This Baby's Life

The Swinger

2012-01-28T19:51:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel had his very first park swinging experience today. It was all Lillian's idea, and at first he seemed a little uncertain. But after a few minutes he got comfortable holding himself up in the swing and he seemed to approve of the experience.

Nathaniel at 2 Months

2012-01-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. It started on Friday the 13th, when Eric came home from work with a sprained ankle from basketball. The following weekend we attended a birthday party, where Eric was likely exposed to strep throat from the mob of 4-year-olds. This resulted in a week where he was sick in bed, unable to hold Nathaniel. Despite these difficulties we managed to snap some really cute pictures of Nathaniel in action. Meanwhile, in a random act of kindness, Lillian graciously gifted Nathaniel with one of her many stuffed ducks this week as well.

Lillian Sings to Nathaniel

2012-01-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

Nathaniel is now big enough to sit in the Bumbo seat. That means that Lillian has a captive audience for her shows.

Sisterly Love

2012-01-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

Lillian loves snuggling with her baby brother, but sometimes all the sisterly love and affection is just too much for little Nathaniel to handle.

Here comes Peter cotton tail . . .

2012-01-02T10:31:00.001-08:00

. . . hopping down the bunny trial!

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

To celebrate New Year's Eve we decided to take a little day-trip to Santa Cruz to visit one of our favorite beaches at Wilder Ranch state park. The beach has a beautiful sea cave dubbed "The Fern Grotto" due to the lush ferns dripping from the cave roof. It's a bit of a hike out to the beach, but we all enjoyed getting some fresh air and exercise after indulging in too many goodies over the holidays. We brought along a picnic at Lillian's request and had a little family picnic on the beach. Nathaniel seemed to enjoy his time at the beach, he had some tummy time on the blanket and even managed to stay awake and happy almost the whole time we spent at the beach.

Fun with Grandpa Terry and Grandma Betty

2011-12-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

Lillian's Grandma Betty and Grandpa Terry got to spend the week before Christmas visiting with all of us. Lillian had the week off of school and got to take her grandparents to visit a few of her favorite haunts like Happy Hallow Amusement park and Zoo and Hidden Villa Farm. Here are a few scenes from their visit. Thanks Grandma Betty for taking so many wonderful pictures!

Gingerbread Princess Castle

2011-12-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

After last year's gingerbread pirate ship, and the humble cottage produced the year before, we decided to create a more extravagant gingerbread creation. At Lillian's request we constructed a gingerbread fairytale princess castle. Eric was inspired to use ice-cream comes to make pointed towers with bubble gum pennants, gingerbread people inside and a green moat. Lillian helped add some decorative touches. The results are pretty impressive!

Christmas Show

2011-12-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Once again, we were treated to a display of extreme cuteness in the form of dancing and singing trees at the holiday show at Lillian's preschool.

An Early Christmas

2011-12-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, for the first time since our wedding we had the pleasure of hosting both sets of grandparents. Grammy Elaine had been here helping us all out with the new baby for the prior five weeks. Pop-Pop Tom came out to visit at the end of Grammy's stay. A few days later we were joined by Grandma Betty and Grandpa Terry. Since we had a couple of days overlap with all the grandparents in town, we decided to do a Christmas celebration a few weeks early. We started the day with a visit to the Christmas village in San Jose and then had a nice dinner followed by a gift exchange. Lillian was the star of the show, unwrapping the abundant haul of new clothes, books and toys brought by the grandparents. Nathaniel enjoyed having four grandparents eager to snuggle with him, as he wanted nothing more for Christmas.

Saint Nicholas is coming to town

2011-12-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our friend Britta had a party to celebrate Saint Nicholas day. The German tradition says that Saint Nicolas visits houses on December 6th with his list of good deeds that each child has done and delivers a small gift to children who have been good. Lillian was initially terrified of the man in the big red suit (her usual reaction to anyone in costume), but she got over her fear and patiently listened as he told her what a good big sister she was being to her new baby brother. Later she got to sit on his lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. She asked Santa for a beautiful baby doll. Santa might be able to make good on that, we're just glad she didn't ask him for a kitten like her friend Jessie did!

