Some San Francisco Treats

San Francisco might quite possibly be our favorite city that we've visited so far. And that's saying a lot, because we've been to quite a few places. It's just got so much to offer. But (don't worry mom & dad), we haven't started checking into real estate there (at least not yet). So, even though I took about 200 photos, here are the highlights - starting first with some photos of Josie just hanging out being adorable after her bath in the big hotel tub.
It's amazing what a good camera & good lighting can accomplish!
And, she was totally digging this comb & the sound the comb's teeth made against her teeth.
Doesn't it look like she's singing? I guess in a way, she kind of was. :)
Now, I've gotten a bit ahead of myself. So let me start at the beginning. Remember those photos you just saw of Josie looking adorable near the end of our trip? Well, for the point of comparison, here she is looking her worst at the very beginning of the week. This was after 5 hours on a plane and about 4 hours past her bedtime. She was well beyond exhausted, not to mention very confused with the fact that she was in a strange car in a strange carseat (facing forward?!). Poor little thing. We thought she would sleep on the plane starting around her normal 7pm bedtime, but we didn't account for the fact that we were flying west and that it wasn't going to get dark. So, she "thought" it was still daytime & just couldn't get to sleep. Anyway, lesson learned - don't fly west around bedtime. Here she is looking exhausted (and she was finally asleep just seconds later)!
Ah - a night of good rest in between mom & dad in a comfy king-sized bed (the crib the hotel gave us was metal & didn't have a crib bumper, so she kept banging her head & grew to hate that crib very quickly). Anyway, after some good sleep, Lou was off to the first day of his conference & Josephine and I were ready to tackle San Francisco. Here's Josie "helping" me with the map and guidebook. Fortunately, she didn't eat too much of them so I was still able to find my way around.

After a whole bunch of walking, sight-seeing & shopping, Josie was in desperate need of a diaper change. I asked around & got directed by a security guard into the "family room" near the food court in the basement of a large mall. And OMG - here's what we found:
I'm not kidding - complete with marble changing stations, three private nursing rooms, a kid's play land, flat screen TV, bottle warmers, a microwave, etc. It was UNREAL, and I think every public place in American needs to start building these right away. It was the perfect little oasis in the middle of the bustling city.

Anyway, after more walking & more shopping, we met back up with Louie to tackle Chinatown. Here they are are the famous gates to Chinatown.

And, I won't go into the rest of the Chinatown trip, except for to say we got a little too adventurous in looking for a snack & wound of wasting four perfectly good dollars on some kind of scary sweet rolls with mysterious "meat" inside. Luckily, Lee & Alicia (our friends who live in San Fran) took us out for some delicious authentic Italian in North Beach and that more than made up for the scary Chinese cuisine.
Here are some other photos from our family adventures around SanFran, namely - the obligatory cable car ride (which we discovered you can skip the line and the cost of the tickets if you walk to the top of the giant hill & take the trolley down instead of riding it up like everyone else).
And after a long day of partying West Coast style - here's one very sleepy Josie, back in the middle of the giant bed.
On to another day of big adventures. After more shopping and tea lattes with mama, Lou wrapped up another day of conferencing and we headed just down the street to the Yerba Buena Gardens for Josie's very first carousel ride! I think I actually had more fun that she did.

She was really confused during the whole first ride, but got into it during the second ride:
Here are Louie & Josie standing outside the carousel. We were going for the "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair" shot, but she just wanted to eat the flower so this is as close as we got:
Then, off to this really cool park, where Louie performed an impromptu concert for Josie:
Later that night, Lou & I walked back to Union Square for some tasty sushi. Here's Josie having her dinner, while we had ours. (And just to reiterate the coolness of this city, we sheepishly asked the hostess if it was okay to eat there with our baby in tow. She said "of course" and even brought us in the the back door which was easier with the stroller. And we saw two other families with babies while we were there!) I had to laugh because I have this tongue-in-cheek picture book called "Urban Babies Wear Black" and one of the pages says "Urban babies eat sushi." :)
And, the next day we were off again for some more sight-seeing, this time with Louie's longtime friend Lee to show us around the city. After a long, scenic drive through Golden Gate Park, here we are at the beach.

The photos are a bit out of sequence here, but later that day we went to the Haight - see those photos below.

The next day (Saturday) was the only full-day we had as a family because Lou's conference ended on Friday afternoon. So, we packed in a TON of activities. Lee & Alicia also had the day off of work, so they were gracious enough to spend the day sharing some of their favorite things with us. Before leaving the hotel that morning, we tried out the cool baby backpack that we got from this amazing company called "Baby's Away" that also rented us the carseat (parents take note - apparently "Baby's Away" has locations in all major cities and rents everything you need from the big stuff like cribs, strollers, and carseats to the little stuff like bathtubs, toys, etc.)

On this gorgeous 80 degree, sunshiny day the first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge and the beautiful view from the other side. Here's the whole crew:
And our family photo with San Francisco in the background:
And Lee & Louie looking like twins in matching shirts, jeans, and shoulder bags. Hilarious!
And sweet Josie "posing" in the shadow of the Golden Gate.
Later that day, we headed to Stinson Beach (where Janis Joplin's ashes were scattered). It was beautiful! We had some tasty ice cream cones:

And enjoyed hanging out in the sand:
San Fran water is chilly, but that didn't stop Josie from enjoying the feeling of the waves splashing up between her toes.
I think Josie needs her own pair of sunglasses, or at least a sunhat that will actually stay on:
Hopefully this was just the first of many Schneider-family afternoons on the beach. Of course we don't want Josie's life to zoom by any faster, but it will be so much fun when we can build sandcastles together, toss a frisbee, fly kites, splash in the waves, etc.
And here's a photo of Baby J sifting her fingers through the sand. She was SO happy just sitting there feeling the sand between her fingers and burying her legs. She just stared at the sand and smiled. And I'm happy to report that she didn't eat a single bite of it!

Here are the Haight-Ashbury photos! Did you honestly think we could go to San Fran without checking out this spot? As we pulled into the neighborhood, I told Josie we were only about 40 years too late, but once we got parked and started walking around, it was clear that the Sixties never really ended in the Haight. Here's the intersection that gives this neighborhood its name.

And here are the boys posing in front of the house where the Grateful Dead lived.
And Josie smiling up at what must have been the ghost of Jerry Garcia. :)
And the adorable tie-dyed onesie that I just about bought for her in every size!
Back to our day with Lee & Alicia in Marin County. Here is Sausalito. Gorgeous, quaint, and the perfect way to spend a sunny California afternoon.

We had a delicious lunch at "Horizons" on the water. We feasted on fish tacos & sandwiches, Josie feasted on her worm which was easily the mascot of the whole trip!
Next we were off to one of the highlights of the whole week - Muir Woods - home of the giant redwoods and Sequioa trees. Really, the photos just don't do them justice. They are as tall as buildings and grow in these beautiful "family circles." The air was cool and fragrant, the trees were mezmorizing and the whole experience was absolute tranquil perfection.

Here we are posing inside one of the mammoth trees.
And, even though Josie was sleeping, we had to pose her inside the giant tree as well.
You have to picture the fact that there was a whole line of people waiting to pose for their own pictures inside the tree, so that made this even more hysterical.
Oh - I forgot to mention - the roads in Marin County are like something out of a cartoon - they twist, turn and wind all around the mountains. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with poor, screaming Josie because she never fusses in the car, until I looked over and saw her totally turn 'green' and get car sick all over herself. Poor baby. All those bends were just too much for her. By the time we got to Muir Woods, she was definitely ready for a nap in the stroller.

