Walking Fairy

Amity gets some help from the walking fairy, aka Zara the half-birthday girl. That's right, she's 5.5 today!

Always Accessorize

Even though we don't celebrate Christmas, we still have a lot of fun on December 25th. Zara and Wes went to see "Tangled" with our friends Dave, Colby, Jake, and Atticus while Amity and I stayed home and napped. We all joined up for the traditional Chinese food fiesta at Taste of China and a wonderful time was had by all. Here's a snap from when we got home, Z on the phone with her Grandparents thanking them for the cool board games they sent...

Bang Bang!

We make our own fun when friends are out of town and there is no school over winter break. Also, dig that both kiddos are rockin' the footie PJs.

Happy Solstice!

For Solstice this year, since we have the MM's tree (I'm told it is a Norfolk Island Pine) we figured we should decorate it. Zara (with some help from Wes) made every single decoration on the tree. Here she is pointing to her favorite one, which is, I believe, a bird of paradise.

Baby!

Amity's getting rather friendly with Pooks. Here we see Amity administering CPR and then checking her airway.... not quite up to spec, but Amity's not even 11 months old yet, so we're very proud. And also? Pooks doesn't have an airway.

Rocking Chair

Amity demonstrates how quickly a little innocent rocking in ye old chair can turn into crazy circus act stunts! These pics were taken on the same day - since we've been on vacation we don't get out of PJs as early as we used to... but we do get dressed eventually. Well, some of us do. I'm usually the last to get dressed...

Mornings

This is what mornings are like in our household - there is a lot of sitting on the floor and hardly anyone looks at the camera!

Special Delivery

We get the coolest things in the mail around here... thing 1 and thing 2, anyone?

We make our own fun!

I have no idea why Amity has a container on her head. The 2nd picture shows her marveling at her chanukah present, while Zara is, as usual, enthusiastically getting ready to help. I will say that Amity has 2 largely purposive words - "up" (pronounced uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-P, a bit like it would be said by Frankenstein's monster) and "owwww", not really a word but she says it when she hits her head. Often on some part of your body.

Bystander

Amity's been standing on her own for a while now, but you know how I feel about grade inflation...

Happy Chanukah!

Zara lighting the awesome gingerbread house menorah she and Wes entered into the 'creative chanukiot' competition at her hebrew school. Amity is fascinated. Not shown: the gingerbread house menorah catching on fire as the candles burned low... small design flaw....

Vegetarians

In theory, we're all pretty much vegetarians. At least when we eat at home, we don't usually cook meat. Sometimes fish. But not so much with the meat. Apparently, Amity has not gotten the memo.

Happy 10 month Birthday, Amity!

Being 10 months old is a lot of fun, but also a lot of work! First, you have to play with your baby doll that your sister named "Pooks" and that your parents are calling "baby" in hopes that you'll come up with a different name than "Pooks." When you learn to talk. In the meantime, they still forget and call her Pooks. Next you need to stand around trying to pull Mama's pants own while you use her to support your 22lb self. Turns out, however, you don't need to pants Mama (or maybe hide behind her since you have stranger anxiety) since you can in fact stand by yourself. All of this pales, however, compared to the fun of playing kitty with a mouse in your mouth!

From the archives

Here's another 'oldie', where oldie is defined as mid-October. Zara and Amity both show off their latest playground prowess...

Also, for those of you visiting after any length hiatus, there are several new but back-dated posts. So go on, click on back through Novemeber and October. You'll be glad you did, as the kiddos are so cute!

Thanksgiving in Brooklyn

So we spent Thanksgiving (which was lovely) in Brooklyn. But the more important thing is a) how awesome is the new (Atlantic Ave) part of Brooklyn Bridge Park?!??! and b) Carroll Park's an oldie but a goodie. We also spent some time at "red" and "yellow" parks... bonus points if you can find me, Z and A all in the top picture...

Word Up!

Zara's getting a lot of mileage out of her WordGirl costume!

Upside Down Head

Fuzzy upside down baby head!

This was taken some time ago, but recently found on Wes' phone.

Table for Two?

So they're not exactly playing together, but they're getting there!

