Getting ready for Christmas

We're finally getting the cold cold weather that we expected from our first east coast winter! Claire and I have pulled out the Christmas decorations, and we spent last weekend trimming our tree. Daddy went a little crazy buying lights for our yard. He was like a kid in a candy store at Home Depot! The end result is quite nice, I must say.




Claire helped Daddy string the lights on the tree, and she took great pleasure in "hanging" ornaments (more like setting them on the tree).


Somebody has discovered the usefulness of pockets.


We are now the proud owners of an inflatable snowman.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble. Those are the sounds that live turkeys make. Mmmm, Mmmmm. That's what it sounds like to eat a turkey. Luckily while we were eating our turkey yesterday we only heard the latter. I guess that's a testament to Sarah's ability to both cook a turkey and assure the one she bought from the store was dead before she cooked it. This was our first Thanksgiving in Maryland and with ample room in our new house we decided to host the family. Claire is really enjoying the company as we had both Grandma and Granpa Koster, Uncle Tony and Aunt Katie, Uncle Steve, Aunt Anna, and Cousin Alex. Even Grandpa Sivitz made a quick appearance a few days ago on his way to a conference in D.C. The weather was very cooperative and believe it or not, we've yet to get below freezing for the year. For now at least, we can all say the weather here in Maryland isn't nearly as bad as us former Californians thought it might be. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I could either write several thousand more words or just show you how the holidays looked. Actually each picture will have a few words attached to them, so in some sense you could say that there are 1022 words below for each picture.



Claire really enjoyed doing cheers with everybody and ran around the table doing it for 10 minutes after we were done.



Believe it or not, this is a picture of all of us sitting around the table.

Claire and Alex had their own kiddie table.

Daddy showed Alex how to do the wishbone. Alex won. We're not sure his wish came true or not, but it probably had something to do with magic, Mario, or a very long game of hide and seek.

Here is Claire with her Thanskgiving dress. The Webkin turkey is oddly eyeballing her.

War over?

Well, while Brian was gone I managed to get one mouse which got a foot caught in one of my snap traps. The most unfortunate thing is that I didn't have the guts to put him out of his misery, so he waited a good 24 hours down in the basement before I scooped him into a rubbermaid container. I guess during that time he served as a potent example to any other mice, because we haven't seen any since we disposed of him. Could it be possible that we had just one mouse in the house eating all those candy bars? Not likely but we'll wait and see!

It's war!

Brian couldn't have picked a more exciting time to leave home. While he has been away I have discovered that we have unwanted house guests. I came to this conclusion when I found 20 or so kit-kat candy bars in one of our basement closets -- the wrappers were all shredded to confetti-sized pieces and the candy bars were partially eaten. I supposed that it could have been Brian, attempting to hide a candy addiction, but this morning I was able to get photographic evidence of the offenders.

This is definitely war, since our chocolate is at stake! After I threw out the remainder of our halloween candy, the mice have moved onto a bag of chocolate chips. Tonight I have just set some mouse traps with chocolate chips as bait. I'm also experimenting with peanut butter. Is it sad that I am somewhat excited to see what the morning will bring?

Not all the local wildlife is residing in our walls and basement. There's a lovely great blue heron in the neighborhood that recently took a rest atop our backyard gazebo:

Remembering fall

This afternoon Claire played in the leaves with a couple of neighborhood kids, and it brought back all sorts of memories for me. I'd forgotten how much fun it could be! They were throwing armfuls of leaves up into the air, they were diving into huge piles -- they helped cover Claire up and she loved it. The smell of the leaves was divine. I even took a turn going down their slide and landing in the huge pile we had made at the bottom. Ah to be a kid again.

I'm looking forward to playing in the snow with the kids!

Keeping ourselves busy

Daddy's out of town on business for 10 days! Our coping strategy is to get out and do stuff so we'll be distracted. After an exciting morning at a local petting farm, I realized however that doing fun stuff just makes us miss Daddy even more because we wish he was there. Claire randomly moans "Daddy" throughout the day so I know she's missing him! Oh well, we've made it through day 1.

