Dec Daily :: Day 11

We spent this chilly December morning at the gem of the Bay Area, the Discovery Museum. We love this place. Our membership has expired, but if we still lived down the street I would renew in a heartbeart. This place is amazing for kiddos -- I highly recommend it.

Maybe we can take the Swishlette twins here next week??

Oh, and Jackson & his sweet baby blue track suit decided to start pulling himself up and standing (!!!) while we were there. #Awesome

Goodnight Boats

Part of Lucca's bedtime routine is brushing her teeth while standing at the front door saying "Goodnight" to the boats in the bay. Yet another little piece of Sausalito we will miss when we move on from here.

On another note... Are all two-year-olds bedtime routines as prolonged as ours? Starting at 7:00 Lucca takes a bath, then watches her show, eats a bedtime snack, reads a story or three, brushes her teeth, looks at the boats, kisses her brother and daddy goodnight, says goodnight to all the family photos in our home, and then we enter her bedroom. We talk about what we did that day, sometimes we sing a song, and then I tuck her in her bed. She asks me if everything is closed for the day...the grocery store, the coffeeshop, the deli, etc. I say Yes, and that's the end of the routine. 8:00...Night, Night, Lucca. Whew.

(then she talks & sings from anywhere between 5 minutes to 1.5 hours in her crib)

LOVE THIS GIRL

Sausalito Friday nights

Lucca loved her time at Sausalito's Music by the Bay tonight. We met Rustin at the ferry and then enjoyed some good food, fun music, a gorgeous setting and friends! We had a picnic dinner on the waterfront...A fresh olive baguette from the farmer's market with Cowgirl Creamery cheese and heirloom tomatoes on top. So yummy! Lucca couldn't get enough of the cheese & bread, go figure, we're related! Then we had berries and chocolate coconut macaroons for dessert. And vino! Lucca danced with daddy, herself, and anyone else who felt like movin' and shakin'... Always the life of the party, our little shining star. Not sure where she learned the one leg hop dance, but like everything else at this age, we are sure it's just a phase. let's hope :). And in case you didn't know: Age 2 is the bomb.

We love you, Sausalito

Our family has called Sausalito home sweet home for the past three years. Our city livin days came to a close shortly after having Lucca and realizing San Francisco was not the ideal environment we wanted to raise our family in. So we headed a wee bit North, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and settled into the closest-to-SF-without-actually-living-in-SF-city we could find: sweet & charming Sausalito. We've grown to love it, quirks, tourists, fog and all. But now that our family has expanded again, we've grown out of our home here and are moving further North to get even more space and sunshine.

We have about a month left here in Sausalito and I'm starting to get a little bit nostalgic and sad already. This town will always be super special to us and I hope I'll always hang on to some my favorite memories of this magical little place:

Driving by the elephants downtown, remembering when Lucca was about a year old and would raise her arm and make an elephant sound each and every time we passed those statues. They were "Lucca's elephants" of course.

Passing by the art gallery that has different colors of balloons on their sign every day.

Spending day after day going to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, making the most of our membership. Lucca has the museum memorized.

Throwing rocks into the water by Spinnakers.

The Sushi Ran water fountain that Lucca "washes her hands" in, even on the coldest of days. Same for the Yoga of Sausalito fountain.

Hiking these ridiculous hills, sometimes pushing a stroller while carrying a toddler. Hello, calf muscles.

Family walks to Cibo for lattes & muffins on Saturdays. And Lucca playing with the milk crates with all her buddies while parents sip their coffee.

Taste of Rome breakfast sandwiches -- we were in that rut for a long time

Fire House Pancake Breakfast. Eating pancakes in the firehouse, Lucca wearing a pink firehat and asking the fireman for more bacon. Awesome.

Taking walks along the boats, choosing our favorite ones. This is the best at Christmastime when the boats are decorated for the holidays.

Valeting the car at Poggio's to Lucca's dismay. She cried and cried when the man took our car.

The Sausalito Library. Probably the only library in America that hates kids, but we have fun nonetheless. Puzzles, coloring, blocks and dinosaurs. Wait, a library has books?

The beach! Beach days with our buddies. Standing on the surfboards for hours on end and stealing all the beach balls we can find.

The best Thai food. Arawan. And the girl who picks up Lucca every time we go there, even though Lucca is 2 now and not so light anymore.

Mollie Stones. I'm sure I'm not the only mom who goes and buys groceries so my child can get a balloon right? Every employee knows Lucca by name, and we know all their names. Ahmed spoils Lucca and gives her two balloons each time. Ann is the one who makes the balloons SO BIG that they pop before we make it home, every single time.

Honking at the tourists who go 5 mph in the 45 zone and who stop at all the YIELD signs.

Monday-Wednesday-Friday playtime! We met many of our favorite friends at Sausalito's Adventure Club. So thankful for this.

Taking Lucca on a walk along Bridgeway, 8 months pregnant with Jackson, and dropping my car keys in the gutter on the street. Sausalito Fire Department to the rescue. They saved my keys. My pride? Not so much.

Fourth of July parade. As lame as it was, small town fun indeed.

Picking up Daddy from the ferry, one of our favorite past-times. No daddy could be happier than ours to see his family waiting for him.

