Merry Christmas!

We had pretty much the nicest Christmas I can remember. Eloise and Owen looked like Thing One and Thing Two in their matching PJs. Lots of fun for the kids and the grownups. It's fun to get to spend the whole day playing!

getting ready

Somebody asked me yesterday if I was all organized for Christmas. I said "Yes! and I'm only about a week behind schedule!"

Meanwhile, Eloise has been keeping us all in the holiday spirit.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Oh Papa! We love you so much. Happy Birthday!

slumber party

Eloise had her first sleep over last weekend with her buddy Elliott. Check out their super deluxe set up! They each had their own huge air mattress set up in the living room. They got to lay in bed and watch movies until way too late, then the next morning they stayed in their pajamas until the afternoon. So much fun!

cousin central!

We had another great Thanksgiving in Capitola this year. We stayed a few days at the cabin, which we don't usually do. It was crazy jam packed with little kid cousins: Owen (age 1), Mirabella (age 2), Eloise (age 3), Elias (age 4), Madeline (age 5), Arabella (age 5), Miles (age 7). Then skip ahead to the big kid cousins: Isabella (age 12, I think), Rosie and Lizzie (age 15), Willie (age 17), Charlie (age 19). Throw in a handful of grownups and dogs and there you have it!

Firsts

Yay! Owen is walking!
We could tell he was getting ready to walk, but every time we held him up and encouraged him to take a few steps, he would sink to his needs and crawl away while shaking his head "no, no, no". THEN, just when you weren't expecting it, he would come walking by for a few steps. It took me few days to finally catch it on video.

Eloise had her own "first" this week, too. First roller coaster ride! Wooooo hoooooo!!!!

so crazy!

So many things have been so crazy around here lately.
1) It was super hot today! We went to the park after naps and stayed until it got dark. Feels like summer! Except it gets dark at 5:30.
2) Owen is now a unstoppable chair climber. It was pretty cute last week when he was just climbing on his little chair. Now he will climb any chair he can get his hands on. And then he will climb onto anything he can reach while he's standing on a chair (think tables, counters, shelves). He also loves to throw anything he can reach onto the floor. And to top it all off, he can also push any chair where ever he wants to go. Yikes!
3) Eloise is refining her crazy outfits. Here you see her wearing a "regular" outfit, with a tank top over her shirt so that she can carry her "baby" around with her all day.

sit on it, or not

Owen just got this awesome chair as a present from Mana and Pata. Eloise is sitting on her chair next to him. For whatever reason, Owen has yet to sit on his chair. He's been too busy climbing up, then down, then up, then down, over and over again. Then he stands on it a while. Then he tries to rock it like a rocking chair. Then he dose some tricky balancing with the chair tipped up on two legs. Very fancy stuff for a guy who's not quite walking yet!

trick or treat

Or should I say "trick arrr treat". We all had a really fun Halloween with lots of parties and trick or treating. And now we have lots of candy!

Finally - I have time to post a little update about the details of our Halloween....
Owen was originally going to be a witch, but he refused to wear his witch hat. He wore his witch dress to the party at Eloise's school (on Friday). Convenience and comfort prompted Owen to switch his costume to a cozy skeleton for another party (with the families from my mom's group) on Halloween morning and for trick or treating in the evening.
There is still a surprising amount of candy left in Eloise's candy bag one week later. Eloise earnestly expresses how much she likes each kind of candy she tries. Tonight it was pixie sticks... "I like it! It tastes like sugar!"

Oh, Papa!

You would never guess by watching the fun-loving, care-free Papa in this video that poor Matt had a crazy accident last week. He was pouring boiling hot water from the tea kettle into a glass for his morning cup, when the glass cracked in half. All the hot water spilled right onto his foot (with only a sock to protect it). He got a nasty 2nd degree burn (all the skin came right off the top of his foot!).

Eloise has been taking very good care of Papa all week. She helps him when it's time to change his bandage twice a day. Owen always wants to check out what is going on, and it's my job to pick up Owen before he drools on the wound!

jumpy bridge!

