Last year, not long after Aiden was born into the icy world of a Pennsylvania winter, another baby was born far away in the warm and sunny climes of Los Angeles. What baby you ask? Why Ella of course! Despite the fact that we have never met Ella (until now) we have loved watching her on Jay and Melody's blog as she grows up right along with Aiden.
And just yesterday we were fortunate enough that Jay and Melody (and Ella) were in town visiting the McNally clan, and we were able to set up an East Coast/ West Coast blog playdate. Both Aiden and Ella were a tad tentative at first. I think that Aiden may have been swooning a little bit over Ella's big brown eyes, and flowing head of hair. And Ella may have been intimidated by Aiden's extra large cheeks, and his prowess in the bouncer.
After a while though they both warmed up nicely (Aiden even tried to sit in Ella's lap a couple times) and it was pretty entertaining watching them play together. We of course, like the dutiful blogging parents that we are, were snapping pictures the whole time- paparazzi style. Here are some of my favorites, along with a short video of Aiden and Ella playing in the toy box. Enjoy...
Here are some video clips of Aiden as he explores his world with ever increasing mobility. The song playing in the background is approriately titled "You Are Free."
It turns out that yesterday we were winners in more ways than one: the Eagles won their game against the Giants (crazy!) and we got lots of cute pictures of Aiden in his Eagles jersey. Yay! Here he is during his pre-game warmup.
Looking like a linebacker.
It may look as though he is cheering on the Eagles in this picture... look closely though, in fact he is focusing intently on something much more exciting: Baby Einstein.
Here's hoping for one more victory. Arizona here we come!
I've been having some sports-related guilt these last few weeks. If you recall, back in October we made a tiny bit of a fuss over the Phillies as they plowed their way through the MLB playoffs. It was pretty darn exciting! And by the time I caught my breath and started paying attention to the Eagles it seemed like they were well on their way to another medicocre season. I'll admit that I wrote them off weeks ago, and for a while it seemed as though they would live up to my rather low expectations.
And yet somehow, here we are. It's mid-January and later today most us will be sitting down to cheer for yet another improbable Philly sports team. Even though in this house we will always be baseball first (I'm wearing my Phillies World Series sweatshirt as I type this) it's still exciting to see any Philly team flex their muscle.
If the Eagle's playoff run ends this afternoon 2008 will still be a Philly sports year for the ages. But who knows? Maybe it won't end... who's up for another parade?
For sports fans in the know, there is nothing quite like ESPN's SportsCenter. Missed the game? No problem. SportsCenter can show you all the important moments in 30 seconds with witty commentary to boot. Nice.
Now the reason I bring this up is because I've realized that instead of blogging a play-by-play of every minute of our Christmas ("...and then Aiden opened ANOTHER present...") I'd rather just do the highlights. After all, the best part of our holiday was not necessarily the classic Christmas activities but all the special moments in between that were unique to this holiday, and that we'll remember long after we've forgotten which gifts we got from whom.
So anyway, here are some SportsCenter style highlights from Christmas 2008.
Christmas eve was spent with Mom and Dad Weidner. Jen's Dad has been saving the 'state quarters' for the last decade or so. This year he completed the collection, and here they are, displayed in this giant map which has officialy become our newest family heirloom.
Aiden and me post Christmas Eve church service. One lesson I learned: Singing Slient Night with a lit candle becomes considerably harder when you are holding an increasingly squirmy and ever-so-curious baby.
Ah, yes Christmas morning breakfast. Here are Jen's traditional sticky buns looking ooey-gooey and oh so delicious. I am already excited about next year's batch.
Christmas Day brought on the usual present-opening frenzy, but there were a couple of gifts that stood out as especially memorable. First and foremost was one that Gwyn brought home from Uganda. She had a tailor there make matching tunics for Dad and Aiden. Aiden's outfit even had a matching hat!
Another memorable gift were these calenders that Mom made of pictures from Maine. Now we can look forward to our next Maine vacation all year long.
A few days after Christmas the Jones extended family rolled into town. We packed a lot into a few short days. There was the progressive dinner, games, gifts, food, Longwood Gardens and just hanging out. This video is of Aiden's cousin Chloe. Ok, not really cousin, but something like that- anyway she's so cute that who cares anyway...
We all went to Longwood Gardens which, though packed with people, was a lush green relief from the bitter cold winter weather. Here are some cousin pictures:
Our New Year's Eve was pretty chill. Some friends, some games, some Champagne. Perfect. The night was most notable in that it was one last chance to squeeze in some time with Gwyn before she had to board a plane back to Uganda. It was a great night, and a great way to end the year and start the new one.
Ok, here is a clip from one of our New Years Eve games, it's called Pop 5. So to the outside observer this may just look like a a confused jumble of screaming crazies (correct), but if you were present this was a moment to remember. Trust me.
Well, the piles of wraping paper are cleaned up, the Christmas cookies are fully digested and Aiden's toy collection has officialy quadrupled in size. Yep, it's the day after Christmas.
After a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day filled with activity today has been quieter, with a chance to more closely examine both our gifts and the almost two hundred pictures that we took. I guess holidays can make an already itchy camera trigger finger even more spastic. Yeesh.
Now if anyine has spent more then five minutes on this blog then you know that I like nothing more then a good 'ol video montage. So for a day as big as Christmas, what else could I do? It's hard to know where to start when you've made so many good memories in just a few days, but this is my attempt. More to come later I hope.
