More holiday festivities

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Lamorinda Moms Club Holiday party. It was quite funny, because Joshua fell fast asleep on the car ride over. Amazingly, he stayed asleep in a loud party for about 45 minutes. Dave and I hung out, said "Hi" to some of the families from our playgroup, ate some treats and waited for Joshua to wake up. We waited because this was our opportunity to get Santa pictures. To be conservative, we started with Joshua on my lap for the first picture.

We then tried Joshua on Santa's lap. The look on his face was "who is this guy?"

"Um guys....not so sure about this."

"Yup, get me off the old man's lap."

Family photo at the Christmas party

When we got home, Joshua got to open some presents from Tutu and G.G. early.

Wrapping paper is fun.

Joshua loved the pop up Santa book. He laughs when Daddy reads it before bed and opens and closes the pages repeatedly.

He also got some puzzle ornaments for the tree and a Santa and reindeer night light for his room. Very fun!

Last Friday, our playgroup had a Christmas party. It was really fun with 13 adults and 13 kids under 1.5 years old. We did a secret Santa gift exchange. Joshua got a great puzzle from his secret Santa.

Controlled chaos

Joshua was memorized by watching Ben play with a slinky.

Hanging out at home playing with his blocks.

On Saturday we headed to Rockridge to meet up with Rebecca for a late lunch. She brought Joshua a toy Vespa which was great fun.

We had a good lunch and Joshua had a really fun time playing with Auntie Rebecca.

Joshua decided that playing with my sealed package of vitamins was really fun. What a great noise they make when you shake them.

On Sunday night, we headed over to San Mateo to meet the Yungs and the Jungs for a Japanese dinner.

Chris, Laurel, Madeline and Joyce exchanging presents after dinner.

Proud Daddy Jeff with baby Tyler. Tyler was great throughout dinner.

Joshua had a good dinner too and even tried some fish, pork and rice. His senses were definitely stimulated at this restaurant with the people, the decor and most of all by a train that goes around a track close to the ceiling. Very fun dinner.

A fun holiday season already

Joshua turned 10 months this week. He is excited about it as you can tell in this photo.

Hanging out with Daddy in front of the Christmas tree.


On Friday, Joshua and I went to have lunch with Auntie Joyce and Tyler in Burligame. Tyler happily slept through lunch and Joshua enjoyed his sweet potatoes, Italian bread and polenta at the Italian place we went for lunch. It was a fun, rainy afternoon.

Joshua loves to tear paper and was having a great time with this place mat.


On Saturday late morning, we all headed to the Ferry Building in San Francisco to meet up with Rebecca and her best friend, Kristen and family. It was a big family affair with the Yungs (Jeff, Joyce, Madeline and Tyler, the Shahkars (Shahien, Alyson and Gabriel) and us.


Auntie Rebecca holding Tyler with Joyce and Madeline

The San Diego contingent with Rebecca, Annika, Francesca, Kristen, John and Alyson in the foreground.

Dave, Joshua and Jeff shooting the breeze

Auntie Rebecca is always good with the kids, including playing with Joshua.

Alyson, Gabriel and Rebecca

Monkey had to be bundled up on the cold rainy day, and willing wore his hat and mittens.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Rockridge to meet up with another group of families. Originally we were supposed to all go on a boat around Lake Merritt to sing Christmas carols. Unfortunately, due to the hard rains, the boat trip got cancelled. So, we went to a bar/restaurant instead. I think the wait staff and other patrons were a bit scarred when 13 adults and 6 children (5 of them 2 or under) walked in. However all the kids were great and we had a really fun time. One patron who was with his buddies at the bar made the effort to come over as we were all leaving to ask us "what kind of drugs do you give your kids to make them behave so well. I swear I didn't hear a single cry out of any of them." I just told him we were blessed with good kids!

Joshua with Auntie Jackie

Joshua ate an amazing amount of food on that day including all the cheese out of a grilled cheese sandwich ordered just for him. Even the waitress was impressed. We definitely think he is in the middle of a growth spurt.

The Dinsmores - Chris, Annette and Leila

Angie, Dave and Joshua. Thanks to Angie and Jim for organizing all of us. Thanks to Mike Caughlan, we even sang Jingle Bells before leaving the bar. People thought we were a bit crazy, but who cares. :)

November and Thanksgiving Fun

Although Joshua is not crawling quite yet, he definitely loves to assume the pose, especially in his crib and in our family bed.

