Getting Personal
1. Flowers started blooming, yayyyy!
2. This IS San Francisco, so the fog obviously remains (beautifully. ps. Brian took this shot).
3. Sophie put the candles on her papa's birthday cake.
4. We went to Sonoma last weekend and had adventures. :)
5. Mostly we spent the week in Spring cleaning mode... HERE is the Honest post with our tips.
Happy Weekend! Links to come!
XO,
Kate
The other day we went to the park. We always go to the park. Sophie & Maggie run around and play together and have the best time together, but this time was a little different. There was a girl exactly Sophie's size and they began to play together. They wanted to get on the seesaw together, do the monkey bars, and slide side-by-side.
It's a good thing that my four-year-old makes friends easily. It's a great thing actually. She's developing the way a normal little girl should... making new friends at the drop of the hat and playing her little heart out.
It also somehow struck me in a new way... I got sad. I kind of wanted to cry as I watched her being a big kid! So weird right? Sophie playing with friends is not a new thing. This particular day she just seemed so big!! She didn't want any help getting up on the monkey bars or climbing the high ladders. She wanted to be independent and play with her friend, not so much Maggie and me.
You know how when you have a newborn, you think it's the hardest thing ever? And then your newborn becomes a 2-year-old and you say to yourself "how did I think newborns who sleep and coo all day was difficult?" And you realize that most of the challenge in that stage of life is actually emotional turmoil... the newness and gravity of the reality that you have a little life to cherish and devote your cares for-ev-er...
Four years old is a bit like that. We've made it through the really tricky, testy, crazy active years and now we're at this sweet spot where we have long, very interesting chats about what goes through an imagination, and she helps me do basically everything throughout the day... but I'm back to the emotional challenges. I'm emotional about the speed of growing up. I'm sentimental about the sweet things that she says and the grown-up way she dresses herself and packs her own bags and helps herself to oranges in the fridge.
If she gets really tired during ballet and decides she just wants a hug from her mama, I'm okay with that. If she drops her ice cream and needs a hug, I'll be there. I'll be grabbing these moments and cherishing every one before she gets too big to need them all. I love being these girls' mama.
How nice it is to remember that what once terrified me now thrills me: that I truly will be their mama for-ev-er. :)
And we have oh-so-many laughs and cuddles to be had between now and then.
XO,
Kate
It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday!
It's also 70 degrees and sunny, which adds an extra bit of pleasantness. I've also finally broken through the throat-on-fire theme that's been plaguing me for a full week, so really there's a lot going for me right now.
My mother-in-law is in town, so we've also had the fun perks like hitting up Starbucks this morning, exploring the city, and lunching at Marengo (one of my favorite spots for casual food in the city! Just look at that slider below, mmm. and p.s. why doesn't every restaurant have purse hooks under tables?), and having a warm shower that lasted longer than five minutes on a weekday. You know, the big things like that. :)
Sophie did her fair share of ballet this week. She's always loved it, but she's been twirling around and performing like crazy this week. Maggie wants to copy everything Sophie does, so there have been a couple little collisions during "performances," but to be honest, she seems to have a natural knack for gracefulness and dance (do all parents say that stuff? Maybe, but I'm pretty sure it's true here, ha!) We have no clue where this gracefulness comes because neither my husband nor I are particularly gifted in that department, but we're glad for her. We even finally upgraded her ballet uniform from Target to an official version, and from whatever striped or sparkle tights she chose that week to true pink ones. She'll probably still go for the bold striped tights, but hey, we feel like we've finally invested a tiny bit into her ballet obsession, so we'll see how that goes. She can now use her old stuff for when she just feels like dressing as a ballerina around the house or neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Maggie has been investing her time in the arts of exploration and mischief. She will climb anything, crawl through anything, and lately... move everything from one corner of the house to the other. Today was the first time she really took a long walk without a stroller ("long" is relative... it was only a couple blocks), and she did a phenomenal job. I said "stop Maggie," and she would stop. I'd say "this way" and she'd come. She's was checking herself out in store reflections as she walked too... and she was laughing. That Maggie is always laughing.
I'll have your links later today! They're good ones... don't miss 'em.
Happy Weekend,
Kate
Somehow, I realized just this week that Sophie is really shaping up to be a good student. She is perhaps the only kid I know that is her age and doesn't go to preschool (more on that subject another day, & no I don't plan to homeschool), but she's becoming addicted to letters. She asks for the cereal box so that she can "practice" her letters, and I have overheard her spelling words like "G-R-A-I-N" as we're getting lunch ready. I actually think she started this whole obsession with letters when I let her watch LeapFrog, so I'm a big fan of that show these days, of course.
Basically she's been requesting all her books that review the ABC's, so we're reading these same three books over and over, and there is a crazy amount of letter progress being made:
2. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom... you think we've read it a few times? Yes, we could definitely use it in a hardcover. :)
3.Sophie's Amazing Alphabet Adventures.
