evie's mom

first haircut by mommy

2011-08-13T20:56:00.001-07:00

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

2011-07-04T16:43:00.001-07:00

P1010027
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!

2011-04-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

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

swimming on!

2011-03-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-03-28T22:19:00.001-07:00

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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

2011-03-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-05T08:32:00.001-08:00

P1000380
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

2011-03-03T22:17:00.001-08:00

P1000400
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!

2011-02-24T09:01:00.001-08:00

IMAG0296.jpg
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

2011-02-03T11:43:00.001-08:00

IMAG0279
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!

2011-02-02T11:22:00.001-08:00

P1000331
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

2011-01-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T22:05:00.001-08:00

P1000312
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

2011-01-18T11:51:00.001-08:00

IMAG0272
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

2011-01-16T09:01:00.001-08:00

P1000269
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

2011-01-11T06:14:00.001-08:00

P1000254
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)

2011-01-04T09:15:00.001-08:00

and here is part two:

enjoy!

christmas morning 2010 (part1)

2011-01-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-31T18:14:00.001-08:00

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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

2010-09-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

DSCF6081
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.

vacation!

2010-09-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

DSCF6017
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we're back from out two week tour of the midwest. while i thought mike and i would get away for lots of time to ourselves, it turned out that we were pretty content seeing how unbelievably happy was on this trip.

we started out in chicago (naperville) to visit mike's family - his sisters pat and sue joined us at his brother ray's. we also managed a lunch with uncle buzz and a trip to the field museum in our four days there, along with some surprisingly excellent sushi.

then it was up to the UP for a visit with the campioni clan. the weather turned fall-like with our arrival, but that didn't seem to bother evie in the least.

too much goodness to be shared right now while i'm still jet lagged and dreading going back to work tomorrow. amuse yourself with the 300+ pictures i've uploaded from the trip. i'll try to get back to post some more pics here on the blog along with some of the other trip highlights.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcampioni/sets/72157624943510804/

big girl bonus points

2010-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

potty training is mostly pretty much in the distant past for the daytime, but we're only good about six out of seven nights. every time i buy a pack of pull-ups, i make a little wish that it's my last pack.

i woke up early yesterday morning and was out in the living room reading when i heard evie start rustling around in her room. i started to go back to check on her when i heard the tinkle of pee in the potty. she woke herself up and went to the bathroom on her own (without asking for help which she usually does during the day).

mike and i couldn't stop smiling.

one big girl bonus point issued.

new chairs!

2010-07-11T07:52:00.001-07:00

DSCF5612
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie and i were out for a walk and found ourselves in a vintage furniture shop in the neighborhood. next thing you know, we have two new chairs.

evie approves.

my mother's day gift

2010-05-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

DSCF5527
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie was all on her own this year for gift giving, and i have to say, she did a bang up job. this picture holder beats the heck out of the mangled ashtrays we used to make.

the back holds answers to some questions she was asked about me. turns out my favorite color is green, and my favorite food is spaghetti. our favorite thing to do together? ring around the rosie.

little do they know we have our own version. i sit on the couch and sing ring around the tushie, while she runs in circles, naked. i make up silly words in between, and at the end, she does whatever i say (in place of "we all fall down"). she could end up jumping up and down, doing a somersault, or, as i was happy to find out she'd do yesterday, clean up her toys.

go fly a kite

2010-05-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

evie's friend laura gave her this really cool pocket kite as a birthday gift, and she's been asking to go out and fly it for quite some time. turns out yesterday was the perfect day. i got a little video to share. (it sounds windier than it is).

bye bye hair in the face, hello bangs

2010-05-01T17:44:00.001-07:00

DSCF5468
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

it was a tough decision, but today was the day of evie's very first haircut. it was tough because i absolutely love her hair. her long curly blonde locks make me envious. the only problem was that it was always in her face, and often full of food.

so it was time.

she was a champ. she looks like a totally different kid to me now, though. it makes me a little sad. i think this is the first moment like that where i felt a bit sad about her growing up.

she does look spanky, though.

and for her good behavior? a mint chip cone from mitchell's.

little chef!

2010-04-14T17:47:00.001-07:00

DSCF5466
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

all decked out in her chef's garb courtesy of aunt kim and uncle ben.

evie decided she wanted to dress for success while helping me make dinner last night. i will say that that salad was thoroughly tossed.

california girl

2010-03-30T19:31:00.001-07:00

DSCF5427
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the house we rented up in jenner had a hot tub. getting evie in was quite an accomplishment. she prefers her baths lukewarm at the hottest, but she had a new swimsuit that she wanted to wear.

hot tubbing at the cabin, skinny dipping in the russian river and nude bike riding and singing (pictures not included due to all the creeps out there - but ask me for pictures when next we meet) and she is all california.

a budding rock star

2010-03-30T07:21:00.001-07:00

DSCF5363
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

ok, maybe coffee house star.

ok, living room star with mom and dad.

mike picked out a half size guitar for evie's birthday gift.

she looks like a natural to me.

the third birthday - the kayaking edition

2010-03-29T21:57:00.001-07:00

DSCF5425
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

birthday week was a whole lot of fun. i have many photos to share, but not a lot of time right now, so i'll post a little a time to share the fund with you.

we spent the weekend up the coast at a rental house near the town of jenner, ca. our house was just about where the russian river flows into the pacific. it was a great weekend. our friends claudia and frank and their son marlon (who is five days younger than evie) joined us for the fun.

one of the highlights - kayaking on the russian river. we saw a harbor seal, lots of birds, and evie found this really cool stick on an island in the middle of the river.

good stuff.

mike being a very good dad

2010-03-25T22:45:00.001-07:00

DSCF5321
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i had to take a break from dress-up to shower the other day, but mike stepped right in and filled the tiara. now that's dedicated fathering!

it's my birthday!

