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: