All of the Above

Wow. This week has been FABULOUS. I can't decide if it's because a) we're on spring break, b) we're back in our casita, c) I'm getting to redecorate. I think it's all of the above. The awesome thing about spring break is that Mark and I both have the same vacation schedules. What can be more fabulous than that? And we have 2 weeks of spring break!!

Sunday-

• Mark ran in Oakland's Running Festival- the 1/2 marathon! Sadie and I went to the sidelines to cheer him on. We had a blast, and loved celebrating with dad afterwards (more pics on this later...)

Monday-

• Moved back into our house.
• Walked to Peet's, went shopping.
• Chilled.
• Had family dinner at my mom's.

Tuesday-

• We went to little farm in the Berkeley Hills- even though Sadie was quite sleepy- it was awesome!! (see piggy video)
• Met my friend for coffee
• Had some good friend over for dinner

Wednesday (Today)-

• Went shopping at IKEA (we had breakfast there too- $7 for three people!)- and made big plans to organize our small space wisely! Sadie loved running around IKEA. She especially loved the kiddy kitchen and snuggling on daddy's shoulder.
• Took afternoon naps
• Went to Dimond Park- had fun chatting it up with neighbors

Thursday (tomorrow)

• Day trip to the beach!

Friday

• Go to Muir Woods (in the Marin Hills, by the coast) with our friend Seth

I love the sun (especially after weeks of cold rain)! I love California! I love my family!

xoxo,
Rebecca

roar!

Here are a couple of new Sadie videos:

Some exciting news- Mark's sister, Claire, had a baby girl this week: Rory Elisabeth! When we told Sadie, she started roaring dramatically! We tried to recreate this moment for video, but Sadie had toned down the drama by that point. We're so thrilled to have a new addition to the family!

Sadie got to go to her first Quinceanera last week! So fun! Happy Birthday 15th Nana! If you watch closely, you can watch the birthday girl walk by in her princess dress- she looked amazing! And the pork tacos were awesome!

This is a typical day in the life of Sadie- dancing, chattering, and playing contentedly with her toys. It's fun for me to watch her play.

XOXO, Rebecca

1-2-3 I loved you vacation! See you again soon!

My vacation was restorative! Who hoo! Let me count the ways-

1. I love people and being with friends, it rejuvenates me. There was lots of social time over break. It made me happy. To name a few...

• Indian food at Mike and Shea's
• Christmas stocking making with Anne
• Hang out with Aaron and Sarah
• Thankgiving with family and good friend Seth
• Apple picking with my family
• Thanksgiving leftover meal with OCC friends

2. Another reason why this was such an lovely break, is that I got a lot of time to create. I made an Advent calendar for my sister's family out of paper. I spent all last Tuesday cutting and pasting tiny figures to complete a wintry scene. It was bliss! If you'd like, I can make one for you too (if you ask nicely)! I also spent yesterday making felt Christmas stockings for our family with my good friend Anne. Again, I got a surge of joy in the creative process. We're not quite done yet, but I got the gist of it, and we should be able to finish up soon. Sadie and Mark's stocking are super cute! Tis the season to create!

3. Our family time was so relaxing over break. Sadie was especially silly and happy over this week. It was nice to play with her. She often breaks out in giggles at the slightest oddity (e.g. dad playing with her toy, dad chasing her, or dad doing something else silly). Having a baby has to be one of the best things in life.

Now it's time to gear up for work tomorrow. I'm going to put on my positive face!

xoxo- Rebecca

ps. pictures to follow, once my new charger comes in the mail!

happy tuesday

okay. my brother didn't like my blog design...so i'm trying a new one. thx for the feedback aaron. i like books, so I thought this would work. Here's a video of Sadie cracking up mid-July. Such a silly baby! She turns 9 months this week. :)

Photo Bomb

I've been a neglectful blogger over the summer. These past couple weeks we've packed a lot in--book club, visiting with old friends, cousins and aunts, chilling with baby friends, and hanging at home. This morning the Anderson clan went to the Ferry Building with Sooz, Matt, RoRo, Ruby, Mom, and my awesome Aunt Ruthanne and cousin Laura. We had a great time drinking Blue Bottle---mmmm my favorite coffee--- and walking around with the napping kiddos. So here's a photo montage....

