Sick. :(

Well, we made it 4 years and 1 month without Charli ever getting really sick. Sure she has had colds and sneezes and sniffles, but never the barf in the middle of the night type of sick. I was starting to wonder whether kids still get that kind of sick. Well, now I know. And yes, they do. Just in time for our eggnog open house tomorrow! Hopefully she'll be feeling better by then. She's in good spirits, drinking lots of water, just can't hold down any food. Such a bummer...

Sent home

Well, Charli turned 4 and has started wanting nothing to do with her parents. Here is poor, dejected Brian, home early after being sent home from Kelly's school. Previously when Charli and Brian would go to Kelly's preschool, Brian would stay there. This time, he was instructed (by Charli) to just drop her off and go home. *sigh* Soon it's going to be "just drop me off at the corner" and no kussies...

fd&c something or other

Happy birthday Kate! We loved the ice cream cake (especially the green icing)!

a thanksgiving change

This year we had Thanksgiving at Brian's grandmother's place, instead of Naomi coming to Jerry and Donna's as she usually does. She might be moving to a smaller apartment, so she wanted to have us all over while she still had the room for us! It was cozy, but definitely enjoyable, and Charli and Buster had a fine time.

Buster uses the walker

Charli decorates a cake with Kelly and Katy

Buster has a little nap

Big hug for Grandma when we leave

On Friday we went to the farm to cut down our Christmas tree

and here we all are, Christmas tree cut down and happy as clams!

big four

Charli turns 4! 4 4 4!

awesome cake baked and decorated by Kelly

Charli loved playing this with Grandpa. Not so much with Mom, who makes her follow the rules.

Charli Lawler scooted!

a new do

This was a necessity cut. Charli hates having her hair brushed and put up, and it was so long it kept getting in her food. Fixed that! And so cute, too!

He stands

Just now Buster stood up holding onto my knees, then he let go and stood there for a moment, then he put his hands back on my knees, got back down on the floor, and went his way. !!!

Muffin!

At Charli's school they are now learning how to cook! Here she is showing off her handiwork: a muffin! Mmmm yummy!

halftime

The other day Charli told me she was half Yang, half Lawler, half Stevenson, and half macaroni.

inaugural halloween

We've never taken Charli trick or treating in a neighborhood before, probably just because we're too lazy. I don't think there was much going on right around our condo (for kids, I mean - there's a ton of stuff for adults), and certainly no one comes trick or treating at a condo... There were a lot of streets close by where they do trick or treating, but we just never went. Last year we went to Boo at the Zoo with Bella and Nina, and that was fun - especially since Charli had such an awesome costume! (Hm. I would have liked to link to last year's Halloween post right there, but I see we never put one up. We suck. I'll have to do something about that, a year late.)

Last year we moved into the new house right after Halloween - we closed on the house October 29 and moved in November 2. Brian happened to be around the house on Halloween night, and he said it was crazy! There really are a ton of kids in the neighborhood, and the vendors give out candy on Cortland Ave, and a lot of houses on the side streets do too. We are now one of them! Disappointingly for some of the older kids (but happily for many of the parents), we did not give out any candy. We gave instead stickers and tattoos and activities. I had 272 activities and 1200 stickers and tattoos, and we closed up when all we had left was about 100 stickers (not when the kids were done coming by). Zowie!

This is the pumpkin that Charli carved with Nina, sitting on one of the decorations that Brian made out of our plants. I don't know what the plants remains will look like after we take these apart...

Here's a bad picture of Bella's and Charli's costumes. Charli is refusing to wear her trunk, and you can see a little glimpse of Buster's dinosaur outfit. Nina did an awesome job on Bella's costume (Bella made her own hat), but she does that EVERY year. Isn't it more impressive how great Charli's costume turned out, because I suck at this stuff? Look at those ears!

Brian and Buster stayed at the house to give out candy. That's our bowl of stickers and tattoos early in the evening (we let the kids take several of these, and one activity).

Here's Charli enjoying her costume a little bit more, after Sam came to meet us. We had to bend her ears back because the street was so crowded they kept getting knocked off.

This is a side street past where Cortland is busy, and you can see it's still crowded (although not crowded enough to need bent back ears). Cortland itself is a zoo!

Here's a great costume we saw! There was also a dad who went as a TV, with a working screen that showed his face live - it was so cool!

Charli and Bella stood and looked at this guy for several minutes before slowly getting close enough to get candy from him. They were completely thrown off by the third hand!

