Deep Un-Freeze

While the rest of the country is buried in snow, ice, and a "Polar Vortex" of cold, we have been dry, sunny, and unseasonably warm!  I'm certainly not complaining, but it has made for a very different winter around here.  Our ground is brown rather than covered in its usual mounds of white, and we have been out walking every day, playing in the park, and I don't think my winter coats have left the closet since mid-December.

Saturday mornings I've been going to an 8:00 am yoga class and then I pick Jason and Miriam up for a big brunch @ Brandy's.  This weekend, Miriam decorated daddy's jacket with stickers.

Two weekends ago, day of AFC Championship. Apparently Jason really likes this sweatshirt / vest combo.

M officially turned 18 months old and she is still a long, lean, fighting machine.  Her hair is taking on a mind of its own.  I'm learning to manage the mane...

She LOVES climbing.  Slides, chairs, tables, piles of laundry, her stroller...the list goes on.  If its there, Miriam will attempt to climb it.  Keeps me on my toes.

This one is my favorite: climbed *into* the book basket and proceeded to read in there for 20 minutes.

The girl likes to talk.  Everyday she has a new word, and she's stringing together 2-3 words to make short questions (and commands!).  "More George, Ok?", "Oh, Boy!", "Pretty", "Bird...cheep cheep!"  Every time she sees a car, truck, bus, she says "Beep Beep" and can point out her eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, hair, ears, belly.  Just the other day she started chasing Maddie around the house yelling "Maddie (Na-E), No, No No!" at anything the cat did.  I could go on, but I will stop myself.  It's just so fun to see what new words or phrases she comes up with.

Photo shoot with Maddie.  She is such a silly girl!

Happy "Winter" 2014!

Christmas 2014

I  always loved Christmas.  The food, gift giving, food, sweets...it's pretty fantastic. However, with Miriam, Christmas is not just great, but amazing again.  The preparation; baking, grocery shopping, gift wrapping, was so much fun with my little sparkly helper along.

"M, let's get a picture with the tree"

Rocking the Target cart.  "Wheeee"

Wrapping gifts is easy.  Do we have more tape, mom?

Christmas Eve had a whole new focus.  Although M has no idea who Santa is yet, we followed him online all day, put out cookies, wrote him a letter for her stocking, and Jason and I got to play Santa for the first time...i.e. we drank egg nog and put toys together all night.

Christmas Eve breakfast at La Bellavia

Christmas Eve walk in the park

Opening our Christmas Eve gifts, new pajamas all around!

Cooking Christmas Eve dinner.

"Santa...I tasted all our cookies!"

The image I will forever have in my head of this Christmas is Miriam on Christmas Day, in her fleece night gown, tights, slippers, sticky-out-ponytail, chocolate and biscuits all over her face, bouncing from one edge of the house to the other with her new toys.  Play with kitchen, color on table, push dolly, put dolly in other pushy thing, push dolly again, back to the kitchen...repeat, repeat, repeat until you collapse in an exhausted pile of tears!  It was brilliant.  She is not really crazy about opening presents yet (our last gifts weren't opened until about 3:00 that afternoon), and when she does finish meticulously, carefully opening each package, she would break again from opening to play with the toys all over again.

Baby!!

Santa's all ready!

New kitchen!

Breakfast.  Yes, that's all 3 bows in her hair.  They were stocking stuffers and she wanted all three:)

Wow!  A new table!

Going, going going!

Daddy's gifts:)

We ate, drank, and were very merry. I loved every second of it, and cannot wait until next year!  A few other pictures from the past few weeks...

Recovering from a time change is tough.

New trick: teeth brushing.  Miriam brushes her teeth at least 3x a day!

Her new "Choo Choo" blanket.  A napping must.

Other new obsession: cuties.  She eats at least 4 a day.  Highest count was 5 in one sitting.

Her hair is so long she rocks the spiky pony daily.  I love giant bows!

Because Maddie never gets any blog love...here she is getting a drink.

Sporting one of her Christmas gifts, a "Choo Choo" t-shirt.

Still a favorite: hummus & celery

Thank you cards in the works.

Have Toddler Will Travel

**I've been very bad lately, I wrote this post about 3 weeks  ago about our trip, but just got photos organized. More to come on Christmas & NYE**

Miriam is squarely in the toddler camp these days.  Testing boundaries, learning words, going, going, going, she's a force to be reckoned with.  Jason and I must be a little crazy to take a 16 month old on a 2.5 week other-side-of-the-country trip, but for us, it's worth every headache to spend time with family and explore new places.

First, Miriam and I tagged along with Jason while he had a conference in NYC.  We stayed right off 5th Avenue in Manhattan.  Miriam loved the city and every morning after breakfast she took off running out of the hotel restaurant, up lobby stairs to watch the chaos outside in the street.  As I've mentioned before, she has no fear, and if strong enough to push open the giant glass doors she would have been out on the sidewalk with the rest of the crowd.  We shopped, visited a Children's Museum, & played in Central Park.  A different experience for us all.

Keeping warm in NYC

Central Park

After a few days in NYC we drove to Massachusetts / Rhode Island to see Jason's family.  Miriam's only cousins live in Rhode Island, and the 3 girls had a blast together! They are quite the little trio. We ate seafood, devoured cakes and cookies, and played, played, played.  I know my sweet-hearted niece did not want to say goodbye to Miriam, bear-hugging her in the lobby of Outback, and I spilled a tear or two when we left our little monkeys.  I really look forward to visits in the future and watching the girls grow together.

Hoodsie with Grandpa

After Massachusetts we headed further south to Wilmington, DE to my parents' new house.  We were together with my parents, Richard, Timmy, and Richard's new fiancee, Lauren, for Thanksgiving.  It was a holiday for the ages.  My mama outdid herself getting their new house ready for us to destroy, and preparing so much great food .  We ate, shopped, got pedicures, watched football, friend a turkey, visited, and enjoyed many a libation.  Miriam has her own little play area off the basement family room and she had a blast playing with all our old toys, and a few new ones too.  Uncle Timmy and Grandpa introduced her to Thomas the Tank Engine and she's completely hooked on "Choo-Choo" now.

Snuggles I

Snuggles II

Snuggles III

M's 1st 2 loves: Digestive biscuits & Uncle Timmy

Since coming back we've been getting geared up for Christmas.  The tree is up, presents are wrapped, egg nog is coagulating in the fridge, and treats are baked and ready to eat.  "Santa" put together one of Miriam's gifts tonight (he's got about 3 more to go tomorrow night...or so I've been told). Miriam still doesn't have any clue about Santa, but she is enjoying the lights, treats, and I am sure she will lose.her.mind Christmas morning when she sees all the presents under the tree.  I cannot wait to watch her little face light up as she runs around exploring her new toys...she is one loved little girl and it is going to be a very Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays, safe travels, and love to all our family, friends.

p.s. because it"s been so long, a few from before the holidays...

Foam pit @ Open Gym

"Take me to your Leader"