Happy 4th Anniversary!

Today is our fourth anniversary...where does the time go?  Zippy and I met in 2001 at SSU when I first moved out to California.  He was the main reason I stayed :) We met in class as we were both geography majors but didn't get to really know each other until 9/11/01 when we were heading out on a class field trip down the San Andreas fault to go to a conference in Santa Barbara.  We have been inseparable since!  It was such a tragic day but for me personally, I have alot of positive thoughts when this day rolls around.  He tried to put the moves on me on the car trip but I was able to resist him for about a week :)  The line "Do you want to hang out sometime outside of class?" had me swooning and it was all over after that!  After we both graduated from SSU, we walked together(ahh...so sweet)...we headed off to Europe for a year to live with an amazing family and for him to play amateur soccer.  We shared lots of ups and downs and came out of that year knowing that we could survive anything.  We were married in February 2006-outside on Lake Tahoe-people thought we were crazy but the day was absolutely beautiful!  Flash to today, we now own our own home(well, technically the bank does...and will forever), we have an amazing son who is about to turn a year, and we are looking forward to the next adventures of this crazy adventure called life.  There is no one else who I would want by my side!!  I love you, Zippy, thank you for being an amazing father, an excellent husband, and my best friend. 

2006(couple of days before our wedding)

2010

Random

Grevin has had a little cold for the last couple of days so he has stayed bundled in his footie jammies. Other than his cough and chest congestion, he seems just fine! Here are a few of his favorite things lately....including the background 80's music. I was flipping through the music channels and he started dancing when I got to the 80's. He protested when I went to change it so lately it has been an 80s dance party at our house!

He found his sunglasses and loves to try to put them on...

He has also started to say "light"...well, it actually sounds like "lye-ah" but he points to what he means!

He has also started to put his head on the ground like he sleeping while he is playing. I am not sure if this is because his head hurts from the cold he has or if his teeth are bothering him...or if he takes after his dad and is just weird...

Here are some other random pictures, too...

 

  

  

I love that smile!

This diaper was made for walkin'!

Grevin has decided to take his first steps into toddlerhood. My baby is almost gone! He has been leaping from people to furniture for about a month and has been getting steadier day by day. He loves going back and forth between us as long as it suits him :) He also tends to go fast and fall face first (I think from using the walkers!) when he is in a hurry. When we put him in shoes, we had been putting him in size 3 because the 4.5 we have would fall off of his foot. We went to Stride Rite to see what size he was wearing and it turns out he is a 5! The 4.5 had been falling off of him because they were wides. I guess we won't be getting hand-me down shoes from Andrew anymore :( His mommy has such good taste in shoes, too! My heart almost stopped when we paid for these new first shoes...on sale they were $50! That would be great if he could wear them for a year but she said that he would grow about half a shoe size every two months until he is 3. If we do the math, at $50 a pair, 12 pairs by the time he is 3...that is $600. Hmm...I am thinking he can go barefoot...he really doesn't like wearing shoes anyways!

This is Grey walking when he gets tired of us making him go back and forth..and just wants to crawl away and play :)

What noise does a pig make?

Getting ready to party

Grammie has been nice enough to open up her home for Grevin's first birthday in a couple of weeks.  They were doing some yard work today and Grevin was a big help!

A little snack after a hard day's work!

Four Day Weekends

I live for long weekends. I LOVE long weekends. Even more now that I can spend them with Grevin! We had another fun filled weekend, thankfully the sun was shining and we got to spend alot of it outside. This is going to be a long post....


Friday morning, Grevin and I headed to Petaluma to get his first real haircut. We had it trimmed back in October and we were way over due for a real haircut. We went to Lions, Tigers, and Hair! and the owner, Chris, cut his hair.  The salon is so cute-they have tons of toys and Grevin didn't want to leave.

Before

During

After

After we left there, we head to the Parish's to hang out with Tanya and Anouk.  Anouk was her cute, sweet self like usual:)

The Parish family were headed to Stockton for a soccer tournament for the weekend so we watched their dog, Bruno, for them.  Grevin loved playing ball with him and chasing him around the house.  When I would sit down to nurse Grey, Bruno would come sit on him!

On Saturday, we had pictures taken for Grevin's first birthday along with a couple of family shots.  These are just a couple of them, there will be more to come.  I LOVE THEM!

