Commuters

Every morning Mom and Summer take dad to the train station. Here they are saying goodbye.

Farewell to Baby Hair

I think Summer's losing her baby hair. It's looking a little thinner than when she was born. I heard that babies lose their newborn hair, but I have mixed feelings about this. We have become attached to her beautiful, dark baby hair, especially her swirl, but I can't wait to see what her next hair stage will be. Anyway, I got this picture of 'the swirl' to capture the moment. We like to call her swirl 'God's Tornado.'





When we got Buster he had this spot on the top of his head, 'God's Thumb Print.' We said that when God made him He put a thumb print there because Buster is so cute. So when Summer was born and she was so cute God gave her a tornado swirl. I know it's a cheesy story, but a good story to embarrass our daughter when she's a teenager.

It's a New Toy...oh-ee-oh

Does anyone remember that 80's song by Lena Levich? (I know you do, Julie V.) Anyway, Summer got a new toy at this cool second hand baby store in Sunnyvale where everything looked brand new. It's called The Smiling Frog. My hiking friend told me about it.

I've been looking for a good baby gym for Summer for a while. A simple, educational one without all the bells and whistles and that annoying electronic music. The one I found Summer just loves, as you can tell by these photos. The flower she is looking at has a mirror on it so she is smiling at herself.

bye-bye wine club

When one door closes another one opens. I know.......that's so cliche. but it's true. (sigh) Alas, it was time to get out of our wine club this weekend at Armida, our favorite winery in Healdsburg. Gotta save for the house and college funds. No more frivolous spending or spur-of-the-moment trips to wine country. But I must say, it is well worth the trade off. In exchange we have this beautiful baby that we are so completely in love with. Plus we can still visit anytime we want. Well, at least with a little planning!

Ron and I packed up Summer and Buster, grabbed some sandwiches and went up to Armida for a picnic and a glass of Chardonnay. It was Summer's longest road trip so far and she did great. We had a years worth of wine (8 bottles) to pick up. I know. That's a lot. It's been a while. We've been a little busy :) We had a wonderful day soaking up the sun, sipping on some vino and taking pictures of our girl, our fur child and the beautiful scenery. It really is our happy place!

Belly Laughs

Summer had her first belly laugh today. It was at Buster. She's really starting to notice him lately. Today when I threw his frog toy in the air and he caught it in his mouth Summer cracked up! It was the first time she's ever had a real belly laugh. I don't have any pictures of this but here's another cute Valentine's pic from our photo shoot.

A V-day B-day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYBODY!

Summer is modeling her V-day outfit from her Aunt Linda. Can you believe she'll be 3 mos. old on Saturday? As you can see she is a very laughy girl lately. Besides celebrating the day with this photo shoot, we also celebrated Buster's 3rd birthday. He got presents of treats and toys from his dad and grammy as well as a very fancy collar.

Later Summer and I went on a hike with our hiking group. It was the first time she was awake for most of the hike except at the end when these pictures were taken. Later in the evening, Ron and I went on our first date for dinner. Of course, we talked about Summer the entire time!

Donut Mecca

Donuts.....mmmmm......

But let me preface this by saying Ron was going to play tennis this weekend but it rained and I took an incredibly challenging baby and mommy yoga class on Friday. I know what you're thinking- Mommy and baby yoga, how cute and playful, not challenging. Wrong!
In fact, it was more like yoga boot camp where we used our babies as free weights. Glad Summer's only 11lbs., 7 oz. I feel sorry for some of those moms who's babies are like in the 90th percentile for weight. I'm still in pain!

Anyway, now that I have painted us as the picture of good health, maybe we won't look so bad when I talk about the four donuts we scarfed down at the best donut place on earth. (Well at least in Santa Clara County.) We have been on a quest for donut bliss since we have moved to SCC, which has turned up nothing but stale, humdrum donuts. If I'm going to eat 1000 calories of fried, doughy goodness, dammit, it better be good!

I asked the man that would know where to find what we were looking for, my brother Tom, and he told us about Stan's Donuts on Homestead and Keily in Santa Clara. First of all we knew as soon as we drove up that this was the place. People of all ages and cultures gathered to taste the deliciousness. Even a very fit woman in a jogging suit couldn't turn these donuts down.

All the signs were there that this was going to be a good donut place. There was a guy in the window rolling out the dough, which means lots of donut turnover- fresh donuts!! There was an old school donut sign at the front so the same guy has probably owned it for years and takes pride in his donuts.

When we went inside there was a line of people waiting to get the donuts that were just coming out of the oven and a counter with a group of 60- something-year-old retirees that have probably been coming there since 1962. All the signs were pointing in the right direction that we were about to taste the best donuts ever!

We ordered our two hot raised glazed that just came out of the oven and 2 old fashions. And yes....they were deeeeeeeliciousss!! I'm sure we will be back!

Lots of Milestones

Summer has had some major growth spurts this past week. First of all, she began deliberately reaching for her rattle. It was very exciting when grammy put Summer's cloth rattle in front of her and she reached out with her left hand and grabbed it. (Ron thinks Summer's a lefty.) She even tries to bring her toys up to her mouth. She hasn't quite mastered that skill yet but she's close!

She also engages in long, expressive conversations with us. She has a lot to say. I don't understand her but she's talking! Summer will join into any conversation no matter what, whether it be in the middle of Starbuck's at Barnes and Noble or during mid-feeding at 1AM.

Also for the last 2 nights Summer has slept through the night! I, mom, did not. I was a nervous wreck, waking up at her usual times to listen (Is she still breathing?) But she was fine, snoozing away. Just growing up too fast. I even had to pack her newborn clothes away because she is too long for them, now. That was sad, but exciting at the same times.

Here is Summer with her new mirror:

"Who in the heck is that?!"

Sporty weekend

We had a weekend of sports and I'm not talkin' super bowl. The only reason why we were going to watch the super bowl was for the commercials and the Prince Halftime Show. But we didn't even do that because we decided to go to REI, a little sports gear shopping. Great day to go shopping since there was no one at the mall!

Our sporty weekend began on Friday when Summer and I took a baby and mommy yoga class. Sorry no photos of that, but take my word for it, Summer had a great time! She had her arms and legs moving like crazy and tons of smiles. I think we have a future yogi here!

Besides Ron's tennis, Saturday was Buster's day. We had a Boston Terrier Social to go to at the new, fabulous dog park in Santa Clara off of Reed Street. It even has green grass which is rare for a dog park. The grass probably won't last, but Buster loved it for now! The Social was pretty crazy with about 20 wild Boston's taking over. It was hard to snap these pictures since Boston Terriers don't stand still:

It's Beach. Santa Cruz.

This was Summer's first beach trip that we took a few weeks ago. She slept the whole time, but that's okay. There will be many more beach trips to come! Daddy Ron took the pictures.

See Buster in action....

Laughing Monkey

"I'm a pro at smiling, but now I'm laughing and cooing, too. I started during the second week in January. My grammy hung up my favorite monkey hat/ washcloth thingy that my surrogate Aunt Julie got for me in Japan and I love to talk to her. Here's me doing just that!" -Summer


"I'm a pro at smiling, but now I'm laughing and cooing, too. I started during the second week in January. My grammy hung up my favorite monkey hat/ washcloth thingy that my surrogate Aunt Julie got for me in Japan and I love to talk to her. Here's me doing just that!" -Summer