Home not-so-Sweet Home

DAY ONE:
Noah took 3 steps in and said this "is yucky, smelling and dirty - let's go back outside". He about summed up the current status!

If anyone reading this wants to plan a San Francisco trip, you are welcome to stay with us!

Noah's off to pre-school!

It's off to school. Noah started his Montessori pre-school on Wednesday, October 1st. He is set to go M-F from noon until 6. He met Ms. Doris the director and I could see that he was torn between leaving me, but really wanting to go try out all of the play equipment. Eventually, the play ground won out! Chloe and I stayed until play time was over and got him settled for lunch and then we were off.

I had 6 hours to fill until I could pick him back up and drive the hour back up to Sonoma. We did lots of comparison shopping for appliances at Home Depot and Best Buy and the other showrooms in Marin. And then we landed at Corte Madera, a mom's (shopping) playground!

Noah was happy, energetic and very excited to show me the school rat when we came to pick him up. (It's an albino rat in a cage.) I was so happy to see him be so well adjusted the first day. And I'm loving the span of time it gives me to focus on Chloe and the house remodel.

A Solid Start

I've been trying to wait until Chloe was 6 or 7 months, like I did with Noah, to start her on solid foods. However, she's started to wake up and want to be fed 3 or 4 times a night this past week! Something she hasn't done since she was just a few months old. So we figured it was time for her to have her first taste of something "solid". I've been reading the book that my awesome mommy friend Kathy, gave to me when we met up at Disneyland 2 weeks ago. It's called "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron and is full of great advice and ways to make your own healthy baby food.

First, I used the double electric pump that my oldest and dearest friend Tiffany loaned to me. Wow, what a difference. I used a hand pump with Noah and it would take 3-4 sessions just to get a few ounces. 10 minutes, I had a good 3 oz of milk after having fed Chloe only half an hour earlier.

So I ran out and bought some organic bananas and mashed them with the breast milk until it was slightly thicker than the milk alone. We got Chloe outfitted in a hand me down bib from cousin Lucca and fed her a few bites. She's soooo mellow. She very sweetly took a few bites and then seemed content to try and wiggle her way out of the Bumbo seat.

Our great harvest - picking veggies in Napa

Today we loaded up the car, drove through starbucks to pick up my first americano in 2 weeks, and headed to God's country, otherwise known as Napa, California. With the median age in the vehicle being 3, we weren't going wine tasting - we were going veggie picking with our friends Karyne and Lucca!
Today was gorgeous Indian summer with bright blue skies and upper 80 degree weather. With the babies fastened on, we lead (well, chased) Noah around Scully Ranch.
Scully Ranch "adheres to the strict codes of organic and sustainable gardening to produce ripe, flavorful and seasonally correct veggies and fruits" and grow produce for local Napa restaurant Uva and for local farmer's markets... but for us today, that meant really tasty pickings!

Noah was in his element pulling beets up from the dirt and squirting them off with the hose at the watering sink. Aman showed him how to look for the ripe ones. Luckily Curious George had grown and picked carrots in an episode earlier this week, so Noah had the concept down. I'm baking them up with some asparagus both for a salad, as I write. After the beets, he seemed to spend most of his energy picking and eating the golden rasberries below. My favorite was the supersweet tiny cherry tomatoes.

(Only in Napa, do Scarecrow's sport Ralph Lauren...)

Free-range chicken ran around and this turkey is just biding his time in preperation for Thanksgiving festivities.



This was our great harvest, along with fresh baby greens and arugula that I already have in the fridge.

I am really inspired to investigate what we can do on the hillside of our new house. The terraces that held the raspberry bushes has given me the motivation to to some research on planting our own little garden once we are settled in Marin. Any of you reading this with any gardening experience, pass on your suggestions!

We closed on a new home today!

I can't believe that we are doing this again! We closed today on what our realtor tells us may be the ugliest house in Greenbrae. And I won't even tell you what it cost! Just a hint, those aren't bamboo blinds in the windows - that's cardboard. It's a tiny little 3 bedroom but it's right outside of the city so it will save Michael from the 5 or so hours he's spending in the car a day. We can watch the Larkspur Ferry dock at the terminal from our living room. So Noah will be able watch his dad go to and from work and Michael will be able to enjoy happy hour on the ferry. In lieu of our normal mode of operandi (living in the house through construction then moving once it's finished) we are going to spend a month or so renovating before we move in. Stay tuned for some pretty scary pictures of the inside of the house. We'll post some progress photos once we have the chance to get inside and do some work.

Chloe's on the move

Chloe's starting to make her way toward what she wants. She's definitely not crawling, but can cover distance quite quickly by rolling or squirming. Here's one of her attempts to try to "crawl"...


Now let's see if I just push up on these hands what happens?...

I'm pushing...

Look at that! I'm in the crawling postion! Now to put one hand in front of the other...
Here's one hand up, uh-oh...this is harder than it looks!

Wipeout!

Chloe's rolling around on her mat drooling all over the place. Teething? Maybe. I'm feeling GREAT! She slept from 8:30 til almost 7 this morning. Hopefully this is an ongoing trend. I took the incline pad out of the crib so maybe that's why. We went a 3 hour walk/run and she did great. We ran behind a new subdivision called Vintana along to Starr Road and into little Windsor town to Starbucks. Then we stopped at a new park. We met some new friends, one with a 4 week old and a 2 year old brother and another 2 year old whose mum is due any day. So I took turns nursing on the bench with the new mom.

Noah humored me as I took him on the 45min walk/jog today then a stint at the park and another 1/2 hour home all in the jogger. We left at 8 in the morning, so I had to explain that it was too early for a popsicle since dad always gives him one when he takes him running in the jogger!Noah is fascinted with spider webs. We build them with scotch tape around the house. Chalk them onto the side walk and today he found the ultimate web to climb at the park!

This afternoon I finished loading a bunch of our wedding pics onto a digital frame for Michael. It's our 8th anniversary. Wow, I can't believe it! No big plans, we don't have a sitter right now, so we'll just be relaxing at home with a nice bottle of 2000 wine!