dottie & esther's blog!

playdate with jack

2012-01-22T23:42:00.001-08:00

jack and dottie were sweet to include esther in on their playmate this past week...

dance party

2012-01-22T23:13:00.000-08:00

the kids decided to have a dance party post lobster dinner at penny and jason's the other eve.

blue

2012-01-20T16:45:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th Birthday Dottie!!!!

2012-01-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

esther walks!!!

2011-12-22T23:47:00.000-08:00

the minute she was born, esther has decided to do things her own way. she started "scooting" on her bum at around 8 or 9 months, learned to crawl at 13 months (and still preferred to scoot), and now it looks like she has decided to walk (but still might prefer to scoot, who knows!)! she has been playing with the idea over the last couple of weeks taking 5 + steps here and there but we are thinking this might be the real deal.

happy hanukkah!

2011-12-22T23:41:00.000-08:00

out of nowhere, dottie started making a menorah with her duplos yesterday. though she didn't know it, her timing was perfect!

what's wrong with this picture?

2011-12-22T01:33:00.000-08:00

we got a very small tree this year because we will be in tahoe for christmas (we leave tomorrow!!!). after decorating it, we realized it was all in vain. as you can see, esther has been interested in the bottom 2 feet of tree. 4 ornaments broke and we are now thinking that it was crazy to keep on trying. we are now loving our weird looking tree...

advent calendar

2011-12-20T01:01:00.001-08:00

Dottie has been more than excited about the advent calendar my mom and dad sent this year. As a child my brother and I received this same advent calendar (an old Coca Cola crate filled with presents for each of the 24 days before Christmas) from my great Aunt Jackie and we looked so forward to it every night before Christmas. My mom took some of the old toys and trinkets that we used to open and added some new ones and it is just wonderful. We will of course continue the tradition for years to come. I will take a picture of it when all of the presents are open. Tonight Dottie opened two little mini pirates and a parrot! She has been letting Esther open up about 1 of 5 presents at this point. She will need to be a little more giving next year I think...

5 days to go!!!!!

extreme esther

2011-12-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

free standing

2011-12-11T15:33:00.001-08:00

esther made big strides yesterday with balance and was standing for about a minute at a time without any assistance at a birthday party we went to. notice her perfect timing with the music at the end of the video!

sweet reid henry

2011-12-11T15:29:00.001-08:00

the girls had such fun stopping over to hang with reid henry last week. he has grown like crazy (he's 4 months old!) and was very interested in what the girls were doing. esther kept on scooting over trying to give him hugs and kisses!

the christmas list

2011-12-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

I asked Dottie to circle "a few things" in a toy catalog that she wanted to put on her list for Santa. Yikes!

Santa!!!!

2011-12-06T13:36:00.000-08:00

Dottie and Esther couldn't have had more different reactions to Santa this year if they tried. Dottie was SO excited and Esther was horrified. I had to take her out of viewing range because every time she got a look at him, she started screaming! Dottie was so star struck that she couldn't even get the words out to Santa of what she wanted for Christmas. Great outing with Kim, Frannie, and Jane. Santa, lunch, and ice cream cones afterwards while watching ice skating at Union Square.

(Santa looks like he has had a long day in the picture of Dottie with Santa. Poor guy)

esther at 14 months

2011-12-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

We realized recently that we hadn't really mentioned much about Esther's recent milestones and rapidly developing personality. We have decided that turning 14 months old is as good a reason as ever to update you!

PERSONALITY
Esther has absolutely blossomed in the last 1 to 2 months or so. She has really gone from being a baby to a little being who understands directions, can communicate with the words she has ("no" and "more" being favorites ), points and says "there" when asked to point things out, says yes and no about things she likes and dislikes, gives hugs and blows kisses, gets excited when her daddy gets home from work and excitedly goes to him to say hello, the list goes on. It's clear though that she'll be a force to be reckoned with in months and years to come...

FAVORITE THINGS
She loves milk, lions and making roaring sounds (she sleeps with a lion and we can often times hear her in her crib roaring away undoubtedly hugging her furry little friend), sucking on her 2 fingers, the scooter aunt stephanie got her, bath time, biting people (and then smiling like she has done something naughtily), climbing on anything precarious and death defying, our neighbors (sometimes more than us we think), and of course, her big sister Dottie!!

COMMUNICATION
She is still quite the chatterbox. She wakes up chatting to herself and then chats to others all day long. Her list of words is getting longer by the day. Here are a handful of her favorites: mama, no, dada, no, hi, bye bye, no no no, roar, baby, there, no, bottle, dot, no, ball, dog, balloon (butchered of course), and even managed to squeak out a full sentence ( Hi Dada ) recently. She shakes her head like crazy when she knows she doesn't want something and nods her head in favor when she does. Our neighbor has even taught her a bit of sign language which she picked up right away.

