A's 30th, Napa, San Francisco all in all awesome!

the family...

The last weekend of summer

It felt like the last weekend of summer, especially since school started up again yesterday.

On Saturday K played with Gma for the day as T and I went with S & R for a golf shop day... The shopping was great... too many new shoes to share... C was a champ through the whole day and really did awesome. We had great sushi in LG at the end of the night before heading home.

Sunday we took K's friend M for a playdate in town. Lots of samples at the farmers market, a quick coffee and acorn collecting at the park. Very relaxing minus the managing three little ones in the market. K and T went swimming and T and I went on our first date in a while. We wandered through the Stanford campus before feeding my current addiction to creme fraiche a froyo shop in PA.

The sleep issues continue. No idea what is going on, but C is having a really hard time going to sleep at night and an even harder time staying asleep. We are getting up 3-5 times a night. Hating it... she is really growing though... pics to be downloaded very soon!

Drop off

This morning I dropped K at school... and watched in amazement as she was asked in Spanish what was written on the board. Calmly her response mama. And so the teacher kept writing... and as I stood there I watched her read mi mama mi ama... I almost wanted to cry.... I think that moment will remain up there with her first steps and her first word... yet the amazing thing... it was done with such nonchalance I was shocked... she just read a whole sentence!!! She has been reading words from books, but to see her read the words and be able to read the sentence right away... I was so impressed.

Chicago

On Thursday I headed to Chicago for a weekend with a friend from college.... It was so great... I wandered Michigan avenue for presents for K, went to the Art Institute, went to a art/wine walk and hit some fun neighborhoods, went on great walks, had awesome meals and went to a great yoga class... It was really nice to sleep through the night... great to catch up with my friend and even nicer that security let me bring back the 100 ounces of milk I pumped while I was away for the three days... We made a small dent in our freezer stash, but still can not have a power outage unless we consider buying a generator first.

T did great with the girls... The bummer K got sick on Sunday but she is back to school today! Phew... And our camera arrived so I can return to taking pics.

K loved all her presents, but definitely loved her tiara best of all...

Last night she told us I love all the people in the world, but I love my mommy and daddy best of all...

On Sunday

K burst into tears after we told her not to tug on C's arms because she needed to sleep... the reason why... she thinks she is not a great big sister. She told me she wants to be as good as a mommy. I was shocked ... over and over again we are touched by how wonderful she is with C and how caring she is... C is also starting to notice K and smile and really focus on her when K plays with her. Look at our big sis and awesome helper on the way in to town on sat. She is always so considerate and so thoughtful. It is funny to hear with the gmas. " Gma Sing to her while you carry C down the stairs". "Gma If she spits her binky out don't put it back in until she cries". After thanking her and reminding her of how proud I was I reminded her she still has to be her and not only worry about being a big sister...

summer fun continues

Sunday morning we headed up to the Academy again.. We finally went to the rain forest... which was really fun. Plus C loved the temp... just right for a girl who likes it hot. We ended with lunch and a visit to the tire swing in the Marina giving K the perfect city day... Sleep training day 3- 15 minutes of crying. Phew!

Monday we went to Finn's bday where K got to see the sippy cups... She was even called up to the front. And she did really well... I was so nervous watching her up there while one of the band members rode a unicycle and balanced on her head... She did great though... and consumed more sugar than good for a little one as she ate a cupcake and most of a lollipop until a fall while exploring. She had Sabrina over for dinner and crashed. C only cried for 20 minutes.

Can't wait for sleep training to end... the results so far have been great... much better sleep and no real demand for the binky at night.... fingers crossed it continues.

And now I must buy a new camera as I am missing every one of these moments.

Sleep training night two sorta

We put C to bed without binky tonight... We did it on Thursday -- an hour forty of crying.... (we did comfort and pat downs) last night we let her have binky ... not sure where our resolve went. Oh yes I know... too scared... afraid... actually panicked about putting a baby in bed without a binky knowing she loves one and knowing she will sleep with one... but when I got up at midnight to nurse her and got all ready only to learn she just needed her binky I remembered why we were doing the whole sleep training thing... and right of course it gives her better sleep... which she desperately needs given somedays she will take only three five minute naps for me and I really want to cry for a lot longer than 1 hour and forty minutes... Tonight was better - 30 minutes... No idea what tomorrow will be. Just hoping that it is better and she starts to sleep.

K had a great day or two. I picked her up early last night and we went to SBUX with Fi and And. We had to head off because K was so excited about the next affair... the train into town for dinner with our neighbors who have become good friends. We met the daddy's hung out and had fun. The part on the way back may have been her favorite ... bookstore and gelato. Perfection! Today we took the train back into town for coffee with Gma. We met a friend for lunch who was visiting from out of town and headed back home for a swim playdate... two plus hours in the pool! And the night ended with a sleepover at gmas... unfortunately no date night as poor t was sick and needed rest.

oh

C has her first cold. K was sick on Sat/Sun and now C is all stuffed up... She is in good spirits despite. Her four month check up... she is 27 inches, 15lbs 4 oz and very very active... Doctor thinks she looks like a crawler... unlike K who was completely unimpressed by the concept. We are to scale down on the binky, help her learn to self soothe at night and we are only a month away from rice cereal...

heat wave weekend

We really enjoyed the heat wave.... Friday night we had a yummy picnic at the park near town... Saturday we went to HMB.... had breakfast at our new favorite breakfast place, went to their local farmers market, found a really nice bookstore, and went to the beach... for hours. We walked on the beach, K dug holes and we looked for seashells... We finished at the Ritz for a late lunch... Both girls fell asleep at lunch... guess we showed them a great time. K fell asleep in my lap... so snuggly and talked to me about how long I will love her... Her thought today... Mommy, you will still love me in heaven.. My response oh yes I will love you a lot in heaven even though that is a LONG time away. Sunday we went to ride ponies, hold chickens, pet goats, pigs and ducks.... Found a local ice cream social and jumpy house to play in and ended the weekend with a baking adventure. K really enjoys cooking now so we baked... Unfortunately we were all more interested in baking and so now there are 20 sugar cookies to toss as noone ate them. The rasberry cobbler ... that is another thing as the calories, sugar and sat fat in that is verry low...

I need a new camera... taking all suggestions... Our is broken and we need to hurry and get pics of our little girl. We are leaning to another sony as we can use our old memory stick, batteries etc... but maybe we should take our superstar camera friend's advice and buy one of the canon's...