These are a few of my favorite things

Watching my family with Lily was such a treat this Christmas. It was especially fun watching my younger siblings, Jamie (8), Emma (9), and Ralphie (11) with her, since they were my "babies" when I was in high school and college.

This Christmas was also really special because I got to see both of my parents' families. This doesn't usually happen as my mom lives in Northern California and is a 14-hour drive from my dad's house in Pasadena. In spite of my parents being divorced and remarried, they are wonderful about coming together for some blended family time for us kids. I wish that my brother, Chris, and his wife Cindy could have been there. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my family with Lily.

You can take "White Christmas" right off my wish list, thanks

To all of my good friends that live in cold places and comfort themselves with the mantra, "But it's not Christmas without snow," I hate to tell you this but...yes, yes it is. I thoroughly enjoyed spending part of my Christmas in the pool in Palm Springs.






I promise the Christmas spirit was just as alive and well at 65 degrees as it would have been in 10 degrees.

Where's the milk?

Tim, Lily, and I went to our friends' house the other night. They have a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, and the wife is due very soon with their third little boy. They were so excited to have Lily over and wanted to hold her and show her all their toys. I think they were slightly disappointed that Lily couldn't play and talk back to them.

At one point, Lily started to get fussy and hungry, so I pulled out my handy dandy nursing cover, and modern woman that I am, started to nurse Lily in their living room. Those two little boys had no idea what was going on, especially the 3-year-old.

"Why are you hiding her?" (As he tried to lift up the nursing cover to see what was going on)

"I don't think she's really eating under there."

"Why is she crying? I think she doesn't want to eat anymore." (As I'm attempting to switch sides)

"I don't think she likes being under there. I'm going to give her my orange car because that's her favorite color." (Again trying to lift the nursing cover)

At one point the 6-year-old came over, nodded wisely and said, "Oh, she's drinking milk, isn't she." This only confused the 3-year-old further because he could not figure out where this milk was coming from.

"Where's the milk?"

Poor little guy's going to get a real anatomical education when his little brother arrives. I just didn't have the heart to tell him the truth.

Cold front continues

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

to be exact, it's -13 with wind chill. This means it's probably not a good idea to take the baby out. We are sitting in the house all day, which might not be so bad if, while the baby's napping, I could look outside through our windows. Thanks to my bark-happy dog, those blinds are shut so as not to tempt Dirk to bark at a passing car while Lily is trying to get her nap on. Staying inside all day makes me notice every speck of dust, any items out of place, and of course the ridiculous amount of cat and dog hair that is everywhere in spite of my cleaning efforts. Also I have been particularly focused on Dirk's problematic dandruff today - it's really grossing me out. I gave him a bath, in our bathtub (remember the -13 degrees?), which means there is now dog hair all over our bathroom. Too bad. Better post next time, I promise.

Good Morning!

If this doesn't brighten your day, I don't know what will.

Flower Girls

Our friends Jess and Jon had their beautiful baby girl, Olivia Jasmine. She and Lily are about a month apart. They got to meet for the first time this week. Unfortunately by the time I got the camera out, poor Olivia was not making her happiest face.

"Don't cry, friend!"


"You're so funny, Olivia!"