It was a great first Halloween with two Trick-or-Treaters!
Elsa and Liam were all set with their sturdy Halloween bags. Elsa dressed up as a ballerina with beautiful wings and Liam was lion.
We walked a 12 block loop around the neighborhood. Elsa pointed out all the houses that had pumpkins, decorations, lights and people at home. She got lots of practice saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you"
As it got dark, Liam sat on my shoulders. He thought it was very funny.
October was an amazing month for us. It started out with my birthday and Arne taking me into the city for a wonderful dinner with a view of the bay bridge lights.
The next day we headed up to Fort Funston for some fun beach time. Luckily we were able to get in, even with the park shutdown.
Liam was a joy and continues to grow. At his 9 month appointment he was over 22 pounds and 31 inches! He and his Daddy have a lot of fun.
Elsa and I love to dress him up. He loves wands, but not wings.
While Elsa has her fun at New Stars, Liam gets to play with the toys.
Everyone loves Liam, especially his grandpa!
This month is Liam learned how to use the doggie door.
I enjoyed dressing him up for my work holiday party, as a little bear.
And he wore the same lion costume that Elsa wore for his MINI holiday party and DCC outing.
He continues to explore and engage with everything, and this month the fun thing is pumpkins. He is just such a joy.
Elsa also continues to delight and amaze us. She loves making cupcakes and always wants to make and eat them.
She also really likes ice cream.
This year she was very excited to decorate, so we put up our first Halloween decorations.
She also really liked carving pumpkins. One scary one and one friendly one. Which one is which?
She continues to be very creative. She has two imaginary friends, Hala and Sala, her
daughter/sister/friends. It is a lot of fun to hear about the
adventures that Hala and Sala have. She also likes to move things about in her room to create new spaces, like her TV corner.
We take her on lots of good adventures and explorations, like to the Lawrence Hall of Science.
The Oakland Zoo with friends.
Standford Volleyball games, where Elsa likes to mimic the cheerleaders known as Dolly Dancers.
September was a very eventful month! Elsa started her new Saturday morning KinderGym class - New Stars. Now she is out on the gym floor without us and is loving the class.
Liam continues to crawl all over the place.
And now is even crawling all the way up the stairs!
We went to a fun birthday where Liam and Elsa go to play in a little pool.
And Arne's volleyball team won Summer league!
There were big work trips for both of us. Arne went to Louisville Kentucky.
And Elsa created an airplane seat for herself and talked about packing up and going to Albania. One of her classmates at preschool went to Albania recently.
She is loving dressing up - and this is her new princess outfit, which she calls a pizza princess because the stars and moons on the hat look like toppings on a slice of pizza!
She is also really good with her bike, enjoying riding around the courtyard and playing on it.
One of our favorite things continues to be sleep and Liam is a good sleeper.
I headed off to India for a 2 week work trip. During my weekend there I had wonderful local roasted corn.
saw great waterfalls,
and revisited Mumbai and their gate, that I saw with Amanda when I visited in 2006.
While I was gone, the grandparents helped Arne out with the kids and brought over dinner.
Arne was proud of getting Elsa's hair washed and in a pony tail.
Elsa Liam and Arne spent a whole day at the SF Academy of Science.
We also had a lot of fun with FaceTime and I got to see them everyday.
Even in the airport in Hong Kong!
At the end of the month, it was another fun birthday party, with yummy cupcakes.
Airport Day in Palo Alto, with Elsa in the cockpit of a real plane.
Then as she slept, Liam tried to drive the car home. Check out his 3 teeth!
