Winter has arrived on the East Coast

We were having a hard time getting into the Advent season this year, but we finally received our dose of Christmas weather this week. On Thursday, I was down in Dover for a training when we got our first "real" snow of the season, which was still only an inch or two. It took quite a while to get home that afternoon, as many were unprepared and uncomfortable driving in the snow. They called a two-hour delay for school on Friday... pretty silly when the roads were perfectly fine the next morning, but that's Delaware. Our first glimpse of snow was actually last Friday, Dec. 10 (during last period, which was my homeroom-they were beyond excited).

The first week of Dec. we did get to see Santa arrive in Newark at the Winterfest. Theodore found the event a little strange, but not too frightening.

Last weekend Theodore picked out the Christmas tree with Brian and we set it up. Baby has yet to really bother the tree too much... we'll see if that can be said once we start putting wrapped presents underneath.

And finally, this Saturday we made our second NYC at Christmas time trip. This time we actually braved the traffic and drove right up to Central Park and parked right near FAO Schwartz (with a coupon for the garage!) with less than three hours from our door to theirs. We learned Brian quickly can pick up on taxi driver's techniques after being on the city streets just a few minutes.
There is just something so great about the city at Christmas... I am so glad we dragged our weary, tired selves there and had a great day. Theodore was great, other than being scared for a brief second when he found himself on the middle of 5th Avenue. It was quite a wake-up after his nap in the car. We headed through Central Park (stopping for Theodore's first carousel ride) to the Museum of Natural History. We could have spent a lot longer there, but it was closing around 6 and we didn't get there as early as we would have liked. We had to speed tour a lot of the museum.
Then we walked back through a very calm and quiet Central Park, viewing all of the city lights on our romantic stroll as Theodore napped. Finally, we stepped into FAO Schwartz and entertained Theodore with all the great toys there. It was a great day, and I got to see the Rockefeller tree at night this time, which is definitely the way to go.

Update... 9 months

I have been neglecting my blog.

No excuses, though I have many, it has just been pure neglect. I have started many posts, but never had a chance to finish them. Some of them include:

Pictures from the 4-H Fair in July (Erin's last year.)

Highlights from our August trip to Maine (lobster, lighthouses!!)

What our new camera can do (panorama, quick shots)

Crash! (photos of the Colbalt's last days, and our new Equinox)

Theodore's first camping trip (back to Hickory Run and Jim Thorpe with Gma and Gpa E)

Out hunt for DE creameries (Woodside Creamery!!)

Theodore's first Halloween (Chocolate Chip Cookie), my birthday, Thanksgiving!

10 year anniversary of our first date!

But most importantly I need to update everyone on the little man himself! Theo is doing great.  He is crawling around at lightning speed (especially when dog food is out or the fridge is open), and pulling himself up to standing position on everything. He's got four tiny teeth that he loves to use to take tiny bites of bananas (among everything else). We are still nursing, and he mainly eats cereals and fruit and veggie purees, and tries some table food. He was not a huge fan of butternut squash soup, but he loves his Super Puffs (still haven't introduced wheat, and these are the only ones we could find without wheat).

He is starting to learn the word "no"; loves peek-a-boo, animal noises, music (he still turns on his mobile on his own when he wakes up), and spying the cat.

His 9 month check-up went well- he is about 28 pounds and inches. He didn't even flinch when he got his two shots! He's such a great baby!