Fun pix from Megpix!

We finally - finally! - had some professional photos taken of the kids last month, just in time for Christmas cards!  My mom had been bugging me about it, and rightly so.  By this time in Dashiell's young life he had numerous professional photos taken.  Poor Aurelia's only professional photos were taken in the hospital (though we did as Uncle David, who is a professional photographer, to take pictures of them last summer, and he tried - he really tried - but he was so unhappy with them that he never gave us copies).  So last month I dressed the kids up a bit and brought them to my fabulous friend Meghan's studio!  Go me!

Aurelia was not having a good day, but I love these pictures anyway!  The expressions of exasperation caught on her face are priceless, and Dashiell mostly looks like he barely even notices her and is just out there doing his own thing (except in the pictures when he's squeeeeezing her).  I feel like I should caption all of these pictures but I'll resist the urge. 

And then there was Aurelia!

Since my Thanksgiving post was pretty Dashiell-centric, this time I want to focus on my littlest cutie, Aurelia (or 'reels, as I like to call her).  After all, my girl is 11 months old today!  That's almost a year!!  Wowsa!

Best bedhead ever!

'Reels has been doing some awesome stuff lately.  Not only is she cruising the furniture like a maniac, she also loves walking while pushing stuff (mostly the kitchen chairs).  And last week she started letting go of the things she uses for balance!  She stands for about 2 seconds, then plops down on her bum.  That's the real reason babies wear diapers - they provide excellent padding! 

 

Aurelia showing off at the mall - "Yeah, I'm standing here one-handed.  It's no big thing."

She is a fast, fast crawler.  It made me realize that the most likely reason Dashiell walked so early is because he was never a good crawler.  He did his leg-scootch thing so he could pull himself across the room but it wasn't the most efficient way of moving.  He probably figured out early on that he needed a faster way to get around, hence walking at 10 months.  Aurelia is such a good crawler that she doesn't need to figure out walking on an accelerated schedule!  She's doing her own thing and is right on track.

She's still a pretty good eater and will try most anything, however I think she's getting frustrated by her lack of teeth.  Her third tooth came in about a month ago, and I swear it looks like EVERY OTHER TOOTH in her mouth is ready to bust through.  Yet they are all taking their sweet time.  I try to give her food that involves a little more "chewing" but since she can only gum at it she usually spits it out.  Poor thing! 

She LOVES playing peek-a-boo, and will often initiate a game while in the midst of a diaper change.  Suddenly she'll cover her eyes, then pull away her hands and look expectantly at you, like "are you going to say it??" which of course you do, "peek-a-boo!".  Then she does it 5 more times, then lifts up her right foot so you can give it a kiss.  The foot kiss is a very important part of the game.

 Playing at the Discovery Museum in Acton - she was fascinated by these buttons - they turned on the lights above it, and she was so happy figuring that all out!

She is trying very hard to communicate with us.  Tons of babbling, pointing, and frustrated crying and screaming.  The other day Dashiell said, "I wish I could speak baby so I could understand what she's saying!".  We all do, buddy.  But it will come.  In the meantime we're attempting baby sign language and talking to her as much as we can so when she does start to talk she'll know exactly what she wants to say!

Life with Aurelia is pretty great!  I still can't believe she's almost a year old, though.  I better start planning the big bash soon!  Whee!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yeah I'm a bit late posting our Thanksgiving photos (or lack thereof).  The holiday season means that life is BUSY!  And Thanksgiving weekend was especially busy!  As it is a holiday that revolves around food, all of my photos are food-themed.  Dashiell and I spent a good deal of time baking and assembling desserts this year.  I love having D help me out in the kitchen - it's much more fun to bake with him than just by myself!  Of course it's much more of a mess, too, which is one of the reasons we don't do it more often!  Exhibit A:

This was after making gingersnaps.  Head to toe flour.  I don't know exactly how he did it, but there you have it.

The gingersnaps were used to create "acorns" for our pumpkin pie:

There was a coupon for Hershey's Kisses in the paper one Sunday and they had a picture of these cute little acorns on top of mini pumpkin pies.  Despite the fact that the circular claimed that we could "find these and more recipes online", the mini-pies with the acorns was no where to be found!  So we had to make it up.  Each acorn is one Kiss, a small gingersnap, and a butterscotch chip, all "glued" together with dabs of frosting.  I think they turned out pretty good!  Dashiell did the arrangement on the pie.  Lovely!

The other thing we created were chocolate pilgrim hats!  So fun and pretty easy, too - the bottom part is a Fudge Stripe cookie, face down.  The top is a marshmallow dipped in chocolate (stab the marshmallow with a toothpick, dip, then use another toothpick to place it on the cookie).  Let the chocolate harden, pipe on the frosting squares and voila!  Hats!

(On a side note, I remember Fudge Stripe cookies being much better when I was a kid.  They were my favorite store-bought cookie!  Now they taste like absolutely nothing.  I don't know how something that is supposed to be chocolate could be so devoid of chocolate flavor.  It makes me a little sad.  But at least now I will no longer be tempted to buy them at the grocery store anymore!)

Our Thanksgiving was spent at Rick's aunt and uncle's house.  There were a ton of people there, and it was fun to see everyone!  Dashiell decided the turkey was edible and ate pretty much just that.  Aurelia ate everything but the turkey.  Dashiell needed to make a wish on the wishbone, and wished that this would be the best Thanksgiving ever. He said his wish had come true!  That's my sweet boy.

Later that weekend we started putting up the decorations!  Dashiell was so happy to have his tree back in his room!  He put on all the decorations, making sure to put most of them up high so Aurelia wouldn't try to eat them, then wrapped his blanket (which he usually sleeps with every night) around the base of the tree, stating, "it just needed a little love" (ala Linus of Charlie Brown fame).  It's been there ever since! 

I had to post this next picture of D checking out his tree just for the way he is wearing his hat.  It reminds me so much of the awful Santa's Helper in "A Christmas Story" - "Get moving, kid!"  Cracks me up!

Finally, on Sunday we visited The Enchanted Village in Jordan's Furniture.  Last year we went the weekend before Thanksgiving, got there right when it opened, and had a very short wait to get in.  This year we once again got there right when it opened but the line to get in was ENORMOUS!  It was almost an hour before we got to the display. 

Dashiell's interest in the animatronic figures was nil.  He liked the snow that fell from the ceiling, but really he was interested in the "reindeer games" that were just outside of the exhibit once you reach the end.  It's one of those carnival games where you race a reindeer (or horse or camel, depending on the game) with others by essentially playing skee ball.  Last year we won a prize because the people next to us cheated and we ratted them out (I'm sure they didn't intend to cheat - you are supposed to have two balls to throw and they had three).  We got a little teddy bear to keep us quiet, I think.  This year we won a teddy bear because we WON!!  Granted there were only 3 other people playing but still, we won and it was awesome.  :)  Dashiell has been sleeping with his new teddy bear and the one he won last year ever since. And Hello Kitty.  He's running out of room on his pillow!

So that was Thanksgiving weekend!  A lot of fun, a lot of food, a lot of family, no shopping, and a new teddy bear.  All in all a pretty good weekend!