Okay, so I have to take a few minutes to review and tell you about this amazing book. I mean, perhaps we're making our child a narcissist, but perhaps it's just good, clean fun and absolutely hilarious. Basically you go to the Shutterfly site and fill in the information about your child. Add a photo of their face, order the book, and be prepared to be amazed. Every page is a different letter, and every letter has a paragraph full of alliterations that are also illustrated on the page. Each letter is written as a capital, lowercase, in both print and cursive in the corners of the page... BUT most importantly, Sophie's face is on every page doing some crazy things: kayaking, chillin' with elephants, speed ice-skating. I mean... it's the best tool for teaching letters I've ever seen. I'm no teacher so maybe I'm an easy crowd, but seriously, I'm impressed. It was one of the best gifts ever.
You know when you have your first child and they're about 18 months and you think to yourself, "gosh, they should be a lot further along in their talking..." or something, and you start to get really nervous that they'll be slow through all their classes in their future? Maybe it's just me, but I've definitely had moments of thinking that my kids may be behind in school because of this or that. This week, I could not be more encouraged about the whole learning process... and by all means, if you can learn with a hat and ballet slippers, even better!
Love,
Kate
Last week was really about love. My husband worked plenty, but when Valentine's day came around, he came home early with darling gifts for his three girls. We had a sweet little family dinner where we all told one another what we loved about each other. Maggie just sat and smiled and made us all laugh every couple minutes. We've never gone out for Valentine's day because well... crowds and overpriced food doesn't compare to steaks on our grill and bread with olive oil and vinegar, and the headache of finding babysitting seems a bit unnecessary. He always decides to out-do himself and spoil me, even though we always say we'll be simple about the whole thing. I tried creating my own little card for him (using the photo above by the ever-so-talented Pictilio), but it ended up looking a bit more crafty and a bit less professional... next time I'll get it like a classic Hallmark card... either way, it was a beautiful holiday.
The week itself had some ups & downs. Maggie got a bit of rugburn on her nose from falling down a few stairs, alarmingly enough... we got some good rest... and some not so good rest. Who knew Maggie was attached enough to her giant pink octopus that leaving it at her gramma & papa's house one day resulted in a night of me singing soft lullabies until my voice was hoarse and my mind was fuzzy? Who also knew that when Brian went to eat a calzone for lunch, our vehicle would be smushed to a month of repairs? BUT, who knew there were still beautiful, honest individuals who stay and take responsibility for hitting cars these days? You win some and you lose some.
Our eyes were collectively glazed over in sleepiness most days, and then we came to this gorgeous three.day.weekend. Do you guys find that whenever you're right at that breaking point, where you basically can't move... that's when the holiday just shows right up on the calendar? It's amazing how the timing coincides so perfectly.
SO, you may have noticed that it's Monday and I'm doing Friday's life post.. yes, it's true! I have no real reason, except that it's a national holiday today, so "I do what I want" today. Actually, all weekend. It's been such a true, refreshing break to put that phone down for the weekend and take a real break from everything except what's right in front of me.
More links Friday. Hope you got some rest in honor of the dear presidents of this country today!
XO,
Kate
It's Friday. Yes. A legitimate Friday with a weekend to follow! Last weekend, my husband worked, so it feels like this has been the most continuous, long week ever.
Monday, we decided we needed an adventure. A friend was in town and invited us to go on a ferry ride to Sausalito and I had thoughts of Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity circa 2000, taking in the perfect city as she flawlessly looked into the distance, so we agreed to go. "We" is two little tag-teaming troublemakers directly prior to lunchtime, until approx. after naps. It was chaos of epic proportions, let me tell you. Sometimes I think I'm more capable than I actually am.
Our sit-and-stand stroller was a dream for about four months. Things began going south after that... a broken basket below, foamy pushing surface falling off, and our final straw... a wheel that falls off when we lift for any reason. As you can imagine, we lift our stroller up and down excessively, so... yes, it's a little embarrassing when I have a runaway wheel. On this particular day, our trusty Maclaren single-stroller went to work in the car with my husband, so I had no choice. To the north bay with a testy stroller we went. The wheel fell off more times than I can quite remember, and if I didn't have a conscience for my fellow humans, I would have abandoned that beast on the side of the road. I'm being quite literal.
I took a lot of pictures that look like the entire experience was straight-up bliss. It was definitely fun, but my lack of prep and "make-do" mentality way more stressful than I would have thought! If you are going to be taking a ferry in San Francisco to Sausalito alone with two kids, please heed this advice so you can most thoroughly enjoy the beautiful experience:
All that said, it has the potential of being an easy jaunt if you're well prepared. Sausalito is such a charming little town, with little cafes, delis, tourist shops, candy shops, and most importantly: an ice cream shop. Everything comes with a side of an amazing view... it's undeniably gorgeous. When we go (generally by car), we always feel as if we've been teleported to a whole new world of vacation mode, even though it's literally less than 15 minutes from the city.
Here are a few pictures from the ferry. :)
Happy Weekend!
Love,
Kate
PS. If you can recommend any amazing city strollers that have those stand-on features for bigger kids, please let me know! We are in the market for a new stroller, for obvious reasons. xoxox
