the transition is complete

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!

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

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!

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!

first friday fun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

a break

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

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

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

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

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

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.