Happy Birthday Elise!

Happy birthday to our beautiful Elise! We are so lucky to have such a bright and imaginative and creative girl. Elise helped mommy make her birthday cake and it came out delicious. She took liberty in decorating it as well and that was perfectly fine with mom:-) She got many fun gifts but her big gift was her "big girl" bed with her fancy bedding. It looks so beautiful in her room. The theme for her birthday was the solar system. She has been incredibly interested in learning anything she can about planets and the moon and sun. We bought her a model solar system kit that should be fun for her to put together-especially with dad. I also added a "moon in my room" nightlight which has every phase of the moon (and thanks to dad she knows all of them much better than mom) and glow-in-the-dark stars.

The best part of her birthday so far has been having Grandma in town! She will be joining us on our adventure to Legoland on Monday and we will post more pictures.

I couldn't end this post without adding this anecdote: Elise has been obsessed with the planets, their locations and colors, etc. Every so often she will ask us a new question about each one. The other day she and Mike were driving around and completely out of nowhere she asked him "Daddy, what color is Uranus?"

He was taken by surprise...

Birthday Girl

Elise had a preliminary birthday treat at school today! She felt very special when her mommy brought mini cupcakes to share and her friends sang to her in class. Thanks so much to our friend and babysitter Anna, who is a pastry chef extraordinaire, for making the robin's egg blue cupcakes to Elise's exact specifications:-) (seriously, she is a real pastry chef and she's incredible-if you are ever in the LA area and need a wedding cake or birthday or shower treat let us know)

Mommy will be making Elise's special cake for tomorrow, her real birthday. Thank you Williams and Sonoma for setting me up with the right tools for the occasion;-)

If you don't have anything nice to say...

It has been interesting to watch Elise's reaction to my ever expanding belly. Mostly she is just excited to have a sibling and what she calls "her baby". However, these joyful emotions are often accompanied by remarks about my size-which she never fails to blurt out in the most public places.

1) In san francisco at a fancy health club pool she asks our friends Matt and Sacha: "Is that pool big enough to even fit my mommy?"

2) In her school parking lot: "Are you sure you can get out of the car? you might be too big."

3) a minute ago at Whole Foods (to the young gentleman behind us): "did you see my mommy here? isn't she gigantic?"

sigh.

Heart Day

Valentine's Day was all about Lysie and mommy. With daddy out of town we managed to have a sweet little day together just the two of us. Mommy made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and later in the day Elise helped make mini cupcakes. She did a great job! We miss dad a whole bunch but he'll be back Monday night to make mom a delicious dinner:-) Hope everyone had a good day.

On another note, having escaped the burden of gestational diabetes this time around, I was able to actually indulge in those cupcakes. Not sure if this will be a good or bad thing these remaining months...

"My! What a big bump you have there!"

warmer weather

Faced with the disappointing news that she would not be enjoying snow like the rest of her cousins and friends, she settled for sand angels and having mommy bury her at the beach today:-)

It rained one week...

and Elise could not have been happier...

She wishes it would snow...we let her down gently. The best we can do is point out the beautiful mountains in the distance that are all snow-capped. We decided next winter will be the season we teach her to ski. We would have this year but someone had to go start growing a baby and that doesn't mix too well with downhill skiing. But next winter I will make my comeback!!!

The Old Days

I felt slightly old today when I said to Elise "Did you know Elise, there was a time when you couldn't "pause" Wow Wow Wubbsy to go to the bathroom? Thank goodness you'll never have to live in that cold, heartless world"

;-)