Christmas

We began our Christmas celebration with some very sweet memories. Taffe and Grandma made several dozen cookies.
Cutting the dough and decorating with icing was a huge hit. Taffe asked "Mouth?" every time before he'd sample a little bit.

On Christmas Eve, the Blanchards came over. A little "Ring Around the Rosy"action here.

Christmas morning lasted from 8 AM until lunch time. We had a slow unveiling of the gifts since Taffe was enjoying all of his new things. He really liked handing out gifts and helping everyone open their presents. This is such a sweet age!

And Santa got it right this year! Taffe was so captivated by his new train table, he did not want to stop playing with it.

Such focus and intensity while playing!

It was a very Merry Christmas for all!

Taffe and Charlie did some check-ups with C's new doctor kit. A few "MINE!" comments here and there, but overall the generous spirit was there between the boys.

Funny Little Man

I remember learning in my psychology classes that a personality is defined by about age 2. There are some days that make me think, oh boy, I am going to have my hands full! But usually, I am delighted to know the funny little man that Taffe is becoming. Besides trains, he also loves being silly, laughing, dancing, drumming and wearing boots.
Taffe's latest phrases are so telling of our daily activities. These are a few of my favorites:

"Daddy, home!" "Flush!" "Mama, go, vroom" "Cookie! My cookie!"
"My toot" "Oh no, choo-choo!" "All aboard!" "Lucy, all done"

We're working on "Ho, ho, ho!" which we hope to say to this weekend!

Gingerbread

This weekend we had Samantha and Camryn over to decorate gingerbread houses. Note to all parents: Read the directions completely before involving your young children. The assembly was much more demanding and time-consuming than anticipated, so we just let the kids decorate gingerbread shapes. This proved to be entertaining enough with Samantha calling it painting and all of them eating way more candy than I thought possible!
Taffe needed to be right in the mix with the girls.

Another gingerbread treat... Aunt Kathy sent Taffe a gingerbread man cookie which he was psyched about. "Cookie!!!!" I may have helped him eat it, once he relinquished part of it over to me.

All done! He's got this crazy sweet tooth! I don't know where he gets that from! :)

Bye Santa!

Well, we got the cute Santa picture last year.... this year, we had screams. As soon as we were 15 feet from "Santa" there were incessant cries of "No Tanta!" Hmmm, he loves the inanimate version. Can you see the look of fear on Taffe's face?
However, once we said bye to Santa, Taffe was all smiles and blowing kisses. :)

Oh, and check out TJ's new shoes: he's obsessed with his black high-top Converse sneakers and insists on wearing them constantly.

Escape Artist

At our annual playgroup Christmas Party, Taffe was showing how Houdini-like he could be. He wanted no part of the group photo as you can see in the series of 3 pictures.

Attempting to hold him on...
Going...

Outta there!

But he did have a wonderful time other than the photo shoot. Taffe shared snacks with long-time love, McKenna. She actually feeds him as I think she wants to beef little TJ up a bit.

From his Secret Santa, Cardin, he got the best holdiay gift ever: a Santa Mr. Potato Head. There has been a long of time taking body parts on and off.

obsessed

Bet you can guess what Santa is bringing this little boy...

It's always something

After throwing tantrums at the post office, Taffe is being a good boy and taking a nice nap. But the other day, it was party time in the crib. Turns out little man was trying get his clothes off, and that was just too exciting!

A Special Christmas Delivery

We hosted Lauren's baby shower this weekend, and what fun we had! Lauren is due on Christmas day, so we were in full on holiday mode. Niki and Saylor stayed over which gave Taffe the chance to show me excatly how much he will like being a big brother.

Taffe to Saylor: "Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Don't worry, I'll take care of you." It's going to be a loving relationship, as long as Taffe can still have his way, and all of the toys.

JMU roomies! Any day now we'll welcome baby number 5 of the group!

Highlights of Turkey Weekend

Decorating cookies with the boys
Kissing Papa (which Taffe pronounces with a very cute French accent)

Train ride in Danbury

Holding hands with Cousins on the train ride

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

21

Yes, that's the little one who is 21 weeks along! Can you tell the gender? If so, let me know! And our not-so-little one is 21 months!

Can you get enough of this outfit? He loves it!

Go, Go, Go!

Saturday morning, we went to watch Christopher run a local race. Taffe was too cute cheering for the runners. I got him to say, "Go!!!" as they ran by, except to Daddy. When Christopher would run by, Taffe would say, "Dada!!! Dada!! Hi!" as he tried to catch him. Luckily it wasn't a super packed race, as Taffe was running onto the course every time we saw Christopher.
Way to go on another great race!

My Gardener

Taffe loves to be mama's little helper. Lucky for both of us, the yard work never seems to end, so we spend a lot of time pruning, weeding, planting, and lately raking.
Taffe definitely wants to help...and while I enjoy the company, I don't really enjoy it when he moves the leaves out from the pile I just raked. :)

New word of the week: mulch. Oh yes, he will be a gardener (and I will too hopefully!) if there is even a tiny bit of green thumb inherited from Grandpa Ernie.

Happy November!

Happy Halloween from your Favorite Train Conductor

Taffe has been celebrating Halloween non-stop since Wednesday. He may not be crazy about wearing a costume, or his conductor hat, but he does like to all the good times.

Here he is with our playgroup at the annual Halloween party.

Partying at the Vienna Halloween Parade. A light saber was a big hit.

Taffe painted his pumpkin and and insisted on lots of "boo" paint.

Charlie and Taffe on Halloween morning.

With Grandma and Grandpa

Our neighbor's house.... you should see it at night. We received well over 100 trick-or-treaters largely due to the spooky decor of our neighbors.

Checking out the "graveyard."

We only made it to 4 houses, as we were all very entertained by all the kids out on our street. Taffe loved seeing the children, especially since he got to enjoy his favorite, a lollipop.

My Little Hero

Besides looking really cute in his fireman's hat... Taffe was so brave today!
I took him in for his flu shot, and I was blown away. No reaction at all: no flinching, screaming, or crying. He just looked at his leg, pointed to it and said something, then waved and said "Bye!" to the nurse. So we celebrated with some ice cream. Little man is growing up!

Celebrating Daddy

It was a weekend full of celebrations for C's latest birthday. We had a date night and a family dinner with friends. We began with pancakes and presents. Taffe painted a orange and blue masterpiece, in honor of UVA and DHS.
Who doesn't like baking a birthday cake?

We made Christopher 2 deserts! Brownies and chocolate pudding pie which were enjoyed by the 3 of us and a few UVA friends who came over for dinner.

Happy Birthday Christopher! We love you!