Thankfulness

Our time with my family was wonderful. It was a short visit (Monday afternoon/evening to Friday late-morning), but very relaxing and filled with good food, baby entertainment and lots of walks and runs.  Our visit to Sonoma on Tuesday was lovely despite the rain and a shattered tasting glass!

On Wednesday, we ladies had our nails done at Whole Body before relieving the men of their babysitting duties so they could go watch Skyfall. Thanksgiving day was about as laid-back as one could expect with all the food coming from one kitchen. Oh, except for the beautiful assortment of cheeses that our frined Aaron brought for pre-meal munching. Afterwards, we all kicked-off the Christmas season by watching Elf and eating pie.

Sarah and Dan left California at 1 pm on Friday with a goal of submitting resumes to local companies so they can move out here too. We have it all planned out...shared house, shared nanny...it will be great! My parents left around noon as well, but in car instead of a plane, to visit my grandparents in San Diego. Los Angeles traffic caught them by surprise but they made it by 10 pm or so.

Fun pictures from our week together:

Word Games

Here is a video from Marcia's visit...all the extra attention really got Louisa talking!

Bye Oma. Hi Belle Mare

You know how they say you can't spoil a baby? Well, I'm wondering if you can spoil a 19-month old? I guess it doesn't matter, because either way, Lou's living the good life and we wouldn't change it. Marcia (a.k.a Oma) just left today and my mom (Belle Mare), dad (Papa), Sarah, Dan and Oliver all arrive on Monday. Lou loved having Marcia here just as much as I did. I've started doing some very part-time nutrition consulting work during the last month and it was great to be able to work without getting a babysitter.  Next week, with my family here, I purposefully have nothing scheduled because Nate has the whole week off and we hope to explore Napa, Half Moon Bay and San Fran with them.

Nate and I also got to go on a date last night while Louisa and her Oma hung out at home. We noticed that we're out of practice though because we expected to be able to eat at a really good restaurant without a reservation and I thought that I'd be able stay awake at a movie that started at 9:40 pm. Ha! Oh well. Regardless of where we ate or the fact that I paid $11.50 for a nap, we both decided that it was nice to spend time together. I was proud of the fact that we hardly talked about Lou or our 20-week old, banana-sized baby.

I didn't take many pictures in the last two weeks, so here are a couple from Louisa's first frisbee lesson two weeks ago in Golden Gate Park.

Hold your hands out like this...

then I'll throw it...

and you'll catch it!

Our Bag Lady Baby

Someday I'll get fancy with my video editing, but for now, here's what Lou is up to this afternoon...this warm, sunny, election afternoon...