The Newest Family Member

Please meet...? We adopted a new member of our family today from Animal Friends. Formal introductions took place on Sunday, when both he and Grace were still a little shy of each other. "Dog" has a really sweet and mild temperament and Grace is really enjoying her new companion. Second Fiddle has not been seen since Dog arrived on the scene but we're hoping she'll learn to coexist with him soon. Help name the pooch.

Passing The Time

The More Monkeys The Merrier

Our dear friends Akiko and Garrett were kind enough to pay us a visit last week and the following pictures were taken from our time together. I say "kind" because they traveled across the country and from beautiful Santa Barbara to be here. During this time, we visited an orchard, had great barbecue (we still need to unpack our wine glasses), found out playskool really needs to rethink the design of their Mr. Potato accessories (photo NSFM - will email upon request), and discovered again that true friends are priceless.

Children's Museum Seattle

For The Love of Jewelry

Here's a sweet picture taken by Grace's babysitter, Jenn. According to Jenn, this was Grace's reaction to finally getting her hands on Jenn's new necklace. I hope this is not a harbinger of future birthday wishes. It's a good thing Jenn doesn't carry a horse with her.

Grace Meets Gisela

A trip to Seattle wouldn't have been complete without introducing Graciela to our dearest friend, Gisela. I've known Gisela since I was not much older than Grace. I remember spending weekends at her home when my Mom needed a break. I also remember Gisela's talking parrot. This parrot would imitate, quite brilliantly, the visiting Avon lady's laugh. Gies is my mother's best and oldest friend and I feel honored to have been able to introduce my daughter to someone who was such a big part of my life.

Fantasy Football

It's that time of year again and I'm mourning the loss of my ability to have weekends free of anything football. The draft for Rob's fantasy football team happened a couple of weeks ago and for some reason I felt compelled to inquire if he'd like to be involved in another league. It was during a moment of weakness. I had missed last week's episode of Project Runway *and* I realized at 7:00am that we only had decaffeinated coffee in the house. When Rob later mentioned that the draft for this other team would take place at 7:30pm, I was elated!

"Oh good! that means you'll have time to give Grace her bath," I blurted.

"Why yes Cinderelli you can go to the ball after all your chores are done," Rob retorted.

Me: [roll the eyes].

Congratulations

We recently found out that Grace's wonderful Aunt Sonya is engaged to her equally nice fiancé Michael. The two of them make a wonderful couple, and we are very excited for them. We hope to see them in New York soon, since they are moving there from Switzerland. Besos!