Catching up: A Confession

I have a confession. Jacob turned nine months on October 12th. And I don't have a picture. What I do have is  . . . an excuse? Jacob and I were in San Diego, we were doing baby shower stuff and celebrating Uncle Eric's birthday - we were *busy*.

I did, however, take plenty of pictures that weekend. So there's that.

As mentioned above, I was in town for the baby shower of a dear friend. It was a lovely weekend filled with lots of events. We started with brunch on Friday morning:

 

We ate at Claire's on Cedros. In a small bit of heresy, I fear this is fast becoming my new favorite place for breakfasts in San Diego. My old standby has been a little stinky lately. Next time I'm in town, though, I'm totally going to try Caroline's Seaside Cafe.

We also had a lovely dinner Friday night. I got to see many old friends and eat some amazingly delicious food.

Group shot: changes, etc.

Also, I love this crew. These are some of my nearest and dearest and oldest friends. We don't see each other all that often, but I feel very lucky and happy that we've all kept in touch.

Jacob came to the (super-fancy) baby shower. Can't have a baby shower without a baby, right? Or something. Here's the before shot:

Here are a few pictures from the shower itself:

The food was delicious. And the tea party was so fun! It totally makes me want to take Ms. Natalie out for tea downtown the next time we're in San Diego. Natalie loves her some tea parties.

Baby gift:

And here's Jacob after the party. He was a real trooper all weekend long, considering that he was off his schedule and in a new place. He finally just had had enough!

What else did we do in San Diego? Well, we hit the beach - which, oddly, I failed to photograph. I received a fancy new running watch (I considered photographing that, but, well, hard as it may be to believe, I actually try to make the blog moderately interesting!). Here's a post-beach-run shot at my new favorite coffee place.

We also spent some quality time with Oma.

My favorite part of these photos is how you can see a framed picture of my grandfather (from his college track days) just over my grandmother's shoulder.

I also tried to make coffee. From the Things-That-Make-You-Go-Hmmm file:

 We also celebrated Eric's birthday:

Cake was my usual carrot (embellished with extra spices; walnuts, not pecans; half the sugar as brown sugar; and I use the food processor to first shred and then pulse the carrot to get the texture right) with this cream cheese frosting (my new go-to).

San Diego was great! The weekend away - combined with Mike traveling out of town the following weekend - meant that October was sort of a crazy schedule scramble. Luckily, I have next blog post to cover the rest of October, pre-Halloween!

Jacob's Tree Planting

So, first, the title of this post is misleading. It really wasn't a tree-planting. We actually planted Jacob's tree back in early March. We knew we were going to have the tree event this weekend, but, um, it's still too hot to plant trees and still too stressful for new plants. Welcome to September in Texas!

So it was more of a tree-dedication. No matter. When Natalie was born, we literally invited everyone we knew. Now, we know more people - and I value my sanity more - so we kept it small, mostly just family. And my sanity is still intact. Mostly.

We used the same reading we'd used for Natalie, as our wishes / hopes / dreams / roles are all the same. We did add a part about hoping Natalie and Jacob have a strong relationship with each other as adults. And we explained Jacob's name: Jacob, for my great-grandfather, and Samuel for Mike's grandfather.

Thanks to my brother for all the photos; the extremely poor blog layout is all me.

The ceremony:

Scenes from the party:

J-Boy, we love you!

September

The rest of September slipped (rushed?!) away from me.

Let's back up to Rosh Hashanah. I tried my hand at apple and honey stuffed challah again. Again, I didn't get it quite right. At least this year I did allow the end product to be photographed. I think both my stuffing and braiding techniques need work - but it's hard when you only do it once a year! (Although I do practice my round challah braiding almost every time I play play-doh. So, um, a lot.)

Speaking of holiday-related food, Natalie's sukkah was a bigger success!

The timing worked out so that I was able to join her class in the sukkah for lunch. We ate that traditional Sukkot food, pizza.

Natalie also had her 4 year check-up. She got a good report - and a few shots. All was remedied, however, with the promise that she'd be able to pick out a cookie at the bakery.

 A totally surprising cookie choice for a four year-old, no?

In other age-related milestones, Jacob is now eight months old!

He has started eating some finger foods. Jicama was a hit.

Banana was, um, NOT.

(I totally think the picture on the upper right there is ready for some kind of internet meme)

Jacob's getting more mobile and getting big enough to be a better playmate for Natalie. I'm not sure how long this stage will last - it doesn't seem like the smoothest combination, in terms of a set-up for success.

 Jacob at the tea party:

We do a lot of tea parties. (The jokes, they write themselves.)

 Here's Natalie, wearing her "kimono."

 Doing some art:

Sticker excitement:

Next up: Jacob's tree planting!