Ducky Games

2011-11-26T19:43:00.000-08:00

Lillian has been wanting to play with her little brother and introduce him to her toys. Yesterday she set up some ducky's and other assorted toys in little circle for him to play with. Nathaniel, decked out in his little red garden gnome outfit, obliged by sitting on the couch amid the toys for a few minutes. He even opened his eyes to look at the toys a few times. The toys didn't seem to impress him much, but Lillian is exciting enough that he spat out his plug. Ah, good times!!!

Big Sister

2011-11-18T19:42:00.000-08:00

Lillian has really taken to her new role as a big sister. Today during her preschool's Thanksgiving potluck she wanted to introduce everyone to her new baby brother and serve as bouncer to make sure that her brother didn't get too overwhelmed with attention. She is constantly giggling at all the silly, scrunched-up baby faces that he makes. She has also been enjoying holding him and we have made her holding Nathaniel a part of bedtime stories.

New Addition

2011-11-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we welcomed a new addition to our family with the birth of baby Nathaniel William Husky.

Nathaniel didn't come easy, he was stuck in the breech position for many weeks before his due date and despite all our best efforts would not turn. So when Kristen's water broke in the wee hours of the morning on November 6th, we rushed to the hospital to prepare for a delivery by Cesarian section. Nathaniel was born at 2:11 am and weighed in at 7 lb 10 oz. At least that's the time listed on the papers. It was a little confusing in there since the time change for daylight savings was happening, and only half the clocks had been changed. The surgery was uneventful and we were off to recovery for Nathaniel's first bath and then on to our room for a little rest before daybreak.

Lillian is absolutely thrilled at having a little brother. She has already learned how to hold and cuddle him, and loves to sing songs for him.

More pictues are up on our webalbum.

Spooky and Not so Spooky

2011-10-30T17:15:00.001-07:00

Lillian and Eric decided that they wanted to decorate the house for Halloween. In addition to the requisite ghosts and bats hanging from the eves. Eric got a giant sheet of paper and some tempra paints and they each decorated one side. Eric painted some spooky images of bats, witches and jack-o-lantern. Lillian decided her side would be fancy with a princess, a queen and a king. Kristen added a finishing touch with a bunch of flowers separating the two halves. We put the whole thing on the fence, the final results were pretty cool.

Halloween Parade

2011-10-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today was the Halloween parade at Lillian's school. As always, Lillian wanted to dress up as a princess for Halloween, re-using her princess dress from last year and the year before. This year however she sported a tiara instead of her princess hat.

Lillian's Art

2011-10-24T20:16:00.001-07:00

As we mentioned in a prior blog post Lillian has taken an interest in perfecting her art skills. She particularly loves to draw princesses, fairies, family portraits and little girls. Here is a sampling of some of her recent creations.

Cidering

2011-10-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

It's apple season, and Eric needed a new project. He'd been talking for a while with our neighbor Dan about buying up a bunch of cast-off apples cheap from the farmer's market and pressing them to make hard cider. This weekend we went for it, picking up about 50 lbs. of apples for $20. We then spent more than that renting a grinder and press from the beer store. Add some kid power, and you've got a fun but tiring afternoon, with 3 1/2 gallons of delicious, fresh apple juice to show for it. Once the yeast has had a week or so, we should have hard cider, ready to bottle.

Hiking Again!

2011-10-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Lillian used to go hiking with mommy and daddy all the time. In fact hiking was one of our favorite activities when Lillian was under 20lbs. But as she started to get heavier and more squierly hiking became a challenge. Recently however she has become more capable of walking (or running) long distances and so going on a two mile hike to hunter's point involving some significant elevation is no problem at all.

Bowling!

2011-10-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we heard that Lillian's friend Ellie was heading out for an evening of bowling with her dad. When we got to the bowling alley we found out that they were offering a Pizza and bowling special that was less expensive than the two games we had originally planned on playing. Lillian was thrilled about the pizza, as she had been complaining earlier that day about the lack of cheese in her diet. Watching Lillian and Ellie bowl was a slow process as neither of them were capable of getting much speed on their throws, but everyone had fun anyway.

Diaper on my head!

