February Birthdays

February birthday girls and boys blowing out the candle:
Kerrie, Jack, Barry, and Alie

Quick - what's the state capital of California?

It's Sacramento, where Tom's cousins live, and where we spend a day each February to celebrate "February birthdays". Kerrie, her daughter Alie, and cousin-in-law Barry all have birthdays this month - and now we can add Jack to the annual celebration.

There has been threats of snow in San Francisco over the past couple of days, but it was sunny and beautiful today in Sacramento. Check out the pictures for Jack by the orange tree in the backyard.

We had a lovely brunch celebration, topped off with chocolate cake. Jack is finding his sweet tooth and lapped up lots of blue frosting which left him running around in circles when we opened presents.

Lots of clothes and a toy guitar later, we made a sleepy ride home with full bellies and happy hearts to have family out West to embrace us and Jack in life's celebratory moments with their endless generosity.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of the February birthdays girls and boys.

Jack's 2nd Birthday

It's hard to believe that Jack turned 2 on February 19th.

This year, we held a small party that was largely limited to the few friends we know who have kids and close family members.

We attend a great music program called "Music Together" each Saturday with Jack. The teacher, Bevin, is wonderful and leads us through a series of interactive songs. It's so much fun that we were inspired to organize a music theme for Jack's birthday and have Bevin over to treat Jack and our friends to a session at home.

Bevin had us all on our feet, singing, banging on drums, tossing scarves, and covering the kids with a parachute.

Birthday invitation

Afterwards, there was chocolate cake and the kids went home with favor bags filled with musical egg shakers and a harmonica.

CLICK HERE for more pictures of Jack's birthday party.

Cousin Myles

Mindy has a cousin, Peggi, who is also one of her best friends. Peggi and her husband Matthew have been waiting patiently to adopt a baby, and the waiting was officially over on January 26th at 2:32am when Baby Myles entered the world!

One of Peggi's friends, Kitty, swiftly pulled together a baby shower and Mindy hopped a plane to Charlotte for a quick weekend trip to hold her new cousin and congratulate his excited new parents.

Cousin Myles was an angel who slept through nearly all of the laughter, poking, and picture taking. Kitty put on a wonderful shower that left Peggi fully stocked with all the diapers, clothes, books, and fun and cute baby things every new Mom could want.

The weekend was a happy reunion of sorts for Mindy who was also able to visit with her Aunt Polly (Peggi's Mom), Phil (Peggi's brother) and his family, and to hang out with Maggie who is one of Mindy's oldest and best friends who flew in from Long Island as a surprise guest at Peggi's shower.

It was a wonderful celebratory weekend with good friends and family.

We can't wait for Jack to meet his new cousin!

CLICK HERE to see more pictures of Cousin Myles.

TGIF

 UPDATE 2/15/11: Tom works with a savvy photographer, Marvin, who snapped the shot below. Evidently, Marvin also has hidden talents as a videographer and career coach.

Check out the video resume that he created for Jack by CLICKING HERE: http://animoto.com/play/AMZ8H0JBIj6BTsvFz2idaA

(P.S. The company they work for is in "cloud computing" - web hosting jargon - hence the cloud references.)

Potty Time TMI

As Jack approaches 2, we knew that potty training was around the corner. We went out and bought a little potty for the bathroom and a book over Christmas. We haven't really done any "training" other than let him sit on the potty when he wanted to and read the book at night. However, the other little boy in our sharecare is actively in training, so Jack has been watching -- and apparently now mimicing.

This week Jack did a poopie and today did a pee in the potty. Dear Environment, we may be ready to do our part and help save the landfills soon.