San Francisco Turkey

We are just home from our second big trip in November. Our little family flew to San Francisco to join Mike in his new hometown for Thanksgiving. What a gorgeous city! I could certainly live with 60 degree weather everyday. Mike showed us all around the Bay area and we even took a little day trip to visit Josephine who was in the town of Sebastopol painting for a month. Ellis loved being around her uncle and she especially enjoyed walking all around his carpeted apartment. So much softer than our old wood floors!

Flying with Ellis was manageable but tiring. I was so envious of the guy sitting next to us who slept for almost five hours. The days of watching movies and sleeping on the plane have been replaced with games/distractions/snacks to keep Ellis entertained and somewhat quiet. Dancing in the bathroom mirror and pulling out paper towels was a big hit.

For my coming 30th birthday, we did a little black Saturday shopping at Fry’s and I picked up a new point and shoot digital camera. It takes amazing pictures in low-light and captures colors brilliantly. My Canon Elph was over four years old (antique by tech standards) so I am very excited about the upgrade.

Nijntje Books

While in Deventer we stumbled upon the vintage Nijntje books enjoyed by Amke, Erik and Marijke many years ago. Erik loves reading these books to Ellis and we were amazed to see how little they have changed in nearly three decades. The childhood signatures of Amke and Erik were so sweet. We hope to make a new tradition of buying Ellis a Nijntje book every time we are in Holland. Each book has the same spot for her name. I am looking forward to the day she can write e-l-l-i-s all by herself.

Marijke’s Wedding

We are back from Holland and had such a wonderful time at Marijke and Adriano’s wedding. The ceremony and dinner were beautiful and intimate. I can hardly believe their “I do’s” (or “Ja’s” actually) were said in a room built in the 1600s. For an American from a town where the oldest building was from the 1800s, this is pretty incredible. Ellis did well on the flight while Erik and I were busy feeding and distracting her with new toys and books to keep it that way. She loved seeing her Dutch family and playing with Cedric and Julian. The jetlag helped us in some ways. Ellis stayed up past 10pm and slept in until 9am, something she has not done for many months. Our visit was short and flew by quickly, but we left with many special memories we’ll carry for years. Marijke and Adriano are also expecting a son mid-February, so double congratulations!!

Little steps

It’s 9:30 but feels like midnight. The daylight savings time change always throws me off and the added early wake up from Ellis makes for some very heavy eyelids. We took it easy this weekend, packing for Holland and organizing the apartment. Today we caught the tail end of the NYC Marathon as we walked from Brooklyn to Queens. I always love to watch and cheer on the amazing athletes. We managed to capture a little video of Ellis taking some of her first steps. Ignore my silly high voice in the background.

Halloween Weekend

Ellis had a great second Halloween. She rode in the daycare parade last Friday with all of the other babies, teachers and parents from her school. There were so many adorable costumes, especially from the older kids. Ellis was a butterfly this year. She was originally going to be a lady bug, but we couldn’t fit the bulky costume over her head. A visit to our favorite second hand store Clementine saved the day.

On Saturday we drove down to Baltimore to visit Isabelle, Nick and Clara who were in town for the week from Seattle. Clara has grown so much. She is such a sweet baby. We had a great time catching up, enjoying some nice fall weather and playing with our two little insects.

Next week we are flying to Holland for Marijke and Adriano’s wedding! We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating their special day.

Oh, and Ellis also surprised us by walking a few feet by herself this week!