2010-03-23T09:41:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

hard to believe evie is three years old today. time has flown.

today she picked out a very special outfit to celebrate the day - courtesy of tony and kimberly.

when one of the teachers at school told her how cute she was in her giants outfit, she said excitedly "it says giants on my bum", and bent over to show the world.

that's my girl.

zoo day!

2010-03-21T21:30:00.001-07:00

Zoo day
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie and i took advantage of spring yesterday by taking a trip to the zoo with our friends marlon and claudia. the two toe heads are on the brink of three now. hard to believe how fast this has all gone.

unlike the first time we brought them and they were stroller bound, this time they ran through the zoo on their own. having a wonderful and loud time.

to keep the fun going we met up again in the evening, this time with the dads in tow. sushi!

i figured miso soup, edamame and some beef would keep the kids busy. and it did, right up until they noticed the scallop sashimi. you couldn't keep either one of them away from it. while it's nice that evie will eat anything, i really wanted that scallop for myself.

sushi was followed by a trip to the ice cream shop for a cone.

a very happy beginning to spring.

the exhibitionist

2010-03-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

evie and i made our usual trip to the grocery store on sunday, but with a slight variation. i pulled into the parking lot, then turned around to unbuckle her seat.

whoa.

mom: um, evie, where are your underwear?

evie: uncontrollable laughter

school pictures!

2010-03-05T06:24:00.001-08:00

we're still here!

2010-02-24T06:13:00.001-08:00

sorry for the recent hiatus. i'm in the throes of a release cycle at work, so things have been busy. busy in a mostly good way, though. i still really don't care for this job very much, but at least for right now, i'm getting to do my favorite part, so i'll enjoy it while it lasts.

as for ms. evie, lots has been happening with her. she started full time in preschool at the beginning of february. every morning she and mike make off for the shuttle bus to head to work together. and most evenings i come home to find them riding scooters out in front of the house.

the scootering has really taken hold here. i found that i was having trouble keeping up with evie when she was on hers in golden gate park, so i went out and got one for myself. she and i spent a lovely sunday afternoon recently scootering up and down the embarcadero for a few hours. not to be left out, mike decided he wanted a scooter too, so we got one for him the weekend before last as well. we are a family of scootering fools. and i love it.

as for school, it's going quite well. the teachers are nice, and evie seems to enjoy her days - even if she doesn't always enjoy waking up in the morning to go. but i found a magic bullet there. if i tell her she can watch a few minutes of tv if she gets up, she pops right out of bed - no matter how tired she was just acting. yup, she's my kid and she loves her tv.

and now for the downside of preschool. the disease. on saturday she had a low fever and was moody, but i didn't think too much of it. at one point she told me her tooth hurt. hmmm. weird. cavity? better get my hands in there and floss. didn't think too much about the fact that she wasn't really eating much.

then on sunday i made her breakfast and she started to cry when she took a bit of eggs. now that's really weird. "mommy, my mouth hurts." pull out the flashlight. red spots, pus sacks. strep. poor bunny. she was in a lot of discomfort, but there was a silver lining - unlimited popsicles and tv.

we went to the doctor on monday and confirmed it was strep. they gave her a popsicle at the doc's office, so she didn't even mind the throat culture. as in, i gagged when they did it, but she didn't. such a little trooper.

we started antibiotics the same day, and yesterday she was all ready to go back to school. the teacher said that she would never have guessed that she was just sick. she's a resilient little thing.

oh, now for a total aside. recently evie caught sight of me before i was dressed. she looked at me, pointed and my breasts and said, "mom, you've got two nickels for a dime!" the kid cracks me up.

evie and julie at the zoo

2010-01-31T17:11:00.001-08:00

evie and julie at the zoo
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

from last weekend at the sf zoo.

scootering

2010-01-31T08:52:00.001-08:00

you all saw the reaction that the scooter got on christmas morning, so i thought you might enjoy seeing it in use. it was definitely a great purchase. evie has picked it up like nobody's business. her coordination and balance have gotten better, she doesn't ask to be carried when we're out walking anymore, and the girl has earned some amazing confidence.

check her out at paloma's birthday party yesterday (we got one for paloma too, since evie loves hers so much).

surviving a rainy weekend

2010-01-25T11:49:00.001-08:00

IMAG0054
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we're now in week two of pretty much constant rain in northern california, but that didn't stop us this weekend.

evie and i braved the rain on saturday (it wasn't too heavy) and took the streetcar down to the library. the trip was made all the more fun by stopping to jump in every puddle along the way. she looked like she was having such a good time at it that a homeless guy outside the library decided to do the same.

saturday night brought evan and lena over to our house while mike went to dinner and a comedy show with their dad, tom. the four of us went out for pizza and ice cream, then came home for a movie and popcorn. great fun. so much fun that evie couldn't bring herself to go to sleep, even after evan and lena read to her. she was up until after 11.

the bright side? she slept until 10 am yesterday.

once we were all up yesterday, we bundled up in rain gear and headed for the zoo. it started raining on the drive over, and i almost called an audible to send us elsewhere, but it was really just drizzle.

by the time we got to the zoo and out of the car, the rain started falling harder. evie didn't care, it meant more puddles to jump in. so after a half hour of braving the rain it just stopped. we ended up spending three hours walking around visiting animals, riding the steam train and riding the carousel. the zoo was gloriously empty.

how can you top that? burgers and shakes!

evie had her very first malt - chocolate chip - that she very happily shared with her daddy.

catching up with aunt pat

2010-01-16T08:56:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie and i were looking thru pictures from last year this morning, and i realized that i never posted any pictures of her aunt pat's visit back in october.

evie was quite interested in the makeup that aunt pat was wearing, so pat decided to oblige and put a little on her. well that wasn't enough for evie, she wanted a full face design. i'm thinking pat might have needed to buy a new lipstick after the visit.

first day of school

2010-01-13T07:48:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie started pre-school last week while i was out on the east coast for work. i was very sorry to miss the first day, but mike managed a few pictures of evie checking out her new digs and enjoying some breakfast.

