budding artist?

a full weekend of happy birthdays

this weekend we had a full agenda that included 6 birthdays to celebrate! for some reason, we only took pictures at one birthday party so that is all we have to share. these pictures are from aida's 4th birthday party that was a total hit ((aida is that daughter of my business partner anna). balloon animals, sidewalk chalk, cupcakes, good friends,....really what more can you ask for? aida also requested that everyone sing "twinkle twinkle little star" instead of "happy birthday to you" which dottie enjoyed very much!

pals

today dottie and i got together with lula and basak for the first time in what feels like a long time. it's so crazy how much the girls have changed in even a month or two. lula has bangs now that are too cute! they palled around the park and went down the double slide together. lula was pretty cute and kept on saying dottie's name to get her attention. perhaps next time dottie will be able to say lula's name! we all paused for a moment for snack time and lula was nice enough to feed dottie some snacks...

sticky!

it has been VERY hot in san francisco this week. to cool dottie off a little, we let her chomp on an icy cold (and very sticky) popsicle which she thoroughly enjoyed! (notice it running down her leg). she was pretty much thrown in the tub after this...

grandma cam & grandpa bill

as i mentioned in a previous post, dottie was lucky enough to have her grandma cam and grandpa bill out for a visit this past week and weekend! we have finally gotten around to putting together some pictures from the lovely visit. click HERE to see a little slideshow of our fun times together. we had gorgeous weather for most of the time they were here so we were able to enjoy time together outside. one day we went to crissy field and flew a kite. dottie had a great time watching it and even held the string for a bit. while grandma cam was trying to pull it in, it ended up getting away and went sailing across the bay because of some strong winds! sadly, we didn't run into it the next day at tilden park in the east bay. this park couldn't have been more perfect for kids....a train, carousel, beach, and petting zoo! dottie was in heaven and we will definitely be back!

skater

we have a ton of pictures to go through from this past weekend with the grandparents and will post them soon. until then, just thought i'd post a cute one of dottie on chuck's skateboard. today was a skorcher so we went down for some ice cream at mitchell's along with everyone else in the mission of course. chuck met us there on his skateboard and dottie couldn't get enough of it. smiles from ear to ear the whole time! looks like she will be a natural... (cute cherry outfit sewn by our talented friend hannah!)

grandparents and new green boots

dottie is lucky enough to have her grandma cam and grandpa bill out for a visit! unfortunately dottie has had pink eye in both eyes and i have had tonsillitis which has been a little downer but it has been wonderful having some extra arms around for help... we have 2 more full days with them (and 2 much healthier people now!) so more pictures to come. the boots/hat combo dottie is wearing were purchased by her cam and bill yesterday and dottie has been pretty obsessed ever since. we put them on her and doesn't want to take them off...

dottie hearts her friends from brooklyn

our friends heather and andrew visited from brooklyn this weekend. erene had a barbeque last night so we could all have some quality time with them. dottie had loads of fun with everyone and was lucky enough to get this cool sweatshirt from them... to see a handful of more pics from the bbq, click HERE.

easter

easter morning we woke up VERY early to jackson excitedly realizing that the easter bunny had found him in san francisco! several hours later, dottie came up and found her easter basket with many goodies inside including a toy cable car, some cool new eric carl flash cards, and some adorable monkey pj's from our friends the linden's. our visitors left at about 10:00 and we spent the rest of the day having brunch at liberty cafe in bernal and then enjoying the beautiful weather together. to see some more pictures of easter, click HERE.

denise and jackson come a visit

this past weekend denise, a best friend of mine from college, came out for a visit with her 4 year old son jackson. we had a blast (and not much sleep...jackson was up VERY early every morning and we were up VERY late chatting) and i think jackson might think that san francisco is a city of playgrounds. to see more pictures of their visit, click HERE. this picture was taken after chuck's first cable car ride in sf! can you believe it? we have been here for 8+ years...

living on the edge

doesn't she know that texting and driving is illegal in the state of california?

happy easter!

we had a very full and fun weekend with denise and jackson visiting from savannah and heather and andrew visiting from brooklyn. we took a ton of pictures and just need to sort through them. until then, here is a picture of dottie in her easter dress. (super cute little easter dress courtesy of her older cousin sadie grey!).