Here's Buster's costume, courtesy of my mother! I rolled my eyes a bit when I saw it, but it is absolutely Adorable. I just love that tail! Unfortunately, the zipper pull broke off, so alas, it will get no more use, but it only needed to last for one night.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor

bella is 4

Bella turned 4 yesterday!  To celebrate, we went on a field trip with Bella's grandma and aunt who were visiting.  A lovely time was had by all, especially those who got to eat cake lollipops handmade by Nina!

We rode the BART and the F train to Fisherman's Wharf

Where we went to the Bay Aquarium.  Discounts for Bay Area Discovery Museum members (us) and SF Zoo members (Nina).  Hooray!

The Bay Aquarium main attraction is two giant tanks that you walk through, and some other displays as well.  As you might guess from the name, it focuses on fish and animals that actually live in the bay.

Meanwhile, Buster slept.

The girls snacked on goldfish at the aquarium.  Is that wrong?

Buster eventually woke up and enjoyed the aquarium.  He had the perfect seat, since he could recline and see the tank all around him!

They have a couple of nice touch pools.  This one is a tide pool, and the girls worked up their courage to touch starfish, anemones, and sea cucumbers.  The other touch pool has sharks and rays - the girls were not up to that one, but Nina and I were very impressed.  :)

Then it was back to Bella's house for tacos and cake sharkpops and lollipops (delicious!) and a little bit of gift opening.  We gave Bella a shark shirt where you cross your arms in front of you and that makes the shark's mouth.  So cool!

I think Buster wanted a cake pop, but sorry Buster!  I'm not ready to give you all that sugar yet.  You need to be... 40, like me, and then it's perfectly alright.  You could even eat a few.  :)

Raider's day

Going to the game!

paz y libertad

para los ninos de todo el mundo
queremos paz y libertad
paz, queremos paz y libertad
en este mundo

for the children of the world
we want peace and freedom
peace, we want peace and freedom
in this world

yes, Charli sings spanish hippie songs.

sit

Today was the first time I saw Buster sit up by himself and take both his hands off the floor.  Previously he has been able to move around and then turn over and get his butt on the ground, but he always kept one hand on the floor, tripod style.  No longer!

our tribute to steve jobs

It was only one night!

For Mariposas weekend we decided we would make that a Charli thing - especially since my parents arrived on Friday and I didn't want to leave them all alone for the whole weekend...  So we left Buster with them.

I don't know what they did to him, but when we got home he was really truly crawling (when we left he could barely get a hand-hand-knee-knee combo), and he was babbling, too!  It was only one night!  He wasn't supposed to change that much!  Now how can we ever leave again?

Mariposas weekend

One of the parents at Charli's playschool knows a little vacation spot up in the Russian River Valley, and we planned a weekend for the kids and families to hang out.

The place was great.  There was enough room for 7 families, although we had a bit of attrition due to sick kids. There was also a play structure, a pool with a little kid area, a hot tub, a zip line, a little stage (we didn't use it, and there were rings and a little trapeze up there), a chicken coop, a tree house (didn't notice that until we were about to leave), and some rope things with handles to swing from.  We all had a great time!

See more pictures here: Las Mariposas weekend

And the rope swing in action (I love Kaleya on the side):

Bonding at the Aquarium...

Charli is introducing Buster to some of the more intricate details of marine life at the California Academy of Science. Gloomy outside, sunny inside!

Great Weekend!

After our huge road trip, then a bit of time back, then another trip to St. Louis, and some more time back, we are finally settling back down into being in our own house in San Francisco. And last weekend we took full advantage or our environs to do a couple of cool weekend activities.

On Saturday we drove down the Peninsula to the Purisima Creek Redwoods for an easy little hike. The trail was chosen simply because it was advertised as one where a stroller would work. There were also picnic tables along the way which made for a nice afternoon of eating (a lot) and walking (a little). The mostly second growth Redwoods down there are cool too, big trees. Not friggin' ginormous trees like we saw at Sequoia National Park, but still pretty big.





On Sunday, we had an unbelievable visit to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. What was unbelievable about it was that on this beautiful Sunday afternoon the place was practically deserted! It was great to see all the cool exhibits and, of course, the jellyfish, without having to stand in line or fight a big crowd.



Suffice it to say, it's good to be back...

Corn on the cob...

Buster is already putting his microscopic teeth to work on this grilled corn on the cob. In other news, he has learned to scream. Loud. Hopefully next week's inaugural flight(s) will not showcase this new talent.

Dinosaur National Monument...

