Family & Earth Day and Sky's haircut

I meant to detail Jules & Judy's fabulous trip to SF sooner but my office has a couple of big Earth Day events so I've been extra busy. Working for Premium Network means that I also work for the Save the Earth Foundation and this year marks Premium's 10 year anniversary working with and running the Save the Earth's Earth Day events and annual auction. This year we had a party on Thurs. and our annual auction of autographed guitars & memorabilia is bigger than ever (www.savetheearth.net).

Ahmee & Baba came up last week from LA. The night they arrived we went to dinner at Mel's, very baby friendly and Sky made it through most of the meal having fun and eating up until the very end when he refused to leave. Yes, he refused and Matt had to pick him up and drag him out of the booth screaming, what a scene, he's so cute almost all of the time but not when he's hurting Baba's ears. Friday Judy & Sky went to tot's gym and the Marina Park, running, playing and having fun in the sand box. Then we all met up at our house and played in the backyard, basketball, baseball and a new Skyler sporting invention that's kinda' like baseball only you hit the baseball on the ground with the bat like hockey, he's still playing it today and someday we hope it has well established rules and is know worldwide .... Saturday morning was our Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building, very nice, met Aunt Andie and hung out, shopped, lunched, then home for a nap. Then after nap time we grilled in our wonderful backyard all of the yummy stuff we got at the Farmer's Market: some great flank steak, heirloom tomatoes with lavender salt, grilled veggies and salad with my fabulous lime & honey dressing. Sunday breakfast at Mel's, pack up J & J's car with stuff for Sequoia and off they go.

Nana is back from LA on Sat night and starting her new job on Monday at Hill & Co., a well known real estate & property management company. She gets to work on one of the cutest shopping streets in SF, Union St.! Lucky Lady!

Skyler's haircut - What can I say, I goofed, botched it, messed it up. I wanted it to be trimmed up for the grandparent's visit but with a squiggly kid it seemed that the little trim finally ended with Sky's hair being quite short. Actually it looks a little like a monk's haircut perhaps even with some other monk who happened to be partially blind doing the cutting. So as you look at his pictures remember (I will not forget these lessons) that it's hard to evenly cut the hairs on a moving object, gel and a blow dryer really can help mask mistakes and even though it's only hair and it will grow back it sure seems like it takes a long time!

Steph

No Me!

That is what you say all the time. Why? Because you want to do "it" all by yourself. "It" can be anything from getting food from the refrigerator, brushing your teeth, getting dressed or undressed as well as a hundred other things - unfortunately picking up your toys is not one of them yet, we'll work on that one. You have mastered both dressing, undressing and taking off your diaper. Thankfuly, you havent tried that in public yet. You arent able to do all the zippers and buttons yet, but you can get the shirts, pants and PJ's on/off like a pro.

Nana's house is near downtown. When you see the Transamerica building, you use your fingers to make a pyramid shape. You always smile when we talk about it and usually say "Now". We know that means that you'd like to see it now, so I told you that when we went home that I would print a photo of the building for you. We "Googled" "transamerica building" and you picked out the photo.

We were playing in the park over the weekend, you can dribble the soccer ball quite well. Ahmee was impressed. We went to the park near our house and I was teaching you how to pump your legs on the swing. I held my hands very high and told you to kick my hands when you got to the top, which you did many times in a row. We will practice more soon, Im certain you'll have it mastered in a few weeks time.

You are speaking so well and you understand everything. It's just so amazing! For example - we set up our BBQ grill over the weekend. Before we started cooking I explained to you that you must be careful around the grill because it's hot. A bit later we were playing basketball and the ball rolled over by the grill. You ran after the ball, but stopped short when the ball rolled near the BBQ. I was so happy that you really did understand exactly what I said. It showed excellent judgement and a sure sign that you were able to comprehend the concept of something dangerous once explained to you. Naturally, I told you how smart and wonderful you are for listening and I thanked you. You were very pleased with yourself too, you had a big smile on your face, as well as saying "No bad boo-boo daddy."

