Eliza Wren is ONE

Our little brown songbird, Eliza Wren turned one today - November 30th!  This year has flown by and our sweet babe is stepping into toddler-hood with all her pulling up and fast crawling.  Being on the move is one of her biggest characteristics right now, along with communicating through sign language "more", "all done", and waving for hello, goodbye, and goodnight.  She loves saying "Mama" all day long and this week started saying "baaa" for ball. :)  She has 6 teeth, and light blond hair - a far cry from her dark crop of hair and toothless grin  nearly a year ago!

Oh how we love you, and are so thankful for you, sweet Eliza Wren!  Happy day, wee birdie!

 We started celebrating the day before with gifts from Granna and Grandaddy after naptime

 two new balls!

Saturday morning family breakfast party - carrot cake muffins!

peaking out

One of Eliza Wren's favorite activities is standing by the back door and looking outside.  Meredith loves to join her - sister bonding.

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!!

Wren's Sunday best

Eliza Wren wore her sweet, handmade sweater from Carol today for church. 

 Just a few days before her 1st birthday! :)

Catching up on November (round two)

Last weekend we had a visit from Jonny, Bria, Lila and Ellie!  So fun to have them in Philly and to be able to spend Saturday together.  We met up at IKEA - a favorite spot of both our families. :)  

Autumn meal together

 (my favorite soup + bread combo: Butternut squash apple soup and artisan sourdough bread = yum, yum!

Germantown in Autumn

The last two Fridays have been so mild and beautiful here.  So, we've walked six blocks up to the historic Wyck House of Germantown to enjoy their wonderful garden-fresh farmer's market stand.  Their carrots are the sweetest (and cutest) around!  Meredith walked the whole way there, and munched and crunched carrots the whole way back - a well-deserved snack for a mile long journey. :)

Catching up on November (round one)

Hi Friends!  Sorry it's been a long 20 days since I last posted.  This month is speeding by (as well as this year!), and I'm scrambling to fit everything in.  As usual, life is full of moments with these two girls of ours and the daily joys and challenges.  At the moment, they are both sleeping peacefully and I'm LOVING the quiet... and free time. :)  Here are a few shots from the past few weeks...

Erik found Eliza Wren exploring in early November...

What are your bets - walking by Christmas or the New Year?  Mama isn't a fan...

 Meredith is loving any kind of "projects" of her own (yes, she's heard that word around here pretty often...).  And, she's been into rainbows lately - she drew a circular rainbow, and add some extra pink, of course!

 Then, she asked me how to write each letter of her name.  

I'm pretty excited about her letters - they are readable!

Romping with one of her best buds at the garden :)

 Chillin' at the garden while everyone else cleans up and preps for the long winter.

Eliza Wren - 11 months

Eliza Wren turned 11 months on Thursday, Oct 30th.  During the last few weeks, she has taken some dramatic turns in her life - namely the freedom to move about.  Here's a quick shot when she was on the brink of taking off during the first few days of Oct.

She has also become quite expressive. :)

And boy, does she love the bath!  (mid-Oct.)

Now she's movin' and a groovin'. (late Oct.)