PHYSICAL
Esther is still scooting on her bum all over the place and just added the crawl about a month ago at 13 months. She prefers standing to get places but will also turn almost any somewhat mobile object into an impromptu walker ( stools, doll houses, etc) She can now stand for about 6 seconds without assistance which just happened this past week. We will see on walking..it will be a bit yet. We have been told by many people who's children chose to scoot that walking was delayed until about 15 or 16 months.

SIZE
We haven't been to the doctor with her since her 1 year appointment so we don't really know how much she weighs but she is definitely still a bit of a pip-squeak. She is still very comfortable in her 6-12 month clothes and can't be more than 19 pounds or so. She is just taking her sweet time to get into all of those cute 12-18 month hand me down's from Dottie!

FOOD
Esther still isn't that into many foods (but loves milk!). She does like broccoli. Go figure. (Learning from her buddy Malcolm that if you are picky about what you eat, at least make it healthy!)

SLEEP
Bedtime is around7:30 every night...assuming her parents are on top of things, and will generally sleep until 7:30 the next morning. She typically sleeps through the night with the occasional wake up here and there because of teeth, etc. In the past 2 weeks or so, she has actually sleeping in until more like 8:00 or 8:30 but we are sure it won't last. She switched to 1 nap a day right around 13 months and it is usually anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours.

NICKNAMES
Dottie has started calling Esther, "Estie" for some reason. We had always planned on using Essie as a nickname if there ever was one but we will see... I am is still calling her "pants" with some other descriptive word before it like "fancy pants" or "fussy pants" or "crazy pants".

TEETH
2 on the bottom, 1 on the top (she has been waiting for at least a month and a half for the other one..it's just starting to poke through) We're certain the dentist will be a challenge, as she was far more horrified with her sisters trip to the dentist than Dottie was.

IN SUMMARY:

bowling!

2011-11-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was kind of grey around here so were headed to the bowling alley with Penny, Jason, Wyatt, and Malcolm. Esther was actually pretty into it when we let he have some turns and got really excited when she knocked pins down. Dottie was as into it as she has ever been also getting over the top excited when she had her turn. The rainy season is upon us...I am thinking we might be frequent visitors to the Serra Bowl this season!

thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T12:43:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely thanksgiving this year with the Svane's (our next door neighbors) and Allie. Chuck's culinary skills executed an amazingly delicious turkey along enough sides to feed an army. By the end of the evening, we were stuffed and our house was well played in (aka. trashed). Bring on the holidays!

OCCUPY living room

2011-11-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

love

2011-11-23T08:55:00.000-08:00

tooth brushing

2011-11-21T10:47:00.001-08:00

Esther is learning some skills from her big sister.
She has 3 little teeth so far and we are waiting on the 4th! (If you can believe it, she's has had only 1 top tooth for at least a month and the other one still can't be seen)

peek...

2011-11-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

a boo!

field trip to the ferry building with sweet peas

2011-11-15T19:09:00.000-08:00

Dottie's preschool went on a field trip to the Ferry Building downtown yesterday to check out the farmer's marker because they are doing a unit on fruits and vegetables. I was lucky enough to help as a chaperone and because Chuck works right across the street, he came for a bit too. The kids all got assigned a kind of fruit or vegetable that they had to look for in the market and purchase.
This week, they will make vegetable soup at school and have the fruit for snacks.

Vegas!

2011-11-14T23:50:00.000-08:00

Dottie, Esther, and I traveled to Vegas to meet up with Chuck after a business trip this past week. We did it up complete with gondola ride, the circus, a trip to Paris and New York, a visit to the lions, iced hot chocolate at Serendipity, and pretty much anything and everything Vegas has to offer that didn't include gambling. We had a fantastic time but I am pretty sure at the end of it all on Sunday, we were absolutely Vegased out! The kids were so pooped out that Esther slept in until 10:00 this morning and Dottie until 8:30...

A huge highlight of the trip was the constant game of bride spotting which was even more fun because we were there on 11/11/11. They were expecting around 5,00 weddings that day and I am pretty sure we saw at least 400 of the brides. Dottie would shout out, "Mom, there's a bride!!...There's a bride!!...She's so beautiful!". One of them even gave her a bouquet! On our 10 minute gondola ride, we witnessed 2 weddings and an engagement. Vegas is one crazy place!

To see even more pictures of our trip, CLICK HERE.

good buddies...

2011-11-14T23:46:00.001-08:00

dottie and boone.
she still claims that he will be her future husband...
we're pretty okay with that because he is pretty darn cute. she just has to wait at least 20-30 years!

esther and dot

2011-11-06T11:47:00.001-08:00

DOTTIEEEEEEEE

2011-11-04T15:45:00.001-07:00

for some reason or another, dottie insists that all of her "E's" must look like combs.

miss. moustache

2011-11-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

esther was not feeling the love of the moustache at boone's birthday party last night...

halloween 2011

2011-11-01T11:59:00.001-07:00

This year Dottie went out as 2 scoops of ice cream (sadly I couldn't pull it together to make one of the scoops mint chip and unfortunately many people thought she was a cupcake which she was quick to correct them on it!) and Esther was a very cute little pink piggy (she actually even kept the costume on the whole night)!

