Happy Anniversary Mara!

7 wonderful years are worth a cute pair of boots!

ticklish

dottie is over the top ticklish on the inside of her legs and on her neck. the funny thing about her when she laughs is she almost sounds like she is crying. she is definitely laughing in this video...

interesting technique

dottie insisted on drinking with her cup in a basket at lunch today. not sure the technique is the easiest but she didn't spill and she got the job done!

chucks

everybody needs a pair of chuck taylors...

walking home backwards

we shot this last week and i just got a chance to watch it. too cute not to post...

shameless advertising

dottie stopped by to check out our dutch door press booth at ROADWORKS near the center for the book this weekend. is there anything wrong with using our baby to sell a couple of extra cards? :-)

clogging

trying out the clogs at the dutch door press booth...

the urban pool

today was hotter than heck in the city (which means mid 80's in sf!). we don't have a baby pool so we made so with what we had. dottie made herself right at home in the "pools" and didn't want to get out. she even ended up siting down in the water which to me was still pretty cold. she spent about an hour going from one "pool" to the other and then insisted that i stand in the pool for a bit pointing at the green one and saying "yessh, yessssh, yesh, ..." over and over again until i got in.

stones

unfortunately, chuck was diagnosed with kidney stones today so he has been in some major pain. dottie lent a hand and went in for a snuggle (and a little book) with him after he got home from the hospital.

go packers!

as you might know, chuck and i aren't huge football fans but it's always nice to get together for a game here or there to hang out with friends. sunday evening the packers played the bears in a game that actually turned out to even catch my attention during the last quarter. our friends brian and ian came over to watch it and dottie made herself right at home in between them. she loves brian because he has a really cool tiger tattoo on his arm...

dottie the tagger

this past saturday we some friends and their kids over for a simple meal at the house. there were 5 kids (frannie, malcolm, dottie, lucy, and elliot) under the age of 4 running around while we all enjoyed each others company. we were watchful of what they were doing but i guess not watchful enough. dottie caught the naughty bug and drew with crayon on the wall, table, and train board that goes under the tracks. first major uh oh in the house! at least she chose a nice color and the lines were nice and straight on the walls.... (kidding).

paddle boats

the weather has been gorgeous in san francisco this week and we have been trying to take advantage of it by doing things in the city we have never done before. today the plan was row boating on stow lake in golden gate park and it was great fun! our friends jon, kim, and frannie came along as well. the girls had a blast waving to each other on the boats and afterwards (with matching piggy tails) running around and giggling.

next up, biking on a 4 person bike... anyone game?

napa

napa with pooja and ian this past saturday...

Giddy up

Giddy up
Originally uploaded by cmort

Dottie on the Auto-Tune

Dottie is working on a new R&B album.



Check it out!

a nice way to spend the day

yesterday morning my friend lara from my hometown (sewickley, pa) was in town for a visit from san diego. we were neighbors growing up and i was in her wedding, she was in mine... we had a lovely morning together, took a walk up the hill, had lunch at liberty cafe, came home to put dottie down for a nap, and spent the afternoon catching up on the back porch. what a lovely way to spend the day. gabbing with an old friend is the best isn't it? it was the first time she met dottie which was also very nice. dottie was a big fan and insisted that lara hold her hand and read to her instead of me.

mexico 2009

last thursday we returned from a trip to san jose del cabo. we went last august and had such a great time that we decided to return a year later. we stayed at a different place this year which we all enjoyed. our friends pooja and ian came along this time and we really had such a nice time with them. chuck and ian surfed every day and we all just enjoyed relaxing and hanging out together. dottie certainly decided that she loves both of them (perhaps more than us!) and refers to pooja as "poojjj" and ian as "eeen". they were very good sports about being on vacation with a 19 month old and i would have to assume that both of them have at least curious george goes to the beach and clifford's first day of school memorized! dottie brought along her "dora" bandaids which were a help to ian after some scrapes from surfing. she was very happy to share them. lots of swimming, smoothie (and margarita) drinking, chips, guacamole, .....................

after 6 days of major HEAT, we returned home to san francisco going in the 90's for 2 days. very unusual! thank goodness that didn't last too long...

it has taken us a bit to get through the huge amount of photos we took but we have finally put them together into a set. click HERE for a slideshow and HERE for an overview of the set.

first day of "school"

today dottie went to her first day of her new daycare. she has absolutely LOVED having kate as a nanny but we decided as she gets older and more social it will be nice for her to be around a group of other kids. the place where she is going couldn't be much cuter. it's at a home and there are chickens in the backyard, a play kitchen (equipped with a coffee pot that she loves!), an adorable little garden, and a great group of care providers and kids. it is about 6 blocks from our house and the route we take in the morning passes chuck's favorite coffee shop. Chuck loves it! Good coffee = a happy daddy. there can be up to 12 kids there at time and she is going from roughly 9:45 to 4:30 2 to 3 days a week.

she had a great first day and barely glanced at us as we left. so much to check out! the teachers write in a little book every day to let us know how things went. here are a few snippets (this is for the grandparents and our memories): "dottie had no bother w/ mum/dad leaving and pottered around the kitchen, making coffee w/enzo and lucy. v-curious w/our chickens. she did well at sing-song, kinda sat down & jumped up intermittently with a smile. she rode the stroller to the playground, loved the baby doll stroller & did some digging and hiding...........ate a big lunch (picked out her favorite stuff!) and went to bed with no bother. ..............great 1st day!." (the women who run it are south african and british so i am "mum" at daycare :-) when i went to pick her up, she was still napping and had to be nudged awake. long and exciting day. i was very nervous about dropping her off this morning. i am hoping thursday goes as well!