Silly Makayla

I love how Makayla has a mind of her own. If her personality now is any indication of what she'll be like in a few years, she's going to be one super silly girl!

M loves playing with glasses. When I'm wearing glasses, she'll take them off and try to put them on her own head. When I try to put sunglasses on her, she'll flash her crazy smile, take off the glasses, and hand them to me so I can put them on her again. This is M with some play glasses and her crazy smile.


Remember how M got some balloons on her birthday? The cute cupcake mylar balloon is still alive and well, and has become M's new best friend. Whenever she sees it, she gets super excited. Miss Balloon goes EVERYWHERE with her, yes even the bath. You can imagine how difficult it is for us to get out the door- either force M to let go of Miss Balloon and have her throw a fit in the car or let her keep the balloon and risk losing Miss Balloon forever.

Of course, Eric and I are not the only adoring fans. R's oldest son J wrote about M in his school journal this week. How cute is this?!?!



T Minus 88 Days

.. 'til Christmas!  My favorite holiday of the year.  Bummer, I missed t minus 100 days.

You know what else I missed? The beginning of fall.  Probably because it has been so hot here in way-too-sunny southern California; good grief, it still feels like we're in the middle of summer. To kick off the fall season, I would really like to make a very cool wreath, but I think I need to focus on getting the house clean first. Maybe if I meet my October deadline, I'll still have time to make a nice wreath for Thanksgiving.

I Heart Organizing

.. I'm just not that good at it.

First, let me start by telling you about my new obsession with blogs, particularly mommy blogs.  Eric has been super into reading blogs for forever.  Blogs about architecture, cameras, bikes, food, cooking, the environment, outdoor sports fill his google reader.  Let's just say he's a bit more "with it" than I am.

I've recently decided to explore the world of blogs, particularly motivated to find great mommy resources online. I went in search of a few cool mommy blogs.  Surprisingly, the good ones were not so easy to find with a simple google search. I searched, and searched, and suddenly hit the jackpot... Modern Parents Messy Kids .. And for those of you familiar with the blog world, once you find one great blog, the site links you to many more very cool blogs.

I will write another blog about my favorite blog sites, but Modern Parents Messy Kids is still one of my all time favorites. It linked me to another site I love- I Heart Organizing.  This site is so practical and offers both smart and creative ways of cleaning and organizing one's home/life.  It has a post on everything from organizing shoes to organizing receipts. This blog is inspiring me to strive for a clutterfree, clean, and organized home.  I'm making it a personal goal to get this done by mid-November, just in time for the holidays.  I've also decided to document my progress on this blog, so feel free to offer advice or encouragement!

One step at a time.  This week, I plan on cleaning up our messy playroom, starting a Household Binder, and organizing gift wrap. I'm so excited to blog about my progress!

Here is a picture of Makayla from this week:

P.S. Notice this is my fourth post this week. How cool is that?!

July Family Vacation

In July, we made a family vacation out of a wedding we had up in the Bay Area.  The first few days, we stayed with Eric's Godparents in Foster City.  What a jewel of a city-- so peaceful & quiet, perfect retirement community. And their community was beautiful-- they literally have a lake in their backyard!

Makayla enjoyed our tour of the city. Daddy was the chauffeur.

 

Makayla enjoyed her first pancake!

 

Makayla played with Robodog.



We also had a fantastic time at Howard and Elaine's wedding in San Jose. Howard is a very good friend of mine from grade school. He's one of the most hard working and creative people I know, so as you can imagine, the wedding was pretty fun.  

Makayla had a fantabulous time! I love this dress!

We then spent the last two days up in our favorite city, San Francisco. Eric and I used to visit at least twice a year, but we took a SF hiatus when I got pregnant. We were happy to be back in the city and most of all, to share the city with our new baby girl. We checked into the W Hotel where Makayla thoroughly enjoyed bouncing on the Heavenly Bed. 

We haven't even gotten out the door and Makayla's already loving the city.

Our view from the hotel room.

We made special transportation arrangements for Makayla.

Makayla's first MUNI trip.

We typically travel around the city trying out new SF eateries.  The 7x7 magazine offers the ultimate list of best dishes to try in the city. Since we were limited in time, we only had time to visit our favorites. Makayla was happy to pose as our travel gnome.

TARTINE

BI-RITE

MIETTE

FERRY BUILDING-- ACME BREAD & COWGIRL CREAMERY

Makayla was as cute and happy as ever.

Makayla enjoying her spoon at the mall food court.

Makayla was also extremely well behaved on the airplane trips, both on the way there and on the way back. She was super friendly with all the passengers and of course got a lot of friendly admirers, including a water polo team!

Makayla's crazy smile.

Makayla & Mommy

Happy First Birthday Makayla!!

We had a wonderful first birthday party for Makayla! The theme was Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice with little birdies. Eric did a great job with the graphics and our wonderful friends and family helped make the day extra special.

Makayla enjoying her birthday cupcake

Makayla enjoying her birthday balloon cake with Grandma and Auntie.

Lots and lots of balloons.. the balloon guy was a hit!

Awesome balloon guy made M butterfly wings

Of course yours truly forgot that there are eggs in frosting, and baby got hives from her egg allergy :(

Nonetheless she was such a good sport. She was happy, social and loved being passed around!

Eric and I took the day off on her real birthday. We surprised her with balloons and took her to Tortilla Joes at Downtown Disney for a celebratory lunch.

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKAYLA!!! We can't believe you are already one years old! We love you so much!

Blogger app, oh how you've failed me

Why, you might ask? Notice how long it's taken me to make a third post. While I'll have to take partial responsibility, I place the majority of the blame on the blogger iPhone app. A little less than a month ago, I decided to try this app out. I loved the idea of being able to blog while waiting in line for Costco gas or during my lunch break at work. I also love the convenience of being able to add pics from my iPhone directly into the blog. BUT I dislike it's inability to save a post without having to post it. Seriously, who finishes a blog post in one sitting? Ok fine, let me restate. I do not typically finish a blog post in one sitting... And therefore, this blogger app does not meet all of my needs. Maybe it does have the capability of saving a draft of a post and I just haven't figured it out yet. And if this is the case, please let me know so I can issue a public apology to the creators of blogger app and a further complaint for not being user friendly enough for us tech unsavvy users to figure out.

So what has been going on in my life? Lots!! We had a wonderful first family trip up to the Bay Area and Makayla's big first birthday party! But all this goes on a different post under a less whinny blog title.

Update: Ok so the hubster showed me the "save" feature on the app. However if I'm blogging and step away from my phone for an hour, I expect the blog to still be a work-in-progress when I get back, even without saving. Maybe I'm asking for too much.