Eleven Months Old!

Sorry for taking so long to write this post, but the holidays were crazy this year in the Schmitt household. Crazy in a wonderfully joyous and festive way, but crazy nonetheless.

Delia is 11 months old! It's hard to imagine that this time last year we were performing last minute nesting activities to make sure that everything was ready for our little girl's arrival. John was heading to UVA for school for an entire week and I promised to do my best to stay pregnant until he got home.

Delia continues to amaze us with her fearlessness and joyous spirit. She is such a happy little girl and we feel blessed to have her in our lives.

At 11 months, Delia:

• Has become a master climber. One of her favorite activities is making a mad dash for the stairs to see if she can start climbing before we reach her. She thinks it's hysterical. We do our best to keep the gate up, but sometimes a certain big brother takes it down and forgets to tell me. She has also realized she can climb up on the toys bins. We found her standing on them, looking out the window. I think Delia is going to have lots of bumps and bruises in her future.
  
• Still only has two teeth. She's trying hard to cut those top teeth, but we haven't seen them yet.
• Depending on the day, you could say she's walking. Some days she'll walk across the room and toddle after John Grayson. And on other days, crawling is her preferred method of transportation. It seems like she can't decide what she likes more. She's such a fast crawler that she probably thinks it's silly to walk when that takes longer.
• Talks, a lot! Her vocabulary has expanded dramatically in the last month. She clearly says "All Done" (with the sign too!) when she's done eating, "Mom", "Da Da", and "Ba" (for her brother). We are also pretty sure we've heard her say "JGray" and "John Grayson" as well as "Dust" (for Dusty). She also says "Bye Bye" and "Hi". She babbles all the time so I'm sure she's saying a lot more words that we don't know yet.
• Doesn't spend much time sitting still. Although she loves books and stuffed animals, Delia is always on the move. Whether it's walking or crawling, Delia gets where she wants to go. She is a girl on the move!
  
• Loves to play with her big brother. It's obvious that Delia thinks John Grayson is pretty terrific. Sometimes the feelings are mutual, but not always. Delia loves to play with his toys and wrestle with him. She follows him down the hall and laughs at him constantly. She also loves to splash in the tub with him. They get so wild that we have to pull the shower curtain closed so the water stays in the tub!
  
• Celebrated her first Christmas! Delia went to see Santa for the first time and looked adorable in the picture in her pretty holiday dress. She didn't cry but did stare at Santa, trying to size him up. She enjoyed opening presents and loved getting so much attention with all of the extra family in the house.

Here are some pictures of Delia at 11 months:

Bright Lights, A Big House, and Lots of Snow!

It's been a very busy week!

On Wednesday night, we went to the Garden Fest of Lights at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with MaMa and Pop. For those of you who aren't from Richmond, Lewis Ginter is an incredible garden that, very wisely, has found a way to keep people coming even when the weather is cold. They decorate the trees, bushes, plants and buildings with hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights. Over 500,000 to be exact. To quote John Grayson, "That's a lot of lights, Mommy!" It was a cold night, so we bundled up the kids and got to the garden at dark. John Grayson had a fabulous time running around and trying to figure out what all of the light designs were. Delia, bless her heart, was perfectly content wrapped up in the stroller and didn't fuss the entire time. John Grayson even got to toast marshmallows at a big bonfire.

All bundled up and ready for some lights

Ready to see some lights!

We're cold but having fun

The boys just ran through a maze of lights

Yummy smores!

On Friday, we went to Maymont for a private, behind-the-scenes tour of the Dooley Mansion. We made a donation to the Maymont Foundation this year because it's one of our favorite places, and they very generously invited to see the mansion. It was beyond incredible, and John and I felt so privileged to see inside. JGray and Delia were on their best behavior, thank goodness, because there were many many many things that couldn't be touched. Although its not a great picture, this is the four of us in one of the bedrooms at Maymont in front of the Swan bed. We're usually traditionalists when it comes to bed shape, but this was quite an amazing bed.



