Oh! You Beautiful Doll!

Mama has refrained from dressing Tori up just for the sake of it, but sometimes it's hard; she's just so darn cute!  Over the holidays, my mom went thru old baby clothes that I grew up in, and I snagged a few of the lesser worn outfits....which was tough since there were 4 of us girls.  So this is the first installment of Tori dressed up like a baby of the 70's:-)  Tori doesn't like getting her clothes changed, so the fact that she is even somewhat cheerful in any of these is miraculous.  Oh, and you can't see them in the pictures, but Tori is starting work on that toothy grin!  She cut her first 2 teeth last week- 2 bottom teeth!  And check out her sitting action- she is really becoming pro.

A Day at the Beach

What a Beautiful Sunny Day!  Tori had her first visit to the beach at the end of December, 2008.  It was one of the few 80 degree days we had during our visit with my parents over the holidays.  It was the perfect day for this girl to get a little natural vitamin D! (although I did put lots of sunblock on her before we left the house)  We went to Torrance Beach, and Tori loved to feel the sand between her fingers and toes, and we even dipped her toes in the water.  She wasn't even scared of the waves, but that might be because Mom was holding her tight.  In March we will take her on her first visit to the Oregon Coast, and that will be an entirely different story....probably cold, wet and rainy.  But I'm sure we will be back to Torrance Beach when she is a little older.

Tori's Baptism

Torrance Elizabeth Horton was baptized on December 28th at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Palos Verdes, California.  This is the same church Mom and Dad were married in 7 1/2 years ago!  She wore the same dress that Mom was baptized in and did very well in the service until about the last hymn.  Pictured below is Tori with her Godmother Katrina.  

This was a very emotional ceremony. With all Tori has been thru up to this point, it's obvious God has a strong presence already in her life and to celebrate her baptism with so many friends and family who prayed for her when she was in the hospital seemed to bring some closure to her rocky start.    At one point during the service, Fr. Jim was holding Tori and was about to put water on her forehead, and she looked up at him with the most trusting eyes.... it was a beautiful moment that I will always remember.  This was a celebration that I had been looking forward to for  a long time.  Tori definitely has a lot of people to support her as she grows in God's love.

Eating all the Time!

Tori has become quite the eating queen this past month.  We got the go-ahead from her pediatrician to start solid foods and she was hesitant at first but has come around- now we are trying 1-2 new foods a week.  We started out feeding her in the bouncer in the beginning of December, which didn't work too well since she can bounce herself.  Now she doesn't fit in the bouncer very well, so we have moved to feeding her in the Bumbo, a useful little thing to help Tori learn to sit up.  As you can see from the pictures, she does get it all over herself and really wants to feed herself- but when she grabs that spoon it gets really messy!  Bananas and her Grandpa's homemade applesauce are the two favorites- but she seems to like squash and peas pretty well too.  And Mom is having a fun time making all sorts of new taste sensations with the babyfood maker she got for Christmas- woo hoo! 

Tori's Visit with Santa

Tori sat on Santa's lap at the Festival of Trees earlier in December.  No tears from this little munchkin!  She was so enthralled with all the lights at the festival, the christmas carols being sung, all the people...... I think she had a pretty good time.  It's amazing to think that next year she'll probably be running around at the Festival of Trees!

Happy Thanksgiving

Tori's first Thanksgiving was pretty laid back.  She went for lunch at Horton Plaza, where Kris's grandparents live, and then joined Auntie Bree, Nana (Kris's mom Sue), Mike, Dad and Mom for an early Thanksgiving dinner.  Lately, she especially loves to watch people eat, and look at colorful food on everyone's plate, so Thanksgiving dinner was a real extravaganza for her eyes.  Then she visited Mama at work for one last feeding and then back home to bed.   One of the biggest surprises of the day was she started rolling over from her tummy to her back!  It is so cute to watch because she seems to surprise herself every time she does it.  She wore her new lavender sweater dress, because the blue one I was planning on having her wear was too small!  Little Torrance is growing by leaps and bounds.

6 Months of Growing!

Today is Tori's 6 month birthday!  These pictures show just how far she has come in terms of her strength.  She used to hate tummy time and I was lucky if she would be on her tummy for a minute without screaming.  But now as she gets stronger, she likes it and has been moving her arms and legs around like she wants to crawl.  The top picture is the most recent one, taken a few days ago.  The bottom picture was one of her first tummy times after leaving the hospital.  What a difference!  And my favorite kind of tummy time is when she is laying on my stomach and will lift her head up so nicely to look up at me and smile..... she is growing so quickly!  While Tori is actually 6 months old today, she also has an "adjusted age" which is based on her due date, August 3.  So Tori's adjusted age is about 4 months, and the doctor looks for her to be acting more like a 4 month old baby at this point.  They use the adjusted age for milestones in preemies until their 2nd birthday.  I think Tori is doing pretty well!