Santa continued...

Scott remembers growing up that Mom and Dad had a set some ridiculously early time (6 AM) that Wendy and he had to wait until on Christmas morning before they could come wake up their parents. Since this was Diana's first Christmas, and she had no idea what to expect, it was no surprise that Mom and Dad got to go in and wake her up Christmas morning. Of course, we never would have woken a sleeping baby had not an extra special guest stopped by to see her and wish her a Merry 1st Christmas.


Diana immediately felt comfortable with the jolly old elf, and knew just how to make his long trip to see her worthwhile. Diana was all smiles while snuggling up to her newfound friend. At this point, Diana was simply happy to cuddle with someone with a soft belly, warm snuggly suit, and a fun beard to play with. Little did she know that Santa also had a present left in his bag just for her.

Diana and Santa unwrapped her first Christmas present together.

After the fun and excitement of Santa, Diana had more packages to open from Grandma and Grandpa Jimbo! Look! The present mountain is as big as Diana! It's SOOOOOO BIG!

I wonder what's inside???

It's a book of colors to read with Grandma!

Diana also got lots of fun things from Grandma and Auntie Wendy, however, she was not very photogenic, as it was close to nap time! It's tough opening up so many fun things!

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Diana had a wonderful first Christmas, complete with a surprise visit from the man himself on Christmas morning! She loves Santa Claus and had a great time sitting on his knee and opening her package. Of course, like any good baby, she loved the wrapping paper more than the gift itself!

I don't get it...

Why is it that if I am holding my sleeping child and stand up or sit down or breathe funny, she wakes up immediately...but if the SMOKE ALARM goes off right outside her bedroom while she's asleep...NOTHING?!?!? Unbelievable.

Thanksgiving

Daddy doesn't quite remember why it was that we decided to put this cute little bow on Diana's head, but it was such a good idea. Isn't she just the cutest thing ever...of course she is...because this picture was taken before Diana had time to form her own opinion...scroll down...

After contemplating the situation for a few moments, Diana decided the bow did not make her look like the cutest thing ever. In fact, she thought it made her look absolutely ridiculous, and she decided to tell us exactly how she felt about the entire evolution.

After reassuring her that wearing this bow would not bring the world to an end, Diana calmed down. She quickly became bored with this latest rendition of the dress up game that Mommy and Daddy keep putting her through.

While some of you still living north of the Mason Dixon Line may find it hard to believe, it does get cool down here in Dixie around Thanksgiving. Highs some days only get into the 60s. Ugh. At least we now have reasons to add cute little jackets to Diana's dress up routines.

...and, of course, once you come in from the cool autumn air, it's ever so hard to keep your eyes open, no matter how old you are. Just think, three months ago, Dad would have never taken a nap on the couch. Now, afraid to move the sleeping beauty, he'll sleep anywhere.

Diana's getting so strong and coordinated now. These two pictures show her holding her own bottle. While Dad is clearly not supporting the bottle at all, he does realize that the placement of Diana's hands are purely coincidental. During her seemingly random arm flailings, Diana's hands just stumbled upon opposing sides of the bottle and stuck. When Dad snuck his hand away, she had it. It's a start...

For Thanksgiving this year, Auntie Sue, Cousin Katie, Auntie Liz, Uncle John, and Grandma and Grandpa Jimbo all came to visit Diana. Diana spent her first Thanksgiving watching everyone else eat Nana's delicious cooking. Diana's Thanksgiving dinner consisted of the same staple she's been enjoying since day one. You can almost hear her thinking, "Man, I can't wait to have teeth."

During the second half of the Packers-Lions game Thanksgiving Day...

Can you guess which one's NOT from Wisconsin?

On Friday, the family celebrated Becky's birthday a couple days early. Diana gave her Mommy her very first present. In this photo, Becky tells Diana that Daddy has already begun to train her well, and that she needs to remember that the best gifts often times come in really small boxes.

As we've mentioned in previous postings, Miss Diana has definitely discovered the TV. This Sunday afternoon, right in the middle of some tummy time with Mommy, Diana decided to take a break as she conveniently found the football game on TV.

Happy Halloween

Diana had so much fun in the two weeks surrounding Halloween. Not only did she get to dress up as her mom's favorite food, but she also got a lot of visitors all in a row. Below is our cute little pea pod on her first Halloween.

During the week before Halloween, Auntie Wendy spent her fall break in South Carolina with Miss Diana. In this picture, Diana takes a quick break from her evening meal to pose for a picture.

