Father's Day

We spent Father's Day morning having breakfast at John's XLNT Food in Willow Glen with Jason's parents and brother. Then we took T to see Toy Story 3 - great movie, loved it! That afternoon, Jason's sister came to SJ with her boys and they played in the backyard blow-up pool. And finally we ended the day at my parents house, where my Mom made Thanksgiving dinner, mostly for my Uncle Gary who misses my Mom's cooking on Thanksgiving now that he lives in TN.
Mitch and T

Here is Thomas racing, in his own way, into the pool! It was more like a leisurely stroll to the pool but he likes to take his time in measured steps!

Mitch preparing for his blast-off!

Here are T's feet!

Spencer in his favorite position

We didn't know they would be swimming, which is why my son is in his O.K. undies!
This one will embarrass him someday!

Luisa's

We visited Katie over the weekend in S.F. so my Uncle Gary, visiting from TN, could see her apartment. Of course the biggest decision we had to make was where to eat-and in the city there are too many options, not a good thing for the indecisive ones (me, mom, and Kate)! More about where we went in a minute...
Jason gets so frustrated with me when we go out to eat and he asks me where I want to go, and my standard response is typically "You decide" or "Whatever you want to eat." I just have a hard time making a decision, unless I have a super strong craving for something, which is usually Japanese, which Jason doesn't like! Have you ever heard of someone not liking Japanese food, if not sushi, fine, but there are just so many other amazing options! Do any of you have this problem? This is a pretty standard issue in my family, my poor Dad is really patient when it comes to waiting for the 3 of us to discuss options - 30 minutes later, someone is annoyed, someone doesn't care, and someone isn't hungry any more and we typically end up with Outback takeout!! I think we watch Diners, Drive-In's & Dives too much! I love me some CPK but sometimes the large chain restaurants that over populate this city just don't provide the same culinary satisfaction as finding a little gem of a dive such as the one we found on our recent visit to S.F.!
After 20 minutes of my mom, sister and I googling on our phones the local restaurants near the apartment in Marina, we came up with 2 options to walk to. My Uncle was open to anything. The usual Chicago-style pizza joint that we have frequented on our visits to S.F. called Piaxi's was shot down early on, much to my Dad's disappointment, so we found 2 Italian restaurant's to choose from within walking distance in the Marina off of Union St.
6 blocks later, we arrived at Luisa's.....and this place did not disappoint! A quaint little place, it probably could only hold 35 people at capacity. At 5pm on Saturday night, they were empty, as we were informed that the area doesn't get busy until around 8pm, so we had the place to ourselves for the better part of our meal. While nursing the baby outside, I had the pleasure of meeting Luisa herself, a vibrant, jolly woman only 84 years young (she didn't look a year over 70!) and she took a liking to Tanner immediately! She spoke to us about how she cooks all of her sauces fresh every morning, how she remembers nursing her babies back in the kitchen while she cooked and missing it, how she was 1 of 16 children!! She was so lovely to us and was kind enough to treat Talan to a lollipop (he doesn't eat them but for once was polite enough this time not to say anything!) Apparently my Uncle's spaghetti was the best he ever had, as was my dad's lasagna. I had the eggplant parmesan which was amazing....and of course I had to have dessert. Luisa informed us that the desserts were all also from fresh imported Italian ingredients - dad had lemon sorbet and I had the mousse....delicious is an understatement! It was a great evening, not just because of the food, but just sitting around after our meal enjoying our family and the good conversation...those are the best meal's.

T calls my mom's wine "Pasha's milk!"

Hello Kitty Floaties

He fell asleep waiting for the Brady's to come over!!

T has been going to swimming lessons since he was over 21/2 and has been swimming fairly independently for the last 10 months (ie. can kick with his "superman arms" across the width of the pool un-assisted and can float on his back for several minutes!) But when Kim and the kids came over to our pool last week with lots of fun floating devices, of course he temporarily forgot how to swim and insisted on wearing these Hello Kitty floaties! Eventually he swam without them, but he sure loved how much confidence they gave him swimming in the deep end!

Tanner relaxing poolside in his personal Cabana!

:)

Last T-ball game

T had his last T-ball game this past week. I think Jason and I are more sad about it! When the season first began, neither of us were sure how we would like it, this being our first experience with joining a league and doing the whole team parent thing. And with our little Tanner arriving the first week of baseball we felt a little overwhelmed with the schedule of practices and games every weekend. But we were so pleasantly surprised by our experience. The team was very lucky to have a wonderful coach, just an all around good guy who was very relaxed and positive with the children. T enjoyed going to practice every Thursday with his Daddy and Papa Warren, where he worked on his batting skills and fielding. He stopped having to use a tee and can now hit a pitched ball! He also looked forward to putting on his Yankees uniform (actually he just loved wearing his little junior cup!) every Saturday. And all of his games were cheered on by some very important people in his life, both of his sets of grandparents, his Auntie Kate, Uncle Matt, Great Aunt Sue, the Brady's, Andrew, and very recently his Uncle Gary and John...he always had the biggest cheering section!! Most of all it was a wonderful bonding experience for our family!

My dad with his brothers!

Receiving his first trophy!

Playing water balloon baseball at the team party!

3 months

Tanner is now 3 months old.....WHHHAATT?! Where does the time go and why so fast? He is really chunking up at 13 lbs. now, making up for his 5 lb. start! Do you see those cheeks? He is developing his little personality, he likes to be socialize and watch T and his friends play...he kicks his legs so fast and gets excited watching the big kids! He loves to coo and talk, especially when T or my Dad sings to him. When he is hungry he needs to eat like 10 minutes ago!! So he really fusses and cries if that doesn't happen fast enough. And lo and behold, turning 3 months old has flipped on his day and night switch - for the past 3 nights he has slept about 5-6 hrs. straight!!! I have felt very energized these last few days for sure, with all my extra sleep but am just enjoying it while it lasts because as we all know baby sleep patterns change constantly.

Big T continues to just love on his little brother all day long...if the baby cries he soothes him and tells him "It's okay baby brother, Mommy's here, Talan's here, we're almost home..." He loves to give him the pacifier any time Tanner makes even as much as a whimper. I try to explain that it's not a plug, that sometimes the baby doesn't always like it, but if Tanner stops fussing with the pacifier, T recognizes that he has comforted the baby and feels really proud of himself. He sings to the baby often, sometimes he makes up songs, or he loves Old Macdonald the most. When Tanner sees his big brother he always gets the biggest smile....that melts me!