It's a Bird, It's Plane...

It's a Space Shuttle! We took Taffe to the Air and Space Museum in Dulles, and let's just say there were a lot of woahs. Taffe was psyched to run and look at all the planes, space crafts, and well, I just called everything else a rocket ship!
Taffe even tried on an astronauts glove and boots. My boot lover just LOVED the boots and was really into walking around and taking few steps for mankind.

Future astronaut? Maybe!

Snowed In, and Out!

From time to time, I really miss Arlington. The energy of the city and the walkability is unreal. But days like yesterday make me really appreciate our wonderful town of Vienna. Taffe was fascinated with all of the big kids sledding and building forts right in our cul-de-sac. You could see on his face the look of , "How do I get to do that too?" And while we did lose power for 24 hours, we are so lucky to live a few miles from our best friends who took us in, as always.
We were one of the thousands of families waiting for a loved one to get home in the disastrous rush hour snow on Wednesday night. It took Christopher 3 hours to drive 3.5 miles. Taffe and I were very anxious and did a million activities to keep us occupied. Taffe really had no idea what was going on, so he enjoyed his painting. He was so into it, and manipulated the brushes is so many ways. My favorite part though was when he laid the brushes down on his paper and said,"Shhhh...Night, night brush!"

Back home safe and sound (with power!).... maybe that was enough snow for the season!

oh baby!

I wasn't kidding when I said Taffe loves his new baby. Last night he put the baby to bed, (after feeding him, of course) and he insisted that Baby "put socks on!" This morning he toddled downstairs with his baby and the promptly fed him again, before running off to play trains.Fingers crossed this love of Baby carries on for, oh a year or so! :)

Choo, choo! Taffe is 2!

There he is! The birthday boy showing how fun it is to be 2!
We decided to downsize the bash this year and have family and a few close friends. Here are the cousins hamming it up.

Taffe blowing out his candles.... very gently! He was very into his cake, and pleased he had 2 slices since, well, he's 2!

One of Taffe's favorite new gifts: a baby doll. He is so sweet to watch playing with his baby. First a pacifier, then juice, and then milk. Looks like if Taffe is in charge of our new baby, he may be a little overfed!

Happy Birthday to our sweet & wonderfully entertaining boy! We can't wait to see what you teach us this year!

Everything is Better with a Lollipop

The only way we even got him into the shop was with a lollipop.
Note that first he had a purple lolly, and now a yellow one.

Not the best cut, but needed to be done.

Bribery: Simple, and it works.

Almost Two!

Our little man turns two this weekend, so we had his first celebration up in CT with his McGarrigal family.
I was so impressed with Taffe. We sang "Happy Birthday" and I told him to blow on his candles, and he did... perfectly! Then he devoured his cupcake.

Uncle Kevin's birthday is the day before Taffe's, so we had a double celebration.

Taffe trying to kiss cousin Gavin.

And why not? It was his birthday, so a lollipop was probably the 3rd treat he had that day!

Christopher and I also managed to sneak away to NYC for a night in honor of our 3rd anniversary. We went to a show, dinner, and tea! And of course we watched the JETS when we got back to Nana and Papa's house.

"oh yellow choo-choo!"

We had a rough weekend with Taffe being sick. When he wasn't actually in the midst of an episode, he was quite delightful. Maybe a bit more opinionated, but that could just be acting "2."

It was pretty endearing to hear him say "Yuck, no mouth" after getting sick. A whole new experience for all of us to hear him express how he was feeling.

In order to avoid spreading our germs, we spent the days at home and doing every indoor activity possible. Taffe's new favorite? Play dough. He loves for us to make trains and then to rip them apart. With his language growth, he gets a kick out of asking us to make a "pink circle" or a "green O."

Maybe I am not loving every moment of his new assertion of independence (like when trying to dress him in something that doesn't have a train on it) but I am fascinated by the new phrases he creates and games we can play together. Being (almost!) 2 is pretty great!

A McGarrigal Family New Years Eve

With this being an "off" year from heading up north, we invited the McGarrigal family down for New Years. It was our first time hosting all 10 of us, and the first time the boys had been to our new home.
Before the chaos began, Taffe showed Papa his favorite park.

Taffe was thrilled to have Daddy home from work again!

Dinner occurred in shifts... the little guys were teaching Taffe had to be a good eater.

Christopher showing off his newest JETS gear.

The mornings seemed to be the favorite together time of the boys. Dylan just couldn't wait for Taffe to get up each day.

Rocking out in T's new boat.

Our NYE was also a big reunion with the Ricciardiello family. Together, there were 22 of us!

The prettiest present: Maggie.

A glimpse of the chaos with 9 children running amuck.

Singing "Happy New Years to Us!" only to be topped by the "12 Days of Christmas."

Blowers and horns are fun for all.

After our NYE, celebration, we hosted a New Year's Day brunch for the 2 families. Success! We even snapped a picture all together!

Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!