Hopes and Dreams: 25 weeks

Wow! It's been awhile! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We definitely did and Taylor's first Christmas was very special. I should probably put all that's happened in the last three weeks into several posts but I'd rather do just one. I'll try not to be super wordy! At least not as wordy as usual! Here are the high points:

Lily had her dance recital. She was adorable in her leotard but didn't do a lot of dancing. She pretty much froze. Oh well - she's only 3! Andy's parents and brother were able to be there. My family was hoping to come but the weather was terrible that day.
December 23rd we celebrated Christmas as the four of us and it was delightful. We ate a lasagne dinner (Andy's request), read the Christmas story from our Bible and Lily's children's Bible, and then opened gifts together.
Christmas Eve we spent in the cities with my family. That was a delight as well! Bryan had to work the first part of the day but was able to get there right before dinner so we're glad we got to see him for a bit! My dad recited the Christmas story from memory while holding Taylor and that will be one of my favorite memories for a long time to come!
Christmas Day we spent up here with Andy's family and had a great day. A bunch of us were able to talk to Eric (in Oregon) on the phone which was nice (long story). Lily had an absolute ball with her cousin Hally. Hally is 6 and plays SO nicely with Lily. Taylor was popular with his cousins and was held the entire day much to his delight.
Andy had the entire weekend off so we were together Wednesday - Sunday!!! Yay!!! Sunday afternoon we drove down to the cities for the annual Cousin Party with his extended family.
I kept the kids and stayed in the cities with my parents for a few days while Andy hitched a ride back up to St. Cloud with his parents. =) My time at my parents' was SO refreshing!!! They *made* me take naps!!! The three of us all had such a nice time. And we were happy to see daddy again when we got home.
Taylor is now an excellent "roller" and rolls well both from tummy to back, and back again.
He's doing very well with his cereal and we've started mixing it with people food! He tried bananas for the first time on January 1st and gobbled it up! And then we tried applesauce yesterday and he seemed to enjoy that as well. I'm still nursing! I'm so proud of myself.
Taylor is still a very inconsistent sleeper. And I am one very tired momma. Nearly six months of sleep deprivation is starting to catch up with me and I am in a fog. We've made some progress and I try to stick to his schedule pretty strictly for consistency's sake - hoping that'll help him. But I don't know what else to do. I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that this is the way it's going to be with him. On Sunday night he set a new record by sleeping from 7 pm to 5 am!!! My eyes almost popped out of my face when I heard him in the monitor and rolled out of bed to go get him and saw the time. I was jumping for joy! Hopefully he'll do that on a regular basis someday.

Lily and some of the girls from her dance class