playgroup last week

Last week Emilia hosted our first playgroup meeting of 2009. We had about 8 babies and mamas over so it was a great turnout, especially considering all the late nappers we have in our group. I'm woefully behind in my postings, but here are some pics from playgroup...

the hostess with the most-ess...

Emilia's sweet friend Kate, offering a cookie.

Emilia's buddy Kyrie from both playgroup and the 'hood.

Kate and Aston - true love. Kate must have given him about a million hugs when he came in. So sweet!

Maisie - Emilia's "oldest" friend born 18 hours before Emi. She LOVED the cookies!

lessons learned from mama mama

Since she has now left - Emilia would now like to share the top ten things she has learned during her visit with Mama Mama.

10. In order to get vomit out of your hair, lather, rinse, and repeat at least twice.

9. Having a stomach virus is no fun... make sure to share it with your grandma.

8. Patience is a much needed virtue in order to get a good pic with Santa at the mall (we had to go 3 times in total).

7. You can never have too many Christmas outfits...

6. Or hand made items (2 sweaters, 1 vest, a dress on the way, and a new quilt for her crib, and a kitty cat).

5. It's "Baa baa black sheep.. and the little girl lives down the lane" NOT "black black black sheep... and the little girl who lives down the drain!" :)

4. Fabulous curtains can be made for virtually any room in the house in an afternoon (after a quick trip to Mary Jo's).

3. Sopa de quinoa is delicioso (too bad my mama won't make it for me. Thank goodness Mama Mama left a gallon of it in the freezer!)

2. It's never too early for a Manhattan (it's after 5 somewhere!)

1. Nothing says "spoiled" like 3 months with Mama Mama.

We miss you terribly - Summer can't get here soon enough...

I've been having a problem recently trying to download video into the blog. Let me know if this works...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaU5lLPd2IA

back on the grid

Due to a variety of factors... Emilia being sick, Emilia having a reaction to prednisone, Emilia then having a reaction to Omnicef, and general laziness/lack of time, I haven't been doing a very good job of updating the blog recently. In the effort to start 2009 on a right note, we're back! Now on to some pictures from Christmas 2008!

Rocking her Italian fashions courtesy of Nana on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day - opening the present from her Tias... She could already tell what it was - guess she's kind of excited!

Papa - get moving on putting this together!

Helping her Papa - good thing we took two cars to D.C.!

The obsession with the spice rack at Grandpa's house continues.

Last year's Christmas picture at Grandpa's house.

This year's picture at Grandpa's house - note to self - wear hair differently next Christmas Day. Note to Marcus - wear different pants on Christmas Day! :)

denise makes a "hajj" to mecca

"Mecca" a.k.a. FedEx Field

The Muslims may have Mecca, the Catholics have Jersualem, I have FedEx field, home of my beloved Redskins.

I grew up watching the Redskins in their era of greatness (it didn't last very long, I know). I used to watch the games with my Papapa every Sunday and we would swap statistics and yell at the TV screen all of us huddled in his bedroom as we rooted for every play by Joe Theismann, John Riggins, the Hogs et al.

I've had a couple of chances to go to the games, but it's never worked out for a variety of reasons. Whenever I've tried to get tickets on my own it's been impossible to do so (they are the hardest tickets to get in the NFL).

So imagine my surprise when Marcus managed to get us tickets to the Redskins-Eagles game on 12.21.08. Braving the cold (and someone battling a stomach bug) we went. It was cold as hell but all bundled up it was awesome and totally worth it. Thankfully they won, even if once again they didn't make it to the playoffs. Oh well, there's always next season...

The band playing nothing else but "Hail to the Redskins!"

Guess who had a bottle of Kaopectate in their pocket and who was super excited to eat a hot dog! :)

we're back! and holiday party pics

We are finally back home after spending a great 10 days in NoVa with the family. We had a great time and there are tons of pics to share but it's going to take a little time to sort through all of them. Emilia of course made out like a bandit and got tons of gifts - a wagon, some pieces of furniture, and a huge kitchen set just to name a few. We had a great stay at Nana and Richard's but of course we're glad to be home especially since Emilia is very sick now. She's had a cough pretty much since we arrived in NoVa and today on our way back in to town we swung by Dr. Walker's office because she was really wheezing quite a bit and just hadn't kicked this cough. They took her temperature, listened to her lungs, and even checked her oxygen levels. She was running a temp of 101.8 when we arrived and her O2 level was 93. Dr. Walker thinks she has bronchitis which may be on its way to becoming pneumonia. We won't know for sure until she has a chest x-ray done on Friday. In the meantime she's on a steroid to help open up her lungs and an antibiotic for the bronchitis, plus her singulair. Poor boo slept almost the entire drive down here and went to bed at 7 tonight.

In cheerier news the first pics I have to post are from Emilia's class holiday party on 12.19.08. They decorated and ate some cookies and that was it. We got wonderful Christmas presents from our babes - will have to take a pic of those - including an ornament, some "reindeer food" and a hand and foot painted trivet. As you can see from the pics someone was far more interested in playing with their chair and eating their cookie than socializing with the other kids.

lady pukesalot and poopalooza part 2

After what can only be described as an "explosive" afternoon yesterday, we thought Emilia was heading in to the clear. This morning she actually had a slice of whole wheat toast with a little butter and drank a little milk, though we were still heavy into the Pedialyte since we still had half a bottle left. She was pretty perky this morning and when we came home for lunch she ate a couple bites of potatoes and a spoonful of green bean puree. We came upstairs for some playtime when she threw up and had yet another outfit-changing diaper. Yuck. So we're back to square one and I'm off to Target to load up on diapers and Pedialyte. We have determined though, a bit of "good" news. Emilia's buddy Kyrie is also sick with essentially the same thing - more vomit though for her. Hopefully both girls will be on the mend a.s.a.p. because I'm sure we're all ready for less laundry!!!!