9 Month Photos and Halloween Week Photos - Long Post!

Well, I think I say this every month...so here it is again...where has the time gone???

Giada is over 9 months old. At this appointment, no shots. She seems like a big girl to me now.

-Almost 21 lbs

-29" tall

- Eating "real people" food. This is quite an adjustment, and she is taking to it slowly. One day she likes bananas, one day she does not, but she is getting the hang of picking up the food, so that is a good step. She also is really good at feeding it all to Sydney!! Mike claims it is okay because dogs have the cleanest mouths....humm.... I am also afraid of the choking so I cut the food real small...he also jokes that its so small she can't even pick it up. Guess it's a learning process for us all!

- Crawling around like a mad woman

- Pulling herself up on EVERYTHING

- Walking with assistance, and this week can walk pretty steadily with only holding one of her hands....I think the walking is coming all too soon.
-Clapping and peek a boo are always fun

- Sits on your lap for a bit and seems to enjoy a short book

- Loves playing with her friends, although she is a bit rough with them at times

- Seems to not hate the car as much, maybe she is able to occupy herself a bit more now, but still not her favorite place to be

- Still only 2 bottom teeth

-Still sucks at sleeping, I've just decided she(and I apparently) can function on little to no sleep. Fun Fun.

-Still breast-feeding....but trying to do it less and less over the next month!

-Overall she is just a joy, and we are amazed by what she accomplishes each day. Her smile lights up her face and brings a smile to our face all day long.

So....I tried for the 9 month photos...didn't go well.

She just wanted to play in her rocking chair and had no interest in sitting around my blocks. So here is a little sampling of her playing instead. Happy 9 Months!

Isn't this so funny....mom lays out the blocks and I crawl away from them...ha ha!

What, why don't you want me to sit in my chair....does this look dangerous or something?
She looks terrified as I called her name to look up at the camera for the photo...

Last but not least, she would rather play with the chair than look at me...shoot over :)

Halloween week begins!
We had lots of cute Halloween outfits we received as gifts, so we were quite festive this week.
Tried to set her up for some cute photo ops with pumpkins...but she certainly cared more about eating the pumpkin than smiling for the camera.

One day after work my mom and I took Giada to Phillips Farms. It's a Pumpkin Patch Tradition in our area. She looked at all the animals at the petting zoo and took some photos along the way. Next year will be more fun when she is running around. It was SUPER windy that day, but she didn't seem to mind our afternoon adventure.

We finally found something her size...

Annual pumpkin carving party with the locals. All the pumpkins turned out great. Here are some of the girls in action!

Beautiful finished products!

Mikes Pumpkin always wins!

Before photo and after pumpkin!

Friday night the Busalacchi's were in town. It was a great night spent with them and the Kern's.
We had a Lion, Giraffe and Batman. The kids had so much fun playing together.

Cute Nico!

The lion, batman and giraffe.

After the costumes came off there were cute diaper photos taken, everyone wanted to sit in Dylans chair.

And then it was actual Halloween. Giada the Giraffe was ready to go. Her costume was inspired by her favorite chew toy "Sophie the Giraffe"

Saturday we joined some friends downtown Lodi for the Harvest Festival. All the kids trick or treat at the downtown businesses. Kristen and Wendy have taken Ben for years, and this year we tagged along. It was fun to take see all the kids in costumes, and a nice day spent with our friends and our moms who joined us. (Sorry Jeanne and mom that we didn't take a photo of all of us!!) Kristen is a big fan of everyone dressing up....so.... after she twisted our arm a bit we gave in. So the Coldani Zoo Keeper I was!

Group shot, Humpty Dumpty was a big hit! We took some professional pics that I'll post as soon as we get them.Matt and Steph stopped by Halloween night...or should I say Jon and Kate Plus 8. These photos don't do them justice, but they looked good, Matt even had earrings in, it looked funny.

Very fun and busy week. Almost forgot to mention we had a great lunch with Zac and Jaime on Friday. Thanks for stopping by on your way to Napa!!

Until next week...

Harvest Party 2009

Well, for our first one, I'd say it was a success. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, weather was perfect, wine was flowing and the bands played great music. The food catered by Wes Nielsen, all made with Calivirgin or Calivinegar was quite delicious. Looks like the makings for an annual event! Thank you again to everyone who was able to make it, hope you enjoyed yourselves - we loved having you!

As always you can purchase Calivirgin Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Calivinegar on our website.

calivirgin.com

The new $3 sample bottles make great stocking stuffers!!!

Beautiful Decor

Giada attended the party and enjoyed playing with everyone! Great Aunt Patsy had a beautiful necklace she couldnt take her eyes off!

Then she got sleepy and took a LONG nap. Babies are so innocent looking when they are sleeping.

Bartenders- Scott and Summer, thank you for all your help!
Oil and Vinegar Tasting Area
Matt and Steph - Thanks for your help!
Gina- Great to see you this weekend!

The woman behind it all. Great Party Jeanne!
The men behind the delicious food!
Four generations of Coldani's

Some of our guests!

Barbara and Ray Coldani

Bands - and a few people cutting a rug!
Band 1 -Boomers

Band 2 - Paul and the Crew

Wedding and random Giada pics!

This past weekend Mike and I were in LA for Julie Lewinson's wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding and we had a wonderful time catching up with friends.

This is the LA/ college friend crew. Jen- thanks again for hosting us for the weekend, and Gelbart thanks for spending every last minute driving back and forth to spend time with us. Gar- great catching up on Saturday while we were "entertaining ourselves" :)

Congratulations!

The soon to be Herndon's (wow that sounds funny. Jaime Herndon :)

The Dean's

Leff and Trevor

The Coldani's

Twin Day- great minds think alike

The Girls

Random pics of Giada.

See....I told you she uses Sydney as a climbing structure...

What? Im not supposed to play with Sydney's water bowl??

I love my new bath ring.

Bad Hair Day

We had a crazy rainy and windy day last week....so I tested out my new winter hat!

Dylan Turns 1!

(Jackie- hope this brings a smile to your face for your Monday morning - hot chocolate!)

Hard to believe it was a year ago that the baby boom began in our area and Dylan was born. How fast it went by!

This weekend we were actually home for once with nothing to do except attend Dylan's birthday. We had a great time at the party, and enjoyed the rest of the weekend getting things done around the house and watching baseball, football, and golf! Despite the Twins loss, we had fun cheering them on!

Birthday boy!
He was a good sport with the celebration hat and all!

There were so many kids there it was fun for them to all play together. We took a couple pics of the babies, and their mama's. (Bre and Peyton, sorry we didn't think of this before you left!)

Giada and some of her aunties!

Giada is so rough with the kids, luckily Nico was a good sport as were Marc and Renee. She would climb all over Nico, knock him down and try to pull his hair. She is so rough with Sydney(our dog) I think she thinks she can be rough with everyone...yikes :) She did try to give him an occasional kiss too, so I guess that makes it all better!

Giada loved the ball pit, I think she may find one at our house in the future!

Family photo op

8 Months

Can't believe Giada is 8 months old!

She has changed so much since the first days. She is finally feeling big to me, and looking like a little person. Some of her changes in the last month:

- Her hair is growing so fast, it's much thicker now and seems to be keeping that curl in the back, we will see how long it lasts. My mom said Matt had hair like that and lost the curls after the first cut. Guess I'll never cut her hair. :)

- Says da da and ma ma from time to time, haven't captured it yet, and she doesn't know what it means, but it's getting more clear. Sometimes it sounds like she says other things like "kitty" but I'm sure it's all in our head.

- Left eyelash still has no color...maybe it will stay that way, I think it's unique.

-Hair is turning more brown but still has a couple reddish patches in the front.

- She is on the move, crawling like a mad woman and pullling herself up on everything. She will even walk if you guide her with your hands. She will be mobile in no time I'm afraid.

-Clapping

-Playing peek a boo

- Still nursing and eating fruits and veggies, so far not too picky.

-Still feeding Sydney all her rice crackers!

-Only 2 bottom teeth but they are getting big

It's so amazing to see how much she can change in one week. Watching her figure something out and look back at you to see if you noticed. She is so impressed with herself.

Despite being a bad sleeper she is such a joy and very happy girl. Another month down!

A few photos from my attempt at the 8 month photos.

We tried some inside and out...not too much luck on any of it.

Tried to give her other things to play with so she wouldn't mess with my blocks, but then she just wanted to eat them.

The clown(which was me) could not make her laugh and snap the photo at the same time - and not get a shadow on her face(like in this one) - its like you need a separate clown....baby photos are a tough job :)

She was on the move to destroy my blocks!

Let's try this inside....not too much luck here either!

It was more fun to eat and yell at Mr. Monkey.

Or hit Mr. Monkey!

Thank you Dylan for sharing your Jeep with me, I love it! I play with it inside and outside!

For the first couple days I thought it was a jumper and tried to jump in it, then I realized it was a walker and off I went! I roam all over the house and bump into everything. Thanks for sharing friend!

Just a photo of her playing on the lawn, while we waited for our dinner date with Hilder and Linds last week.

Busy weekend as usual, birthday parties, olive oil tastings, street faire! But we did have a chance to get to Windsor for a couple hours to celebrate Bush's 30th bday. Happy Birthday Marc!

Marc and Renee - thanks for having us!

Great stories Bush!

That is a lot of candles :)

Aptos with the girls!

This weekend I went with mom and her friends to Aptos.

There are so many photos from the weekend that I'll save the other photos for next week.

Sorry for the late post again Jackie! Mom was so tired when we got home on Sunday she didn't have a chance to do it.

Here they are...thanks Hilder fam for letting us enjoy your beach house!

This was a very active trip. I like to wake up early...like 6:30 and we didn't want to wake anyone up so we would go on LONG(couple hour) walks on the beach. On Sunday we even watched a Triathalon in action and Hilder was trying to convince mom we should do it next year. I think mom is scared to swim in the ocean though!

We saw a school of dolphins jumping in the ocean, and had perfect weather all weekend too.

Good meals, shopping, and lots of laughs. Not much sleep for mom but catching up with friends is worth it for no sleep anytime.

Cottage 2009!

Enjoying carrots!

View from the Cottage.

Shopping in Capitola!

Playing with Auntie Hilder- She woke up early and played with me in the mornings.

Fun at the beach.

KR and Hilder went on a 15 mile bike ride, then joined us for the rest of our morning walk.

I LOVE riding on anyones shoulders! (But they better beware, I pull hair)

End of our trip :(

Pets, My Office, Matt's Birthday , Grape Festival

This week was no different than most. Busy Busy.
As I have mentioned before it's getting increasingly harder to work in the office as Giada has become mobile. She is no longer content sitting in a jumper or exersaucer for any length of time. Each stage of her growth is so much fun, and we make changes along with it.

A day in the office....

She crawls under the desk and pounds on the printer until paper comes out...then looks up at me like, "who me?"

Then the good ol DVD wall, she pulls MANY of them down and then moves down the wall to pull down a new pile. On the one hand I'm glad she is distracted and content for a few moments. On the other hand - I'm SICK of putting away DVDs :)Then she crawls over to the chair and wants to be up sitting with me. And with that cute face, how can I resist?

And then sometimes she falls asleep in my arms after eating and I don't have the heart to set her down. As you know she isn't the best sleeper, so sometimes I'd rather just hold her and she will nap longer so I can get some work done. Maybe I'm the problem with her sleeping not her ;)
All and all I can't complain, I know I'm very fortunate to be able to stay home with her all day!

We also celebrated Matt's birthday this week. Happy 26th birthday Uncle Matt!This was also Grape Festival Weekend. A once a year event in Lodi. Thursday night I helped Kristen at the Bingo Booth. She is a Lions Club member and needed a friend to assist. We both love volunteering and actually had a great time and made some new friends in the process!
These boys take their events seriously. Russell told us all about how it used to be in the good ol days, he has been a member for 54 years!! Yikes!Teaching Giada about the family business at a young age! We did some oil bottling this week now that we have the new bottling machine. It was nice to get that completed as well. Giada is such a trooper to all the places I drag her to!And last but not least, I'm so impressed so far with how the pets have handled Giada. Sydney is so patient with her while she grabs her hair, tail, legs etc. Max on the other hand I worry about. But over time he has gotten pretty used to her. He now lets her grab and pull at him as well. I did have to draw the line the other day when she put his tail in her mouth! She discovered real quick that that didn't taste good.