Emmy and Mommy take on Barnes & Noble

I had the PLEASURE of taking Monday off because the live-in had the day off (we can no longer be accused of treating her unfairly!). Em and I had a girl's day at Barnes and Noble- treated ourselves to a snack in the cafe and then wrecked havoc on the train set. Best girls day everrrrrrr!!!

White Bean Chicken Chili

Yum.....thank you Paula Deen for your white bean chicken chili with almost a cup of butter (WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT CHILI HAD BUTTER IN IT?!). Naturally we had some cornbread dripping with butter on the side next to a cold Pumpkin ale. Finished it off with some of the just released Godiva chocolate "gems"......whoa.....feeling like a fat man in a little coat a bit.

Uh-oh! This was NOT on the bucket list!

Emily has found.....her voice. I don't mean her raspberry-blowing greetings to strangers, I don't mean her terradactyl scream at inopportune moments. No, yesterday Emily had her first full-fledged TEMPER TANTRUM! For some reason she finds the crate holding all of Taylor's goodies (i.e.: his smelly alternate collar, his highly dangerous prong collar, etc.) incredibly interesting. She insists on crawling around the house with his prong collar which means we are one delicate move away from her impaling herself. SO, yesterday, like usual, I took the collar away from her- said, "No ma'am" (because Southern charm has worked so well for me all these years) and tried to move her on to something else. Well......Em proceeded to throw herself dramatically on the floor and sob- perhaps she was channeling her best impression of Scarlett O'Hara to match my Southern admonition? Either way- I was horrified. I will try to get a good picture of this to go along with this description.

Emily the Sagittarius

Gratitude Jar = YUPS!

Our gratitude jar......(or fishbowl- too bad everything we own is in Grammy's basement, improvisation is key when you're living like a nomad).

Every day we'll add things we're grateful for....on Thanksgiving we'll go back and read them.

Andy says thank you, Pinterest! He is SUPER excited to get in touch with his feelings :)

Happy Halloween Monkey Style!

First we trick-or-treated at Heather and Wes'- THEY HAVE STAIRS THERE! Forget the candy! Emily spent her evening working it out! Then we went over to Meredith and Alex's for some amazing chili, playing with "big girls" Lilly and Cara, and kisses from Savannah :)

Watching Maryland.....Then Quickly Ignoring Maryland

Not a great game......what is with the Hlavka family teams?! At least we looked cute not watching the team! We had tickets for the game but between the snow and complete lack of interest in watching them get beat by Boston College we decided to check out the toy bin....

First Fire of Fall!

Wahoo! It was chilly outside so we hung out by the fire.

The Maryland game was on in the other room but we weren't missing too much....

Nature Hike

We took Emily out on a quick hike after the first snow of the season - IN OCTOBER! At the end of the hike Taylor decided it would be a good idea to jump into a sink hole of dirty water and decaying leaves- Emily thought this was hilarious and would have jumped in after him if she could have. Taylor, egged on by her approval, proceeded to find the largest branch he could find and charge us a-la the knights at Medieval Times- we came about thisclose to Mommy losing her knee caps but lucky for Em I am incredibly agile :)

Emily's News!

Emily just found out she's having a baby cousin---and the best news----IT'S A GIRL!!! Check out her face in the first picture....then, in the second picture, she rushed off to call her Aunt Gunk and wish her CONGRATULATIONS!! So many clothes to share....so much gossip to cover....Emily can't WAIT for March!

Playing with Dangerous Objects- Rocks and Uncle Tim

Sometimes we like to allow Emily to "experience" things for herself without feeling inhibited by normal parent-enforced restrictions....hence the pictures below....

SPOOKY Halloween Craft with Baby Feet

We managed to make a big mess (isn't that the point of doing crafts?) and confuse Emily completely with dipping her feet in a drippy puddle of white paint. The end product were some super spooky ghost feet---be warned---pictures are scary enough to render at least a PG-13 rating...view at your own discretion...

CIVICUS Reunion

Emily managed to convince us to let her stay up way part curfew to attend the Baltimore CIVICUS happy hour. She had a great time meeting Sue and other CIVICUS alumni, eating ridiculous amounts of bread, watching ESPN, and blowing raspberries upon being introduced to people.

Monkey at Baby Play-Date

Emily attended a baby play-date and was up to quite a few of her monkey antics. She mercilessly chased their tiny dog "Chai" around the house- thankfully for Chai her humongous, padded monkey costume slowed her down a bit. Though at one point it came close in a Chai v. Emily stare-down (see picture of Emily plotting at the corner of the cabinets)- Chai got away every time. Now- take this as a warning, Chai, once Emily is able to walk- there is no telling how this will end next time.

While other babies were content to play in the huge pile of toys laid out for them, Emily had other plans. She managed to man-handle and move a baby gate out of her way so she could go explore the upstairs by way of her favorite activity- climbing stairs (thanks Daddy for teaching her that trick). I was thinking that all the other babies had learned this from their own Olympics-in-training Daddys only to find out after the other babies started trying to climb up behind Emily that NOONE ELSE HAD TAUGHT THEIR CHILDREN THIS! Oops.... we took that as our cue to leave. I carried Emily out, in what she thought of as victory---throwing up her arms in a "touch-down"!