The weathermen in town had been calling for snow all week. And when they call for snow, it usually means that we get flurries. Well, not this time. It started snowing on Friday evening, snowed all night, all day Saturday, and Saturday night. In total, we ended up with 14 inches of snow!! Unlike last year when John Grayson refused to wear snow boots and ended up coming inside after 5 minutes, he had a fabulous time in the snow! He wore his snow pants, boots, mittens, hat and coat the entire time and loved helping John scrape the driveway. Dusty also loved the snow and was outside with the boys most of the time. They also built a huge snow fort, with a tunnel! Luckily, Delia fit into JGray's old snowsuit, so we bundled her up and spent some time outside. She really seemed to enjoy the snow and laughed a lot at the snowflakes.

The boys had a blast playing in the snow!

Oops! I guess we should have taken the umbrella down before the snow started falling.


All bundled up and ready to play in the snow!

Hiking to the Food Lion. We realized a little later that this wasn't a good idea (way too cold!) but had to walk home anyway.

John and the kids in the snow fort

Delia "playing" in the snow fort

The kids and I in the snow fort

John Grayson on top of the giant mountain of snow

A New Take on a Classic

Earlier in the week, John Grayson was singing to himself as he was playing. Usually it's pretty hard for us to tell what song he's singing (he likes to make up his own lyrics), but this time it was pretty obvious that he was singing "Old MacDonald". His version was a little different though. It went something like this,

Old MacDonald had a farm
E i e i o
And on that farm, he had nothin'
E i e i o
He had no cows
He had no pigs
He just had sticks and dirt and leaves
E i e i o


I think Old MacDonald may have become a victim of the recession.... And if JGray just added a line or two about how Old MacDonald lost his wife and his truck and his dog, then he'd have a smash hit on the country music charts :-)

Meeting Santa

This morning John Grayson and I took Delia to meet Santa for the first time. JGray considers himself to be a pro on all things Santa and was very excited to show Delia the ropes. We went to the indoor mall not too far from our house, just like last year because it tends to be less crowded than the outdoor mall and the Children's Museum (where Legendary Santa 'lives'). Since I prefer not to wait in line with two kids (patience is not one of JGray's virtues these days), we went to the less popular mall. Hooray for good choices! Once again, there was NO wait for Santa! We walked right through the Polar Express themed area and right up to Santa. I had to select the picture package that I wanted to buy, but JGray couldn't wait any longer and walked right up to Santa and gave him a hug. He told him what he wanted for Christmas (lucky for me his choice is still a space shuttle) and stood nicely while we put Delia on Santa's lap. I bought Delia the most adorable Christmas dress and was thrilled that she didn't fight the tights or the hair bow this morning. She didn't cry and just seemed intrigued by the jolly fellow in the red suit. The end result was an adorable Santa picture!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

The holidays are in full swing here at home. Christmas is so much more magical with kids in the house, especially when you have an adorable 3 year old who loves to comment on how beautiful things are. Beautiful has been the word of the month. "Oh Mommy/Daddy, the tree is beautiful!" "MaMa, your house is beautiful!" "Look at those windows. They are beautiful!" It is almost impossible not to get into the Christmas spirit when you hear comments like that!

Our tree went up last Monday and John Grayson was involved in all of the decorating. He insisted that he and I start putting up decorations before John got home from work. Luckily most of our decorations are child proof and it was fun to see where JGray thought everything should go. We were a little worried that Delia would try to climb the tree this year, but so far so good. She loves to look at the lights but is far more interested in the toys in the other corner (or making a swift turn and trying to climb the stairs). Things might change once there are presents under the tree, but luckily we have a fence if we need it.

