Christmas 2010

Christmas has come and gone. This week is suppose to be one of vacation and rest but somehow we always over-schedule it! So to re-cap our Christmas 2010 what better way than in pictures!

Christmas Eve morning started with brunch to celebrate Nick, our neighbor's 21st birthday!


Christmas Eve mass was spent at the Baltimore Basilica where your father and I were chosen to bring up the gifts!



Christmas Eve dinner started off with some pretty serious praying and ending with some light piano playing and Skyping with cousin Thisbe and family!

Christmas morning was everything to be expected with you: excited squealing, arm waving, dancing, clapping and your overall joy was contagious.





We ate the traditional Marcot Christmas breakfast, minus VJs famous sticky buns... maybe next year.



On the 27th, we celebrated Nonni's retirement. Aunt Katie and Uncle Kevin surprised us with a limo to take all of us to Old Ebbitt Grill in Washington DC. Delicious! To top off our evening, we visited the national Christmas tree in front of the White House.





Today, Decemeber 30th, your father and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with no cards or gifts or fancy dinners (in fact we ate left overs!). We did however visit Gettysburg military national park with Nonni and Nonna and Uncle Bill. Fun times, even when everyone fell asleep on the way home!

On Your Own

Oh Santa.
Is it wrong of me to want a picture with you and Santa? Your first experience with Santa this holiday season was at our church. I was not there since I was working that Saturday. However Becca and Daddy took you. Apparently you were excitedly pointing and waving at Santa but then when it was time to get close, you had a melt down and you were only being held standing next to Santa. You never even had to touch him!



Nothing could console you, except the candy cane they give you when you leave.



I was somewhat annoyed that I was not included in this trip to see Santa. However, I got my chance to take you to the mall on Friday with a friend to see Santa. I prepared you for the visit with books and discussions and pictures and a TV show that all focused on how fun Santa is. Again you were excited to go and see Santa but as soon as we turned the corner and he was sitting there is his big green chair, you freaked out. Screaming fit. Oh well, take the picture I told them. I guess she is not ready for Santa this year.

We were paying and getting out things together. You intensely watched another little girl around 4 years old jollily skip onto Santa's lap and chat it up. Santa was ho ho hoing an the little girl was smiling, you were watching this exchange. The little girl finished and Santa was alone waiting for his next visitor when all of a sudden I looked down and you weren't next to me. In a moment of panic I started to spin around looking for where your little legs took you. I saw you at the last place I thought you would ever go... Santa. On your own you had decided to give him another go around. The photographer was gracious enough to snap another picture and swap it out. Now I know you aren't sitting on his lap and not even close to smiling but you went to him all by yourself.



Once the picture was taken everyone cheered including the photographer and Santa and even some families waiting in line. You came running up to me with your arms outstretched with an enormous grin on your face. It was obvious that you were proud of yourself and this very big accomplishment.

I am again reminded of your fierce independence and how I can only give you some coping tools but when and how you will live and experience is all up to you. I am so proud that you took a chance and went to meet Santa all on your own.

Holiday Fever

We had planned a busy Friday this past week. However, that all changed when you woke up with a fever. A 103.5 fever . Yeah a serious fever. You refused to take any medicine or drink or even eat a popsicle! We cancelled all our plans. We didn't get to to go to Nonni's Christmas / retirement party or go out to dinner for Aunt Clare's birthday. You didn't get to visit my school and see the teachers who ask about you all the time. Instead we spent the day curled up together, snuggling with your blanket as we coaxed your fever down. I had to work Saturday and you got up every hour or two Friday night into Saturday. I was exhausted but finally on Saturday morning you woke up with a slight fever that vanished by the afternoon.

It physically hurt me to see you in pain. Your cry pierced my soul during the night. Something I haven't experienced since you were small and helpless. I was not very happy with this fever but how I cherished the time snuggling with you. You have not let me hold you while you sleep since you were a newborn. Your independence has always been welcomed and fostered but just for 24 hrs it was nice to have a snuggle bug. You reminded me no matter how big you get, you will always be my baby.

Falling into December

December is upon us and in full force. Christmas is fast approaching and I have done nothing. No decorating, no tree, no present buying or wrapping, no giving or helping the less fortunate. This lack of holiday festiveness does not appear to bother you. Although when Ms. Patti put up her Christmas tree on Monday, you became so thrilled and excited you began to jump and dance around. You love to point out Santa Claus in pictures or decorations and with quite a good amount of gusto you say "ho ho ho!" I am not sure how much you understand about what is going to happen on December 25.

This weekend was busy including helping Grandpa and Grandma pick up leaves in their yard. Of course jumping (or being thrown) into a giant pile leaves is icing on the cake after an afternoon of work. Your energy and spirit definitely keep us going sometimes.

Goodbye November!

Oh Nora! November 2010 can go down in our family history as a complete waste of time. Actually, you used the 30 days to somehow grow even more brilliant than you already are. Now you count to 10 proficiently and can answer questions such as "what number comes after 6?" or "what number comes before 4?" Besides those feats of mathematical wizardry, you now say most of the alphabet. You are excellent A through H and then things get fuzzy I through T but your back on track by the end for U through Z. You love love love to sing and can remember key words in songs and just sing them over and over, pretty much in tune. Pop Goes the Weasel and The Wheels on the Bus are absolute favorites.

In November, you and your father were fine. I was on death's door step. The doctor said it was just a simple viral infection. I thought it was black plague. After the illness faded around the middle of the month, I was slammed with exhaustion. I self diagnosed myself with secondary mono since I already had mono 10 years ago during my first semester at college. The doctor said one cannot get mono again. Whatever. I was so tired all the time. I slept 12-15 hrs when possible. At my desk at work I took naps. I think I slept through some of my hour drives home. I was too exhausted and recovering from the plague of November 2010 to do anything but be a blob. Looking back, it was rather glorious. Being a blob. You would toddle around my supine body while coloring over everything including my work laptop (oops) and the red ottoman. You put stickers all over the place. I still leave the house finding stickers on the bottom of my shoe. I found an entire water park set up in the dog bowl the other night. Fun times.

Anyway, let's catch up with a month in pictures:

You picked out your very own potty at the store. It is Elmo themed. Once we brought it home and took it out of the box, you sat on it for awhile until you stood up, squatted next to the Elmo potty and pooped on the dining room rug. Sigh.


We danced in the living room. Ok, you and Becca did most of the dancing.



You played with James.


We made Thanksgiving day peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss center in your "Everyone is Thankful for Me" shirt. You mainly liked to dip your fingers in the sugar and lick.



You ate Thanksgiving dinner with almost everyone at the table and remembered to say your prayers of thanksgiving:





Daddy built towers taller than you!


We ate delicious 'Hot Chocolate' flavored Italian Ice from a new local joint.


We froze our butts off at the annual Christmas lighted parade.


We went to the Kennedy Krieger Festival of Trees with Ashley where you watched the toy trains, rode a toy train, a carousel and your very first LIVE pony!!!





We stuffed ourselves with french fries until all that was left was ketchup on our noses.


Just so you remember that I did not make up the plague of November 2010. Here is one of my many naps by the fire with you running wild.