Wednesday, December 30, 2009

49 Weeks Old, Belated

49 weeks old and cute as a button (whatever that means)!

Hating life because she's wearing a hat! The horror! THE HORROR!
She quickly got over it and started playing with her rocking/bouncing horse.

And then squeezed her butt into a shoe box. Yes, our baby is part cat.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

More Christmas

Here's the outfit that Tom's friends Alex and Judith sent Stasa for Christmas. She's super chic.


We're getting a little worried that she might not be the most gentle baby caretaker.


Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Josh came to visit and brought a rocking/bouncing horse for Christmas. Stasa LOVES it and has already figured out how to rock on her own and how to get down all by herself. GENIUS baby.

We brought out the old swing for fun since the weight limit is 30 pounds. She was having a blast swinging indoors.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Santa paid us a visit last night.

He even remembered to bring kitty some presents.


Before we opened presents, we had a little coffee and Stasa had some milk.

Then it was PRESENT TIME! The bag of socks was one of her favorite presents.

And she stole Daddy's beef jerky...

...ate some of her blocks...

...played in her box of bows...


...and attacked her lion. All in all, a perfect holiday. We hope you had a great Christmas, too!


Thursday, December 24, 2009

The Guest Room

Stasa and I had a fun time in one of the guest rooms the other night. She crawled all over the bed, played a little guitar and found the light switch on the bedside table lamp.








On, off, on, off

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy (belated) name day!

Yesterday was Stasa's name day and we missed it! Here's some information taken from Wikipedia:

In Greece and Cyprus, a name day (Greek: εορτή, eortē, or γιορτή, yiortí, "feast") is celebrated in a similar way to a birthday.[2]

According to the Orthodox Church, every day of the year is dedicated to the memory of at least one (usually more than one) saint or martyr. If someone is named after a saint, then there is a big celebration on his or her name day. In Greece and Cyprus many names derive from long pagan tradition, and there may not be a Christian saint by the same name. In such a case the person is said "not to have" a name day, or they may choose to celebrate on All Saints' Day. The vast majority of name days are on the same date every year; the few exceptions are names directly or indirectly associated with Easter, and are floating. This facilitates social interaction, as all Greek language calendars include detailed name day lists. Some name days coincide with major Christian feasts, for example people whose names are Chrēstos or Christine have their name day on Christmas, people named after St. Basil have their name day on New Year's Day, Anastásios andAnastasía on Easter Sunday, María and Mários on the Dormition or on the Presentation, etc.

The traditional format of a name day celebration is an open house: no specific invitations are extended and all well-wishers are welcomed. This is not uniformly observed: a family or person may choose to celebrate with invited guests only, at home, at a restaurant, a bar or a club, or not celebrate at all (e.g. following a recent bereavement). Name day celebrations are similar to birthdays, except for expected differences (e.g. there is no cake with candles on a name day). Children celebrate their birthdays and name days equally festively; as the person grows up the emphasis shifts decisively to the name day and birthdays become lower-key, family affairs.

Entertainment provided by the celebrating host may include formal or informal meals, drinks, desserts, music, dancing, etc. It is the person being celebrated that arranges the party and serves the guests, instead of the guests fussing over the celebrant. It is poor form for a guest to arrive at such a celebration "empty-handed", although the gift offered may be something as financially trivial as a card or a few flowers. Money gifts are also considered poor form, except if the celebrant is a child or teenager and the gift is offered by an adult relative or a godparent. It is poor form to celebrate birthdays and name days in too grand a fashion if the two days are close to each other. In such cases the celebrations are best merged. It is also common to shift a name day celebration to the following Friday or Saturday evening if a dinner party is planned.

It's been a busy week






Monday, December 21, 2009

Yum


Ready for Santa and the "Blizzard"


Stasa's first ornament is hung on the tree. I know you love my hand embroidery, don't lie.
Stasa's first Christmas tree is up and decorated.


And the stockings are hung by the stairs with care...yes, Tom's stocking is THAT big.

Check out our front yard and cul de sac from the "blizzard" on Saturday. I measured 21" on our deck around 6:00 on Saturday night. I think we ended up with at least 2 feet of snow. The roads are still pretty dicey so I'm probably going to work from home this week.

Here's our neighbor's back yard on Sunday morning.

48 weeks old

Aunt Peggy and Uncle Pat got Stasa a baby doll for Christmas and Aunt Peggy knit her a hat to match Stasa's sweater and hat (to be pictured later). Taking care of a baby is hard and tiring work.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Driving Miss Lu

We went to Audrey's first birthday party today and had a blast. Stasa and Lu especially loved Audrey's wagon. See for yourself.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

47 Weeks Old



Happy 47 weeks, Stasa! I decided to give her a fauxhawk for the occassion. She was a big fan and a ham.


Daddy makes the best jungle gym.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Happy early holidays!

Stasa and I traveled out to the Eastern Shore last weekend for a holiday photo shoot and playdate at Emily and Topher's house. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took.

Happy Holidays!