Our Packrat

Aria has always liked to collect things. Since Emmett has arrived, she has taken it to a new level. She has become a packrat! We've documented a couple of her masterpieces below. She does this at least once a day and it's a pain to clean up! Most of the objects consist of Emmett's blankets and toys which she's taken possession of.

I had to sneak in a recent picture of Emmett. Note that he's using his blanket. Generally, as soon as I pick him up, Aria grabs it and stashes it in one of her piles.

It happened.

Aria's most favorite lovey is Doogan the bear. She's loved him since she was 6 months old. It happened...he finally lost his ribbon on his neck. She twirls and plays with his ribbon constantly - in bed, in the car...all the time. A quick surgery took place and he's as good as new! I was nervous that Aria would reject the new ribbon, but she approves! This is not the first surgery for Doogan either. He's had a tagectomy, an accidental tracheotomy, and a restuffing.

The old ribbon in its tattered glory

Doogan with his shiny new ribbon!

1st Day of Preschool

Today Aria started in her new preschool class (no more toddler class). We went to an orientation yesterday and it went great. She was a little apprehensive about the new classroom at first, but as soon as we started exploring she quickly got excited. Her favorite thing so far is the "magnet work*". This morning she told us that when she got to school that was the first thing she was going to do. Kevin dropped her off and she was good. And the very first thing she did...magnet work!

*At her montessori school they call all the learning activities "work". It cracks me up.

Aria and Emmett

Aria loves her baby brother, and we like to think he loves her. He definitely likes to hold her hand, and kick her when she gets too close to his feet!

Aria has been a big help, she gets diapers ready (sometimes pulling the tabs completely off), and throws away dirty diapers (though the "ba-splosions" as she calls them get thrown away by mommy or daddy). Aria says Emmett is "crying for his big sister Aria" whenever he is cranky.

Emmett kept leaning into Aria and grabbing at her. She thought it was funny.

"Baby brother is HEAVY!"

Emmett coming up with a devious plan...

Mommy's Free!

Finally, after two weeks of trying and TRYING to get Emmett to take a bottle we had success tonight. This was encouraging after a long day of hardly any sleep (only 2hrs). He was so fussy and just wouldn't stay asleep! This is not usual for him. I even pulled out every type of pacifier I could find to see if that would settle him down. He kept the paci in his mouth for more than 10 secs today as well! I think this was the training for the main event this evening. He took a whole 6.5 oz of mommy's milk provided by daddy via the bottle :-)

Oh the possibilities this brings me. It was really making me worry that he wasn't taking the bottle. Yay Emmett - this made up for the bad day!

A preschooler's nightmare

Aria woke up this morning screaming. Kevin entered the room and asked what her nightmare was about. Aria responded:

"We were getting eggs and they kept taking them out of our hands and putting them in the hole. We couldn't buy the eggs."

Weekend Outings

The last three weekends we’ve tried our best to make sure to get out with both kids. It’s been tricky, but we’ve had a lot of fun. Three weekends ago we went to Cabin John Park where Aria rode the train and played in the park.

Mommy's turn!

Daddy's turn!

The next weekend we ventured out to Great Country Farm to play and pick peaches/blackberries. Aria was excellent at finding the ripe blackberries (and only eating half of what she picked).


This past weekend we went to Reston’s Farmers Market to walk around and we picked up some fresh veggies!

Emmett mostly sleeps when we are out. He definitely likes all the motion.

I have been approaching these outings like a challenge. Each one had it's difficult times, but we need this training to get the hang of it! In no time we’ll be old pros.

Also, Emmett and I took a little adventure together last week to meet up with my Grandma for a birthday lunch. He was so good and everything went well (minus the weird waiter that kissed Emmett – poor thing was only 4 weeks old and he could do without the cooties).

4 generations