Christmas

Our tree is up and Emily is loving the Advent calendar.  Alasdair randomly dressed the girls in Christmas outfits one day last week.  All day people were asking me if we were getting pictures taken... so I attempted a few on my phone... right before nap time, while Adara needed her diaper changed.  Not the best quality, but so it goes.

Things We Are Into

It's been awhile since I did one of these!    Actually, the last one I can find is from two years ago.  (Eek, this makes me so nostalgic.)

Emily

Her "USA" outfit.  This came in a box of hand me downs from our good friends.  Emily wore it to gymnastics  once and her teacher commented on it... so of course she's worn it every Friday since.  (It's now a running joke at gymnastics.)  This week, she's tried to wear it every day, and hates having it covered up by a sweatshirt... so she is always cold.  I wasn't in the mood for a fight, so she wore it under her church clothes on Sunday.  I've snuck it away to the laundry pile today!  (Alasdair & I agree that this might be the best picture of her ever taken.  That she spontaneously made the 'not impressed' face makes it even better.)

Writing.  She's just taken an interest in drawing letters.  I found her here writing a note to Uncle Alden on my grocery list.  She's always asking me for a pen.  Setting up scenes with all of her stuff animals. Often lately they are all in school and she is the teacher, or they are all her 'kids' and she is reading them a story, or they are all having a picnic.  Watching PBS kids on the iPad.  Watching out for her sister.  When she's not knocking Adara over or taking her toys, she's very concerned for her safety.  While playing on the couch the other day, Adara kept leaning over the arm and Emily would grab her shirt and tell her not to fall.  I told her to stop yanking on Adara, that she was fine... and Adara promptly fell on her head.  Later, I was letting Adara wander around while we watched Alasdair tie the Christmas tree to the roof of the car, and Emily was very nervous, kept asking me to pick Adara up because we were near the parking lot.

Adara
EVERYTHING.  She constantly has her arm extended, grunting and grabbing at anything she isn't allowed to touch.  If she doesn't pull down the Christmas tree, it will be a minor miracle.  Walking.  She really doesn't crawl anymore, and she's moving fast!  Today I was focused on Emily for a minute while I put the recycling in the car, and I looked up to find Adara had followed the cat down the driveway and across the street. (Minor panic!  I guess it's a good thing Emily watches out for her.)  Climbing. We now have a little stool by the front window and she's delighted to be able to look out.  Books.  She's constantly bringing me  "Baby Bear Baby Bear" or"Polar Bear Polar Bear" (from the 'What do you see?' series).  She loves to drink out of my cup.  She wants constant attention and activity.  Loves to go to bed (throws her bunny into the crib and then lunges out of my arms).  Her sister.  She adores Emily ("Umi").  At bedtime, she will say night night to all of us, but will lean past mommy or daddy to give Emily kisses (despite the fact that Emily rejects them 50% of the time).  

Thanksgiving

We had a happy and busy Thanksgiving in Westford!  Lots of family & cousin time, a soccer game from which I am still sore, and many walks around Grassy Pond.  As usual, I didn't take any pictures and have to get them from other people.  Also as usual, there are only pictures of the kids, and mostly the younger ones as Emily & Rosalie were off on their own most of the time.  :)  

Syndey * Daniel * Rosalie * Emily *Adara

The evening after Thanksgiving, when the house was full of my cousins (so happy!!), Emily sidled over to me and said, "It's too crowded in here" while Adara toddled around in her turkey dress (that I swear Rosalie was wearing just yesterday! Was this really 2 years ago?) grabbing on to everyone's legs and happy for the attention.  Adara was especially happy to play with Syndey, and pat her (see photo above), and she loved "meeting" her newest 2nd cousin, Maggie, via Skype... she laughed and poked at the screen until we dragged her away.

Addendum: I just found these photos on Alasdair's phone.  We stopped to visit his Aunt Abby, Uncle Paul and cousin Cathy on our way to MA, and they thoughtfully set out the perfect toys & snacks for the girls.  Emily warmed right up to "Granny's sister".

Stats

(Whoops, I meant to post this a week ago!)

I took both girls to the doctor for check ups this week.  They both did great!   Poor Adara had to get 4 shots and a blood draw. :(   Luckily we had her newly discovered favorite doll along to cheer her up.

Emily at 3 years & 4 months - 34lbs (68%) and 3'4" tall (89%)  She's wearing 4T these days, size 8 shoes

Adara at 13 months - 20lbs (28%) and 2'6" tall (67%)  Wearing 12mo, size 4 shoes

Halloween

The only piece of advice the sellers gave us when we bought this house was to expect a lot of trick or treaters!  We apparently didn't take them seriously enough, since we ran out of candy towards the end.  Aside from that though, the night was a huge hit.  We didn't go out, but dressed the girls up to hand out candy.  I wasn't sure what Emily would think about all the kids coming to the house, but both girls loved it!  Once Emily got the idea, she did all of the candy-handing on her own, only running away from the door to find me if there was a particularly scary costume (leaving the poor kid standing on the doorstep).  In between visitors, my shy child leaned out the front door, yelling "Happy Halloween!  Come over here and get some candy!  Do you want any chocolate?"  She didn't even complain about not eating the candy, and was happy with the one little piece we managed to save her at the end.  Adara crawled/walked/danced around, grabbing candy out of the bowl and throwing it in delight, and even putting a few pieces in bags too.

 

(Pardon the formatting, blogger doesn't seem to want to center these photos!) 

Steps & Laughter

Emily & Adara have laughed more together this week than ever before.  :)   Adara will crawl into Emily's hiding place behind the couch, and they will just giggle at each other (until something happens and Adara cries).  Adara is starting to stand up on her own and take a few steps... which delights her to no end.  She laughs and claps, and falls over, and does it again.  It's totally different from when Emily learned to walk.  Emily cruised on furniture for ages, and didn't really take steps until she was ready to walk.  I don't remember her falling down a lot.  Adara just gets such a kick out of trying that she falls constantly.  Emily loves "helping" her.

Joy in the process

Success

1

 

  Lots of people have said, "I can't believe Adara is a year old!"  To me, life before her seems so far away that I can believe it!  Looking back through her "month" photos I find that even the young baby times seem very distant.  (That's probably a good reminder about how fast this all goes, as Adara has been challenging lately!  I'm crossing my fingers that it's a phase - or those 1 year molars coming in -  but she has been ornery.)  In better news, she took two tiny steps today!  She was standing in the kitchen, delighted with herself for being upright, laughing & clapping and just concentrating so hard on trying to move.