The whole day was a complete success. Chuck came home from work early so we could all head to a party at Dottie's school and then on to Cortland Street in our neighborhood for trick or treating. We ended the eve with a little hanging out at friends houses afterwards. Esther loved her first lollipop ever and I am pretty sure Dottie has had only 1 or 2 pieces of candy total. The rest she is sorting and sorting and then sorting again. The highlight of her evening (besides trick or treating of course!) was handing out candy at Kim and Jon's house. She treated it like a very, very important job and could not be distracted by anyone or anything.

Too see even more pictures of our halloween, CLICK HERE.

elmo

2011-10-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

have you ever met a kid who doesn't love elmo?

pumpkins

2011-10-27T01:26:00.000-07:00

we stopped by a little pumpkin patch in pacifica right before swim class today to pick up some pumpkins for carving this weekend and snapped this quick pic

curls

2011-10-27T01:22:00.001-07:00

as esther's hair starts to get a little longer, it is looking like it's starting to get a little curly!

sun

2011-10-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

the weather has been unbelievable lately and we have been enjoying not having to bundle the kids up. a rare thing in SF

face painting!

2011-10-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

with ella and erna at noe valley harvest festival

gymnastics

2011-10-13T23:27:00.000-07:00

Dottie recently started a friday morning gymnastics class with her friends Frannie and Maisie (far left in the first picture). So fun to watch to girls tumbling and jumping and balancing together. She loves it and Esther can't wait to be able to take a class soon too! She "scoot, scoot, scoots" all over the mats during the class as you can see in the 3rd picture.

broccoli!

2011-10-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

not sure if she actually digests it but esther sure does like playing with broccoli

neela and ashwin

2011-10-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

We finally got a chance to meet mindy and gautam's new baby girl, Neela, yesterday! She is as sweet and as pretty as it gets. We had a great lunch together and dottie and ashwin (19 months) got the lead out together at the playground before and after we dined.

ONE!

2011-10-04T09:28:00.001-07:00

esther turned 1 on saturday! both sets of grandparents came out for the big day and besides esther being under the weather, we had a lovely weekend. more pictures to come...

stop!

2011-09-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

dottie has been learning about signs and shapes at school this week and she came home with this super stop sign today...

Sewickley visit 2011

2011-09-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

At the end of August, we headed to Pittsburgh to see family and friends. We were thrilled that Tom, Julie, Ellis, and Sadie Grey were able to join for a good portion of the visit so Dottie was in absolute heaven running around with her cousins! This was the first time visiting my parents new house (which was built on the same property as the house I moved to when I was 10) and it was for sure as perfect for my parents as they had said it was! The kids swam, ran around in the sprinkler, created a big piece of art for the "kids room" in the new house, took lots of visit to town, and just had fun being together. We did lots of catching up and I was happy to be able to attend one of my oldest and dearest friend Sarah's baby shower and met several babies for the first time (twins Georgia and Mack, Grant, and Collins). It was a great visit and even the flight home solo with the 2 kids didn't end up being so bad! (Tom was also kind enough to take some pictures of the family in my parents yard similar to ones we took last year but Esther wasn't in them!)

To see more pictures from our trip, CLICK HERE.

"decorating"

2011-09-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

dottie has taken an interest in "decorating" lately. not so sure this will be her calling but we will see...

Midwest visit 2011

2011-09-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

We have been struggling getting pictures up recently because it takes so long to weed through all of the photos taken on any given trip or outing. These pictures were taken at the end of July/early August on our week long trip to the midwest, starting in Detroit, Michigan for Grandma Clara's 90th birthday celebration and ending in Milwaukee at Grandma Cam and Grandpa Bill's house. This trip was especially great because we got to see many people along the way...aunts, uncles, cousins, best friends, ... best of all, Aunt Stephanie and Eli were able to come out the same week we were there and we were also able to see the Linden's again for a day!! Chuck and I also got to sneak away for a day and left the kiddies in Muskego to venture to Madison. We checked out old haunting grounds, got to see some old friends who all happened to be meeting up that same weekend, and see Jeff and Danna who live there. It was a perfectly perfect visit and we can't wait to go back next year!

To see even more pictures of our trip, CLICK HERE.

