October 22, 2010: Bogey Came Home!

About a week ago, Bogey (our black and white cat) left home in the afternoon and didn't come home. He was missing for almost a full week and finally came home last night. Please disregard the messiness of the background in this video!

Where's Your Nose?

Since it's close to Halloween, I put Annika in a Halloween-themed shirt with a cat picture on it. Right away she realized she had a kitty on her shirt and loved pointing it out.

October 9, 2010: Ardenwood Harvest Festival

Annika and I went to the Ardenwood Historic Farm Harvest Festival with Christine and her son Paul. There was a corn field, cider press, farm animals, pumpkin patch, and many other fun things.

Annika in the parking lot:



Annika loving the pigs:





Annika and Paul:



Annika in the pumpkin patch:

July 20, 2010: Playing dress up

Annika has a new babysitter who is wonderful. Her name is Pati and her daughter is Karen. Annika is happy to go to their house in the morning and is always smiling when I pick her up in the afternoon. Yesterday Karen and Pati dressed Annika up in some very fancy jewelry and took her photo.

Standing and Dancing

Here are four videos. I know it's a lot, but each one is about 20 seconds.

Annika with the Vuvuzela

Happy 4th of July!

We went to the Alameda parade with Annika. They set up the judge stand across the street from our apartment so it's impossible to miss it. Annika fell asleep about 10 minutes into the parade, though.

Grandma and Annika

Annika talking on the phone

I have had 3 phones break in the last year, so I took the batteries out of one of them and gave it to Annika. She kind of understands how to talk on the phone and puts it in the general ear-area and kind of makes noises. Anyway, here's a video of her with her phone.

June 19, 2010: Sandcastle Tournament

We went with Kellie and Jason to the Alameda sandcastle and sculpture contest. They had both a 12 and under contest and an adult contest.

May 12, 2010: Grandma and Annika

This morning Mom spent some time reading in bed together.



Then we all had breakfast and Annika starting making her baby pterodactyl noises:

Annika Eating Corn on the Cob

May 9, 2010: Happy Mother's Day!

My first mother's day was lovely. Julian had to work during the day, so I met up with Kellie and Konami for coffee and dessert and knitting. Kellie was so sweet and gave Konami and me a bouquet of flowers and a basil plant.

When Julian got home from work, he made me dinner. Here is a photo of him and Annika:



First course was a warm romaine salad with corn and blue cheese:



Main course was steak, asparagus, and corn on the cob:



Dessert was grilled pear and bananas topped with ice cream:

May 8, 2010: Capoeira at Lake Merritt

Julian has been taking a capoeira class for a couple of years and every Saturday they meet at Lake Merritt and practice. Annika and Kellie and I watched it yesterday.

May 6, 2010: San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park, and Mission Beach

We used our lovely passes to take the bus to the zoo. It exhausts me just thinking about writing about the zoo, so here are some pictures.









Balboa Park was amazing and I really wish we had had the time to spend a couple days there. Unfortunately, we just walked through it. I guess there is always next time!



Finally, we took the bus to Mission Beach so we could eat at Roberto's. Kellie told us they have the best burritos there, so we had to try them. They were delicious!

May 5: Cinco de Mayo!

I love the public transportation system in San Diego. We were staying across the street from one of the main transfer centers, so we had easy access to the bus and trolley. In SD, you can buy a multi-day pass and then you have unlimited access to bus and trolley. I really wish the Bay Area would do something like that.

Here are Julian and Annika on the trolley platform.



We took the trolley to Old Town for cinco de mayo. We listened to some of the live bands and toured some of the museums.



We used our passes to take the trolley to Gaslamp Quarter and had dinner there.



Annika started smacking her lips last week. I tried to get a good video of it, but she was starting to get really tired. Here is one where she is doing it, but you can see she was starting to lose her good mood at the end.

May 3: Day 2

WIC conference all day.

May 2, 2010: Day 1, San Diego

We arrived around noon on Sunday.



At one of the hotel fountains (Anni has a pickle in her hand, she loves them!):



We took Anni to the pool for her first time. She had a great time and laughed every time her dad went underwater.



We went to Old Town for dinner and heard some mariachis and had dinner. Julian said that Old Town is a lot like his hometown with the plaza and the shops.

May 2: Little Raccoon

I had to go to San Diego for a conference, so Annika and Julian came along and we made it into a family vacation. Annika was well behaved on the flight, even though she was non-stop activity the whole way there. At least she didn't cry! Here is a video of her using her fingers to drink water. It was funny because she usually drinks from the glass, but she spent about fifteen minutes using her hands to get the water.

April 24: Introducing Merlina

Julian's sister had her baby on April 24. It was a long labor and a scary delivery because the chord was tightly wound around Merlina's neck and the doctors had to revive her. Despite this, Merlina is a thriving, beautiful baby.