Thursday, December 31, 2009

Looking Back....

December, 2008:
Late summer, early autumn 065
Such a little tiny bit of hair (that we were so excited about!), baby cheeks and diapers in the background that are now destined for a different little bum.

november, misc, december 092
A jacket, too big then, and too small now


Late summer, early autumn 100
The thumb in the mouth has remained constant, though :)


And then, this sweet girl, just this morning.... grown up so much already:
watching the snow
Watching the magic of falling snow

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Glimpses of Christmas

I'll share more pictures of the days leading up to Christmas soon.... The baby landed me on complete bed rest the last two weeks and I didn't have an easy way of getting pics onto Pete's laptop to post. But.... I'm nearly full term now and off bed rest, so there are a lot of catch up posts to do!

We had a wonderful Christmas---- it was very much a magical time for Aurora.

picnikfile_n33Se_


A new use for a Sled

Mamas and Daughters

More pics to be found here

Friday, December 11, 2009

Advent Day Nine

Cranberry and Popcorn Garland!




A note about the lately sparse Advent posting: Santa really needs to bring some more memory for this old computer!!!! The computer has been acting up and so slow lately that I've dreaded getting on to post... because it seems that everything just takes so, so long right now. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed soon. I've also decided that really only the Advent activities and outings are post worthy, so I've left out the days that Aurora has just found a small suprise in her Advent cone... Christmas window clings, lip balm, her scarf etc....

So, anyway, our Garland: took way longer than I expected! I need to make more still for the rest of the tree. It's also much more beautiful on the tree than I had expected, so I'm thinking this is something that will become a tradition for us. I was surprised at how well Aurora did with the needle... she had a few pokes, but then quickly learned herself how to hold it more carefully and take her time. She did many, many cranberries all by herself!

Advent Catch Up

Snowflakes and St Nicholas Day!!



The snowflakes went better thank I had expected. Aurora's really into cutting with scissors right now, so I knew she'd enjoy it, but wasn't sure how much she'd actually be able to do. I had a few pieces of already folded paper, with a few preliminary cuts in them, and her scissors waiting for her in her Advent Cone for the day. She did really well.... as you can see from the flurry of snowflakes adorning our door!

St. Nicholas Day was very excitedly celebrated here for the first time last weekend. I used this very simple story to introduce him to Aurora and also painted a little peg person to look like St. Nicholas (which, I'm finding I never took a picture of!) to find the morning in her Advent cone the morning of St. Nicholas Eve. That evening, she set out her shoe with some carrots for St. Nick's horse and a note for St. Nicholas. She was very set in her mind that she needed to place her shoe at the kitchen door, and then St. Nicholas would move it to outside her bedroom door when he came. The note details these instructions for the good Saint. She also drew a picture of a fishing pole for him ;)
The next morning she found that St. Nicholas had come and left her a beautiful note on rainbow paper, a small bag of chocolate coins and a special ornament for the tree. She thought the coins were quarters for the laundry and was shocked (then delighted) when I showed her they were actually chocolate. Her special ornament for this year were ballet slippers to commemorate her first trip to the ballet.

Friday, December 4, 2009

We interrupt Advent.....

to bring you some breaking news:

He's a published author!!


(ahem, available now at Amazon)

Yesterday, we got a couple advanced copies of the book Pete's been working on with a Professor at Cornell for quite some time now. So very, very exciting!!!

We Are So Proud of You, Pete!!!!!!

Advent, Day Three

Downtown Tree Lighting!



Lots of fun and a very magical moment for Aurora when finally lit the tree.... I wasn't able to capture it with the camera, but her expression was priceless.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Advent, Day Two

Hot Chocolate and Christmas Stories before bed!


This equals one happy girl. Extra fancy hot chocolate with crushed candy canes and whipped cream and her first time hearing The Polar Express. Aurora was saying something about trains in her sleep last night... I think the book had quite an impact on her!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Advent, Day One

Planting Paperwhites!!


Aurora was thrilled to take down the first cone and find the bulbs inside... she loves to garden. Hopefully, we'll have some blooms for Christmas....

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving and the Ballet

Just a quick recap of Thanksgiving.... we had the great pleasure of celebrating with our friends the Shorters, who live in our building. Maddie and Aurora are such, such good friends (and we like Clay, Jessica and Ian, too!).... so, of course, it was an awesome time. We had lots of delicious foods, wonderful pie and great company. After dinner, the girls played and Pete and I tried our hand at playing the Nintendo Wii for the first time.... it was a lot of fun! (kinda makes me wish we had a TV). Oh, and Aurora actuallly ate the Turkey this year!!! Success!
Then on Sunday we were off to the Ballet. The New England Ballet does this wonderful preformance for Littles called the Sugar Plum Party. It was a shortened preformance of The Nutcracker, (minus the scary rat army, but still with all the beautifully costumed dancers), a picture with a ballerina, a craft and refreshments. I very highly reccomend it for next year for anybody local. It was really, really well done. The ballerinas even came down to help the children with their craft project.


Aurora outside the theatre with the crown she made.