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.

What does a zebra say?

Emilia got a great birthday gift from her friend, Annaliese. It's a zebra that you sit on and it bounces and spins -- right up Emilia's alley! The only problem is that she thinks it's a horse, so when she wants to ride it, she gets so excited and says "neigh, neigh!" Hmmm... not sure what sound a zebra makes, so I guess we'll just call it a "special" horse.

Bath buddies

"Which one of you lucky animals will get to splish splash with me tonight?"

Playing dress up

Emilia is really into clothes lately -- and not necessarily her own. The other night she was having tons of fun getting into my clothes pile (with the help of daddy). She was cracking herself up -- it was hilarious!

Putting those teeth to work

I had made up some little Halloween goodie bags for a few of our friends' kids, including Emilia. Since they were bound to get tons of sweets, my bags were filled with activities and healthy treats. Each bag also had a shiny red apple. Well, Emilia found hers today and proceeded to eat nearly the entire thing -- skin and all -- down to the core! I guess now that she sees how her teeth can work, there's no stopping her!

Ballerina girl

For her birthday, Emilia got a very generous gift from Grammy and Poppy's neighbors in California: a hand-made tu tu. Every little girl needs one! Since Emilia is getting into her clothing accessories more and more lately, I thought we would play a little dress up this afternoon. This photo makes me want to enroll her in ballet classes tomorrow!

Cheese!

So Emilia has now learned to say "cheese" when she is being photographed. Here she is both saying and showing her cheese -- quesadilla, that is (BTW, kids no longer eat free on Sundays at Baja Fresh -- bummer!).

Right in our own backyard

Good news! We found a new form of entertainment for Emilia: playing in the leaves! Not only does she have a blast in them, but 1) They're free, 2) We just have to open our door to get to them and 3) God knows we have plenty of them! I think it's an excuse to not rake our leaves all fall. I mean, it wouldn't be fair to deny her all of that fun, right?

Another fall weekend... another trip to the farm

Emilia and I took advantage of another beautiful fall Saturday and went back to Frying Pan Farm Park. Emilia is so fearless -- she went right up to any animals she could find. Today she especially liked the goats and chickens, which must have thought she either had lunch for them or was lunch for them.

Flight of the bumblebee

Happy halloween! Despite popular belief that Emilia would be a ladybug for Halloween after her ladybug birthday party, she actually celebrated this Halloween as... a bumblebee! We chose the bee costume because 1) Emilia can say bee (when she wants to), 2) it is nice and cozy and 3) it was $5 on Craig's List. Sold!

Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, complete with a parade led by a firetruck, balloons and hot dogs. Emilia's buddy Nay Nay (Nathan) and his parents and grandparents joined us. Here she is with Nay Nay getting ready to march in the parade.

She practiced her "buzzing" for weeks leading up to her debut as a bee, but I think all of the commotion made her a little shy.

She was definitely a little puzzled by her fellow bumblebee, her doggie friend, Lucy.

But, of course every bumblebee knows how to fly through the air.

Uncle Corey stopped by the see the bee... and then he headed out to a real party!

She definitely got into trick-or-treating. I mean, walking up to complete strangers, charming them and getting free stuff... what's not to love? She was tentative at first (click on "Our Videos" on the right to see her first trick-or-treating experience), but by the end she was saying "more, more!"

We returned home and finished the night with our traditional make-your-own jack-o-lantern pizza competition. Eric and I repeated our victory from last year.

I know she had fun because I have time to post this at 8:30 a.m. because she is still sleeping!