Fall Colors & Baking Treats

Liv got a surprise in the mail (and opened it at breakfast this morning). Grandma and Grandpa sent a bit of NE fall color to remind us of "home"!!

"Leaf!" "Leaves"

"Oooooh"

"Wampa! Leaf!"

We also baked some oatmeal cookies this afternoon. Yummy!!!

Update & Beach Pictures

An update.
And some pictures from another happy day in Alameda.

All is well here. We are progressing on the home buying front, looking forward to closing/moving at the end of the month. Jeff is currently traveling like a maniac. What's today? Friday? He's in Long Beach, CA... but headed back to Honolulu this evening. (Then back to Long Beach, & back to Honolulu. Vancouver is in there, too, somewhere... But, he'll be home for the closing - if all goes according to plan.)

Liv is doing very well! She's talking more and more. Someone (I think it was the pediatrician) asked "How many words does she know?" HA!!! First of all... she "knows" hundreds and hundreds, she understands nearly everything she hears, how many can she "say" that's different, but still, I can't keep up! She can repeat most things she hears, though there are some sounds that are still pretty difficult to make: words that start with an "ess" sound, especially. and ending sounds are hard too... and sometimes they get remembered a little jumbled: She often says "topa" for potato. But can repeat the word "potato." Stuff like that. She's taking a single afternoon nap, and wakes up (and wakes me up) in the middle of the night about half the time. It's not horrible. Currently her favorite toys are: Mr. Potato Head (which she refers to as either "topa" or "eyeball"), a shape sorting cube with colored blocks, crayons, a little bowl of pennies, flashcards, and a baby doll.

The pregnancy is going well. We're about 6 months now. The baby has started really kicking up a storm this past week. So FUN!!

We're a little nervous about flu this season. I was surprised by how often I caught little bugs when I was pregnant with Liv, and the current stats show that pregnant ladies are at least 6x more likely to get flu than other adults (why? I don't know) and complications from flu could be tragic. Liv and I will be getting vaccinated for seasonal & H1N1 as they become available to us. And we're staying away from some of the fun stuff we would normally do (e.g., sing-a-long). But between the flu/back-to-school germs and just my pregnancy nesting/cocooning instincts, and how much fun we have just playing at home or at the beach... it's no hardship, whatsoever. (and we haven't had a sniffle in WEEKS)

A trip to the beach is always a fun adventure.

Some shadow play.

A nice walk.

More shadow play. (omg!)

Mom & Liv

And Baby-to-be.

We miss you, Jeff.

A Happy Day

On Monday, Liv helped make cupcakes!

She's quite the little baker.

After nap, she helped decorate.

We called the sprinkles "colors" as in "put the colors on the cake, Livvy!"
She called them all "yellow!"

Some "yellow" made it on the cakes. :)

And to make the day even better... We got a copy of the contract for the house, signed by the seller! Hooray!

Sailing on the Bay

Our dear friends, Skip & Jody, invited us out for a sail on their new boat this weekend!

What a treat! Jody was practicing with another sailing team, while we were out on the water, but we all spent the later afternoon & evening together after sailing.

Liv had a great time charging around the dock looking at all the "big. boats." and the "kids. boats. water." (the junior sailing team was out in their dingies, too!)

After a lovely sail (sorry no pictures... I had my hands full), Liv was lulled into a nap.

(Angel Island, background)

In the lee of the island we motored for a bit and had some sandwich and juice.
(and a chance to take some video)

It was a great time! And I am so grateful to Skip's generocity and capability. He and Jeff handled the boat so very well, while Liv and I sat back and enjoyed the ride! We had such lovely weather! When was the last time we had such nice breeze and could wear shorts & tshirts on the bay?!?!

18 months

Liv is now 18 months old.

So far - so good!

We went in for a check-up earlier this week.

Her stats:

weight: 23 pounds

height: 32 inches

all her vaccines are up-to-date (except for the flu shots... not yet available for under-3 babies)

she's on track for physical & cognitive development (as far as we can tell)

and everyone's happy to see a healthy baby!

She's talking more and more... which is such fun.
Stringing words together, and just naming things!

Mommy is about 23 weeks along in the pregnancy.

And likewise... all is well.

(Tho' her arms aren't quite long enough to get the whole belly in the camera-phone shot. LOL)

Jeff is home for two weeks!

Except for the "emergencies" that pop up and call him out to the various facilities.

It remains a challenge for him to get productive work done (not to mention conference calls) with an active & talkative toddler underfoot.

Which makes us all the more excited to be progressing on our home purchase.

That's news for now... thanks for stopping by!

Mom & Apple Pie

Liv's first pie!

Yes... we do actually cook on the floor.
It's as clean as the counters, I promise. (for whatever that's worth... LOL)

In other news... On the home front...

We received some very exciting news this morning.

Our offer on the house we want has been accepted!!!

We've applied for the mortgage with 2 brokers and 2 banks... will hopefully be able to lock in the rate/ loan; and sign the sale contract by the end of the week, and get this show on the road!!!

YAY!

There's some (potentially expensive) stuff left to do before we can call it home... (landscaping, furnishing, moving in, etc.); but, we are so pleased!!




It's beyond perfect: master + 2 small bedrooms at the far end,
A home workstation and an Office,
plus a Guest Suite with your name on it!!

