Day 181: Cuteness

Even though she turned into super sleep crabby pants just a few moments after this, how cute is she?  A goofball and all, but an adorably cute one.  

Day 180: Starvin' Baby

Today was our official first day back from vacation - Josh and I went to work and Michal headed to day care.  It was a busy day catching up, so by the time I picked up the babes, we headed over to the grocery store for some essential restocking.

Once arriving at the store and getting the goose seated in the shopping cart, we set off, heading first into the produce section.  Michal eats a good amount of fruit and vegetables, of which we had absolutely none in the house, so this was a vital stop.  I found a great sale on watermelons and cantaloups and picked up a few kiwi fruit and pears.  I checked around, looking to see if there was anything else we needed, grabbed a container of tofu, and found the fresh corn.  I pulled up next to it and started to peek into the husks of the ears of corn to check their freshness.  At one point, I turned to place an ear or two in the cart, and found the baby with this:

It never occurred to me that putting the fruit in the front seat with the baby would be a bad idea.  I looked over, and she has this pear in both of her hands, chowing down as if it were her last meal.  Completely shocked, I quickly grabbed it away, at which point her face crumples and she starts to cry.  Amused that she had started her dinner early, I pulled out my phone to take a quick picture.  The picture app loads, I start to take the picture, and she lunges (still in the seat) for the pear.  All I get is baby/pear blur.  I start to crack up, again, and delete the photo.  This time, I'm super smart and place both pears into the large basket of the cart.

We head into the dairy section to pick up some cottage cheese - I reach over to pick up a container, I look back at the cart, and she has nabbed the "bunch" of bananas (only two, but I'm sure that still qualifies as a bunch) and has the butt end of one in her mouth, trying to take a bite.  At this point, I'm amazed - she is never quite this insane about eating, so I guess she must be hungry.  I go ahead and move all of the small fruit to the other part of the cart, check to make sure there is nothing else she can get, and prepare to move on.  Not before taking this picture, of course.  I didn't want to tease her by trying to pose a picture of her with the pear, so I took it sans baby.  So happy the camera got the corn in focus and not the fruit.

The rest of the shopping trip was rather uneventful, although she endlessly attempted to pick up and eat the cantaloupe.  She didn't manage any success there.  Once home, she enjoyed a dinner of hamburger with pear, of course, for dessert.  

Since it wouldn't be a day in the life of Michal's blog without a picture of the star, here you go - she's waving hi!

Day 179: Recovery

Today was a bit of a crazy day.  We landed in Washington DC around 9:30 AM, and boy were we tired!  While Michal was a sleeping rockstar on the first leg - a four hour flight from San Francisco to Cincinnati - she decided sleep was unnecessary on our shorter flight to Washington.  Unfortunately that meant only about four hours of sleep last night for the babes, which is a bit less than her normal 11-12 hours.  

Once we got back to Maryland, we had lots of this - nappy baby.  

Here's hoping it doesn't come back to bite us tonight!

 Once we got back home (after driving up to Baltimore to pick up the Bailey Dog), Michal was rested up and ready to rediscover some of her toys.  Yes, she tipped over the entire bucket of toys.  I guess she was really anxious to get to playing!

While she would crash later, she was SUCH a silly baby, playing, waving, saying "hi" and "buh bye."  She perfected the wave and the salutation on our trip, especially on the planes.  Fortunately MOST people enjoyed waving and saying hi to the crazy baby.


Hoping for a good night's sleep tonight.

Day 178: Heading Home

Today is our last day in California, as we are catching a red-eye late tonight.  It is always a little bittersweet - while we are sad to leave friends and family, we are excited to get back to our normal routines.  When I purchased our tickets months ago, I was really excited to get an amazing fare and did not know what to anticipate with the baby in terms of the times of the flights.  Tonight's flight is a red-eye with a stop in Cincinnati - here's hoping that the Babes is able to sleep through both our flights!


I wanted to take one last opportunity to take pictures of the baby with my mom and youngest sister.  Some cute pictures turned out, but I really liked this one, taken on the deck in the backyard.  

Before heading to the airport, we grabbed some dinner.  Michal has had pasta before, but I am not sure she has had real spaghetti - it has normally been spiral pasta cut into smaller pieces.  I was hoping she'd go all Lady-and-the-Tramp with her noodles!

