finally! a new video!

we had a pretty nice weekend after thanksgiving. we got the place put back together and after chilling a bit on friday, we decided to head over to golden gate park on saturday. now i've brought evie to this playground a half dozen times, but i was a little surprised as we started to walk up to it that she remembered that there's a carousel and started talked about horsies right off the bat. well for a mere $2, mike took her for a ride, and she was a happy girl.

then over to the playground to swing, spin and slide. i took off her shoes to help her pick up maximum speed. she seemed to approve.





then we walked over to sharon meadow.



and what did we find at hippie hill? the drum circle of course. so for a grand total of $2, we had at least $20 worth of fun!

thanksgiving postmortem

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the orphan thanksgiving was resurrected this year, much to my pleasure. we haven't had a big bash since 2005, so i was excited to have a few people over to celebrate my favorite holiday with us. what began as 8 people eventually grew to 21 as more "orphans" made their way to us. joy!

evie went down for her nap before anyone had arrived, so she was a little started when she woke up and found a houseful of people. fortunately camille was here and took charge of entertaining quinn and evie. evie quickly adjusted and decided it was a great day since there were so many nice people to entertain her.

dan and richard were kind enough to haul over the fryer and deep fry a beautiful 23 pound bird for the masses.






camille was assigned double duty for the day. in addition to some excellent quinn-sitting, she was responsible for the mashed potatoes with mike. let's just say she took her cream and butter duties very seriously.

more from the mon-thurs crew

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

happy girls!

best friends

best friends
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

four days a week these three amigos run, sing, dance, play, eat, sleep and generally hang out together.

while i have to work, i'd also say that i like to work as well. i toyed with the idea of being a stay at home mom, but i'm not sure that i could do nearly as good a job day in and day out as gladys does with these two girls. don't get me wrong, i absolutely love spending time with evie, and i never want to give up our fridays together, but i also appreciate being able to use my mind in a different way at work.

i don't think that i would be able to feel this way if gladys wasn't a total rock star with the girls. throw in the fact that evie and paloma are best of friends, and somedays it feels like you really can have it all.

definitely something to be thankful for.

fuzzy feet day

fuzzy feet day
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

sometimes you just need to make a day special.

evie had a low grade fever that started last thursday night, so we didn't get out to play with our friday friends. stuck in the house and looking for something to entertain us, we decided to wear our fuzzy socks.

1 year olds can sometimes be very easy to please. other times, not so much. i'm glad this was the former!

everything's better with a friend

everything's better with a friend
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i believe the picture speaks for itself.

walking a few feet in mama's shoes

walking a few feet in mama's shoes
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

well i told you she had big feet. she also enjoys wearing mommy and daddy's shoes. she managed to walk all of the way across the kitchen in these.

you can count on me

ok, this is a straight out mama bragging post.

my kid can count to ten! i've held this in for five whole days now, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. no fluke! she's a genius!

ok, maybe not a total genius, she can only count to ten in english correctly - her spanish counting has gone a little hinky.

either way, it's very cute.

rub a dub dub, three girls in a tub

rub a dub dub, three girls in a tub
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

after the farm, charli and her mom (karen) headed back to our place for a much needed cocktail (dragging the girls away from the bike was stressful!). spring and stella (our neighbors) also came by to join us.

three toddler girls.

wow.

they're very cute, but also very energetic and loud. they had a blast together. i don't know how we're going to handle it when they're all teenagers.

easy rider

easy rider
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

a shishi kid's shop in los altos had this cute pink tricycle. all the girls went crazy for it. i had to drag evie from the shop. i mean literally drag.

friday at the farm

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

don't worry, i take evie to things other than protests! last friday we went to the hidden villas farm down in the los altos hills. i told evie to hold her friend inara's hand as we were walking over to check out the sheep.

they look like two little old ladies. it was so cute.

there were sheep, goats, chickens, pigs and cows to see.



we couldn't get too close to the cows though...