2011-09-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Lillian seems to be preparing herself for a career in musical comedy. Lately, every evening when she's getting ready for bed she emerged from her room wearing her diaper on her head, giggling and singing "diaper on my head".

A Little Getaway

2011-09-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

Our friends Bob and Jamie invited us to spend the weekend at their new cabin in the Sierra foothills of Arnold CA. The cabin, perched in a scenic pine forest near a lake, makes for a lovely year round get away spot. We were delighted when they offered to host us for the weekend and we knew Lillian would have a great time hanging out with her friend Isabella and baby Olivia.

Saturday the girls spent the day playing at a little lake near the cabin. They even managed to swim (with the help of their dads and some floaties) out to a dock in the middle of the lake. After the brisk swim they spent a good long while playing games on the beach.

Sunday we drove up highway 4 past Bear Valley for a hike at Lake Alpine. The girls, decked out in skirts and Tutus, hiked with their dads (and Nash) up to the top of a rocky ridge overlooking the lake. We forgot to send a camera up with them, so we have no pictures of the gorgeous views of the high Sierras. We did capture some of the action from the picnic that we had by the lake after the hike.

Mount Tamalpais

2011-09-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

This week Lillian had a week vacation from school between the summer term and the start of the new school year after Labor Day. We decided to make a stay-cation of it and do some fun trips around the area and spend some time with good friends who we don't get to see as often as we like. On Friday, Eric and Lillian took off for a grand adventure across the Golden Gate Bridge to "climb" Mount Tamalpias. There is a road that leads most of the way to the top where it is just a quick hop-skip and jump to the summit. The hike was short, but there was some good elevation to burn energy. When you combine the somewhat rough terrain with the spectacular views, it makes for a very satisfying adventure for a 4 year old. If you're living in the south bay, have a lot of time to burn and have never been then you should definitely make the trip at least once. But be aware that it's easily 2 hours drive each way, mostly to get through San Francisco traffic. It's good we went, but it is doubtful that we will return any time soon. Much like Muir Woods, it is worth seeing, but there are similar experiences to be had with a whole lot less driving.

Face Painting

2011-08-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

Last week some of our friends brought face paint to the park. After one of the artistically inclined grown-ups painted the kids faces (and arms and legs as requested), we let the kids experiment with painting themselves, this mostly involved painting each others hands and feet purple. Jessie's mom Kathy, being a brave sole, let the kids have a shot at painting her face.

Aunt Diane

2011-08-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

This past week Lillian's Grammy Elaine came to visit and she brought along her sister Diane. We were delighted to host Aunt Diane for the week. Diane hadn't seen Lillian since she was two and was amazed by what a little lady she has become.

Saturday we piled into the car and went to a beautiful beach spot that we discovered last winter. The beach at Seal Cove was mostly empty and unlike most other California beaches the waves are small thanks to some offshore rocks that serve as a natural breakwater at low tide. The rocky tide-pools of nearby Fitzgerald Marine Reserve also serve as a fun diversion from playing in the sand. Aunt Diane also discovered another cool feature of the beach: sea glass. The Sea glass is probably a remnant of the beach's history as a spot for "rum runner's" during prohibition. Lillian and Diane had a great time searching the beach for little gems of sea glass hidden in the sand.

On Sunday we made a trip up to Coyote Point to spend some time at the gigantic magic mountain playground and enjoy a nice dinner in Burlingame. The castle and dragon themed playground was super crowded and Lillian was pretty intimidated by all the big kids playing on the huge castle-like play structure and retreated to the smaller toddler sized play are with the friendly dragon to climb.

Funny Faces!

2011-08-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, every-time we pull out the camera and ask Lillian to smile for me she makes a goofy face at the camera and then asks to see what the picture looks like (The girl has no idea how lucky we are to have instant access to photos, last week she saw a Goofy cartoon with an old style camera and we had to explain the concept of "film" to her). Of course when I try to take a picture of Lillian picnicking with her friends Rebecca and Ellie at last night's Thursday Night Live I get three goofy faces posing for the camera and a mob of kids who want to see what the pictures look like.