Speaking of Christmas lights, John Grayson is obsessed with them! There were lots of "ooos and ahhhs" when we turned on the tree. He makes sure that the tree is turned on at all times. Since JGray is a "big boy" now, John let him help put up the outside lights. I think that was a better idea in theory because John said that he was about 20% help and 80% distraction. It was freezing the night they were outside so JGray only made it for about 30 minutes before asking to come inside for hot chocolate.

We're going to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden with MaMa and Pop on Wednesday night. They have a spectacular display of lights throughout the entire garden and we're pretty sure that both kids will have a good time.

It's a busy week. I'm taking the kids to see Santa on Tuesday morning. Hopefully Delia is still young enough not to mind being left in the lap of a strange man. Either way, I'm think it will be a memorable picture! John Grayson has his school Christmas party on Wednesday, and Friday we're taking a private tour of the mansion at Maymont. John and I made a donation to Maymont this year because it's our favorite place in Richmond. They were so excited about our donation that they invited us to see behind-the-scenes in the mansion. John and I are very excited (and hopefully the kids remember the '1 finger rule').

Here are some pictures of the kids decorating the tree:

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Andy, Emily and Jacob drove down from New Jersey to spend the weekend with us. John Grayson and Delia LOVED having them around the house. They were especially enthralled with Jacob. I think that JGray likes his babies little and immobile so they can't get into his stuff :-) Delia had a cold (runny nose and cough) so we did our best to keep her away from Jacob. She seemed much more interested in her old toys than Jacob. Granted, she did spend a lot of time in that bouncy seat when she was little, so she must have fond memories of it. She pulled up on it, climbed into it, played with the toys, and then managed to wiggle her way out of it. It was too funny!

John Grayson seemed determined to start teaching Jacob about "big boy" things, like dinosaurs and monster trucks. He showed Jacob his dinosaur toys and read him dinosaur books. Jacob is a wonderful baby and was willing to humor his Big Cousin JGray.

MaMa and Pop came over for Thanksgiving dinner. Pop cooked the turkey again this year (it was yummy, as always) and also made dessert (even yummier). John Grayson tried almost everything but wasn't a fan of the "grape jelly" (aka, cranberry sauce). He loved the pumpkin pie, with LOTS of cool whip. Delia ate a ton (and dropped a ton) of food--which made Dusty very happy. She got to try her first bites of sweet potato pie and probably would have eaten a lot more, if I'd given it to her.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have two beautiful, healthy children who are thriving and bring such joy and laughter into our lives. We have our health and the love and support of our wonderful family and friends. And if you are John Grayson, when your teacher asks you what you're thankful for, you say "turkey" even when all of the other kids talk about their family and friends. Gotta love where his priorities are :-)

Christmas is right around the corner and it's going to be a fantastic holiday in the Schmitt household. Grandma and Grandpa are flying out from Naperville for the holiday, and Uncle Andy, Auntie Em and Cousin Jacob (and Bailey too) are driving down from New Jersey. Add MaMa and Pop to the Christmas morning mix and it's going to be a full house! I can't imagine a more wonderful way to end a spectacular year.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend:

Poor Delia

Poor Delia has had a cold off and on for over a month now. About two weeks ago, she had an elevated white count that ended up being a virus (although it was really annoying to have to go to the doctor's office 3 days in a week for a finger prick). She has actually been in a pretty good mood considering her runny nose and cough. With Jacob coming to visit for Thanksgiving and her cough sounding worse, I decided to take her into the doctor on Tuesday afternoon. Good thing I trusted my mother's intuition because Delia was wheezing. She needed a nebulizer (breathing) treatment in the doctor's office. What is a breathing treatment? I had to hold a mask on her face for 10 minutes while she breathed in the medicine. She screamed and fought me the ENTIRE time, so needless to say, both of us were exhausted by the end. I also had to rent a nebulizer for a week and give her breathing treatments 3-4 times a day. Delia was a trooper and she's doing much better now. She still has a runny nose and a cough, but it sounds better than it did before. Hopefully this is all of our drama for a while...

I managed to take one picture of Delia during her breathing treatments.