This is one of the all-time most popular things at the playground. It's fun for E & O, plus it's a great workout for my quads :)

wagon ride

We took the little red wagon for a test drive down the street today. It was fun! Nobody fell out or climbed out when they weren't supposed to. Tomorrow we may venture all the way to the cafe for muffins! mmmm.

Happy Birthday Owen!

I can't believe little Owen is already 1! We celebrated at the Capitola cabin the day after his actual birthday. By time we drove down there, got settled, and had dinner Owen was ready to turn in for the night. Matt said "we have to sing Happy Birthday now. Owen is about to fall asleep!" I guess that's why little O looks kind of woozy while he's eating his cupcake.

The rest of the weekend was sooooooo nice. The weather was spectacular! Owen decided to act his age and NOT put everything in his mouth. Yay! Eloise had a great time playing with Max. Here they are making a bridge way after bedtime. So much fun!

busy week!

Here we are on our way out the door. Owen likes the bumpy ride when the stroller goes down the stairs. Weeee!!!!!

E L O I S E

Good job writing your name Eloise!

This is what Eloise worked on while I was pulling weeds this afternoon. She announced that she wanted to write her name and started with the "E". I helped her only by telling her what the next letters were. When she was done, she explained that she didn't "know how to make an S very well". But I think the whole thing came out very nicely!

the shrug

Owen has been throwing this shrug around a lot lately. He uses it in response to any "where is..." question. He also uses it to ask questions, such as 'shrug' followed by "brrrrrmm" plus hand moving back and forth on the floor. That means "where's my toy car?"
It's been a nice long weekend for us - having Monday off means a 5 day weekend (Friday through Tuessday) for me and the kids! Owen has been practicing riding a scooter (when he's not practicing walking). Eloise continues to pick out her own outfits, but now she's perfecting her look with safety gear. It never gets boring around here!

kid party!

Eloise's school had a little graduation party today for all the kids that will be starting kindergarten next week. The weather was perfect and we had a lot of good food, nice speeches, a wonderful slide show, and finally - an awesome dance party. Such fun!

mini-heat wave

We had one of those rare (in Berkeley) days over 90 degrees today. Too hot to do anything except sit in the back yard and play with water. Eloise showed Owen all the best ways to keep cool.

interview with Owen

Hear what Owen has to say about dogs, elephants and fish!

more vacation

We spent another great week at Mana and Pata's house. Matt had to go back to Berkeley a few days early, so E, O and I spent more days feeding the fish, etc. We finally came back home yesterday on an airplane (where Owen wriggled in my arms the whole entire flight).
It was a great vacation, but it's also great to be back at home.

vacation

We've been having such a nice, super relaxing vacation! There's nothing quite like the lazy days of summer in Estacada. Eloise and Owen have been spending the mornings playing with Mana and Pata while Matt and I get to sleep in. We've all been spending the afternoons playing on the front lawn, and we have to squeeze in a little time in the hot tub, playing in the creek, and napping every day. So nice!

summer central!

This past week really felt like summer in Berkeley (despite one day that was so cold we had to wear coats and hats to the park). On Tuesday I took E & O on a "field trip" to the vivarium. It was fun! Eloise rode her scooter the whole way there (and almost the whole way back). We had a good time checking out the snakes (Eloise's favorite is the boa constrictor) , turtles, lizzards (Owen's favorite is the baby bearded dragons), etc. Then we stopped to eat bagels WITH cream cheese, mmmmmmmm.
We also had a mellow weekend at home, with lots of time to hang out in the back yard, go for walks, and so on. Good times!

capitola weekend

Nothing says Capitola like a canoe ride! Matt, Eloise and Madeline took full advantage of the perfect weather today. We had a great time at the cabin with Grandma Liz, Susan, Pat, Martin, Melanie, Miles, Madeline and Mirabella. The kids almost outnumbered the grownups, but not quite!

