Here's the Diehl

So, we bought Julia this bike in July while it was on sale. And then totally forgot to put it together for Christmas. Something about exhaustion and too much wine? I can't quite recall. Anyways. It's a cool wooden balance bike with inflatable tires. I thought for sure it would fit Jules, but in fact it's still a smidge too big. But she likes to tool around on it for a few minutes. Maybe by springtime (which feels like now with this weather) she will want to take rides to the ice cream store around the corner.  By the way. Anyone have ideas on how to get my kid's thumb OUT of her mouth and her tongue IN her mouth? She's getting some pretty serious chapped face...and thumb.

A rainbow showed up at our house the other day. And it looked like it ended right in our backyard. Where's the gold? Hmm? Is it all fantasy like unicorns and fire-breathing dragons? I could use a pot of gold about now...those Christmas bills are coming in!

Christmas has come and gone once more. It was a whirlwind of presents, breakfast, presents, lunch, presents, nap, presents, presents, presents! Julia has an amazing time not only opening presents (hers and everyone else's) but also giving gifts to others. We really tried to stress how the most important thing is giving and not receiving. She got it...but then proceeded to unwrap any gift she could find. Her favorites include the Clifford dog from Daddy, the plush Bella and Barley that were in her stocking, ALL of the babies, and her muppet hoodie. Of course, the awesome super hero cape that mommy SLAVED over and made herself was tossed aside. But then it was popular again when Bella became.....SUPER BELLA. Everyone thought it was hysterical. Except for Bella. After a long morning of yummy snacks and gifts, we all needed a nap so we could head to Nana's house and start over again. Julia got to wear her extra fluffy purple dress (which the photos just don't do her justice). ...

Or shoes, rather. Julia loves to walk about in shoes that don't belong to her. Hopefully that doesn't mean she will aspire to be a clown or a mime, but nevertheless, as she gets bigger and older and braver, so does her drive to try new things. Wearing "big girl" shoes is just the beginning. Of course, we find that much less traumatic than her desire to swing from every "branch" she sees or flinging herself into the grass face-first or, my personal favorite, diving off the ottoman onto the couch (and sometimes into the wall). So, Jules, you can bop about in my shoes anytime.

Nothing like a little pre-holiday peanut butter while Mommy makes cookies. And, on the floor of the kitchen to boot. Great place to rest and recover from holiday shopping.

Nana helped this year, so I can't take all the credit. But we made our way through about 9 different batches of cookies this year to distribute as gifts to loved ones. Julia even helped with the sprinkles.

The house is all decorated, inside and out. With the help of our little Julia, it's sure looking like  Christmas. If only Jack Frost would cooperate and give us come frosty weather and some snow. Don't know about you, but my daffodils are popping up!

So, Julia's school puts on "The Story of Christmas" at the adjacent church each year. We had no idea what to expect this year and kept it quiet and didn't invite anyone to come. But next year, everyone is welcome since we now know what mayhem to expect. The thirty-some toddlers and pre-K-ers don costumes and have actual lines and the school director narrates. There are stars, trees, donkeys, wise men, innkeepers, and a Joseph and Mary. It's quite a sight. The mayhem part is actually trying to wrestle your way into a good seat and a spot for video/camera action. Hence, my shots have a lot of adult heads. But you get the idea. Ironically, our little chatterbox apparently was the loudest twinkling star during rehearsal. But then she came upon the FULL church and got total stagefright. She was pretty much pulled into the church by her teacher. But recovered afterwards fully with a plate full of mac 'n cheese. You can just see her pale-skinned little hand getting p...

It's that time of year! The annual hunt for the Christmas tree. We finally (almost) chose a tree according to our ceiling height. Which, unfortunately, is a measly 7.5 feet. People must have been shorter in the 1920s. Julia of course wanted the biggest tree of them all. And then pointed to this one in the first photo. Look, a baby one! There were tons of folks buying trees over 10 feet tall. We chose a nice, slender 8 footer and got it to just squeak into our living room. Sorry, star on top. No room for you this year. It's beginning to look like Christmas around the Diehls.   

