Will Welcome Daylight Savings with Open Arms!

These two have joined me earlier and earlier each day. My goal is to get to 7am in silence. Today, they crept in circa 6:20am. Sweet Pea just learned to get out of her crib. 

"Resting quietly in mom's bed"

I need the quiet time in order to be a good mom for the rest of the day. They are super cute regardless of their less-than-ideal sleep habits! (Yes, I know it gets way worse than 6:20am rising. I just can't even.)

This one is the first one up 90% of the time:

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February.

We've almost made it through! Everyone is "off" right now. 

We've had lots of calls from school, yellow slips coming home, and massive meltdowns requiring physically restraining 40+ pound children for 20 minutes at a time. (How did my disc herniate, you ask? ;) 

Anyway, as a way to help, we've been exercising and spending quality time with the kids as much as possible. We love them so much! 

It's super hard to navigate late winter when you're an adult; but these guys don't have the benefit of dozens of winters under their belts yet. Everything will look cheerful in another month! :) 

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Re-Acclimating to Water

Bubbles make everything better. The first pics are from January; last one from Friday.

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Mr. Serious: Fifteen Months!

He's actually 16 months now; but here are his stats:

Height: 29.5, 5th%

Weight: 21.5, 30th%

Head: 18.75, 73rd%

Enjoying a rare, 70-degree, February day.

He is super strong for his age and pulls out krav maga when he doesn't like something; but most of the time, he is laid back. 

He cracks us up with his grunting and growling. We've been trying to use real words as much as possible; and today, he brought me the "100 first words" book and pointed at things so I would give him the names. 

He wouldn't be a member of our family if he didn't try this at least once.

He also pointed at a bird in the sky and said, "Dah," and was able to mimic "bir" after being given the real word. 

He works really hard to keep up with his siblings. He climbs to the top of play structures (slides) and almost goes down the 4-year-old equipment. Another mom was in awe of him at Fantasy Playground on Tuesday.

It's fascinating watching children grow! Even though I have rough patches with each of them, I'm grateful I get to be around to watch them grow up. :)

Previous well checks: Birth, 2 weeks,1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year. We love him so much!

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San Francisco

DH took me on a short work trip to San Francisco. We checked off a few things that could be done in one day (and I did a few more the day before while DH worked). My sister watched our kids and was amazing!

We were tremendously lucky to have two, 60-degree days with no fog -- excellent for morning and evening photos! Lombard Street:
 

  

  

Rode a cable car:

Coit Tower:

Walk to Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square:

Golden Gate Bridge:

Land's End (our favorite spot). The photos don't do it justice:

A Greek god?

Eat Ethnic foods:

And Ghirardelli ice cream and candy:

We avoided this place, which is touristy apparently:




Walk to churches:

We had a Mass for just ourselves here because no one else showed up at 7pm on a Friday. It was beautiful but also a little sad. :(

Memories...

The Salesian Mission, Ss. Peter & Paul:

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