Earlier this week Owen said his first word...more or less. "Do....ahahahahah" = dog + panting sound. He really loves dogs!

and more teeth

All that chewing and drooling finally paid off for Owen. He just got some nice choppers on the top!
Last week was another busy one... Willie came for a visit (Yay Willie! So much fun!) We went to Matt and Rana's 4th of July wedding. I had a nice birthday. Aunt Sally - do you remember the Jello cookbook you gave me for a present in 1978? Well, my mom sent it to me awhile ago. Eloise and I have been having fun looking at it, and we finally made these funny pudding guys. Lots of fun!

Brobee - the love never stops

house cleaning

We usually try to get the whole house clean for the upcoming week every Sunday. Today Matt and I had a little private conference... It was 4 pm. Should one of us take both kids out while the other one cleaned the house? Should we try to set the kids up to play in the back yard while we cleaned? Who would do the grocery shopping?

We decided to play the house cleaning game, which we haven't played in a loooooooong time. First, Matt wrote the name of each room on a piece of paper. Then he put them all in a hat and let Eloise pick them out, one at a time. The first room was the dressing room. Eloise's special job was to get in the crib with Owen and keep him happy while Matt and I cleaned cleaned cleaned as fast as we could. It was a smashing success! Repeat that process for Eloise's room, the living room, the dining room, the kitchen and our bedroom AND grocery shopping. Before we knew it, the whole house was clean and we're ready for the week! YAY!

haircut!

Yes, that's right. Those are Eloise's chopped off braids. YIKES!
Don't worry, her new hairdo is super cute!

Thank you to Matt for doing the actual hair cutting. Last but not least, happy father's day! You are the best Papa!

blueberry feeding frenzy

I've never seen a pint of blueberries get devoured so fast! Owen and his buddy Nate are like a couple of hungry hungry hippos. You can also see Eloise's hand helping itself from the bottom of the screen. YUM!

we love nice weather!

We've been spending lots of time outside enjoying the really nice weather we've been having lately.
On Saturday, Eloise and Owen spent a lot of time playing on the swing while Matt and I spruced up the back yard. On Sunday Eloise said she wanted to go for a long bike ride. We went up to inspiration point and Eloise rode a whole mile! You can see her checking out the half mile marker here.
We've also been chipping away at our vegetable garden. It turns out that the time it takes us to pull the wagon to the nursery, buy a bag of dirt and a packet of seeds, pull it all back home, scoop the dirt into the pot, plant the seeds and water them is EXACTLY the amount of time that we have between nap time and dinner time. So far we have 3 out of 4 pots planted and some radishes have already sprouted!

check it out

Eloise can drive a car! Here she is driving around at school. She really likes to drive cars. She recently informed me that she will be able to drive a real car when she is 5. Wow!
Last week was a busy week with SO much going on - the special "bird show" at Eloise's school, another really great weekend in Capitola (replete with sand playing, surf wading, canoe riding, closet organizing, deck cleaning, burrito eating, hammock laying, etc.), and bbq birthday party for Matt Small and Deb Wolf over at our house LAST weekend. I was dumbstruck when I realized that I had only taken TWO pictures all week. Bad Mama!

on the move

Look out! Owen is crazy tummy crawling all over the place! THERE IS NO STOPPING HIM!!
In other news: Eloise has been dressing herself in crazy outfits! We tried to go for a hike in Tilden Park, but were driven out by monster poison oak plants everywhere!

on the ferry

We were all going to take the ferry to Angel Island for our friend Liz's birthday party on Saturday. Half of our plans got foiled by Owen who decided to wake up (and stay awake) at 5:45 a.m. Instead of having a day together with two or more cranky people, we decided to split up. Matt and Eloise took the ferry to Angel Island and had a great time. Owen and I stayed at home and napped and folded laundry (and had a very relaxing time). All in all it was another really great weekend!

I also want to encourage all of you curious union fans to leave comments on this blog whenever it suits you. I always read the comments to Eloise and she really likes to hear what everyone has to say!

