Jingle Bells: NO! NO JINGLE BELLS!

Emma is at such a great stage — so incredibly verbal, and everything she says is funny. In the mornings, when we go in to the stench of her diaper, she says, "HIIIII Mommy! I had a good nap! I pooped! My bottom is ADORABLE!" And, it is.


"Look at me! I put on Dee Dee's hat and GLUBS!"

In addition to being "ADORABLE!"Emma is taking quite seriously the notion of turning 2. She's heavy into Christmas right now: she's named her snowman "Frosty Last!"


And every morning when she sees the Christmas tree, she exclaims, "Oh! GOOD MORNING ANGEL! Hi sweetie! You are so sweet! HIIIII ANGEL!!" Like her brother and sister before her, she has fallen in love with The Birth of Christ and wants to watch it every morning: "Oh! That's Gabriel! He is SINGING! Oh! HELLO ELIZABETH! She is so beautiful! She is singing to MEEEE! Oh! HI MARY! She is singing with Gabriel! She is so beautiful! She loves me! Sometimes I go in her arms! She is my mommy! Oh! That's baby JESUS! He is SO TYOOT! He is taking a nap! I love him!" It's just precious.

She's also discovered Cordelia's old bathrobe — a size 2/3 — which Aunt Hannah gave her a couple years ago and which she wore until it literally wouldn't go over her shoulders. It's Emma's now: "LOOK! I have a ROBIE!"


Yesterday, she put it on as soon as we got home, and didn't take it off again. With party shoes, naturally. This morning, Jonathan texted me at work around 8 am: "Did Emma go to school drop off in her robe? Yes. Yes she did." When I picked her up at 3:30, she ran into school, still wearing it. (Yesterday she wore two different shoes, but: "I got myself ready my own SELF!") While we waited for Cody to get dismissed, she wandered into the nap room and called out, "I will be in my BED if you NEED ME! IN my ROBIE!"



Here's how she tried to dress herself yesterday, before "I AM STUCK MOMMY! SHALL YOU HELP ME?"

She's mostly a darling, but she definitely has a streak of … 2. She's been singing Jingle Bells almost nonstop, and has pretty much all the words down. But when I tried to capture it on video, she totally turned on me.

Cox Farms (Disney Fairfax) 2014

Obviously I'm playing a bit of catch-up here … but below are scenes from our awesome trip to the Cox Farms fall festival — first annual! It was one of the best days of parenthood, ever. Two months later, Emma still looks at me a few times a week and says, "We had so much fun on that hayride!" : )

Emma Scoots!

Elaine Benes Rides Again

Emma-Fiona-Cordelia dance party. Wow. 

Classic Cordelia

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We had a great, chaotic day. I ran my very first Turkey Trot in the morning with Sarah, and then we made dinner for Mary Beth, Monika and Sean, and Christiane, Ulf, Monika, Max, and Philip. I went into it knowing I would work like crazy to produce a meal that 50 percent of the guests, all under 7, wouldn't eat. That was pretty much right. Cordelia had something of a rough morning, and a minute into complaining about said meal, she seemed to catch herself…then she came up to me and said sweetly — and sincerely — "Mom? Thank you so much for working really hard to make this amazing dinner, even though I hate all of it and I'm not going to eat any of it! Thank you!" I couldn't not laugh. It was priceless.

Then, just before bed, she crawled onto my lap at the table, snuggled up and said, "Mom? I love you even though I'm mad at you." Surprised, I asked, "You're mad at me? Why are you mad at me?" She sighed and said, "NO, I love you even THOUGH I'm mad at you!" Still confused. Then it dawned on me: "Do you mean even WHEN you're mad at me?" She said, "YES! That's what I said. I love you even though I'm mad at you."

And thus explains our whole relationship. : )

Recently, in the World of Cody...

From the Cox Farms Fall Festival ...

Publication Day! (Yes, he is wearing his knight costume.)

School campout!

His little friend Emily (who has a crush on him).

 Hanging out in Occoquan...

The Maersk container ship is finally built!

 Cody's new desk! Which is actually Granny's old (very old) desk … it's stuffed full of pens (the latest obsession) and he is loving his very own work space.

 Zonked out with HP...

And my personal favorite: A little pep talk for Mom.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Cody Bluth

Epic. 

Hushabye Emma

Because she's just funny.

It's Potty Time!

So last night, Emma was looking a little uncomfortable and suddenly turned to me and said, "I need to poop! I AM POOPING!" I congratulated her. She then insisted, "I NEED TO POOP ON THE POTTY!" JVL and I rolled our eyes and he obliged by pulling out the  little toilet, which she just loved. Just like the kids in The Cat in the Hat, all she could do was just sit sit sit sit. (And I did not like it — not one little bit.) Okay, it was fine. We looked at magazines. She sat down and reached for reading material, like a pro! And lo and behold, she … well, this is a family blog. I won't go there. But she took care of business, and got M&Ms. The trap is sprung.

Today when we got home from work/school/sitter, she wanted to pick up where we left off. We spent a good 20 minutes just hanging out, me on the uncomfortable hardwood floor, her confiding, "I am sitting on the potty! I'm having a little bit of potty time! Like a big girl! Daddy gave me this potty. It belongs to ME! I am peeing on the potty!" (She wasn't.)

Nothing happened. As it won't, 90 percent of the time, from now on (oh why did she have to express interest in this in the winter?!). But we did get some quality reading of Ranger Rick Jr. in. Behold, the cuteness. ("That's a BLUEWHALE! (Byoo-vayle!) That's A BEAVER! That's NOT AN OWL! I am ZOOMING PERCY! Should I give him a KISS? WAIT I WANT TO SEE THE BUNNY AGAIN! WAIT WAIT!")