Bahba and Ahmee are arriving this week. I think we plan on going to the Farmers Market at the Ferry building on Saturday morning. We will report back after this weekend. Your mom and I love you, and everything about you.

h&k, Daddy

Pope, Tea Party, Garage Sale -

Pope John Paul II died last week and was remembered on just about every TV station all day and night for a week until he was finally buried in the grotto in St Peter's Basilica this past Friday. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Pope, I'm sure he was a fine man and certainly reached lots of people and strengthened their belief, etc. But I hope the next Pope is not so anti - gay, birth control, women's roles and rights in the church and world, etc. I'm also hate the way they covered up for so long while so many bad men hurt so many little kids (another reason go get some women priests in there!). I hope they all get some healing and peace in their lives. Someday we'll take Skyler to Rome and show him all of the beauty & history of the Vatican - the good, the bad and those creepy old Popes that look like they are wax mannequins in glass coffins - yikes! I guess they've rethought that macabre idea since they don't display them like that anymore. Only Sleeping Beauty and Snow White should be allowed to lay there in a glass coffin for all to see.

Skyler and I had our first tea party! It was so much fun! We had green eggs and ham made of Playdough and sipped imagination Darjeeling from the empty Playdough containers. We had a fascinating discussion about our favorite parks and both agreed that the Marina park has the best sand and jungle gyms but the Golden Gate Park has better flowers & squirrels and is great when you just want to go for a stroll and kick the ball around. We talked about books & movies and decided that movies with at least one mean character are better than the ones that have none. Skyler's newest favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz and he loves to walk around saying "I'll get you my pretty" and then laughing that horrible Wicked Witch laugh (except it's much sweeter in his little voice). She's mean AND green, and that is his favorite combo in 'mean' right now.

Nana got a great new job with a big real estate office called Hill & Company. My mom has the best interview luck I've ever heard of - every time she goes on an interview she gets offered the job! She's been flying back to the LA area the past few weeks to work for her old company ERG and train their new accountant. We've missed her but we get to go to her house and feed her beautiful panther of a kitty-cat Jet. He's a sweetie and Skyler and I love to play with him.

Yesterday we had a huge garage sale - huge in size and the energy it took to put it all together and then pack the leftovers up again (that part is still not finished!), but it was also a great money maker and it helped clear out so much old junk that we no longer need to rent a storage unit. In the ad on www.craigslist.com we said that we had lots of vintage items and an hour before our start time a driveway full of dealers stood around like vulchers waiting for the doors to open. They ended up buying boxes of stuff that we'd love to keep but don't have the room for. We cleared out a lot of junk and clothes but still have enough for another garage sale, hopefully in a few weeks, and really get our piles of boxes down to just what we really want to keep. My mom was great for watching Sky while I unpacked boxes and set everything up - lots of Nana & baby time that they both loved. We were also able to sort through all of the baby stuff we want to pass on to Sequoia (and hopefully get back for our next baby - cross your fingers and pray to those fertility gods!).

Alisha's Chandelier installation: I'm such a Handy Man... I installed her beautiful chandelier and hope that makes up for our conversation last night where I suddenly started saying "Yeah Skyler! You went poo-poo in the potty!" and listening to him squeak about wanting a second bath (kooky kid). I thought she was going to hang up (she said she was going to), but she stayed on the line - she's growing up too!

In between all of the above of course we've done all of the usual parks, playgrounds and Tot's Gyms. Tonight we grilled burgers in our backyard - what a happy house we have!

Steph

Chatter, The Pope and the Potty

It may sound like a bad sitcom, but those are the major noteworthy items that occurred this past weekend.

Yes, you went potty in the potty. Not just pee-pee (which you've been doing for a few months - not regularly, just when we encourage it.) We are definitely on the way to full potty training. You are growing so fast.

Chatter - you can say everything. Much in toddler-speak, but much is crystal clear too. It's quite amazing. You ask "Where are you going?" and "What are you doing?" alot. You we're singing "Row, row, row your boat" today. It was so wonderful.

And the Pope John Paul II died this past weekend. This is a big deal to alot of people in the world, but not to worry, there will be another one on the way shortly. As far as Pope's go, I guess he was a good guy. At least he recognized and apologized for many of the wrongdoings (to put it lightly) the Catholic Church has committed over the centuries. like that the Spanish inquisition was wrong, and Galileo was not a heretic are two I recall off the top of my head. It doesn't remove them from history, although Im sure Galileo is saying "Nyah Nyah nya nyah Nyah!"

Tomorrow is the start of Baseball season. I love you!