Weekend in Photos

Apologies for being a little thin on the ground with pictures from this weekend. Most of the weekend was spent on the never-ending task of getting moved into our new house. One day, everything will find its home. In the mean time, we have a lot more work to do.

What happens in the middle of a feed when a certain baby wakes up too early and demands breakfast...

Growing wee toes

Someone likes napping in Mummy and Daddy's bed.

A box of (itti bitti) happiness arrived!

I voted!

Baby plates have been purchased. Solid food isn't far away. Ugh.

When she's had enough playing, Madeleine just lays down and sucks her fingers until we put her down for her nap.

Ohio Recap (Finally)

It seems like ages since we were in Ohio. Ok, it has been ages since we were in Ohio in mid-August. None the less, there are some really special photos I want to share.

We planned the trip at the earliest we possibly could; Madeleine needed her first vaccines before flying, and she could get them as early as six weeks old. Fortunately, the timing overlapped by one day with my cousin and her husband, who was on leave from the Army, and allowed just about all of my immediate extended family to be together to celebrate my grandfather's life.

I will forever be grateful to have been able to grow up knowing my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The history we have together makes our family gatherings so fun!

Without further ado, here are some photos:

Madeleine with her cousin, aunt, and uncle

The whole extended family (absent two)

Four Generations

Bathtime in Grandma's Sink

With Alexandra (the daughter of our friends, Sarah and Rob)

Madeleine and her Great Grandma

Cousins

There are currently THREE more babies on the way for our family! I hope that we'll all make an effort to get together as often as we can (given that we're spread from Seattle to Georgia) so that the next generation knows each other as well.

More pictures of our trip can be found here.

Madeleine - Week 18

Happy Halloween! Madeleine is appearing as a dragon in this week's photo. It seemed the appropriate costume for our year of the dragon baby...and it was a lot simpler (and hopefully more comfortable for her) than a lot of the alternatives. She's certainly happy in it!

Halloween Door

As a bit of relief from all the baby cuteness I've been sharing, I thought I'd show you our Halloween door. Yes, much as Madeleine is the center of our world these days, I try to be true to my promise and share our (or at least my) other interests on the blog as well. 

As soon as I saw this spider web tutorial, I knew I had to have one on my door. I don't think I even knew that the door would be to this house yet. Anyway, one of Misha and my crafternoon projects was to make this fun spider web frame. It was the perfect crafternoon project because it took very little time to complete, leaving plenty of time for chatting. (In the process of preparing my $5 Value Village frame for crafternoon, I learned that I am a complete beginner at spray painting. Wow, I have a lot to learn.)

So here's the frame:

And here are the pumpkins I picked from our garden (daddy, mummy, baby): 

And here is our complete Halloween entryway:

Yes, I tried to spray paint a pumpkin to match the frame. Yes, I still have a lot to learn about getting things that are the right scale for the size of our new house. Ah, well. Just as well we plan to stay for 20 years or so. 

Happy Halloween! 

Bay Area Friends & Adventures

While we were in the Bay Area, we got to visit with several of our friends. George was able to join in the fun over the weekend, but Madeleine and I were on our own while George worked during the week.

We were able to catch up with John and Sally and meet Tom and Will, who are about 7 weeks younger than Madeleine (though Will is already bigger than our wee one). [Remember when we were both pregnant?] I loved every second of our visit, even if it made me wish all the more that we lived closer to one another. And, yes, we are already discussing how these three need to get SCUBA certified as soon as they're old enough.

Will, Tom, Madeleine

Will

Tom

Tom loved the front pack.

Silly Will.

Sally and I got adventurous and packed all three babies into the back of our rental Camry for a lunch out. They all slept through lunch. What good babies! [Tom, Will, Madeleine]

And Madeleine kept sleeping even after we got back.

Madeleine and I also spent a day venturing into San Francisco to visit with my friend, Dagny, who I met studying abroad nearly 10 years ago, and her son, Sam, who is just a week and a half younger than Madeleine. This was Madeleine's first time to be in a city (other than sleeping when George and I had sushi in downtown Seattle), and the initial look on her face was priceless! We had a nice chat and lunch with Dagny and Sam but, unfortunately, didn't take any pictures.

While we were in the City, I wanted to check out a museum. I decided on the de Young mostly because I knew there would be parking (due to its location in Golden Gate Park) and also because I'm a sucker for aerial views of cities. This was Miss M's first museum, and she loved to hear her voice echo through the galleries. For that reason, we didn't stay too long.

Can you spot the TransAmerica Pyramid?

See the Golden Gate Bridge poking out at the right side of the picture?

Riding down from the observation tower

We left the museum so that I could nurse Madeleine before heading south to meet George after work. As we sat in a sunny spot in the park outside the de Young, I reflected on how some parts of life change a lot with having a baby while others aren't so different. Needing to leave a museum for a fussy baby is definitely a new experience, but sitting and reflecting in a sunny spot in a random park in San Francisco is one of my favorite things to do. Just so happens that now I have a little person to introduce to this favorite activity.

The day before we left, Madeleine and I met up with Tracy for a stroll through a shopping center and a snack. Again, it was so nice to catch up with Tracy even though it made me miss the days when we lived in the same city or even cities that were a weekend's drive away.

Tracy & Madeleine

The trip was probably more fun for me than for George given that he had to work during the week. Hopefully, though, Madeleine and I will be able to tag along on some future business trips.