reading in a box

because everybody needs a spot to relax and read up on counting...
she honestly sat there reading that book and several others throughout the day in her box the other day.

lula's turns 2!

this past weekend we had an action packed weekend that included one very fun birthday party in celebration of dottie's friend lula turning 2! it took place at recess which was pretty much heaven for all of the kids and on top of that, dottie's favorite, ENZO, played. she was honestly in all her glory! she saw him that morning and then had a repeat performance later in the day. lula looked absolutey adorable in a little tutu and played the part of a party girl by having a ton of fun with all of the kids and blowing out for candles.

ladies who lunch

after the photos, we met up with frannie and kim and went on a lunch date at a local spot near us called toast. going into lunch with 2 children around the age of 2 could honestly go either way and this lunch was as smooth as it could have gotten. honestly, dottie and frannie chatted as if we weren't there about things like blueberries, trot old joe, sunglasses, juice......and kim and i were able to enjoy at least a little normal adult conversation. they followed lunch up with a major case of the giggles walking back to the car trying to (and maybe succeeding a little bit) pick some yellow flowers. the pictures, pigtails and all, sum it up quite nicely!

school photos

dottie's "school" (daycare) had a photographer come this week to do individual photos and a group photos. dottie and i popped by for the group photo on wednesday because it was not her normal day to be there. i must say it was pretty hilarious watching them try to get all of the kids lines up and ready to shoot. i actually don't think they got one shot where everyone was in the picture but they tried. here are some pictures i took during the photo shoot. the photographers pictures will be posted on monday and i will surely share them. as you can see from the pictures, dottie didn't really know how to take the whole thing. she just stood or sat in the same place and went with it...

silliness

a little glimpse into the silliness with dottie, malcolm, and wyatt this past weekend...

tahoe

this past weekend, we were more than happy to join our friends penny, jason, wyatt (3), and malcolm (1 1/2) up in tahoe for a night. the kids got wild and crazy with each other running around with fireman and cowboy hats. we also went down to donner lake from their house and did some stone throwing into the water. amazingly enough none of the kids ended up wandering in the lake. dottie was so pooped from all of the playing that she literally slept the whole way home.

aida and zayneb

this morning we were thrilled to be able to get together with anna, aida, and zayneb. anna is my business partner and at the moment we have pretty opposite schedules so our girls haven't seen each other in forever. aida and zayneb were off from school today because of veteran's day so we seized the moment and decided to do some major playing at golden gate park today. the girls had a great time and dottie ran around behind them saying, "aida" and "zayneb" as well as she could while trying to keep up. it was vary hard to get them to leave for lunch because they were having so much fun!

fairyland

this past sunday we were inspired by friends to over to oakland to check out fairyland. the little amusement park was built in 1950 which pre-dates disneyland and disneyworld (which is very obvious in a lot of areas). all of the rides and sights were perfect for a nearly 2 year old and dottie literally squealed with joy about almost everything we did! i am pretty sure her favorite part of the day from the train ride on the jolly trolly with a close second to actually getting to go in the 3 little pigs house before is got blown down. she could have stayed for hours. she also rode the little ferris wheel all by herself which we were very proud of her for. every time it came around she waved at us and didn't want to get off at the end. the visit to fairlyland ended with a very special treat. dottie got a little red cowgirl hat which she loves almost as much as her red fire hat (aka "chief")!

to see even more pictures, you can click HERE to check out the whole album. the colors at were totally amazing which you can kind of see in the photos.

girls

dottie, frannie, and lula equals a ton of giggling and cuteness!

foxy & winston

our friend janey has just opened a shop in brooklyn featuring her line of cards and gifts called foxy and winston. in honor of her new shop and opening party this evening, dottie decided to bust out her foxy and winston guinea pig t-shirt today (okay, maybe it was me). we hope she had a successful opening party and we can't wait to visit the shop. you can check out her adorable things online HERE.

kids music party!

pictures from a little "kids music party" we checked out this past sunday. it was very crowded but the kids all actually really enjoyed it and they all got to try out instruments which was a total hit. dottie's favorite was the accordion!

dottie tries her hand at the accordion


dottie and lula hanging out afterwards


space was VERY tight!

trick or treat

last evening, we attended a halloween party and then headed down to the main street of bernal heights for trick or treating followed by some yummy butternut squash soup at sonia and erin's. dottie honestly enjoyed every minute of the night and even kept her hat on for a good portion of it. she loved saying "trick or treat" when she went up to collect candy but i think the night was topped when we let her have her first lollipop! here are some more pictures. for a few more, click HERE...

trick or treating at liberty cafe...


a shot of the fam...


pumpkin, monkey, and book. all of the necessary things she needs to go trick or treating.


close up of the little dutch girl...


sharing treats with frannie...

happy halloween!

will post more pictures later after trick or treating....

a nice friday!

chuck is out of town today and we were busy! storytime this morning at redhill books and a little playtime at the park with friends afterwards. lunch. nap. nap. nap. nap. up to sonia and erin's to hang out with twins, cory and fisher (adorable!!) who they were watching this afternoon. shenanigans at sonia and erin's then off to dinner at valentina's after the twins were picked up. dottie has officially passed out and i am enjoying the evening. looking forward to halloween tomorrow. i am thinking dottie is going to enjoy the treats more than the tricks after sampling mini m & m's this evening...

