Dearest Friends...

Then: Stanford June 2006

Now: Palo Alto March 2012

We had to say good-bye to some of our very best friends today. We met the Clarke family when Pete and Will started the MBA program at Stanford in 2004. It was great to meet another family with a few young children. When graduation rolled around the Clarkes were one of the few families crazy enough to stay in the bay area--just like us.

Over the years we've swapped babysitting for date nights and dentist visits as well as shared a bunch of memorable family dinners. Our children all love each other like another set of siblings...so some times they fight but most of the time they have a ton of fun.

Alycia has become one of my dearest friends. We've shared stories of faith, laughed together (a lot) and empathized with each other through parenting trials.

We will miss the Clarkes dearly--but maybe we get the chance to visit them on their European adventure?!

We love you guys!

The Leatherman strikes again...

I am going to have to go through all of our old photos to make sure--but I think Will has pulled out Lorien, Wyatt and now Clare's first tooth with his leatherman tool. He just cannot stand to see those teeth hanging by a gum-thread. Once, Wyatt lost a tooth while playing soccer with Will in our living room...

I really cannot have nice things--like children with a mouth full of straight teeth.

Anyway, tonight it was Clare's turn to get her first tooth yanked.

She was so excited! All of her other classmates in Kindergarten have lost a couple of teeth by now and she was worried she would be the only one who didn't loose a tooth.

Kindergarten-cool-status saved.

Let me indulge myself with a little tale of this first lost tooth of Clare's. Lorien and Wyatt did not get their first tooth until they were a year old.

It was a glorious, easy year of nursing for me!

Clare, on the other hand, had her first tooth pop through her gums when she was four months old. I was annoyed. How dare this child get teeth at a developmentally appropriate age!?!

Here she is at four months, with me trying to peel her lips back to get a picture of her first tooth. She is not cooperating with me. On a completely unrelated but personally satisfying note--I am showing a lot of pasty-white leg in this picture.

And that was it...one lonely snaggletooth sticking out of her gums for another eight months. That little tooth bore the brunt of her experimenting with teething toys, regular toys, silverware, rocks and anything else she could get in her mouth with out me noticing. Her first tooth was pretty worn down by the time her jaws decided to let a few other teeth grow in to help out.

Here she is at almost one-years-old--rockin' a bad hair cut, a runny nose and illegally busting into the cereal stash...all with one bottom tooth. Some day she will rule the world.

We have been going to the same dentist since Clare was three and every time--with out fail--her dentist asks me if she broke that little tooth in 1/2 recently. I have to re-explain: "No, it was just her only tooth--for eight months--when she was a baby."

I am sure the dentist will be much more attentive once I start bringing my children in for braces. I believe my dentist high-fives all of her assistants with glee at the idea of the dental chaos happening in my children's mouths (thanks to catching soccer balls with their faces). Our family is going to be a dental-cash-cow for a long time. I don't know how the Tooth Fairy keeps up.

For family documentation...

Here are a couple of pictures of Lorien and Wyatt at the time Clare got her first tooth. Boy oh boy were they ever adorable.

Lorien, at four-and-a-half-years-old, was super into playing dressup. She really enjoyed playing "married girl" and dressing up like a bride. She also desprately wanted to meet a prince. The second picture is Lorien with "her prince"--a broken broom stick with a playdough head and googly eyes. I guess if you cannot find Mr. Perfect at four-and-a-half you might as well make him up.

Wyatt, at two-and-a-half-years-old, was super into...making this face? Seriously, I searched all my photos. Every single shot where this kid was included he had his fingers hooked in his cheek flesh. I looked for him playing with specific toys, acting like the Avatar, anything and came up with "finger-hook-face" every time.

Oh well.

Blame it on pregnancy hormones...

I've been wanting to chop my hair off for a while now. I have a few new friends here with super cute short hair. They pull it off beautifully. Then, in February, my mother sent me this picture of herself and my father.

And I was ready. (How beautiful is my Mother here?!) She is ten years younger than I am right now in this picture...so lovely!

So two weeks ago I went from this:

to this:

I really, really love it. I think I look adorable--with just a sprinkling of Justin Bieber to keep me humble. Good thing I have bigger boobs than The Biebs--they keep me from being mobbed by 14 year old girls.

OK, OK, maybe it is my ever expanding midsection that keeps me from being mistaken for Justin Bieber...

The kids gave me mixed reviews. Clare liked it much more once we started calling the style a "Pixie cut". Adell cried when she first saw me. She kept on drawing her hand from the top of my head down to my chin saying "Your hairs need to come down!" And when Will came home Adell said "Daddy, you have hair like Momma!"

Happy 6th Birthday Clare!

Clare is six! Right now, Clare is the only child who does not have a November birthday. As a result, her birthday feels very, very, very far away after Lorien, Wyatt and Adell have had their special days. She was over the moon when we tore the February calender page off and it was finally March!

Uncle David, Aunt Angela, Evan, Andrew and Sadie came over from the peninsula to celebrate with Clare. We all took turns telling Clare what we loved about her. Some of her compliments were:

I love how cheerful Clare is. She is always happy and trying to make others happy.

I love how much Clare dances. She is a beautiful dancer!

I love how often Clare smiles.

I love how Clare's eyes sparkle when ever she sees me.

I love playing with Clare.

Clare is a special girl and we feel so lucky to have her as part of our family.

Happy Birthday Clare!

Just as a reminder for myself: I am never making cupcakes the day before a birthday party again. I baked Clare's cupcakes Saturday but left them unfrosted on the counter. I was hen-pecked by every child in my house for a full 24 hours with questions like "Can I have a plain cupcake?" and "Can I frost a cupcake and eat it?" or "When are you going to frost the cupcakes?!?" It was annoying.

