Last weekend in San Francisco

We don't drive up to San Francisco very often, but we had to go one last time before we move! Plus our friends Tyler, Trish, Tim, Christine, and Maya were in town and staying in the city. Even though it was cold and foggy, we had a great time in Golden Gate Park and Land's End, two of our favorite places.

The weekend was topped off with a going-away party for us, hosted by our friends Steve, Victoria, and Sophia. It was so good to catch up with friends, reminisce about old times, and guess what the future holds for us. We're so lucky to have an amazing group of friends here in the bay area! You all shall be dearly missed.

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated Brian's birthday by going down to Monterey for the afternoon. We went to the aquarium, lunched at Sly McFly's, and then splashed around on the beach. It was a great day topped off with a spaghetti dinner and cake at our new "home" at the hotel. Daddy was so sugared up, he pretended he was a toddler that night! Claire was highly amused watching Daddy crawl around, shaking maracas and throwing dolls. Happy birthday Daddy! We love you!

At home...in a Marriott suite

This past Thursday was a busy day for us! The movers showed up at 8 am and packed up the house in a matter of 8 hours or so. Claire was stunned to see the big truck parked in front of our house and she had fun marching up and down the truck ramp. We have moved into the TownePlace Suites in Campbell for the next three weeks. So far everything is good! It's a little strange living in such tight quarters, but we're also being forced to relax for once since we don't have hardly any of our belongings with us. Claire couldn't be more happy about all the extra family time. She's picked up a new skill: ball throwing with one hand.

Uh-Oh the Dairy-O

Claire has been using "words" for a couple of months but these "words" aren't usually reconizable to people that aren't her parents. That is not the case anymore, her vocabulary has exploded a million-fold and she nows speaks over 100 recognizable words everday.. Ok, that's not exactly true. Its true that she speaks over 100 reconizable words everyday, it just happens its the same work over and over and over. So I guess you can say that her official first word is none other than "Uh-Oh". At first she'd use it when she dropped something on the floor. Then she started periodically using it when she pooped her pants. (Unfortunately she still doesn't reliably tell us when she soils her undies, but we're working on it). But now she's got a whole new game and although it does show some creativity and intelligence, she's still not smart enough to know that saying "Uh-Oh" and THEN throwing something on the floor is a sure sign that she's doing it on purpose. It was cute at first and is only kind of cute now.

A Light Mist

In celebration of America's 234th birthday, the Sivitz clan headed up to Yosemite and spent the weekend with Sarah's cousin Mimi and her family. It was a wonderful time. Aside from the wonderful BBQ birthday party for Mimi's daughter Syndey's 6th birthday, we had a wonderful time sharing the company of family and hiking in the park. For our lone day in the park we had a nice picnic in the meadow and choose to hike to the top of Vernal falls along the "Mist Trail". The weather was perfect and because of the ample amount of winter rain and snow the waterfalls and river of snowmelt was still flowing impressively stronger making for some excellent views. Unfortunately the strong flow also made the mist trail more of a downpour trail and as we ascended the spray from the corresponding falls became so strong that Claire quickly became extremely wet. To make matters worse it was a fairly cool day and we quickly realized she was shivering and unhappy. You'd think we'd have figured this out before she started wailing, but alas her parents aren't the brightest individuals in the world when it comes to knowing Claire's limits. Needless to say we than quickly reversed our course and got Claire to some dry land in the sun. Lucky for us she quickly perked up and began chasing one of the parks many squirrels. Later in the day Claire also got to experience her first 4th of July fireworks (we were in London last year) from a lovely vantage point on a hillside in Mariposa, CA. Claire showed now fear and simply stared and pointed as the loud bangs continued in the background.

5.5 Tons of Stuff

Thank you all for voting in our latest poll. Out of 5 votes we had 2 correct answers. The moving company came in and estimated the weight of our stuff at 10,500 pounds. In case you were wondering, Claire won't be carrying all of that, the movers will.

Plum crazy

I know what you're going to say -- it's supposed to be "plumb" crazy, Sarah. (I just found out that "plumb" refers to a plumb bob which is a construction tool that gives a vertical reference, and means "absolute" in this case) But I do mean "plum" because I'm talking about the horde of plums on our tree in the backyard! Claire's the one who is crazy about them. She helped me pick up the fallen fruits, and I rewarded her with a juicy ripe one from the tree. Looks like she loves plums!

Happy Father's Day, Brian!

Here's what Brian did to celebrate fatherhood:

There's nothing like a little dare-devil experience to keep you feeling young and energetic! I don't know if indoor skydiving is popular elsewhere, but it's really taken off here in the bay area. I think Brian's got the bug now, because he's saying he wants to go back to learn tricks. Claire and I both feel like he deserves these adventures and more because he's the best Daddy in the world! Our very own Superman!

Holy Sh*t!

After months of poop-free blog posts, I have to break the silence and talk about our daughter's excrements again. Sorry folks, but this is worth it! Today for no good reason at all I took Claire to Babies-R-Us to pick out a potty. I figured we might as well have a place for her to sit in the bathroom so I can keep an eye on her while I'm doing my business. Aaaanyway, Claire really took a liking to a white Babybjorn potty and she kept trying to sit on it in the store. So I purchased it, we drove home, and I placed it in the bathroom. Pants and diaper came off, and there we were enjoying our "mommy and me" moment on our potties. I talked her through my routine as usual, then left the room to go get the camera because she looked so cute sitting there on her potty. When I came back into the bathroom, Claire had that classic glazed-look in her eyes, then lo-and-behold she went number 2 in her potty!! I was perhaps more proud of her at that moment than when she had started walking. Claire was stunned to silence as I commenced a 5-minute-long hysterically loud display of praise, shock, and joy. After I had calmed down she stood up and bent over so I could wipe her, then she marched out of the bathroom. All done!

