fgm

we had a great date with deidre this morning.  deidre is a special sorority sister of mine and anabelle’s godmother, or fairy godmother as we like to call her (that’s where the fgm comes from).

we headed out to la jolla shores nice and early – you get pretty great parking that way.  we walked along the water, saw the seals for a bit, enjoyed a few mini cupcakes at cups, discovered the lululemon store close by (dangerous!) and had a simply lovely time together.  as you can see, anabelle seemed to enjoy herself too.

if you haven’t been to cups, you should go.  it’s an organic cupcakery and so delicious!  plus the staff is super nice.  they serve coffee drinks, teas, cupcakes of course, and they have just started making their own ice cream with the cupcakes incorporated in it.  yumm-y!  i’m going to have to try that next time.  they even host cooking classes and a ‘parents night off’ where cups teaches a kiddo cooking class while you enjoy a nice dinner at a restaurant across the street.  if anabelle was 5, i’d be signing up for that.  sounds like a great idea!

fyi – if you sign up for their e-newsletter on their site you get a 20% off coupon!

it was a perfect day for her to wear her ‘mommy’s sunshine’ onesie.  she’s slowly working her way into her 9 month size clothes.  she’ll get there soon enough, my little petit babe.

da-da

missing daddy at bath time

can you hear it?!

copenhagen

a few weeks ago I posted this pic without the story.  well, let me start at the beginning. 

I met an incredible group of ladies with event innovations back when I was at the university of san diego.  EI is an event management company & beyond! 

Geri is mrs. ei.  she has created a company that enables & empowers women/mommies to use their smarts & their creativity (outside of their mommy skills).  ei allows women to be a self-starter, set their own hours, work remotely, experience new challenges, and to succeed!

I connected with the ladies right away, got to work with them a bit here & there, and lucky for me, they were recently looking for some part-time help with an upcoming event.

one of their clients, the oligonucleotide therapeutics society (quite a mouthful), is hosing their annual meeting in copenhagen, denmark this year.  originally I was just working on data management, but my list has quickly grown.  I now have post-its all over my table, reservations for an apartment in copenhagen, and a passport application for anabelle.  we will be spending a week over there while I get the opportunity to co-manage the event on site at the royal library.  the plan right now is for chris to come along.  he has applied for a job that would have us moving in september so if he gets it, he can’t go.  my friend amy has agreed to be on stand-by (thank you amy!) and will step in if that’s the case.  bonus – my friend & doula, alexis, is the project manager for this event and she will be traveling over with her family too, including her new baby . . due in just a few more weeks!

I haven’t processed what it will be like to be away from anabelle for all day, for a few days in a row, but I know we’ll figure it out.

so that’s the story of the mermaid.  cheers to the special ladies of ei - Geri, micki, & Alexis . . . . oh, & now me too!

cheers to digital

there are always more pictures to share

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anabelle helps herself to her toys

‘hello, i’m awake now.  can someone help?’

‘there has to be a way out of here’

anabelle is getting more & more stable with her walker

helping papa get his things ready for work

‘i wonder if this will make my mouth feel better’

‘hmm, not bad!’

‘that works too’

‘ahh, that’s nice & cool’

a few fun anabelle moments

a dinnertime serenade

 

she’s usually pretty funny once she’s up from her nap

anabelle’s latest:

she’s making kissy noises along & the occasional fishy face

raspberries with her tongue (watch out for the spray!)

she helps with putting her arms through her sleeves when I’m getting her dressed

she seems to have discovered her own eyelashes and sometimes rubs them with her finger as she sucks her thumb when we’re bouncing her.

her hair continues to be amazing and she can definitely work the bed-head look.  she wear a barrette (or two for swim class) everyday now.

going under water at swim class and not swallowing the water.  she even looks for me after she comes back up with a sort ‘hey mom, did you see that?!’ face.

she’s quick to scoot to the door stopper and play a little tune.

she’s pulling up all over the place.  she even pulled up on my legs at the gym on friday.

yesterday she woke up and seemed to have so much to say.  overnight she figured out how to have inflection in her babble.  I love listening to it.  today she added a new sound that sure sounds a lot like da-da!  ok, maybe it sounds like duh-duh but chris was excited when I told him about it.

update on chris:

chris headed out to japan a couple days ago for mdtc . . . a selective class, sort of the marine version of top gun.  classes start for him on monday and I know he’s ready to get things moving.  he’s been studying for months.  anabelle and I were thankful for the extra hour of undivided attention we got at the airport when the ticket agent gave me a security pass to follow chris to his gate.  I guess they are able to do that when the service member is on military orders.  it was a really nice surprise.

chris will be home at the end of june and I can pretty much guarantee that he won’t be the least bit tired of flying . . . flying his jet, I mean.

we miss him, of course!  tons & tons.  anabelle and I are flying home to florida next week to see our family and help the time swoosh on by.  not too fast though.  this anabelle seems to be changing every time I get her out of her crib.  she rocks!

birthday pics

birthdays are just lovely

I’ve been meaning to post some pics from my birthday, but since it was aleady over a month ago and the pics were on my old computer I kept forgetting.

side note – I can’t believe that anabelle’s birthday is only 43 days away!

my anabelle is sound asleep right now (please rest, but no more growing, little one) so I’m catching up on the blog list in my head.