The week before Halloween also marked Nana and Papa's return to South Carolina. Papa took the honors of the after dinner snuggle with Diana this night.

During Halloween week, Dad had to make a trip up to UNC Chapel Hill to kick off his MBA program. While he was away, Grandma Russler came down to give Becky an extra set of hands and adult companionship for the week. Of course, that all came secondary to spending time with this adorable creature.
...and this one's just cute, so I had to post it.

SOOOO Big

Miss Diana is getting so big and so talented. As the following pictures show, our little girl is figuring out how to do a new assortment of baby talents. This first one shows that Miss Diana is becoming much more interested in interacting with things in her little world. Not only is she focussing on things like her rattle and her ducky, but she has also started reaching out to touch them and even hold them, if only for a couple seconds.



Much to everyone's delight, Miss Diana has also learned how to smile, and not just due to gas. She now routinely smiles at Mommy and Daddy when they come to rescue her from her crib in the morning or randomly thoughout the day when she's feeling happy. This one's going to have to find a way into my office. That little face would brighten anyone's day.

Not only has Diana found things around the room that fascinate and amaze her, she has also found things like her fist that she loves to play with and put in her mouth.

One constant throughout, though, is the fact that Diana loves her mommy. While Becky may say that I'm biased when I say that she's the best mommy on earth, I think Diana's vote is really the only one that counts. Diana agrees with me...best mommy ever.

As if anyone besides Becky and me had a doubt, Miss Diana has found the TV before the age of 2. Mom and Dad did their best to keep her from looking over there, but the temptation of watching Northwestern beat Auntie Wendy's Hoosiers on the Marine Corps birthday was just too much for a two month old to overcome.

Of course, watching the Packers shut out the Vikings isn't much easier to resist...

Besides watching football, one of Diana's favorite activities, really since before birth, has been going to church. While in the womb, Diana would always be very active during the hour we were at church. Now that she's actually able to be logged into the attendance book, Miss Diana feels the need to be more interactive in church than just squirming around inside Mommy. Today, Diana dressed up in a lovely dress given to her by the nice UPS lady that delivers to Grandma B's Cold Stone. She then proceeded to "read along" in the bulletin as the service progressed. While Dad is convinced she really is reading along, there is no doubt that she loved staring at the black and white letters on the page in the bulletin. We'll do our best to have her reading the scripture readings from the pulpit by Christmas. Only two small steps away...reading and talking.

It's November, so that means we've finally been able to turn the A/C off in South Carolina. In fact, some mornings, we actually get to put some of our new blankets to use. This picture of Diana and Daddy snuggling in his chair was taken before the Kittens gave away their game to Iowa last week.

Aren't pink tights on a two month old just the cutest?!?

"Daddy, while I appreciate you and Grandma Russler trying to broaden my football exposure, you both know full well that Mommy will never let me be a Colts fan. I'll tolerate this until I can start picking out my own clothes. Go Pack Go!!!"

The Best and Worst Day of Mommy's Life

Diana is now 2 months and 1 day old today. This means that today was our 2 month check-up. Mommy was very excited and nervous about today's appointment. She was excited because she would finally find out for sure how big Diana was...(SOOOOO BIG!) Her head is now 15 and three quarters inches and she is 23 and one quarter inches long and she weighs 12 pounds, 11 ounces. So she has grown almost four inches and over 4 and a half pounds since birth! Mommy was very glad that she was doing so well but was getting very anxious about the next part of the appointment. Today was when we would start our rounds of vaccines. Kids now get vaccinated against so many diseases, so Diana had to have three shots and one oral vaccine. They sent in two nurses and as soon as Mommy saw the needles, she started crying! Mommy held Diana on her lap and the nurses each took a needle and a leg. They stuck her simultaneously in both legs and for a moment, Diana just looked puzzled...then she let loose with a wail that Mommy had never heard before! She also cried real tears for the first time! While she was hysterical, they stuck her again in her left leg, but she didn't really notice! She got 3 pink Band-Aids and the nurses ran away, leaving Mommy (and Auntie Wendy) to deal with furious Diana! After about 20 minutes, she calmed down enough to get redressed and venture out to the car. So far, she has shown no ill effects from the shots, other than being a little fussier and sleepier than usual. Needless to say, Mommy is already dreading the 4 month appointment! Below you can see the SO BIG Diana, as well as her wounds! :)

Holy Cow!!

