SILLY

Eva is old enough to know that this is funny and laugh with me about it. How fun! (Read: dreary day activity success!)

summer with clouds

Donovan is heading out to San Diego this week for DevCon, the yearly conference for developers (of the product Filemaker, it's not defcon the hacking conference!). I'm nervous and excited for my first week alone with Eva. Unfortunately she woke up with a runny nose but in comparison to the stomach flu that we had for a couple weeks in July this seems like cake. So wish us luck! We'll be doing bachelorette things all week like eating ice cream for breakfast, watching Sleepless in Seattle, and staying up late (probably none of those things actually, but it's nice to dream).

For our family and friends in the northwest and afar, I'm sure you would love to see how different Eva is now that she is 14 months! Just within the last two months she has learned so many new things about the world. She really loves ambulances and says "wheeew" when they go by. We visited San Francisco yesterday and she really enjoyed the hustle and bustle, especially going up and down the escalator, although we had to move along after 4 times because I started to worry the security guard might ask us to stop. She LOVES dogs and yesterday attempted to ride Hunter, the 8 year old chocolate labrador that lives next door. Also, Eva has shown a lot of interest in mimicking behavior, especially bathroom activities like pretending to curl her hair, tweeze her eyebrows, and put on a shirt (none of which she actually does successfully, of course).

I started a running club in Oakland and have enjoyed meeting new women, getting out regularly and just feeling healthy in general. The late evenings in Oakland are so beautiful, warm, and sunny, it's such a great way to end a day! I'm hoping by next summer I will be ready to run my first marathon. I've enjoyed getting a nice little tan too, which is a great side effect. Donovan has also started going to Toastmaster's regularly as a way to get some self care and recently spoke about himself to the group in his first talk.

Donovan and I celebrated five years together last week. We enjoyed an evening out alone to dinner, the beach, and a used bookstore/vintage place while we perused without Eva distracting us. It was so fun! I'm really glad we got married and I really love him more every day. I truly think I'm such a better human being than I would be without him.

August will be a month of "vacation time" for our family (although some of it is others vacationing here in Oakland). We are hosting my middle sis and her husband for a week and hosting my mom for another week of August. Also, we'll be making a week long trip in August, too. And after we have our month of fun in August, my aunts and cousins will be coming to Sacramento for a weekend in September. I'm looking forward to it all! Let's hope Eva's sleep schedule remains normal and traveling goes smoothly. In the past Eva has woken up at 5am every day of our vacation, which made for really tired parents and baby.

In other news, another stay at home mom and I have started a "swap" where we watch both kids one day a week. That means that twice a month I will get a half day without Eva! We started by me watching the girls last week and it was really sweet to see them together. They toddled around without any talking and reminded me of two little penguins, so cute! When I opened the fridge they both came running (which is really just a fast walk at this point) and were doe eyed, hopeful that they could get something! I just love how babies roll on top of each other, have such a different sense of space and no sense of ownership, and bump into each other when their walking ... it's like watching two comedians.

Well, it's nice to talk about new changes in our family and the joys of summer because right now it looks like winter outside. The weather outside is frightful but inside we feel so *summer-y.* What are you up to this summer? Is the weather looking like summer where you are?