Oops

St. Patrick's Day is coming up so we dig out the decorations from the garage over the weekend. I had my decorations up for way too long last year (think into April) and I swear to you I never noticed this until I put up the banner this year. Me thinks this was probably made in China.



Molly is all about the dogs lately, or as she calls them, "shushes". Guess what everyone in this house is always telling the dogs? Shush! She's still working on Louie's name but she knows "Ella", she just pronounces it like She is speaking in Spanish. Bravo!

Hello It's Me

I still haven't bought a new laptop but I did want to post 2 quick pictures. We're all doing well. In addition to worrying about kindergarten for next year I am now worrying about summer camp and what to do for that. Last year I signed up Patrick for 3 or 4 weeks of summer school, which probably wasn't enough for either one of us. Molly's vocabulary is rapidly expanding, it seems like she picks up a new word or two every day. Her newest words include "appie" (apple), "sippy" (sip), "pree" (pretty) and "bing" (bling). Now who would teach a baby to say bling? ;)

A few weeks ago Patrick went to a birthday party where "the real life Spiderman!" made an appearance. Patrick was in heaven. Spidey was kind enough to pose for a quick picture with his biggest fan.



And Molly continues to be completely stubborn about her hair, despit the fact that it hangs in her eyes when she pulls out her hairclips. Tom held her arms down so I could put in little piggies the other night. She screamed until she could get out the rubber bands. Sigh.

Little Valentine(s)

Happy Valentine's Day! Patrick declared today "the best Valentine's Day ever!". He went to a birthday party this afternoon where they had a jumpy house INSIDE, which just about blew his mind. Add to that a little Valentine present and some chocolates an he was over the moon. We had a nice dinner at home, which even included heart shaped brownies for dessert. Hope you all had a great day too!

Where Did I Go?

My laptop had a small crash last month and while it's somewhat recovered, I cannot load any software on since the CD-ROM drive is completely broken. So no photos, and I know what's what you all come for anyways so I haven't been updating. Bad me. I hope to get a new laptop soon.

So what's new int he last month? I've pretty much been focused full time on Patrick's schooling for next year and the big decision between public school and private school. I've spent way too much time on this, you wouldn't believe the applications for kindergarten. For the private school you even need recommendations! For a 4 year old! It's crazy. We ended up applying to a public choice school that provides a "progressive education", a Catholic K-8 school, and a private K-12 school. We won't hear anything on any of the programs (the public one has a lottery) until sometime in March. I have a feeling my anxiety level will not do down until we sign on the dotted line somewhere.

Patrick is doing well, he has started to do a little bit of reading. He goes back and forth between being really interested and being completely uninterested. I'm trying not to push. Batman, Legos, and Matchbox cars are still obsessions. New obsessions include Barack Obama and Chinese New Years. Go figure. We talk a lot about kindergarten and Patrick seems to be excited, but I am going to miss him so much when he is gone every day.

Molly is stubborn. That's the one word I would use to describe her these days. It is a battle to get her dressed in the morning, to change her diaper, to get her to eat, to get her in her carseat, etc. She loves her big brother and they play together pretty well. Their favorite game is chasing each other around the house. Molly's current obsession is shoes. She likes to change her shoes several times a day, and if you come over she will want you to take your shoes off so she can try them on. I've signed Molly up for preschool in the fall, starting in September she will go Tuesday and Thursday morning, just like Patrick did. I hope it helps her come out of her shell, she doesn't have as much exposure to other kids as Patrick did at this age. And for that I have mommy guilt.

In grown up news, our bathroom remodel is finally completely done. Tom's been busy at work and we're thankful that he's in an industry that seems pretty recession proof. I've been sewing more and cooking more and working on perfection my domestic goddess skills. I have a looong way to go.

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays To You

Once again I have been a neglectful blogger. We've been so busy over the last few weeks, hopefully next week will give us a chance to decompress.

In the past few weeks we...

Visited Santa



Made gingerbread houses at cousin Danielle's



Went to Patrick's preschool holiday sing (in the rain, ugh!)



Celebrated Christmas Eve at Grandma Mildred's



Set out cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer)



Opened presents Christmas morning



Spent the afternoon with cousins and grandparents





And had dinner with Nana and Papa, where Uncle Nick gave Patrick this awesome Batman Big Wheels



And my Buche de Noel turned out fantastically



So there you have it. The last 2 weeks in pictures. Hopefully we'll have some adventures to report on next week :)

Big Science

A few months ago the newly rebuilt California Academy of Sciences opened up in Golden Gate Park. I've been dying to take the kids but I also have a low tolerance for all the crowds a new museum brings. So finally this week I took the kids along with Nana and Papa. I loved the Academy of Sciences and Steinhart Aquarium when I was a kid, so it was fun to see that they kept so many of the original displays. We were all pleased to see our favorites return (mine was African Hall, Nana's was the alligators, and Papa's was the pendulum). If you haven't been, it's a must see. We plan on returning as much as we can in the next year (with our newly purchased family membership).

