Sugar Cookie Invitational

Now here's a great idea: Bunches of toddlers gathered together to decorate/smear/eat Christmas sugar cookies. Our friends Laura and daughter Taylor hosted a sugar cookie party yesterday morning, and I don't think I've ever seen anything cuter. We supplied babies, bibs and booster seats and Laura organized everything else perfectly with dozens of baked cookies, little bowls of icing with kid-friendly tools, lots and lots of sprinkles, and a blind eye to the sticky fingers on furniture and carpeting.

The scene: Miles in the blue shirt, Grace at the head of the table, Aliyah next to Millie, Mils, Violet tucked behind her mom, and hostess Taylor with her back to us. The moms are Anna, Katrina and Grace. Not in the photo: babies Lucy and Camera, moms Michelle and host Laura.

Millie's never had so much sugar in her life. She was very grateful.

And here's half the group before the howling began. Thanks for a fun morning, Laura!

Christmas at the White House

We got a great opportunity to visit the White House yesterday with a group of Christopher's colleagues. It was an extra-special chance to see it all decorated for Christmas. Just beautiful. Millie and I are in front of the famous White House Christmas Tree (an 18 footer from North Carolina).


Here is a really stunning nativity set up in the East Room, normally the setting for press conferences and dinners. And the 300 pound gingerbread house, which is a replica of the white house and covered in white chocolate.



Millie did some great walking once we got outside and set her free from the sling. Here's a quick shot of us on the north side of the White House. I'll try to post some cute video of Mils toddling around the grounds. What a fun family outing!

Santa Hugs

I think we're ready for Christmas, or at least on a good trajectory to be done on time. We are as decorated as it's going to get around here, and Millie has loved all the new goodies to investigate. I think her favorite so far is the huge cow-themed Santa Claus that a friend made for us back when I worked for Gateway. It was a very exciting post-nap discovery for Mils, and here are a few shots of her giving Santa sweet hugs and love.

The "No Touch" Zone

A few shots of tree-shopping. Not as exciting as it could be...no chain saws or hot apple cider or even a lovely delivery and set-up service (a little San Diego nostalgia there). Just a nice little errand to the local BX (military store at nearby Ft. Myer) to pick out a good one. Millie loved it just the same.

The tricky part of the new decorating scheme in the living room is the new "no touch" candy area. Really great little trays that spell out "JOY" are filled with chocolate near the tree. Unfortunately, they are in her play zone and at a very tantalizing eye-level. After a few flirts with the forbidden treat, she has seemed to have conquered the temptation and moved on to packing and unpacking my purse. Awesome.

Go Bearz

This falls in the category of "All About Amelia's Parents"...

My mom and dad treated us to a Redskins/Bears game at FedEx Field last night. Seemed like an especially luxurious and entertaining outing back in the crisp autumn days of September when the tickets were purchased. Despite the sub-freezing temperatures, we loaded up with homemade chicken noodle soup, at least three layers of clothes on all body parts and a positive attitude. We had a GREAT time. The seats were perfect and the hot chocolate was all I wanted it to be. And I know you're all a little jealous of my enormous orange jacket. It's a winner, huh? Don't know how it came to be mine, but I can't imagine a more perfect scenario for it's one and only public wearing. 'Puff Daddy', as Christopher has named it, is officially retired.

Oh yeah...Redskins won the game 24-16, which was good news only for my mom. Dad and I are solidly for the Bears (unless they ever play my Chargers), Mom likes the Skins, and Christopher is for whichever team the Redskins are playing (he's a Cowboys fan). Millie stayed home with some wonderful friends of ours and we enjoyed every moment of our adult evening. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Walking the Dog

Good thing our dog Casey is about the best dog that ever lived, because taking her for a walk is getting to be quite an ordeal these days. Now that it's turned bitter cold, the daily walk involves bundling Millie in layers of coats and hats, loading her into a backpack contraption and shuffling a few blocks to a non-fenced area of our park. Sometimes it's just the pick-me-up I need to make it through the afternoon. Today was not so much a pick-me-up as an endurance test. Here's a photo of Millie post-walk. Note the snow melting on the backpack, coat, hat, and very fancy sock-mittens!

