Aven at 9 months

At nine months, Aven is a crawling machine, driven by curiousity for everything around her. She laughs and giggles and makes funny noises. She plays very independently for long stretches of time (more so that her big sister ever did), and she is showing preferences for "real" food (everything from eggs to hamburgers) over "baby" food. In short, aside from being a little smaller than Rory, Aven is moving more quickly through these developmental milestones than Rory did ... probably because she is so anxious to do the things that she sees her big sister doing! Aven is 26.5 inches (10th percentile) and 15.1 pounds (3rd percentile), but we're anticipating a growth spurt the way she's packing away real food these days. Aven and Rory still look very similar to each other when you compare pictures of Rory at the same age, although Aven is starting to show more distinctive features (fuller lips, smaller cheeks).

Rory loves pan-a-cakes!

During the snow days, we found ourselves enjoying pancakes more frequntly.
Rory and Mommy have especially appreciated Daddy's culinary (and artistic) skills. Despite our many attempts to correct her, Rory insists upon calling them pan-a-cakes (with an extra syllable thrown in the middle).

My First Snowman

On Valentine's Day, Rory made her first snowman ... or snowwoman, given that Rory said her creation was a girl like her.
Rory gave her friend a few hugs.
And Uncle Allen donated his baseball hat.
Even Pippin enjoyed a little playtime in the snow!
Uncle Allen was a lot of help on Valentine's Day, babysitting the girls so that Daddy and Mommy could enjoy a lunch on their own. He stayed and helped shovel snow, although it appears as though he was doing a little shoveling of Rory as well.

The Return of Snowmaggedon

Just as the Washington region was emerging from the weekend's Snow- maggedon storm, a second storm (that was originally supposed to bring just a light snowfall) dumped another foot of snow on us on Wednesday!
The additional snowfall made this winter the snowiest on record for the Washington region. Thanks to global warming, more of the world's water is evaporating into the atmosphere, meaning that storms have more precipitation to release in the form of "extreme weather" like what we've experienced. For more, click here.
Mommy enjoyed a little time outside with her daughters.
And Rory enjoyed the six-foot pile of snow in her front yard, making a wonderful slide!

"Marry Me!"

Rory was very taken with her outfit, announcing, "I'm dressed for my wedding, who wants to marry me?"
In fact, Rory asks her Daddy to marry her at least three times a day. For Rory, getting married means that Daddy dances with her and throws her high into the air. Perhaps sensing that she'd someday have to find a more appropriate suitor, Rory recently declared, "Daddy, I need to find a prince. Will you help me find one?"
I think we'll hold onto these photos of Rory's "perfect wedding dress" for her rehearsal dinner.

Super Bowl and Super Bug

On Super Bowl Sunday, we found ourselves nestled in our living room with both grandmothers, a roaring fire, and a slow cooker of chili.
Rory enjoyed the game quite a bit, but she enjoyed her company even more.
Aven also had a blast ... although, wait, that's not her usual bottle!
These poor girls partied too hard last night! Actually, little Aven acquired a stomach bug on Monday, which she passed to Rory (who threw up all over her bed on Monday night), who passed it to Mommy and Daddy (who awoke on Tuesday morning groaning in bed). Fortunately, it was a 24-hour virus, so the family was largely refreshed by Wednesday, althoough Aven had a bad cold that lingered till Friday.

Snowmaggedon: Blizzard of 2010

We survived the big one! The snow started falling on Friday afternoon, and it didn't stop till Saturday night.
Shoveling the trenches was quite an undertaking, but they illustrated just how much snow we received.
In Alexandria, we got 23 inches (as measured by us and the city, separately). The official tally for the region was 17.8 inches (as measured at National Airport), or the fourth worst snow storm in local history. However, snowfall around the area varied significantly, with 25 inches in downtown D.C. to 40 inches in suburban Maryland.
However, the monstrous snowfall didn't stop this one from getting suited up and ready to play.
Afterwards, Rory watched a video with her grandma, who arrived by train on Thursday!
Aven and Mommy played in front of the roaring fire in the fireplace ... my little comfort kittens!

Son of Snowpacalypse

In between the two major storms of the season (Snowpacalypse in December; Snowmaggedon in February), we had a smaller storm (Son of Snowpacalypse) last weekend.
Rory and Daddy made a big pile of snow in our backyard, and then we took turns sliding into it. (Okay, maybe Daddy took more than his fair share of turns.)
Aven watched enviously as Daddy and Rory were playing in the snow ....
.... but Mommy found a way to keep the little one entertained indoors.
Nothing brings Mommy's "inner cook" to the surface like a good snow storm.
Mommy and Rory baked their favorite oatmeal cookies!

Baby Meetings

Aven convened a very serious meeting of the other small people during the last Happy Hour hosted at our house. We are still not quite sure what this little group of diplomats decided while they shared hushed conversation. Stay tuned.