Season's Greetings

The house is coming along, and we have even managed to make it feel a little bit Christmassy (sp?). I love this time of year, even with the endless to do lists and extra stresses. We have a busy but exciting few weeks ahead of us! This weekend we visit SoMd again for the annual Christmas party. There are now 11 kids in the bunch! Next week, the McGrandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins will be spending Christmas at our new house! We are so excited for them to see Amelia--she's changed so much since they last saw her. After that visit, we head to Pennsylvania to visit Great-Grandma and hopefully play in the snow! There is almost always a White Christmas in Pa:) We hope you are enjoying this festive time of year. More pictures to come soon! For now, here's our little cheeseball posing in front of the tree.

Not for the squeamish

I'm sure everyone can understand and relate to the hectic, craziness of moving and how it is amplified 100% with an energetic toddler running around. This past week our parenting skills have been challenged in many new and exciting ways. On the day we moved from the apartment to the house, I looked at Amelia who was (supposedly) playing happily on the floor, and I noticed 2 plastic pieces in her mouth. I immediately pulled them out and discovered that they were pieces of a broken hair clip. FOUR pieces were missing and I only pulled TWO from her mouth. Oh no. I called the doctor and confirmed that Amelia was breathing, swallowing, and acting normally and that I didn't need to panic. But, she nicely informed me that I was on poopy duty for a week, or however long it took for the pieces to pass. This means that instead of cleaning yucky, smelly diapers as quickly as possible, we have to INSPECT them carefully! Lucky, lucky us!

So far there has been no evidence of the offensive, foreign objects. I really don't think that she actually swallowed them, and they just went unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of the move. But for now, we'll hold our noses and search away. For some reason, I felt I needed to share this delightful news. I'm sure Amelia will thank me when she's older.

House Sweet House

We are in the new house! We actually closed on Friday and are officially homeowners again! We got our stuff this week too, so we are now surrounded by tons of boxes, but we are so glad to be in the house! Now it's time to turn it into a home. We hope you can visit soon!

A few exterior photos... When we get the inside fixed up, I'll post a few of the new paint job:)

Front/Side view. Not much of a front yard, but an awesome front porch!

Front view. Lots of trees block the view, but I kind of like that...

Holiday Decorating

I love decorating for the holidays, and I'm extremely excited to decorate the new house (hopefully sooner than later!) For now, I'll have to settle for decorating the McBlog.

I hope everyone is enjoying their own holiday decorations :)

Thanksgiving at "Mah Maws"

We spent the weekend at Grandma W's house (whom Amelia christened "Mah-Maw"), and had a great time. I got to see lots of friends and kiddos and eat way too much fabulous food. It was our first Thanksgiving dinner in 3 years and boy was it delicious! My favorite foods in the entire world have to be my mom's stuffing, mashed potatoes, and broccoli casserole. Sean made his delicious homemade gravy this year too! I attempted to make a blueberry breakfast bread, and pumpkin pie, although I think I'm best at just helping out with small tasks! Amelia ate everything with much gusto, except for the asparagus... oh well. I think my favorite part of the holiday was just watching Amelia and Grandma, and her Uncles interact and play. This is such a fun age (16 mths today!) and she is such a joy to be around.

Still no word on when we'll close on the house, but we're hoping by the end of this week. We were able to get the keys and have started painting a few rooms. They look great so far!

Grandma W's tree faces:)

She loves taking dogs for their walks! Here she is walking Grandma's "sausage" dog, Harley.

The Waiting Game

Well, we had hoped to be settling into a new house by now, but instead we are waiting, somewhat patiently, to get official approval from the seller's bank on our offer. We looked at a beautiful house the first weekend we moved back, and put an offer on it a few days later. It is an old (1918) Arts and Crafts, Foursquare home, and may be from one of the Sears kits (which I think is super cool). It is in our favorite Norfolk neighborhood with great parks, schools and playgrounds within walking distance. It is actually one street down from our old house! It has a new (intimidating) kitchen and lots of space for visitors! I keep daydreaming about paint colors and family gatherings and I'm getting tired of waiting!

It turns out the owners are in financial trouble and had to do a "short sale" which is basically a way to avoid foreclosure. All indications are that the bank will accept the offer and everything will go through, but it takes so much longer dealing with banks. We've been told we'll get a formal decision by next week and can close as soon as possible afterwards. Keep your fingers crossed!

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the new house up soon, but I don't want to jinx anything (too much!) In the meantime, here is my latest favorite photo of Mia and her crazy hair :)

Playing Around

After seeing lots of pretty blog backgrounds on friend's websites, I've decided to play around a little. I'll probably be changing the background a lot over the next few days, just for fun. Boy, this blogging can be addictive. Good thing Mia is a long napper lately:)

Oh What A Night!

I'm so proud of our country right now. Huge voter turnout, enormous participation from the younger generation, gracious, moving speeches from all sides, and an amazing, inspiring new president!!

Trick or Treat

Tonight was our first Halloween trick-or-treating with Amelia. We went to her boyfriend Ben's house (she KISSED HIM ON THE LIPS yesterday!) for dinner and some Halloween fun. Seriously, these toddlers dressed in costumes are just the cutest things I have ever seen. They toddle around with their little pumpkin buckets and fall over and get right back up and just kill me with cuteness. Too bad Amelia refused to nap today and got a little grumpy early on. Oh well, many more years to come!



I've been taking tons of pictures lately, and will have all of them up on the online photo album this weekend.

15 months

Little one is 15 months old today and doing great! She's 23 lbs, and 31 inches tall. We had to answer a bunch of developmental questions at the doctor's office, and she's right on track with everything. I thought it was funny when they asked if Amelia imitated me when I iron, vacuum and sweep the house etc. Since I rarely do any of those things, I had to say no. (Iron??? I haven't ironed anything in years!) But she does imitate me talking on the phone, brushing my hair and typing on the laptop :) I'll clean the house tomorrow...

Who wants to iron or sweep when there is this cuteness going on?

Wildlife Encounters

Last weekend we introduced Amelia to various forms of contained wildlife. On Saturday we went to the local aquarium, and on Sunday we went to a petting zoo. We are truly embracing our parenthood responsibilities (and maybe a little bit of our inner kid) these days! Mia seemed to enjoy them, although she gets the most enjoyment out of pushing her own stroller around. She's such a busy, active kid!

Cute stuff this week

Some of my favorite cute things that Mia has been doing lately:


1) She has to try everything we are eating and has started yelling "BITE" (sounds like "BUHH" which is totally different than "BAHH"/ball) when she wants it. We've been calmly saying "Bite, please!" and finally last night she yelled at Sean when he was eating a piece of bread "BUHH PEEESS"! So cute:)


2) She's reading to herself in her crib. Instead of crying when waking up from naps, she just babbles away, flipping pages. I wonder what she's saying?



3) She flirts with everyone! At the mexican restaurant, she blows kisses and makes goo-goo eyes the entire time at anyone who happens to be looking at her. Whose child is this? Sean and I are not particularly fond of being the center of attention, but she sure is!



She's also unfortunately becoming more of a picky eater. Here she is spitting something out, lovely! I'm not ready for the exclusive mac-n-cheese/chicken nugget toddler diet yet!!