Maisie @ 15 Months

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Sorry this blog has been bu-bu-bu-boring lately! I can blame it on summer and technical difficulties :) But ABA has nothing to do at work if I don't update something so this might just tip the scales at being even more boring but here is a "what you're up to" post about my little Maisie Moo!

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Maisie Shark (aka Sharkie, Moodle, Maise) you turned 15 months old yesterday and you are SO much fun....

*You have a little attitude. Dad says Francie is rough and tumble and you have the girly side. You don't like to get dirty, you have to clean a mess (not saying you don't like to make the mess- you just like to clean it immediately too :) and you growl "Ugggggghhhhhh!" if Francie or Ollie make a mess in your presence.

*You still wear newborn diapers! My favorite Pampers Swaddlers in the 2-3 size. I think they go to 22 pounds which you are just about at/over but you have skinny chicken legs and a little butt so they will probably still fit you for awhile

*You make your dad proud as a meat loving carnivore. You pick the meat patty our and devour it first, then the sliced tomato and eat it from the center out (messy messy shirts). You love venison, turkey, beef, hot dogs, sausage, burgers, steak... just about anything that used to have four legs. You like healthy food like fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe and watermelon are your favs) and veggies but you don't like blueberries ever. You aren't a big carb girl except pasta or waffles.

*You still take a bottle of whole milk (the "D" kind Francie says, while she drinks the "2" kind because she is 2) before some naps, when you go to bed and sometimes in the morning when you wake up. You love your ba-ba. We like the Born Free one best since the one here is cool but you pop the top through and dump it out too often!

*You are a GREAT sleeper. You go to bed around 9/9:30pm every night and we just put you in there with your down pillow, flannel comforter, Little Giraffe lovey and your music light box thing on. You HAVE to have your binky attached to your shirt at all times, especially when you go to bed unless you are already asleep. You sleep through the night and wake up between 9/10am. Thanks Maisie- I love you for this :) You also still take 2 naps if we can swing it but it's starting to look like one afternoon nap might be in the cards for you soon.

*You are starting to talk and babble more- you say "MaMA!" when you want something, "Dada" when you see your favorite person, "JA!" for Jannie (the other day it was "HI Ja! Hi JAAA!" waving from the swing while Jannie cooked pizzas, you say "Tank ah!" for thank you and "Ow-wa" for Ollie just like your sister did, you say "ba-ba" and "bub-bub" for bubbles (on my iPhone game) and "dis! dis!" for THIS please. You sign more and please with a funny "sssss" sound when you rub your belly up and down for please. You don't say NO yet- you just shake your head with a cute little smirk.

*You love to take a bath- just doesn't look much like it here! I think your sister smacked you :)

*You love to read and bring us books all the time then plop on a lap. Your favorites are Sandra Boyntons doggie books, 15 Animals (Bob and Bob) and Silly Little Goose.

*You have a cute little crooked tooth and a little space between the front teeth just like Grampa does and ABA did before braces- must be a Simonson gene!

We love you Maisie Moo!!!

The other day Maisie and I walked downtown Los Altos (DTLA we've decided, since it's not the Cruz!) and got some lunch while Dad and Francie were on a whirlwind trip to Red Bluff for the day. Maisie was hanging in her stroller while I fed her some turkey and a lady stopped and said "Oh my goodness she's so calm, she's like a Buddha Baby!" I laughed but it's kind of true- she is usually pretty content and happy just to sit and watch the world go by (except when she is in a fit and gets MAD Mad Maisie Mad if you even look at her!)

My Buddha Baby :)

Dinner at the Skidmore's

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Francie can always count on Grampa for a swim! Sunday night we went to the Skidmore's for a post 4th BBQ in their beautiful backyard (and yes this was two weeks ago when we wouldn't let Kat and Donald leave- I've almost fixed my photo uploading issues!) We had a great time with great food as always when Ann and Earl host. The girls loved being the center of attention and getting to swim with Grampa in the pool and the waterfall hot tub!

