An update as the end of the year looms

First, a picture for the season:

We went to NorthPark so Emerson could meet the famous Santa. As you can see, she was very happy about that.  This was a few days before the clingies set in - more on that later. We are experiencing and celebrating the season in a brand new way. We have a tree. For the first time. It's covered in prayer beads and pine cones. Perfect. We are discussing whether Santa will visit our house this year. Who knows?  At 10 months, she won't know the difference but we will.  All shopping is done and I plan to wrap gifts today. Today!  It's only December 19th! (quick fact: for about the last 15 years, I've done all shopping on the 23rd and wrapped gifts on the 24th).  This has everything to do with the fact that we did most of our shopping in China this year and my leave from work, but I'm still going to take credit and celebrate this accomplishment.  And, there are other signs around the house that the humbugs have lifted.  Let's just say the gift of Emerson is overdue yet perfectly timed. Merry Christmas!

The clingies.  Emerson has shown signs of attachment to both of us for a long time - in fact, we think it happened pretty quickly.  But now, she wants to be held all the time and gets very fussy when we aren't providing full attention. Especially Mommy.  I'm perfectly fine with this but her timing couldn't be worse since I'm now counting down mere days before I have to go back to work.

Development.  Maybe a little slow. She's "crawling" backwards but still working on the forward movement. Not a single sign of a tooth and not really ready to move off the baby food. She did figure out a consonant - "da da" to be specific, but it's only a noise at his point. She's also just started to hand me things and can put her blocks into and take them out of a box or bag.  I was feeling a little anxious about her progress but have come to peace with the fact that she didn't get much attention for the first 8 months of her life. Probably very little since she is so content. When I asked one of the nannies about her personality, she said she was "easy and happy".  Which is wonderful but I also think it probably translated to - we didn't have to worry too much about her. She just needs a little more "baby love" before she moves on.