Weekend in the Country

There's nothing like spending a few days in the mountain air to kick in the chilling and relaxing - or as we like to say, "Chillaxing." We rented a great cabin in Green Valley Lake with our friends, Clara and Shannon and their 5 yr old daughter, Franny. Jemma and Franny got along famously - better than we all expected. Franny enjoyed having a Mei Mei (little sister) to show all of her tricks to, and Jemma kept up with her like a real trooper. Jumping off the steps was the big discovery, but guitar playing and bike riding were equally delicious. And speaking of delicious, we began each morning with a delectable bowl of mush!

Hammock Hams

Jemma and Daddy relaxed on the hammock before chowing down our delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Giving Thanks Part Two

This Thanksgiving we spend it locally with our old friends from New York, Uncle Dan and Uncle Chris. Carrie was there with her adorable 5 yr old daughter, Anna, and Craig and Jennifer rounded out the fun and food with fantastic hors d'oeuvres. Jemma particularly enjoyed the crab dip, and managed to get most of it in her mouth. Anna and Jemma played very well together despite their age difference and, like typical American grownups, we all ate like pigs!

Proud Mama!

Well, we're happy to report that even though Jemma still likes her skeleton called, "Baby" she has really taken to mothering her baby doll, also called, "Baby!" We kept asking if her doll baby had a name and she would say no and pull out her horse, Eagle and point to and stroke his mane. So there you have it. Now we quote Romeo and Juliet by saying, "What's in a mane?"

Cute As A Button!

For Halloween 2006 we hot glued and sewed over a hundred buttons on Jemma's clothes to create "Cute as a Button!" (look closely at the tee shirt.) She loves buttons so she inspired us to concoct this costume. On Halloween eve, Daddy took Jemma to Shasha's neighborhood - the posh part of Pasadena, and the girls scored big with yummy candy (which we didn't let her eat - oh, bad Mommy and Daddy!) Jemma ran up to the porches and foraged through bowls of candy and by the end, she was even saying, "Tick or Teat!"

Happy Traveler

Daddy snapped a picture of Jemma in the car on our way home from the Halloween party. Jemma loves to wave to us in the rear view mirror. Eyes on the road, Daddy!

The Ghouls Get Together

Grace Li Qi hosted a Halloween party at her house and the ghouls had a wonderful time. They ran around, ate cupcakes and played with stickers. Grace was a ballerina, Shasha a pumpkin, Michayla was Wonder Toddler and Jemma was Cute as a Button. It was a great day and we were all exhausted by the end.

Preparing for Halloween

Jemma tried out part of her costume the morning before our Halloween party with buttons in her hair and wearing her button jewelry. Here she's eating raisins - she loves eating raisins out of the box but when it's half empty she says, "Help me, help me!" Jemma's using more sentences now like, "I want read book," and "You sit here," and "Poopy diaper, change now," but our favorite is when she takes this little plastic skeleton and puts the blanket on it and says, "Night, night, baby" and sings Rock-a-bye-baby...! Too cute, but a little weird that she calls the skeleton "baby." She's just starting to connect to dolls but prefers to rock the skeleton to sleep.