Baby Miller

After the excitement of the Christmas holiday, the rest of the month has been pretty calm. Tori's talking has really taken off. Her most common phrases revolve around Soco...."Soco give," "back up," "go get your ball," and "good boy." She has also become very polite with "up please," "yes, please," "help please," "open please," and an occasional "thank you," or "your welcome."

In addition to talking, Tori has started blowing bubbles, running laps laughing as she runs, and jumping. She keeps me laughing all day long :)

Tori helping Mommy make some play dough.

Mommy follows recipes exactly...ask Daddy.

My little helper!

Tori feeding Poppi a chip.

Grandma and Tori dancing to a band after a Cajun dinner.

Mommy and Daddy celebrated New Years at a wedding in Cincinnati while Grandma and Poppi watched Tori at home.

Tori got a T-ball set for Christmas.

Tori is good at knocking off the ball. We are working on how to hold the bat :)

Tori also got a fisher price zoo for Christmas!

Tori especially likes making the gorilla swing in the trees and the polar bear slide down his ice chute!

Tori's wooden Noah's ark with pairs of animals is another Christmas favorite.

We read a book about Noah's Ark and now she likes to match the animals and put them in two by two.

Our big present to Tori was her block set. Luckily she loves them.

Tori also got her first real baby doll for Christmas--a miniature Madame Alexander like my childhood doll Victoria. She likes putting her in the baby cradle before naps and bed each night. She gives her a kiss and covers her with the blanket. So sweet!

Tori telling her blocks "night, night."

Mommy and Daddy enjoy making designs with the blocks. Tori plays with it for a couple days with only minor modifications and then pulls all the blocks down and scatters them all around the room until Mommy can't take the clutter and makes a new design.

Tori now wants to "walk" up the stairs. Apparently she is "too" big now to crawl.

Tori giving baby doll a kiss "mwaa."

Tori was entranced with these dancing animal on display at the mall in China. Viki got her a dancing donkey. Tori is still very entertained by it :)

Tori dancing with donkey.

Good donkey!

Tori loves apple juice!

Tori reading one of her new favorite books. Such a big girl :)

My little monkey

Soco has been amazingly tolerant with Tori. She definitely loves her "oco."

Tori giving Soco a hug. Awwww!

Silly girl in the bathtub. The other day I got the water a little too hot and Tori starts blowing on it. I asked, Is the water too hot?" and she smiled and said "yes, too hot."

Tori loves playing in her cabinet.

Some of her favorite toys are empty containers that would have been recycled or random kitchen gadgets :)

Sometimes Tori takes everything out and crawls in completely for a more intense game of

peek-a-boo! She is going to be scary when we start playing hide and seek :)

Diaper boxes make the best toys!

Look at our mellow dog!

Matt's friend Eddie and his wife Martha from Georgia Tech stopped by with their kids. Tori liked showing Isaac her toys.

This year we had Christmas at our house! Gram, Pappa, Jui Jui Kyle, and Jui Ma Viki came Christmas Eve just in time for Daddy's famous pulled pork and a late Christmas Eve Service. Although Tori did not really "get" Santa this year, she did "get" presents. At the first mention of opening presents, Tori went and got a present and started opening it. Luckily it was her present :) She also started the present opening for our 2nd Christmas with Poppie, Grandma, and Auntie Leah. We were discussing when to exchange presents, now or after dinner, and Tori decided for us....now :)