January round-up

Natalie is going through a, uh, less restful phase at night, so most early evenings find me too tired to blog (and most early mornings find one of us curled up on the carpet - or, "the fuzzies", as she calls it - in her room. But that's another story).

Anyway, so we've been doing things, but I have been sort of neglecting writing about them.

First, though - a post-script on our time in San Diego. I have two cute animal-related stories that I forgot to share earlier. First, once my aunt and uncle's dog (Pumpkin) was resting on the couch at my grandmother's house, and the dog sort of scooted so his tummy was exposed, hoping for a belly rub. Natalie found this HI-LARIOUS, and kept saying "Pumpkin upside down, Pumpkin upside down" over and over. So cute! Second, one day we walked down by the part of town where you can see the seals resting on the beach. The seals were actually being quite noisy that morning. We asked Natalie if she wanted to talk to the seals and maybe tell them about what she'd had for breakfast, and she barked out "Aaaar, arrrr, watermelon yummy, aarrrroo." Who knew the kid could speak seal?

Back in the (seal-free) present, we had a pretty serious rainstorm here last week. So serious, in fact, that the reservoir-lake near us came up five feet! It's great, we need the rain, and Natalie is well-equipped!

On the subject of sunny days, here she is "playing picnic" (which just involves spreading out all over the floor any and all blankets, washcloths, changing pads, etc. that she can find), going for a walk, and trying out some sunglasses.

We've also had a festive month! First, it was Felix's birthday! 

Second, Mike and I went to the very lovely wedding of a former co-worker of mine.

We've been cooking some, too. Last weekend I made a lighter version of this butternut squash and wild mushroom bread pudding. It was a fair amount of work to assemble all the parts. But it was also really, really good.

Mike's also been on a bread kick, making his own naan and pita breads. Pictures to follow!

Last, Natalie's school had a "Texas Shabbat". We're still unclear as to exactly what was different from a regular shabbat, other than that the kids all dressed up. But, hey, that was pretty dern cute!

Also, I do not know the name of this rodeo event, but our cowgirl has it down.

In closing, here is a shot of Natalie in her pajamas. Sleep tight!

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, we're trying to get all our routines re-established. It's been a strange few weeks with me back at work (and very busy), but Mike not working, and Natalie re-adjusting to her school after the extended holiday break.

Some days, it's hard just to change out of your pajamas, you know?

But, seriously, things are going well on all fronts. We've been going to the park a lot lately (this being the season of (mostly) reasonable weather here).

We play inside, too.

And here's Natalie playing with / wearing Daddy's shirt and discussing her job as a professor (and, yes, she even gives a discipline!).


One last photo of big girl outside:

San Diego

We're back from San Diego, and we had a lovely time. So lovely, in fact, that I managed to check out and forget to take some great pictures of all of us in my grandmother's living room, the four generations together, and the lovely Chanukah party with our good friends. What can I say? You get what you pay for, I guess!

But have no fear, I do have some pictures and stories!

The crew:

Coffeecake

Natalie helping Pumpkin open his present.

"Who's Pumpkin?" you ask. This is Pumpkin:

Pumpkin belongs to my aunt and uncle who live in San Francisco. This was Natalie's first real prolonged encounter with a dog in the same house. We discovered that two year-olds and puppies are pretty evenly matched - at least in their ability to create havoc! But, seriously, Natalie loved Pumpkin. Whenever Pumpkin wasn't near or was sleeping, Natalie wanted to go see and play with him. But then, when Pumpkin would show any interest at all in her, she'd turn and run, screeching and laughing joyously and demand to be picked up, urgently. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Over. And. Over.

Pumpkin was great, but Natalie's true love is still Oma's kitty cat. In fact, returning from the beach at one point, we had this conversation:
Mike: Let's go upstairs and see Oma.
Natalie, hopefully: See Oma's kitty cat?

However, don't let the kitty cat love fool you. We also had this conversation when Natalie and I had had to abruptly come back into the house.
Me, to Mike: Ask Natalie why she had to come inside.
Mike: Why did you have to come inside?
Natalie: Ka-buzz I kick the kitty cat again.
(To clarify, they weren’t hard kicks - so much so that I felt the first one just might have been an accident, hence the warning that if she did that again, we’d need to come in. Guess the first one wasn't an accident. Also, I don't know what's more adorable here, her use of "ka-buzz" for "because" or the little "again" tacked on the end of the sentence.)

We also went to the beach.

Yeah, we still like the beach. A lot.

But Oma's yard is fun, too.

Speaking of fun, we also had a lovely lunch with my friends from high school and their kids (so, so weird to write that phrase, by the way). It was so nice to be together, and more than a little sad for me to realize that if we lived in San Diego, these kids would be Natalie's friends, and we'd have a lot more parties like this.

On the left: Natalie + ice cream. As genetics would suggest, ice cream was a big hit! On the right: the newest arrival. And, why, yes, I did make that hat!

We also went to one of cousin Emilia's basketball games.

Given her recent experiences, Natalie was a bit puzzled by the concept of whole-team, non-punitive time-outs.

And, as is the custom, we had sublime sushi with the Seattle contingent.

Time for some more park pictures, no?

 

And here's a video of big girl attempting to catch some birds (hint: she wasn't all that successful).


And a shot from the airport on our way home. As you can surely see, we had a good time!