Friday, January 28, 2011

Giada Turns 2!


Finally the birthday blog!
Giada turned 2 last Saturday and it has been a long week for us. I got sick late last week, and Giada has been sick this whole week. We didn't realize she had the bug until she threw up ON me at her birthday party- awesome! She seemed to still enjoy herself somewhat as did the other kids, and none of the other kids got sick, so I was glad about that! But our normally smiley girl has hardly cracked a smile all week and we are ready for this sickness to be out of the house. We are fortunate that she has hardly been sick much in her life, and naturally would catch a bug on her birthday - right!?

So the pictures are random from the whole week. Some from the gymnastics place where we had the birthday, some from the bday celebration we had at home later in the week, and some random pics we took of her in her bday outfit since that outfit was short lived at the party.

Gymnastics was the theme!
Fabulous cupcakes and cake from Kim Duke - Old Vine Bakeshop!
JZ and Marla - Happy Birthday JZ, Giada and JZ share birthday week!
Lucca loved playing baseball and was wearing the appropriate shirt. Glad to see that Feldstein side of him, isn't winning out on which baseball team he likes!
I don't think Peyton ever left the foam pit!

Dylan loved jumping. Ready...set...
Jump!
Aubrey napped
Ella is not that short. We couldn't get her to stand or Giada to sit. :)
Nico
This is what happens when you ask a kid to smile while eating cupcake. Looking good Preston!
This time we told him to open his eyes in the family pic....and now he looks scared.
The Kanter family- now of 4!
Giada loves singing the Happy Birthday song and was waiting patiently to blow out her candles.
Blow em out!
Got em!
After Giada came home from the party. She napped, had a fever and was a mess. But later in the evening we let her open a few presents. She wouldn't take her new Crocs from Zia Gina off and was showing us her new Toy Story characters from Uncle Matt and Aunt Steph
And did lots of drawing with her new water crayons- Thanks Kiali!
So later in the week Mike made his rainbow cake for Giada. It's now a family tradition to make that cake for her birthday. She kept saying "I like it" and was so excited to have some. And she LOVES blowing out the candles. We had to sing the song and light the candle at least 3-4 times before we said that's enough. :)

See here it is again once she had her own piece. She hardly even ate the cake, just wanted to play with the candle.
One day this week we threw on the birthday outfit and went to take a few pics since the outfit was short lived at the party. Giada LOVES ducks and could feed them ALL day if we let her.
She isn't scared of them at all.

2 year old stats!
-29lbs, (weight) 36in,(height) 49.5cm (head) - still in the 90+ percentile in all areas. She's a big girl. And the doctor told us when she was born that you can double their height at 2, and that's about how tall she will be. So for those of you who aren't the best at math- that's 6 ft tall- yikes! Here's to hoping she's athletic. :)
-Good eater, still loves her broccoli! Loves fruit, and meat.
-Enjoys Kindermusik class and is becoming more independent there.
-Loves gymnastics and is mastering skills. She can do a somersault by herself now. Loves swinging on the rope, jumping into the foam and trampoline.
-Sleeping WELL! About 8pm-6am. Seems to enjoy her twin bed much more than that toddler bed. I'd really love it if she slept past 6 but I'm not complaining since she finally is sleeping through the night.
- Talks a lot, and is making longer sentences everyday.
-Her memory still amazes me, and they way they associate to events or places they have been.
- Definitely getting a mind of her own, but if you give her choices, or count to 5 she usually listens pretty well.....usually.
-No longer interested in potty training. I'll try again in awhile. I'm not really in a rush she just seemed into it for awhile.
- Hair is super long, and she doesn't really like for you to touch it. So it's usually just pulled back on the sides. We are trying to thin out the bangs with each cut, and I've yet to cut the length I don't want to lose those curls.
-Enjoys being outside, going on walks and loves her pets.
-Loves the song Wheels on the bus!
-Knows all the primary colors, and a few shapes.
-Sings the ABCs decently and can count to 10 pretty well.
-Sings Ming Ming song from Wonder Pets, and knows all Mickey characters.
-Everytime we pass a gas station she asks "Need gas mom"
-Lots of miss you, love you which you can never get enough of
-Every night at dinner she asks for a group hug with Mike and I....we laugh it's cute and she never forgets.
-She will take a tape measure and measure things all over the house when she finds if laying around. And the measurement is always 96. We aren't sure where she got that, and we always listen to see if its different - nope - 96!
-Often will call Mike "Mike" instead of "Dad" it's pretty funny, I can't help but laugh. But I'm really glad that she doesn't do that to me. :)


14 weeks!
No pics of me this week but the pregnancy is going well so far. I'm so fortunate not to get sick! Mike and Giada came to the appt this week it's always fun to hear the heartbeat. Giada says she heard the baby talk. She kisses my stomach and says goodnight to the baby all day. Ill work on the weekly pics. Belly is growing but I'm anxious to look pregnant and not just be in that in between stage.




Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Fancy Food Show & One Sunny Day


This weekend we attended the Fancy Food Show in SF. It was quite an experience. 100's of food related products and vendors. We were there with Calivirgin in the California Olive Oil Council's booth. I think we all felt it was a great experience and look forward to next year. We had to man the booth, but we also had plenty of time to roam around the show, have some delicious dinners and even hit the bars one night with Timmer!

As we were walking around we strolled up on Duff! I managed to walk right into his booth before they closed it off and listen to him explain his new line of products. They seemed pretty neat and should be on the market soon, and help our homemade cakes look MUCH better. He seemed real laid back. He had 3 ladies from his show there working on cakes...below are a couple of them, they were looking good.

I also found the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. She is Lindsay's favorite chef so I wanted for her to come back from lunch. She seemed just as nice as she is on TV, and tasted her new line of cupcakes - yummy!
The Gold Dust never lets you down. Good music and cheap drinks!
Thanks mom for watching Giada all weekend!!

Giada has this funny thing lately where she needs to "feed" her babies, stuffed animals etc. She thinks milk comes from the belly button and that's where you feed them. Where do they come up with these things?? And watch out if you are around her- no ones belly button is safe, she will come looking for milk! LOL!
Although there has been no rain, it has been gloomy! The sun came out one day so we took advantage and took the wagon out for a spin. Giada needed her sunglasses and baby too of course!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Garage Cleaning- Oh Joy, 12 wk pic, New bed


Well for the first time in almost 3 years, I hardly took any photos this week. Giada was pretty sick a couple days, and Jeanne and I headed to SF one day for an oil event and before we knew it the week was over. We spent both Sat and Sunday working on the garage. It was THAT bad. It looked literally like a bomb had gone off. We spent Saturday cleaning, taking trips to the trash, storage, etc. Then Sunday we put in new cabinets! They are so nice and have so much room. I'm sure we will fill them up in no time, but the garage is now cleaned up and we feel like we have a whole other room added to the house- what a concept!

BEFORE
New Cabinets! Mike can have his game room back!
One thing we also did was paint the bed we had in the guest room and put it in Giadas room. So far she seems to like it and I'm happy to announce is sleeping ALL NIGHT! It's been about a week and it's so wonderful. I still wake up a bunch, but Ill take it!!
And I'm 12 weeks so figured I should start the photos. This picture doesn't do it justice. My belly is growing at an alarming rate. I'm a little worried about how large I'll be at the end of this! Giada said wait and ran to be in the picture.
We added more storage to the playroom and moved the bus around so then it became something interesting to play with again this week.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Years


Before we left for our New Years trip to Graeagle. We had a play date with Bre and Liz, before Bre went back to school. As always Giada and Peyton had a great time playing together!

Then we were off to Graeagle for some relaxing and time in the snow. The Kernals, Busalacchis and Avansinos joined us. There was SO much snow up there.
The kids LOVED running around in it.
One day we went up the road a bit and did some sledding.
I didn't get a picture of Mike but Bush and Mike attempted the sledding as well.
No injuries to report!
So we were trying to take a group picture. Mike had the camera timer on and set up on a sled. As he was running over his foot caught the sled and knocked it to the side. So Mike and I get cut out of the picture and Giada starts crying because she thinks Mike is hurt. It was pretty funny!
Take 2 much better!

Of course we attempted snow angels


She also loved climbing up the hill...we did it over and over!


Happy New Year From Dylan! The only kid who woke up to celebrate with us!
Although Nico wasn't up to celebrate New Years with us, he carried around his horn all weekend in spirit!

Giada and Nico did a lot of hand holding while dancing! So cute.
When the Avansinos arrived on Saturday we tried to take a kid group picture in the snow. Not all of them were thrilled with our plan.
We captured a picture of Nico in hat and gloves!! I don't believe it. He never wanted them on and we were all worried he was getting too cold, but he didn't seem to mind at all!
The Busalacchis make famous Gin Fizzes.....well I had to sit with the kids and get the vigin blend, but they were still yummy!
One day all the kids were gone for a long time...it was nice and quiet...but then we started wondering what mischief they were getting into....and to our surprise- NONE! Nicole had a daycare going on in the bedroom!
Aubrey was great all week. As long as the kids didn't trample her....she was a happy camper!
Nicole really wanted to build a snowman. But that wasn't really panning out. SO...this SoCal girl decided to build a Snow Fish..... it turned out recognizable and the kids sprayed it with their colored water, so all were happy!


The kids wouldn't go on the sleds alone, so Mike had to pull both of us. What a heavy load for him, it was fun. I wish I had the video of Bush pulling Renee and Nico. He was going SO fast it was hysterical. We were all laughing so hard.
This bear is on a porch a few units down from ours. Giada always has to go sit on it. It't become a tradition to take a picture on it every time!
Giada was enjoying having breakfast with Francesca!
Happy New Year! All our best to you and your family in 2011!