Getting Our Money's Worth

Abby the Wo'Pop musician


Abby the builder


Abby the shopper

Today we went to the Children's Museum. Abby seemed to really enjoy herself. So far she seems to value her sense of taste over most other senses and that's why I think we are going to get our money's worth out of those flu shots we got. Abby is so thrifty!

Sorry about the cell phone pictures. I have to find the little camera. It seems like too much of a pain to bring the big camera out to places like this but I can't seem to find the little one. New Year's resolution is to get organized, so it shouldn't be long before I find it!

Auntie Kelsey and Abby

I had to include this picture because it reminds me so much of my sister Kelsey for a few reasons. First because Kelsey has always been a die hard M's fan and this hat was given to us by Kelse, so there's that, but the biggest reason is that the expression on Abby's face is the exact expression I remember on Kelsey's face during basketball games when we were growing up. Neither Kelsey or I were very good basketball players. I disguised my lack of skill with fierce defense and a mean expression on my face, but Kelsey always had this expression on her face. Can you see it? It's a combo of "Who me?" and "I better run" (which is what she does now and is really good at)!

New Favorite Things...

I had to get this shot for all you Reading Rainbow lovers out there.


This is about 1/2 as excited as she was the first time.


Abby and I have some new favorite things to start off 2010. They are both Christmas presents and we love all of our Christmas presents, but these two are especially great.

Abby loves her Clap Your Hands book. The book is special because it has an Elmo finger puppet in the middle and Abby loves to watch the puppet read her the story. I wish I had a video of the first time I read it to her while using the puppet. She was thrilled. We have been watching a lot of Sesame Street the last week or so (Charlie and I both had the flu) so I think she now has a special bond with Elmo and she just recently learned to clap, so it is the perfect book for her right now.

I love my glamour gloves. I have always had dry hands, but all the hand washing and hand sanitizer that comes along with being a mom is killing me! I actually woke up at 2 a.m. the day before Christmas Eve and couldn't go back to sleep because my poor hands were cracked and painful... well I feel confident that that will not happen again now that I have these wonder gloves. They are made by Bliss spa and they are great. They really work!

Happy New Year!

After going to bed at 6:30 and letting her parents live it up for most of the night, this little party animal woke up for the big midnight countdown. When I brought her downstairs she was fully stunned for about 5 minutes... I wonder if she thinks we have a house full of party guests every night while she's asleep?


Abby's first New Year's kiss.


Happy New Year!


This is a babysafe toy, right? (I promise she only played with this for a second so I could get some festive shots)

We rounded out the decade in style, with out of town guests and a party! Our dear friends Roberta and Matt were visiting from London and spent the last couple nights with us, so to celebrate 2010 and their visit we had a party. It was very fun and I got to try out two new (and very easy) recipes: Barefoot Contessa's Bay Scallop Gratin (it's in the her green cookbook) and S'Mores (I'll try to get recipes for both onto the blog), but the S'Mores is something that I really hope you try! So easy and so good! My Mom made some marshmallows the other day (why else, because she was bored) and gave them to me, so I made a thick and buttery graham cracker crust, cut it into cookies, added a big homemade marshmallow and doused it in Dilettante chocolate sauce and viola! you have a delicious and super simple dessert (next time I may go the extra mile and get one of those torches to toast the marshmallows).

Abby & I love shopping

Abby has a new shopping cart and she will shop till she drops. All she wants to do is walk up and down the hallway with her little cart. It's adorable and exhausting.

Merry Christmas!

Ahhh... Christmas morning! The excitement, the chaos, the recycling... it's all over and now we are enjoying a napping baby and the sunny day.


Meme arrives with her famous cinnamon rolls and a gift for Sammy. Thank you! Thank you!


Peter and Eli getting ready to open Eli's first present. A garbage truck! Oh boy! Eli's favorite!


Meme and Abby, cuddling and opening presents... how lucky is Abby?!


Eli cannot get enough of his new garbage truck!


"Auntie" Rachel and Abby, the green-eyed girls.


OMG! Abby loves the grocery cart from Peter and Rachel.


Eli helps Abby check it out!


Abby has to rest after all that excitement.


Eli is anxious to get his new truck home.


Abby, Mommy's little shopper.

Christmas Eve...

Yay! Christmas Eve is finally here! I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas???


Hurry! Let's go to church so we can come home and open our Christmas Eve present!!


Oh boy! Abby's first present!


Jammies!! Wow! What a surprise!

Some people would probably say we're lucky, we get to have a leisurely Christmas Eve doing whatever we want, but when I was a kid, Christmas Eve was a busy, exciting day that necessitated a nap in the afternoon just to ensure that you would be able to stay up late for the party! I miss that. Now it's feels like any other Thursday night.

In an effort to generate some Christmas Eve excitement, Abby and I got dressed up and went to church. I'd like to say it filled me with a feeling of Christmas cheer and good will, but honestly, I mostly felt jealous of all the families who were there with Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles, all dressed up and excited to head out to a family party afterwards. Well, enough of my pity party, I got to come home to a quiet, cozy house and a husband who had not only cleaned up, but had a fire going and a bottle of sparkling wine chilling in the freezer. Not the Christmas Eve of my memories, but certainly not a bad one and Abby got to open her first present too. So although I was longing for a different Christmas Eve, I think I ended up with something pretty close to perfect.