school picnic

the school/daycare dottie goes to had a potluck picnic this weekend that was a total hit with the kids and the adults. it was held at the park down the street from our house and was attended by past, present, and future families of kelly's family daycare. the most exciting part of the party for the kids was for sure the petting zoo they had come complete with alpaca, tortoise, piglet, ducks, bunnies, etc. dottie was a little apprehensive of some of the animals at first but by the end was brushing and petting many of them.

dottie and some buddies tormenting the turtle...


because every turtle needs some grass on their shell


brushing the piggy with sam and anne

kids

dottie and some buddies at a local park



(dottie, sam, carter, and frannie)

a glimpse of the wee one

we got a 3D/4D ultrasound of baby girl #2 today at 29 weeks and 4 days gestation! dottie was excited to join and talked about the baby she saw on the big screen afterwards. she is very excited about the idea of helping rock her, feed her, and even sharing her toys with her. we will see how she feels in 10 weeks... to see some more shots from today, click HERE. (she is estimated to be around 3 pounds right now to give you an idea of her size)

you can see dottie's ultrasound shots from 26 weeks gestation HERE. any resemblance?

the park

san francisco sunday streets

last sunday was gorgeous and we headed down to the mission to check out SAN FRANCISCO'S SUNDAY STREETS which is an event in san francisco where streets are closed to all cars and the bikes and pedestrians take over. the neighborhoods where this event takes place varies but we have been lucky that it has taken place in the mission near us the last 2 times.

dottie opted for her scooter (instead of her stroller) and was excited to run into her friend nola from school who was riding her big wheel. they ran around getting silly together and then we all headed home for a very late nap.

friends

dottie started sleeping with one "friend", her "old piggy", many moons ago, and the number has gone slowly gone up. i think i have mentioned before that she is a collector and this shows just how true that is. she almost does a roll call before going to bed and makes us retrieve any missing items before happily going to bed.

currently she goes to bed with the following friends in her bed:
3 pigggies (2 "new piggies' and the top ranking friend of the group, "old piggy")
2 monkeys
1 owl named "hoots'
"big pig" the large stuffed animal
penguino the penguin puppet
tacky the penguin (a new addition from her grandma in milwaukee)
puppy (another new addition from grandma and grandpa)
3 little plastic figures of: dora, buzz lightyear, woody, and a finger monster who all usually sleep inside of penguino the puppet
and 3 blankets

it's hard to believe there is still room for her but she still sleeps soundly and for about 12 hour a night and 2-3 hours during the day. i am thinking we don't want to rock the boat by saying goodbye to any friends...

just plain sweet

this afternoon after i picked dottie up from school, we came home and decided to read a book on the couch. before we got settled to read the book, dottie patted my pregnant belly very sweetly and said, "i love you baby" and then proceeded to flip through the pages of her book. i am thinking that she is going to like being a big sister...

turkey not chicken!

last week we got together with basak and her girls, lula and adele, for what might be a last playdate before they move to turkey. we had a lovely stroll, ate a wonderful turkish lunch at a local restaurant, ate cupcakes for dessert, and then let the girls have fun on the walk home.

i explained to dottie that lula was moving to another country called "turkey" and the we might not see her for a long time. dottie got a touch confused by the idea that turkey wasn't something that you eat and the whole way home she kept on saying that lula was moving to "turkey and not chicken". silly girl!

milwaukee!!!

we headed to milwaukee last weekend to see dottie's grandma cam and grandpa bill. the trip started as a doozy with a red-eye that got us in at 6:00 in morning. i actually think it was harder on me than it was on dottie. she slept the first 3 hours and was awake for the last hour with her pig on her head not saying a word. the visit was very fun and filled with many ice cream/custard cones, a pontoon boat ride down the milwaukee river, a visit to the milwaukee zoo, cute new sundresses, swimming and paddle boating on lake brittany behind chuck's parents house, a toy story movie night, a visit with our friends the opat's, playtime with jack and chloe (their wiener dogs), fun with ellen (a dear family friend), mosquitos galore, MANY, MANY, many, books, and of course lots of hugs and kisses from grandparents! dottie was in heaven and was very sad to leave. too see even more pictures of our trip, click HERE.

rocco!

last wednesday before we left on a red-eye for milwaukee, dottie and i drove over to el cerrito to finally meet nick and marie's new baby boy, sweet rocco. though dottie was very sad that siena was at school during our visit, she was pretty excited to play with all of siena's very cool toys. she also got to hold rocco which she talked about for the rest of the day after the visit. he is absolutely adorable and we can't wait to see him again!

russian river and the petaluma county fair

the weekend before last, we rented a house up in the russian river with 2 other families (penny/jason/malcolm/wyatt and nasha/jason/roshan) for the weekend. we had perfect weather and had a really great time reading books together before bed, hiking, canoeing, chilling on the beach of the river, making pizzas, and ended up at the petaluma county fair on the way back (very fun but VERY hot!!!). 2 mishaps during the weekend. first was a surprise "dip"/slip in the pool by dottie in her pj's that ended with chuck diving in to rescue her with his clothes on right away. thank goodness there were 3 dads around keeping a very close eye on our kiddies! she was for sure shaken up by it at first but then couldn't stop telling everyone later that she "went in the pool with her pj's on and daddy had to rescue her". the second was a little situation that ended up with our car getting stuck in a ditch. thank goodness for the same dads that figured out how the heck to get the car out. nasha, penny, and i thought we might end up calling the local fire dept. to help up out...

to see even more pictures of our weekend, click HERE.

last week, my friend cathy came for a visit from LA with her hubby andy and most importantly, her son carter!!! cathy is a very good friend i met during my paper source years who i remained in close touch with and as luck would have it, carter and dottie were born just 1 day apart (dottie on the 14th of january and carter on the 15th). it was a quick visit on their way back from a trip to petaluma but so very nice. we are thinking that there is a slim chance that they might be moving closer to us which we are very excited about!!!! it was hard to get a good picture of both of them together... welcome to 2 1/2!

giants county fair!