so far, so good. she and mike ride over and back together on a shuttle bus. pretty cool.

i got back into town on thursday afternoon, so i was able to spend some time with her at the school when i returned. i really enjoyed meeting her teachers and the other kids.

in case you're wondering why she's going to preschool now and not to the hippies anymore, that's a longer story. the short version is that it turns out the hippies were a tad on the judgmental side and didn't seem to approve of parents working for the man. we decided we didn't need that grief in our lives and gave them the boot at the end of november. december was a hodgepodge of different nannies, but it all came together well. for january she's spending three days a week with her best friend paloma again, and paloma's auntie amie (evie calls her that too), and two days a week at preschool. we'll start preschool full time in february.

fun and games this whole world of childcare!

evie's first visit to the dentist

2010-01-02T15:08:00.001-08:00

Dentist
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we brought evie to the dentist for the first time today. at her 2.5 year appointment her doctor said we should have already brought her, so i wanted to get it done before we hit that three year appointment. i figured it would be like when i call for an appointment and there's a two month lead time, but it turned out they had availability this weekend. on a saturday. hard to believe.

i talked to evie a little about the dentist being a tooth doctor who was going to look at her teeth and clean away all the sugar bugs. she appeared to pay zero attention. then when we got there and the hygienist walked towards us in the lobby, she opened her mouth wide and said ahh, pointing towards her teeth. so i guess she was listening after all.

no cavities, good advice on flossing and brushing from the dentist, then the cleaning. really? you're going to try to clean her teeth? ok, good luck...

she was a champ. kept her mouth opened, didn't complain, just let them do the job. the only concession, a pair of sunglasses to cut down on the exam light.

as we were leaving the dentist stopped us to ask us how we'd prepared her because they don't have five year olds who are that good, and certainly not two year olds. i wish i could take credit for prepping her, but it was all her.

maybe i'll tell her that i'm a dentist.

ringing in the new year

2010-01-01T17:56:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

our friends spring and ben (aka "stella's parents") invited us over for a little kid-friendly new years eve party last nite. the girls all got decked out in their prettiest party dresses and behaved unbelievably well for being awake to ring in the new year.

um, yeah, i kept evie up past midnight. yippee!

today has gone pretty well, considering the late hour.

Petting bat rays with Zyla

2009-12-31T15:12:00.001-08:00

Petting bat rays with Zyla
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the dress up box

2009-12-29T08:50:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

grandma sent evie all of those princess dresses that i just can't bring myself to buy. think she likes?

christmas dinner

2009-12-28T16:32:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we had a few friends over for christmas dinner, and evie's friends kyra and kijo joined her at the kid's table. while they all seemed to enjoy the beef tenderloin, the candy cane, chocolate chip ice cream was the big winner of the night.

one more, this time an action video

2009-12-27T14:48:00.000-08:00

yeah, i bought myself a little flip video camera when they were having a sale at amazon, so i'm managing a few videos over this vacation. here's evie's very first sled ride. enjoy the action.

snow!

2009-12-27T12:33:00.001-08:00

we trekked up to arnold, ca in the sierra foothills the day after christmas. the next morning brought us evie's very first snow, other than the may 15 flurry in iron mountain.

evie approves.

christmas morning

2009-12-26T09:10:00.001-08:00

the joys of being two on christmas morning. favorite line around 40 seconds. sums up two perfectly.

cookies!

2009-12-13T15:54:00.001-08:00

DSCF5032
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

year two of cookie-making fun with our friends. while i will have to admit that about a half a pound of raw cookie dough and two pounds of sprinkles were consumed by these little girls, this still went way better than last year. almost makes me look forward to next year.

click on the pictures from more sugar-induced shots from the day.

the christmas tree!

2009-12-12T05:57:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

for the first time in 20 years i have real christmas tree. i've had lights on a ficus, but i've never bothered to go to the lot and get a tree. this year, we decided that evie would really enjoy getting a tree, and we were right.

we started by getting bundled up for the trip to the tree lot.

once there evie helped pick out the tree. she started by wanting a small "evie sized" tree, but mike had found one that was about five feet tall he liked, so i convinced her to change her pick by telling her a bigger tree could fit bigger presents. she was quick to agree to the tree daddy liked.

the next morning her friend marlon came over with his mom for pancakes, bacon and tree decorating.

it's starting to feel a lot like christmas.

the muddy playground

2009-12-07T07:53:00.001-08:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

one of evie's very favorite places is the koret playground in golden gate park, aka "the muddy playground" with lots of sand and water to explore. we had a picnic there the sunday after thanksgiving with our friday friends.

click on the pic to see more shots from the day.

ah, the warmth...

2009-11-23T18:39:00.001-08:00

me to evie: evie, i love you

evie to me: yeah, i know

halloween, year 3

2009-11-01T10:44:00.001-08:00

DSCF4897
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

for the third halloween in a row, we got together with a group of friends to celebrate the day. evie had a fabulous time as a dragon, without a hint of fear when asking for candy.

the group is getting larger, with stella's little sister violet making her debut in the world last tuesday, and her debut with us on saturday, at just four days old. i can't even tell you how impressed i am that they all made it out of the house with her. they are my current heros.

well, actually, maybe that's a toss-up. charli's little sister will be coming around christmas time, and her mom was pretty heroic with the most popular costume of the night.

my two monkeys

2009-10-27T06:27:00.001-07:00

DSCF4863
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie's friend stella is about to become a big sister. as a matter of fact, everyone thought it was going to happen on sunday, so stella came over to spend some time with us before her grandparents arrived. unfortunately for stella's mama, sunday was not the day. rumor has it today will be though.

either way, turns out the girls have matching jammies. pretty friggin cute.

picking just the right pumpkin

2009-10-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

DSCF4830
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we spent saturday at terra firma farms (where we get most of our produce), for their annual farm day. we set out blanket under a walnut tree, listened to music and ate lamb. and perhaps, most importantly, picked our first family pumpkin (yeah, i know, i've had a few chances in the past to do this).