We can't believe it's been a year since baby Lila became Julia's little cousin. We had a great party over Thanksgiving complete with cupcakes, balloons, presents and lots of fun. Extra special thanks to DeeDee who made Julia feel extra special with her own present.

We are thankful for family. We are thankful for the love and support of friends. We are thankful to have an amazing daughter who is so smart and beautiful that we know we are in trouble in future years. We are thankful for our amazing Bella. We are thankful for the exercise Bella got while we were away and that she survived three nights without us (we sure missed her a lot). We are thankful for our beautiful home and our neighborhood full of wonderful people. We are thankful to come home to a crib that Julia cannot escape. We are thankful to have each other, in good times and bad. We are thankful for the challenges and feats we have overcome in this seemingly endless year. We are thankful for the plans we have for our future and can't wait to watch these plans play out. We are thankful to all of you who read this blog. It makes it worthwhile.

We showed our extra devotion to Fannie Mae this weekend and participated in the Walk for the Homeless. Rumor has it, this might be the last year for this astounding walk that brings thousands and thousands of participants. It was a great day for a walk and we got to see some fall color in Washington and sneak a peak at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial (which is stunning). Julia took a couple photos too....a stroller perspective of the walk.

Where have we been? Well, there has been a lot of this: Somehow, our super healthy child came home with a devil of a cold. She ended up staying home from school two days in a row because she had boogers coming out her eyes. Yes, it was gross. At first we thought it was pink eye. Which made me panic. Not because I'm afraid of pink eye and the work it entails, but because for years now, I have been giving my good friend, Jackie (who has three girls), endless teasing for the sicknesses and pink eye situations in her house. I even toyed with the mean gesture of giving her cleaning products as a birthday gift. Needless to say, it was a bacterial sinus infection and so I could worry no more about karma coming after me for teasing Jackie. But I think it did anyways. Because then Brian and I BOTH got infected. And, of course, we have no primary care physician. Ignorance is bliss. But we needed medicine. CVS Minute Clinic, baby. It saved our lives....and offered 0.99 snacks and hot...

When you have a laundry basket. And mommy (but mostly daddy) can carry you and your toys around inside the basket? It's like a car...without wheels. Or a couch....made of plastic. Right after this photo was taken, I kid you not, she got out...took the basket to MY bed....threw it on top....climbed on the bed....into the basket....asked, "Mommy! Carry me around?" I hope she grows up to be an orthopedic surgeon. My back will likely need it after all this rough housing.

Why, yes, you are a princess in your apron, black leather purse, and floppy fair maiden hat. It's lovely. Really.

It's Halloween night and we had some good fun. First we carved our jack o lanterns and put them outside. Julia was adamant about a "happy punkin face". Then she played with the hanging ghost on the porch. Best of all, Julia got to go trick or treating with Daddy. She loved it! They only made it around our one block, which is about 5 houses. You can just see a glimmer of her in the bottom photo, at our neighbor's house. But she got some good loot. Which, in turn, we gave to the kids who visited our home since they had no manners and grabbed handfuls of our candy. We had nothing left! 

Julia's preschool spent a morning at a suburb "pumpkin patch". Why in quotations you ask? Well, this suburb was not very suburban and the pumpkin patch was really just a garden center. So, no real patch of pumpkins, but rather a parking lot full of them. And a giant playground for kids to run around and spend all their energy on. That part was great. The mud, however, was not. We had the nicest day to visit, but it happened to be after a week of rain. Needless to say, we were not alone at the patch. Fortunately, there were lots of horses to ride, slides to climb and haunted forest hayrides. Lots of fun. But, man, was I exhausted afterwards. Julia fell asleep in the car about 5 minutes after we got going again. That's Julia's good buddy, Kailyn, next to her in the first photo. And I won't talk too much about the strange carnival-type rides that you see at the entrances to places like Walmart and Babies R Us...but the slot where you put your money in is broken. ...