After a long, exciting day driving all around Marin, we headed to Lee & Alicia's beautiful home perched high atop Potrero Hill for some ice cold beer and delicious takeout Thai food. The view from their house seriously had us ready to move in a second. It was breathtaking. The view from every window of the house offerred something spectacular - the ocean one way, the city the next. And here's the view off the deck - the bright lights in the center are the ballpark where the Reds were destroying the Giants.

And, what better way was there to top off the perfect rip than a perfect sunset over the city? It was gorgeous. Great food, great friends, a great view...what more could we ask for?

Overall, San Francisco was obviously fantastic and we will definitely be returning again before too long. There are some great short videos from the trip that I will add later this week - as well as the link to the full photo slideshow in Shutterfly (although I'm sure this is more than enough to hold you all over). :)

California, California...Here we come (again)!

We're off to San Francisco tomorrow until Sunday. Lou has another legal conference and Josie & I get to tag along. I promise to take tons of photos. :)

Earth Day 2008

In honor of Earth Day, we headed down to Sawyer Point for the annual event on Saturday to hang out and to see our friends Brianne & Suzanne win an award from the EPA for their efforts with http://www.livegreencincinnati.com/ (although we had to leave to beat the rain that actually never came). But, before walking home, we spent some quality time pushing a sleeping Josie around in her stroller until she woke up ready to play. That led to some quality blanket-time in the grass exploring more of the prickly green stuff. Here are my two favorite people smiling for the camera. And I *love* this photo of Josie and Louie playing with the grass together (which cracked Josie up). I think the best part is how Louie looks just as curious & amused as Josie - like he is also exploring the grass and flower petals for the first time. Seriously, could he be any sweeter?
And, after the fun with the grass (which she likes now - whew!) we headed to the makeshift petting zoo to hang out with some brand new baby ducks, baby goats, and this adorable little piggy. Josie plopped down right next to him for this ideal photo op.
And, that of course led to the perfect video of Josie giggling at her new oinking friend. Note: Please don't be offended by the fact that I mention "two little piggies" in this video. Come on - they are both these adorable, chunky, pink little babies and I couldn't resist the comparison. :) Enjoy!

More Field Trips

With the weather finally cooperating (hooray - 70s), we've been getting out a lot more. This week was quite exciting, with lots of time spent with friends. On Tuesday, we got to meet sweet Lily - the beautiful daughter of my friend Ali who was my student teacher years ago when I taught in Milford. (She lives in FLA now.) It was so great to see Ali, to introduce our girls, and to obsess over the dangers of plastic and toxins together. All joking aside, we are so on the same page when it comes to parenting, and it's just nice to know we're not crazy!

Here are Josie & Lily in their thrones on the edge of our table at The Cheesecake Factory, where they were treated like royalty - complete with "appetizers" of banana pieces and breadsticks (before they even took our drink order). It was so cute! Although you can see they both actually preferred their fingers to the snack from the waiter -

On Thursday, we made our first "hypnozoo" trip with the girls. It's just so funny that our weekly meetings began with all of us sitting in a circle at the Blue Manatee with these little swaddled lumps and we are already taking trips to the zoo to laugh at the animals together (Josie thought the polar bears were hysterical). The babes are just growing up so fast! Here we are in front of the gorilla exhibit. If you look closely in the background, that's the mama and baby gorilla. We all couldn't believe just how similar mothering is for this big gal as it is for each of us. (The baby was crawling all over her, wanted to be held nonstop, and the mom kept looking down and squeezing her "baby belly" - seriously.)
And here's the "Hypnozoo Crew" - Josie/me, Jen/Anna, Alison/Ryan, Angela/Andrew.
And the babes in their strollers - with Josie looking particularly cozy (just before she passed out for almost an hour). And here's a photo of Josie looking lovely in front of the tulip display (which was gorgeous). When she wasn't busy exploring the grass, I was actually able to snap a few good photos.
Another funny thing about this photo is the fact that there is a photo almost exactly like this except it's Lou & I sitting in front of tulips this exact color for our wedding engagement photos. My how times have changed! :)

Josie is the Kid of the Day!

