party, and had a chance to play 'Secret Santa' for her friend. There were cookies and treats and presents and 'toh-eese' and tickles and hugs and singing and so much laughter that Mama doesn't know enough words to describe it all - the sheer joy of celebrating with a girl who just sees it and experiences everything with a sense of amazement and happiness.
The Brilliant Babydaddy (dubbed Dadoo by the girl) chose our tree-theme this year, and Mama declares it to be the best idea ever. Since the baby-brilliant loves looking for letters everywhere she goes, Dadoo decided we should deck-the-tree with the ABCs. A little planning, two cans of spray paint, three rolls of ribbon and 26 staples later, our alphabet ornaments were born. We-the-parents decorated the tree during an afternoon naptime, and when the sweetest girl woke from her nap, she ran to the tree with her bear, smiling and calling out each letter to us - 'A, Dadoo! A! Y, Mama! Y! Y! Y! - over and over and over. She still does it, and every morning before breakfast, her first words are, 'Tree dark, Dadoo. An-johs dark. Lights!'
Here she is, fresh from that day's nap, checking out her tree. And as we move closer to Twelfth Night, we-the-family hope your holidays and new year are merry, merry, merry.
Exactly six months after baby-adorable was born, she got a super special present in the form of a seven pound baby boy named Tyson. She loved him as soon as she met him, and even though she occasionally stole his socks, he loved her back.
Since baby Ty lives in Mississippi, baby-sweetheart doesn't get to see him all that often, so you can imagine her excitement when she found out he was coming to Georgia. She quickly packed up all her travel necessities and headed up to Stone Mountain for a weekend of camping and holiday adventures.
Averie and Ty had a grand time playing together, and we-the-parents had an awesome time hanging out with his Babymama and Daddy. The tiny friends had a stroll on the grassy plain, took a trip up the mountain, had a morning dance off in the camper and even got the chance to experience a little bit of Christmas with a train ride.
It was a wonderful weekend with wonderful friends, and baby-sweetheart even had the opportunity to recruit 3 new members to her cult. The baby girl misses her friend, and has spent the last day calling out his name and walking around looking for him. Early yesterday evening, she finally said, 'Ty home, mama'.
Here's a photo of the girl and her friend playing straw wars. It's gonna be the cutest thing you've seen today - promise.
Back in the 1950s, baby-sweetheart's great-grandmother purchased some amazing fabrics. Like most seamstresses, she had a lot of things to sew and not enough time to use up all her fabrics. Years later some of her textiles were passed down to her daughter - baby-adorable's Gram - who is also an amazingly gifted seamstress. Gram sews up a lot of lovely things for the growing girl much to the delight of Babymama who wore so many of Gram's creations during her own growing up years.
A few days ago, a special present arrived in the mail. Mama and her girl opened it to find the most adorable cotton topper. Mama immediately fell in love with the vintage fabric and the innocent pink ribbon tied neatly across the pink, brown and blue squares. The tiniest girl couldn't get enough of the ribbon, and played with the tails, curling them around her little fingers until the ends were frayed with her pulling.
It's fitting that the baby girl received such a sweet gift in the middle of October, which is, after all, the pink month. And it's perhaps even more fitting that this tiny gift and pink ribbon comes with an even sweeter secret. The vintage fabric Gram used to make it was left from great-grandma, picked out long ago with her very own hands, the tiny squares of baby-pink and blue perhaps chosen for just such a tiny girl and finally, years later beautifully stitched by the loving hands of her daughter.
Averie will only know her great-grandmother through the stories and memories of her family, for she is the great-granddaughter of a woman who survived breast cancer and a mastectomy only to die of lung cancer years later. And sadly, the odds are that she will know the all-too-real worry of whether not breast cancer will affect her own life.
Mama hopes that time will change this. Mama hopes that soon we can find a cure, so that her little girl, and all little girls, can grow up to know a world where a pink ribbon is only a pretty symbol of a child's innocence and grace.
Learn more. And then help make it happen. 
In recent weeks, we-the-parents have been watching for signs that our baby-sweetheart is ready to begin moving toward the next stage of her toddler years. For months now the growing girl has been following mama in to 'powder her nose', and though she's still a bit young for full-fledged potty training, mama went ahead and ordered this little pink potty for the girl.
It arrived a little over a week ago, and baby-adorable immediately loved it. She began sitting on it every night right before bath time - not really doing anything but smiling and talking about going tee-tee. And then, a mere 2 days after it arrived, baby-smartest decided she really did need to go tee-tee. So she did. In her potty. And she even asked mama for tissue to wipe.
OK, sure, mama hears you. A fluke you say. A random accident. She's too little. Which is exactly what we-the-parents thought until she did it again the following morning. And then again the next day. And then, well, then she really did have an accident - on daddy's shirt while she was waiting for mama to get out of the shower and open the door so she could get to her potty.
Since then, the baby's been sick and so has not been on her potty as much, but after missing a few days of her regular sittings, she got right back in the swing of things a day ago. This blushing color is turning into our magic charm, and we-the-parents feel certain that thanks to the pink potty, our days of diapers are numbered.
Just because it's adorable, here's the smiley girl demonstrating the proper use of shades.
Many days it seems that the adventure which is our life is wrapped in an ever-growing pink ribbon. The color is everywhere in our days - from petit breakfest bowls and furry bunnies to toys phones and little shirts - as though the arrival of our baby girl cast a pink tint over the world.
In truth, our trip down this rosy road began before the baby-sweetest was born. The journey started with a soft pink corduroy jacket that mama bought for the girl on the very day the sonographer announced to we-the-parents that our tiny Bee was a girl. Soon after that announcement tiny pink blankets, socks, onesies and other soft baby things began to fill our home. Even so, baby-mama was determined not to let the color overtake us, and made sure the growing baby had plenty of other, less 'girly' colors in her life. Of late however, pink does seem to be the color of choice for our girl. Take for example, her new shoes.
Way back before mama knew Bee's gender, she customized two pairs of shoes for her still-in-the-womb tot. One pair was blue with green details and the other pink with green, and mama vowed to order them as soon that baby was born. Time teaches parents much - especially that good intentions and lots of other things get postponed in the world of life-after-baby, and for some reason, mama never got around to ordering the shoes. Last week, though, she made good on her promise and picked up these.
The girl loves them, and has happily pranced around wearing them and various articles (or not) of clothing all week long. Happily, she does not try to un-tie the double-knotted laces - in fact it appears that she doesn't notice them at all. Babymama could go on and on about how she's the 'you-know-what', but at this point, it probably goes without saying . . .
See her here, just like mama:
