San Francisco!

This week I gave a presentation at a conference in San Francisco for work. Mollie and Louie decided to join me and we made a mini vacation out of it once the work was done. We had a great time. We stayed at Grandma Liz and Grandpa David's house after the conference was over. Mollie walked around saying "ooooh wooooowww" to everything in the house and enjoyed playing the piano, listening to music and eating delicious food.On Friday we took the day off and went to Sonoma. We had lunch at this great little place called Maya, it was Mexican food. Mollie inhaled a whole plate of guac.
See, I wasn't making that up.
Then we headed out to a winery called Jacuzzi (same family as the hot tubs). They have olive oil and wine for tasting and it was delicious! There was also tons of space to run around.

By the end, Mollie had had enough!

That night we had a Friday night dinner at Naomi and Bob's, Mollie's great grandparents. Mollie got a ton of birthday presents, including this super cute outfit from her great Aunt Sarah.
She also got some velcro fruits and veggies from Naomi and Bob, one of her favorite toys. She was pretty happy.
She also got to play with Great Uncle Sam. She thinks he's pretty funny.
During dinner, she encouraged everyone to sing to her and then basically took a bath in her water glass, removing the water and rubbing it on her hair and face. Then applauding the singers. It was pretty funny.

We tried to tell her that this trick must be reserved for her grandparents.

After dinner she enjoyed a story with Aliza and Jacob. They were really enjoying being the big cousins for the first time. Mollie had a huge crush on Jacob and spent a good deal of the evening following his every move.
The next day we went to the Discovery Museum with Maddie and her parents Jen and Dave. Jen has much better pictures, which I will post when I get them. But the girls had fun splashing in the water and running around the play area. That night we had dinner with our friends Lauren and Greg and their two kids and Jen, Dave and Maddie. It was a little chaotic, but a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I was doing so much baby wrangling that I forgot to take pictures!

Great Wolf Lodge!

We spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge with Deb and Ethan and their friends. We had a surprisingly great time. For starters, Mollie pointed at every wolf saying "woof woof." And there were a LOT of wolves.I'm not kidding... (notice the two on the right - one is biting the other's tail)
The kids spent a lot of time at the water park going down the kid slides and then playing at the "beach" or wave pool and floating in the lazy river. There's also an arcade, which Mollie and Rina found interesting.
But, they found each other more interesting. This was one of many embraces turned wrestling matches that we watched this weekend. Pretty funny to watch the two of them together.
We spent a lot of time in the water, which Mollie loved.
We managed to get all five kids together for a picture.
At the end of the day there was a puppet show. The kids loved it, but it was the scariest thing I have ever seen.

Here's one of the puppets, in case you think I am kidding about how scary it is.

The funniest part of the show was that the puppets sang a song called "there's nothing to be scared of here." You can see it on YouTube for the full effect. Pretty hysterical.

In the morning, we went for a quick drive around Jamestown Island. We took a quick stop to play with sticks and look at the water.

After Jamestown we went to Williamsburg and had a picnic lunch and a trip to the candy score. We had a really lovely time. I highly recommend it!

1st Sleepover and Happy Birthday Liam!

Last weekend Mollie had her first sleepover at Nana and Pop-Pop's, without mommy and daddy. She had a great time with her new kitchen, her bucket o' leggos...and watching Sesame Street videos. She also slept until 10 am. Which I think my parents now think is what she normally does. We can assure you otherwise.


This weekend we went to our friend Liam's 4th birthday party. He wore his space suit to celebrate. It was a pool party at the Wilson Aquatics Center. Mollie loved swimming and stayed in the pool until she was a blue prune. After swimming we had pizza and cake. Yum!
Rina loved the pizza too.
And everyone loved the cake. Happy birthday, Liam!

