Soccer School

Joey continues to learn valuable athletic lessons at his weekly soccer practice. This afternoon, he modelled five important takeaways:

1) Don official uniform and summon both a debonair and nonchalant attitude while posing with the soccer ball. This is useful for paparazzi, fans, and mothers.


2) Politely listen to your coach for at least 5 percent of the lesson. The other 95 percent of the lesson can be spent bouncing on your ball, squirming, giggling with teammates, and instructing baby sisters to leave the field.


3) Score goals!

4) Be the most exuberant cheerleader on your team. This involves launching into the air every time a teammate scores a goal and clapping wildly.

5) Flirt shamelessly and often with your preschool crush. If this involves slightly stalker-ish behavior, so be it. All is fair in love and soccer.

Sleep Aids... and Distractions

Just because we haven't posted about them recently doesn't mean they're not alive and well (and up to their usual tricks). Here's some recent shots of Joey and his buddies, Giraffe and Superman.

Pumpkin Posse

On Sunday, Shawna and I headed to Sacramento with Stacey to celebrate our friend Cara's birthday with brunch at a yummy brewery! We capped off our kid-free time with a stop at the outlets, and I got home in the late afternoon to find my Halloween-obsessed husband elbow-deep in pumpkin guts -- and two enthralled kiddos!

Lost Socks Have Nothing on Lost Sippys Here

When you're out and about as much as we are, maybe it's a foregone conclusion that some things will go missing, but I was not prepared for the level of carnage we're experiencing with sippy cups.

Clara takes after me when it comes to toting a beverage around -- but her drink of choice is milk, not coffee! In the past two weeks, she's misplaced seven sippy cups (which are not cheap, as any mom knows!!). She lost two in one day last week, during a dog park trip, and then during a 3D Toy Story screening, but this week, she lost one each in Michael's, Joey's preschool, Target, our bagel/coffee store and then the dog park again! Maybe I need to start leashing them to her!!

Here are some photos of (sniff) her sippy cups before they disappeared for good.

Handsome Little Man

Joey is not known for cooperating for the camera, and his first-ever school pictures are no exception! I'm not really sure there's even a frameable option, but I'll leave it up to the grandmas to decide that for sure!

Storm Shenanigans

Tim and Joey took advantage of the wet, stormy weather today and the "giant frisbee" made an encore appearance at the park. No children were injured in the filming of this video, although it's wince-worthy at the end. Tim has a special gift for behind-the-camera reactions to spills and tumbles.



Joey asked to go down the hill ten more times, even after his rough landing!

Pumpkin Patch - Part I

We may be on pumpkin overload by the end of the week, with three trips to three different patches on the calendar all within a few short days. But yesterday's outing to Half Moon Bay with the Cecchin family was the first of the bunch... a can't-miss visit to see Farmer John (who does double duty as farmer and mayor of HMB!). He keeps Grandma and Grandpa (and grandkids) stocked with snap peas throughout the summer at the Pacifica Farmers' Market, and then treats us all to a tractor ride and pumpkin tour in the fall!

Farmer John shows off his 800-pound beast of a pumpkin, seven months in the making (roughly the same gestational age as Meredith's baby! she resisted the photo op, though).




Uncle Mike flew in from San Diego to roughouse with little Cecchins...

... and of course pose with sunflowers.

Clara had a fantastic time with wagonmate and cousin Tommy.







Meanwhile, Joey, who's fighting a cold and cough, struggled to get in a pumpkin-y mood. Hopefully he'll get more into the swing of things by the end of the week!



Our plunder: a wagonful of pumpkins and a family photo!

Little Lady

You would never guess she was watching Kung Fu Panda.

Photo and room disarray courtesy of Daddy, taken during Mommy's bi-monthly night out for her mother's group!!

Baby, it's Cold Outside!!

On Sunday morning, we got to experience the magic of waking up to the first snowfall of the year in Lake Tahoe. We knew it might snow overnight, but we weren't expecting to see the world blanketed in white!

Joey, who had gone to bed the night before with visions of sledding on "giant frisbees" dancing in his head, peeked out of the window when he woke up at 6 am, and shouted, "WOOOOOW!!! There's snow on the ground and on the trees!! Can birds fly in the snow??? Hang on, Mommy, I need to go poop!!!"

The excitment didn't wear off until well into the morning. We cobbled together some (mostly adult) snow gear from throughout the cabin (we packed for fall weather, definitely not freezing temps!), and let the kids explore the winter wonderland while still in their jammies!

Can you believe Joey got *this* soaked and didn't complain once?? I think he has a future on the slopes!

Thanks to Hop and Mop for a fun weekend in Tahoe while the kids and I were once again bachelor party widows!

Off to Tahoe

Last night at dinner, we told Joey we'll be picking him up after preschool today and driving straight to Tahoe for the weekend.

He chewed for a few seconds, and then said, "Will we be going left and right, too?"

The Tutorials Continue

And oh, the burden lays heavy on Joey's shoulders.

J: Clawa, say, "sail."

C: SAIL!

J: That was good. Now say, "boat."

C: BOAT!

J. Now say "sailboat."

C: Sailboat!

J: Good, good. (SIGH) Clawa, you's got to learn EVERYTHING!!

Of Mooses and Midgets

What is the plural of moose? Mooses looks wrong... regardless, we only have one in our house, since Clara is still a lightweight around here!

At her 2-year check-up today, she clocked in with the following stats:

Height: 33.5 inches (25th percentile)
Weight: 25.5 pounds (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 48 cm (75th percentile)

At the same age, Joey was in the 95th percentile for weight at 33 pounds, and was in the 75th percentile at 35 inches tall! I'll refrain from sharing his head size, but it was, of course, obscenely off the charts. I looked a little further back in his baby book, and he actually outweighed and was taller than she is now when he was 15 months old!! Where did this monster come from??

Sporting just a diaper in the doctor's office is apparently the ultimate indignity for Clara Jane. Here she is pouting after I pried off her jean skirt from Aunt Shawna and her favorite hot pink boots.