Life at Home...Spring/Summer 2008

Get ready, a whirlwind of life from Spring/Summer 2008 (after the Utah trip, before the big summer vacation).

One fun Friday we had Bring Your Kids to Work Day at Nate's work...and a Kung Fu Panda party sponsored by HP through Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Both events were a blast and Cate had SO MUCH FUN. Especially at the Panda party (blogging has given us some fun opportunities!).

Nate's lab's table at the work event was making ice cream. You shook that ball thing there forever and eventually it turned your milk and sugar into ice cream. And it was really good, to boot.
Anna was having lots of fun, as you can see!
Cate and Dad running near Dad's work...looks like Cate reached the finish line!

Cate got herself a bracelet and ring tattoo combo. Then it was off to the Panda Party...
...where she got a panda tattoo!
She was SO EXCITED to meet the Kung Fu Panda...but then she wouldn't go anywhere near him! But at least she smiled for the picture. (And, no, Jack Black was not inside the suit. Bummer.)
There was a Kung Fun Panda dance that they were trying to teach everyone. Cate watched this forever...and would have watched it the whole time if we let her. She was SO CUTE when she tried to do the dance. I can't explain how cute this was...she just loved it.
Cate got this silly mask in all her goodies...
...and as you can see, we had a lot of fun with it. Scary.



A trip to Big Basin State Park introduced us to our first fantastically huge redwood trees. They are just so awesome. We love this park. It was such a great day. I packed an awesome picnic (if I do say so myself) and there is a very kid-friendly 'hike' through some amazing trees...including the tallest and the biggest trees in the park.



Yes, pearls are a must when you visit the forest.
This shot is taken while we were standing in this tree looking up. It is alive, by the way. So cool.



Here's Nate's birthday...the girls look so happy. I love these little family birthday parties.
This is Nate's super duper lame-o birthday cake. I was going to try to make a big 3-2...but when I started cutting the cake, it was just falling apart. So I turned it into hand-cut cupcakes, which is a lot of work for really lopsided weird looking cupcakes. I recommend using muffin tins.

Our good friends Lindsay & Aaron are from the Bay Area but live in San Diego (we did a little swaperoo). Whenever they come up to visit family, they make sure to see us, which is so fun! We went to a Giants game with them on one of the trips and visited the House of Nanking for dinner in Chinatown before the game. Our car is the Ford Taurus right there. Seriously, LOOK AT THAT PARKING SPOT!!! Right outside the door. A San Francisco miracle.


I took Cate and Anna to a cute little mini amusement park in San Jose called Happy Hollow (it's currently under rennovation...we got in the last week it was open). Cate had a BLAST. They have all these cute little (dinky) rides that she just couldn't get enough of. She was very sad when I told her it was going to be closed for a year. I'm so glad we went!
It looks like that horse is going fast! Love the blowing hair...


I just like this picture.

And this one too.

This is Cate's little friend Addie, who recently moved to Chicago. Cate loves her and was very sad when she moved away. She would say things like, "If Ab-wee (her name is Adlee (sp eryn?!?!), and cate pronounces it very interestingly) moves away, I won't have any friends." It was very sad, but of course she is making many new friends. But we still miss our Ads. Thankfully her Grandma lives in town, so we'll get her for some visits!

Bathtime! Until Anna could sit up on her own, Cate would hold Anna like this in the tub while I washed her. It was so helpful! I love having a little assistant. She's such a great big sister!

I took these pictures of Cate one day when I needed a shot for the food blog. I just love them. I love this one a lot...Cate has been crossing her feet like that since Day 1. She would always do it when she was in the stroller, even when she was a little baby. So cute.




Phew! I'm tired! How about you? Next posts...summer vacation! But right now I'm going to bed.

Utah Trip - May/June 2008

Not long after we moved to Menlo Park, I took an impromptu trip to Utah with the girls. I drove. Yup, alone, with Cate & Anna. It went pretty well, actually...until the end. But overall, I cannot complain. And the visit to Utah was fantastic. So glad we did it! Here are a BUNCH of pictures...

Anne was our sidekick for almost the whole week. It was awesome. She was so helpful, and it was really fun spending so much time with her.

Even though our hotel room on the way to Utah had two beds, Cate of course had to sleep with Anna & I...and they both snuggled up right next to me, so I had about 4 inches of space to sleep in. Oh so comfy. But cute.

On the drive to Utah, it was actually snowing in CA as we passed by Tahoe. It was BEAUTIFUL. Cate was super excited, so we stopped at a closed ski resort so she could frolick in the snow, with her flip flops on. Such a California girl.
Colby and Anna...coupla cute cousins.

Our good friends from Boston, Jeron & Elizabeth Paul, recently had twins! Yea! Anna got to meet Simeon & Ciel while we were in town...the only friends we were able to see the whole trip! They were so sweet and it was awesome seeing Eliz.

