Christmas Card?

Just wanted to let everyone know you won't be getting a Christmas from us anytime soon. I've been trying to snap the "perfect" shot for the card. But I'm not sure if I've got it yet? I took some of Allison playing with the Christmas lights. Maybe one of them will make the cut? We hope you are enjoying the Holiday season!! I'm trying to soak up every minute of Allison's first Christmas. We started playing Christmas music the week before Thanksgiving. I know the holidays will be gone in a flash!

Turkey Day 2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Despite the fact that the turkey didn't turn out right for the 3rd year in a row. Luckily, Allison doesn't eat turkey yet and it's not Jim's favorite anyway. We still had plenty of food and a wonderful day together as a family!!

Before we ate we walked to the Botanical Garden to check out the Christmas display http://www.usbg.gov/whats-happening/Windows-to-Wonderland.cfm . It is beautiful! Tons of poinsettias, decorations and an entire room devoted to miniature trains. Allison and Jim really liked the trains. I was surprised that Jim spent some time looking at the trains. I guess boys, Christmas and trains go together no matter the age. We are so excited that the Christmas season is finally here and we can share it with Allison!

Beautiful Day in Our Neighborhood

Friday was a beautiful day in our neighbor-hood! The weather was perfect for a long walk. So, Allison and I headed down to the National Botanical Gardens. http://www.usbg.gov/

We walked around the inside exhibit and spent sometime outside enjoying the garden. The Capitol is next to the Botanical Garden, so I snapped some pictures of the stage they are building for inauguration day 2009. After I snapped that shot I noticed we were in between the Capitol and Washington Monument. As you can see the clouds were moving in, blue skies over Capital but clouds to the west. So, we headed for home. But we stopped along the way to take some more pictures in pretty fall leaves!

Happy Hilloween!

We celebrated Allison's first Halloween at "Hilloween". Capitol Hill puts on Hilloween Fest every year. Tons of people come out for the fun and candy! They have hay rides (which is sporty in the middle of DC), moon bounce, fair food and lots of laughs! It is so funny to see all the tiny kids dressed up. Most kids on the hill are under 5 yrs (it seems). The streets were filled with every tiny creature and character imaginable. We met up with kids from one of our play groups. The "miniMOTH" play group. We belong to the parent group in the hill- MOTH (Moms On The Hill). MOTH has about 2 thousand family from what I understand. And miniMOTH is has about 80 families that all have kids about Allison's age. We mostly share info on a web list serve. It's great because of course all kids go through the same phases and we can compare notes on what works and what doesn't. It is a great way to feel connected to people in the same situation at the same time. Most people in DC don't have family or longtime friends near, so these groups really help the fill the void (although nothing can replace family and old friends!!)

Heavy Sleeper

I'm not sure if you can see in these pictures, what I saw when Allison woke up from her afternoon nap? I picked her up and she had large red marks all over her forehead. I looked in the crib and couldn't figure out what she slept on to make these huge marks on face. I leave two stuffed animals in her crib and she never really sleeps close to them. So, we went to get Jim's opinion on the marks. He pointed out, the marks were from sleeping face down on her hands. She some how put hands palm down on the mattress and then put her face directly over her hands. I assume she slept like that for quite a while because the marks stayed on her face for quite awhile. If you look really close, you can even see little white spots at the end of the finger marks. The white spot are where her fingernails were against her face. I think the space between her finger and cuticle allowed for the white spots. We got a pretty good laugh out of this investigation! Except..I'm a little freaked-out that she was sleeping face down!

One, Two, Three

Allison was able to spend time with all her cousins this past weekend! She met cousin Camille for the first time! Allison had a great time playing with cousins Camille and Connor at Connor's house in NJ. Connor was a great host. He shared all his toys with the girls and he was eager to read stories to them. Cousin Camille lives in Florida and will be a big sister on December 18. I'm sure Camille will do a great job explaining the wonders of Christmas morning to her new little brother. We'll be so excited to meet him!

Allison had a great time low crawling around her grandparent's house! I thought she might enjoy crawling around on the nice soft carpet (since we don't have any carpet). But she crawled from room to room dragging her belly on the floor. She didn't really seem to care about what type of floor surface she was crawling on. However, as she moved to a new surface she would smack it several times with her hand before she crawled onto it. Jim and I have nicknamed her "baby dust mop" since she crawls along cleaning the floor with whatever she is wearing. Maybe she'll be up on all fours the next time I post.

What happened in September?

Sorry to have kept everyone waiting for new Allison news!! Allison went to her first major league baseball game on September 17. The Washington Nationals celebrated "half way to St. Patty's Day". Everyone received green National's hats with a shamrock on the back!! St. Patrick's day is special to our family because it is Jim's birthday. Allison was quite a trooper and let her Dad stay at the game untill 9:00pm!

She now has two teeth on her mandible, none on her maxilla, yet! She is constantly making new sounds and doing crazy things with her tongue to entertain her parents.

Allison has mastered the "baby low crawl". She can quickly move across our house (well the house is only 16 feet wide). She rocks on all fours but hasn't officially started crawling.