Upgrades

Back when Zara was not quite 3, she was partial to the OLPC. As she's gotten older, she's also gotten wiser. Here she's explaining to me how something's working on her latest computer of choice... my MacBook. Kid's got taste. She also is wearing the same pants.

Kitchen Helper

Amity likes to help with the dishes. Or else take a bath, fully clothed, in the dish washer. Either way, it's cute!

Happy 9 month Birthday, Amity!

Amity turned 9 months old today. She's 22lbs and 29 1/2". She's also an awesome eater, as you can see from a peek at our usual dinner time shenanigans. Happy birthday, little one!

Fly like an eagle...

It was a teacher work day, so no school. We went to Richmond. Museums are closed because it was Monday. So after the usual Costco/Trader Joe's/Sticky Rice-a-go-go, we hit Maymont. Amity was quite taken with the sheep and goats. Zara's getting pretty big, but it'll be awhile before she's got the wingspan of one of those bald eagles they have hangin' there in Raptorville.

Happy Halloween!

WordGirl and her sidekick Captain Huggy Face (a monkey). See PBS Kids (.org) if you don't know what we're talking about. Also streaming on Netflix. Hilarious! (not pictured: we rode our bikes to the Lawn for Trick or Treat-ing. I rode my bike, and Wes rode his with Z on the tag-a-long and A up front in a baby seat. Now that's a caravan!)

The Sound of Awesome

I can't think of anything that comes even close to this brilliant comment made by our buddy Chris, so I will borrow from him - It's like she's saying "I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am."

Duplos

Zara received Lego Quatros for her first birthday, and then when she moved up to Duplos sometime after she turned 2, we just kept using that same HUGE Quatro box. Well, Amity doesn't do much with the Duplos other than eat them, drop them, and otherwise make a noise and/or mess with them, but she sure does love them! The box is especially good for cruising, she'll walk across the whole living room pushing it in front of her...

Teeth Revisited

Same cute baby, looking a little worse for the wear due to her proclivity towards pulling up on EVERYTHING and also scratching herself with her sharp, long, claw-like nails. Which we do trim. But she grows 'em faster than we can cut 'em. Such is life. Here's another view of the same teeth you saw last week.

En garde

This pirate costume (size 2T!) was mixed in with some fabulous hand-me-downs we recently received from some friends here in town. Neither the diminutive size of said costume, nor the fact she has never once to my knowledge played pirates, diminished the tremendous amount of fun Zara had running around the house with her "grrs" and her "argghs."

We can only hope Amity will have as much fun when she fits into it sometime in 2012.

Grated Carrot

We grated some carrot. Amity ate it. Also did some abstract art. A good time was had by all!

Wild Animal PJs

This is so cute it speaks for itself. Though Wes wants me to remind you all that Amity does normally have a neck. Also, thanks to Marmee for the PJs. We love them!

Teeth!

Amity's got 2 bottom teeth, as you can see here. She's had them since August. Still waiting for some top ones to appear... perhaps in this case she takes after her mother?

Apple School

Zara's K class visited Carter's Mountain for "Apple School." This was her 3rd year on the mountain... we expect they'll ask her to teach next year!

Puppy Pile

Late afternoons (the prequel to the true witching hour of dinnertime) can be a little bit mad at our house. Here we see Wes, Zara and Amity practicing in case they are ever called to form a human version of that stacker toy Amity is finally getting interested in (toy not pictured - instead you get Craig family cuteness. Deal.)

Drummer

Amity's rocking out on the drum.... or maybe just then she's teething on the stick. Either way.

New Coat and Boots

Turns out that in addition to starting Kindergarten Zara's also just getting bigger! Pictured here she is modeling (I told her to pretend she was in the Hanna Andersson catalog) her new boots (size 11) and fall peacoat (size XS, but girls XS, no longer in toddler sizing!) from 'the old navy store' as she calls it.

Surly Teen

Zara gives us a preview of what life will be like with her in another 7 or 8 years...

Backyard Shenanigans

We had a lovely but all too brief visit with Grandma and Grandpa (that's Bonnie and Art for those of you playing along in the home game). Zara was pretty sad when they left, so she, Amity and I retreated to the backyard for some outdoor frolickin' - always good for whatever ails you...