Aunt MaryAnn, Grandma Clara, and Bill at the birthday luau

The fan getting in the sprit of the luau. I had to get this up just for the sake of wanting people to check out that shirt on Chuck... :-)

Esther

Dottie (cute truck skirt made by Grandma Cam and the red shoes were mine as a 3 year old)

Eli doing a little climbing

On the Amtrak from Detroit to Milwaukee (with a stop in Chicago)

Cousins! (Eli and Esther)

State fair

Cream puffs at the State Fair in Milwaukee

With the Lindens, Aunt Stephanie, and Eli at Chuck's parents house

On the Terrace in Madison

Chuck with Jeff and Danna in Madison

Hello Sweet Peas!

2011-09-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

Dottie's first day at her new preschool, Sweet Peas!
She attended on Tuesday and Thursday of this week and so far she absolutely LOVES it! She came home the first day and said that she, "got to see a real live caterpillar!".

Saying goodbye to our friends & teachers at Kelly's

2011-09-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

3 days a week for the past 2 years, Dottie has been attending school/daycare at a little place that is about 7 blocks away from our house called Kelly's Family Daycare. It has honestly been the best experience with daycare we could have ever asked for. Dottie has loved every minute of it since she started, not even once having tears we leave her. The teachers, Kelly, Dee, tara, Lindsey, and Tracey are all fantastic and provided lots of love and support for the kids and the space is perfect. They even have chickens in the backyard! Every day of the year, rain or shine, they get the kids out and go on an expedition. This might mean a walk to the park or a bus ride to the library. Upon leaving, they gave her a board book filled with pictures from the beginning and a heart filled letter about her growth. Chuck and I both got teary when we read it. She made so many friends (Boone, Maisie, Sam, Sydney, Nola, Lucy, Cooper, Claire, ...) and learned so much that we have had no worries about her starting at her new school, Sweet Peas, this past week.

Lucky for us, they take the kids to the park down the street from us fairly often so we have already run in to them twice!

A quirky tidbit from her time at Kelly's is that the teachers are mostly from other countries specifically South Africa, Ireland, and Australia, ... Dottie has been there for 2 years and I've been asked by many people what her accent is so funny enough, we think she might have picked something up from one of them!!!

A child has to be 18 months or older to attend at at KFD so perhaps sometime after March of next year, Esther will be following in her sisters footsteps...

These pictures are from her last day. Missing from the pictures is Tara who is one of her absolute favorites!
Dottie and Kelly

Dottie and Dee

Dottie and Lindsey

Dottie and Tracey

dottie and her buddy sam

the elmo scoot

2011-08-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

dottie decided to put her elmo slippers on esther the other night

silly sisters

2011-08-17T19:25:00.001-07:00

it's such a joy to watch dottie and esther get so silly together!
pretty funny that their laughs sound so similar too! People always think they are crying when they are really laughing. :-)

who knew?

2011-08-16T18:04:00.001-07:00

a box could be so much fun!

a blue face and a pink eye

2011-08-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

poor esther had pink eye this week but it didn't stop her from getting into mischief with a turquoise marker...

oh poor piggy

2011-08-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

piggy has gone through a lot lately. several weeks ago he spent the night at lowe's and this week after missing for about 4 hours, i headed to safeway at about 11:00 pm and i found him on the pineapple slicer rack right by the bananas and kiwi.

new rule in the house: piggy only leaves for school and trips.

catching up...the petaluma county fair

2011-08-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

about a month ago!
pretty sure the jeep picture is a little peep into the teenage years...

for more pictures, click HERE.
(cute dress on dottie made by grandma cam/ice cream sundae bubble on esther was mine as a baby)

target

2011-08-09T16:24:00.001-07:00

(in detroit)

san francisco zoo

2011-08-05T23:07:00.000-07:00

with kim, frannie, and jane and a chance meet up with boone!!!! i'm looking forward to when esther can run around with the kids too!

for more pictures, CLICK HERE

samesies

2011-07-28T11:55:00.000-07:00

dottie showed up at school the other day and her friend sydney was dressed almost exactly the same as she was. they were just tickled over it and giggled like crazy when they looked at each other...

olallieberry picking

2011-07-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we headed south of the city to go olallieberry picking. it was a little further south than planned but it well worth it we ended with a nice lunch (and a well deserved beer!) in half moon bay with kim and her family. the kids were very into picking berries and we went home with way more than we could handle. had i planned, i might have made a pie or jam like kevin, jim, and bruce. next time!

jane gets the award for the most olalliebierries consumed, and dottie for the least. dottie tried 1 and decided she didn't like them and never ate another one. esther enjoyed them too as you can see from the last picture in our house the next day.

to see more pictures from our berry picking, CLICK HERE

dottie, frannie, and kevin

jane before she was absolutely dripping in berry juice

dottie and esther

"dada"