Maisie posing like a movie star (in her too-small last season suit! oops)

cute pic of Kat and Donald and their baby belly

Maisie used to have to wait around for Francie to vacate Jannie's arms but now she pushes her way in and won't let Francie bully her into second place! Maisie LOVES her Jannie and Grampa and cries like crazy whenever we have to say goodbye. Jannie loves it :)

PJ'ed up after the pool and helping Earl throw mesquite on the fire with her gloves on of course

Dad had to assist with the aim a little bit

Ann Skidmore always spoils the girls with their favorite snacks or "Francie food" laid out and extra ice cream-

Francie asked everyone if they wanted Limoncello on their's but reminded grampa "Not toooo much or you might get a headache and a hangover!"

and the night wouldn't be complete without a few "shows" she learned at nature camp

bedtime for babies!

The Big Show

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The last day of nature camp was a "show" the kids put on and invited all the parents to come watch. It was the cutest thing ever :) Francie was an "explorer" and her group went after the older 4-5 year olds. They all got up on the little stage and did two songs- then one big all camp song at the end. Francie was doing all the hand motions and standing with her toes on the edge of the stage- Heff voted her most likely to fall off which she narrowly avoided. It was fun to see her with her friends being a big camp girl!

kids on the tarps listening to "Scooby" give instructions before the show

Jannie and Grampa waiting for the action to start (grampa 48 hours after knee surgery!)

Francie with her big kid friends - not even shy about it!

she saw us and yelled "HI GRAMPA!!!"

the counselors "Meatballs" and "Tree" start the song and dance

hand motion queen

all the little campers

proud daddy

"hi mom, just hanging with my friends"

Maisie was so proud of her sister!

awww- we all were proud of you Francie!

Gilroy Gardens

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We had a wide open day Tuesday (and I was feeling like I had a new lease on life after a serious migraine that lasted Saturday night until Monday night- never really had one before that had vision blurs and everything- it was no joke!) so we texted Jannie in the morning to see if she wanted to do something fun with us for the day after she took care of me and the girls all day Monday since I was so worthless, thanks Jannie! We decided to go to Gilroy Gardens- it's a little amusement park with rides, games, shows, etc. I'd heard it was really fun for kids (and clean!) so we made the 40 minute trek down 101 and were surprised how nice it was. The girls could go on a lot of the rides and the park was big but not too huge. We walked the whole thing twice and still have plenty of rides to try if we go again. It helped to go on a Tuesday morning too- hardly any lines.

"Cheeeeese"

off to the races

our first ride of the day- the carousel. Maisie could not get to the other side of the fence fast enough

what a big girl

we sent this pic to dad (and the blog- Jannie couldn't figure out how Aunt Mimi knew we were at Gilroy Gardens WHILE we were there!)

Jannie rode too

while we ate lunch at the Taqueria there was a show with talking vegetables and the star of the show- Mr Gilroy Garlic! a little weird but they didn't care :)

next stop- the giant duck/swan/mallad paddle boats in the middle of the park on a pond! There are nice waterfalls and rivers all over the place. Jannie and I had to laugh when one guy walked by the man-made waterfall feature and goes "wow- you just don't see beauty like that many places."

Lifevested up

Jannie and Francie paddling to the waterfalls!

I had to keep a death grip on Maisie's hand the whole time since the only way she could ride was to sit by herself in the seat next to me (no laps and no more than 2 to a boat) and there was NO WAY she wasn't going on this ride! She was good and sat still the whole time taking it all in- then fell asleep at the end!

Francie was the "steerer" and Jannies was the peddler

Sharkie and her sister won a sharkie in the shark races

water feature number one- didn't last long when a 4-5 year old kinda mean girl running around with no shirt on basically hauled off and hit Francie! on to the next...

just whizzing by on the firetrucks

and the BIG water park playground- Francie wanted a bathing suit but her sisters 12m leggings and her undershirt worked just as well. SHe was off and running while Jannie and I sat in the shade with Maisie while she napped

then Francie wanted to try the giant slide but you had to climb up to the top of this thing with all the big kids. She got up there fine but then wasn't so sure about how this "waiting in line thing" worked and kept getting cut (which didn't bother her at all)

finally she made her way DOWN the slide! Fun day- thanks for coming with us Jannie!