We hosted book club at our place and made some corn cakes with shredded pork, and a kicking side of beans. This pic is of the day-after leftovers...MMM, yumminess. The food and the conversation with friends definitely overshadowed the book.

Whatever-is-in-the-fridge pizza: Pancetta, cherry tomatoes, marjoram, brushed with garlic olive oil---

MMM, again.

With Polly! Sarah's (Aaron's gal!) sister's baby. We couldn't wait for these girls to meet--they are only a week or so apart. We had a great brunch at my mom's place with the ladies of Sarah's family-- they are so sweet!

I harvested 18 ripe tomatoes from my driveway garden this week. Bliss!

Yeah!!! My BBF Trish came to visit with her baby! We went on a lovely walk. She lives all the way in North Carolina, so I savor her visits out west! She came with some awesome homemade gifts, hair clips and a pillowcase dress with bloomers for Sadie...check out Trish's new Etsy shop here where you can buy super cute girly hair clips for your wee one. Trish's little girl taught Sadie to wave...she's been doing it all day today. She also said "bye-bye" at least 5x!

baby bffs!!!

Good times at the Ferry Building---with grandma here.

Papa Prinz with Roro.

Cousin Laura with baby-toting Sooz.

1 hot mama!

Our family :)

With the crew (sans Mark)

mom, sleeping ruby, and sooz...lovely!

relaxing at home, Sadie helping herself to some water (such a big girl!)

Love this photo of my 2 sweeties!

Baby Love Fest

Sadie loves her baby friends! Here she is with baby K.

Goodbye Week One

As teachers, we have five weeks off during the summer. I know I can't complain. It's absolutely wonderful to have so much time to spend with my little family. BUT it goes by so fast. And of course, summer never seems quite long enough. So today, on Tuesday of week two, it's time to say farewell to week one. It was a pleasant week.

We've been doing a lot of hanging around our casita. We are caring for baby K. K's dad watched Sadie for several weeks this spring, so now we're watching K. Mark and I love to bring baby K in to surprise Sadie after her nap. Sadie always gets a kick out of it and starts laughing. I know she's thinking, "Hey, there's another baby here- how silly!" Baby K would rather not be tormented by grabby Sadie, but it's too cute a picture op to pass up! 

Baby K is really good at taking the bottle. She doesn't spill and gulps it down quickly. Sadie never got super proficient at the bottle. She takes forever to drink it, and spills everywhere. Last week we tried giving Sadie milk in a sippy cup. She drinks wonderfully from it! Goodbye bottle, hello sippy cup.

We gave Sadie some strips of peaches to gnaw on this last week. And no surprise, she loves them! It great to watch her hand-eye coordination develop. She's adept at picking up whatever she wants, and she usually wants things far out of her reach. Again, surprise, surprise! I have a daughter who definitely knows what she wants. I wonder who she takes after...

We had a busy weekend with several social outings. Mark and I went up past Sacramento to Auburn for a wedding of Mark's colleague. Gma Ruff watched Sadie for the night (thanks mom!). We had great fun at the wedding. It was our first overnight trip away from Sadie. On Saturday night Mark watched cousin roro with Sadie, while the rest of the fam went to see the Adrianne and Travis recommit themselves. It was a great time! (BTW Adrianne is a rock star!!) Here's a photo of sooz and me from the night--- 

Sadie has become the little poser! Every time I take out the camera she gets her goony smile. Again, I wonder whose daughter she is?! Also my childhood doll (Strawberry Shortcake) has become one of Sadie's favorite toys. She loves to grab Strawberry's hair!

Hooray for upgraded Internet speed. We cancelled our land line, got a new modem, and a new monthly Internet package. WOW! It takes a 1/4 of the time to upload pictures to my blog. I couldn't be happier!

A New Perspective on Life

Sadie was so much fun this weekend. She's a little social girl, and always can rally if there is a party to be had. Mark went to pick her up from Daddy Daycare with Uncle Lon on Friday, and he reports that Sadie glanced at him, as if to say, "Oh hi its you, I'm going to go back to playing now."

I've been trying to get Sadie to sit up for the past couple of weeks now by strategically strengthening her core and upper body muscles (joking! kinda...) to help her balance while sitting. But to my delight, she started sitting up unassisted this weekend. Yeah for Sadie! She's such a big girl!   

