'ears to halloween! ...(dot dot dot)

dottie went as a monkey on her first halloween. i must say, she wasn't her chipper self for most of the day because we think she has some little teeth coming in. poor little dottie...she still looked cuter than ever! these pictures are from my mom's group today and then trick or treating on cortland street...

lunch at marie and siena's

today we went for lunch at marie and siena's wonderful new house in el cerrito (marie is lucky enough to even have an art studio out back!). it was so fun to see dottie and siena interact! dottie would have a toy and siena would have to have it and vice versa. at the end, they even gave each other a little kiss and hug goodbye (with a little help from us)! when we first got our girls together, all they did was eat, sleep, and spit up. our girls have changed so much and it's amazing to watch. siena is is about 18 days older than dottie. she just learned to walk so she was all about showing dottie her new walking skills. dottie also had fun with their dog georgia...

just because...

here comes trouble...

we hadn't really let dottie test the waters on the stairs until this evening. uh oh!

pumpkin carving

last night we had some friends over to carve pumpkins. they turned out pretty cute i think. which one do you like best? which ones do you think chuck and i did? (it's a touch obvious i am afraid!)
francois and dottie

project runway

our friend hannah is making some little jumpers for dottie and this was her first fitting. pretty cute don't you think? thank you hannah!

(allie helping dottie do a little turn on the catwalk)

table tunnels

our coffee tables conveniently turn into cool tunnels...

california academy of sciences

yesterday dottie and i went to the new california academy of sciences in golden gate park with a group of mom's. it is an amazing museum housed in a gorgeous building. dottie loved seeing the fish in the aquarium and the butterflies in rainforest exhibit but most of all, she liked the toddler room where she and her buddies could get down and crawl around.

dottie and lula

dottie and her buddies (yes, she is getting more hair but it is looking more and more like a mullet every day! she's the one in the polka dots of course!)

peterson's pumpkin patch

last friday, dottie and i checked out another pumpkin patch in petaluma with my mom's group. after checking out the patch, the massive cows, geese, etc., we decided to picnic with our tots. i must say, it is much harder to have a picnic lunch with a bunch of mobile babies who want to put everything in their mouths and a farm cat who wanted in on the action too!

fiesta on the hill

every fall our neighborhood, bernal heights, has a little street fair on our main street called "fiesta on the hill". this year we were lucky enough to partake in the petting zoo with little dot. we met up with penny and malcolm while we were up there...

playtime with dottie

this is a medley of about 4 little clips we took this weekend...

9 months and counting

just for the sake of record keeping, we thought we would post that dottie turned 9 months this past monday! we had her 9 month check up on wednesday and everything went great... dottie is officially 18 lbs. 8 ounces (she has more than doubled her birth weight now!), 28" long, and her head is a whopping 46.4 centimeters (a huge noggin like her parents...in the 97th percentile, whoa). time has certainly flown and we are loving each and every second of it. dottie is an absolute joy to be around!

some fun things about dottie at 9 months
dottie is...
-playing even more with milo and loving it. she gives him his toys and for some reason loves watching him eat his meals
-has learned how to put things into containers and take them out again. when she empties anything out, she usually looks like she is drinking from the container even if it is huge which means that she ends up getting bonked in the face
-is going down slides now on her back and squeals with excitement while doing it!
-waves at anyone and everyone passing by us on our walks, especially dogs she sees
-loves being around other kids and seems to be really social so far
-is very interested in what is going on around her
-says "mamamama" when she sees me
-has one of those walkers that you insert her into and chases milo around the house in it. also plays a funny kind of hide and go seek with us by going back and forth to each side of our counter in our kitchen to find us. when she finds us, she squeals with excitement
-loves her swim class. she goes under water now with no problem and splashes like crazy in the water
-happy to eat almost anything we give. she is getting really good at feeding herself little pieces of cheese, tofu, peas, and best of all, cheerios!
-loves books like crazy and usually prefers them to most other toys when presented with the option. her favorites are still peek a boo books.
-is able to walk around while pushing her duckie walker or holding onto our hands.

mama

we think dottie has been looking at mara and saying "mama" for about a month now...this morning she very clearly looked at mara, gave her a wave and say mama perfectly. of course, as cheesy parents, we ran for the video camera, and managed to catch this lower quality ( but still fun ) encore.



p.s. - no sign of "dada" anywhere....hmmm......

dottie's duckies

mara's been eyeing up some cute new walking shoes too...

fun with milo

dottie's latest interest is playing with her brother milo. she get's a pretty good giggle going when teasing him with her toys.

petaluma pumpkin patch

click here for a slideshow

at the piano

i was going through pictures this evening and came across this one. it was taken about two weeks ago by our friend mindy of dottie playing with her new fisher-price piano. this piano is by far one of the biggest hits we have purchased so far...i highly recommend it for parents of 8 month olds even though it is VERY plastic. dottie LOVES it so much!!! anyway, i think it's a pretty cute picture so i just decided it needed to be posted. (yes, i know, polka dot pj's again!)

i can't stand yet...but if i could, i'd stand for change!

a visit from an old friend

one of my best friend's from childhood, jennifer festa, recently found me on facebook and we figured out that we both live in san francisco! jenn is a friend who lived across the street from me when our family lived in england. for years, i went with her family to the beach in georgia during my summer vacation. i have some of my greatest childhood memories from those years so it was wonderful to connect again. jenn came over for a visit tonight and got to meet chuck and dottie. (my dad was nice enough to scan some old photos for me from back in the day! too funny, eh?)

country music and rawhide

"Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin' Rawhide! "

slumber party

last night dottie had her first slumber party (well, kind of....he only stayed at our house until about 11:00)! our new friend sam came over while his parents, anne and michael, went out for dinner to celebrate their anniversary. dottie and sam had a ton of fun playing together and we had fun too!