What does the monkey do?

New Tricks

monkey
dog
lion
airplane

A visit to Nana's

Uncle Jon going over the benefits of the G phone.
Awww. Kisses
More Kisses

Thanks Nana!!

Carnivore!

Annmarie has pretty much refused any and all meat with the exception of ham lunch meat. We have tried shredded chicken, ground hamburger, meatballs. All baby friendly meats. Today Jamie grilled some amazing lamb chops. I thought it would be funny to give Annmarie the bones with a little of the meat on them to see what she would do. She apparently thought they were tasty. Go figure that she likes the $13 a pound lamb chops.

Angela’s Book Review: TWILIGHT AND NEW MOON

Let’s start with the obvious, the books are no literary works of art. It’s a teenage love romance that yes, involves vampires. It’s a compelling story that kept me entertained and interested. I finished the two books in 12 days.

The primary characters: Bella, completely helpless and hopeless – yes, but she is human to me. Edward Cullen, the vampire – is perfect! And you are reminded constantly how perfect he is throughout the book, but who wouldn’t want a vampire boyfriend like Edward?

The other characters are enjoyable and I appreciate that the books don’t delve too deeply into each one. These books are not about lengthy character development. Remember who these books are written for. Also, certain details are limited, so one needs to use their own imagination. Which I think may make watching the movie very difficult.

The books are filled with several clichés and can become incredibly cheesy and it appears that it’s just going to get cheesier and I LOVE it! I did find myself very frustrated that that Bella and Edward could barely kiss, but it makes the characters innocent.

I think one of the reasons I found the books compelling, is in one way or another you can relate to the story (leaving out the whole supernatural stuff) and the emotions of the characters.

I am definitely enjoying the books way more than I thought I would and I am hooked! Overall, I think the books are fabulous. It’s a quick read and I think anyone can enjoy them (you do not need to be a teenager or a vampire fan). Every now and then you just need this kind of mind candy. I can’t wait for 3 and 4.

President’s Day and Sick Annmarie

Annmarie is 0 for 2 when it comes to President's Day weekend. Last year little Annmarie came down with her first cold, which led to a very unnecessary trip to the after hours urgent care clinic. But as new parents we were very worried for our little 2 month old baby.
This year Annmarie came down with another cold, this one came with a mild fever and the usual snotty nose. But we were able to limit this one with a call to the advise nurse and skip the urgent care visit. The only sweet thing about a sick baby is all the cuddling we got to do. However, this was offset against the screaming, no eating sad little girl we had on our hands for two days.
We are hoping this will not be a trend.

Valentine's Day!

I bought myself these flowers. :)
Grandma made us a heart shaped cake. Yum!
Nana gave Annmarie this cute card that she loves to play with.


I let Annmarie have cake for breakfast. I know....... cake for breakfast.....that's just how we roll.


Annmarie is actually not a big cake eater. After about 3 or 4 bites, she had had enough. But it made for some good pictures.
Giving Dad some love.

Happy Valentine's Day! XOXOXO

Annmarie: 14 Month Update

Today Annmarie turned 14 months!

She has definitely entered into the world of a toddler (or a waddler as they call it in her My Gym Class – more later). Everyday it seems like she is doing something different.

-For starters she is walking everywhere now. She is still a little stiff, but I think it’s because she is very cautions. Jamie and I where out to lunch the day we went hiking in Marin (post below) and I told Jamie that I thought Annmarie would be a late walker because she is so cautious and probably wouldn’t start 'til about 15 months. But the very next day she showed me by taking seven steps (video below). Now she is walking all over the place and keeping us all on our toes. She can also stand up from the floor without using anything to assist her. We are so proud!

-Annmarie has figured out how to stack the rings on this toy. She may not necessarily do it in proper order, but she is understands the concept of on and off. It was so exciting to watch her figure it out.


-She is very expressive, she points at things she wants, is constantly babbling and I think very eager to communicate with us. We ruled that “Yesssss” was her first word. She also says, Da-Da, this and that. She can also point out body parts (post below) on herself and on her baby doll. We (and by we, I primarily mean Grandma and Grandpa) have been teaching her how to point out things in books. She can pick out a banana like no ones business.