evie was very careful in her selection, and picked a pumpkin that she could carry. she seemed quite pleased with her selection.

the return of uncle ray

2009-10-18T11:24:00.001-07:00

DSCF4815
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

uncle ray had business in fresno last week, so he decided to swing thru san francisco for a weekend.

little ms. evie couldn't have been more pleased.

on saturday we met up with gaurav and zyla to watch the fleet week activities from their fabulous san francisco apartment. front row viewing for the parade of ships (pretty lame) and then the air show, which was very cool. unfortunately the blue angels cut things short due to weather, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

on sunday we headed to the academy of sciences, where uncle ray was kind enough to buy evie her very own stuffed nemo fish. then we went out for dumplings and chicken wings.

perfect weekend.

bring your evie to work day

2009-10-16T19:40:00.001-07:00

bring your evie to work day
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie had a great week, even giving her binkies over to dr. anderson as her transition to "big girl" enters full swing. the end of the binky was initially a little rough, with me playing pacifier for the first night, but things have been good ever since.

as a reward, i brought her to work with me today. i know this might not sound like much of a reward to you, but she has been asking to do this for over a month. odd. i know.

at the office, she pretended she was shy for about 30 seconds with new people. after that, she'd pull up her dress and show you her panties. that's my girl.

she even sat thru an hour long meeting with me. she was an angel. it didn't hurt that she watched finding nemo on my computer through the whole thing. many of my colleagues were jealous - they would have much preferred to watch the movie too.

as an extra special bonus for the day, she and dana rode home on the train.

good day.

friday of freedom

2009-10-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

i finally managed a friday off of work, and evie and i took full advantage. after one pesky conference call in the morning, we headed out to golden gate park to play with our friends. sadly, i never pulled the camera out of my purse, so you will just have to imagine the joy of kids playing half naked at what evie calls the "muddy playground". water and sand, and endlessly fun combination.

after a few hours of play, we headed out for lunch. four wild girls, one sleeping girl, and four mommies - the other patrons loved us. i have become a very generous tipper when evie is in tow.

then the others headed home for naps, but evie said she wanted to go to the "music festival", so we made it three years in a row at the hardly, strictly bluegrass festival. evie fell asleep on the walk over, but woke up towards the end of tom morello's set. she was none too happy about the crowd and noise, so she wanted to go home.

ok, if that what she wants, we can go. then we passed a hot dog stand. turns out a hot dog and dad showing up, were just the combination she needed to keep her going. we managed to see john prine and lyle lovett to end an absolutely wonderful day.

i need to get me some more of those fridays with my girl.

cloudy with a chance of evie

2009-10-05T13:46:00.001-07:00

DSCF4806
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we took evie to her first "big girl" movie on saturday - "cloudy with a chance of meatballs". she was fantastic. she especially loved riding the escalator up to the fifth floor. we probably could have skipped the movie at that point, and she would have been happy.

but of course, we didn't. and things got even better. evie learned the joys of movie popcorn.

i was surprised that she was able to sit thru the whole thing, only getting up twice to go to the potty. frankly i was pleased as punch that she wanted to get up for that, because i was afraid that she'd get so engrossed in the movie that she'd forget all about going to the bathroom - and i'd end up buying a new theater seat.

ladies night

2009-10-04T09:08:00.001-07:00

DSCF4804
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i got a call a few weeks ago from my friend karen. it started out with a "you can say no, but...", then came the request that we watch two little girls for the evening, so their parents could go out for dinner. turned out to be loads of fun with a movie, homemade peach popsicles and a group bath, followed by lots of stories and no sleep.

good times.

gladys' last day

2009-10-03T22:04:00.001-07:00

DSCF4794
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

ok, i know i'm way behind on posting. i'm still adjusting to juggling full time work, commuting and spending good time with my girl. i decided that the posting could wait while i tended to evie time. i'll try to do a little better, though, because i know i'm not the only one who's interested in how things are going.

this pic is from a bittersweet day. our last day with gladys. after more than two years, gladys has moved on to a new city. the girls are getting used to their new lives, but they sure do miss her. there was a lot of love between the three of them. i will always feel grateful for the love and care that gladys gave to our families. she's definitely going to be missed for a long time to come.

the update

2009-08-18T20:07:00.001-07:00

ah, so much to cover here.

let's start with childcare. evie's nanny gladys is moving to san diego in september, so her daughter jeannette moved here from north carolina to take care of evie and paloma. only paloma's parents decided it was time for paloma to start pre-school, so they decided that it was a good time for them to start with something new. so the plan became evie with jeannette three days per week and then two days a week with some hippies in noe valley (more on that later). well it turns out that jeannette was just offered a fulltime position back in north carolina, so she's going to move back there and work and be with her husband. all around a very good thing for her.

so now our plan with evie is changing again. i think our friday nanny share which was going to end this month is now going to be mon/weds/fri thru october when my friend spring has her second baby. tues/thurs with the hippies (i promise i'll get to that at some point) for now then full time in november, unless of course i can start a four day work schedule, then just mon-thurs with them. are you keeping up with this all? i think i may need a diagram.

all in all i think this is going to work out, but my head does spin a bit at this point.

ok, let's see next topic - potty training. overall it's going pretty well. we're running at about an 80% success rate. the problem seems to be when she's having too much fun playing she's not very interested in stopping to use the potty. we'll get there, though. of course not all accidents are created equal. let's just leave it at, a little pee is a whole lot easier to deal with than when you're out and about.

next up the big girl bed. still feeling like we made the right decision on this one. i loved that she bunked with grandma on the recent visit, and i just adore laying in there with her and reading. both mike and i have fallen asleep at her side. pretty damned sweet. she has figured out that she doesn't need to stay in the bed at night, and mike was awakened two evenings with her standing at his bedside. we were a little nervous that it was going to become a nightly event, but fortunately it seems to have been just those occasions - for now.