2011-07-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

i have been a little in to posting short videos lately because it's just amazing how many new things esther has been doing lately. 9 months truly is a wonderful age! chuck has been pretty excited lately because esther says "dada" when he walks into a room...
(i promise we won't post a new video for every new word she learns :-)

dot's first manicure

2011-07-19T23:57:00.001-07:00

on the way home from school today i promised dottie we would pop into a nail salon to have her nails done (her first time getting them done at a salon). she was so excited and planned which colors she would select ahead of time. pink on one hand and green on the other. she was over the moon when we left the salon and kept on saying, "i am so happy, i am so happy, i am so happy..." over and over again. amazing what joy a $3 manicure could bring to a 3 1/2 year old girl!

and the finished product:

a scoot and a shimmy

2011-07-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

maybe not as efficient as crawling but it does the trick...

anytime we put music on, esther does this cute little "shimmy"...

the linden family

2011-07-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

lily (8) and andrew (almost 4), cabin camping, foils dinners, s'mores, 3 ticks (2 on chuck and 1 found on dottie's head), a VERY long hike to the beach, a skunk, santa cruz, huge donuts, big beers, face painting, a log flume ride, the monterey bay aquarium, hammerhead sharks, jellyfish, did i mention lily and andrew?.......................................................

this past week the linden family (dave, julie, lily, and andrew) came for a visit from rochester, minnesota via L.A.. the linden's are long long long time family friends of the mortimore's and "uncle dave" was the best man in our wedding. we honestly had the most fun and jam packed as much as we possibly could into 3 days. we decided to do a little "camping" (in cabins at costanoa) because chuck and dave grew up camping every labor day and memorial day. it worked out so perfectly and the kids had so much fun that dottie has been asking every day since they left if she will get to play with andrew and lily. we miss you linden's!!!!

to see even more photos click HERE

hamming it up...

2011-07-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

and a kiss! not the greatest pictures but fun. the girls were hamming it up with each other after esther's nap today and couldn't stop giggling while they stuck their tongues out and made silly noises. it's really cool to see a fun relationship already developing between the two of them. sisters!

Esther at 9 months

2011-07-11T22:33:00.001-07:00

esther is officially 9 months old and we honestly can't believe it! people told us it would go fast with the second baby but we didn't realize just how fast it would be. it's really crazy that in less than 3 months, she will already be 1. things started out a little rocky with some extreme fussiness but she has ended up being an incredibly easy and delightful baby! she is easy on the go and will hang out in her stroller with a toy and does the same at home with a blanket and a bunch of toys. she is happiest when she is able to watch anything and everything dottie is doing (and dottie loves it too!) and she has the most adorable little laugh that is contagious and sometimes has us all laughing together just hearing it.

9 MONTH CHECK UP
weight: 16 pounds (10th percentile)
head: 44.7 cm (75th percentile)
height: 26.5" (25th percentile)

esther is a bit of a pipsqueak! at nine months, she is still in 6 month clothing which is wild for us after having dottie who started off so big. of course, taking after her mom and dad (and big sister), she has a pretty big head in comparison to everything else.

COMMUNICATION
from birth, esther has loved babbling and talking to herself. she makes all kinds of cute (and mostly loud) noises that sound like she is really testing the waters on language. she can say "mama" very clearly and says words that sound like and we interpret to be "bye bye", "dot", "dada", and "hi". when she gets excited, she coos or screams with excitement and waves her arms and legs all over the place. she waves, claps, and just recently started pointing at things.

PHYSICAL
esther can pull herself up on her knees easily while holding onto something and just today managed to pull herself up to a standing position. she is still not crawling but manages to get from one place to another without any issues by scooting or pivoting on her bum or army crawling on her belly. very fun to watch...

FOOD
esther never took to pureed foods. in fact, it was down right painful feeding her when she started at 6 months because she just didn't want to be fed from a spoon no matter what she was given. she just closed her mouth and wouldn't allow anything in. we decided to just start giving her finger foods which totally worked and now she pretty much self feeds herself everything (except yogurt!). she loves cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, noodles, avocado, black beans, pretty much any fruit, cheerios of course ... we just cut every thing into pretty small pieces and she picks it up and pops it into her mouth. when she is done, she is done and won't eat anything more. a very stubborn and decisive girl and has been from the get go! because of self feeding herself, her pincher skills have gotten really good and she is able to pick up even the tiniest pieces of food on her tray and pop them right into her mouth.

SLEEP
she goes to sleep at around 7:30 every night, wakes at 3:45 almost to the minute to eat, then wakes for the morning at around 7:30 to 8:00. we are still okay with the 3:45 wake up right now because she is such a pipsqueak that an extra feeding is welcome! she transitioned from 3 naps a day to 2 naps a day about 2 months ago. both of her naps last about 1.5 to 2.5 hours each, just depends on the day. as i wrote before, we worked with a sleep trainer when she was about 14 weeks old and has gone down very easily since then. she eats, gets a big hug, and then is put into her crib while she is still awake. usually she babbles for about 5 minutes and then falls asleep. for the past 2 weeks or so, has preferred being put down by me at night sometimes cries for about 30 seconds when i walk out of the room. we have chalked this up to her getting a little more social and wanting to perhaps stay up and see the action! she still sleeps with her two fingers in her mouth and mainly sleeps on her side or her belly.

