One great step for babykind...

Emiko is starting to walk! See here for yourself:

Big sister is making it difficult for Emi the Good to practice her new moves:

The Basement Rennaisance

This is our awesome basement, newly remodeled by my amazing husband Nate. Here is the computer 'nook,' housing the "Jenibot." She is pink, and Nate built her from SCRATCH.

I could care less about televisions, but I have to brag about how cool this is--seemingly wireless! He fed all the cords/wires through the wall behind the television and connected them with the DVD player, etc. Also, if you go back to the previous picture of the computer nook, notice: NO CORDS. They, too, are fed through the wall. Amazing.

OUr downstairs is now a fun playroom! I love the rug.

Emi the Good, sucking so hard on this bottle that it has caved in.

Start spreading the news...

It is a beautiful time of year in Northern Virginia. The whole family enjoyed a trip to the National Zoo on Veteran's Day. Emi was too busy checking out the animals to look at the camera.

With the fall comes the leaves. Nate and Mayumi have worked out a neat little system; she rides in the wheelbarrrow and helps Nate rake the leaves. Of course, no matter how often or how much we rake, the whole lawn is always covered again by the next day. Alas! And the garden: winterized. Goodbye, basil. Goodbye, tomatoes. Goodbye, pumpkins that never grew to maturity. We had a good season.



Well, it was bound to happen: Mayumi may be joining a dance class. My dear friend Stephanie (who helped me make the onesie quilt and the quiet books) is ALSO a professional dancer and dance teacher! She just opened her own dance studio and invited us to try it out free for a week. I decided to get my 'money's worth' and come to THREE classes in one week: adult ballet, adult jazz, and toddler dance. LOVED it. Stephanie is amazing! Here are a few photos of her class. The thing is (and I realize this is very selfish of me, but I'll be honest): it wasn't as fun for ME as I had hoped, because I had to chase Emi down the entire time. No real chance to chat with the other moms or even take pictures...Emi was INTENT on participating (yes, that is her in one of the pictures below). So--not sure if I will enrole Mayumi, but we're going to give it one more go this week.

More rediculously cute pictures

Thank heavens we found another way to upload photos from my camera (thanks, Nate!), because it would seem that our fabulous video camera has kicked the bucket. We got a LOT of use out of it--thank you to Nate's parents for presenting us with it.

This may be a good time to include this darling picture of the girls in dresses given to them by Nate's mother, Grandma Mimi.

Earlier in October, the girls and I went with our good friends Nicolina and her two cute kids (Ethan and Cora) to an apple farm way out in the countryside. The kids had a great time watching the apples sorting, playing on the farm equipment, and selecting pumpkins to be carved later that month.

Can you believe I bought 4 bushels of apples? Yikes. I borrowed an applesauce maker from my good friend Rachel and starting cooking and mushing apples like my life depended on it. Two weeks later--30 quarts of applesauce.

It was an ambitious project and I am not sure I'll ever do it again. But the applesauce sure is tasty!

Now, for Halloween:

Mayumi was a "Ballerina Fairy." She grabbed her frog two seconds before the photo was taken-an absolutely perfect touch. Emi was The Littlest Pumpkin. Thank you to Stephanie for Mayumi's costume (she made the wings for Yumi's participation in a Christmas nativity last year and gave Mayumi the leotard and ballet shoes). Thank you to Grandma Rosalie for Emi's costume (the oneside and hat--gifts to Mayumi in previous years).

Wondering about that amazing rug upon which the girls are positioned? It is one part of our NEW and REMODELED basement. More pictures are forthcoming.

Of course, no Halloween would be complete without some pumpkin carving. I did not take any photos of the event this year, but we had a great time doing it with Mayumi's BFF Juliette and her family. Here are the resulting Jack-O-Lanterns:

From right to left: Nate, Hilary, Mayumi (who was cranky when hers was being carved), and Emiko.

And finally, a bit of nostalgia:

Halloween 2007:

Halloween 2008:

Halloween 2009:

I am sorry, but these are too cute.

I've lost my camera USB cable (argh!); hence, no posts all month. I am finally breaking down and simply posting yumi-muvis and emi-emmys.

Hopefully we'll find that cable soon and provide darling Halloween photos, among others.