Thanksgiving Festivities

This year, the four of us celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving together.  We made pancakes for breakfast, danced and sang around the kitchen to Alice's Restaurant, made a delicious turkey dinner and then visited different friends' houses for dessert.  The girls really had a great time helping out with all of the cooking and they especially enjoyed visiting all of our friends.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Click here for all of our Thanksgiving Day pictures.

Watching Daddy carve the turkey.

Family.

Ollie tries to sneak a bite.

With Mike and Marie, Emily's godparents and our closest and dearest Connecticut friends.

Another Favorite

I just couldn't wait to post this shot. More from Anders' photo shoot here.

Happy Thanksgiving

We took these videos during the Thanksgiving breakfast at Elizabeth's preschool yesterday morning. Needless to say, Lee and I will always have two things for which to be thankful!

I love this picture of Elizabeth and Lee.

Elizabeth-isms

Lest you think that we favor Emily, here is a list of Elizabeth-isms:

* she loves to dance.  Anytime.  Anyplace.  Any song. 
* she loves to eat.  Anytime.  Anyplace.  Pizza, Grammy cookies and cupcakes are up there as favorites; bagels, steak and cheese are not far behind.  At this point, however, Elizabeth is not a big fan of "adult food" - like anything with red sauce, most fish (she does love swordfish) , and noodles (excluding Kraft mac n cheese, of course!).
* she loves patterns - lately, she has really enjoyed discovering the patterns of life.  Elizabeth has always been a creature of routine and the idea of patterns really work with routine - "Mama, the pattern is preschool, Y, preschool, Y, preschool."  Or "the pattern is wash hair, don't wash hair, wash hair, don't wash hair."
* she recognizes almost every letter in the alphabet and reads the time on the (digital) clock to me in the morning.  She can also just about write her name, all nine letters!
* she is very creative and keep herself occupied for hours at a time, coloring or pretending with her collection of princesses and little people; yet there are times when she cannot seem to entertain herself for even five minutes.
* she is an amazingly well-behaved little girl.  Except when she throws tantrums.  And then, the full force of the sun, moon and stars seems to be with her and everyone in the vicinity pays dearly.
* she cannot watch Noggin before bed because everytime she does, she throws a HORRIBLE temper tantrum about going to bed.  But Noggin is the only channel that seems to cause this reaction. 
* she elicits the most amazing range of emotions from Lee and I - sheer delight, exasperation, amazement, complete and utter anger; we already feel badly for our future son-in-law.
* she is a wonderful tattletale (gee, I wonder who she gets that from).  Every night, we get the scoop on the preschool kids and teachers.  I can only imagine what she's telling them about us....

Photo of the Week

More pictures of Cecilia and her family here.

Emily-isms

We got such a great reaction from our "Lambie Did It" post a few weeks ago, so we thought we'd give you more insight into Emily.
* she calls Elizabeth "NaaNaa" and we have no idea why (although Elizabeth explained that NaaNaa is her middle name....).
* she has become more possessive. If Elizabeth sits on my lap, Emily will come over, tap me and tell Elizabeth "that's my Mommy;" same with Lee; and random toys; and the dogs.
* except for one good day, she absolutely refuses to sit on the potty. She points to the M&M's and says "that's my M&M's" but she refuses to earn them. She does, however, demand "change me" the moment she becomes the least bit uncomfortable in her diaper....
* when Lee does something that she finds particularly amusing, she says "Silly Daddy." This happens relatively often; yesterday afternoon was the first time she ever said "Silly Mommy." I'm not very funny (as you know).
* she HATES ponytails ("NO pony, NO pony!") and only allows them for dance class or a particularly messy meal.
* she carries Lambie and now Doggie (the gift from the hospital nurses) everywhere we go. When we make her leave them in the car, she gives them each a kiss goodbye.
* she eats everything we put on her plate - which she must get from her dad, as I am a picky eater. Where as Elizabeth will stick up her nose at many types of "adult food," Emily eats it all; But very, very slowly.

Thanksgiving Away From Home

Every year, our friends and neighbors Geoff and Holly celebrate Thanksgiving with their friends and family a few days before the actual feast day itself.  This year was the first year that we were able to go and it was great!  There were three (count 'em THREE) huge turkeys, plenty of side dishes and tons of dessert.  The kids (Sam is one of Elizabeth's dearest playmates) played in the basement and the adults ate and talked, ate and talked.  We had a great time! 