NICKNAMES
the only nickname that has stuck is "pants". it started with "fussypants" when she was such a fuss bucket and i dropped the "fussy" when she turned the sweet corner. (seems a little like "blanket" jackson i know...:-) we are assuming this name will not stay with her!

TEETH
still still only has 1 on the bottom!

FOUND!!!

2011-07-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

dottie and piggy were reunited at lowe's this morning! he was found halfway under a pillow on the outdoor furniture that we sat down on to test and he hadn't moved since. we were thinking the worst after a call to lowe's this morning turned up nothing but got the best! phew...

poor piggy

2011-07-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

today on a visit to lowe's, dottie's dear sweet piggy went missing. she went to bed with a temporary piggy this evening only on the condition that she is going to wake up and go to lowe's with her daddy at 7:00 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning. if piggy is lost forever, this is going to be a very long and sad week! he has been with her for 3 years and she honestly hasn't taken a nap or slept a night without him. piggy, if you are out there, we are coming to get you and bring you home...

4th of july

2011-07-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

in golden gate park

for more pictures, click HERE

dottie was so pooped after the picnic that this is how she fell asleep on the couch...

the leonards

2011-07-05T23:17:00.001-07:00

luke, laura, and leif (2) came to sf for a visit from minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and dottie is still talking about the fun she had with leif and chuck is still talking about the pain he is feeling from skateboarding with luke. we had a great time seeing them all and even got a babysitter one night while we all went out without kids to enjoy a night in the mission. sadly for some reason or another we didn't get too many great pictures.

how cute it little leif? and odis and b's new puppy walter....

the lone tooth

2011-06-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

you can actually see it now! still no sign of a second one.

music class

2011-06-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

for about the last 10 weeks, dottie (with esther in tow of course!) has been taking a music class after school with dottie's buddies maisie and boone. it is something all three of them grew to look forward to asking every day i dropped her off, "is it music class today?". the music studio is a block away from dottie's school so we all walked down together at the end of each thursday and they danced and sang for 45 very fun minutes. they also got to learn some kind of new instrument every week! the teachers at little music makers, irena and josh, are amazingly talented and write all of their own music and play just about every instrument know to man. we are skipping classes this summer because of busy schedules but we will for sure be back in the fall.

it was also pretty fun watching esther participate every week. the music really captivated her for the whole 45 minutes and from the beginning, she wanted to shake a tambourine, hit a drum, or just bounce to the music!

another party trick for esther...

2011-06-21T10:09:00.001-07:00

CLAPPING!

she is so thrilled with herself that she is clapping that she honestly does it all day long. when she wakes, when she sees people she loves, when she has no toys to play with...

jack and katie's wedding

2011-06-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

over memorial day weekend, we headed to kansas city for jack (my cousin) and katie's wedding. it was a super fun weekend... tom and ellis came from connecticut, my parents came from pittsburgh, of course we got to see my aunt marsha, claire & scott, katie & jack, and lots of family on the o'connor side who it was nice to catch up with.

esther went swimming for the first time ever and many hours were clocked in the hotel pool by ellis and dottie. we also had a fun time checking out kansas city (while the girls took much needed car naps). The wedding and other festivities were perfectly put together and we all had a great time eating, talking and of course, getting crazy on the dance floor!

i will note that time difference worked in the best way possible for us. the girls stayed up quite late while we were there but then unbelievably slept in until 10:30 every morning. chuck and i haven't felt that well rested since dottie was born. yay for hotel black out curtains and time changes!!!

to see more pictures of the wedding, click HERE

problem solved

2011-06-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

esther isn't too interested in crawling yet and has figured out other methods of getting things we try to lure her across the room with.

first tooth!

2011-06-14T13:54:00.001-07:00

if you look really hard (and i mean REALLY hard) on the bottom left, you can see the beginnings of esther's new tooth that popped through last friday. amazingly enough she has not fussed even one bit about it!

ella and erna

2011-06-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

dottie is over the moon to have 2 new friends next door, ella (4) and erna (3...just 1 month older than dottie)!

san mateo county fair

2011-06-12T22:33:00.001-07:00

all i can say is, YES!!!!, it is county fair season again.

today we headed 20 minutes south of the city to san mateo for warmer temperatures (72 instead of 62) and the san mateo county fair.

we enjoyed...
the world's biggest pig, chickens, cows, tractor rides, corn dogs, kettle corn, ice cream cones with rainbow sprinkles, cotton candy, pulled pork sandwiches, fresh lemonade, a fun house, the scrambler, roller coaster rides, fishing for frogs (and the silly mustache glasses prize we won), and of course our friends penny, jason, wyatt, malcolm, jon, kim, frannie and jane!

