Cutie pie

Can we witness the cuteness that is this oufit? It was covered in strawberries a few minutes later, as we were at the farmer's market and Lucia helped herself to many many berries.

New bath toys!

Words

Lucia is learning more words every day, but she's still working on pronunciation, so it's like we have three languages in the house. Here's a quick glossary of her terms:


Mooz = peanut butter (we have no idea how)
Boos = spoon
Muish = music (duh, you didn't know that?)
Cookie Monster = MaMooz

She says many words loud and clear, so we don't know what's up with these. 

She's also learned at daycare this week to say emphatically NO. As in, Lucia would you like some milk? "NO!" Very firmly. She tried this yesterday on our walk; she didn't want to be held OR hold my hand, so she had a crying fit on the sidewalk. I told her over and over she had two choices, and it was up to her to decide. I read about this technique in a book and it really seems to work. I also wonder if the NO is just something she likes saying, without fully understanding what she means.

At any rate, her languages are developing. She says Please ("Peas!") Takk and Thank You, but seems to prefer Takk and also says my favorite "Takk You." She's learning colors and can sing some of the alphabet song.

Oh Boy

Someone has learned to say cheese when we bring out the camera. We think she learned it a daycare. So funny!

Long Time

No updates. I'm importing photos this weekend and promise to provide various updates. But for now, how do you like Lucia's impersonation of Phil Spector?

Happy Father's Day!

We love you so much. You're the greatest dad! Lucia is so lucky to have you!

Camp Hansen

My parents came to town June 11, and since then it's been a whirlwind of activity. So much fun. We:

• Debated a zillion different ways we could makeover the deck into a play area for Lucia, tried several things, then scrapped it all and decided to leave it as a porch. 
• Had mixed results from using yelp to find restaurants.  We were disappointed twice. Ouch. 
• Sweated our butts off at the zoo, and Lucia had humongous blisters to the point where there were (are) gashes on her heels. Parents of the year, we are.
• Went to our favorite pizza place.
• Bought Lucia new shoes after discovering the blisters.
• Drove to Sausalito, where the weather was so unbelievably gorgeous and lunch was mind-blowing.
• Got Lucia clothes that are actually weather-appropriate and fit her. 
• Installed and enjoyed our new air conditioning unit. 
• Got manicures and pedicures.
• Drove to Gilroy for a 5-hour outlet shopping bonanza.
• Stayed up way too late every night. 
• Ate way too much chocolate.

I'm positive I forgot a few things. Notably, Pete and I got to go out to dinner with our good friends Chris and Mandy to our favorite Italian restaurant nearby. Deliciousness. Lucia (who now officially calls herself Cia) was entertaining and in love with them. She couldn't quite figure out the name Big Papa; Dick is "Papa" for the grandkids but since Pappa = Daddy in Norwegian, we renamed him Big Papa. She called him Josh a few times, which was pretty hilarious. But she loved snuggling with him. She was obsessed with Mimi and actually let her put her to bed a few nights (that's a big deal in her world), complete with teeth-brushing. 

The whole week was great fun. Thanks Mimi and Big Papa for coming to visit!

Peek a boo!

We did this for a while during the rise home yesterday. So funny. Her
favorite was covering my eyes and deciding when I would reveal them.
Hilarious!

Fun with The Pants Family

Sorry for the blurry picture. I'll have Pete upload the rest to Smugmug. At any rate, we were so grateful our friend Jennifer agreed to watch the dogs (we're watching Josh's dog while he's working Penn. until July) for a few days so we could have a quick getaway. We strategized about where we wanted to go and both agreed LA was the best choice. We love it down there (don't tell the NorCal peeps). So off we went. The trip down was uneventful; Lucia slept for a lot of it. Unfortunately/Fortunately, she's learned the word hungry and calls herself Cia, so we lost count of how many times she said "Cia hun-ree." We were armed with an astounding amount of snacks, and still we came up short. Oops. The hotel was gorgeous and HUGE but our room was unfortunately not. Oh well. Win some, lose some. Lucia of course managed to figure out how to climb out of her pack n play crib. Of course. Lucia and Danny played all the livelong day Wednesday, to the point where Lucia decided not to nap AT ALL, so um yeah, that was fun. Pete watched all three kids (!) while Mary and I go to go have a nice breakfast without kids interrupting. We talked about important things, and threw in some mentions of hair products here and there. I'm in love with Matty - he is SO precious and makes me want to have another baby like 5 minutes ago. He is just awesome. I held him a lot and rocked him in the chair. It was really awesome. We got to see David (rare these days I hear! He's been working his booty off) for dinner last night, which was predictably awesome (burgers!). I sometimes miss the good ol days sometimes (pre-kids) when I would drive/fly in, we'd sleep in and just lounge around the house and go out for amazing meals. But I cannot deny the joy of seeing the two kids play together, or talking with Mary about nap schedules or burping or well everything we don't get to talk about when we've got toddlers demanding attention. The ride home was pretty awful; "Cia" was bored, so we listened/watched this video more than a few times, and tried to sing her songs, etc. Any time I attempted to recline my seat (Pete drove) so I could nap, all hell would break loose. She did not like that at all. The good news is when we stopped for dinner she ate almost a full hamburger (despite eating 47 snacks throughout the ride). I think she gets freaked out when we travel, and has trouble sleeping because she's unsure of her surroundings. I can't really blame her, I'm happy to be in my own bed tonight too.

But it was so great seeing them and spending quality time together. Yay Pants!

Pit stop

220 miles down, 130 to go.