HOLY COW!! In case you missed it, Cubs fans, the Cubbies made it to the playoffs in Diana's first year of life, and didn't let her down. They indoctrinated her to the Cubs tradition rather quickly by getting swept out of the playoffs by the Diamondbacks. Becky feels confident that the Cubbies will break the streak next year to commemorate the 100th anniverary of their last WS victory in 1908. I thought the 99th was a better idea. Oh well. Perhaps right after we teach Diana her first words "What is..." she can follow them up with, "There's always next year."


HOLY COW!! The camera doesn't lie, folks. This is our little girl taking a bath and NOT crying hysterically. She has actually started liking bath time. It's just the getting out of the bath that is the problem.

HOLY...Ghost? Last week was the annual chili cookoff at the Air Station. The MALS-31 theme was "Stingerville Horror," so everyone dressed as witches, frankensteins, skeletons, or, of course, ghosts. While Becky looked more like the Virgin Mary or some random woman I brought back from my last deployment, Diana obviously stole the show.

And then there are these three that really don't need a caption...they're just cuteness abounding.

Things we've learned

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, there haven't been many blog entries in the last couple weeks. This, of course, is due to the fact that dad had to go back to work and Grandma Russler is no longer in South Carolina to give dad extra time to do blog entries at night. I guess the moral of the story is, folks, if you want more blog entries, mom and dad need some volunteer baby sitters.

So much has happened since the last entry, so I'll just try and hit the highlights.

Diana is getting so big and is learning so much. Here are some of the things we have learned in the last few weeks.

Our daughter has already learned the Wildcat Claw!

Have we learned that maybe baths aren't quite so bad?

Oh no folks! Miss Diana still screams like a banshee when she hits the water. She may grow up to be the "Smelly Kid" judging by how much we hate to take baths!

The future Kiddie Jeopardy champ is already having Deep Thoughts.

Diana has also learned how to be an excellent traveller. We flew to Chicago for a family wedding and her baptism, and Daddy was never so nervous in his life! He was terrified that we would be "those people" who let their child scream on an airplane. Fortunately, Miss Diana was a star the entire weekend. She didn't make a peep the whole plane ride. I think she heard her daddy promise that if she behaved on the plane, he would buy her a pony...stand by for pictures from horse shows in a few years!

Oma and Grandpa Benninghoff are now card-carrying members of the Diana fan club as well. They even got to experience "happy hour" for their first meeting and are still big fans.

Diana is now a "real girl!" During our Chicago vacation, her last tie to Mommy fell off and she became a big girl. Daddy had been threatening to pull it off, since it took 4 weeks (and Mommy still thinks he might have done it). Now we get to wear big-girl diapers and take real baths! Oh no! Not the B-word!

Great grandmas still have the touch!

Of course, so do great grandpas...even if the great grandmas don't believe it! :)

Date Night

On Thursday night, Daddy and Diana had their first ever Daddy-Daughter date night. Mom earned a well deserved night out, and she used it to attend the Beaufort High vs Battery Creek High volleyball game.
The prospect of the only food source leaving for more than 10 minutes frightened Daddy more than it did Diana. Mom was very nice to Daddy by topping off his little doodle just before leaving, which made Diana rather sleepy and the perfect napping date for Daddy. However, the napping only lasted long enough for Daddy to scarf down some dinner. Then his date woke up.

For the last few nights, Miss Diana has made it customary to have a large fit in the middle of the evening. She would just fuss and cry as loud as she possibly could, and nothing Daddy would do could console her. The only way to soothe our crying little turtle (oh, you all just wait to see this one -- all those "little angel" stories from Labor Day will quickly be overridden when you see this little one's neck extend out from her shoulders and let out the most ear shattering cries) would be to give her back to Mom for an extended feeding.

So, here Dad finds himself, all alone with a quite ornery, turtle baby. What on earth will he do? Well, Mom, trying to be nice, cracked open a pacifier for the first time just in case this type of situation arose. Unfortunately for Dad, Miss Diana would have none of that. She just said, "Go, Go Gadget Neck!" and let out an even louder cry. After a few more minutes passed, Dad was just about to walk over to the phone to call Mom for some take out, when he thought to try something the nurses had used in the hospital. Dad offered his pinky finger to his little girl, and SHE LOVED IT. Dad and Diana sat in his chair for 65 minutes until Mom came home to find Diana just going to town on his finger.

Diana is now her perfectly happy self after a good feeding from Mommy. Dad will be spending his night praying that this little trick is not a one time use novelty.