Thanks Aunt Claire for the new toy!

Yummy arm! (This is daycare bud baby K with Sadie. Sadie loves to look at baby K.)

K enjoys tummy time, while Sadie naps. Super cute!

Baby K and Sadie play on the bed.

Philly: Rebecca and Jeremy's Slammin' Wedding!

It's been a long time since I've blogged because we went to Philadelphia for a good family friend's wedding (and then took 3-4 days to recover from the trip). We had a great time, and Sadie especially enjoyed her first plane ride. She did rather well, fussing at times, but sleeping on mama or playing with new friends most of the time. So here's the first installment of my blogging about our 6-day Philly trip...

This is the beautiful church Jeremy and Rebecca got married in-- Tenth Presbyterian Church in Rittenhouse Square (historic, supercute, and hip downtown neighborhood). I talked to Mr. Tom Manns (good family friend) about the seemingly morroccan-inspired architecture. It's a great church...

Rebecca and Jeremy Julien's first dance as a married unit. Their personality was evident at their wedding and reception-- very fun, relaxed, yet well-planned and detailed. As you can see here--they looked gorgeous too!

Smiling Sadie, happy in dad's arms at the reception.

Rebecca, the lovely bride, chatting it up with my mom. I loved this moment.

What a brilliant idea to have a candy bar at your wedding. We all got our fill... all of the many jars were empty at night's end.

Us, sans baby (Some nice doctor man held her for over an hour. We didn't know him, but every one assured us it was okay because he was a doctor. It was great because I was able to eat with both hands free!)

Sadie cutting it up with the men.

Shelly with her son, so sweet.

Tahoe Snow Fun

We had a great weekend! We went with our good friends, Anne and Lon, up to Lon's parent's house in Tahoe for the long weekend. It was a great way to get away to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary (yeah!) and hang out with friends. Anne and Lon have a new baby too! She was born just 5 weeks after Sadie. So, when conflicting nap times allowed, we got out of the house and went for a lovely walk. We had fun watching the Olympics, playing games, making a ton of roasted veggies, tending to our babies' needs, etc... Good times!

Sadie is thinking: what are my parents doing to me?
Twinsies!

Big smiles from Sadie!

At Lake Tahoe's snow beach

Mariposa

On Friday Mark, Sadie and I went up to visit the Pike Family in Mariposa (near Yosemite). This was Sadie's first road trip, and she did rather well. However, I don't think she's a fan of driving at night. The shadows and bright lights dancing around the interior of the car seemed to scare her. She was pacified when I turned the overhead light on-- she stared intently at me for the remainder of the trip home. Pobrecita.
We took a lovely 2-hour walk along the Merced River on Saturday morning. Sadie enjoyed the walk strapped to dad in a Baby Bjorn. She got fussy when dad stopped; she loves any kind of movement (being in the car, her swing, when we jiggle her). I enjoyed chatting with Katie and Pat, holding Tyler's (3 yrs) hand as he chucked big rocks into the river, and watching Sophie (13 months) climb over the rocky terrain to reach the water's edge (she's a little dare devil!).
Mark and I look forward to bringing Sadie on more trips to Mariposa. The chickens and horses to marvel at, creeks to romp in, friends to play with--- what more could you want as a child?

Helicopter Parenting

I love this video of Sadie with her new BFF Katherine. Katherine is two weeks old today; her parents are our good friends Anne and Lon. So, as any good helicopter parent (overprotective and stifling), I've decided that Kate and Sadie will be Best Friends Forever. The girls were born about 5 weeks apart and live less than a mile apart. They have proximity in age and home location working for them- as well as the obvious benefit of sharing a gender. I get excited to think that they could be classmates at Glenview Elementary together-- how fun would that be?I'll keep you posted on how their friendship develops. But I'm pretty sure it's going to be a keeper.

Cheers! Happy New Years! May it be a year full of good times with dear friends!

Dear friends of mine...

Katie and Trish are two friends that I grew up with, and remain my dearest friends. Over the past few years, it's been fun to watch our respective families grow. It's been especially fun that we've each had a baby girl in the past year... triple trouble! So while we've moved beyond harassing our high school youth pastor, I'm glad we still have each other- and plenty of new things to bond over!

Trish and Katie both took the trek to Oaktown and cuddled with Sadie last week.