In other family news, we’re in the middle of refinancing our mortgage. Rates were too low to pass up, and though we’ve only been in our current place for a year and a half, the potential monthly savings will be significant. And surprisingly, the stack of paperwork is only a fraction of the loads we’ve seen in the past. Rate’s been locked in, and the appraisal was done this week – so now we wait.

November was quiet, but fun – birthday celebrations for dad and Christine, as well as a family wedding (congrats to Jessica and Marc!) at the Woodend Mansion of the Audubon Naturalist Society in Maryland. For Thanksgiving, we stuffed ourselves silly with the A’Hearns, then hopped down to Richmond to visit Steph’s folks over that weekend.

But now incredibly, Christmas is right around the corner. We were just beginning to regain mobility after Thanksgiving, but are deep into holiday shopping, mostly thanks to Amazon. Tree is up, house is decorated, and threats to Lily about Santa watching are in full effect. We also thought we’d give the whole Elf on the Shelf thing a try. I’m not sure she’s fully made the connection about being on good behavior, but she definitely knows that presents are coming. She gets that from her mother.

As always, we add photos regularly (with or without an accompanying blog post).

Our weekends have been pretty full recently, but with lots of annual events and fun: Rosslyn Jazz Festival, Maryland Renaissance Festival, and International Gold Cup, to name a few. And of course, we always look forward to W&M Homecoming, coming up this weekend.

New photos in Lily’s 2011 album!

Once that was out of the way and we returned from vacation, we moved our attentions to potty training. We wanted to work on that before Steph went back to school, knowing we would have/need the more relaxed pace of summer to really concentrate on it. Like dutiful, intense yuppie parents, we read up, asked around, and mapped out a plan; and armed with the 3-day training method, we embarked on a weekend adventure. I’ll spare the details, but we did a lot of laundry and a lot of mopping. But she did, indeed, “get” it by the third or fourth day, and is now an absolute champ about three weeks in. We do still deal with a random accident here or there, and overnight is still tough, but we couldn’t be happier with her progress. Hey, she’s only two and a half.

If you haven’t already, check out her 2011 photo album for shots of the beach and other antics.

On the heels of our annual week-long family beach week, Stephanie and I recently flew out to Las Vegas for a three-day whirlwind party! A close friend of ours had reached a milestone birthday, and asked a group of us to join in the fun. So with the extremely generous help of Steph’s parents, we kissed Lily goodbye and left for our first trip to Sin City.

Neither of us had been before, so we didn’t quite know what to expect aside from what we knew from movies, TV, and second-hand stories. But most of that turned out to be true – lights, people, booze, and noise. And of course the windowless casinos that devour your time and money. (Unless you’re Stephanie, who apparently has the magic touch with craps.) There was no breaking even, but it’s still good to cash in a stack of chips at the end of the night!

In between buffets and drinks and gambling, we also took in a few tourist activities: a spa treatment, the Titanic Exhibition, the Bodies Exhibition, and a very memorable helicopter tour of the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

So happy birthday to Shauna – hope you had a blast! And another huge thanks to the grandparents for taking care of Lily.

I put up a few photos documenting our weekend, but those don’t include the shots of the chicken, jail cell, or stolen police car.

We’ll also have our share of quiet time – given the frantic state of daycare in this area, we’re not able to pull Lily for the summer and have a guaranteed spot for her when Steph returns to school in the fall. Fortunately, she’ll only go for a fraction of her normal weekly schedule – giving us some toddler-free time to get things done around the house, but still not feel like we’re missing out on being with her. We’re elated with the quality of our care provider, so continuing to write out a check each week (rather than risk Lily’s enrollment) was an easy decision.

Toddler life moves on at a blistering pace. Ecstatic one minute, sobbing the next. Ridiculous demands, sly negotiations, imaginative stories, thoughtful debates, and blatant lies. Not to mention tons of hugs, and alarming amounts of empathy. It’s all a hilarious adventure for us, and amazing to watch her develop right before our eyes! I’ve created a 2011 photo album for this year, which I’ll add to periodically with all the best moments. Be on the lookout soon for updates on switching to a big-girl bed, and wacky potty training time.