on my birthday, evie and i went down to the san francisco main library to pick out a new book. in talking to the aforementioned hippies (don't worry, i'll get to them) a couple of weeks ago, they had mentioned that their three year old daughter would sit and listen to chapter books. i was intrigued by the idea, though somewhat skeptical. i decided that i wanted to try a copy of "charlotte's web".

unfortunately all of the copies were out, but the librarian suggested "mr. popper's penguins". she too was pretty skeptical about evie being old enough to sit and listen to a chapter book, but she thought that this one would be a good one to try.

she was right. the book is 139 pages (not very dense) and we made it to page 100 by monday morning! it's such a nice change from reading the same short books over and over (and over) again. it was written in 1938, but holds up well, mostly because of the penguins. i'm looking forward to another chapter tonight.

ok, now for the hippies, i suppose you'd like to know a little more about that, especially after the build up. our nanny share partner dana (as opposed to our friday nanny dana, who evie calls "different dana") met this couple through a midwife that she works with at the hospital (dana is a nurse practitioner). they have two kids of there own - henry, five, and iris, three. they've decided that what they really want is to spend as much time with their kids as possible. so duncan (the dad) has been home with the kids since birth, and jeannie (the mom) recently decided to give up her job teaching art in the public schools so that she could be home with the kids too. they've got a small apartment with an amazing yard. the yard is kind of magical with a playhouse, garden and a couple of chickens to boot. we took evie there to meet them a few weeks ago and she was in heaven. she was absolutely filthy by the time we left, and you couldn't wipe the smiles off of any of our faces. my kid needs to be familiar with dirt - it's the only way that i can assuage the guilt i feel about her growing up in such an urban environment when i was practically raised by wolves by comparison (um, no offense mom!).

that's all for now. fingers are tired. evie's asleep and i have a little time all to my self while mike is out. *smile*

my early birthday present

2009-08-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

evie woke up with a dry diaper this morning. i was shocked. we went to the potty about 15 minutes after she woke up and she let it all go. i still can't believe it.

as i close my 42nd year, it's amazing what can make me smile for a full day. i sure do love that girl.

and so it begins

2009-08-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

evie has officially entered the potty training phase. or perhaps i should more rightly categorize this as we've entered the phase, since i seem to spend most of my time asking if she needs to go to the potty. today saw three times on the potty and one poopy in the training pants (thankfully that was all mike's, since i'd already left for work).

be assured that i will keep you posted.

my current favorite

2009-08-04T21:33:00.001-07:00

DSCF4729
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

she looks like she's headed off to her first day of school.

and let's not forget uncle ray!

2009-08-02T21:35:00.001-07:00

DSCF4649
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

ray came for the long 4th of july weekend. evie had a great time getting to know him better, and especially enjoyed napping on "uncle ray's" bed, the aerobed set up in her room. first step towards the big girl bed.

grandma & tyler come for a visit...

2009-08-02T21:26:00.001-07:00

DSCF4732
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

.... and a great time was had by all.

tonight when i asked evie who she loved she said "tyler john and grandma".

mission accomplished!

i'm staying

2009-07-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

well it was a week of turmoil and emotional ups and downs, but i have decided to stay at my current job. after talking to my boss last week about my issues he has been working hard to make changes here. truthfully, i still wasn't really sure i was staying until i actually told him yesterday, but it feels like the right decision.

i do feel bad about not taking the other job. i know that i'm passionate about what they are doing, but i think that i just feel like i need to finish what i started here at epocrates. time will tell if i made the right decision, but for now, i feel like i'm doing the right thing.

also, i talked to my boss about phasing in a four day work week over time. he's open and we'll see how it goes.

the transition is complete

2009-07-19T21:51:00.001-07:00

the transition
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

as i mentioned in my last post, evie has been transitioning to a big girl bed. we started by moving her crib mattress to the floor and letting her sleep there for a week and a half. she was hooked after the first night, with no interest in returning to the crib.

as you'll see from the picture, she didn't always sleep on the mattress. on a couple of occasions, she got up and put her head under her tricycle and slept peacefully there. don't quite understand what that's all about, but it's all good.

last weekend we braved ikea on a sunday to pick out a bed. if you've ever been to an ikea on a weekend, you understand that this is a fairly crazy undertaking - especially with evie in tow. things went ok, though it took longer to pick out the bed than evie was really up for. we decided to divide and conquer. mike took evie to the play area, and i headed to the warehouse to pick up all the pieces. that's when i realized that we wouldn't be able to fit it all in the car with evie and the carseat.

oops. back home and another week of sleeping on the floor.

yesterday morning mike disassembled evie's crib to make room for the bed that he was going to pick up that day.

evie thought the rails made very fun "walking sticks".

then mike headed to ikea, and evie and i headed to a party. we definitely got the better end of the deal. when we got back evie and mike were both ready for a nap, so bed assembly would need to wait a few hours. mike and evie awoke well rested, and we let sponge bob babysit while we put the bed together.

evie's reaction when she saw it? "i love my big girl bed" (imagine that said in a high pitched squeal).

we're still here!

2009-07-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

sorry, bogged down in the work/life thing again these days, thus the radio silence. i've got some pics from uncle ray's visit over the 4th that i will try to post soon, as well as a milestone update - evie's moved on to the big girl bed. well, to be accurate, it's really just her crib mattress on the floor because i haven't gotten around to buying her a bed yet, but we are out of the crib!

a father's day concert

2009-06-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

we had a lovely father's day weekend here. we went up to our nanny share partner's place up in marin for an overnight on saturday. then morning bagels and lox and a trip to the beach. two very cute and very naked toddlers made it a great day for both of the daddies.

david (paloma's father) is a bass player like mike, and we spent the night in his studio which was full of many instruments. evie was immediately attracted to the drum kit. i'm going to have to say that she looked like a natural to me. if you turn the volume all the way up, you'll be able to hear her singing the alphabet.

6/20/2009 - a happy day!