 

Sunday, was Valentine's Day.  Grevin was up around 6 am like usual so Zippy got up with him and let me sleep in (this is seriously the best gift ever).  They woke me up a few hours later with a single red rose before heading off to Bruno's on 4th for a yummy brunch.  I had a dungeoness crab and brie omelette.  YUM!  After that, we headed out to Jack London Park for a hike.  It was a little muddy but so pretty out there.

Brunch

Jack London

Monday morning, we headed out for a bike ride.  We want to ride out to Sebastopol this summer so we decided to check out how to get to the Joe Rodata trail that runs from Santa Rosa to Sebastopol.  We rode all the way out to Fulton Rd and decided to head back so Zippy could go to work for a couple of hours.  Needless to say, the bike ride was a hard one for Grevin!

A bright, bright sunshiny day!

Finally, the sun is out, the rain has stopped! Thursday, I met Grammie and Grevin at the park.

Check out this video. Now remember, Grevin stays home with Grammie and isn't really spending alot of time with other kids. Plus, there were no other kids there at the park doing this. It must be an instinctual boy thing!

Eating with a spoon

Grevin thinks he is ready to eat with a spoon by himself. I am not sure if I am ready though!
(just ignore that he is eating straight out of the cottage cheese container. No dishwasher means less dishes the better!!)

Sushi

Every month on Grevin's "birthday" we go to a new sushi restaurant in Sonoma County. This time he was able to enjoy it with us! It was a sweet potato and avocado roll-yum,yum!

11 months

Dear Grevin,
This month has been great and full of lots of laughs-especially from you! You have decided you are a comedian. You like to do silly things to make us laugh. Just little things here and there: like when you say you are "all done" with dinner and you help me take the tray off of your high chair. You like to push it and then pull it back a little and you think it is SOOO funny; like when you mimic us...."ummm" and start doing that infectious belly laugh; when you try to tickle us, splash in the tub,  when you try to find everyone's belly button...the list goes on. I love that you are so happy and that you find the world around you so much fun.

Something else that I have noticed this month, nothing seems to scare you. You love new things, new surroundings, new people.  Even though nothing seems to scare you, you do not seem to be pushing the limits to where you are constantly injuring yourself, falling off things, etc. It seems to be a perfect balance so far. (daddy says I am jinxing us by saying this...!)

You are much more aware of how others are feeling and when you are "in trouble." We were reading a pop up book and you started to tear one of the pop ups...and I told you that you can't tear it up. You burst into tears, burying your head in my chest. Needless to say, you don't pull as hard anymore! One morning, we were cuddling in bed and you were pinching daddy and me. I said you can't do that because it hurts and you would have thought we had beat you with a stick! Then another time you accidentally hit daddy in the face with a hard ball and it really hurt him-he said ouch and put his hands up to where it hurt-and you proceeded to burst into tears and just wanted to cuddle with him...you would have thought it was YOU who had gotten hurt!!

You have become book obsessed (maybe because you actually got to spend time with your Auntie this month?). The second you wake up, you look at your bookshelf and start signing book. If you find one on the floor, you bring it over to me. You have about 4 or 5 books you absolutely love and if it isn't one of those, you can usually make it about 15 seconds before going on to something else. 

You are also taking a few "steps". I don't know if I can call them your first steps though because usually it consists of you flinging your body to the next closest object. I think you just cross your fingers, say a little prayer and hope something will break your momentum as you take one or two steps before leaping onto the next person or closest piece of furniture. Everything has become a walker that isn't nailed to the ground-you will scoot anything around that you can-laundry baskets, suitcases, coolers, your play tables. You smile SO BIG as you scoot around the house.

You also love to be outside. You don't care if it is raining, if it is cold or if you don't even have socks on. You will actually cry when I shut the front door because you want to go outside so badly. I can't wait for the weather to get better because I really don't want to go sit out in the rain!! You have found our "rock" garden in the front yard and you love to pick up all the rocks, hit them together, throw them, and carry them into the house. Hopefully this rains stops soon and we can go back to spending all of our free time outside. You are going to LOVE the summer!

I can't believe the next letter I write to you will be for your FIRST birthday!  Where has the year gone??  I look forward to what this next month has in store for us. 

I love you through and through.
Mommy