Awhile back we joined a local kids club called Peekadoodle. Its about 3 blocks from our apartment and its a great open space with lots of cool stuff for Maile and Hannah to explore. They absolutely love going there. They have the place figured out too – the Halloween party on Friday was the first time I’d been in a couple weeks and Maile showed me all around to her favorite things: the cable car, the play kitchen, the slide. She loves it – man, is she going to be disappointed by her own room when she gets a bit older!
The Halloween Party was great fun. In addition to the normal games and activities, they had a room where you could decorate your own pumpkins (which were actually orange paper pots), a photographer (who took the great picture of Maile we posted yesterday) and even a live band, Basho & Friends!
Curious Maile and Tinkerbelle Hannah - ready to party!
Maile Girl decorating her pumpkin...
We took a time out for a tea party. Hey Hannah, where are you going with that milk!
Dad, you couldn't get better seats for my first concert? I can't see a thing.
Madness. Absolute madness.
Daddy: What are you doing Maile? Maile: I'm waiting for the lead singer, I want his autograph. He's dreamy. Daddy: Yikes.
Well, heeeelloooo ladies. Welcome to my crib! Make yourself at home...
On Monday, we headed down to Palo Alto for a Labor Day BBQ at Wills’ house. Hannah, Allison, Sophie and Oliver (along with their parents) joined us as well. It was a pretty crazy scene with babies walking and crawling all over the place (or being carried in the case of little Oliver).
The BBQ was fun, but the real excitement came when we tried to take a group picture. Here’s the final result:
Mommies and babies - Labor Day 2010
Not too bad. Here’s the behind-the-scenes of how it all came together…
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(Click here for the video.)
(Click here for the complete photo shoot courtesy of Wills.)
First a story. We knew Maile was getting pretty close to walking. We were nervous that she was going to take her first steps when Christine was in New York -or- last weekend, when I was in Boston. Neither of us wanted to miss this big step (pun intended). Maile Girl bided her time and then yesterday, when we both got home from work, Maile gave us a big present. We were playing with her in the living room and I decided to pull her walker a bit away from her. She stood teetering a bit and then all of a sudden Maile took her first tentative steps. Probably 3-4 the first time. But they were definite steps. Christine and I were so happy that a) she walked and b) she waited to do it in front of both of us at the same time. Very cool to share the milestone as a family.
In any event, no video of those very first steps – just something we’ll have to remember for ourselves (fascinating concept, right?) But today, Maile and Hannah were playing outside (the weather has been beautiful) and I managed to catch some walking on video. Enjoy!
Hannah’s dad, Josh, takes MUCH better pictures than I do. He sent over his shots from the Three Amigas birthday party and I thought I’d share. See the slideshow below. (And yes, I ordered a book from Amazon so I can learn to take better pictures!)
On Saturday we celebrated Maile’s birthday on her home turf with two of her closest girlfriends, Allison and Hannah. Allison turned 1 back in June and Hannah turns 1 in August, so we decided to combine everything into one big fiesta. Literally, we made it a fiesta – check out the invitation we sent out:
Invitation to the 3 Amigas First Birthday Fiesta
It was a lot of fun celebrating with all of our San Francisco friends and the girls had a blast. It was the first time in awhile we got everyone together with all the little ones in one place – definitely a bit of a madhouse with ~10 kids under the age of 4!
The birthday girls: Hannah, Allison and Maile
And with the mommies!
"Daddy when you said there was going to be a pony, I had something slightly different in mind..."
Each girl had their own birthday cake (Thanks Grandma Gail and Grandpa Cal for Maile's!)
Maile had her own Maile-sized cake!
Proud parents and Maile Girl - we survived a year!
What do you think? Does this pink jump suit make me look like a giant?
On Saturday, we got together with Hannah, Sophie and Jake’s parents and had a little mother’s day brunch. It was amazing to see how much bigger Maile is compared to Jake and Sophie. They’ll catch up soon enough, but for now we had a good laugh looking at them sitting together!
After some delicious pancakes, we sent the ladies off to get their nails done and the dads held down the fort (quite well I might add). You can check out more details (and a video) on Sophie’s blog.
The dads survived a few hours on their own with the little ones...
... and the moms came home all done up and looking beautiful!
Usually, when it comes to nap time, Hannah goes and stays in mommy and daddy’s room (she has her own pack-n-play in there). Yesterday, I invited her to my crib to show her my new standing technique. She caught on really quick and we had some good times … until we realized we had no idea how to sit down!
The weather was out of control gorgeous this weekend, so we went and had our first picnic of the year with a bunch of our friends. It wasn’t just the first picnic of the year, it also was technically my first picnic … ever! My friends Hannah, Sophie and Jake joined us. It was a baby party (for the first of many more times I’m sure, our parents were our chaperones…)
Here I am discovering a single blade of grass - absolutely fascinating!
Hannah just got back from Mexico so we had lots to catch up on - unfortunately, she picked up some Spanish while she was away and I couldn't really understand her...
Help! I've caught a frisbee, but I don't know how to "un-catch" it!
Daddy says he loves this shot of his two pretty girls - as Hannah would now say, "gracias papa!"