I mean seriously, check out all of this dessert!!

Rainy Saturday

Last Saturday, it rained all day, hard enough so that the girls couldn't go outside to play.  To keep them occupied, we made cupcakes (with purple frosting, of course) in the afternoon and then made pizza for dinner.  The girls really loved getting their hands sticky and sampling the batter along the way.  We made a rainy day into a pretty good day! 

Mixing the cupcake batter together.

mmmmm, cupcake batter.

Making (sampling) the frosting.

Spreading cheese on the pizza.

"Munchkins Bounce"

That's what the Emergency Room doctor said as he explained to us how it was that Emily seemed to be fine after free-falling five feet to the (cement) basement floor late this morning.  When I met Lee and Emily at the hospital, she was quiet and lethargic but by the time the doctor arrived, she was back to normal.  After a short conversation with her and a check of her vitals - and ability to jump - he cleared her to go home.  Although today was probably the most freaked out Lee and I have been as parents, we did give ourselves a pat on the back for the fact that this was our first emergency room visit in 4 1/2 years as parents.

What continues to astonish us is how adorable people think our girls are.  When I got to the hospital, the nurses were fawning over Emily - it was ridiculous.  As we were about to leave, they actually made us wait so that they could get a stuffed animal for her.  If you want good service, it pays to have cute kids.

Photo of the Week

Sal, Tavio and Jennifer - my first ever photography clients.  More pictures here.

A Day in the Life

I am taking a photography class and this week's theme is "a day in the life."  For Elizabeth and Emily, this is pretty much a day in the life.....

Every morning, one or both of them line up the princesses to greet the sun.

We keep trying, but despite our M & M "rewards", she's just not buying it.

Favorite part of the day - playing in the yard, burning off all that energy.

Twelve short hours of sleep until the day begins again...

Photo of the Week

Clearly, not about artistic value, but just complete cuteness.  Moments like these are my favorite as a parent (notice that Lambie is sitting on Emily's lap).

Swimming, Elizabeth Style

Elizabeth had an incredibly successful fall swimming session.  She clearly loves every second that she spends in the water and is getting stronger every week.  Yesterday, instructor by her side, Elizabeth swam across the pool without her bubble (or any other floatation device) and she has started jumping in the pool, which is great.  After watching her take baby steps in the pool for so long, it feels like every week she makes major leaps.  We are very proud of her! 

Here she is with Julia - another pint sized "Y Rat" - they've been friends since before either of them could crawl.

Swimming, Emily Style

It's the last week of swimming and the Emily really had a fabulous time.  She made great progress from where she was over the summer, so we might even be able to move her to a more advanced class over the winter.

Family Visit

Uncle Mike, Auntie Kelly and Felix made their first family trip to New England a few weekends ago. We visited them at Grammy and Grampy's house for an afternoon and then hosted them at our house the next day. A bunch of aunts and uncles came to meet Felix, which was an added bonus for the girls (and us) because they had the chance to visit with so many family members. We miss the Santa Fe LeBlancs but we hope to see them again soon.

Here is Elizabeth, acting silly!

Felix (so thoughtful)

Fishing is one of the only activities in which Elizabeth shows patience.

Emily and Aunt Denise

Uncle Andy and Felix.

Uncle Mike and the rest of the boys toss around the football.

Grammy, Elizabeth and Uncle Andy, hoping to catch a fish.

Auntie Kelly and Felix

We thought that it might be a good idea to take a family picture (because we don't know when we will all be together as a family again). Felix was apparently the only one willing to go along with the plan....

"Lambie Did It"

Lately, we've noticed that Emily is rarely responsible for her actions, at least any action that might result in a time out or a reproachful look from her parents. Those things are immediately blamed on Lambie. Take, for example, this:
Mama: "Emily, did you poop in your diaper?"
Emily: "Nope" (heavy emphasis on the "P" sound).
Mama: "Are you sure?"
Emily: "Lambie did it."
This just cracks up Lee and I and although we've desperately tried to catch this type of exchange on video, we've had no luck. You'll just have to ask Emily about it next time you see her!

Photo of the Week

Halloween Aftermath