kickin' it

our friend denise and her son jackson are visiting from savannah this weekend. as per usual, dottie is enamored with her new older friend. she has been following him around everywhere and he couldn't be more sweet with her. today while driving in the car, denise and i peered in the back seat and dottie and jackson were holding hands.

good friends (and a little car washin')

this past sunday, we went to penny and jason's for some burgers and playtime with the kiddies. the age gap between malcolm and dottie is quickly tightening which is a ton of fun!! malcolm turns 1 in early may so there are really only about 3 1/2 months between them. dottie is also still very interested in anything and everything wyatt does. when we have all gotten together in the past couple of months, there is usually a lot of fun and giggling involved. on sunday, penny set up a car wash with the cushions from the couch. she posted a video on her blog HERE. i got a handful of pictures but nothing as good as the movie.

dutch door press press

congratulations to mara and anna with all the great press that's been coming dutch door press' way lately! if you missed it, they were featured on design sponge today in a feature called the "sneak peek." you can check it out here, and if you look hard enough, you'll even find dottie and milo:

click here for mara's sneak peek

click here for anna's sneak peek

click here for the dutch door press studio sneak peek

double the trouble X 2

while on a walk with our friend mindy and her corgi dutch, we ran into another friend jennifer, and her 2 pugs bug and boo. i am thinking dottie was a tad confused with all of the doubles.

a missiony day

the weather has been stunning here this week so yesterday was a perfect day for a nice long walk in the mission. we happened upon a street festival (in honor of ceasar chavez day this past week) and watched the dancers. then we hit up a soda fountain called the st. francis for some lunch with our friend alllie. we all enjoyed some delicous milkshakes (dottie perhaps a little too much!) lastly we hit a super cool little park on 24th street with a ton of colorful murals and a huge tiled dragon that dottie loved.

the frog potty

several months back, i purchased a little potty for dottie at target. the purchase was inspired by a handful of friends who said that their kids who were under 1 were using the potty successfully several times during the day. i brought it home, showed it to dottie, put her on it, and bam! she used it the first time. i was amazed i must say. i put her on it a couple of times a day over the next week or so and she did it again only once. she started getting frustrated with me for plopping her on it and she would squirm when she got near it. it was also kind of a hassle to pull her clothes and diaper off every time it seemed like she needed to go to the bathroom so i have to admit, i gave up. the frog potty has been sitting in out bathroom collecting dust. sometime dottie tossed a cracker in it but besides that, until about 3 weeks ago, we kind of forgot about it.

several weeks ago, she started taking interest in it again. i was finding toys in it and she was taking the inside tray out and walking around with it for some odd reason. then, i came home from work the other day and kate, the woman who has been watching her, told me that she took a book in to the bathroom and sat on her potty to read it! today, she went into the bathroom and was kind of talking to it. interesting, eh? so i took the cue and pulled of her pants and plopped her on. et voila! she used it successfully again! she was very please with herself and got off and looked in to see what she had done.

the icing on the cake for the day was when we were getting ready to go on a walk, she went into the bathroom, closed the door partially, and sat down on the potty with her little pink headphones on. i peeped in and saw the above picture.... (and then she got tangled up in the cord).

reunited

it has been a very long time since we have seen our friends marie and siena so it was great fun to get together with them and essie this afternoon for some catch up! dottie and siena also gave each other sweet kisses and got to pal around on the swings and in the sandpit at the park. siena is cuter than ever and had the most sweet little heart hankie around her neck. we already can't wait to see them again! (i unfortunately had my camera on a very weird setting when taking most of the pictures today so only got a few good shots. perhaps marie got better ones and i will update with 1 or 2 more!)

hutch

this past tuesday, we had a visit from some friends from pittsburgh, heather and hutch (missing on the scene was bj!). dottie met hutch last november when we were in sewickley for a visit but she was just getting over croup and was not up to par on social skills at the time. she was happy see him again and stole a couple of hugs and kisses from the adorable little guy (who might i add has a little curl right in the middle of his forehead). it was hard sneak a good picture of the two of them together and smiling so these are my attempts. heather, bj, and hutch might be moving here which is pretty darn exciting!