Mother's Day

Another great Mother's Day! We spent the weekend in Capitola with Andrew, Germa and Silas. Germa and I got to sleep in until 9! We woke up to pastries and tea. After showers, we all had a yummy home made breakfast. Then we went out side and I got to make some good progress on cutting up the big tree that fell down. With lots of help from Eloise, as you can see.
A big THANK YOU to Matt, Eloise and Owen for making it such a nice, relaxing and special day. I love you guys!

movies

We gave Eloise a kind of cheapy video camera for her birthday. When she first got it, Matt and I spent some time trying to teach her how to use it, but then it became apparent that she prefers to play with it in other ways (turn it off and on, pretend it's a phone, pretend she's checking her email on it!). I kind of forgot about it, then Matt told me that there are almost 100 movies on it. I finally downloaded the movies and took a look for the first time tonight. I like this one, which she took just this afternoon. It's her most "professional" movie.
You can also check out this one. It is one of my favorites - Eloise had been playing with the camera during nap time. It's a nice little glimpse into her life when she is all by herself.

humongous

Eloise gives us a nice example of circular logic.

cheerios!

Did you ever have one of those days where it takes you 45 seconds to get one cheerio into your mouth? Check out how Owen does it. It's like he just heard of this cool new thing called fine motor skills and he decided to try it out. Good job Owen! I was totally impressed that he actually got a cheerio into his mouth and bit it with his teeth! Yay!

This past weekend Matt found a little wild creature in the creek at Capitola. He decided to clean her up, bring her home and now will try to tame her. Good luck Matt!

shopping list

Yesterday I started making a shopping list. Eloise, of course, decided to make one too. Then Matt got in on the action and showed Eloise how to practice writing real letters. You can clearly see the zig zaggy "W"s and "N"s, a few straight forward "I"s. Then for the grand finale - a great big "E" that Eloise knows how to write all by herself.
And, yes, you're right... they were writing "WINE" on the shopping list. Very cute.

Matt has also cleverly designed what he calls the "Thunderdome" for Owen. It's just a bunch of strategically placed pillows with space for Owen and some toys in the middle. It keeps Owen from rolling under the couch. He likes to get super wiggly in there!

two teeth!

Owen just got these two teeth. About a week or so ago, Grandma Liz noticed some little bumps on his gums. We all thought that maybe he was going to start getting some teeth, then BOOM - all of a sudden, there they were! Yay Owen!
While Owen was busy chewing and drooling, Eloise was busy decorating Easter eggs and having fun going on Easter egg hunts with pals Joe and Silas. Yay for Easter and all the candy! Mmmmm!

the boardwalk!

Wow! We had a really really really great weekend in Capitola. The weather was PERFECT. We went to the boardwalk on Saturday and rode the carousel and other rides, played skee ball, ate salt water taffy and ice cream. Nobody got a sunburn or headache. What could be better?!
I think there will be a lot more Capitola in our future this summer. Yay!

from bad to AWFUL

Poor Owen go SO much sicker last week! Think coughing coughing coughing, crying, not sleeping, doctors, chest x-rays, inhalers, more coughing coughing coughing, fever, crying, not sleeping, doctors, steroids, coughing coughing coughing. Yuck! I was sick with the same thing and I can testify that my lungs have never had so much goo in them before.
It was really an awful week.
I want to give a heartfelt thanks to Germa and Silas for playing with Eloise while Owen and I went to doctors appointments, to Kate for helping us regroup (and clean the house) when the worst was over, and of course to Eloise for being such a trooper and to Matt for holding everything together all week.

To end on a happy note - we're all feeling so much better now.... and happy half-birthday to Owen! You're 6 months old today. Yay!

sad times

We're all sick over here. Cough, cough, sneeze, cough. Look at Owen - he's turned into a stuffy nosed mouth breather. He had one of those nights when his nose was too stuffy to sleep laying down. He needed to be held upright to be able to sleep for a good chunk of the night.
I can't wait for this one to be over!

still teeny

Sometimes Owen seems like he's already such a big dude. Then something like this picture catches my eye and I see that he's still pretty teeny! Eloise too! At their recent checkups I think Owen weighed in at about 15 lbs. Eloise was just over 25 lbs and 35 1/4 inches tall. That means she has to wear high heels if she wants to go on any fun rides at the boardwalk.