More cute stuff Adell says...

Will and I were sitting on our bed with Adell, I cannot remember what we were talking about but in reply to something I had said, Will said: "You're all about the details." Adell looked up at Will and said "No Daddy, we don't have any tails!"

Adell has figured out how to tattle-tale on the big kids. Most of the time she says things like "Lorien is na-noying me!" But lately she has been saying "Momma, Wyatt chubbed me!" I thought she was saying "shoved" and would make Wyatt apologize for pushing her. Wyatt would protest. One Saturday afternoon Adell tattled to Will, he bent down and said, "Show me how Wyatt 'chubbed' you.". She put her hands up to Will's face and squeezed his cheeks with both of her hands saying "Chub!". "Chubbed" as in squeezing her chubby parts. Clarity!

Adell woke up from her nap one afternoon and as I got her out of her crib she asked for all of her blankets and stuffed animals to be brought out too. My arms were stuffed with a 2 year old and all of her bedding. As I walked down the hall Adell said "It's so comfortableeee!" then she paused and said "What does the word say?" I responded: "Comfortable?" Adell reiterated: "Oh yhea, it's so commmmmfortable!"

Out of the blue one afternoon Adell walked up to me and asked "Momma, can I have two dollars?"

"You don't even know what a dollar is!" I responded.

Lately she has started asking us: "So, what can I do for you?"

At a doctors appointment for me she remembered that getting my blood pressure checked was "Now your arms get to have a big hug?" and she also remembered that I get to "Pee in a cup!" as part of the check up...sweet.

When Will comes home from work he is greeted by all of his kids enthusiastically jumping into his arms. Adell always cuts in line to jump first and then insists on jumping into his arms for more hugs after each of the kids get a turn...so the line up goes some thing like this: Adell--hug. Lorien--hug. Adell--another hug. Wyatt--hug. Adell--another hug. Clare--hug. Adell--another hug. After Will has made the rounds with the kids Adell says: "Daddy come and see your beeeg (big) Momma!" and walks him into where ever I am in the house saying "Here she is Daddy, here is your beeeg Momma!" I think she is just saying it because Will says "Where are all my big kids?" when he gets home--but she might be noticing my expanding size too.

This girl cracks me up...

Sunday while I was making dinner in the kitchen, I hear Adell yell: "Look Momma, I am a fat cupcake!" I came around the corner to see this:

Yep, she looks like a "fat cupcake" to me.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Wyatt makes a Leprechaun trap just about every year. He is determined to catch a Leprechaun and get all his gold.

If you would like to try and catch a Leprechaun here are some helpful tips...and you should totally pay attention and follow this advice because we have NEVER caught a Leprechaun.

We are experts.

It helps if one of your trap builders does her best work naked.

Leprechauns are suckers for rainbows and gold. Make sure your trap has one or both of these.

It also helps if you have a Father who gets engineering and can really rig up a good snap-trap. This is especially helpful if you have a Mother who is useless when it comes to engineering.

At bed time all of the kids agreed that this was Wyatt's best Leprechaun trap ever. They all went to sleep confident in finding a little person dressed in green under our credenza table the next morning.

They were all disappointed...Wyatt's trap was sprung but that tricky Leprechaun managed to tear his way through the cardboard box. At least the Leprechaun left behind a batch of chocolate coins for Wyatt's trouble.

BEEE-autiful!

Truly, honestly, I am not trying to gloat or brag here. And I am not trying to make you that don't live here feel bad for the weather cards you've been dealt. I just want to put up this lovely post about going to the beach...in March...

Neener, neener, neener...

"Yeesh, it sure is sunny and warm here in California!"

The kids and I went down to the beach one day when they were off from school for a teacher work day. We drove down caravan style with a whole bunch of other Moms and kids from here. There were kids every where and we had the beach all to ourselves. The kids broke off in a variety of groups; splashing, digging, collecting, and eating. We were there all day. My favorite kind of day.

My husband grew up in the mountains and prairies of a landlocked state. He does not appreciate the beach like I do. He does not tolerate more than a few hours of sun and sand. So I sure do appreciate friends who will stay at the beach all day.

Now we need to make some friends who will go camping and hiking with Will and the kids so I wont have to.

Out and about...

There is a place called Rock City around here. We hadn't been so one beautiful Saturday the whole family drove up Mount Diablo to check the place out. Rock City is a series of easy trails near the top of Mount Diablo around and though massive rock formations. There are caves and paths all over the rocks and my dare-devil children were in heaven. Even little Adell wanted to climb the rocks.

Some of the rock formations were really high and narrow. Lorien was the first the scramble up and over the rocks but the other kids were close to follow. Here is Wyatt waaaaaay up on a rock that Will told me later was no wider than a horse's saddle at the top...yikes!

I am pretty obviously pregnant right now and my attempts to keep up with the kids were comical to say the least. Will was doing his best to keep the kids safe and make sure I wasn't going into labor. He kept asking me things like: "How ya doing Babe? Need a hand Babe?" all while keeping our children from plummeting to their deaths.

The last hike we took was over a rock trail and up a big rock called Sentinel Rock. Sentinel Rock had stairs carved into it and a metal railing leading to the top. The big kids dashed up the rock while Will took Adell on his shoulders and I bought up the rear. Adell kept calling back to me "How ya doing Babe? Are you coming Babe?" It was sweet.

Some nice young man (who looked like a fishing tackle box exploded in his face) was kind enough to snap a family photo at the top of Sentinel Rock--this will be our family Christmas card next year.

And the card will say: We are the Anderson Family, we do cool stuff.