He continues to love his mobile, so I have yet to take it down.


Although it was just Dave, Joshua and I for Thanksgiving this year as my parents were unable to make it out, we decided to go ahead and do a full turkey. What happens when you decide to buy your turkey on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving? You can only find a 17 lbs turkey. We had a lot of fun cooking and a lot of left-overs!

Joshua is helping in the kitchen by playing some tunes while in his exersaucer.

On Thanksgiving morning, we went to get eggnog lattes at Pete's and then went to breakfast at Nations. Yum! In the afternoon, we went to the park to get all of us outside for a bit of fresh air and some swinging!

Dave took Joshua on the slide for the first time and he was pretty nonchalant about it.

Action shot

When we got home, the turkey was done. It turned out very well and we were pleased.

Our pre-dinner family photograph. Although we had planned to all have dinner together, a few of the dishes weren't quite done. So, we sat down with JWM and had a little appetizer while he had dinner. It turned out very well as that meant that Dave and I got to have a nice, relaxing dinner together after the monkey went to bed.

Joshua is ready for dinner.

Joshua is a pretty good eater these days and is generally happy in his high chair.

Eating his sweet potatoes.

Daddy giving him turkey. He liked it and ate well.

He really likes to drink from regular glasses more than any sippy cup.

Dave and Joshua disassembling the turkey.

Our lovely Thanksgiving dinner spread complete with "Joshua TV" (i.e. the video monitor) as one of our friends put it.

On Friday night after Thanksgiving, we went to see the Levines in Berkeley. We had not met the newest addition to their family, Sadie Mae who is now 4.5 months. We had an awesome steak dinner which Jim braved the elements for to grill out. The food was great and the company even better.

Sadie and Joshua seemed to get a kick out of each other and were "talking" back and forth in baby talk here. So cute!

As you can tell, Joshua loved both Sadie and Cody who is now 5.

Dave had a good time holding Miss Sadie while Angie and I pulled together the last part of dinner.

Playing with the kids. Cody was very busy in his playroom and therefore didn't make it into the pictures.

Joshua with Auntie Angie.

Jim is a natural with two kids in tow. Thanks to the Levines for such a wonderful and fun evening!

Joshua is learning to do the sippy cup on his own, but still tends to chew on it more than drink from it. Saturday morning at the coffee house as usual!

It is great, because Joshua is allowing us to put him in the pack'n'play for periods of time to play on his own. It is really helpful when I am trying to get something done around the kitchen or house in general. This is especially true as our monkey continues to take short naps which doesn't really give me much time to actually accomplish anything.

"Want to play too, Mommy?"

Joshua loves to chill on Daddy's face and he makes funny noises.

Crawling on Daddy is fun too.

Early last Saturday morning, we ventured out to get our Christmas tree. On Sunday, we got it up and decorated. We are all enjoying it in our family room! Now to get the presents wrapped and under it.

Last Saturday night, Auntie Megan came over for a visit and then we all went to dinner in Berkeley with the Haynes. Joshua was so excited to see Auntie Megan when she arrived at the door.

Evan Haynes mid-meal. He is getting to be such a big boy!

The weather has been quite cold, so we got monkey this cute hat which he doesn't seem to mind wearing. He also has mittens that match, but I haven't tried those yet.

The Haynes family - Evan, Matt and Abby. They recently moved to San Jose, so it was nice to have them make the trip up here to see us. Next time, we will go to them!

On Sunday night, we went over to the Yungs house for a crab dinner with ourselves and the Yuryevs. Dinner was delicious and the kids had a great time. Here is Joyce with baby Tyler and Miss Madeline.

Joshua had fun with Madeline's toys including this cute ride on lamb.

Joshua with Auntie Alla

Alla and her son Jacob

Joshua chillin' on our bed while I get ready. He had to dress up a little on Tuesday, because we visited another preschool and he wanted to make a good impression. I don't think his outfit had much to do with it, but he did win everyone over with his smiles. :)

Many times after a meal, Joshua loves to serenade us. I call this "Joshua's greatest Thanksgiving hits."