2009-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

someone finally went pee pee in the potty today (hint - it's not a big deal when mike or i do it)! my guess is that she'll pee on the floor sometime soon, since i didn't put a diaper back on, but this is finally a step in the right direction.

happy birthday to our favorite grandma!

2009-06-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

first friday fun

2009-06-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

so today is the first full friday that i'm going to work since evie was born. the whole thing has really been weighing on me ever since i accepted this job. evie decided to make it a little easier on me.

this morning she was totally excited that she gets to go to a new house for the day and play with her friend stella (our new friday share partner). evie, paloma and gladys have been playing with stella and her nanny lindsay at the park for the last few months, so there's a lot of familiarity. today is actually lindsay's last day (she's moving to wisconsin and getting married), but it's a great transition for evie and she knows her, and the new nanny, dana, will be spending the day with them, so evie will know her next week when she's on her own with the girls.

on my way out the door this morning, evie was sitting down and thumbing thru her copy of "gallop" (oh, mom, we already have "swing"). all of the sudden she starts "reading" the book out loud. ok, i know it's really just reciting, but it was so bloody adorable. made me a little teary. i didn't even know that she'd memorized it.

to top it all off, i had the lightest traffic on the way into work and made it here in record time AND i just found out that the other friday mommies are going to meet up with evie, stella, lindsay and dana at the playground today, so she's going to have herself a wonderful day.

happy.

and a great time was had by all

2009-06-12T06:25:00.001-07:00

DSCF4631
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie is officially over considering the campioni family "strangers" with this last visit. she is fully in the court of "this is my family", and i'm very happy to be with them. it was a great transformation to witness. the trip to florida in february put all of the pieces in place, and this visit cemented things.

now finally after six flights with her where the flight out is great and the flight back is a nightmare, i think i've figured out the problem. on the way out, we leave early in the morning, so she's had a lot of sleep before we leave. on the flight back, i wait until late in the day, usually cutting into her naptime. duh! of course she's going to have a rough time. next trip we head home in the morning too, and hopefully avoid kicking and screaming the entire way across the minneapolis airport and for the first 15 minutes on the plane. i mean really SCREAMING. thank goodness for my new favorite friend, the portable dvd player with a six hour battery life and a copy of "finding nemo".

it came in handy each night too.

before the trip, evie was pretty firmly in the grandma and grandpa camp - liked looking at pictures of them and talking with them on the phone, but the cousins were more of a distant concept for her. not this time. this time it was all about the cousins.

i really appreciate everyone taking the time to give her some smaller groups to hang out with as well. i think it really helped her get to know each of them. and we've been talking about them ever since.

i also want to thank folks for all of the great food, drink and time that we were given. it was a great visit.

next stop - the mccurdy's.

the link to the full set of pictures from the trip is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcampioni/sets/72157619513766309/

i'm alive

2009-06-11T08:38:00.001-07:00

DSCF4543
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

ok, finally got around to posting the pics from the trip to flickr, so here's one of my favorites. more to come soon, i promise.

ramping up

2009-06-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

hi all. sorry it's been such a long time since a post, i know folks are probably waiting for pics from our trip to michigan. i promise i will post them soon. i'm still trying to find my balance with the new job that started on monday and all of my family stuff. i'm suffering from a bit of anxiety this week as i realize the impact of the new job on my time with evie.

no worries. i'm sure it will all work out, but it's going to take a little time to recalibrate.

winding down

2009-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

today's my last day at work. feels strange. it's been a good five years, but it will be good to start the next thing. i wish the next thing could be part-time, but i will get used to full time work again.

evie and i are headed to houghton on saturday for 10 days. mike will join us next week for a long weekend. we're looking forward to some family time, though i wish the weather forecast were happier...

happy girls

2009-05-12T08:59:00.001-07:00

strawberry picking
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

found this lovely picture on my camera, taken by katherine, so that explains the nice composition. it captures how much i enjoyed the day, and evie's dirt level ensures her happiness.

now, for what this flat of strawberries yielded:

- 8 half pint jars of preserves
- 1 quart of sorbet
- 3 quarts of frozen berries
- a heaping bowl covered with whipped cream for dessert on mother's day

strawberry picking

2009-05-11T10:43:00.001-07:00

strawberry picking
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie and i finally made it out to the farm for strawberry picking. our friends katherine and phil joined us for the adventure. katherine got some great photos of evie which i'm sharing here.

the plants were heavy with strawberries, so the picking was easy. extra easy for me, because evie wanted me to play with her instead of pick after a while, so phil finished picking my flat for me.

evie had a blast playing in the dirt, eating berries and wandering around on her own. she was filthy and happy.

and exhausted by the time we headed home...

happy mother's day to all of us!

2009-05-10T06:41:00.001-07:00

DSCF0225.JPG
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

happy mother's day to all of you wonderful women out there.

being a mom is pretty much all of the reward that i need, but this picture shows the very first full-on smile evie ever gave on my very first mother's day.

best present ever!

2009-05-08T15:53:00.001-07:00

A deadbeat no more... I just accepted a new job starting June 1st.

a break

2009-05-08T06:41:00.000-07:00

well i did it. quit my job yesterday, with nothing official lined up yet. hopefully that will be resolved today. things have been very slow at work, and i feel a bit like i'm stealing (or in detention) every day when i go and have nothing to do. i think the best chance for the studio is to get as lean as possible and try to wait this economy out. that means it's time for something new for me.

fortunately i've been interviewing with a company for the last three months and they're supposed to make me an offer today. ok, it was supposed to be last week sometime, but i guess the wheels turn slowly there. i don't consider that a very good sign, but i'm hopeful that they will end up being a good fit for me.

i'm diving back into the world of software product management. this does scare me a little as i was a bit of a maniac, workaholic when last i did that job. that has been one of the great things about the last five years, i found a little balance in my life - especially since i was only working mon-thurs. the new gig is full time, and the commute is longer (20 miles instead of 10). i'm hoping that evie is a natural governor on my workaholic tendencies, and that i can still have some balance in my life.