It's up in the hills, outside a small town (sound familiar?) in Central CA;
in a development of other custom homes, golf courses, and vinyards.
(the video is from one of our early visits last January.)

Li'l Pirate... AAARG

... AAARG....

Making Music

Daddy sent Liv a present in the mail...



what fun!

Zerberts make a Come Back

Diaper Dance

Another song from Baby Signing Time

ps/ does anyone remember that show, "Ally McBeal," and her dancing baby hallucinations?

Here's a really disturbing reminder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAKmAqyiJq8

"I'm a Bug"

Liv got a lady bug costume at the consignment shop.

(Mom is "singing" the Bug song from our signing videos)

Saturday Afternoon at the Beach

We all went out to Alameda beach for a few hours this afternoon.

We did some exploring...

And some running and playing.

And Jeff got to do some sailing.

Liv and I watched happily from the beach.

Dad took a break to bask in the sun with us.

a lovely day for everyone!

Wild Goose Chase

today at the park.

and yesterday at the mall.

Baby On Board!! *NEWS*

Guess What!?!?


Liv's gonna be a big sister!!


warning: creepy ultra-sound pictures below... :)

so, obviously, judging by the size of my belly... we've known for a while;
just haven't made the big global announcement.

Here it is:

Jeff, Emily & Olivia are expecting a new baby January 24th (-ish)
which means we're about 1/2 way through the pregnancy.

I went for the standard 20-week ultrasound this morning.
Everything looks pretty normal according to the tech & the dr.

The technology is amazing. The detail and the clarity are impressive.
However, amazing as it is; it's also a little creepy and bizarre.

We got to watch & listen to the heart. We got to see close-ups of each ventricle.
It's a beautiful, symmetrical, rhythmic little heart.

We saw the pretty string-of-pearls spine; long and even, with graceful little curves.

Big round abdomen, big round head.
All the limbs and fingers and toes in the right numbers and in the right places.

And what appear to be sweet little girl-parts between two strong leg bones!

Here are a couple of profile pictures of our "reclining" baby
Head (right/center) chest & belly (left)

If you're grossed out - I don't want to hear it!!

:)

I warned you!!!



BTW: I tried to send out a mass email with our new email addresses & current mailing address/phone number. I think it got marked as spam in some inboxes... if you didn't get the email and would like our current contact info... let me know!! XOXO

Happy Livvy

happy kid, full attention from BOTH parents - WOO HOO!
jumping, hugging, general cuteness.

Upside-Down Baby

More UpSide-Down Baby!

Slides - How Fun!

Liv is a big fan of the slide - any slide.

Yeah, I don't know what she's saying either. :)

The second slide is a big steep double corkscrew - pretty exciting!
She went down it by herself, too!!

Where is the Bag Lady?

it's getting silly around here!

(And by the way, I did not do this...)
She started this all on her own!!!

Birthday Party Last Weekend

We went to visit our friends at their home in Genoa, NV for the twin's 5-year birthday party!

It was a fun weekend, as always, and Liv had a great time playing outside with the big boys!

Here's a photo of the neighborhood children enjoying the pinata & its spoils!

Birthday boys & birthday cake!

Birthday CAKE!!!
mmmmmm....

Finally! -- an Update with New Pics!

I'm sorry that I've been so delinquent in updating here!

I finally have some new pictures to share.

Liv's been learning lots of new things this summer, she's talking more, she's starting to steer her trike - consistently & as expected! But, she still likes to stop frequently and explore other things she finds. :) We've started playing with crayons and dry erase markers on the glass door. We've started doing color and shape sorting - tho not always accurately or consistently - but even so, its fun to see her mind putting things together - sometimes in really fun creative ways.

And imitation is of course a fun part of learning! Last month she watched a friend of ours do a headstand.

Here's Liv's version, I call it "Upside Down Baby"

Last weekend G'ma & G'pa King came out to visit as part of their cross-country train trip! It was such a great pleasure to see them again so soon! We spent most of Friday at the King Tut exhibit at the DeYoung museum. It was really awe-inspiring. WoW!!

Unfortunately, there is no photography allowed, but we took our lunch at the cafe in the sculpture garden, where Liv discovered these great "apples". She loves to play "peek-a-boo" and when she squatted down behind these she would disappear! then POP up with a big old grin and a "BOO!" It was too funny!

On Saturday morning, we made a quick stop at the farmer's market for some peaches and tomatoes (and other yummy stuff) - Here's a pic of Liv enjoying a strawberry.

From there we went over to the Oakland Art & Soul Festival. There was a lot of interesting and beautiful art; Some of my favorite art was Karin Turner's H2Omelon Girl. It was joyful and colorful and her slogan "Live Lusciously" simply made me happy!

We didn't go to any of the concerts, except for the kid's stage while we had our lunch. They had a huge area of the festival for "family fun" Here's Liv playing with the parachute & beach balls:

and face painting by the gymnasts!

We had a really nice day!

Here's G'ma & Liv playing with a pile of pennies.

Other fun stuff we've been up to:
Of course, our frequent excursions to the beach across the street.

And coloring... here's a fun piece that I couldn't resist keeping. Liv does some pretty controlled scribbling, and is great at "keeping the colors on the paper!" and she loves to ask me to draw things, she'll indicate what she wants us to draw by signing "sun", "bug", "flower", "bubbles", "moon", "car", etc, she also loves to have us trace her hands and feet.

That's us waving "bye" for now...