The park AKA Lucca's backyard. Robin Sweeney park, we are leaving before you get your remodel. And we are glad about that. We love you just the way you are...old, wooden, metal, sand, dangerous, etc. Soon you will look like every other park, big and bright, all plastic and safe with rubber turf. We loved our old-school park and spent HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS here. The tire swing, the balance beam, the slides. Drawing Gabba characters and surfboards with chalk on the basketball court. Learning to ride a scooter and a skateboard on this basketball court. Learning to roll in the grass at this park. Picking flowers, climbing trees and hiding in the bushes. So. Many. Memories.

Our house with 21 steps to the front door. This I will not miss.

The list goes on and on. We love this place and have endless memories here. I'm trying not to be sad because I know the next place is full of new memories to be made. We are thankful we had the opportunity to live here in the first place. People come from all over the world to see our little town, and they all leave happy they came. I feel the same way. Sausalito, I'm glad you were a stop on our journey. What an adventure its been.

(photo credit)

Beach Date with Brendan

Gotta love winter in California! Beach days in February can't be beat.

Showing off her surfing skills

Oh, what a day!

We had ourselves a good lil' Thursday. Went shopping in the city with Grammie, ate a yummy lunch at Boudin SF, took a great nap and then had a mostly uneventful afternoon ... UNTIL...

Mommy decided to take Lucca on a walk down at the Sausalito waterfront. It was almost time to pick up Daddy from the ferry, so we headed back to the car and I loaded up Lucca. And then, someway, somehow, my keys dropped out of my hand, out of the car, onto the sidewalk and then straight down inside the gutter in the street. Probably 5 feet down...landing in sewer water. All in slow motion. AWESOME.

A quick call to the Sausalito Fire Department had 4 fireman (!!!) and a big red truck by my side within 15 minutes. They took off the gutter grate, lowered a guy in head first and he grabbed my keys. All while assuring me this has happened before. If only Grammie would have stayed around a couple hours longer for the excitement ;)

Never a dull moment.

Before the "incident"

She knows a good view when she sees one

Picking up Daddy at the boat

BFFs reunited

Time to go bake some cookies for the firemen ;)

"Parkkkkkk"

If you have talked to Lucca in the past month, somewhere in the conversation she probably told you she wants to go to the PARKKKKKKKKKKKK. She wakes up and says "park(kkkkk)", she gets dressed and says "parkk", lunch and then parkkk...you get the idea. I really need to get a video of the way she emphasizes the "K" sound in this word. She would make our German and Russian ancestors very proud. I've started to drive out of the neighborhood a different way than usual, so we avoid seeing the park when we aren't headed there. She knows her park. And loves her park.

We spend many moments here. It's nothing fancy, but it's a sweet old neighborhood park with wooden climbing structures and metal slides. It's Lucca's park and she knows the entire thing, inside and out. She knows where she can play, where she can't play, how to climb the baby slide, how to ask for help to climb the big slide. We count the fish, she points to all the different colored fish, she points to the pelican that sits above the swings and says "tweet-tweet". We play basketball and soccer, dig in the sand and count rocks. We roll down the hills, stopping to pick flowers and toss blades of grass. These days are SWEET.

The best ball ever

Future athlete

Where's Lucca?

Collecting leaves

A little one-on-one basketball

The fish

Lucca's new favorite spot

swim day

We've been having the most amazing weather lately! I LOVE IT. Usually during this time of year in San Francisco, I wish I lived somewhere warmer, but this past week has been nothing but gorgeous, sunny days. Perhaps I should be more specific...Sausalito has been beautiful...the city is probably still chilly! Finally, our move to Marin is paying off and I've rediscovered my summer wardrobe.

We deemed this past weekend our best weekend yet with little Lucca. She just gets more and more FUN. We were busy non-stop...going to the park, kids museum, playground, fountains, long walks, eating ice cream and ... playing in the pool! Life keeps getting sweeter and sweeter as the days go by. 14-month-olds rules!

To many more SUNNY play days......

Rainy Day in the Bay

You wouldn't know it by looking out at the gorgeous sunny day we are having today, but yesterday was a wet, rainy, cloudy day here in the Bay. I packed Lucca up and took her to the Bay Area Discovery Museum to have some indoor fun. Bonus: it was the 1st Wednesday of the Month = FREE DAY.

I set my germaphobic tendencies aside as I had to take off my shoes to enter the toddler play area, and let Lucca go to town. She loved it. She got bulldozed by about 10 four-year-olds, her hands banged on while playing the marimba with the big boys, and her feet stomped on at the bubble pedal station, but she had fun!

My musician

Watching the frogs blow bubbles ("bubba")

The museum experience was a good eye opener/learning lesson for me. Kids are crazy. Parents are crazier.

Dear God, I have three simple requests. Please don't let my toddler be the one throwing the drum at my face while pitching a major fit for no apparent reason. Please don't ever let me be the parent who loses my child BUT DOESN'T EVEN REALIZE THE CHILD WENT MISSING. Seriously, I had to return a 2-year old girl that I found OUTSIDE BY HERSELF to her absent-minded mother. And please don't let me judge horrible mothers, knowing we all have the potential to have challenging days.