We put the camper to the test yesterday with an excursion into the back roads of Dinosaur National Monument. The campground was 12 miles down a gravel road that had some rather frightening switchbacks and some great canyon scenery along the way. This picture is the road back to the 25 mile paved road that led back to US 40. We saw lots of stars last night an I put my hatchet to good use in chopping some firewood from the fallen trees in our campsite. Were it not for the militant bees that took a liking to our dinner, the evening would have been great!

Rocky Mountain Adventure...

On Monday, we left Ft. Collins and finally took real advantage of the fact that we not only have a camper, but we have a camper that can go lots of places. This picture is of our evening adventure hike near our campsite which was about 12 miles down a gravel road in the Roosevelt National Forest, on the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park. Later in the hike we saw a couple of moose too! Korin got the pictures of those, as my phone camera wasn't really up to the task. Then it was back to the camper as the temperature began to dip lower than we have yet experienced in our travels for some hot soup. The camper also has a heater, which kicked in several times during the night.

West Fest Weekend!

As luck would have it, we are in Ft. Collins on West Fest weekend. There is a petting zoo, there are pony rides, and Charli seems to have overcome her fear riding ponies! Our travels through the Wild West have paid off!

"Roughing It" in the morning...

When we camp somewhere with electrical hookups (as we are here in Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Utah) the ideal morning for me, before everyone wakes up, looks like this picture. iPad, plunge pot full of coffee with water that I just heated in that electric hot pot doodad at the edge of the table. The camper, unfortunately, had to be parked in such a way as to obstruct my view of the reservoir that sits behind it, but that'll have to do...

Trying the tent again tonight...

Tonight we are camping at an actual campground without hookups, with some good scenery and a place to put our tent. There is some thunder but we are still going to try to sleep outside without the tent fly and do some star gazing. And when I say "we," I mean all four of us! We'll see how Buster does at sleeping outside. The day was hot today - we saw up to 110 degrees on the car thermometer, but the sun has dipped behind the mountain to our west and the breeze has picked up a bit, for the time being the weather is perfect. AND we have cell phone coverage so I can post this blog entry! Life is good.

Except that somehow Charli keeps on injuring Korin. It's really weird. Just now she stepped on her finger. Earlier in the day she kicked her in the head. Well, hopefully nothing too serious will come of it...

Death Valley detritus...

What is it about deserts that seems to attract old dilapidated contraptions whose functions are difficult to discern from just looking at them. Here is one such device that was sitting at the gas station just outside the park. Gas here cost like $5.60/gallon or something and even though we had more than half a tank we thought it prudent to go into Death Valley with a full tank, you know, just in case. Now we are in the synthetic, air conditioned comfort of Treasure Island in Las Vegas. The good news is I haven't lost any money yet. Te bad news is that after 15 hours here I haven't gambled once.

a confluence of events

Well it sure has been great having Brian home so much.  We go out to lunch a lot, and he has been making the lunch for Charli's play school that we have to make once a week, and he fixes things up around the house...  While I was on maternity leave, I would even go walk around the hill while he ran, so he got me to exercise, too - what a miracle!  We've been having a lovely time.

My parents have been visiting a lot, too, to hang with the grandkids.  They recently bought a new RV (a small one), and drove it out from Colorado.  Then they left for Hawaii for a month and a half, with plans to leave the RV at my uncle's house in Santa Rosa.

Well, heck, say I!  Brian's got nothing but free time, plus some severance pay; I'm not doing anything terrifically involved at work seeing as how I just got back from maternity leave and there's kind of an interim thing going on; Charli is not in real school yet; and we have access to an RV for a month?  Clearly we're going on a road trip!

It took a while for us to get the most important logistic worked out, which was how to get the carseats safely into the RV, which doesn't have any forward facing seats in the back with seatbelts.  After much frustration, Brian came up with the brilliant idea of using rock climbing gear as additional straps, and the car seats are in there facing in the proper directions and solid as rocks.  We took a test trip last weekend (a road triplet, as it were) to an RV supply store a little over an hour away.  It took us all day, and it was awesome!  We stopped for lunch, we stopped to buy diapers because we sort of forgot to bring any with us, we toured some seriously decadent RVs at this RV store after we bought some very important supplies (like lights to hang on the awning), we stopped on the way home to feed Buster...  It was completely relaxed, and Charli could see out the windows and talk to us about all the stuff she saw, and Buster slept most of the time the car was moving.  When we were stopped, Brian lounged on the bed and read his iPhone.  Breastfeeding in a Toyota Matrix with 2 carseats in it = no fun.  Breastfeeding in a Tiger van with 2 carseats in it = no problem!

Of course, we saw this on the way home.  Someone's always got to have a better house on wheels...