One of my favorite parts of visiting family is they live in places that actually experience WEATHER. I sure miss a good storm. We had an awesome hail storm at my Grandma's one morning. LOVED IT. The pictures do not do it justice.

Grandpa Wallin meets Anna!


Grandma & Grandpa Blomquist meet Anna!

Grandma got lots of great cuddle time in with Anna. What a good baby!
Some cute shots of Grandma & Grandpa B...


I love this picture. I will always cherish it because I can just picture how Grandma's hands are moving, taking in her moments with Anna.

Here's our glamour girl...

Cate & Abby decided shirts were optional, spinning was not.

Okay, seriously, how CUTE are these pictures of Abby?!?! That hair! That face!


Apparently Abby has had more practice at applying lipstick...

Thanks to our Utah family for such a wonderful trip! Love you all!

Exploratorium with the Findlays - May 2008

Okay, folks, we're going back in time. I'm going to start posting everything I've been meaning to post for months. I'll just do a little bit each night. I really want to keep this up to date!

Okay, so time travel trip #1...May, 2008. Liz & Dave Findlay come to town with the girls. It was a BLAST. They came and saw our new place one night, and then we met them a few days later at the Exploratorium in SF. We sure miss those guys. Guatemala is TOO far away. Liz, Dave, come back to us!!!

Here are Cate & Lucy (right, Liz?) playing in the cloud column thingy where if you run in circles you can make a tornado with the smoke. The girls totally didn't get it, but they had a blast anyway. LOVE this picture.

Here are the boys giving each other electric shocks. I think they had more fun here than the girls.

Cate LOVED drumming. Couldn't drag her away.

The twins were WIPED OUT and Linda just couldn't take it any more.

Dave's mom, Linda (the original!), was with us, so we were able to get a shot all together. Well, almost. We totally forgot to turn Anna around for the picture. Nice. Our hands were full with screaming toddlers...

But Anna didn't seem to mind...

Picking

Cate's never been one to pick her nose. Recently, though, she's been caught red-handed. I blame it on bad influences from school. She's a responsible picker, though. She always deposits her finds in a tissue.

Tonight Nate caught her picking. She said, "It's really stuck." Nate responded, "You're not supposed to pick your nose." Cate replied, with her nose all scrunched up, "For these hard boogers, that are really stuck, you have to pick them." Nate said the way she said it was really really funny. Wish I'd been in the room. :)

I hate the word 'busy'

I hate it when life gets so busy that I don't get to do the things that I really value and want to do...like update this little blog of ours! I love our family blog b/c it's a record of our family...and I plan to print it out each year, which really motivates me to keep it updated.

That said, I still haven't even posted pictures from our summer vacation! This week is insane, but I am hoping that things will normalize soon and I can start getting some fun stuff up here. Until then, to keep the grandmas happy...here are some very recent shots of the girls.

Cate, our Stanford football fan.

Anna, partying on my 30th birthday. Oh yeah, I turned 30 last week. CRAZY.

First Day of School...Take Two!

Today was Cate's first day of school! Yea! She loved it. Her teachers said she did GREAT. (For those of you who are wondering why we are having another "First day of school"...well, long story short, the preschool we started a few months ago ended up not being a great fit. Good school, just not what Cate needs. She actually said the following: "Are you going to find me a school I'm good at, Mommy?" Our new school is going to perfect...and Cate will be very good at it indeed :) )

Her teachers are Ms. Shirley and Mr. David, and there's another Kate in her class. How exciting! Cate tells me her favorite part of her first day was painting. Sounds good to me!


Here she is ready to go. This is the first time we've done pigtails. On the way home from school she asked me, "Do I look like Hannah?" Hannah is one of her best buds from San Diego...so sweet how they remember each other.


We recently purchased this totally-awesome-amazing-best-stroller-ever double jogging stroller. The plan is to walk the 1.5 miles each way when I take Cate to school. Then I'll pick her up in the car. So far so good. The stroller ruled, the girls enjoyed the ride, and I'm finally exercising again. Did I mention I love the stroller? :)


Here's Cate in front of her new classroom! The school is in a beautiful park and the classroom is full of wonderful things to do.

Anna the Amazing!

Okay, time for a little report on Anna the Amazing!


She really, truly crawled for the first time on Friday - yea for Anna! She's been getting up on her hands and knees a lot the last few weeks and she's been scooting around on her belly like crazy. But she kind of got it all together on Friday. It's so cute. She's not quite to where she is crawling all the time for transportation, but she's close! AND...yesterday she was lying on her stomach...got herself up on hands & knees...and then pushed herself up to sitting. Go Anna!

We went to the first Stanford football game of the season on Thursday night (more on that later), where we discovered that she can stand on her own when she's holding on to something...in this case, the back of the bench we were sitting on.