Thumb

Although Allison actually witnessed this series of events; she chose not to write about it; you'll understand why. So here it is via instant message that I received:

Allison: Hey, you there?

John: Yup

Allison: So JGray just came out of the bathroom and told me that his thumb smelled like poop

John: Huh?

Allison: Exactly, so I asked him why his thumb smelled like poop and he responded 'Well Mommy, its because I put my thumb in my butt'

John: LOL, Why did he do that?

Allison: He told me that it fit there.

In summary, while I am hard at work all day my son is just sitting around with his thumb up his butt. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

10 Months Old!

Delia is 10 months old! 5/6 of a year. Incredible. It's funny to think that she's so close to being a year old. I feel like she's been with us forever but then I have to remind myself that she wasn't here for the holidays last year. I've been trying to find a cute Christmas outfit for her, but the largest sizes they have are 9 months. I guess they assume that any kids wearing 12 month clothes were around for the holiday last year :-) I'm starting to get a little nervous about Christmas with a busy little one around the house. I think we might have some good stories this year. Hopefully Delia doesn't decide to climb the Christmas tree!

At 10 months, Delia is:

*WALKING! Yes, the little girl is walking. She started walking about a week before her 10 month birthday. Right now the steps are relatively tentative. She'll walk between John and I (up to 5 or 6 steps at a time). She could probably walk a lot better if she didn't spend so much time bouncing! It must be hard to get your balance to walk when you're jumping up and down.

*Has 2 teeth! About a week ago, the second tooth on the bottom popped through. They're both still pretty hard to see unless you pull down her lip to look for them, but they're there.

*Is happy. People who meet her always comment on how happy and smiley she is. They also ask if she's always like this. The answer is yes. With a few exceptions (like going to the doctor), Delia is one of the happiest little kids you'll meet. She loves to laugh and smile and play.

*Loves to eat. This girl is an eating machine. She's on finger foods now and will eat almost anything you give her. Her favorite foods are fruits--bananas, peaches, pears, melon. She also loves cheese.

*Has rhythm. As soon as you put any music on, she immediately starts to move and bounce and shake. She's been taking a music class this fall and absolutely loved it.

*Causes trouble. We've had to start closing the bathroom door (which is a challenge with a potty trained 3 year old) because I've found Delia playing in the toilet bowl. Lovely. Thank goodness John Grayson remembers to flush, most of the time. We've also found her in the dog bowl. Her newest trick is climbing the stairs. Yes, at 10 months, Delia can climb the stairs. This morning I followed her on one of her "adventures" and just let her keep going (normally I stop her before she even gets to the stairs). Well, she climbed 6 stairs (on her way to catch JGray) before I stopped her. Ugh, I think it's time to find those baby gates!

*Is quite the talker. I'm pretty sure I've heard her say "All Done". Mom, Da Da and Ba Ba (for JGray) are staples in her vocabulary. I've also heard "Dus" (for Dusty) and other words that usually sound frighteningly close to what I've just said to her. It's probably only a matter of time before she busts out in full sentences.

*Waves hi and bye bye. There tends to be a lag between you say it and the waving starts, but it's a full arm motion once she gets going.


Delia, you are a ray of sunshine in our lives. You have become such a sweet little lady and you're only 10 months old. I cannot wait to see what fun you have in store for us in the months and years to come!

Delia's Baptism Weekend

Last weekend was Delia's baptism, and we were lucky enough for Grandma and Grandpa to be able to travel from Naperville to spend a few days with us. Delia loved being the center of attention for a day and even seemed to enjoy wearing her pretty white dress. She was good during mass and smiled throughout the baptism ceremony. Her godparents are Oli Billcheck (one of my good college friends) and Bill McGuire (one of John's good buddies here in Richmond). We were so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family to share this special day with us!