sadly we did not get to enoy the "zillerator" because the kids were too short!

it was a good day! so good that dottie and esther zonked out within 5 minutes of driving away from the fair.

to see more pictures, click HERE

catalog shopping

2011-06-10T21:46:00.001-07:00

kiki and grandpa come for a visit

2011-06-10T16:42:00.001-07:00

my parents were invited to a wedding in the napa valley in may so we were lucky to get a visit from them in san francisco before and after the wedding. the girls had a ball with them and were sad to see them go but excited that we would meet up again in kansas city for my cousin jack's wedding 2 weeks later...

to see more pictures, of their visit click HERE

longtime friends from sewickley also invited to the wedding so we had a little pre-dinner wine and cheese at our house one evening...

esther's newest trick

2011-06-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

face drawings

2011-06-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

as it turns out, dottie is a bit of a perfectionist. when we suggest to her drawing something, she isn't usually happy with how things turn out because they don't actually look like what she is trying to draw. she then gets frustrated and asks for a little help. lately she has been a little more daring and has started drawing faces. here are a few of her first attempts...

esther meets elle

2011-06-03T00:58:00.000-07:00

i have been doing some serious slacking lately in keeping up with events on the blog! i have a handful of things i need to catch up with and this is one of them. at the end of april, esther and i drove up to santa rosa to see my dear childhood friend jenn festa (now giordano) and meet her new baby girl elle. elle was as darling as darling gets and esther loved meeting another new friend who's hand she could try to suck on. i can't wait to see them again sometime soon and know that elle and esther will become sweet friends as they get a little bigger.

to see fun pictures of us as kids, etc... click here and here

oshkosh

2011-05-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

b'gosh!

first drop off play date

2011-05-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

2 weekends ago, dottie had her first drop off play date with her favorite school buddy boone. she played and had lunch and by the time we got there, was so excited about it all that she didn't want to leave. a big bonus for us also was that chuck and i got a chance to hang out with esther by herself which was really nice and never really happens.

classic

2011-05-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

every time i go in to wake dottie up from her afternoon nap, i am usually surprised to see that she is zonked out in a new dress up outfit or as mentioned before, sometimes absolutely nothing. today was classic.

this is how i found her...
-with a hot pink feather boa on
-in her fairy princess dress
-wearing ladybug wings
-with her hand in a tissue box (with her beloved piggy inside)

say what?

2011-05-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

"ma ma"'s day

2011-05-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

perfectly timed, esther decided to say "ma ma" for the first time today. she even did it when prompted doing a video chat with her grandparents later in the day!

esther vs. the dinosaur

2011-05-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

punk rock dottie

2011-05-07T23:38:00.000-07:00

dottie went pink and green at the grattan school festival today in cole valley

esther at 7 months (and 4 days...)

2011-05-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

future snowboarder

2011-05-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

dottie decided that esther should try out her snowboarding gear today.
she just wanted to eat the boot, not put it on.

out cold

2011-05-05T00:07:00.001-07:00

several funny things about the first photo:

1. dottie is sleeping in a pillowcase which she does regularly and usually just in her undies
2. when i put dottie to bed, parrot (dottie's doll) was wearing esther's old 0-3 month skull and crossbone one piece outfit
3. when i went in to wake dottie up, dottie had managed to pull parrot's outfit on, inside out, and then fell asleep in it (see second photo of dottie still groggy from her nap and not happy that i was snapping a picture)
4. of course the fact that dottie is striking a similar pose as parrot...

easter brunch

2011-05-02T00:53:00.000-07:00

in keeping with tradition, we headed to park chalet with the ricci's and godbolds this year for the second year in a row for easter brunch. what started out as a very rainy morning ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day! it was perfect weather for the adorable yellow easter dresses that their grandma cam made them! there was an amazing spread of food and bottomless champagne which the adults were loving. the kids ran around in the grass for an easter egg hunt and the easter bunny even came for a visit!

to see even more pictures from the day, click HERE.
(missing from the pictures...sandy, sean, tiff and her brother)

penny, jason, wyatt, and malcolm

gigi (pam) and floyd

scott, floyd and jennifer

easter morning

2011-05-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

easter morning we woke up to dottie talking in her bed with her stuffed animal friends about whether or not the eater bunny had come. she was lucky to find out a short time later that not only did he come but he also "had gotten to the grocery store in time to buy the cupcake eggs" dottie wanted (you can see them in the second picture). of course she had fun running around finding the eggs all over the house and made sure to include esther in on the festivities by letting her shake her candy filled eggs like a rattle. dottie's favorite easter gift of the day was her ice cream pj's that she put on the minute she found them in her easter basket. esther was fond her new book as you can see in the pictures.

