Looking the part

Lucia snacks at the Young Scandinavians Club board meeting, where we supported our friend Niels who ran for a seat (and was elected!). Our good friend Jennifer was also elected - yay!

Kindof?

Lucia reads. I have no idea where she learned the "One day..." but we think it's pretty funny.

Solemn

Or Double Ear Infections? You decide. 

Hint: antibiotics are working! 

The pediatrician said he was surprised how upbeat she was given how badly she must have been feeling. Girl does NOT get this from me, perpetually whiny and more than a little hypochondriac. So bravo little girl, you're such a trooper! She slept through the night last night for the first time in a few days, and is back at daycare today. Hooray! 

Reading time

Now Lucia wants to read too:

Recorded using a new app that makes old movies.

Miss Hansen is hard at work

Lucia gets to come see me at work sometimes; today was one of those times because she's sick (again) and didn't go to daycare today. She colored for a while, then walked around and said hi to everyone. We get to ride the bus home together on these days, so that's fun. Except when you miss your bus then have to take the other bus and walk 6 blocks home carrying a sick kid, gym bag and her loot. Then its maybe a little less than fun. Hypothetically speaking of course.

Good Hair Night

I'm positive I shouldn't get this excited about her hair. But I can't help it!! Tonight after the detangling effort from you-know-what, we decided to dry it with a diffuser so she doesn't go to bed with wet head and maybe, just maybe, it's not a tangly freaking mess.

Voila.

Exploring Oakland

We went to Montclair Village yesterday. It was cute!

Princess!

She found her dress this morning in the box my parents shipped. So! Excited!!

Ready for daycare with new hat

Jacket, Check.

Hat, Check.

Pants, Check.

Feet?

So Awesome

Our dear friends near Redwood City were in a jam for child care today, so Pete to the rescue. He drove in terrible, terrible traffic to their house to watch Eddie today. Lucia was so excited to go see him, she literally ran down the hallway in our building before Pete was out the door. She loves her some Eddie. YAY Pete to the rescue! You rule dude!

Biker chick

Goofiness Inherited

Ant Attack!

A tiny piece?

Negotiations on the potty. She wondered if she might just have a small piece while we were waiting?

Potty Training

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone
Lens: John S
Flash: Off
Film: Blanko

Hoarsey

We're recovering from viruses again this week. Story of our lives during winter. We get one, work to get better, then get better, then get another one. Sheesh.

Anyway, here's a cute video of Lucia I took this morning. I didn't embed it for reasons you'll see when you click on it; last time we did this the video had 500 views. Creepy. I also changed the settings so you can only see it here and it can't be seen by the wider YouTube population. 

Enjoy! 

Sunday Sunday Sunday

This Sunday has turned out different than we expected, but it's good either way. We were hoping to try a new church today, but unfortunately Lucia woke up with a fever, so we scratched that plan. Instead, we focused on cleaning, organizing and ahem, getting things in order that were leftover from the move. I organized Lucia's room and found these awesome pants her Aunt Kate got her that were tucked away in a backpack. How cute are these (taken in November)?

I did four loads of laundry, Pete organized his office space (to make room for a microwave for us), grilled chicken and dug his bike out from the porch (no small feat) to take it for its inaugural ride through the Oakland Hills, which are so dreamy. 

Next on the list: my workout, a trip to the drugstore, Trader Joe's, Sears for a microwave and just possibly, going to see the Tripp Trapp chair in person to figure out what color we're getting (he says natural, I say green). Ambitious, but it feels good to get stuff done!

Plagued

And! We haven't mentioned this, but when we moved into our new place, we noticed there were tons of ants near Lucia's room. I googled and found out that cinnamon is a natural repellant. So I sprinkled it um, liberally around the area where we thought they were coming from, and it worked like a charm. Awesome. Then we came home from our trip and gahhhhhh they're back. Sprinkle sprinkle. I put my suitcase (fine, if you must know I haven't actually finished unpacking) near the area, and didn't think anything of it. Then I moved the suitcase in the bedroom and pulled out a few things while trying to find something to wear to work yesterday. Last night when I picked up the sweaters and pulled back the covers to get into bed, ANT FRENZY. Good lord. So we literally sprinkled the whole bed (on top of the sheets!) with cinnamon, then vacuumed up most of it, but sprinkled all around the bed. That seemed to do the trick, but then we found more of them tonight in Lucia's room. Lord. We'll be adding small ant traps to our arsenal but until then, it's the house of Cinnamon. There are worse smells, I suppose.

We're Doing at Least Something Right

We have an announcement: LUCIA ISN'T GOING TO BE A SOCIOPATH! She has developed empathy and well, it's pretty adorable. She asks us what we're doing all the time, asks us what's the matter and how are we feeling. She's more expressive with her words now too: tonight's dinner was "really good." Tonight Pete went to get me some Tylenol (I'm battling a cold or virus) and when she asked what Daddy was doing, I told her he was going to the store. She repeated it back to me several times and then added: get medicine for Mommy so feel better. Cue awwwwwww sound. I told her tonight that I loved her and she said "love you too. Baby (her doll) loves you too." It was adorable-fest tonight. 

In other news:

Week 1 of daycare is going well. Although it's only been 2 days, she hasn't to go home each night, so that's good. She absolutely loves Nick and Jamie and their 2 year old son Benjamin. It's a party over there. They are super thoughtful and provide a journal entry for her each day so we can know what she did. We really love them and are happy with the care she's receiving. Today she painted a surprisingly good picture that we're going to frame. 

We are -- dum dum dum-- in the process of giving up the pacifier. It is not recommended for the faint of heart. The sobbing. Last night was tough, but tonight was a bit better, thankfully. It wasn't our plan to do this right now, but they forgot her pacifier at naptime yesterday and she didn't seem to mind it, so they suggested we give it a try. I'm hopeful that each night it will be less and less of an issue. 

New Day Care!

Today is Lucia's first (full) day at her new daycare. She spent a few hours there already yesterday and the day before, and things went very well. Above is picture of the house where she will be going.

The Trip In Pictures

These are horribly out of order. Forgive me. 

Fells Point after meeting up with my friend Stephan and his kids.

Can't imagine why the fire department was called to check on our bonfire. Yikes!

Sledding with cousins Will and Grayson

Christmas Morning Cinnabons (yum!)

Helping Big Papa with his gifts

Lucia opening her gifts from Santa

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens

On our way home

Playing with amazing vintage Fisher Price toys

Seeing Anna and Bruce in Baltimore was really special; we hadn't seen each other for 5 years and it was like no time had passed at all. I love them so much. We met through our dogs; Max tried to eat Baylee back in the day. The two were basically inseperable, and so we got to know each other and became great friends. I'm so thankful for them. Pete really loved meeting them too, and Bruce was charmed by Lucia. We walked around Federal Hill park and thought of Baylee. It was a bittersweet moment, caught above. 

We're Back!

We had an eventful and nice trip to the East Coast for Delaware. For me anyway, the highlights were sledding, a trip to Baltimore to see old friends, and Lucia's new tea party hats with Mimi. Many, many pictures to come. The flight home was uneventful, other than spotting 2 high school classmates. Weird! We're thawing out from the cold and jetlagged, but otherwise had a great holiday with friends and family.