C'mon, Chloe!

Corinne's favorite evening activity is gathering everyone in the house to our bed to read stories and hang out until bath time. She can be quite demanding if you aren't ready to head back when she is. The other evening she decided that the dogs needed to hear the story, too. She had quite a time trying to convince Chloe to do what she wanted her to do. Welcome to our world, Corinne. We've been trying to get Chloe to listen to us for 12 years!

Northern Fairies

We all enjoyed a visit from two Northern fairies this past week, Roman's mom from Michigan (Mimi) and sister from Seattle (AA: Aunt Angela). The week started off Southern with Roman and Angela cracking crabs. We ate in style all week as Roman donned his chef's hat. Crab cakes, pumpkin curry soup, shrimp and grits, salmon and spinach pasta....mmmmmmm. Lucky for us Corinne is a fabulous eater. She ate her share right along with the rest of us!

Her latest move is the upside down hand, "Where's _____?" We interpreted this as "Where's the washcloth?"


Corinne is really into singing lately and wakes up belting out "ABCDEFG...then repeats ABCDEFG" or jumps to "QRS." She's quite the songbird. Mimi and AA were told on many occasions, "Mimi, SING!" Our car resembled the Griswolds as we motored around Charleston singing "Row, row, row your boat." Right on cue, Corinne shouts for the next soul to chime in the round then ends in a rousing applause for us all. Could we have a conductor on our hands?

There was no shortage of sitting on the floor playing this week!

Mimi and AA also decked Corinne out in fun clothes including some fancy skirts and princess shoes. Corinne now ventures into her room and dresses herself in every hat, shoe, and accessory she can find.

Who said ruby slippers can't be worn with pjs? Watch out, Gus!

Angela brought Corinne the latest stuffed favorite to date: Ernie. He was lucky enough to go on our morning walk with us.

Right after Mimi and AA left, Roman and I moved Corinne's bed into the transitional bed for toddlers. She's always been a pretty good sleeper, so we figured we might as well try it. Especially if we want to use her crib for the new baby months down the road. She is learning the freedoms of the new arrangement, however, and piddles and plays before she nods off. Poor Ernie got the raw end of that deal today.

Angela arrived with an early Christmas present: the FLIP camera! I think this was her way of saying, "hint, hint." :-) You can see here that Corinne insisted on learning how to use it also. Corinne is all into electronics.

Cell phones are the favorite electronic as probably so with most children, I'm sure. She has her own (several, actually) but only the real ones will do. Unless of course, it's a clock. Does she know something we don't?

We really appreciate Mel and Angela making the trip down. Traveling isn't easy these days, and I know Corinne had a blast all week! All weekend long she looks at us and says, "AA bye-bye?" Very observant. We miss you guys and thanks for everything!

Trick or Treat!

I've always loved Halloween, and now that Corinne is old enough to enjoy it, too, I love it all the more. Pappy and gj have been down all week, so they've helped out with parties and the annual 'trick or treat.' Corinne, gj, and I made cupcakes for the school party, half of which the adults ended up eating (yum)! Not to mention that we raided Corinne's candy stash after she went to bed. (Shame on us, right?!) She actually had a death grip on the pumpkin, and we ended up sending her to bed holding it. Luckily, she wasn't yet aware that it was actually candy inside. She was more interested in the fact that that pumpkin was 'mine'!

Check out our little butterfly fairy...

.... and Hip Hop Fairy

We even did the carving of Jack. Corinne was quite thrilled with the results.

Did you notice the boots? Gus, beware! Some friends donated these 'lizard' boots to Corinne last week, and they are quite popular around the house. We were able to get her to remove them for a bath, but, alas, she ended up sleeping in them for the night.

Prancing around

Have a great week!