more hands to hold

dottie is very excited to have extra hands to hold this week. my parents are in town for a visit and she took no time at all to warm up. while walking down the street to swim class, dottie reached out for her grandpa's hand and then insisted up holding grandma's hand too before she could go any further.

trucks, trains, planes, & buses

dottie is very into trucks, trains, planes, boats, .... as of late. we got her a train set several weekends ago that she has spent a nice amount of time playing with making noises as the vehicle of choice goes around the tracks. she has a different noise for each type of vehicle and prefers the plane over everything else. she also loves the real thing and we pretty much can't walk down the street with her pointing out an interesting moving vehicle. today we went for a visit to lotus bleu and dottie was captivated by the moving truck and movers outside of the store...

conservatory of flowers

finally the sun popped out yesterday after a very dreary weekend and we decided to go to the conservatory of flowers in golden gate park with our friend allie for the butterfly exhibit. unfortunately we found out when we got there that the exhibit wasn't there anymore. oh well, we had fun anyway! as per usual, dottie is a little timid when it comes to getting close to things she's not familiar with. it took her a little coaxing to get close enough to the flowers to smell/touch them but when she eventually did, we couldn't pull her away.

what's wrong with this picture?

dottie walk around like this with pride for at least 5 minutes before wanting to put on the other red boot (which she can now successfully put on by herself!). she sounded like she was walking around on a peg-leg when she walked on the hard wood floor.

pooper scooper

dottie is definitely becoming way more independent lately and showing that she has a mind of her own. she has been insistent upon walking milo at the beginning of our morning walks and this morning insisted upon carrying the blue bag that i was holding that contained milo's poop. she carried it with the utmost pride! i'm not going to stop her...

wyatt parker and the frog

pancakes and eggs at a local spot with penny and wyatt today...

tea for two

yesterday i gave dottie a little wooden tea set that i had purchased for a rainy day. it is gray and gloomy in sf this weekend so it was the perfect day for it. i was shocked to find that she was taken by it that she occupied herself playing with it for at least 45 minutes and then later when allie and i went out for dinner on the chair next to us. it is truly amazing to see the changes that she is making daily. here is a picture of her offering us up some tea...

mom's back, dad's away

i am officially back from my trip out east. chuck and dottie survived quite well without me. i returned home to a tidy house, a happy baby, a worn out dog, and the best...clean sheets on the bed!!! when i walked in to see dottie the morning after i returned, she looked at me a little funny for a moment and then demanded to be read a book as per usual. it was as if i was never gone! now, of all things, chuck is out of town for the weekend in portland snowboarding/skateboarding with some friends and dottie and i are having a girls weekend.

as a side note, i will mention that the stationery show was a success, sarah and matt's wedding was a blast, and best of all, our nephew eli is out of the hospital and doing great! several people have asked so i have posted a picture of our dutch door press booth at the trade show.

new kicks

because everyone needs a pair of pink sneakers. right?

family farm at the sf zoo

today dottie and i hit the family farm at the sf zoo. dottie can be quite timid, so it was quite interesting to see which animals she warmed to, and which sent her shaking her head no and running for dad. i'm pleased to report she was only mildly afraid of the baby chick.







after the petting zoo, we wandered around and saw the other animals. dottie liked the bears the best today ( she has a great growl...picture clearing phlegm from your throat and you'll get the idea. ) while she loved the bears, she was quite scared of the bear statue until she figure out that the other children weren't being devoured...finally she decided a big bear hug was in order.

play ball!

dottie, ian, brian, and I went to dottie's first ballgame on sat. despite picking the hottest day of the year in san franscisco, dottie had a great time. she ran around on the kiddie field, got denied from the giant slide for being too short, and kicked in her seat eating a lemon ice.

watch out daddy!

i am on my way to nyc and pittsburgh tomorrow for 7 days and 6 nights, yikes! i will be attending sarah and matt's wedding in pittsburgh and then on to the national stationery show in NYC sunday through wednesday. let's see if dottie pulls out any more tricks like the one she pulled this morning with the toilet paper roll...
(thank you kate, allie, and erin for helping out while i am gone. you are the best!)

it's not easy being green...

...nor is it easy being a mom. kudos to mara for being a wonderful mother, raising a delightful little tadpole, and making it all look easy.



we love you mara! happy mother's day!

- chuck, dottie, and milo

shoes and flowers

last evening we went for wine and cheese at jon, kim, and frances' house. the girls had a really fun time running around together! they both made sure to try each others shoes on and frances was sweet enough to show dottie some basic flower watering techniques. dottie was so pooped from all of the fun that she could only handle one book before bedtime (she is usually insistent upon reading 3 or 4).

spots and dots

we found a ladybug at the park yesterday. dottie was pretty fascinated by it and was happy to let it crawl on her until it flew away.

ikea

last weekend we braved ikea on sunday and thankfully made it out alive. we bought a shelf for dottie's play room which we are FINALLY (after nearly 16 months) getting together. yesterday chuck assembled the new shelf with dottie's help. the first picture is of dottie at ikea trying out a chair that was just her size.

the art of the spoon

up until about a week ago, whenever dottie ate anything smooth, like yogurt, i helped her out a bit by spooning much of it in her mouth. if i didn't, things could get messy AND, chances are she would take the yogurt container and turn it upside down and then play with it on her mat. we have had a major breakthrough! now, i can give her a container of yogurt and she spoons MOST it all in her mouth with not too much of a mess. in fact, yesterday, the yogurt tipped over and spilled and she said, "uh oh" and wouldn't continue eating until i cleaned it up. she's growing up!

yum!

pancakes and eggs with daddy, yum!

giddyup!

dottie's newest obsession. red cowboy boots (on loan from wyatt & malcolm). doesn't everyone need a pair of red cowboy boots?

orange sushi

dottie tried her hand at chopsticks last night at moki's, our local sushi place. not bad for a 15 month old (with a little help from her parents!). now if she could just get it in her mouth...

woo hoo, malcolm!

last sunday, the ricci/godbold's celebrated malcolm's 1st birthday with a little shindig at their place. i wasn't feeling the greatest (due to the mono i recently found out i had) so i stayed home and dottie and chuck made their way over to the festivities. the report back 2 major thumbs up. malcolm sure knows how to party. i honestly didn't think they would ever top the turtle or car cake they have had in previous years but i am thinking they did with this giraffe cake. to see other cakes by this over the top cake person, check out her website. debbie sure knows how to do a cake!