Here are some pictures from the day:











Saturday morning John and I ran the Richmond Half Marathon. It was our first big race since Delia was born and we both did really well. I finished in 1:54 and John finished in 1:56. The half marathon course was the same as the second half the marathon course, and it was definitely a relief to know that we didn't have to run 26 miles!

Apple Picking

A little over a week ago we took our annual apple picking pilgrimage to Carter Mountain Orchard outside of Charlottesville. This year we showed up a little later in the season so our favorites, the Pink Ladies, were already picked over. That being the case we had to settle for picking our second favorite, the Fuji apples.

The folks at Carter Mountain must believe (or know as they are likely apple growing experts) that Fuji apples do better at higher elevations. After a few apple cider doughnuts at the ‘Apple Barn’ and climbed our way up to what must be the highest point in the Charlottesville area (I don’t know this as a fact, but evidenced by the large number of cell towers, radio, and TV towers placed among the Fuji apple trees, it was quite high.

Our journey was well worth it. We had never seen such an amazing amount of fruit being grown by these trees. There were so many apples that most of the time John Grayson was able walk right up and grab them himself. That was until he told Daddy that the better ones were obviously higher on the tree so he would need my help getting them. This year we limited ourselves to just a couple bags of apples as it took us months to consume the 50lbs of Pink Ladies from last year picking. After walking down the mountain and picking up a gallon of cider, our day at the orchard concluded.

Here are some pictures from our morning at the orchard:

First Steps.....Maybe

MaMa spent the afternoon at home with Delia and I while the boys were at the University of Richmond football game. A few minutes before bedtime, MaMa and I saw Delia take a couple of steps toward her toy bin. Or at least we think we saw it. Does it count if Delia didn't do it intentionally????

Halloween and Fighting Foo

This year Halloween was nearly a month long celebration (in fact most holidays and birthdays are becoming a month long celebration, but that is another story). John Grayson received his Super-Man costume in late September and proceeded to wear so frequently that it was beginning to have holes and wear in the knees and elbows. Most importantly, at least to John Grayson, was the fact that he was keenly aware of the fact that people at other houses would give him candy upon his request. We practiced our ‘Trick-or-Treats’ and ‘thank you’s quite a bit leading up to the big day.

On Halloween Day we were able to get John Grayson and Delia to pose for a few pictures. As both are in that squirmish age (3mos – 6 years) it took nearly 50 photos to capture a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital cameras. While Delia was unbelievably cute in her Kangaroo costume, she did not wear it that long as it was nearly 80 degrees this year. That costume is much better suited for the Midwestern Halloweens I had growing up (snow and freezing temperatures).

When the time finally came to ‘trick-or-treat’ John Grayson rushed out of the house, but then became quite pensive as he started to approach each house. While he was fully prepared to have somebody give him candy, he was not prepared for those people to make it a scary experience. Thankfully most of our neighbors recognized the fear in his eyes as he approached their homes and did not scare him too much. After hitting maybe 15 homes in 20 minutes, JGray decided he was done and wanted to go home.

We sat on the porch handing out candy to all of the other kids for about an hour when John Grayson then announced, ‘Ok Daddy, I’m ready to get more candy’. As the rest of the neighborhood began to wind down, John Grayson and I headed out again (this time it was raining a bit) to get more candy. For the next half hour we went from house to house, this time much more bold in our endeavor, and ended up with quite the bounty of candy. It was far past his bedtime when we finished, but I figured that day light savings time would more than make up for a little ‘bad’ parenting.

Here are some pictures from Halloween:

The boys were in charge of carving the jack-o-lantern

While the boys were busy carving, Delia played with the pumpkin "guts"

John and JGray's scary pumpkin

Delia, the kangaroo, and Daddy before trick-or-treating

JGray was a very handsome Superman

Mommy with Superman and her little kangaroo

Much inspired by his time as Superman, he continued to fight many forms of evil, including Foo. The other night I was playing some music and I told him the band was the Foo Fighters, he proceeded to show me how he would fight Foo. While it was a quick fight, the celebration was priceless.