I am still very thankful that we found such a great dog for our family and very, very thankful that Christopher does the 5:00 am and 10:00 pm walks!

We're in sick baby lock-down...

I think I can see the light, though. It's been a rough week. Mils has been down for the count with a nasty chest and head cold. She's still sweet and funny and pretty spunky, but the nights are tough and her face is chapped from all the running and wiping of fluids.

We rallied on Thursday for a great Thanksgiving roadtrip to the Greers. She loves turkey and mashed potatoes (who doesn't, especially when cooked by Grandma?). We've been in the house ever since...watching waaayyy more football than is normal. Christopher's been taking great care of everyone, though, so it was a small price for us to pay for some TLC.

Here they are enjoying a cranberry snack and watching some sort of college football spectacular.

Back in Action

What a week! It was full and busy and awesome...a bit too 'awesome' to get a blog written. Sorry. But we're back on schedule now (literally...we're back to two solid naps each day, which is so sweet for me).

We had a great visit from Jennie and Kaitlin (Millie's aunt and cousin from Connecticut) on Wednesday and Thursday. The girls chattered away to each other in the back of the car and Jennie and I had lots of good catch-up and shopping time.

On Friday and then again on Sunday I got to visit with my college friend Jean and her three boys who were in town from New Jersey. Jean's a really great mom and it's fun to see the fruit of her kindness and gentless in the spirit of her boys. They are great with Millie and so fun to be around. Emily had all the college friends over for a mini-reunion on Sunday. I know you can picture it -- husbands/fiancees on the couch watching football -- girlfriends camped out on the floor chatting and wrangling kids. It was a good afternoon.

Maybe I have pictures of all this action on the camera (I'll get to that soon, I hope), but I thought I'd get a couple of videos posted first. I think these will be of more interest to the grandparents (they're a little long and lacking any real action), but here you go. First is Millie's number one favorite activity: enjoying handfuls of cheerios with Casey. I am confident that Casey has a very clean mouth. Don't anybody dare try to tell me otherwise.



Second is Millie's new walking obsession: hungry hippo. It is a very fun birthday gift (thanks, Taylor).

Happy Halloween

Good thing Millie really LOVED wearing her chicken costume, because we spent a lot of time in it during the Halloween 'season'. In fact, she loved it so much that she pulled the orange pants down from the bed and flung them at me, pointing at them frantically. That's how we ended up in Trader Joe's in the full costume get-up on Monday. Anyway, back to Halloween. It was such a full, fun day.



In the morning we headed down to our moms group for a costumed celebration. Here are some photos of the kids...look how calm and happy they seem. You should have seen the moms. We're standing in front of them looking like a pack of crazy people singing "Wheels on the Bus", jumping up and down, and just shoving pumpkin muffins into whatever mouth starts crying. We did it though. Photo success.

Traffic kept us from our planned outing to visit our friends Wendy and Reagan for trick-or-treating in Old Town, so we were excited when Christopher came home early. We walked down to the neighborhood party, "Hilloween" (so named since we live on Capitol Hill). We ran into friends and just loved the hundreds of kids running everywhere. We even ran into a little girl dressed as a fried egg -- we all loved the chicken and egg combo. It was a great day!

Birthday Joy

I know Millie won't remember a thing about her birthday party on Saturday, but I will treasure every detail. Here are some things I especially loved:

1. Kids in costumes! From fairies to puppies to kangaroos to lady bugs, the babies were adorable and shockingly content in their dress-up gear.

2. The hum of chaos in the air! Rattles were shaking, tinny nursery rhymes were playing, and my favorite -- shrieks of laughter were bouncing off the walls.

