Tasty playdate

This morning, Emilia and I went to a fun playdate and cookie exchange with some of her daycare buddies and their mommies. Abby had lots of fun toys to share and the cookies were very yummy! We had been talking about getting these kids together for a while and it was really fun to see them interact and play outside of the work week. Here's Emilia with her pals, Jamison, Abby and Kaitlyn.

Emilia’s latest tricks

Lately, Emilia:

• has started blowing kisses (with a significant amount of prompting)
• repeats EVERYTHING… time to watch what you say!
• can identify her head, tummy, hair, arms, eyes, nose, mouth and ears
• offers a, usually identifiable, sound for nearly animal you can imagine
• tries to help dress and undress herself, with hats, bows, shoes and socks as her top priority – shirts and pants are optional
• requests her baseball hat and wooden bat (thanks, daddy and Uncle Kyle – great idea) before I can even get her out of the crib in the morning
• folds her hands to pray and announces “Amen!” even before we ask – this is usually meant to move the meal along and she even reminds us when we forget
• slides downstairs on her tummy and toes but usually turns around at least once a flight of stairs giving me a heart attack
• has a special affection for all of the snowmen dolls she sees – mostly trying to steal their hats and scarves
• draws you into a mean game of peek-a-boo
• dances on command
• single-handedly lifts her school bus tent to crawl under it… who needs the door?
• still loves her books… wait until she sees the new ones Santa has in store for her!
• gives hugs (OK, sometimes they’re more like tackles) to her friends (and on Saturday, a seven-year old complete stranger when we were out shopping – nice)

Here she is giving a squeeze to a toy snowman:

Hats are so last season

OK, so maybe she is not forgoing hats altogether, as evidenced by the last post, but Emilia has definitely found a new accessory obsession: belts – specifically, daddy’s belts. She can’t get enough of them! Other items catching her eye lately include daddy's shoes and mommy's bracelet.

The most wonderful time of the year

This weekend was jam-packed with holiday cheer.

Saturday morning, we bundled up and drove to Old Town Manassas for its annual Christmas parade. This was our first viewing of the parade, and even though it was quite possibly the longest parade EVER and the coldest day of the year, it was really fun! Emilia’s favorite parade participants were of the four-legged variety – specifically the doggies and horsies, including the Budweiser Clydesdales. There were lots of marching bands and holiday tunes. Between Emilia dancing along and changing hats (first her doggie hat, then daddy’s hat, then an elf hat they were giving to the crowd), we had our own little sideshow going to entertain the people around us. Here are Emilia’s various parade-viewing ensembles:
The highlight of every Christmas parade is of course the finale when Santa appears. But, because we could no longer feel our faces and it was pushing lunchtime for Emilia, we resigned ourselves to passing on Old St. Nick. We made our way back to our car, which was parked at the start of the parade. Who did we find waiting there for his turn in the parade but the Big Red Man himself (and I’m not talking about Eric )!?! He was so friendly and patient – a true jolly St. Nick. However, Emilia wasn’t so sure at first. Here’s her immediate reaction:
After Santa turned on the charm, Emilia finally warmed up to him:
All in all, she had a fantastic time at her first Christmas parade. So much so that this was the reaction when we finally had to leave the horsies behind - real tears!:
We ended our weekend by meeting up with our friends for dinner and going back to Manassas for the Bull Run Festival of Lights. You drive in your car through the park and view elaborate light displays. I think Emilia was a little overwhelmed, but every once in a while she would pipe up and announce something she recognized: “tree!” “neigh!” (for horsies). At the end of the tour, we braved the 20-degree, windy weather to check out the festival's carnival. Emilia and Nay Nay (Nathan) got to go on two rides before we were all going to freeze to death. Here they are riding a school bus ride. How cute are they?!?
We headed back to the Vaughans’ house just in time to meet up with Santa again, this time on a South Riding fire engine. Emilia is still not sold on this Santa guy (see the pout below), so we’ll have to keep trying.
In the midst of all of that, we finished our Christmas cards, put up the outside lights, made some progress on Christmas shopping, and watched a holiday favorite, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I think it’s safe to say that the holiday season is in full swing in our house!

The big one

[Caution: Erin is away on a short business trip so this is Eric writing his first blog post.]

What does Emilia want to do when Mommy is not around?

She finds her favorite John Deere hat and settles down to read a book about fishing.

Obviously that activity is way too exciting for her so she doses off to sleep and dreams about...?

Refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go, she then walks off into the sunset in search of "The Big One."

Time to toss the pumpkins

The squirrels have been feasting on our pumpkins... oh, well, it's time for Christmas decorations anyway!

More New Jersey fun

Emilia had a great time in New Jersey this weekend. Here are some of her highlights:

Playing "an-mals" with grandpa...

Climbing into her favorite new spot -- an activity table...
Video chatting with grammy and big poppy...

Visiting with great grandma and great Aunt Nancy and great Uncle Joe and their dog Kasey (the doggie gets kisses)...Tormenting grandma and grandpa's cat, Puff Kitty (she followed her around saying "hi," and "catty" the whole trip; here she is brushing her hair with mommy's hair brush)...Stealing grandpa's hat all weekend long...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great visit with my family in New Jersey. Grandma made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal. Emilia was so tired from playing that she pretty much slept through Thanksgiving dinner. Not to worry, though - we saved plenty for her. Here is a glimpse of before...
during...

and after her feast! The cranberry sauce was her favorite. Well, at least the dress lasted about an hour and a half!

