snow snow and more snow

we are in the middle of a snow storm, yes indeed. they seem to be coming with some frequency these days. happily, this storm is mostly snow, not freezing rain.

things have been just beyond busy at this end, which is why i haven't been posting much. between holiday preparations and scrambling to get some house projects done on short notice, we've been out straight. no time to wrap prezzies; no time to bake cookies. wah! i am hoping to fit some of that in this weekend. along with some sledding, or snow-shoeing. mmmmmm....

aubrey has her 18 month check-up today. i think she's getting a few shots, so i expect she will be cranky this evening. i can't believe my little boopers is 18 months old! her vocabulary is growing, and she is becoming a very good mimic. and a dare devil...she is sporting a few bumps and bruises as a result of stunts gone awry. : )

i am hoping to post some picture soon...and take some new ones, since we STILL haven't gotten christmas cards made up/sent out and i need some shots of aubrey playing in the snow. i'll definitely update on aubrey's 18-month stats later, though.

aubrey

quick post to report that, on december 10, 2008, for the first time, aubrey clearly and intelligently said her own name. : )

(of course, it sounds a little more like Aub-yeey or, Aub-eey, but she does make an attempt to say the "r". it's so cute.)

we're getting some snow today...and a mix of other stuff too, unfortunately. and pete is headed up north this afternoon for an overnight trip (tomorrow he is doing testing up in da middle of nowhere nh) so hopefully aubrey, cabot and i will brave the storm on our own. (i just hope we don't lose the power....)

yellow

hello! we're back from nj, where we ate lots of turkey, pie, and other goodies. aubrey did well on both the ride down and the ride back (the ride back was very loooooong on account of wretched driving conditions). she also was an angel about bedtime and slept through the nite, every nite! hooray! she wasn't much for napping, however. on thanksgiving day, there was so much excitement (mostly involving a mini yorkie who came to grandma and grandpa's for the day and whith whom aubrey was smitten) that she didn't take a nap at all. this resulted in a mega meltdown around 5:00 pm, so we stuck her in the bathtub to relax, gave her a light dinner and she was asleep on my shoulder by 6:30 and went to bed without having her evening sippy cup of milk. and then she slept until 7:30! ah. so nice.

the day after thanksgiving we all took a stroll up to town to check out some local toy shops and have a bite to eat for lunch. then we headed over to the little petting zoo that was set up in a little park in front of the town municipal building. aubrey LOVED seeing and feeding all of the (incredibly fat) farm animals. i found it so amusing...seeing all of these farm animals tethered up in a parking lot in such an urban setting. poor things. at least they seemed to enjoy all of the food that was waived infront of their eager faces by willing little hands. hmmm.

so...aubrey is starting to learn colors! she has successfully mastered yellow, or, as she says it, "yay-yoh." soooooo cute! i'm pretty sure she can also distinguish red, blue and green, but she doesn't verbally indicate which color is which unless prompted. we're getting there!

where did november go?!?!?

i can't BELIEVE tomorrow is thanksgiving! gadzooks! the past few weeks have flown by!

we are making the trek down to nj tonite to spend the holiday with grandma and grandpa. although it will be nice to spend time with family and it yummy food, i am preparing myself for bedtime struggles with miss a, and not getting restful sleep. not looking forward to it, especially since for the last few days aubrey has been sick and waking up in the middle of the night. (it takes me FOREVER to relax and fall back asleep after a midnight waking. gar!) luckily, she seems to be feeling much better, so that will make things more pleasant for everyone.

aside from several recent short (but highly unpleasant) bouts of illness, boopers is doing very well. she has started to say "yah" when she answers a question in the affirmative. however, she is not necessarily a reliable source of information. (example: mummy asks aubrey, aubrey, do you have poopies in your diadee? aubrey answers: yah. mummy checks diadee. no poopies.)

she is really, really cute. i want to bottle up and save her cuteness.

apple hat for miss a

these pictures are a little old, but i thought i'd share them anyway because they show off miss a in her cute little "apple" hat, which is really more tomatoe-ish, but apple seems much more fitting for the season. posting these is a great motivator for me to cast on for another hat for aubrey...this is the only hat that fits her right now (she has a gi-normous noggin'...95th percentile, in fact) and the cold weather is rapidly approaching.

i have been so busy with the new job, pete travelling, and so forth that i haven't had much time to write. things are good, though. aubrey is continuing to expand her vocabulary...her latest challenge is learning to say all of her classmate's names. (she says "ah-eeey" for aggie; "yeeeed" for reed; "bom" for tom; and "jayjay" for a.j. everyone else is a bit hard to discern at the moment, but she's getting there!)

i am FINALLY back in a running routine (i run from my office to pete's, about 3.3 miles, 3 times a week) which is great. before i got pregnant and gave birth to boopers i was in excellent shape. since then...well...it's been a struggle to find the time to get back into it regularly. for the moment i seem to have found a nice groove and i am loving it. running, for me, is a really good stress buster, and boy do i need some stress relief these days!

also, i have been knitting like a madwoman, since everyone keeps having babies. (i made miss a the cutest little socks the other day...socks and mittens are my new favorite little people project.)

i will try to be a bit more regular about posting. promise!

finally...the candidate i voted for WON the presidential race!

in every presidential election i have casted a ballot in during my adult life, my candidate of choice has been the loser. thus, i am so excitedrelievedproudwonderous about last night's election results. watching the 100,000 some odd people erupt in cheers when obama was announced the winner brought tears to my eyes.

i am very tired today, but it's a good kind of tired. ah.

halloween pics

we had a fabulous halloween! there was a halloween parade at daycare. my friend sent us these great pictures, so i thought i'd share them. (her little gal is the doctor...isn't she cute?) here's the crew, rolling out in their get up. see aubrey peeking around the corner?

here's our sweet little chicken! i'm so glad she agreed to wear her costume! it turns out that she wore it ALL DAY and didn't want to take it off! (we even wore the hat to the grocery store over the weekend.) i'm having trouble formatting these pictures, so the one below is all three of us (pete dressed up like wolf man...can you tell?) and the last picture is all of aubrey's little friends lined up.