We love hot cocoa!

I gave Eila her first taste of sinful liquid chocolate and she was hooked! Now she keeps saying...tcho tcho (cocoa) over and over. I think I just had a huge lapse of judgment as a parent.

Life at 1 and a half...

Eila is 18 months and as busy as ever. In terms of her growth and development - she is amazing. Her greatest strength is in the motor department...she is faster than I am and can climb just about anything. She is a thrill seeker. I'm afraid in a few years I'm going to have a rugby player or sky diver on my hands. She also is communicating a lot more and has over a hundred words. I'm not sure the general public would understand the majority of them, but they are consistently there. She is now singing along with her favorite songs and loves to fill in the blanks with the stories... if you read a book and pause she'll proudly tell you the next word. She is now "big" she says and has gained up to the 25th percentile - it's all muscle. She is tall according to the measurements, but I'm never sure how close those are to reality given the wiggle factor. She is super lovable and extremely social.We are lucky beyond words.

"O" is for October and Orange and Oooh ...

We did the pumpkin patch fall get out and celebrate the leaves and crisp cool weather and the hot apple cider thing last weekend and we all loved being in the great outdoors. Eila played in the hay barn, rode a pony, went down an enormous slide with her papa sitting on a burlap sack, and picked out a beautiful pumpkin for our front porch. The tractor (her new favorite thing in the world) was the highlight. We rode out to the pumpkin patch and back in a tractor pulled hay-filled trailer, which was thrilling of course. We also spent some time with cousins over the weekend and Eila and Keya dressed up as a bumble bee and a Giraffe and partied and danced at the Silver Spring festival.

Maine-ia

Pumpkin patch in the backyard of the vacation house in Maine

Feet in the sand for the first time!

Celebrating Keya's Graduation from potty training school

Blowing dandelions

With mommy on the beach

With the family

With Keya at the beach

Lala's wedding

Ring around the rosie at the wedding

Michael, Granddad and Bindiay at the wedding

Lauren and Bart's just after the vows

Seaweed!

With papa at the beach

Walking to the beach with Keya

Hanging out with papa

My favorite new puppy dog- Tessa!

We got back from our family vacation to Maine a few weeks ago and I've been a bit lazy getting to the blog, but finally here are some pictures. We went to attend Eila's godmother Lauren's wedding to Bart and we spent a week in a rental on the beach just outside of Portland. The weather was gorgeous and perfect and Eila had a blast with her cousins Keya (3y) and Cimeren (9weeks). My parents were there too, so we had some good times with all of us together. Since we returned we went to Kaelin's 3rd Birthday in DC and have been otherwise hanging out and enoying the change in the seasons. I love the Fall...Halloween is just around the corner. We have 3 costumes awaiting little Eila. Choices choices! Elections are on our doorstep as well...time will tell where we are headed. We are hopeful for a return of sanity.