4th of July BBQ

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We finally pulled the house projects together enough to invite everyone over for a 4th of July BBQ on Sunday (the party was supposed to be at Jannie's and we pulled a fast one at the last minute :) Jannie helped us deck the house out for the 4th with some flags and bunting, we had more food than anyone knew what to do with and it all made for a fun 4th, one of my favorite holidays. It's so nice to host at our new house!

Francie helping Kat and I bake a festive cake

I tried to make this really pretty red, white and blue flag cake I saw on a blog. It was all plain white outside but when you cut it, each piece looked like a flag. Except mine didn't look so pretty. When Christian came over she looked at it and goes "Oh that looks EXACTLY like the picture." And Emily said "so cute Francie made her own cake." Uhhh, thanks for the support guys :)

Francie was SOO excited when her BFF Alexa came to join the party

Ann and Earl came by too- we've been celebrating all the fun holidays with them for 32 years!

Earl and Heff looking patriotic

Happy Grampa recovering from knee surgery last week (never took a single pill for pain meds and was back at work way too soon- Francie says Grampa is "the hugest super toughest")

Sharkie got into the dress up chest and put on her pretties

Sandra and Ben made the trek down to Los Altos- we miss our old neighbors!!

aw my snuggle baby

Cat, Tim and Josephina

Francie providing some entertainment- I think she was trying to do "Mooned Ya!" but couldn't quite get it right with a long dress :) What a classy little lady we are raising.

Donald coming up with some lamp-chop-lollipops to pass around. Meat, meat and more meat was the theme of the afternoon.

Okay the cake was a mess but it KINDA looked like a flag! And it was real red velvet and cream cheesey frosting Aunt Kat made so it still tasted good. And luckily we didn't throw the rest out- it served as a perfect hangover cure for everyone the next day

Phina liked it!

James and Tim after cigars and I had to tell James he couldn't light off bottle rockets in the redwood grove!

congregation of guys around the BBQ

and ladies laughing around the table

4th of July Parade

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Sunday morning, July 4, Heff and the girls and Aunt Kat were up bright and early to go register for the RWC 5K Fun Run before the parade. Donald and I followed a while after to pick up our friend Lindsey (her husband Chad and boys ran the race too) and set up a spot for the parade. I've been going to this parade since I was really little, I used to wake up early with my dad to put chairs out and wait for our family friends to all join in a spot right by his old office. (I was even IN the parade one year vaulting on horseback for the 3 mile route but we won't talk about my purple spandex clad gymnastics-on-horseback days :) Heff had the time wrong and they were about an hour early so we got to send them off with good luck for the start of the race and watch all three laps as they came by. Then the biggest parade in Northern CA and the kids loved it!

here comes Heff and the girls

Chad and his boys Isaac and Wyatt rounded the first turn- he used our double stroller and had an locked wheel malfunction as the race started- Heff stopped to lend a hand dashing their chances for the blue ribbon in the stroller division :) that's ok, yhey still finished third and fourth

showing off in front of our spot with a little spin move- he's lucky he didn't knock anyone out!

and Aunt Kat happy to be running too!

Go Baby Doverspike Go!

she was for sure the unofficial winner of the 6 months pregnant division of the race! (she has been running almost daily through her pregnancy but called this 5K her last hurrah)

lap 2

after the parade, Francie and the boys coming to find their moms with the dad's pulling up the rear

pretty happy with herself (and yes- still wearing their star PJ tops they wore to bed last night! Heff dressed them for the run at 6:30am and thought there was no reason to change ;)

Francie wanted to show me that Maisie fell asleep in the Chariot on the run...

REALLY show me she was sleeping. and Sharkie did not appreciate it so much

sidelined in their camp chairs

switching off seats every five minutes

the double stroller dads

a belly shot!

watermelon at the parade...

not a bad life for the shark

Maisie wanted to run after every float that came by

dancing in the street. brings back memories of sitting on the same corner waving a flag while my parents and their friends went through a few gallons of bloody mary's!

the girls went nuts when the horses came of course- Maisie screaming "duh-duh!!"