After I dumped her poop in the toilet, she took great pleasure in helping to flush it down. She consistently waves bye-bye after she does this.

Busy with relocation preparations

It's just about official, everybody! Pending inspections, we are the new owners of a beautiful home in Ellicott City. We'll be moving out of our house here in San Jose in mid-July, and residing temporarily in a hotel until we depart on July 31st. Personally I am really looking forward to this! Daily maid service sounds l-o-v-e-l-y. We'll continue to keep you all posted on this big transition. It's strange to think that Claire is completely clueless about all of this. I'm glad she won't really remember this, so the pain of leaving friends won't register for her.

House Hunting in Maryland

We are moving from California to Maryland. We went house hunting out there this past weekend. More to come soon.

Ladybugs and hats

Claire colored a picture today at daycare -- this is the first time that she has brought home some artwork. Daddy and I are mightily impressed that 80% of the coloring is within the lines.

Mommy bought a new cap, and Claire was the first one to wear it. She insisted on parading around the house (and under the dining room table) with it on. Funny that she won't wear her own hats, but mine are apparently all right.

Claire's words

Here is what we think Claire is saying so far:

Cow
Moo
Dad
Down
Out
Cat

Mind you, these sound like just the first consonant and vowel of each word but nonetheless she is definitely trying to talk now! It is time for me to fill in the entry in the baby book for "baby's first word". Technically her first consistent word was "moo", as in what a cow says. Some parents might be bummed that it wasn't "mama" or "dada", but we're ok with the mooing. She's awfully cute when she moos.

I must be feeding her too much milk...

Happy Hollow

Last weekend Brian and I used Claire as an excuse for us to go visit Happy Hollow. It's a small zoo and park with children's rides, so without Claire we would not have fit in at all. She had a fantastic time despite being still too young for many of the rides. Here she is going on her first ride all by herself:

Perhaps most surprisingly, Claire LOVED the puppet show theater at Happy Hollow. She sat on my lap perfectly still and her eyes were absolutely fixated on the stage for the whole 1/2 hour of the 3 little pigs story. She laughed at all the right times and clapped when everybody else clapped. It was awesome!! Brian actually slept through the show, funny enough.

Claire seemed perfectly happy to watch the lemurs and meerkats all day, which was good because they really didn't have any other exciting animals. She was soooo excited to ride the carousel that she had trouble waiting for everybody to get strapped in -- she was just starting to cry out of frustration and then the ride started, thank goodness! Aside from that we also played on the huge playground, along with 20 billion other kids. It was madness to me and Brian, but Claire loved all the action. She and Daddy also walked through a maze together.

So now that we know our way around the park, if any of you want to join us for a playdate at Happy Hollow, we're in!

16th Month Photos

Claire's pretty good at entertaining herself these days while I'm doing chores around the house. She sits quietly (almost too quietly) and reads her books, and she pretend plays with her farm set for example. Occasionally though I hear some panicked yelling and I have to check on her. This is how I typically find her:

I'm surprised that she can even fit under the bed! She only yells because she doesn't figure out that she needs to duck her head to crawl out. Besides this little trick, she's also learned where her tongue is and she confidently sticks it out when asked "where's your tongue?"

Daddy taught her that one. We think she's also trying to identify things like teddy bear (da-ee) and kitty cat (goya-gah).

Claire's definitely comprehending much more than what she can verbalize herself. When I tell her that it's time to brush her teeth she basically runs (very exciting time!) to the bathroom and points to her big girl toothbrush. Thank goodness her toothpaste is berry flavored. She chomps away on that brush!

She has discovered where I keep the grocery bags in the kitchen recently. She loves to pull them out of the cabinet and parade around the house babbling. I wonder if she's shopping?

Happy Mother's Day!

I just had the best day! It started with Claire waking up all sunny and cheerful (wish that happened every day). She was even obliging when I put her bloomers on her head for fun. I dare say that she liked them as a hat! She wore them a lot longer than she wears any of the little hair bows that I attempt to put in her hair.


I discovered a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me in the dining room:

We went to brunch at a neighborhood restaurant which I love, and Claire was on her best behavior. Mmm mimosas! Plus by some miracle we got the following photos of both mommy and daughter looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.




Topped the afternoon off with a pedicure and shopping at the mall! Very relaxing for me, and for Daddy and Claire apparently. They both napped the whole time I was away. I apologize that you have to look at my feet, but this is the first time I've ever had little flowers on my toe nails and I think they're adorable.

I hope all the mommies out there had a wonderful day, toe nail flowers or not!

New front yard garden

Brian has been busy digging holes in our front yard. He's planted 15 new shrubs between the sidewalk and the curb, and it looks fabulous! Claire did her share by helping to pick up sticks. She and I also spent time in the back yard, weeding the strawberry patch. Problem was, Claire preferred to pick the not-yet-ripe strawberries.

Playing in the sand

We hit the beach today and Claire got to use her sand toys for the first time. I gotta say though, she didn't play with them nearly as much as Daddy did! They made a castle with a very very deep moat, which was perfect for Claire to walk laps around. Brian and I both agreed that we should have bought sand toys for ourselves long ago. The water here is too cold to swim in anyway!