Visit with Uncle Tony

Wish we could be with him all the time. Dalia (and the rest of us) love him so much. It was a peaceful, great weekend. We got to go to the food carts, a phenomenon that picked up around here after Dalia was born and so we haven't had much occasion to go. Also visited a park on a day when otherwise Mark and I would have tried to distract Dalia with indoor activities, but it was beautiful (the westside is much more beautiful in winter). Spent lots of time with Gigi and Pops and got to see our beloved amigos, The Nevarezes. Mostly just hung out and had fun. It makes me so happy that Dalia gets to have a relationship with my big brother and some time with him before she becomes a big sister.

A couple of originals

Here are a couple of Dalia originals. The first is her rocking to a tune called, "Go Down". I have no idea why she was saying this, but she sounds like she's been listening to some of Mark's more, um, metal type music. The second is a song she wrote as a tribute to Mo Willems' Pigeon (with a hot dog).

faces

Here are a couple of Dalia's faces. She's getting more and more detailed adding hair and ears, sometimes feet. She always makes the expression she's drawing. Also, in this first one, she has written her name. No help from me at all except to tell her what the letters are.

Halloween Sickie

After weeks of Dalia telling us she wanted to be a princess monster for Halloween, our neighbor gave us a Snow White dress. And while she has no idea who Snow White is, she was easily won over by her "princess" dress and had no interest in the awesome combo get up we originally set out to accomplish. She wore her "fancy" shoes and even got a little eyeshadow and lipstick (though after that wore off she wouldn't let me apply anymore). Now, all of this, including trick-or-treating, handing out candy and generally LOVING Halloween, happened with a high fever (of the past four days) and a trip to Urgent Care this morning. She has an ear infection, which I'm happy we are now treating - if we can get her to take the medicine. She was a trooper today despite feeling horrible. Hopefully, next year we'll make the Monster March with her little sister in tow as well. For now, we stuck close to home and didn't have any less fun for it.

Happy Halloween!

Baseball

Well, it's official, Dalia is a Giants fan. She's been exposed to lots of baseball watching the past few weeks, and last night (after having a monumental three hour nap - yes, the girl who doesn't nap) she got to stay up past her bedtime and watch the winning playoff game with us. It was all shouts and pacing and hat wearing in this house. She periodically would shout, "Go Giants!" and clapped and said, "good job, boys!" at just the right time. I truly believe she was watching and waiting as we were. I'm so glad we were both here to celebrate with Mark when his team won the penant. It was super fun. Anyway, I couldn't not post about this, seeing as how this is such an important milestone for Dalia in her Daddy's family. Can't wait for the World Series games. (Although, truth be told, it would be nice to watch something of my own for a change - all this Wiggles and Baseball is making me a little coo-coo. Well, I have until Wednesday.)

pregnant mommy with Dalia

Just thought I'd post some photos of Mommy just shy of 30 weeks pregnant with Dalia's baby sister. Dalia spent the night at her Gigi's house last night. First time away from home or Mom and Dad at bedtime. She did great. Can't believe what a big girl she is. In these photos she is intently drawing Archer and "spelling" his name for his birthday.

San Francisco

We're home from our trip now and had an awesome time in San Francisco and the bay area seeing friends, family and being tourists for Dalia in the city. Before she was born our friend Oralea (who lives in SF) gave us Good Night San Francisco and it's a book she's read since, well, forever. So, she wanted to see all the sites in our book. We drove down Lombard Street, stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge, went to Golden Gate Park (the coolest playground on the planet), saw Ocean Beach (though you can hardly see it through the fog), and the Windmill and had a wonderful meal with Oralea and Matt in their apartment in the city. It was the most fun we've had there since we moved there for a short time over 12 years ago.






Did I mention that San Francisco has the coolest slides in the world. We found this one in Eureka Valley (remembered it from a decade ago, but Oralea helped us track it down).

We also enjoyed hanging out with Aunt Ali, feeding the birds and squirrels in her backyard, Uncle Jimmy, seeing Auntie Guacamole again, visiting with Grammy Karen, having a wonderful evening with our friends Scott and Dana and meeting our newest cousin, Charlotte.






I think Mark left (part of) his heart in San Francisco. We'll have to get back there soon to retrieve it. Until then, we hope our time in beautiful California will stay with us through the new year as we await our new family member.
Dalia is just about the best traveler. She barely fussed, enjoyed the sites, and forced us to listen to nothing else but Casper Babypants (she can now sing all the songs and knows the names of each one).

We came home on Dalia's birthday. My mom was awesome enough to order a cake and bring home groceries so we could have a little celebration for Dalia with Gigi, Pops and Uncle Rob. She's had a week and a half of birthday celebration, ending today on Mark's 40th! birthday with a little party with a couple of friends.






This mom doesn't exactly know what I'm going to do with her all day now that we've had so many weeks of all day funtime. Thankfully, we have lots of new things and memories to keep us busy.