Jiving to Tea

Meredith's sweet Auntie Lita brought her many gifts when she came to visit earlier this month. MJ's favorite is a pink "singing" tea pot. :)

Meredith has a special jive when she hears the singing tea pot...and a look of delight and awe. Yes, this is the only toy she has that produces sound by battery and pressing a button or two. Therefore, she is in constant amazement of it.

We hope to keep her (and it) that way. ;)

Personality!

Meredith has been stylin' this winter with her boots and 'skinny' jeans. ;) As you can see from these photos, she is developing quite a personality as well!

(she is just propped against the couch in these photos...not standing yet, although she's nearing that stage....)

yes, here she's doing her fake laugh....wow.

She's getting so curious and very much into 'exploration' mode at home. She always wants to touch everything....so, that means pulling all the books off her shelf...one by one. At least she's not moving yet - just into whatever is within her reach!

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Professional photographers came to PCMS last week to take head shots of all the staff and capture a few other images for use on our website, etc. Here are a few of our favorites.

The door into our office with Brad and Brian in the background.

Taken just outside our building - one of the most historic buildings on Walnut.

Out on the back landing overlooking South Philly.

And here is the whole PCMS Staff (minus Jen, Diane, and Peggy who are only Marlboro staff). From left to right - Miles, manager; Brad, box office manager; me; Marianne, business manager; Tony, artistic director; Philip, executive director; Brian, box office and marketing coordinator; and Jacob, marketing and development director. Pretty awesome staff!

Please Touch Museum :)

Meredith had her first experience at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia yesterday. It was awesome! We went with 3 of her "big kid" pals - Kezzie, Anna Kate and Marlowe - all 2 year olds. Thanks to Jenn Sallade (Anna Kate's Mommy) for these excellent photos. :)

Kezzie prepared us all extra large big mac's at the play McDonald's cafe....yummy!

The kid-sized grocery store was a huge hit for all the kiddos. Anna Kate loaded up her cart with a variety of items.

Should we get a cucumber?

Marlowe plays "cashier" in this photo - the scanner even chimed as each item was scanned! Wow - so cool!

Meredith helps Anna Kate choose some fresh fruit for her shopping cart.

We didn't even make it to all the areas of the museum, though we stayed there several hours! It's an amazing place. Another favorite area for all the kids was the "transportation" area. Even Meredith found a car her size to take a whirl in. ;)

MJ says "Dada"

Meredith has been babbling a lot lately. Here's a few moments we caught on video of her babbling away...and saying, "Dada" in there too....??? :)

say, "CHEESE!"

Meredith definitely knows what the camera is now. :) Whenever we pick it up to shoot a photo, lately she's given us a "smile" - complete with scrunchy nose and squinting eyes. HA! It's sooooo funny and cute....but, not her real smile.

that's better!

Auntie Lita's Visit!

This week Erik's sister visited us from Chicago. We had a GREAT time with her and lots of play time for MJ with her Auntie Lita. :) We tried to give Lita lots of rest and recop time, since she recently had back surgery. She said that she just needed "play therapy" - so, she and MJ had all the excuses to giggle together for hours!

yes, the onesie says "my auntie is awesome" - guess who bought that?!?!?! ;-)

SO much FUN!

Lita tried to take a stow away with her on Friday morning! But, she was caught in the act. :)

Thanks for coming, Lita! Please come again soon!!!!

sewing projects

We have internet at home now - horray!! So...I'm still catching up from the end of 2010 - so, this post is from sewing projects I worked on during the month of December. Everything was finished up by Christmas, because several projects were for gifts. :)

This is the purse I made my mom for Christmas.

I can't get enough of this gorgeous material! It's an artist's painting made into fabric - Laura Gunn....and she's working with Michael Miller to print her paintings onto fabric.

One weekend in December I decided we needed some major help in organizing our kitchen. So, Erik and I brainstormed and this idea evolved - a door organizer, as well as a way to hide the ugly back of our hanging ironing board. Ta-duh!!
It was fun to use what materials we had on hand and re-purpose materials as we went along. Yes - those are jean pockets from Erik's old jeans!! And...we have a place mat cut in half for the pockets (a 2nd re-purposing project, actually because I had first used the place mat to fashion a pillow for our living room rocking chair)

As you can see by this photo, it can also be used as a large apron! ;)

I worked on a "petal" shirt for my sister for Christmas. A take-off of a j.crew shirt I've admired...it was a lot easier than I had imagined and very fun to see the final result. :) I think the cool blue will look lovely on my sister. Hope you like it, Amy!

Bubble Bath with Lila

Nothing beats too babies in the tub together. :)

This event drew quite a crowd in the bathroom during our visit with family in N.C. :) Ha!

Meredith thought the bathroom party was awesome! Lila was more interested in her bath toys and the bubbles.

yummy!

Put me in the spotlight anytime, Mama - I love it!! ;)

Lila was moving and grooving even in the water!

Christmas photos (belated)

I am way behind on blogging lately - sorry!! We returned from Christmas break and found that we had no Internet access at home....so, we had a week "un-plugged." And, we survived! Well, I should say I survived (Erik had it at work...so he didn't really suffer!!). :) It was a great stretch for me and I am really convinced that I should limit Internet access regularly. :) I'll let you know if I can actually be disciplined when it is accessible again. ;) In the meantime, I'm happy that my house is cleaner, my thoughts are more collected and I've practice 4 times! Definitely worth it.


So....more Christmas photos!

fun new wooden toys!!

gotta have some Aunt Amy time! :)

and, time with great-Grandma (GG-Ma!) and cousin Lila

4 generations!