Dog Bowl Swimming

Despite the delicious taquitos, enchiladas, chips and guac, and cookies from La Fiesta ("The Dive"), Ellie provided the highlight of the post-Baptism party, for sure! Wearing her nicest dress from fancy Saturday's Child, she decided it would be a great idea to go swimming in the dog bowls.  I was too tired and busy mingling, eating, and taking care of baby, that I just told her to go for it.  She is a HAM and a half!  Towards the end of her swim, she decided it'd be a great idea to get undressed...diaper and all.  Everybody thought she had the right idea until the diaper came off and hit the bricks with a giant "stinky poo-poo" inside!! And that was the end of that.

Oh, Holy Day! - Charlie's Baptism

Well, we officially have another little Catholic in our family!  We were down south in L.A. last weekend for an insanely busy three days of wedding activities (I was a bridesmaid in Caroline Liset's beautiful Santa Monica wedding...wow!), Charlie's Baptism, hospital visits (Dad ended up with a pulmonary embolism post-knee replacement surgery), and a constant shuttling of kids between sweet baby sitting grandparents.  The baptism on Sunday was, sadly, almost an afterthought with how nutty the whole weekend was.  God has a way of slowing you down and making you appreciate the truly important things in life, though.  We had THE most beautiful day, holy ceremony, and intimate/relaxing/fun appetizer/cocktail party at my parents' house afterwards.  Father Leon presided, and his homily was beautiful...all about the special way in which a child is loved.  And on that day, surrounded by our closest friends and family (all family really...except for Natalie, who really IS family), I felt overwhelmed by the love showered upon us and our children.  We are so very lucky to be members of the Bannan and Borchard families.

Happy Halloween!

I found another mom at the pumpkin patch with two kiddos, one of them in the Bjorn, just like me.  Sneaky, passive-aggressive gal that I am, I volunteered to take a picture of the three of them with her camera, knowing that she'd, in turn, have to volunteer to do the same for me.  Hah!  It worked.  However, I wasn't about to make her take multiple pictures of us, so this is what we got...Ellie was pissed because she wanted whatever pumpkin or toy the other mom's toddler was playing with.  Oh well, at least we got a photo of the three of us to prove that we were all there!

Second Go 'Round at the Patch

I was totally stir-crazy and sick of being stuck indoors this afternoon, as the kids had slept most of the day away, so I decided to take them to the pumpkin patch for our second trip in about three days' time.  Ellie has been waking up from every nap and every night's sleep asking about pumpkins and ghosts...she's obsessed with ALL things Halloween right now.  She even snuggles with her pumpkins, wrapping them up in her blankie, making her little huggy "awww" sound, and telling us how she's "getting cozy pumpkins."  Anyway, the three of us had a ball making our way through the slim pickings at the patch, meeting the other bored mommies, and picking out a baby pumpkin especially for Auntie Noni.  It's already packed in the car ready to make the trip down south to you tomorrow, Annie!

Fun Visitor

My dear friend and former Stanford roommate, Jessica, came down from S.F. to visit us for the day Saturday.  Joe watched the kids for me while Jess and I got to go out for a long, leisurely brunch at our favorite spot, Hobee's.  What a treat for me!  Then we took Charlie (Ellie was still napping) for a walk all through campus.  Jess has 8 siblings, so she was an old pro with Charlie.  Also, every other time she's come to visit us, Ellie has slept through Jess' entire visit; amazingly, the two gals had never met.  When we got back from our walk, though, Miss Eleanor had finally arisen and greeted Jess at the door with a very sour, very loud moan...not very welcoming at all.  By the time Jessica left, though, Ellie was crying because her new friend was gone.  My toddler is bipolar, for sure.

Morning Routine

The morning routine around here is pretty darn cute.  Just thought I'd snap a picture of what a typical morning on the couch looks like.  Aren't my three babies adorable?!

Happy Tummy Time

The key word to the title of this post is "Happy."  Charlie generally considers Tummy Time horrible punishment.  Today, though, I decided to try propping him up with his Boppy, and he thought it was tons of fun for about five minutes.  Hey, I'll take it.  Who wouldn't find that super cool canopy of colors and toys fun?!  Looks like Disneyland to me.

