three!

siena rose is three! in the last year, especially the last six months, she has grown up so much. we really have a big girl on our hands now. she is kind and thoughtful, loud and strong, talkative and aware. we love our sisi and look forward to see what this next year brings.

fun in the rain.

a couple of weekends ago we went to the marin farmer's market with toscana and aleishall to see matt at his ghee stand. it was a wet and rainy morning, but we had fun nonetheless.

big girl!

for siena's third birthday she got a big girl bed and couldn't have been more excited. now we can snuggle together to read books, jump on the bed and be silly with friends under the covers. when new people come over to the house it's the first thing siena wants to show them.

goggles.

siena and toscana got silly wearing goggles in the bath the other night. i guess goggles make the bath more fun.

cousins (and uncle io)

making friends.

rocco is all about georgia these days. he watches her very closely as she moves around the house and likes when she joins him playing on the floor.

faces.

seven!

rocco's stats at 7 months:

27 3/4 inches (75 percentile)

23.9 lbs (97 percentile)

photographing him on the chair is gettting hard as he is moving around like crazy and even pulling himself up to standing! we love our chunky little mover.

teeth.

rocco has two teeth now. this is the first shot where you can almost see them.

so long...

siena has been coming to my school as a play pal once a week since i started working, but now that she is turning three those days are over. we had a little pre-birthday/graduation celebration for her last friday complete with cupcakes. my friend kathy gave siena a graduation gift and we all sang happy birthday. rocco enjoyed himself as well. i'll miss having siena come to my school, it was always nice to see her during my work day. only 11 more months until rocco can be a play pal.

best!

aya came over for a sleepover last weekend and siena was in heaven. the girls slept in the big bed together and woke up giggling. siena says she's ready for a sleepover at aya's soon. sounds good to me.

birthday...

we had another important birthday to celebrate recently, mimi's! we had a nice dinner together (rocco slept the whole time and siena played contently until dinner came) which was finished off with an ice cream sundae. happy birthday mimi!

latkes!

mimi showed siena how to make latkes and boy were they good. yummy, yummy, yummy.

thankful.

siena and rocco's daycare had a fun holiday party the weekend before last. there was good music, food and company. the most special thing however is that both toscana and julius go to school there too. it's so nice that some of our good friend's children spent their days with ours. for this we are thankful.

party!

auntie bubbles had a very nice holiday party at the botanical gardens. rocco got to meet a lot of special people for the first time and siena had fun playing under the tables with aya. even though it started to rain, we had some time to explore the botanical garden which is such an amazing place. we all want to go back soon.

flea market.

we had fun exploring the flea market as a family for the first time since rocco was born. siena walked the whole time with no complaints, rocco took a long nap and nick got a sausage (the real reason he likes the market). we found some goodies for our home, bought a few holiday gifts and even saw an old family friend. it was a pleasant sunday morning.

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas...

siena and nick picked out our little tree and we had fun decorating it together. afterwards the kids took a bath and spent sometime watching the tree lights as they glowed.

tutu B.

we made cupcakes to celebrate tutu B's birthday last week. siena was very helpful in the kitchen and hand sprinkled each one. happy birthday tutu B, we love you!

union square...

last week we went to union square to see the menorah lighting. it was nice to be in the city at night with all the lights and the energy of the holidays. we also lit the hanukah candles each night at home. siena wanted to blow them out, but we managed to distract her from doing so. rocco just liked looking at the glow of the candles.

tilden...

for the month of december tilden park sets up a winter wonderland at the merry-go-round. on a cold night a couple of weeks ago we took the kids up to see the lights. this was the first time that siena rode the merry-go-round with pleasure, rocco and i just watched and drank hot chocolate.

rocco is crawling!

brunch and a bus ride.

over thanksgiving weekend we got to visit with gen and darren as they escaped the minneapolis cold to come to rainy california. we took a walk through north berkeley, had brunch with very well behaved children, then took a bus ride as it started to rain. siena was thrilled! we've been talking about taking a bus ride, but then rocco came and that plan got put on hold like many other things. siena's only complaint is that the ride was too short, so we'll have to go again soon.