(the adorable pink hand knit scarf dottie is wearing in the 2nd picture showed up in the mail today from our friends the lindens. dottie won't take it off she loves it so much. thank you dave, julie, lily, and andrew! and it matched her outfit perfectly weirdly enough)

miss potato head

after playing with hutch's mr potato head last week in sewickley, we decided we needed to get one for dottie. she can't decide if she likes dressing up mr potato head of herself better. she walked around with the crazy looking yellow buck toothed smile in her mouth for like 20 minutes. not the best look......oy!

pittsburgh

this past week, dottie and i went to sewickley to visit my parents for several days. we fit a lot into a small amount of time and got to do just about everything we wanted to. i was a touch concerned about traveling on my own with a 21 month old who had just started to really push her limits but she did amazingly well, thanks to the iphone and all of it's amazing kid app's and a couple of videos that she watched on my computer.

dottie LOVED hanging out with kiki and grandpa so much that she walked around the house calling for them when she didn't know where they were. she had so much playtime and book reading with them that i think she is going through withdrawal now that she is back in SF.

we also got to see kate and jordan.....heather, hutch, and bj....sarah......anne, andy, ellie, and mrs. caldwell......mrs. pickard....many of my parents friends..... it was a very full trip!!!!

in other news, dottie met another dottie roughly her same age! we checked out a children's clothing store in shadyside called THE TINY DOT (adorable if you are in the area) and found that the store was named after the owner's daughter. the 2 dottie's had a ton of fun running around together...

here are some pictures.
for even more pictures, click HERE for the whole set.

grandpa bill

this past week, dottie was pretty lucky because her grandpa bill came to san francisco on a business trip with good friend/business partner david noshay. dottie was thrilled to see him (right after she figured out his beard) and cried as he left. she is already counting down the days until thanksgiving when she gets to see him!

claire and scott

my cousin claire and her boyfriend scott were out here for a visit this past weekend. claire ran a half marathon on sunday (yes, in san francisco up the hills!)... but had time the rest of the weekend to hang out in the city. we were thrilled to get to spend some quality time with both of them. dottie was happy to do a little showing off and lucky to get a bed time story read to her by claire. we already can't wait to see them again. time for a visit to chicago!

(they borrowed jackets from us for an evening walk and i realized after we got all geared up that we looked like a crayola box all together!).

fiesta on the hill

this past sunday bernal heights had their annual FIESTA ON THE HILL where they block off the main street have a little festival with music, food stands, petting zoo, pony rides, .... this picture of dottie on the pony was from the highlight of the day for dottie (along with seeing enzo and doing a little dancing of course).

where the wild things are

in honor of tomorrow's release of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE...

dottie will have to wait a couple of years to actually see the movie but until then, she is LOVING the book!

thumbs up!

this past monday, our friends marie and siena came for a visit from the east bay. it was a lovely morning and the girls had fun together being silly. dottie showed siena a new game she has been playing with us for the past couple of weeks. when she is in her stroller, she calls out, "stop" and puts her palm then she says, "GO!". it makes for a very long trip when you have 2 toddlers telling you to stop and then go as you walk down the street with them. siena was happy to show dottie how to give a really nice "thunbs up" gesture which dottie has been practicing since their visit (unfortunately we didn't get a picture). she even did it during swim class this evening. ooooh! and they were excited to get their hair done up by marie (which didn't last long of course). It was certainly cute while it lasted. lastly, we can't forget the fun stop at the pet store to check out the fish (aka "sushi" by siena)....

thank you marie and siena for a very nice visit!

pumpkin patch 2009

last year we went to a pumpkin patch with dottie and we had fun but she was about 10 months old and didn't quite get all of the bells and whistles (hayrides, bbq, mazes, jumpy castles, and of course, the pumpkins!) of the typical pumpkin patch. this year was quite different. she was in heaven!
she pretty much wanted every pumpkin she saw and tried to pick them all up and put them in our wheel barrow,
repeated "pum-keen" over and over again,
was hard to pull off of the jumpy castle,
got silly in the maze,
wanted to ride in the wheel barrow with the pumpkins,
and thought the tractor that pulled the hayride was totally cool.

the only way were able to pull her away was to give her a little pumpkin that she could carry with her to the car and held it the whole way home. when we got home, she actually wanted to take it to bed with her!

a very fun trip to the pumpkin patch!
(we took a ton of pictures. if you are interested in seeing more from our day, click HERE!)

smile!

nice when you get both kiddies to smile for camera...

dottie and piggy

until just recently, chuck and i hadn't realized just how much dottie loves her piggy. at night and for her nap, she sleeps with a monkey ("monk"), a piggy ("piggy"), and an owl ("hoots). by far piggy is her favorite and the one she grabs when she is sleepy or sad or happy... last week we noticed that piggy was looking a little worse for the wear so i grabbed him and her other friends and threw them in the wash. the door to the washing machine is glass and at dottie's eye level so she watched as i did this. i closed the door and turned it on and as she watched piggy start to spin, she went into absolute hysterics crying (of course chuck and i had a bit of a laugh about it). the worst part about it was that there was no consoling her with her dear piggy because piggy was stuck in the washer. it took much distraction to get her to forget about him until he was done being washed.

a couple of days ago i ordered 2 extra piggies so we can have a little more rotation. when they arrived today, dottie was in heaven. she kept looking at them saying "new piggies" and she hugged them and kissed them and of course took all 3 of her piggies to bed for her nap.

(i took these pictures right after the new piggies were unveiled. pretty big smile, eh?)

frannie's last solo hoorah

yesterday morning we went to the zoo with kim and frannie. the girls had a ton of fun together running around and giggling but the funny thing is that we didn't actually end up seeing to many animals. we saw giraffes and went to the petting zoo but they were much more into the big web made of rope, the carousel, and some cool tunnels. we had lunch and nearly got attacked by some not so shy seagulls who ended up stealing frannie's sandwich and then headed home. we were dropped at around naptime and were excited to learn later on in the evening that kim (who's due date was today), jon, and frances welcomed a new edition, jane rose, into the family last night. we can't wait to meet her!