Of course, time conspired against me and I never really settled on a vision for scottahearn that was unique or worthwhile, so recently decided to dig up that old email and see if there was still interest. So adios, scottahearn.com. The past 11 years have given me the opportunity to tinker and learn about PHP, Perl, XML, AJAX, CSS, and a host of other related technologies serving me in my career to this day.

I’ll be transferring the domain within the coming days, and if I get really bored, might launch “scott.teamahearn.com” or something someday. But probably not.

And hey, now maybe the domain will log more than 20 hits a day.

On the recent sleep front, though, Lily has been waking up around 5:45 each morning for the past few weeks. This is fairly unacceptable to mommy and daddy, who were quite accustomed to the 6:30 wake up call we enjoyed for months. Then came daylight saving time. This ["spring forward"] has actually worked in our favor in the morning, but we’re now faced with the evening bedtime challenge. So we’re trying to gradually shift bedtimes around until we’re back to a normal schedule, and hopefully everyone comes out sane and well-rested.

All this has also put a slight damper on our crib/bed plans. She has a “4 in 1 convertible crib”, and we were planning on changing it soon – from crib to daybed. But maybe we’ll wait for a less disruptive opportunity.

What is ideal about the time change, though, is that it’s now still daylight during the 6 to 7pm hour – traditionally known in our house as the “Post Dinner Freakout”. This means we can now open the door and set her loose to blow off some stink. Rejoice!

In other news, we’re going to the pediatrician today to follow-up on Lily’s allergies. For the past week, she’s had some … “diaper trouble” … previously associated with food allergies. We’re desperately hoping she hasn’t re-developed a reaction to something thought to be cleared, but they’ll take some blood and get to the bottom of it. Current known allergy roundup: wheat, eggs, and peanuts. Who knows – maybe she just has a little bug.

Lily’s vocabulary has simply exploded – she’s now able to communicate her wants and needs fairly articulately, which is both a blessing and a curse. (“What do you want for breakfast?” “I want a cupcake!”) With this dawning of conversation, though, she’s also fully into the “being a two year old” stage. Lots of “no”, lots of “I want”, lots of whining and carrying on. But at the same time, she is lots of fun. Always playing, singing songs, “reading” to herself, talking to her stuffed animals, and generously giving out hugs and kisses. It’s the best!

In other goings-on, it’s February, and that means birthdays galore. I’m pretty sure there are already at least three parties planned for Lily. For my birthday, I’ll be on a plane, on a business trip – but I’m sure I can squeeze in some festivities at some point. But as always, birthday wishes go out to Aaron, Ryan, Becca, and about twenty others!

Check out the “new” video below, shot in early December (two months ago). Your classic toddler serenade.

Lily is a staggering 22 months old today, and celebrated by tossing a full bowl of cereal (with milk!) across the kitchen this morning. Gotta love this age. She’s not really old enough to be bargained with yet, but having just spent the better part of an evening assembling her big Christmas gift, I was tempted to inform her that Santa would now be skipping a certain house on Ashview Drive. But no – we’ll save that one for some other time.

With Christmas less than two days away, we’re busily preparing ourselves for holiday festivities. Each year, Christmas Eve is spent with the A’Hearn clan, and we’ve offered to host this time around. For the first time ever, we will also be spending Christmas Day by ourselves. No early morning travel, no suitcases, no travel cribs – just pajamas, coffee, and a toddler who’d like nothing more than to tear into some presents like Ralphie and Randy Parker. On the 26^th, another first: hosting once again, this time for the Baerent/Mayland families! We’re very much looking forward to all the guests, but that also means a great deal of cleaning and prep.

I’ll be sure to post heaps of holiday photos once everything settles a bit and, as always, I’ve continued to update Lily’s photo album as her antics continue.