Much later, Michal is all ready for the flight in her mermaid pajamas.  Apparently she wanted some reading material and decided to raid my purse (a gift courtesy of my sister, Deanna - THANKS!).  It looks like she thinks she's being sneaky!

Day 177: Hannah Turns 21!

There are a number of benefits to our trip out to California.  Not only have we had a good amount of time visiting with family and friends, but we timed it perfectly to coincide with my baby sister's 21st birthday.  With that, we made sure to take her out the night before at midnight to have her first legal drinks in a bar.  We sure felt old, especially knowing that our adorable alarm clock was set to go off bright and early in the morning.  It was a fun milestone that we normally have to miss, so it was well worth it.

Another benefit to this trip was the ability to get together with some of my mom friends from my online community.  There were five babies and moms at the table - too much cuteness at the table!  The gathering was organized so I could be there (which I really appreciated), and moms came from near and far.  While I wish we could all be closer together, it was great to see everyone.

With today being my youngest sister's birthday, we headed in to San Francisco for dinner at one of the seafood restaurants at the pier near the ferry terminals.   

All of my other pictures of dinner did not turn out well due to the lighting and our location near the bright window.  I'm just not that adept a photo editor.  This was a view out the window, though - the Bay Bridge.  There were a number of boats on the water, and the bridge looked unusually pretty.

We got home for cake and presents.  Michal had a TEENY TINY bite of cake (I was planning on waiting until her birthday, but it was just too tempting), and I helped finish the rest of the slice.

Here is Michal, sitting with her Aunt Deanna and having fun with 

Coco the Wonderdog and her Great-Aunt Tamar.  

On a crazy note, today we passed the 20,000th visitor to this blog.  It is kind of amazing that so many people love following Michal's crazy adventures.  Thank you for reading!

Day 176: Golden Gate Park & More

Today we headed into Golden Gate Park for two great attractions - The California Academy of Sciences and the Japanese Tea Garden.

 First up was the Academy of Sciences.  Once inside, we headed into the rainforest.  Michal loved gazing at two brightly colored Macaws.  Once she got her fill of the birds, we headed up and inside the exhibit, where Josh pointed out a variety of brightly colored butterflies and birds.

 Just chilling on the railing.  Michal REALLY wanted to touch this.  While she has been working on being gentle with certain things, this was NOT an occasion for this.  At one point, a beautiful blue and black butterfly nearly landed on her head.  

 Later we headed up to the Academy's "living" roof.  Instead of your usual roofing material, this roof is covered with hills of native plants.  The hills are a salute to San Francisco's rolling terrain.  The roof includes a number of skylights to provide light inside and photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity.  Very cool.

 After the Academy, we headed to the Japanese Tea Garden where we indulged in some jasmine tea and mochi rice cakes.  We did take a quick tour around the grounds - such a pretty garden!

 Daddy and daughter, taking in the sites.

 Later we headed back to Grandma's house.  Here is Aunt Hannah giving Michal a snack of avocado bits.  Delish!

 Michal and Grandma, laughing at Coco the Wonderdog's antics.  

Finally, after a dinner of barbecue chicken and grilled veggies, the beeb was finally getting sleepy.  Time for bed!

Day 175: B-B-Q!

Since we do not have the chance to frequently get back to California too often, we invited a few of my high school friends over today for a barbecue.  It was a great time to catch up, celebrate happy news, and just spend time with people I feel like I've known forever.  Michal had a chance to hang out with her friend Emma a bit more - she LOVES being around big kids. 

 Checking out something Emma is doing...

 Getting a tutorial on sparkly things from Allison.

Spending time with Aunt Deanna - she MUST be teething again, 

as her hands are rarely out of her mouth these days.

Day 174: Play Ball! (Giants Edition)

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It would not be a trip anywhere with Josh without making it to a baseball stadium.  This marked Michal's second stadium (30 28 to go, Josh tells me), and her first visit to AT&T Park.  Coincidentally, it was her second time "watching" the Giants play, so somehow she might be on her way to becoming a fan, even though I grew up an Oakland Athletics fan and Josh will unfortunately love the Orioles until the end of time.  We did not know ballparks gave out first visit certificates (thanks to my friend Katie who blogged about her daughter's first trip to see the Mariners), so we made sure to get one for the Goose.    