Buddies

Ellie and Charlie are really starting to interact and get along now.  She loves to cozy up to him in the mornings, especially when he's been propped up by mom or dad in her favorite recliner.  Doesn't it look like they're working on a project together in the second picture??  Really, she's just pure entertainment for him...thank goodess...because he seems to always need to be entertained these days!

Homecoming Begins!

It's Homecoming this weekend at Stanford, and we are already having so much fun.  We took the kids on a walk this afternoon all around the athletic facilities and ran into all sorts of old friends and coaches.  And then tonight, we had two of our old guy friends stop by, Darin Naatjes (played baseball and football with Joe) and Tyler Besecker (basketball).  Don't they make Joe look short?!  I felt quite petite, I must admit=).  Can't wait for the tailgates and date night tomorrow night.  I've decided that I'm going to go all out, too...I'm going to wear a dress and heels...gasp!!

Naked Buffalo

Just look at the size of that kid!!  Charlie is now spending much of his time at home in only a diaper because of his spitting-up problem...something Ellie must have taught him to do!!  We're also struggling through his third bout with Thrush right now...NO fun.  He's a grump, which tends to make momma a grump, too.  Luckily, I had leftover of his prescription from last time, so I think we've nipped it in the bud.  He sure is a sweetie when he's feeling good, though.  He just wants to be looked in the eyes all day long... smiling is just his favorite thing to do...but then he gets real tired after about five minutes of such socializing and has to go to sleep.  Hmmmm, maybe I should participate in this smiling game of his on a more consistent basis...I think everybody would benefit=).

Great Day Trip!

Oh, what a great day!  I really needed to get out of my routine and out of the apartment this week.  I was so happy when my Aunt Barbara called last night to see if we wanted to join her, Haley, Ian, and two of their friends on a trip to this fabulously revamped science and nature museum in downtown San Francisco.  I've been dying to go to it, but I knew that I'd never attempt the trip alone with both kids.  We had a ball!  Ellie LOVES her Auntie and cousins.  And Charlie, with his third bout with Thursh and all, hung in there all afternoon like a trooper.  Both kids are dead tired tonight... hoping Joe and I get an uninterrupted night of sleep for the first time in ages because of it, but we'll see!  This picture is of the whole gang on the roof of the museum...it's one of those "living" roofs with a sustainable garden on top...beautiful.  The museum is right smack dab in the middle of the Martin Luther King Jr. Botanical Gardens, too.  We had a great walk to and from the car with the most beautiful view of the city on a super clear, 69 degree day.  I'm in a much better mood to finish out the week=).  I also have date night and a hair appointment to look forward to on Saturday...woo hoo!  (P.S. I just figured something out on this Blogger...just click on the picture if you want to see it enlarged...am I the last person on Earth to have figured this out?!)

La Fiesta!

Last night, we celebrated Tessie's birthday at La Fiesta, and in true Bannan fashion, we had a crew of about 30 dominating the back room of the restaurant.  Oh, I can't wait to move back home so that this can be a Sunday tradition again.  I planned on leaving after just a quick hello, but the kiddos glued themselves to Maggi and behaved the whole time...I was actually able to eat...at a restaurant...with two kids...and no hubby!  Grammies are the BEST!  The last photo is of the three Charlies we had there that night...Charlie Ternan, Charlie Moore, and my Charlie.  Every family needs a "Good-Time Charlie" I'm told=).

Electronic Babysitter

Charlie discovered television this weekend.  Aaaah, heaven for mommy!  He seems to be a sports fan already...he thoroughly enjoyed the USC game and especially the NASCAR race this weekend.

Doughnut Land...Mmmmmm

Grampy and Maggi helped me take the little ones to 9:30 Mass at Holy Family while we were home this past weekend.  It was so nice to go to church again...first time for me since Charlie was born...and I couldn't have done it without their help.  We took Ellie over to "Doughnut Land" afterwards, and she and Grampy dug in together!  And yes, she really did wear those glasses through most of Mass...even all the way up to Communion!

Learning to Hold Charlie

Ellie's just now starting to express some interest in holding Charlie.  On this day, I'd caught her trying to lift him up off of the couch on her own...good thing he weighs WAY too much for her to have any success in that endeavor.  Anyway, how cute are they?!  Amazingly, my naughty toddler really does love her baby brother and is consistently sweet to him.

Just Chillin'

I caught them "watching TV" together the other day.  Well, I'd set him up there, of course, but she joined him on the opposite end of the couch...just hanging out together!