-We transitioned Annmarie to one nap a day and it went very smoothly. We instituted some tough love techniques to teach her how to fall asleep on her own for her naps and on the first try she only cried/screamed for 10 min and slept for 2 and ½ hours! We can now put her down for her nap in her crib awake and happy. She will typically fall asleep in 5 to 10 minutes on her own and sleep for 2 hours. Yeah Annmarie! She still sleeps 11 to 12 hours at night.

-Eating is probably our biggest challenge with Annmarie. She now spits things out of her mouth when she doesn’t like something and also throws food on the floor. She has her good days too and is moving more and more to eating grown-up food. She also started drinking regular ol' cow’s milk with no problem. She is not the best milk drinker (I think she should be drinking more), but she does ok and loves milk and animal cookies. She refuses to wear a bib, so usually she has a very colorful shirt by the end of her meals.

-We signed Annmarie up for kiddie classes at a place right around the corner from us called My Gym. They do fun stuff with music, circle time and other developmental activities. The cool thing about the music is they play cool music from the Beatles and such and even play a little AC/DC from time to time. Annmarie loves, loves, loves dancing to music. She dances in the car in, in Whole Foods Market, wherever there is music you can find Annmarie dancing. Annmarie loves to dance just like her father!

-She had a doctors appointment in January and she weighed in at 19 lbs – even. We thought for sure she would weigh 20 lbs and we could turn that darn car seat around, but she continues to be our petite little girl. She was 30 ½ inches long. I'm thinking she has to be 20 lbs by now.

-She cracks herself up when she looks at pictures or videos of herself. We put together a little photo album of pictures of her and it is one of her favorite books. And when she watches the videos she will copy herself.

-And best of all Annmarie now gives kisses . Well, when she is in the right mood. It just melts your heart. It’s the best feeling ever.

Here are some pictures of the aforementioned cutie:

Grabbing her father's nose is like one of her favorite things to do

She loves her shopping cart.

Which one is the sheep?

All Done

Today, Annmarie officially made the transition away from breast feeding. 14 months ago, Annmarie started her life eating through a bottle, breast milk in a bottle that is. We worked very hard to get her to feed naturally with me and I would say it took about a month for Annmarie to get comfortable with it and about three months for me. It hurt like nothing else in the beginning and thankfully it stopped hurting. Then after another month or so, Annmarie flat out refused to take a bottle. I returned to work after taking 6 months off and I started pumping so she could get her milk when I was gone. Since she would not take the bottle, we found other ways of giving it to her, like getting her to sip through a medicine spoon, and then later through a sippy cup. I would then do multiple feeds when I got home from work. I always hoped that the weaning process with Annmarie would go smoothly and that it would just happen naturally for both of us. And that appears to have happened. It’s a bittersweet feeling. I cherish the experience and I’m so grateful to have had it. I will miss it, but alas the time seems right for both of us. So with that said…………Margaritas anyone!!!!

(This picture was taken exactly a year ago)

A birthday party, cooking club and a concert.

Annmarie and Jamie went to Owen’s 3rd birthday party and I had the house to myself for 4 and 1/2 hours! Amazing.

I was able to prepare for cooking club, relax and shower in peace. I also got to read Twilight for a bit.

Yes, I’m reading Twilight. I gave into the mainstream obsession. I think I may be hooked!

Annmarie was very excited for Owen’s party!

Cooking Club

As many of you know I belong to a cooking club. A cooking club blog is forthcoming, but I’ll go a ahead and post my recipe. The theme for this cooking club - Secret Ingredient: Ginger! As always CC was great fun. I made Indonesian Carrot Soup.

Recipe:

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 large Spanish onion, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, sliced
3 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
2 teaspoons ground yellow curry powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
8 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 cup honey
2 cans coconut milk (16 oz each)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

-Heat a stockpot over medium heat-high heat. Add the olive oil, garlic, ginger, onion, celery, and carrots. Sauté for 10 minutes. Add the curry, coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes, stock, and sherry. Bring to boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 35 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the honey, coconut milk, cilantro, salt and pepper. Puree the soup in the pot using a hand blender or working in batches with a regular blender until smooth.

Makes 10 to 12 servings

A concert

After cooking club, Bonnie, Jamie and I headed to to see Michael Franti & Spearhead at the Fox Theater in Oakland. It was an interesting show. Let's just say it was half cool half wack.

