first haircut by mommy

first haircut by mommy (3rd overall)
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i've been meaning to get evie in for a haircut for a while, but we never seem to remember to get to it at a convenient time. her last haircut was on new year's eve 2010, so it's been a while.

tonight, we were watching her favorite movie "nausicaa" and she told me she wanted her hair to be like nausicaa's. i figured it was my chance. into the kitchen we went, scissors and comb in hand.

i will freely admit that the hair came out about 3 inches shorter than i planned, but it looks pretty darned cute. now she's asking for bangs, and i'll have to see if i have the nerves to attempt those tomorrow. hopefully she'll forget about them overnight.

yeah right. evie forget about something. not very likely.

together again

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we just returned from a beautiful weekend at the russian river. some friends of dana and david (paloma's parents) are caretakers of a christian brothers retreat there, and every 4th of july weekend they invite friends up to enjoy the property, company and a whole lot of food and music.

evie pretty much disappeared the minute we arrived. she and paloma went "exporing". they also buils a "secret fortune house" in the lodge. it entertained them for hours, and allowed me the peace to finish the book i'd brought.

best sign that she and paloma had fun? 48 hours together (including two sleepovers) and not one fight. a new record!

i just hope that we are lucky enough to be invited back again.

school pictures!

after a long wait, we finally got evie's school pictures today. i've gotta say, she's kinda cute!

swimming on!

we decided to keep the momentum going and sign evie up for a pre-school swim class at ucsf (where mike works and she goes to pre-school). i was nervous that we would have trouble getting a spot, but it turned out to be a breeze. looking forward to taking her to the pool on sunday mornings.

the sunshine state!

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

thanks to mom and dad for hosting us for eight (short for us/long for them) days in florida. special bonuses:

fourth birthday chock full of family with aunties, uncle, cousins and grandparents


tons of pool time (including going all the way underwater)


spring baseball with the cousins


ice cream sundae with sprinkles and a cherry on top


first sleepover


birthday mani/pedi


golf cart rides to see gators


thanks mom and dad for all the hospitality!

too long

we were putting shoes on to go to school this morning and evie complained that she wanted to go to florida instead. i reminded her that we would be going in two days. she looked sad, lip protruding and said "it's too long till i see her". i think grandma has someone under her spell.

first day on skates

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie's friend inara decided she wanted an ice skating party for her fourth birthday. evie was thrilled by the idea. me, i was pretty nervous about strapping on the blades after so many years.

evie and her friends had a blast putting on the skates and playing around before we got on the ice. then we got out on the ice. evie was not so keen on her feet sliding around under her, but the people at the rink had a little lesson for the kids. they scattered a bunch of small toys around the ice and told the kids to pick them up and put them in a bucket.

evie was doing great. getting around the ice, picking stuff up, then she slipped and took a big fall on her tush. she was not happy. she pleaded with me to bring her in, but i had her stay out for another minute, then went in with her.

we got a drink of water, talked about things, then went back out on the ice again. she was not so pleased with me. i made her skate across the rink (holding my hand) the short way and back. she did great, but she was done.

that was the end of her skating that day, but not the end for me. it felt great to get out and skate around the ice. i surprised myself that i was steady on my feet. skating, no problem. stopping, hey, we don't really need to stop.

at one point i looked around and all but two of the kids had given up on skating and the rink was filled with moms. pretty nice.

best part was when i came back in and evie threw her arms around me and told me what a good job i did. i love a little encouragement.

hard labor

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

someone gave evie a beautiful glittery pencil. said pencil resulted in additional wall decoration. someone got their first taste of hard labor.

picture day!

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

mike went back to wake evie up this morning and found her standing on a pillow in her closet trying to get her "symphony dress" down. today is picture day, and she was so excited that she got up early to pick out her outfit - shirt, dress, underwear and tights. it was a first.

can't wait to see the real pictures!

making the best of a sick day

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie woke up with a fairly nasty sounding cough and a low fever, so we decided it best to stay home from school today. after evie turned off the tv herself because she was bored with watching (!), i decided it was brownie time.

so far, so good.

miss p turns 4!

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we spent last saturday in marin celebrating paloma's birthday. even though the girls don't see each other so much anymore, they are still great friends. we had a fun day celebrating. click thru on the pic for more shots of cute kids from the day.

another week in paradise

ok, paradise might be a stretch, especially when you consider all of the dog poop bombs we must navigate on our street, but we are now 1.5 weeks into some pretty glorious january weather. blue skies, sunshine and 60+ degrees everyday. almost makes up for the lousy summer we had this year.

i do find that all the reports of below zero temps in the midwest and northeast make it feel even nicer out here. of course, someone in our new jersey office did offer to send me his mortgage bill when i gloated just a little too much.

evie was a little sick all weekend. she had a fever when she came home from school on friday, and it never fully went away. we did manage to get outside and enjoy the sun, though, and she seemed no worse for the wear. and she happily went off to school this morning. hopefully the fever will not be rearing its head again.

excellent mlk day

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

for the first time in a lot of years, i had a mlk day off. i sat evie down to give her an intro to who martin luther king, jr was and why we celebrate her birthday. then i made her sit somewhat quietly for the "i have a dream" speech.

she was actually somewhat decent with the listening, but i gotta say, the trip to the zoo with her friends did seem to be more her speed.

zoo trip made better by a chance encounter with her friend zyla. san francisco proves once again that it is a very small city.

daddy's girl

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

got this shot on sunday afternoon while we were down in redwood city. mike had a gig, and evie and i tagged along hoping to attend. unfortunately the club turned out to be over 21 only. the good news was that zyla and gaurav came up to join us, so the four of us played outside, so the trip was not wasted.

ice cream and zyla lessened the sting of not being able to get into the gig for evie.

this picture makes my crappy camera phone worth having. love it.

princess party

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

last sunday was a joint birthday party for evie's friends kyra and lucie. there was a dance instructor with costumes and stories for the kids. they were all pretty damned cute.

it's hard to believe that these girls are all turning four. for those first few weeks after evie was born, time seemed to stand still. we are now moving at a much higher velocity which seems to be accelerating all of the time. i wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow she was in the third grade.

oh, and a quote from last weekend. mike was trying to get evie to get ready so we could go out. he kept saying (over and over again) "evie put on your coat, evie put on your coat", while she blissfully ignored him. finally, after about ten promptings she looked at him and said "maybe i would do it if you just stopped bothering me".

crikeys, she's already thirteen!

time for me to fly

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we finally did it. we signed evie up for a class. a class on 9 am on sundays. it seemed like such a good idea until a friend called at 7:51 am on sunday and woke us all up.

hmm. we used to be early risers.

nonetheless, we made it to the gymnastics/tumbling/run evie till she's ragged class on time.

it's in an old gymnasium that we visited a couple of months ago for a birthday party. the kids ran, tumbled, jumped on trampolines, swung on a trapeze, and had a blast.

i guess you know where i'll be for the next nine sundays.

christmas morning 2010 (part 2)

and here is part two:



enjoy!

christmas morning 2010 (part1)

just in case you want to share in evie's christmas morning, we've got it all here for you. this is part one:



part two coming next.

the new year brings new furniture

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we decided it was time for evie to have real furniture, instead of all of the old hand me down stuff that i came from apartments past. click thru to see her new dresser and other duds. she loves the new look.

i'm guessing it will stay neat exactly .25 days into the new year.

happy early morning girl

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

a shot of three of my favorite folks at 5 am before our long trek home. three generations of morning people if you count me behind the camera.