egg dying

2011-05-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

egg dying was fun this year at easter time because dottie was very into it. she of course loved only the pink and the green eggs we dyed! she had real issues when 2 days later we made egg salad out of the eggs as she had assumed we would keep them in the fridge forever... esther just rolled with it and enjoyed being a part of it all. :-)

food

2011-04-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

food has been a bit of a challenge with esther so far. we have tried bananas, avocado, peas, apples, butternut squash, and of course, rice cereal. we had not had much such with any of the above foods. she is a touch stubborn (perhaps like one of her parents...:-) and she closes her mouth as soon as she sees the spoon with food and won't open it for anything! yesterday we decided to just let her do it herself and see if that made any difference and we tried cheerios as well. as you can see from the photo, she had a little bit of fun with it and we were able to get a little in her mouth here and there! we have decided to just strip her down from now on when we feed her...

the nail polish incident

2011-04-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

today i heard dottie calling for me from her room while she should have been napping. when i went in to check on her, i walked in only to discover her fingers, toes. hands, feet, belly, legs, and just about everything else on her body was very carefully painted with her pink hello kitty nail polish. i had to walk out of the room and take a moment to laugh of course and then came back in "very upset about it" with a camera to take pictures to "show daddy just how naughty" she had been. she explained to me, "i was getting myself a little bit pink on my fingers and toesies". i rubbed her down with nail polish remover and cotton balls and threw her in the tub. through her tears while she was being rubbed down, she was happy to point out that the nail polish remover was pink too. oh boy dottie!

the craziest thing about the whole this is that she didn't get any nail polish on her sheets or anything else except for a spot of pink on the frame of her bed and a little puddle on the floor where the bottle spilled when it fell out of her bed.

grandma cam and grandpa bill!!!

2011-04-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we had a really wonderful visit from dottie and esther's grandma cam and grandpa bill. camille had the opportunity to come out here for a very cool workshop at LIFE LAB in santa cruz (very cool stuff! click on it to check it out) about land based learning. after the workshop, we heading up to tahoe for our annual snowboarding trip with them and chuck, dottie, and grandpa bill proceeded to get the lead out on the slopes. we also celebrated chuck's 37th birthday together.

dottie is getting a little better on the snowboard and only ate a little bit of snow this time around!

to see more pictures of their visit, click HERE.

life is good

2011-04-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

dottie with sladie & rosa
(note: another little pink dress from my childhood that my mom sent. dottie loves it because it's pink and green, her favorite colors!)

baker beach

2011-04-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks ago, the weather was absolutely gorgeous so dottie and i headed to baker beach with kim, frannie, & jane, and jim & kevin (i left esther home because of the heat). sometimes with the in's and out's of our day to day, we honestly forget about where we live and just how lucky we are that we live in such an amazing city where we have so much at our fingertips. going to the beach is something we don't do that often so when we do, it's pretty amazing to hang out on the beach and look up at the golden gate bridge...

dottie, frannie, and kevin

dot and the golden gate bridge

frannie, jane, and dottie

kevin, jim, frannie, dottie, and kim

the perfect pink lehanga

2011-04-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

ian and pooja were just in india for a visit to pooja's family and came back with this gorgeous pink lehanga for dottie. pooja said that several people were involved with the decision of getting the perfect one for her and i am pretty sure they were spot on... pink and sparkly! she loves it so much that for the past week, she has had it in her bed when we got her up from her nap. pooja and ian were over this past saturday night and pooja helped dottie put it on just the right way...

heart hat

2011-04-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

popsicles

2011-04-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

my business partner anna and i both have 2 girls and for some reason it has been very difficult to get together for playdates because of our opposite schedules. as i mentioned before, spring break was last week so we were FINALLY able to pull it together! the girls had so much fun hanging out together and were fortunate that there was a popsicle cart right by the playground for a little sweet treat after lunch.

zayneb (3.5), dottite (3), and aida (almost 6)

dottie and aida

skate betty

2011-04-06T16:16:00.001-07:00

cupcakes...

2011-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

another rainy day activity!

dottie and frannie

dottie, frannie, and jane

wednesday playdates

2011-04-06T16:08:00.000-07:00

over the last 2 months or so, we have been getting together pretty regularly with dottie's buddies carter and rosa and their mom's and rosa's younger sister who is a month younger than esther. it's been a nice thing to look forward to on a day when i have both kiddies and the 3 kids get along great. these pictures are from a day a couple of weeks ago. it was wet outside so we decided to host the playdate here. as you can see, the kids had a ton of fun with the dress up clothes grandma cam made!

catching up!

2011-04-06T16:02:00.001-07:00

we have a bit of catching up to do from the past couple of weeks. dottie (and the rest of SF) was on spring break last week so we had tons of fun with many friends AND grandma cam and grandpa bill!

in the meantime, this photo is of dottie in some overalls that were mine as a child. thanks so my mom who took great care packing them away years ago, dottie (and soon to be esther) is now enjoying them!