in very happy news, evie and i will be taking a trip to the UP next weekend to hang out with the family for a week and a half. we're very excited about it, since we won't be able to go up in july like we'd originally planned. mike's going to join us for the long memorial day weekend.

just please let all the snow be gone by then.

the best laid plans

2009-05-04T14:54:00.001-07:00

planting our herb garden
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we had big plans this past weekend. big outdoor plans, but they were not to be. rain clouds gathered over california and decided to give us a little more rain this year. i would complain about it, but it turns out that we really need it, and i like long showers, so this is probably a good thing.

on friday we were supposed to go downtown and meet our friday friends for a cable car ride, and then playing over at aquatic park. this is the third time we've planned for the cable cars. the first time we stood in line while three cars came and went, and we were next up when the whole line broke down. the last time, we were sidetracked by rain, just like this time.

what to do?

how about everyone come over to our house and we bake chocolate chip cookies. after all, there were only three of us going the cable car ride, it would be a nice little indoor activity. though as soon as we decided to stay indoors all of the folks nervous about the weather decided they would join in too. seven little girls and six mommies in all at our place on friday. there was painting, crayons (i'm still finding crayon in interesting places, thank god they're washable), cookie baking and general mayhem.

it was loads of fun, and not too bad to clean up. the only problem was evie was a little moody while her friends were there - much more clingy than normal. i put her down for a nap after everyone left and when she woke up, she had a fever of 101.3. nothing serious, but enough to throw her off her game and put her out of sorts.

after that we just hung out and had dinner with my co-worker joe who came over that night. evie's interest in older men continued as she pulled out all of her tricks to impress joe.

saturday was supposed to be strawberry picking and jam making. again the rain decided that was not to be. instead we got a trip to the grocery store, then a meat loaf and dan and claire for dinner.

again, evie much more interested in dan than claire. i wonder what this is about?

on day three of rain, we headed down to the garage to plant a little indoor herb garden. basil, parsley and oregano. hopefully evie will stick with a look, but don't touch attitude, so that we can watch these grow on the window sill. she had fun pushing the seeds into the dirt.

the weather broke a bit in the afternoon and mike and evie headed out for a walk around the block while i put the final touches on some homemade carnitas (made from pork shoulder). i think evie thought the weekend was a great success because it ended with a big bowl of meat.

sharpening my home skills

2009-04-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

mike was kind enough to give me tuesday night off so that i could attend a class on fermentation sponsored by an old friend that i hadn't seen in years. it was great to sample ginger beer and cider while learning and catching up with old friends. the class fit nicely with my interests in the food preservation (planning to pick strawberries and can them this weekend). i suspect that there is a batch of pomegranate sparkling wine in my near future.

now for a little insight into what i do at work.

my favorite project in the last five years was working on the design for the Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe. i got to work on a few different aspects of the interface on both the pen itself and the software you use to interact with the files on your computer. i find the pen very cool, as well as very useful. the pen records both what i write, along with the corresponding audio, so you can both see what was written and hear what was said at the same time.

i used the pen to take notes during my class on tuesday night, so i thought i'd share them here to give you an idea of what i'm talking about. click around in the notes to manipulate the audio playback - and let me know what you think (but no comments on my handwriting!).

urban peasant - fermentation class
brought to you by Livescribe

old friends

2009-04-28T15:43:00.001-07:00

old friends
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

mel, eli and brighton came for dinner on sunday night. they were visiting sf from new mexico. we hadn't seen them since a visit in january, so it was great to catch up. brighton turned two last week, and is such a little boy. he and evie had a great time together.

they were having so much fun, that brighton decided he wanted to get in the bath with evie. i decided to oblige and stripped him down and was putting him in the tub when evie exclaimed "brighton's got the penis!"

well, i guess she's got that body part figured out.

a happy monday

2009-04-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

i came home last monday to a very loud banging in the stairwell. when i got upstairs paloma and evie were sitting on either side of the drum banging out their abc's in unison. pretty impressive. of course when i pulled out the camera, mayhem ensued.

evie and mom's big adventure

2009-04-21T11:42:00.001-07:00

moss beach
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

mike was away for the weekend, his first time since evie was born. he left on friday morning and got back on sunday evening. evie was a champ, and mostly took it easy on me.

we started out our weekend with a trip to moss beach to explore the tide pools with our friday friends. there were fish, crabs and anemones to see, but evie was most partial to being barefoot and splashing in the water. she was tuckered out by the time we headed home.

that night she and i went out for pizza and ice cream. big fan of ice cream, it turns out. all was well and good until the ice cream hit her system, then it was time to beat a hasty retreat - on piggyback of course.

saturday we went to the bakery for breakfast. then gaurav came up to the city with zyla and his sister cheri (visiting from india). it was all so much fun that we headed down to los altos to do it all over again on sunday.

evie taught zyla the joys of watching sesame street videos on youtube.

some really great time just hanging out and playing in the sun.

evie was in the bath on sunday night when mike pulled up out front. normally i have to pry her from the tub after a bath, but not that night. she hopped out of the tub and ran to see daddy. i think the best way to end our special weekend.

the joys of womanhood

2009-04-20T15:25:00.000-07:00

being a woman just gets more and more glamourous all of the time. last week i got to experience my very first mammogram, now that i have passed the age of 40 (yes, i realize i was a little late getting to this).

let me just say what every other woman who has had this test already knows - if they did this to the penis, they would have come up with a much better way to perform this test by now.

uncomfortable, but not awful.

then on friday afternoon i get a call from my doc that i need to go back and have it done again - and apparently this happens all of the time. joy. more squishing this morning. this moved beyond uncomfortable. but all is good, so at least it's all out of the way.

such glamour.

mmmm. crawdads!