CONGRATULATIONS JOSEPHINE! YOU ARE TODAY'S PARENTS MAGAZINE "KID OF THE DAY!"

Some time ago, I submitted a photo of Josie for the contest, and they emailed me to say that Josie had been chosen out of hundreds of daily submissions to be featured on both the Child.com and Parents.com website for April 18th, 2008.

You can see her photo by visiting http://www.child.com/ www.americanbaby.com and/or http://www.parents.com/ . The photo is from our trip to LA when she was 6 months old.

In other news related to our obsession with how cute we think Josie is - we "dropped out" of the Cincinnati Enquirer Baby Idol contest after it became clear that it was turning into who could throw the most money at it. We were quite happy with the results of Josie getting her photo in the newspaper and finishing in the Top 25 during that first week. :) Thanks so much to everyone who voted!

Weekend with the "Triple A's"

Over the weekend, we got to see Manda & Michael. This trip was made even more special by the fact that I got my first belly-pat of Josie's future cousin. Here's my beautiful little sis and her budding "belly bump." (Check out her growing tummy at http://www.threeaustins.blogspot.com/)
As usual, we had a great time just hanging out with the Austins. And Michael even got in some babyfeeding practice (although he's always been great with kids, so this is actually nothing new).
And Manda & I had fun cracking ourselves up at Josie's expense. Here she is entertaining us with a bucket on her head - which she actually found pretty funny, too.
And - just to prove that she was actually having fun as well - here she is shaking the ever loving daylights out of her wooden car keys. Go Josie!!
I had to include this photo because it makes me smile. This was Josie's first trip to Frickers with the whole Xenia crew. She got to smell some spicy chicken wings, play with Kalie & Claire, and get passed around to visit her family and friends. Here she is getting a big kiss on her honey pot by Aunt Manda. :)

Josie's First "Sandbox"

Josie is getting so interactive, and as a result we're having even more fun with her. Tonight we decided to make Josie her first "sandbox" out of a lasagna pan and cannister of Quaker Oats.

We had lots of fun hiding her toys under the oats and watching her dig them out. And - as you'll see in the video coming soon - she caught on to the game & joined along.

Even more fun than playing with the oatmeal in the "sandbox" was watching her dump it out all over herself and create a huge mess. (Tonight I discovered that Louie and I are the type of parents that appreciate a good mess in the name of fun.)

And, after the oatmeal was out of the pan and all over Josie and the floor, the pan itself made a pretty fantastic drum.

So - long story short - Josie's first "sandbox" was a huge success - so much so that we just put all the oats back in the pan, snapped on the lid and set it all aside until it's "sandbox" time again.

I've been having trouble uploading the video, but I'll try again tomorrow. :)

INTRODUCING...

It is my utmost pleasure to introduce all of you to a new blog that I highly recommend -

www.threeaustins.blogspot.com

And if you didn't take the time to actually read the title of that blog, or in case you don't know that my sister's last name is Austin, or if you are generally just a bit out of it, then I'll spell it out for you ... MY SISTER IS PREGNANT!!!!!!

We could not be more excited that "Aunt Manda" is now going to be "Mama Manda." CONGRATULATIONS MANDA & MICHAEL! We absolutely cannot wait to share this adventure with you.

And -as far as stats are concerned - she is 13 weeks pregnant, due on October 18th, and doing GREAT!

Where did those 8 months go?