In addition to her athletic prowess, she's pretty smart too. She was playing with some toy plastic plates of Cate's tonight. I picked two up and banged them together. Then I gave her the plates back and she did what I did. Then I started putting a plate on her head like a hat...it would sit there for a little bit and then inevitably fall. She was laughing like crazy, it was so cute. So, to try to make it even funnier, I'd put a plate on my head as well. After she saw me doing that, whenever I'd put a plate on her head she'd reach up and take the plate off of her own head. What a genius! :) And then she clapped right along with us as we cheered her on.

It's just so fun to watch our little babies grow and start learning things. The plate stuff is so simple, but it really is amazing what it represents, watching their little brains working. It never grows old.

We love you, happy little Anna!

A few more things to remember...

I found another little sheet of paper with notes...better write these down or I'll totally forget what they mean. :)

Cate-ese:
Bedgie: wedgie
Stersty: thirsty
Breckstest: breakfast
Beaufiful: beautiful

When Cate saw my friend Deidra in, oh, January...Deidra was wearing heels. Cate, who had recently received some dress-up shoes exclaimed, "My shoes go up too!" It was really cute. She still refers to high heels as "shoes that go up." On a related note, trying on shoes at a store is absolutely one of her most favorite things to do.

When my Dad was in town back in, oh, March...the following conversation occurred. Cate: "I want to cuddle with you." Mom (Jane): "Why don't you go cuddle with Grandpa?" Cate: "His stomach is too big. Sometimes Grandpas get big stomachs." Note, like Nate, Grandpas stomach isn't big. Cate should be a personal trainer or work for Jenny Craig or something when she grows up. She's a tough coach!

First time Anna rolled over (was from her front to back) was on March 17...the day of Nate's PhD defense. She knew it was a big day, so she followed suit! She did it right before we all left for the defense. It was a good omen of things to come that day. :) A few more Anna things I jotted down...She was SUPER SMILEY early on...definitely by 2 months. She still is. She smiled at everyone who looked at her at the grocery store today. I love it. I also wrote down that she was sleeping 11-12 hours per night at 3 1/2 months...unfortunately our summer travels totally spoiled her! She was always in the same room as me for 5 weeks and in places where she couldn't cry at night...needless to say I spoiled her and now, well, she's spoiled! We're trying to re-train her...come on, Anna...sleep sleep sleep! We still love her, though. :)

One more cutie-patootie Cate thing...in April she always called me "mother." It was so funny. Don't know if she picked that up from the Little Bear books or what, but it was really cute. She kind of stopped, but it still comes out once in a while.

Okay, done!

things to remember

okay, I just found a little piece of paper with funny things cate has said scribbled on it (in both my handwriting and nate's). I'm just going to type them up real quick so I don't lose them. these really are for me more than anything. if you're a grandma or grandpa, you will probably like them too. a lot of them are things I just want to remember that I know I will not one day. I sure wish our brains worked better...

- cate loves "mickey mouse clubhouse" on disney. the main song says "hot dog hot dog hot diggity dog." cate always says, "hot dog, hot dog, hot jiggity joe." and I honestly think she has no idea that she's singing it differently. love it.
- I may have already written this on here, but in case not...cate wants a boy. no, not a brother, no not a dad. her own boy. nate is my boy, we've been told. she also recently started talking about getting married. where is she getting this stuff?!?!
- she heard a justin timberlake song recently (early summer, I think) and said, "Oh! Good songs!" I just think that's funny.
- a little exchange b/t nate and cate. nate: "hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog." cate: "why are you singing that?" nate: "Because it's stuck in my head." cate: "maybe we should go to the doctor and get that out!"
- on cate being respectful of her elders... "daddy, you have an old man belly. it looks like you're going to have a baby soon." in nate's defense, he does not look like he's going to have a baby soon. cate now tells him all the time that he has an old man belly, I think mostly because she gets such a good reaction out of us. kids.
- there is a little boy at church a few years older than cate that she is in love with. one sunday she spotted him in church and kept talking about him all through the service. "mommy, jeron's looking at me!" and the like. one day she told me these exact words: "I love Jeron. Jeron's the best. I just love him." scary.

I am SO LAME...I need to post!!!

Okay, I know I'm totally lame for not posting ANYTHING for AGES. I have a zillion pictures to share and I've started getting them ready. Until then...

Tonight we went to a BBQ with everyone from Nate's lab. Markus (our friend and Nate's boss) was feeding Cate and Peter (Markus' son) watermelon. They looked like little birds...crazy frantic little birds who obviously have not learned the term "personal space." It was really funny and Markus was a good sport. So, Cate points at a huge piece of watermelon in the bowl and says, "Markus, I want that piece." Markus says, "Cate that one is REALLY big." To which Cate replies, "I have a big mouth."