Jonah's Treehouse

First a catch up picture that I meant to include in the birthday photos. Sam and Margaret were in Hawaii during Mollie's birthday party - but they sent this very sweet birthday greeting!This weekend we checked out a gym class at Jonah's Treehouse - a little place nearby where they have classes for kids Mollie's age and older. We got there a little early, so Louie read to her, but she just stared at the kids playing.
She loved the class! She didn't quite understand the circle time, but did ring the bells the teacher gave her at every opportunity.
The ball pit was her favorite. Although we also tried to get her to jump on the trampoline, walk the maze, slide on the slide and roll down the mats. At the end of the class there were bubbles (which she loved) and hand stamps (which she hated).
After class she had an excellent nap with Dada. A great way to spend a Sunday.

Week 52 - Birthday Weekend Part 2

The next morning after the birthday party, we took advantage of the amazing DC weather over the weekend and went to the Zoo. Mollie was pretty excited about it.
She slept through the first half of the visit, but woke up in time for the elephants.
She loved it!
On the way back to the car, we stopped at the park for some see-sawing.


Sunday night, Liz and Margie babysat so that we could take Megan and Josh out for Megan's birthday. We had a delicious dinner at Blue Duck Tavern. We should have left the camera at home though, because we heard that Liz and Margie and Mollie had an amazing cooking/baking fest and there was brownie batter involved. Sorry we missed the evidence of that!
Monday we took advantage of our President's Day holiday and went to the Building Museum. This is fast becoming one of Mollie's favorite places in DC. It's a big open room with tons of kids and different types of blocks and legos (none hand painted, but she'll make due with what's there). It's the ideal setting for young kids in winter. Lots of space for running.

It's also very close to Jaleo - Josh's favorite DC restaurant, so we of course had to stop there for lunch.
Megan and Josh left shortly after lunch. We were so sad to see them go and wish they lived closer so we could see them all the time. After they left, we went over to Auntie Margie and Andrew's house for some hanging out and dinner. Liz made mac and cheese for Mollie, yum!
After that, Mollie demonstrated her own cooking abilities, putting Calin in the pot and carrying her around.

"What, do you want some baby soup? Here, I'll whisk it up for you."

It was a wonderful weekend. We can't believe our baby is one!

Week 52 - Birthday Weekend Part 1

Here's Mollie on the day before her big 1 birthday. Making some important calls before heading out to daycare.

We had a lot of good friends and family in town for the big birthday party. Mollie's grandma Liz came in from Marin and Mollie's Godparents, Megan and Josh came in from Berkeley. For Mollie's birthday, Grandma Liz hand painted the blocks on the floor in this photo. They are so special and really beautiful. Some of them even match the photo Liz painted for Mollie's room.
Megan and Josh brought Mollie her very first blue-green box. Now there's a milestone! She's also modeling her headband from Aunt Dee Dee and Uncle Jean-Bernard.
After a nice morning at our house, we headed over to Nana and Pop-pop's to get the party started. We got some delicious Abby Cadabby cupcakes from Georgetown cupcake. They were a big hit!
And of course, Abby gift bags for the kiddies.
Mollie was pretty excited.
Here are a couple more set up pics.

Some pre-nap balloon play with Megan.
Oopsy!
Mollie took a long nap and woke up just in time for the guests to arrive.

"Nana, can I have this necklace for my birthday?"

Mollie and her great grand Poppy.
Toasting Auntie Sissy
Fist bumping with her girl Emma.
Hanging with Great Aunt Ann and Great Uncle Jim

And then the main event - the cupcake! She loved it...
...a lot.
She also got a couple of gifts :)
But this baby Calin is among her favorites (from Nana and Pop-pop). She's been patting her on the back and feeding her milk, giving kisses. It is really quite adorable.
Pop-pop showed her how Big Bird can bite your finger. Now she's showing him how to do it.
Time for a snack - this pepper top will do.
Modeling her costume change (the frosting covered attire had to go in the wash before Nana would allow her in the living room) :)
By the end of the night, she was so stimulated and happy she was running around this circle of people, picking people to pick her up and then insisting on being put back down to pick again. It was so cute!
Auntie Sissy's turn!
3 generations of Sitzman-McDermott-Lauter ladies