HAPPY 8 Month Birthday Sweet Josephine! :)

Big Adventures for Little Josephine

We've had a pretty busy week since our last post. The weekend was a blast! The weather was perfect and we spent time with friends. Here is Josie with four of her fellow hypno-babies at Maya's house. Almost all of the families (dads included) were able to reunite, and it was SO much fun to all be back together again. After a busy weekend in the sunshine, we headed out for another adventure on Tuesday. I had to go to Wright State to fill out some paperwork to prep for the courses that I'm going to teach there this summer. Since WSU is really close to Xenia, Josie asked if we could swing by to visit Grandma and Granddaddy, so of course I obliged. :) Here is Josie stylin' in her sunhat with Grandma outside of "Toward Independence" where my dad works. I had just returned from a pedicure, which Josie thought was pretty fabulous.
OH - funny thing happened at the Health Dept. when we were visiting my mom. I was holding Josie by my mom's desk and she was staring and smiling at something on the desk behind me. It was a weird stuffed "animal" with huge eyes and crazy yellow fur. I picked it up and she started laughing like crazy. Mom pointed to the top shelf where there were about 1o more of these funny creatures in all shapes & sizes. As it turns out, they were stuffed microbes. So, Josie was laughing hysterically at the common cold, the flu, head lice, etc. She thought they were so funny, although we kept trying to tell her that these illnesses were not a laughing matter. ;)

And - I'm not sure if this photo really does her hair justice - but she looked like a rooster after all that sleeping in the car. You get the idea:
Today we had another adventure with Krista & Milo and Ciara & Aoife at the pottery studio and gallery where Milo's dad Ben works. The current installation there is "the environment" which basically amounts to an indoor forest. So, we decided to meet there today instead of the Blue Manatee. Here's the group having a little picnic.
And here (brace yourself) is Josie's first face-to-face contact with grass. Clearly, she didn't quite know what to make of it!!
Since no daughter of mine will have this much trouble with grass, our top priority for the summer is as much outdoor exposure as possible. Although there's a cold snap coming this weekend, I think it will be blue skies and sunshine from next week on. I can hardly wait! :)

One assertive little lady

So, the latest thing with Miss Josephine is that she's figured out how to express herself. And I am afraid...very afraid. For example, if I have the remote control, telephone, cell phone, etc and she decides that she wants it - guess what? She reaches for it and if I don't let her have it - here comes a big screech or squeal! Seriously, I had *no* idea that an almost-8-month-old could have such strong opinions. And, if this is a glimpse into my future, then I am really in for one assertive little lady. (You go Josie.)



















Here are some photos of Josie from this week. First, you'll notice that she has officially outgrown her countertop tub (alright, she outgrew it weeks ago, but we were in denial). So, we take "big girl" baths now. It really is pretty fun, because she adores the water. With this handy seat (thanks Natalie & Dennis), you're actually able to fill up the water pretty high, so she can really splash around and play with all her tub toys (thanks Jiv). And, here's a photo of Josie having her way with her favorite new toy - her super soft kitty from Phil & Palak. When she's not cuddling it, she's practicing what she's going to do to Venus as soon as she can crawl.

And finally, here's another glimpse into our future. My parents brought down this walker that they borrowed from the Roundtrees (thanks guys) to see if Josie was ready to start running around the condo yet. And the verdict is in - it took her one afternoon to master the thing and what started as small scoots backwards was full scale walking around the house last night (and several trips to hide under the kitchen table). She really enjoys her newfound mobility, although it's very scary to us. Here's a photo of "Jungle Josie" just after she figured out that she could walk over to the plant and hang out in the leaves. This was also right before she walked herself over the to drum and performed an impromptu concert for grandma, granddaddy and I. As if we didn't know already, our condo is about as far from babyproof as you can get. But, we're still in denial that she could possibly be growing up this fast, so don't expect us to do anything to babyproof soon. (I have no doubt that we'll make a hyper-panic trip to Babies 'R Us the second she crawls, but for the meantime we want to go on living in the fantasy world where we're still have an ounce of control.)
Okay - off to Target to buy some baby gifts for some friends that are expecting beautiful baby girls at the end of the month. After a long morning of steaming, pureeing, and freezing a new batch of veggies (today it was rutabagas, beets, zucchini, and parsnips) - we've got to get out and enjoy some of this sunshine. I think spring may actually be here!