3. Grandparents galore! All four of Millie's grandparents were a part of her special day. And as a super-extra-special treat, her cousin Kaitlin traveled all the way from Connecticut to celebrate with us. This is especially significant since we're never quite sure where the Navy will take us in this life. We can grab on to these moments and memories when we are far away from family.

4. It was a true celebration of life! I made it a point to take deep breaths and really take it all in. I watched the friends and babies from my church moms group who have become like family to me and Millie. I teared up watching Christopher comfort Millie in the mayhem. And I gave thanks that all of this was possible at all -- a dream realized.

Here are a few photos from the big day:

Cheerleader Aliyah, Chicken Millie and Fairy Grace

Beautiful Chaos

Ladybugs Violet and Taylor, Penguin Braden and Fairy Grace

Best in Show

There are a lot of reasons why we really love our neighbors, Greg and Sybil. They are extremely thoughtful (leave us sweet notes in our mail slot), generous (Millie has many wonderful gifts to prove this), and interesting (they're always out making the most of this great city). And here's one reason why all of you will love them too:

These are their three dogs, Marley, Wiley, and Annie dressed as the Three Mutt-keteers. They won "Best in Show" today at the neighborhood Howl-oween costume contest for dogs held at Lincoln Park. Pretty awesome, I think.

Happy Birthday Millie!

Our sweet miracle is one year old today. Millie is truly more than we could have ever hoped for. I know for sure that Millie is the exact child that we had to wait for -- she is the girl that was saved just for us, for just this time.

Here she is...the birthday girl! This photo was taken first thing this morning when I walked in to get her. That sly little look in her eye makes me think that she knows it's going to be a good day for her.

Here's a look back at what was happening at our house a year ago today. I love the reminder of all the hope (and fear) that was present in those first days.

At a triathlon about two weeks before Millie was born:

Just a few hours old:

The Greers on day five:

Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we joined families from our church for a great day at a pumpkin patch out in the country in Maryland. I was having flashbacks from our days in San Diego -- pumpkin patching was always an activity done in tank tops and flip flops in 80 degree temperatures. It was warm and sunny on Sunday, but we had an awesome time feeding Marty the goat, checking out the pigs, keeping our distance from the geese (universally known to be mean biters) and going on a hayride.

As you can see, Millie's making progress on her walking skills. She's down to just one hand now.

With the Martin Family:

Playing in the pumpkins with Grace:

Awesome Lake Weekend!

We are home and refreshed from an awesome fall weekend at Deep Creek Lake with all of my family. Julie was in from San Diego and Mike and Matt were here from Colorado -- Millie has never been so adored. In celebration of my Dad's milestone birthday, we spent four great days at a house at the lake.

Wading in the lake with Aunt Julie (and Casey)

Snuggling with Grammy

We all took a ride down the 'haunted coaster' at Wisp Ski Resort. Here's the gang after the ride.

Kicking back with Uncle Matt

Mike and his dog Cede, who now lives with my parents in Maryland.

More Lake Photos

Millie and Cede just LOVE each other.

The family on a coffee outing (without Christopher, who was back at work)

Julie and Millie

Here I am trying to play frisbee golf with Millie on my back. Not pretty.

Hiking at Deep Creek Lake State Park

Mmm...Cream Cheese

Millie and I were "working" in the kitchen last week. I was busy making some soup when I started hearing a lot of smacking noises coming from the refrigerator. Here's what I found when I turned around (press play to see the video).

Fun in Tennesse!

Millie and I took our first solo plane trip this weekend to visit my dear friend Amy and her family in Chatanooga, TN. She's got two AMAZING boys -- Jack is almost 9 and Max is 5 -- who really took great care of little Millie. We did some singing and dancing, lots of playing and walking, and even a little bit of soccer!

Amy and I have been friends for 13 years...since we were bright-eyed interns working on Capitol Hill and living in a questionable housing situation together. And now after all this time and life experiences, it was awesome to see our kids laughing and playing together.