Claire's first haircut

I can't believe I used to think that trimming Claire's fingernails was tough. I have a new perspective of "tough" after this morning's haircutting experience. Claire was understandably upset about the snipping sound of scissors around her head, and she was fidgety and vocal beyond belief. Add to that my great anxiety about accidentally severing Claire's ears and fingers, and you've got a really good time! I was so wound up I was the one who basically ended up having a tantrum instead of my toddler girl. We got through it, and the end product wasn't too bad:














This is Mommy trying to comfort Claire after all the haircutting drama.








Claire watched Elmo videos and ate kit-kat bars.



This was taken early on, before all the yelling from mother and daughter.

Trick or treating videos

Happy Halloween!

Fall. Its a season between summer and winter that we just recently discovered. Having lived in California for the past 10 years, we've grown used to the dry season and the wet season. Fall is a new concept. The leaves turn many beautiful colors and they "fall" on the ground. And once they're on the ground they're are many many uses for them. If you're cold, you could burn them (well, only if its legal where you live). If you're bored, you could paint them. If you're a 21 month old, you can play in them. And boy does Claire love to play in and be covered by them. She could lay in leaf piles all day. Here she is earlier this afternoon just soaking it all in:




Today of course was Halloween, and unlike last year where she had piggy flu and couldn't walk, this year she had a ton of fun trick or treating. We started the festivities by helping our neighbors line the driveway with lights and setup a large inflatable archway.

Later we dressed in our Sunday best and headed out in search of Candy. Claire loves ducks so we figured why not have a little fun with it.




It took Claire a couple of houses to figure out how the whole candy gathering worked, but once she figured it out, she became a pro.


After we returned home, Claire had, as far as we can remember, her first Candy Bar, a Crunch Bar, and relaxed on the couch.

Halloween Block Party

Claire and her friend Cameron got to go to a block party today! We're very lucky to have moved into such a connected and friendly neighborhood. The kids got to wear their costumes for a little parade, bounce house fun, a hay-ride and yummy snacking. We should have gotten a picture of these two after the party. Their faces were covered with chocolate!














































































Claire and Cameron were completely clueless for this group photo. It was awesome. When the photos were done, all the kids stampeded down the hill, leaving these two just standing there like little lost deer.






Here's Claire going crazy in the bounce house:

Pumpkin carving

Our pumpkins are carved and ready for all of tomorrow's excitement! It's cool and brisk outside, and the leaves have hit their peak. This is a great time to be a Marylander. We may feel different about it when winter hits though. : ) Here's a couple of views from our deck:

Claire was only mildly amused by the pumpkin carving. She did enjoy the pumpkin "lids" and seeds though.

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bill's Visit (Part 2)

While Grandma and Grandpa were visiting we went hiking in nearby Patapsco State Park. Hiking with Claire can be a real test of patience since she has to stop every 30 seconds and pick up rocks or leaves. We finished a whole 2 miles of trail despite this, and Claire was even doing the navigating:

A couple more photos from the weekend:

We dug out an old witch hat and Claire played with it all weekend. It's quite becoming on her!

Here she is rooting for the Hawkeyes with Grandpa. Claire misses Grandma and Grandpa already and we hope they come back to visit soon!

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Bill's Visit (part 1)

We had a spectacular fall weekend in the company of Brian's parents. It was just what we needed! Brian and I have decided that the 4 on 1 parenting coverage is ideal, and we are now taking applications in case you want to come live with us and share 50% of the toddler care responsibilities. (That means each "parent" would only have to change 1/4 of a poopy diaper daily.) But really, we appreciated their help in entertaining Claire and we had lots of fun catching up and enjoying the outdoors together.




We strolled around downtown Ellicott City, which included a nice view of the Patapsco River.

















We enjoyed a picnic lunch on a downtown corner.

Unfortunately the historic buildings were closed, but Claire had fun sitting on their steps anyway.

Claire and Daddy, pushing their appropriately-sized strollers through downtown.

Yes, this photo is a little out of place. Brian and I went to a cowboy-themed murder mystery dinner while Grandma and Grandpa watched Claire at home.

There'll be another post with more photos from their visit following this...