'Tis the season

We don't normally put up Christmas decorations this early, but since Thanksgiving is later this year, we enlisted the help of elves Uncle Corey and Gillian yesterday to get our house holiday ready. Here are Emilia and Gillian fluffing the top of the tree...

But Emilia had the most fun (and could do the least amount of damage) playing in the empty storage containers...By the time Emilia woke up from her nap, the tree was done!

Our little girl

Emilia's hair grows like crazy. She has already had four haircuts, plus I have trimmed her bangs twice. I had an appointment for a haircut yesterday morning, so we brought her along to get her all trimmed up for Thanksgiving. She's looking more and more like a little girl and not a baby anymore! And, speaking of her looking like a little girl, looks like she's found a new accessory... and is ready to go Christmas shopping with mommy's purse!

From one extreme to another

This morning, Emilia absolutely would not leave her room to come have breakfast until I put on her sunglasses. Never mind that it was in the 30s and overcast this morning, she had to have those sunglasses on! Here's our little accessory fashionista ready for the Caribbean... And just 30 minutes later she was ready for the South Pole...

Curling up with a good "gook"

Since daddy is at the Redskins game tonight, Emilia and I had some time to hang out together. All she wanted to do was read "gook" after "gook." She got herself all set up on the couch with a warm blanket. We're in our nice toasty house while daddy is freezing at the game!

Big girls don't eat with their hands

Emilia's been practicing her skills with forks and spoons at mealtime. She is really getting the hang of it. I still go through half a container of wipes after every meal, but one of these days she will master it, I'm sure!

Babysitter sleepover

While Eric and I were in Richmond Friday night, Emilia had her first overnight babysitting experience! Grandma and Grandpa came down to stay with her and hang out on Saturday. She had a great time and, reportedly, was a very good girl. Here she is driving Grandma in her school bus.

Eric's idea of heaven

Much to my dismay, there is a brand new Bass Pro Shop off I-95. Eric was quick to spot it on the way down to Richmond (you actually can't miss it -- it's enormous), so it was inevitable that we would have to stop on our way home. Recession? What recession? I think half of the Commonwealth of Virginia was in that store this afternoon buying things that are of no interest to me whatsoever.

On your mark...

This morning, Eric and I had the great privilege of watching our BFF, Megan, complete the Richmond Marathon! Despite the overnight torrential downpour, morning humidity, crazy wind and, well, the 26.2 miles of torture (that's what running is to me, anyway), she did great!

All smiles right from the start...Running strong at mile seven...


Trudging along at mile 19...


The home stretch...
Celebrating with her husband, Mike, at the finish line...


Running a marathon is something I could never do, so I have the greatest respect for all of today's runners. Megan trained for months and she was a superstar today. Congratulations, Meg!


Best of all, Megan was running to raise awareness and funds for the dire hunger situation in Ethiopia. She and Mike are anxiously awaiting their first child, whom they plan to adopt from Ethiopia next year. Read her blog to learn about their adoption journey and the tragic living conditions in Africa.

Again!

Here's our little dare devil the other night wanting to be tossed around by daddy "gen" and "gen"!

Out-of-town guests

On Monday night we had not one but TWO different friends over from out of town.

In from the Lone Star State was our friend Greg Stamps. Greg and his wife Becky and kids Abby and Reese used to live in Northern Virginia but moved back to Texas a few years ago. We miss them but keep up with Becky's fabulous blog regularly!

Greg still works for a D.C.-based organization, so he travels up here on occasion. This time he had dinner with us and stayed over. Eric had crashed at the Stamps' house in Fort Worth one night a few weeks ago when he was traveling for work. One of these days Becky and I will get to join in all of this travel!

Greg is a big baseball fan, so in no time at all he and Eric were teaching Emilia how to play ball. Look out -- she is armed with a bat!

Even though Greg's kids are four and six, he wasn't rusty on giving a 15-month old an uncontrolable tickle fit!

As if that wasn't enough excitement, Emilia stayed up extra late to see Gina all the way from California. Eric has a huge and very close group of friends from high school and Gina is one of those friends. She's also one of the most hilarious people you'll meet. She was also in town for work and it was great of her to squeeze in some time to see us.

Moonlight trip to the playground

Since it's getting dark earlier, we have fewer and fewer daylight hours on the weekend to play outside. Last night we made a brief pit stop at our neighborhood playground to let Emilia run around before bed time -- the theory being that she'd be extra tired and sleep well. Though we had a good time at the park, our strategy failed us. She was up with the roosters at 5:45 this morning.

More leaves

As I said last weekend, it's a good thing we have endless supplies of leaves! Hours and hours of fun, just in this little pile!

"Gook" worm

Emilia's latest obsession is reading, which I guess is not a bad thing. For some reason, she can't seem to say the word "book," though. She can say "baa," "ball," and "bee," but books are "gooks." Aunt Steph came over Saturday morning for what she thought was going to be a casual breakfast. Little did she know it was reading hour at the Korsvall library. Here they are reading one of Emilia's favs, The Wheels on the Bus.