Patrick finally got to see a complete dinosaur fossil (skeleton?). He's been asking to see one. Here he is in front of the T-Rex, which it turns out has freakishly tiny hands.



Nana and Molly at the touch pool in the aquarium. Molly really, really liked it and probably would have happily climbed right in with the starfish. BYO Purell.



The alligator exhibit had some silly mist being pumped in so they were hard to see. This is the albino alligator. And they kept the art deco seahorse railing from the original building. Very cool!





More Academy pics on Flickr! Plus pics of our Christmas tree, check it out!

And in house news, out bathroom remodel is 95% done. Whoo hoo! We're still missing the quarter round trim tiles for the shower. Never mind that they were ordered the first week in October and we were told they would be in in a week. Don't order tile from Walker-Zanger unless you have nothing but time. The tile won't be here until mid January, so Jo will finish once that comes in. He's still got a few tiny things to do like adding cabinet hardware but we're mostly done. I need to figure out where to put the towel rack, and ideas? Common sense would be putting it under the window right outside the shower, but I hate the thought of covering up that pretty glass tile. I was thinking of maybe putting a train rack style bar over le toilette, like you often see in hotels. What to do?

Broke Down

My laptop inexplicably died over the weekend. It had tens of thousands of pictures on it (someday I will get around to printing some of them) that had mostly been backed up. Tom was able to save me, but it involved completely recovering it, back to the original factory settings. Fortunately he was able to get all the pictures off before he did it (safe mode? I have no idea what that is). So I am back in business with pictures to share.

We had a nice Thanksgiving, Tom took a few days off so we had grand plans for something fun. Instead we shuffled around the house and mostly stayed in. We did get the Christmas boxes down from the attic and went to the Festival of Lights parade. And we'll will get a tree this weekend. Patrick is very excited. I am very nervous. I have a nice collection of Christopher Radko ornaments that I love. I had vivid visions of my lovely but fearless Molly crashing right into the tree and glass flying everywhere. I picture things like this often. Tom tells me it is not normal. I'm not so convinced.

A few pics from Thanksgiving and the parade...











And just for fun, a few outtakes of our Christmas card pictures.






(She's trying to bite him here!)

Be Thankful

Patrick came home yesterday with a little book he made at preschool this week. On each page he wrote something he was thankful for and drew a little picture. Here's what Patrick is thankful for:

• Mommy
• Daddy
• Our house
• A sinking ship
• A ship with a man on it
• Meteors
• Me (as in himself)
• Molly
• Me again

Oh. My. Goodness. It made me laugh so hard. Sinking ships and meteors? Where does he come up with this stuff? How do preschool teachers keep straight faces when they write in these books? This is definitely one that goes in the SAVE box.

In other news, I decided a few months ago that I wanted to learn how to sew again. I used to know my way around a sewing machine and patterns but somehow I forgot all of it. So a few weeks ago I bought a pattern, and some fabric and asked my mom for help in figuring it all out. She was happy to help me, and today, I made Miss Molly this little Christmas dress...



Whoo hoo for me!

Seaside Adventure

We've had goregeous, wonderful, amazing weather over the last few days. Last night while watching the news we noticed that is was supposed to be 80 degrees at the coast today (which is rare even in the summer!) so it was the perfect day for a little trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's one of Ptrick's most favorite places int he world (right behind Disneyworld and Disneyland) and Molly loved looking at th "fish! fish! fish!". It was just one of those wonderful days that makes you happy to live where we do.

Someday Molly will not scream when placed in this clam.



Fish!



Cool Dad Tricks

True Story

Today when I was driving Patrick home from school out of nowhere he asked me "Mama, why is Sarah Palin hot?". Exsqueeze me? "Patrick, where did you hear about Sarah Palin?" I asked. And like he loves to answer me, he said "Mama, I know everything". Further probing did not produce any details about where he heard this so I let it drop for a while. I brought it up again this afternoon and he told me Sarah Palin was "Sean McCain's helper" and that they were running for president. Now we watched every debate at home but I am pretty sure Patrick was not paying any attention to these. A few months ago he started getting excited every time he saw Barack Obama on the TV, but I really don't think he knew there was a campaign going on, he was just excited because he was convinced that Barack Obama was from Morocco. So anyways, I questioned him about it again tonight and he told me he had heard about Sarah Palin from Andrea and Matt. As in my cousin Andrea and her new husband, who we had dinner with last weekend. I know we talked politics but I am confident "Sarah Palin is hot" and "Sean McCain" were never mentioned. I tried hard to contain the laughs. A quick phone conversation with Andrea confirmed that she and Matt hadn't whispered sweet nothings about Sarah Palin into Patrick's ear. So where on earth did he pick this up? I am guessing it had to have been at school today. Why are 4 year olds discussing politics with each other? I imagine he will learn all sorts of interesting things next year in kindergarten. Oh boy.