Coming Summer 2009!

Construction

For any of you that have talked to us recently. We are near the end of construction! Yeah! Here are some photos of the progression. The key difference is the downstairs stairway. You'll notice it's completely open at the beginning and beautifully finished and carpeted at the end. Mingled in are a few pictures of M helping. She just kept looking at the whole thing and saying, "mess!" Yep. It was. Luckily we're very close. And then Phase II. Moving everything out of the first floor to refinish the floors. Argh!

Gag Reflex

A month or two ago M starting gagging whenever she overstuffed her mouth. Today she did it while we were having lunch at this amazing Sushi/Dim Sum Buffet. Only problem was that this time she went too far and actually emptied her stomach all over. Thankfully I had a cloth diaper in the diaper bag and I was able to catch a substantial amount. However, the stuff still reeks! Once we could get her to calm down we got some rice and soup into her so she wasn't running on empty. It's so sad to watch her lose it all. She doesn't understand what her poor body is doing or why it won't stop. Silly thing about the situation though is that it's completely mental. How do you teach a toddler to turn off the gag reflex?

Snow

There are few things more beautiful than the first snow ... well ok, maybe a few ... but you must admit that the falling flakes in the midst of dim winter light is amazing. On Tuesday I saw just a few as I drove along but today they actually fell for a bit of time and filled the sky. Of course, they melted right away but oh, joy! The first snow! I don't think it's snowed this early since I've lived on the East Coast. Maybe what everyone says about the Farmer's Almanac predicting a heavy winter is true!

Under!

One of M's favorite games is what she calls, "Under". It started before Daddy left on tour and one morning she came up to our room to help Mommy wake Daddy up. She learned that she could hide "under" our covers and it made a great tent. Well that translated into one of her favorite games of all time. She now lies down in her crib at night and wants to be "under" her blankie. She often brings a blanket into the room and wants you to be "under" with her. So you stick your head under the blanket with her and she thinks it's wonderful. Recently it's translated in to other situations. We went walking at the National Arboretum the other day to see the leaves and she played under with her stroller blanket while we walked along. Yesterday we were at Buca di Beppo (one of our favorite restaurants) and she started playing "under" with the tablecloth. It was quite histerical! (not to mention super cute!)

Our Little Cat

Bugs

M has a slight aversion to bugs. Mainly flies. She's slightly terrified of them. This came in handy the other day. Now I must start with this disclaimer. I wasn't planning on using this aversion to my advantage. This situation happened purely by coincidence. On Halloween I was worried about M's teeth because she'd eaten things like a tootsie roll. Now we all know how taffy sticks in the molars. M does NOT usually let me brush her teeth but this night I was determined to make it happen. We use a child's electric toothbrush, which helps immensely when I let her do it herself. This evening though I said something about needing to get the "sugar bugs" as my mom used to call them and could Mommy please do it. At the mention of "bugs" (again I had not seen this fortuitous play in her mind) little M immediately let me do it because she wanted no bugs in her mouth. Well every night since she's let me clean her teeth well because of the "bugs". A great blessing that we just stumbled upon. And yes, we're working on the fear. We even got these great books at the library about a boy's pet named, "Fly Guy". She loves them and we try to associate the book with the bugs when she see them.

"Tree-Treat"

10.08 Halloween!

I think this Halloween is the most fun I've ever had! The evening started out pretty uneventful -- well besides M's first trick-or-treating. She did a very good "tree-treat" and we took great pictures. But then the fun really started when we were on skype with my dad and some trick-or-treaters came to our house. He recommended letting M give them the candy. So I made sure they said, "trick or treat" and then handed her a piece to put in their bag. It was fun but then after we'd hung up with the AZ crowd she really got into the spirit of things. So much so that we threw open the front door and sat on the floor in the doorway watching for would-be trick-or-treaters. She'd see them coming and get so excited and scream, "more! more!" as they walked up our front walk. Then I'd hand her the candy and she'd put it in their bag. She did quite well I must say. It was absolutely the most fun I've had on Halloween that I can remember. Of course we had to eat some while we sat there and her bedtime went out the window but man, it was so fun watching her get so excited. I took some video of it for Daddy to see and figured I'd share it with you too. Click on this web album and look through the pictures. The videos are included.