2009-04-17T08:56:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the weekend before last was my friend dan's 50th birthday party. dan is from louisiana, so his partner, claire, decided a crawfish boil was in order. they shipped in a ton of them in for the party, which was in golden gate park on a gorgeous saturday afternoon.

evie had a good time playing with them pre-boil. she was not so keen on them post-boil.

evie picked out her prettiest christmas dress to wear to the party. and when i say she insisted on wearing this dress, i understate it a bit. she did look cute, snowmen and all.

evan and lena come for a visit

2009-04-16T20:08:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we had a nice treat last week when margaret stopped by for dinner with evan and lena. we hadn't seen them since our trip to LA for christmas. evie had a blast playing with the kids, and we had a nice time catching up with margaret. as a bonus, we had pizza and ice cream. good times.

easter fun

2009-04-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

sorry, it's been a while since i've posted anything. i've got a big backlog, but uncle sam was really wanting me to finish those taxes.

we had a really nice easter here. our friends claudia and frank threw a birthday party/easter egg hunt for their son marlon yesterday over in golden gate park. there was a great group of people, gorgeous weather, and a whole lot of eggs and goodies to find.

evie enjoyed it all. especially the chocolate.

claudia proved herself the hostess with the mostess. dying 4 dozen easter eggs, making packs of homemade play-doh, wrapping up little toys for each of the kids, and bringing baskets for all of them.

i want her to plan all of my easters. scratch that, i want her to host all of my easters - her way sounds like too much work for me.

we kept things a little more low key over at our house. evie and i dyed some eggs on saturday. then i "hid" three of them on sunday morning when i heard her wake up. it took her a surprisingly long time to find them, considering exactly how hidden they were, but she did find them all eventually, and then expected to eat them all on the spot.

by the way, that very cute dress she was wearing at the easter egg hunt was a present from auntie kim. great taste!

party time

2009-03-30T11:53:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

we were invited to my friend juniper's mom's birthday party on saturday night. costumes were recommended, and we decided that only meant for evie (and it did). not having any actual costumes, we let evie pick between her dress from india and her dress from china.

she went with china.

she looked gorgeous (in my opinion).

the party was a lot of fun, and evie had a blast playing with juniper's niece and nephew. there was a great deal of extended laughter. oh, and confetti eggs. here she is experiencing the joy of breaking a confetti egg on daddy's head.

being in a sweetheart mood, she decided she should clean him off afterwards.

evie's new best friend hetta (juniper's six-year-old niece) took good care of her all night long.

and to top off the evening? a pinata! evie's first. she really enjoyed it. enjoyed it so much that we were up two hours past bedtime. she let us put her in her jammies before her last go at it.

thankfully, the late night of fun didn't translate into a grumpy mood on sunday. that was another good day. we headed over to the embarcadero to look at boats and sit on the giant spider statue.

evie's birthday weekend

2009-03-24T22:02:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

evie's birthday celebration began on friday. we had a party for evie and her friend laura at the presidio firehouse. lucky for evie laura's mom was into planning and put this together, as well as baked some great cupcakes for the occasion. all i had to do was show up with evie and snacks and a good time was had by all.

the firefighters gave the kids a great tour, where they got to hold the fire hose (evie was too scared) and sit in the fire truck.

(this is the other birthday girl, laura)

we continued the celebration on saturday morning with a trip to tartine, a great bakery in the neighborhood, where evie managed to polish off about 95% of a very substantial ham & cheese croissant. then we were off to the academy of sciences and some fish time. after nap, we headed off for chinese food where evie consumed a whole lotta birthday dumplings.

on sunday she and i headed out for some mommy/evie time. we walked to the subway and took a train over to another neighborhood, where we got bagels, picked out some books and got a very cool dragon.

then tony and kimberly came up and joined us for another celebration, and her official birthday cupcakes. plus they got her a copy of "where the wild things are" and her very own wild thing.

monday was playing with paloma and gladys, more cupcakes and pizza for dinner.

evie now wants presents and candles all of the time.

i can't believe how fast this year went. it's been tough on occasion, but more than worth it. she's such a treasure.

the birthday girl in action

2009-03-23T12:37:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

it was a whole weekend of celebration for the end of ms. evie's second full year. i'll post more pics details later, but here's an action shot from dinner last night.

evie's favorite part of a birthday?

blowing out candles. she made me keep relighting them, so she could blow them out over and over. this was probably the third time thru (there were probably three more times that followed).

not so sweet dreams

2009-03-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

evie woke up early this morning and was crying a pretty distressed cry. i went in to rub her back and soothe her back to sleep when she looked up at me and said "i scared", then she mumbled something about "ice cubes".

hmm. she did munch on a bunch of ice cubes last night. some clean, some out of our glasses. wonder if we got all the margarita off of those first ...

that's our girl

2009-03-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by jcampioni

so last night, in case there was any question, i got just a little more proof that evie is our girl.

last night mike had rehearsal, so evie and i went out to get a little dinner. she was her usual enthusiastic self while eating (see picture from another recent meal of lamb chops). then on the walk home we walked past a coffee shop, and she pointed in and said "people eating food." i confirmed "yup, people are eating food."

she looked up at me earnestly and said "i love food."

her first unprompted expression of love.

i totally get it.

viva california

2009-03-07T18:46:00.001-08:00

viva california
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

the rain has stopped, and the clouds have parted, so we headed down highway one to the beach today. first it was just walking on the beach and watching the surfers, then we spotted some kids swimming in a stream that runs into the ocean.

evie wanted in.

we started with wading. more water! then it was the strip down. evie had a blast splashing around and knocking over sandcastles carefully constructed by mom (the kid's part godzilla).

click on the pic to see some more pictures from the day. and if you're in michigan, this might just be the incentive to come out for a visit!

go ahead, take my picture already

2009-03-05T11:16:00.001-08:00

go ahead, take my picture already
Originally uploaded by jcampioni

i wanted to post a picture of evie wearing her favorite new jacket (thanks grandma!), but she didn't seem very excited about having to pose. i want to see myah in hers now!