"Come back horsey!!!"

Jannie and Maisie

this is pretty much the grip Lindsey and I had on the little kids the whole time

exhibit B

or another approach

you can always count on the boyscouts when you forget your own flag


Maisie was so filthy from A) wearing the same shirt for 18 hours straight B) eating fist fulls of Trix in the stroller (slobbery wet trix are disgust!) and a watermelon feast on the sidelines C) crawling in the street - but the solution was easy- new pants and turn the shirt around! I was just impressed Heff packed an extra pair of pants :)

a big sister needs to teach her the "truth about flags"... don't throw um on the ground!

the girls favorite float- pretty sparkly things...

just don't get brainwashed

Isaac's blowing the tubba, kids are getting sunburned and naps are calling their name. Time to pack it up and head for home!

Catching Up

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wow I am behind on blogging! My computer is still full but I got a time machine to back up the pics. Now how do I delete the files from my laptop without deleting them from the time machine?!

anyway, we've been busy with family it town and enjoying summer weather and eating outside. Kat and Donald came down for 4th of July weekend and we held them hostage for a few extra days (til Tuesday!- they were in the market for a new car for Aunt Kat and trade in value for her good old 4-runner wasn't great so we put it on Craigslist and had a buyer out here within three hours! sold for cash in hand the next day)

We had Mark, Sarah and Clara over for dinner Saturday night. Not the best picture of everyone but you get the idea :)

The Main Event... Go Big Jerry Go!

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My Uncle Jerry is playing in the 2010 41st Annual World Series of Poker Tournament right now! I am soo jealous and wish I was in Vegas watching. Uncle Jerry is a poker shark and won a spot in the biggest tournament in poker this year (he bought in last year with big winnings from a smaller tournament.) He has had a great year making the money in three tournaments this year.

My Uncle John is sending updates since the tournament is still so big they aren't posting updatesonline for all the players- just the pro's.

So this is the excitement I get in my inbox:

"At the second break: Uncle Jerry is hanging steady with 30,150 chips.

In one hand, he had pocket Aces. He bet three times the big blind and FIVE people called. He didn't get the raise that he was hoping for so that he could come back with a BIG re-raise. But the flop came 6,7,8 all hearts (unfortunately, neither of his aces was a heart). Nobody bet the flop. Another heart came on the turn. No bets. Another heart on the river. No bets, but one of the players turned over the King of hearts for the winning high flush. Jerry is lucky (and good) not to have lost more on that hand with pocket aces.


Stay tuned for the dinner break in two hours..."

THEN:

"Jerry started the last session at $30,150. Early on in the session he was down to about $27,000. Then he had pocket Queens and bet $2700. Another player went all-in and raised Jerry another $7500. Jerry called. His opponent had Ace, Jack. No Aces came (or anything else that could beat his Queens), so Jerry won and that put him up to about $40K.

He dropped down a bit and then he had the following hand near the end of the session.

Jerry was dealt Queen and Jack of Clubs in the Big Blind which was $300 during this session. Three others bet the $300 and Jerry went to the flop with them. The Flop came King of clubs, Queen of spades and 10 of clubs. So Jerry was holding two Queens and was drawing to the Royal Flush! He was first to act and he bet $1400. The next player folded, but the next guy raised him another $1600 to $3000. The fourth guy called the $3K. Just while this is going on, a famous pro Allen Cunningham is moving to Jerry's table and ESPN cameras show up. Lots of commotion and Jerry is trying to concentrate on an extremely important hand. Jerry calls the raise. He figures that the raiser has at least two Kings, but Jerry has a great drawing hand. The Turn card is the Jack of diamonds. This gives Jerry two pair (Queens and Jacks), but if one of the other two guys has an Ace or a 9, then they have a straight. Jerry checks. If one of these guys bets big, Jerry is most likely going to have to call with his great drawing hand. But the other two guys also check. Phew! The River card is the 4 of clubs. Jerry made a King high flush! If someone had an Ace of clubs with another club, Jerry would be beat. But they probably would have bet that hand on the Turn with a straight. Jerry bet $4600 and the other two guys folded. Yee haw!!