Jamie's Notes:
This was only the second show at the newly remodeled Fox, after Another Planet Entertainment put in $80 million in improvements...and it shows. With lots of room to move around on the main floor, AC being pumped through the many floor vents, and plenty of beverage lines with bartenders who kept the drinks flowing quickly, APE went all out on this venue. This is now easily the premiere place in the Bay Area to see a show.

Anyway, back to the show. The opening act, ALO, put on a surprisingly entertaining set, and at 45 minutes did not overstay their welcome. During the short set change I ran into a friend from high school who I had not seen in 15 years (and took me a couple minutes to remember who she was). After heading back to the bar for a quick refill, the house lights dimmed, but instead of Michael Franti taking the stage, one of his backup singers came out and performed an atrocious 4 song set to a prerecorded dance beats. Oh dear God, it was so very bad. I don't think I heard one person clap between songs. Not sure why Michael Franti would allow for this to essentially ruin his show...I was probably about 5 minutes from walking out altogether...but finally she got lost and the band came on to rock the house. Opening with one of my favorite songs of his "Everybody Ona Move", the entire room started jumping up shaking the floor. Sure, now that I'm in my flippin' mid-30's, I haven't jumped up and down at a show in quite a while now, but have to admit it...I jumped and it was pretty damn fun. The band put on a pretty good set from then on out, despite that pretty large mistep that almost ruined the entire thing. Angela had to take a time-out from standing and posted up against the side wall away from all the people for awhile. I kept getting the "I'm tired, lets go home nudge", but managed to negotiate enough to stay through the rest of the set, and still managed to get home shortly after midnight.

Bed Time

bAth!






















books!





BED!
one of Best parts of the day!

Super Bowl Sunday!

The day started off early with Jamie running the San Francisco ½ marathon. This was Jamie’s second time running this race and his seventh competitive ½ marathon. He ran this ½ marathon with our friends Lauren and Lisa (sisters). He also helped pace Lauren run in under 2 hours. They rocked the race with a time of 1:52:49! Yeah Lauren!

Here is a picture at the finish line. Lauren is wearing a teal blue hat and Jamie is wearing a black visor.

Annmarie and I met everyone at the finish line. Annmarie, unfortunately, was in a weird mood, I think she is going through some mommy issues. She wanted me to hold her or she wanted to be working on her walking skills and chasing dogs. Unfortunately, I didn’t put her in the best shoes for this, as the grass was all wet and muddy, so that’s my fault. But we found some pavement that wasn’t too wet.

Here is everyone!
The runners!
Back home we started preparing for the Super Bowl. We had a small gathering with my parents and Aunt Bonnie. Annmarie appeared to enjoy Bruce’s performance and started to dance.
Jamie BBQ'd some party wings and these awesome teriyaki beef skewers (recipe to follow). I made an orzo salad and guacamole. Bonnie contributed some hummus and veggies and Grandma and Grandpa brought over the family staple cheesecake.
It was a fun and busy day!

Teriyaki Beef Skewer Recipe - Complaints of Fant Daddy!

Marinate overnight for maximum slam factor

Ingredients:

2 lbs. Flank Steaks
1 Green bell pepper
1 Yellow bell pepper
1 Orange bell pepper
2 Bottles of Soy Vay Island Teriyaki (this stuff: they have it at Whole Foods, it’s not cheap, but it’s the stuff!)

1 bulb of garlic
1 large/10-12 oz. cans of mandarin oranges in light syrup
1 can/14 oz. of crushed pineapple

Instructions:

Dump all of the Teriyaki sauce into one of those giant roasting pans. Dump in the crushed pineapple. Strain the oranges from the syrup, and then crush them with your hands into the teriyaki sauce. Mince up at least half the garlic, but I usually do close to the whole thing, depends on how much garlic you like, and dump all of that in. Mix it up.

Cut the Flank along the grain of the meat, I think, you basically want to be able to see that layer of fat between the meat. So make the cuts thin and long. Once you have all of the strips of steak, I usually cut those strips into three sections. Then skewer that with small pieces of the pepper and when you’re done, put all of the skewers into the marinade. Cover it all up and throw it in the fridge and turn occasionally.

Grill for about 6 minutes on each side. Can’t really undercook them since they are such thin strips of meat. Enjoy!