W-A-T-E-R

I had a bit of a Helen Keller experience this afternoon. I was nursing Lulu in the comfy chair in the living room, but I only had one side um, exposed. She pulled off/away, leaned back on my lap, and signed "more". When I exposed the other side, she smiled and started nursing.

That's the first time she's ever signed "more" for anything other than baked goods (and the additional piece of a banana). And, to top it all off, she also signed "bitty" (which is our code word for um, well, you know, that we borrowed from Little Britain).



Which raises the question--now that she's talking, do we have to pay attention??

Dancing to Duke

Lulu was enjoying dancing to Duke Ellington earlier this week and it was too cute not to share:

Thanksgiving

Walter, Lulu and I went over to Tina, Kyle, and Shaya's for thanksgiving dinner last night. The girls had a good time with each other and the food was FANTASTIC! Tina's sister Monica and Tina and Kyle's friends Devan and Evan from LA also joined us. Some of Tina's co-workers also dropped by on their way home from work and helped us with dessert. ;)



Tina cooked some traditional Polish food--bigos and Gołąbki were my favorites! In addition, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, delish sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green beans, brussel sprouts, cranberry relish, and dressing that Walter and I brought (my traditional chestnut-apple recipe). We had some pumpkin martinis before dinner and a variety of red and white wines with dinner.



There's mashed potatoes hiding under that slice of turkey.


The girls had a good time snacking on some of the grown-up food: Lulu especially liked the bread from the dressing and the chunks of sweet potatoes!



For dessert, Tina made a pumpkin cheesecake and mandelbrot and I baked a spiced, upside-down apple bundt cake that I've been wanting to try. It was all SO good. I felt full but that slice of cheesecake at the end filled me up to the top!

Lulu was up waaaay past her bedtime and we tried to get her asleep in the sling, but she wasn't really buying it. So we skipped the bath and just put her to bed once we got home.

Lulu and Friends.

Lulu got to meet some new friends this past weekend in San Francisco. We had a nice time at the 21st Amendment brewpub with our friends Randy (Walter's old boss at WVU), Christa (Randy's grad research fellow), Sarah, and a bunch of Germans (who were friends of my advisor, Stephan).

Lulu had a nice "conversation" with Sarah during dinner:



And she *really* enjoyed meeting Randy:







The Germans contemplating Belgian beer:

How I Spent my Thanksgiving Vacation...

...waiting in line at the H1N1 clinic. This morning, Tina & Shaya and Tina's sister Monica, and Darcy & Phillip, Lulu, and I all went to the latest Sacramento County Public Health H1N1 vaccination clinic. It was held at the Sierra Community Center down the road from our house. The clinic started at 10am and we showed up around 9:45am...and waited in line...





and waited...in front of a "high functioning autistic" boy (according to his mother, we just thought he was "creepy").....to escape the unwanted attention, we let the kids run and play in the grass while we waited in line...




...and finally got through the door, but not before someone checked our paperwork to make sure we were Sacramento County residents. Another woman double-checked our paperwork, asking if she had any chronic diseases. I replied, "No, not really, except for that cirrosis of the liver." And then she started writing it down!!! I had to hastily correct her and we had a quick laugh before we were shuttled off to the next station. The nurse had me hold Lulu's arms and leg still and she got her H1N1 vaccine shot. She whined because I was holding her still, but she was fine as soon as I let go.

Total time elapsed: 2 hours.

She had a nice, looooong nap this afternoon when we got home and went to bed a little early this evening. She's supposed to have another shot about 4 weeks from now (~December 24th, yeah, right!), but hopefully we can get her 2nd vaccination before we leave for Denver at Christmas. I'm just hopeful that we can get her second shot at her pediatrician's office with a minimum of fuss.

San Francisco

Lulu enjoyed her weekend trip to San Francisco. I was participating in a conference, so she spent a lot of quality time with Daddy on Saturday (unfortunately, no pictures of quality time). But, here are a few pictures of her enjoying the surroundings:

Enjoying the view from the top floor of the conference with Daddy:


Look, Daddy, the TransAmerica Pyramid!


Watching the fountains



A Starbucks was located across from the entry gate to Chinatown:





I love those curls!

We made a pit-stop on Treasure Island on the drive home and snapped these two shots:

die Steine

Lulu had fun playing with her blocks (die Steine) yesterday afternoon and I thought I would snap a few pictures for everyone. We recently trimmed her hair for the first time (don't worry--the hair itself was saved for the baby book!), so you can see the bangs her Daddy gave her (I was tasked with holding her hands still--the harder task, I think). Her hair was getting so long, it was starting to bother her by hanging in her eyes, so we just trimmed it a little. I don't consider it a "real" haircut, but I wanted to save the hair for sentimental reasons anyway.









This one reminds me of all the fun I have to look forward to in a few years as she gets more mischievous! Doesn't she look like she's trying to get away with something? Must be the hot pink hoodie... :)

Party Time

Louisa's friend, Philip, had his first birthday party this past weekend. He technically turned one on October 23rd, but his family was vacationing in Hawaii that week and then his birthday party last weekend was postponed due to illness. I think Lulu and I agree that better late than never is a good motto for a party!

Philip's family from Merced drove up, so there are lots of people in the pictures that you may not know. Tina was there with Shaya though. Philip's grandparents gave him a red flyer wagon and the kids really had a good time with it as you can see!

Birthday Boy himself...


Lulu going for a spin in the new wheels...




Shaya finally gets her turn....


Darcey made Philip a chocolate birthday cake, but he apparently wasn't as interested in it as Lulu was...





Darcey, Jason, and Philip moved into a new house this fall and as you can see it has a HUGE backyard (by California standards). It's full of fruit trees and we came home with party "favors" of meyer lemons and the promise of more fruit as it ripens. Yay! And they also have two dogs that Lulu loved playing with. Walter says that she's just happy to play with an animal that isn't going to hiss and try to bat at her with claws (aka Dido).





For those of you wondering from the earlier photos, Philip is going to be a big brother later this spring, so it will be fun to have a tiny baby around again!