Merry Christmas

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Sunday was Thomas' birthday and Shortie had to dress up to celebrate. I tried Shortie's Christmas 2008 dress and although it's a little short, it still fits. Here are a couple of shots of her in last year's dress (with and without her teething toy!), and one from last year to help you see how much can change in a year

.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Here are some shots of Shortie for various holiday gatherings, including her first meaningful encounter with Santa (who she calls "Satan" more than half the time). We had Thomas' birthday party last night, and she wore her Christmas dress from last year -- I'll have pictures of that up soon. Getting our Christmas tree: Dinner at Steven and Jordan's (wearing her Valentine's Day 2009 dress) At the Ritz for Teddy Bear Tea with Tutu Look how tiny Shortie is compared to all the other children! Shortie visits Santa!

All bundled up

Reading

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. Shortie didn't love the food, but she did love the company of another little girl who we'll call "Lily." Shortie and Lily played all afternoon, but when it came time for dinner, Lily actually ate her food while Shortie had to have a time-out. After dinner the girls played until it was time for Lily to go back home to San Francisco. When Shortie woke up this morning, she asked for Lily -- a great sign that Shortie truly enjoyed her Thanksgiving. Here are some shots:

Morning smile

Potty training a dragon

She did this herself

Apple picking!

We headed up to Placerville (also known as Hangtown because they used to hang people there...) for apple picking a couple of weekends ago. It wasn't quite like my experiences from growing up, but we had a good time. Once we found some apples to pick...

Happy Halloween!

It's a good thing that Shortie wore her costume to my work Halloween party yesterday, and to the California Avenue trick-or-treating this afternoon, because once the sun went down and the jack-o-lanterns were lit, Shortie did not want to wear her costume. Which worked out fine, because we didn't get one trick-or-treater. Maybe all the neighborhood kiddies knew that we were giving away Play-doh, crayons, stickers and playing cards instead of Snickers and Sweet-tarts. Oh well. We had a fun Halloween anyway. Here are some shots of Shortie in festive clothes, and in her official costume, a dragon. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

Here are some shots of Shortie at the pumpkin patch. She's all over the place these days so it's getting more and more difficult to get a decent picture of her. In the end, we came home with two big pumpkins for carving, three little pumpkins for looking at, and three little pumpkins for eating. Braised pork with pumpkin, anyone? I love fall!! In other exciting news -- we bought a potty for Shortie today. There likely won't be any photos of that, but you never can tell! Shortie finds the pumpkin she wants: Shortie thinks pumpkin patches are fun! Shortie would like to take this little pumpkin home:

What is she wearing?

Dinner?

I like elephants

Dinner with Mommy

Sleepy baby

Shortie talking on a cell phone

Very ladylike

Shortie eating meat

Ashes, ashes...

Shortie singing one of her favorite songs (kind of)

Cuddle time

That's not how you eat squash

She likes her chair

I love sushi

Dinner with Mommy

A little update

It's been awhile since I've posted any pictures from the "real" camera - Shortie's dad posts phone camera shots pretty regularly, which are great, but I've had these pictures in my camera for some time now, and I think it's time to share. It's hard to believe that Shortie will be 16 months old next week. I was holding her today and she's definitely more and more a little girl and less and less a baby... Here, Shortie shows us that she rides sheep the same way she likes to ride horses: Four generations: Shortie and her daddy: Making sure the foliage at the park stays hydrated: Fourth of July is funny!!!

Fit to ride

Ready to go

Almost right