The Golden Gate Bridge

2011-07-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

This past week when we were driving around we heard a traffic report talking about the Golden Gate Bridge. Lillian chimed in that she didn't know what the Golden Gate Bridge looked like. I told her that she had been to the bridge a long time ago, but probably didn't remember it. She really wanted to see what it looked like so this Saturday when we found our selves with no prior commitments, we headed up to San Francisco for the day with the goal of getting a good long look at the Golden Gate Bridge. There are lots of ways to see the bridge, but many of them have drawbacks. You can drive across it, but that is kind of boring. You can also walk and bike across it, but that's kind of dangerous. Hiking to it or under it can be an interesting way to view it, but I thought we could really up the fun factor by taking a boat ride across the bay to get a good look at the bridge from the water. We took the Golden Gate Ferry from the historic San Francisco Ferry Building across the bay to the scenic town of Sausalito. While there we spent a few hours browsing around town and enjoyed a little snack, then took the ferry back to San Francisco to have dinner at the Ferry Building's gourmet market before heading back home. It was a fun little adventure for everyone.

Windy ride on the ferry's front deck.

The Golden Gate Bridge in all it's foggy glory.

Enjoying the wind free views from ferry's indoor lounge.

Modeling giant hats at the Ferry Building Market.

Doing a little happy dance in Justin Herman Plaza.

Camping

2011-07-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend it was time once again for the third annual stroller hikes camping trip. The trip has something for everyone: Lillian loves to play in nature and enjoy all the joys of the camping experience; Nash gets to roam free, make new friends and swim; it gives Eric the opportunity to play with fire and axes, display his expertise in roasting marshmallows and make use his boy scout outdoorsman skills; and Kristen enjoys the opportunity to kick back and reconnect with old friends. Everyone always returns from the weekend dirty, exhausted, yet somehow refreshed.

Here are a few pictures from the trip, there are some more pictures from the weekend on Maya's album and at Lisa's blog.

Sand castle building by the creek.

Hanging out by the water.

S'more Smores!

Eric the marshmallow master!

Budding Artist

2011-07-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

Lillian has become quite a prolific artist lately. She has always loved to scribble with crayons, but her art as of late has morphed from unrecognizable scrawling to something a bit more recognizable. She has been coming home from school each week with reams of artworks to share with us. Each piece of art always has it's own story to go along with it. I've included a sampling of her work below.

Lillian's artistic pony-tail.

Self portrait, Lillian with a flower.

Swan princess with her prince.

Little princess with a mad mommy.

Sumertime

2011-07-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

Summertime is in full swing here in California. This past week Lillian's Auntie Erin came to visit since she is on summer vacation from school for a few weeks. A visit from Lillian's Auntie is always a treat, and when we happened to run into Lillian's friend Ellie and her family on their way to Ricks Ice Cream we all jumped at the chance to enjoy a sweet summer treat with our friends. Of course Lillian choose the same pink and purple cotton candy flavored ice cream that Ellie wanted. Auntie Erin also treated Lillian to pizza, frozen yoghourt and a super-duper bubbly, bubble bath while her mom and dad enjoyed a quiet evening out on the town.

This past week also marked Lillian's first swim lesson. She has been loving spending time at the pool and we decided that she was ready to learn how to swim. She was super excited to go to swim school wearing her all pink swim outfit and learn how to swim like a penguin.

The Land of Lincoln

2011-07-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

We spent much of our week long vacation at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Springfield with various family members either sick or recovering. After a couple of visits to the Springfield clinic and a few days on antibiotics everyone finally started to feel better.

After dealing with all the sickness, we had a couple of days where everyone was well enough to get out of the house. After contemplating all the various Lincoln site options scattered around Springfield, we decided to take Lillian to see the historic village of New Salem where Lincoln had lived as a young adult before moving to Springfield to start his law practice and political career. The historic site was full of log cabins, vibrant gardens and costumed docents who told tales of life on the rustic western frontier of the 1830s.

The long trip back from Springfield to St. Louis and then the late evening flight to California meant that Lillian passed out on the flight. After being reluctantly awoken from a deep slumber when the flight arrived at SFO she treated us to all manner of intriguing non-sequesters on the drive home from the airport. She was also excited to see a few 4th of July fireworks going off above us on the highway. But she didn't last long, and thankfully passed out again quickly once we got her home in bed.