sleep in day

What a week! Again! It all started out with an awesome sleep in day for me and Owen (while Matt and Eloise went out and did whatever they do). Then we were off to an awesome gymnastics birthday party. I couldn't tell who had more fun jumping around - Matt or Eloise. Later in the week, Eloise brought this cool tiger mask home from school. Then things went down hill - Matt got a cold and I tweaked my back. Sad times! But only for a couple of days. We're back to having lots of fun again.

at the zoo

Eloise, Owen and I went to the zoo last week with Mana and Patah. It's hard to believe it was a whole week ago! Anyway - we had so much fun! Here's Eloise sitting with Patah, looking at the elephants. Eloise named them (the Elephants) Eloise, Mama, Owen, Papa and the other Eloise.
Eloise also found out that she LOVES rides. We went on the sky train together, and then Eloise went on the airplane ride and the car ride all by herself. She had so much fun on the rides that we decided to take a trip to the boardwalk next month. More rides! Yay!

feed me!

The time has come for Owen to start eating grown up food. Here you see him having his first bite of cheese enchiladas. Oh, I mean rice cereal. He seemed okay with it, but not super psyched.
Aside from that, it's been a busy week. Eloise spent some time singing "Honey Pie" and imitating Owen's smile. We all went for a ride on the steam trains. And Owen spent some time playing with Grandpa and his toes. Lots of fun!

happy birthday!

Eloise is three years old - holy smokes!

What a year it's been. Eloise keeps on getting funner and more interesting to be with. She can put on her own shoes. She knows most of the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make. She's really good at sharing (usually). She LOVES books, going to the library and telling stores. And she learned how to be a really good big sister.
We had a really fun birthday party yesterday. Eloise said her favorite part was the cake. She said she especially liked the "diamonds" on the top.

In other news, Owen has gotten pretty good at turning over. He sure is a wriggly dude!

au revoir...

Poor Ricardo is no longer with us. He got really sick (with a tumor) and while he wasn't in pain, he just didn't really want to eat any more. We'll miss his feisty ways and all his funny quirks. I used to love it when he would wash himself, and sometimes his tongue would get stuck sticking a little bit out of his mouth. He'd walk around looking all serious and bad ass, but with his tongue hanging out like a goof ball. It would crack us up every time. There are so many other good memories of the last 15 years!
I like his expression in this picture from a couple of years ago. He's almost rolling his eyes with resignation while Eloise goes after his tail.
Good bye Don Tardo, we miss you.

robot interview

Meet Henry the Robot. Eloise made him in school!
On Friday, her school had a Robot Show. Everyone was invited to see the robots that all the kids had made. There was a robot dancing demonstration and lessons from some kids from Berkeley High School. And some robot cookies to eat. It was super cool!

See part 2 of the interview here.

mustache fever

Owen finally caught mustache fever. I'm pretty sure that he got it from Eloise. Probably as a result of all the weird cooped up feelings going on around here after a week of rain rain rain.

rainy day

Eloise had A LOT of fun out in the rain today. We walked two short blocks to the cafe for breakfast. So many downspouts! So many gutters! So many puddles! On the way back we had a double whammy of excitement. First, I was so busy keeping an eye on traffic when we were crossing the street that I didn't notice the HUGE puddle that was waiting for us on the other side. Then (right when we were shrieking and running out of the puddle) a big gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out. Eloise literally did a triple take. She couldn't believe it!

hmmmmmmm....

Doesn't Owen look like he's thinking deep baby thoughts?
"Why are my fingers so nice to chew on?"
"Will I ever start growing more hair?"
"What is that crazy thing? Oh, wait, it's Eloise!"

back in the swing of things

Well, we all had a great time over the holidays. Eloise really got into the whole idea of presents, secrets and surprises. After a really fun Christmas in Capitola, we came home for a day, then headed down to southern California for new years. Here you can see Eloise and Owen playing at a park near Sandra's house in Santa Ana. The weather was great! Then we headed up the mountain to spend a few days with Grandma Liz and the Trenholm crew. More fun fun fun!
Tomorrow we start our new routines. Eloise will be going to school and I'll be going back to work. I hope it's not too crazy!