View from the bridge as we walked from the parking lot to the stadium.  Pretty park.

 

Walking around the stadium, we came upon this cable car.  At first we were prepared to walk past, until we realized that we would NEVER have the opportunity to pose with one.  Back we went.  How cute is that kid with her jeans!?

 View from our seats - not a bad seat in this park!

We were fortunate to watch three great players today - Tim Lincecum started for the Giants, Joe Mauer popped in at one point for an at bat, and Brian Wilson (AKA The Beard) closed out to ensure a Giants win.  Here is The Beard winding up.

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Sleepy beeb 

Requisite picture of Daddy and baby - she looks thrilled.  

That's a "Can we GO, Dad?" look if I ever saw one.

One last shot, outside of the park.

* I endeavor to credit others when using their pictures for this blog - Josh took these two great shots!

Day 173: Still Life with Babies

Fun day in San Francisco today: first, a stop at Amoeba Music, a wonderland for the music lover, where we picked up an awesome CD (Flood by They Might be Giants) and a few DVDs for Josh (some Korean horror/comedy/drama/musical movie and the set of Da Ali G shows).  We then grabbed some tasty Thai food and headed over to the De Young Museum to take in the new Picasso exhibit from the Musee National Picasso in Paris.  Not my favorite artist, but definitely a great experience, even if Michal expressed her displeasure at his surrealism with cries and much noise.  Apparently she prefers facial features to stay in their appropriate position.


On our way back from San Francisco, we stopped off for dinner with friends.  I have known Laura since the sixth grade when we both arrived in the band room at our middle school.  We have remained friends every since, despite the years (roughly 20) and distance (3000 miles).  It was great to see her and her family, especially Emma, who is 17 months old now.  Even though Emma was having a tough day and wasn't her normal cheery self, we had a great time and look forward to seeing them again in a few days - must get in as much friend and baby time as possible!

Day 172: Lake Tahoe!!

 Since we did not arrive in Lake Tahoe until the evening (and past the baby's bedtime), we did not have much of a chance to take in the beautiful surroundings.  We made sure to do so today.  Here is Michal with the lake behind her.

Michal with Smokey the Bear.  Love this picture. 

 Tiny baby in front of ginormous tree

Josh's handiwork here - artsy fartsy!

Day 171: Family Lunch

Today we hit the road on the early side so we could make it up for a trip up to Lake Tahoe, one of my favorite places in the world.  On the way, we made a detour to visit with family - namely, my grandmother and father.  Michal met her great-grandmother in March but had yet to meet my father, so we made sure to stop off on our way.  It wasn't easy to get her to look towards the camera, let alone smile, so this picture feels like a bit of a triumph!

Day 170: Father's Day

Our first Father's Day!  One of Michal's gifts - she has seemingly adjusted to West Coast time by waking up at her normal 7:00 AM waking time.  Good job, goose!

 Once everyone was awake and ready to go, we headed out to dine on some dim sum.  Here is Michal, already mastering the chopsticks (okay, eating from them, not using them - not even Michal is THAT brilliant) with some saucy rice noodles.  She also enjoyed some veggies and chow foon.  Yum.

After lunch, we headed in to San Francisco to visit the Palace of Fine Arts, a structure built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition.  I am sure I had been there in the past, but it has been a very long time.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

 Another view - along each side of the rotunda was a series of colonnades and a variety of interesting vegetation.

 It makes sense that we saw two different sets of wedding parties for pictures at such a beautiful location.

 Swans

 Some sort of water bird - we also saw carp, turtles, pigeons, and seagulls.

After visiting the Palace, we headed just up the road to Fort Point, a structure built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1853.  It was finished in time to protect San Francisco during the Civil War, although it never saw any action.  The fort, three-stories tall, sits just below the Golden Gate Bridge, making for an interesting vantage point of a familiar landmark.

 View from under the west side of the bridge, looking out towards the ocean.

View of all three levels of the fort, including the French Quarter-inspired stylings on the side of the fort in which the enlisted men and officers were housed.

All in all, a fun, if not exhausting day.  Tomorrow: another first.