He is up to a little over $48,000 in chips at the dinner break. Go Big Jer go!!"

and:

"Jerry is still at a little over $48,000. He said that the last couple hours were pretty uneventful for him - and that's just fine. He will have a final session for today of about an hour and then come back on Saturday.

This year's Main Event is the second largest live tournament in history behind only the 2006 WSOP Main Event. 7,319 total players and First Place pays $8,944,138. In all, 747 players will be paid."

Here's hoping the cards fall in his favor and his expert poker playing skills are at their best! Jannie sent Uncle Jerry a poem for good luck...

Dear Uncle Jerry

With your lucky chip of blue

As you take this famous poker ride

We have a wish for you.....

May the cards fall for you

May luck be always by your side

Play well, have fun, hold your chin a little higher

And until we meet a-gin

May you WIN, WIN, WIN!

Heff's Troopy

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My husband wanted a commuter car to make the long 8 mile "commute" into work easier than in his big heavy Diesel F250 pick up truck... so he did what any normal person would do. He bought an old Land Cruiser HJ47 Diesel jeep/truck/bus/tank called a TROOPY. I have to admit I egged him right on since it reminds me of my first car, a red Jeep Wrangler, but this one is so much cooler. It is really hard to find in the US and imported from Australia, right hand drive, stick shift, reads in Kilometers, has a removable top and seats 10 people in the back along the benches (without seatbelts or proper seats of course). But to calm the grandparents nerves.. don't worry. We are putting in a roll cage, real seats, major seat belts and every safety mechanism you can imagine and only driving it around town. This thing won't go on the freeway ever again (Heff drove it 500+ miles up from San Diego last week going 55-60 mph the whole way and was still saying "huh?" every five minutes when I asked him questions- it's a little loud on the freeway without weatherstripping!) But it's a fun project for him to work on and make his way around town in.

Uncle Jerry came over to check it out when it arrived in the driveway

Francie's ready for takeoff... it's gonna be awhile before you get a ride France!

Driving Miss Maisie. I just can't wait for Heff to haul Francie somewhere with her carseat in the front seat on the left hand side so when they pull up next to someone it looks like a two year old is at the wheel

It's as long as my suburban with this bumper/grill meant for fending off kangaroos

What is the equivalent of "Happy Wife, Happy Life" for husbands? :)

What Happens...

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When Francie plays Ladder Golf (which she calls checkers for some reason) at Jannie and Grampa's by the window?! She has her mother's arm. and afterwards Jannie said Francie better check her allowance or her piggy bank to pay for it. Grampa said a little birdie must have done it or maybe he accidentally did it but for Francie NOT to worry or feel bad and it was Jannie's fault for having golf balls near a window that were too tempting to throw. I love Grampas ;)

Redwood Grove Nature Camp

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Francie is having a ball at Nature Camp! This is really the first time she has ever gone anywhere all by herself besides Brilliant Babies and I was wondering how she would do but she can't get enough of it. She goes every day from 9:30-12:30 and has learned about omnivores, carnivores, recycling and hexagons (not sure how that last one fits in there but oh well) Her BFF Marcella (Chella) goes too and they are two peas in a pod. Cella's mom Cat and I take the baby sisters to breakfast downtown after camp and do a little shopping or get stuff done around the house before pick up. I could get used to this schedule!

Francie on the first day of camp with her lunch box from Aunt Kaky.

We walk the wagon down the hill every morning for drop-off (a whole 2 minute walk- most of the parents have to park farther down the street than our house, talk about convenient!)

Camp T-shirts for all the Explorers and Adventurers

Maisie Shark - you'll get to go someday too

Pick up time. Francie showed off her veggie paint drawing to Maisie and was pretty proud of herself!

Brilliant Babies

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The other day I picked the girls up at BB and was getting their shoes on and I had to take a picture of Francie's prized possession Minnie. I had to break the news to her that Maisie ripped her felt eyes off in the car ride over and Francie (horrified but taking the news pretty well) goes "But can she SEE?!" Nope, probably not. And I need some hot glue because she is freaking me out.