What Child is This?

"The babe, the son of Mary"
"Holy infant so tender an mild"
"For unto us a child is born"
"Glory to the newborn King"

For the first time this year, these words have stood out to me like never before. How many times have I read Luke 2 or how many carols have I sung without really thinking about it? Like all of us, the Savior was, when he entered this mortal world, a baby. Having a new one myself, it truly never occurred to me until now how miraculous that is. As Sam and I watched the Primary children reenact the nativity on Sunday and we looked at our little baby, we thought, "can you believe that Christ himself was once as she is?!" The Son of God, the creator of the world, was once just a tiny, vulnerable infant - cold, needing to be fed every 2-3 hours and changed just as often, with no control over little flailing hands and kicking feet, unable to communicate except by crying, completely dependent on earthly guardians for His care....and He did it for us. He did it for my little Alexis and for me and for everyone who has ever had to live as a helpless baby and for the rest of our mortal experiences and pains too. And what a wonderful time of year to be and have a new baby. You might call Christmas the ultimate celebration of a new baby.

I'm tempted to make a joke about gold, frankincense, and myrrh as being the ultimate baby shower gifts, but we'll leave this on a spiritual note. Merry Christmas to you and yours!

A Little Obsessed

I used to love "A Muppet Christmas Carol" growing up, so when I saw the full movie on Youtube I was so excited to re-live old memories and see it again for the first time in years. It's better than I remembered! The inspiring story by Charles Dickens + the humor, music, and fun of the Muppets = genius. I've had these and many other songs in my head for days. Sam sweetly bought me the movie as an early Christmas present, but I think it has only served to exaggerate the problem.

Miss Lexie

It's amazing how much you can learn about such a little person, and for us the little personality that we're discovering in our Lexie.

Likes:

• Nursing. Her favorite thing ever and it makes me proud.
• Getting her diaper changed.
• Making her dance while we sing "every baby's shuffling".
• Her pacifier.
• Doing the Hokie Pokie with Mommy.
• Bath time (this is a new development).
• Josh Groban's Christmas album. Her eyes just light up when she hears his voice.
• Getting bounced on Daddy's knees.

Dislikes:

• Bottles. She'll only take one if she's absolutely starving and the situation necessitates it, and sometimes not even then.
• Tummy time. It begins and ends with screaming.
• Sitting in her swing for any longer than 5 minutes. She's learned that it means we will not be paying attention to her exclusively.
• Going to bed at a reasonable hour. Right now she has the sleeping habits of a teenager: she's up until 2am generally and sleeps until 10am. We can't figure out how to change that. 

We're also finding out that she has quite the sense of adventure and we can't stimulate her enough. She gets bored easily and LOVES to be played with constantly, which can be pretty exhausting to do all day long. Thank heavens for baby carriers.

In December

Behold! A post not entirely about babies!

In my middle school chorus years ago we sang this sweet song called "In December" for one of our Christmas concerts. Of course, it's one of those pieces only written for such choirs so I can't find it anywhere to hear it, it's only in my head. But for some reason I've never forgotten it and think of it every year. The last line of the chorus goes, "In December, we remember all the joy that love can bring." Because it has been stuck in my head for a week, it's message has also been stuck in my head.

I love this time of year. I love how it brings families, friends, and even strangers together. I love how we turn our attention and our lives more fully to the Savior. I love driving around after dark admiring the Christmas lights everywhere and thinking how it symbolizes that He is the Light and the Life of the world; how His love lights up the darkness. That's the joy the song was talking about.