my little activist

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

not being content with just watching the protest march last week, this time evie got out and marched herself. well ok, she fell asleep in the stroller as we walked down to city hall for the rally. when she woke up there were thousands of people around holding signs.

she thought is was pretty cool. lots to see.

we marched up market street and then our activism waned slightly as we passed our street and decided to head home for lunch.

here's a pic of one of my favorite signs from the day. all the kids (and there were a lot of them) seemed drawn to it...

i'll pick my own hat, thank you!

funny headwear day!
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i was making dinner last night and wandered back to evie's room to see what was going on. this was the scene found. fortunately the camera was close by. it seems evie went into the hat box and picked out the bumble bee hat for herself and then brought the wig over to mike and said "daddy's".

how could he possibly refuse?

evie gets out in support of marriage equality

evie gets out in support of marriage equality
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie's first protest march! ok, we didn't actually march, but we did get out to cheer the thousands who took to the streets to protest the passing of proposition 8.

i will admit that evie was slightly more interested in the helicopters overhead than the marchers, but she did get in on the cheering.

of course i gave her a little talk on the importance of what we were seeing - constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech and assembly. poor kid! but i do hope this is the beginning of a long life of her knowing what it means to be an american!

the first sentence

so we got it tonight while i was making dinner. evie was getting into all kinds of stuff she wasn't supposed to, so i politely suggested that she go play with the stuff in her drawer, rather than pull baggies out all over the floor.

her response?

"this is evie's drawer."

a declarative. of course, it was mommy's drawer, not evie's, but no matter. my daughter's a genius!

oh wait, this is just the beginning of all the smart mouthed back talk, isn't it?

feeling good, mom?

we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the election - part 2 - bittersweet

tuesday night was such a joy, but the joy was tempered by news that california proposition 8 was winning.

prop 8 eliminates the right for same sex couples to marry. as you might guess, i have more than just a few friends who are gay. many are in long term relationships. we were happy to celebrate the wedding of our friends jake and derek this past summer when the california courts ruled that restricting marriage to heterosexual couples was discrimination, and legalized gay marriage.

groups outside of california poured money into the state to promote proposition 8. it was heavily promoted as necessary to "save traditional marriage".

call me crazy, but if you want to save traditional marriage, you should target the real enemy. divorce.

it was also promoted as something ominous and dangerous for our children. that they would begin "teaching" it in schools. i don't even know what the hell that is supposed to mean. and i can tell you right now, i don't care if my daughter learns that she will have the right to marry whomever she wants. i can tell you right now that whether she is gay or straight is not her choice, and i will love her the same no matter what. i can't even imagine that if she's gay that she should have less rights than anyone else. the thought breaks my heart.

allowing all citizens the right to marry the person of their choosing seems like such a basic, non-issue to me, that it's a little hard for me to understand the arguments against it.

and yet it prevailed.

i guess some societal prejudices are going to take longer to get rid of than others.

i did have one ray of hope, though. i have a good friend who is an immigrant and a very devout christian. these were groups that were targeted by the pro prop 8 crowd, and they provided the support needed to get it passed. he voted yes on 8, but almost immediately regretted it. he posted this image along with the comments below. i was heartened to see him really take the time to think about what jesus would do in this situation.

Was under the pressure from the church & friends, I voted Yes to prop 8. However, I am so regret about what I did. I think I just betrayed all human in the world by taking away the rights from certain people. Do I still no accepting interracial marriages? Do I still not allowing blacks to vote? Do I still not allowing some people to buy lands. .... These are just so crazy, just so against my believes.

Tunnel vision of a Christian... to protect the term "marriage" with 1man+1woman and removing the rights from the G&Ls.

broad vision of a Christian... should really be... Love Everyone (was: anyone).

Please vote No to prop 8.

the election - part 1 - the good part

ok, mom and dad, i waited a day for this, but as you may have guessed we're all pretty happy out here about the obama victory. i know you feel differently than me about this, but i hope that over the coming months and years that you begin to see that this was a good thing.

election night was incredible. i came home from work early, champagne in hand. this year i was sure. our nanny share partners came over to watch the results with us. they were both really nervous. mike was so nervous that he forgot to add the lime to our margaritas (um, yuck). they all had this fear that the country might go the other way, again. not me, i knew.

the states rolled in slowly. we ate pizza, had drinks and the girls played. then at 7 we sat down to watch stewart & colbert. ha ha, kind of lame, when will this be over? then around 8 pm we started hearing people cheering in the streets, moments later, jon stewart made the announcement. there was cheering and hugging and tears. it was amazing.

hope won.

open the champagne!

i thought mccain's concession speech was good, and the speech of the man that he used to be before this dishonorable campaign that he ran. had that man run, he probably still would have lost, but he'd still have some self-respect and dignity. i feel a little sorry for him that he pissed it all away for nothing.

we kept evie up late to listen to obama's speech. tony & kimberly came up to watch with us. by the time the of the speech evie was getting a little squirrely, but i wanted to be able to tell her that she saw it. i just kept hugging her and feeling much better about the world that she's part of.

hope.

i cried. happy, happy tears.

i was a little unsure of obama when this whole thing started. i worried that he didn't spend the political capital that he went to the senate with. where was the groundbreaking legislation? i love to hear him speak, but then what? then i really started listening to him. and watching him. and i read his first book. and i started to feel excited. i saw him maintain his composure as dirt was slung at him, but he never lowered himself. he stayed calm while his peers scrambled. i started to hope.

eventually my hope didn't have to do with him, but with us. would we as a country be willing to give hope a chance? would we be willing to accept a candidate who wasn't negative. truly, i didn't worry about his race, as much as i worried about whether we were really ready to change enough to let a positive message be the last thing we heard as we stepped into the voting booths.

god bless america! we did it!

start the morning with a song

so evie has taken to starting her morning with a song. if we don't run in and get her as soon as she wakes up (she refuses to accept the end of daylight savings time and wakes up before 6 each morning), she just lays back in her crib and sings for a while. i cannot imagine a nicer way for my day to start - well other than sleeping till 7.

she makes a pretty picture

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

this picture is from a couple of weeks ago. evie put on her favorite hat in the morning and was just looking out the front window waiting for the street sweeper to come by. i just ran across it again (i know, i take a lot of pictures) and just had to pause and look at her. i know that i'm totally biased, but i think she is just beautiful.

breakfast with obama

breakfast with obama
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie has finally graduated from her high chair to her own table and chairs in the kitchen. she really likes to get up while she's eating and do a little happy dance. we'll have to wait and see how this all works out.

now, the obama picture. that takes a tad more explanation. the rains arrived her starting on friday, so i decided that i needed to have some indoor winter activities at the ready.

hmm. what to do?

collages, of course. so i spent her nap on friday cutting pictures out of magazines, catalogs and a political mailer with a picture of obama. when evie got up from her nap, she wanted to look thru all the pictures. she zoomed right in on "bama" as she calls him. (sorry dad, she recognizes his face and his voice without provocation).

she was so excited about the picture of him, that i decided to put a little stand on the back so that he could sit at the table with her. so far he has shared her peas and blown on her eggs when they were too hot. i think it's quite nice that he can take time out of the campaign to dine with her.

trick or treat!

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

well this year i went all out and actually got evie a costume. yes, the costume consists of that ladybug hat and her flowery dress (see she's a garden and a ladybug...). yeah, ok, halloween is not my strong suit.

but, no matter. evie had herself a jolly old time anyway, trying her hand, for the first time, at trick or treating. she managed to say trick-or-treat and happy halloween and all that good stuff to me and the other moms, but when she'd walk up to someone handing out candy she just got glazed over and held out her hand.

it seemed to work, cause we had a nice assortment in the bucket when we were finished.

i think evie's going to be a fan of halloween.

as a matter of fact, she liked it so much that she didn't want it to end. thank goodness for the elephant robe from yoko!