- - - - - - -

anabelle and i met up with amy and jake at eclipse chocolat for their sunday brunch.  what a way to start the celebration!  if you haven’t been there i definitely recommend it.  you at least have to check out their menu.  their slogan is ‘chocolate-making as alchemy’.  come on, how can you go wrong with that? 

it’s almost always a delicious time when we get together with auntie amy!

on the topic of tasty, here are my mini birthday bundts that I made – barefoot contessa’s recipe for orange chocolate chunk mini’s.  my ganache was a bit thick but they were still delish!

just hanging out waiting for papa to get home

our mademoiselle anabelle

happy birthday to me

i am loving that this software lets me play around with all of my fonts too!

iphone app

i’m still learning my iphone and have a whopping total of 4 apps downloaded on it - one of which is the hipstamatic photography app.  i had seen a few friends posting pics from it on facebook and wanted to give it a try too.  i know there are plenty more features available that i haven’t figured out yet, but even if you just install it and start clicking, you’re bound to get something pretty fun!

here are a few of my favs from yesterday:

i love this last one!  it’s fun to see anabelle scrunch up her nose when she laughs & smiles . . . i do that, too.

 

i still windows live writer.

check it out - it lets you insert emoticons, maps, even a table if you like.  another bonus that i just realized, as you type your post it appears just as it will once it’s published.  i really like that.  posting through the blogger site was pretty hit or miss.

windows live writer

alright, here is my first post using windows live writer and so far it’s pretty awesome!  blogger/blogspot is great but rather limiting.  i find that it seems to have hidden codes throughout it that formats your page on its own and i usually can’t figure out how to override it which can be a little frustrating when trying to add a bunch of pictures and put them in a certain order or position.

live writer is much more like a word processor.  you can easily change the font, colors, alignment, add pics, video, links . . . bonus that it’s free!

ok, time for a pic:

how fun!  you can easily change the size of the pic, crop, edit the border (see the rounded corners?), move, even tilt.  most importantly, you can undo, which makes everything so much easier!

oh man, watch out blog world!

as for the picture, can you see that tooth?!  it gets taller and brighter everyday and i can even see the one next to it starting to push to the surface.

I haven’t figured out a way to edit the font for the title quite yet, but that not too big of a deal I suppose.  maybe it will correct itself when I hit ‘publish’.  I guess we’ll see.

how about another pic?

now I think I’ll try a video.

enjoying a little afternoon swinging at the park

ok, you have to have a youtube account in order to post videos.  easy enough.  live writer even lets you adjust the size of the video screen, choose standard or widescreen, and makes it so easy to move it around.  You can even test the video before you publish the post.

as you upload your video, you have to include a tag word(s).  just realized that it then finds other youtube videos with the same tag and shows thumbnails for those videos after your video is done playing.  not sure I really like that.  wonder if I can turn that off.

that’s if for now.  as if I don’t spend enough time on the computer already . . . goodness.  I’m pretty excited though - cheers to the creative snazzy blog I’ve imagined in my head! 

I’m getting there!

blog tips

if you keep a blog yourself, check out this blog sent to me from my friend rachael (thanks, rach!) for another mommy's finds to improve and 'backup' your site.

i just installed windows live writer (free!) and am so excited to try it out.

here is a quick collage until the next new & improved post:

photog blog

we made the blog for schafer photography!

click here

hmm . . . now which ones do we pick to print?

slideshow

finally got all of my pictures off my old phone and my old computer.

so tadah,

anabelle's 10 month slideshow is all done!

photos of my fam

i was rather indiscrete with my hinting that i wanted family pictures taken for my birthday.

we met jason & julia (schafer photography) out at seaport village last sunday and had a blast! we just got the link to the online gallery today and the pictures turned out so amazing.

feel free to look if you like. there are a bunch!

click here for the gallery

password: susan

thanks jason & julie. we love them all!

happy birthday to me!

strong & tall

yesterday was the first day i'd seen anabelle pull herself up on her walker. with her first tooth popping through it has been quite a big week!

good thing the fireplace was there to stop the walker from really taking off

- - - - -

this is anabelle.

she is a good little monkey and always very curious!

i love that this video captures a little bit of everything she's up to these days.

we love her so!

proud papa

he was quite impressed with himself and his animal tower

manual mode

this weekend i attended my first photography workshop and it was so great!

a friend of mine and his wife have their own photography business (schafer photography) and hosted a 'capturing your kids' workshop for parents to learn to really use, understand, and take full advantage of their cameras.

step 1 . . . set your camera on manual mode.

i have been able to capture some pretty great pics of our little anabelle by just pointing and shooting. i have good equipment and a super cute baby, that's about all i can say. i wasn't doing anything special or even knowing really what was making some pics turn out great while others were awful.

go ahead, ask me about ISO, f-stop, or shutter speed now! (ok, i only know the basics but i'm learning.) as if that wasn't a big enough day, it was my first time away from anabelle for that long. i was gone for over 5 hours (chris and anabelle got to have a fun afternoon together). the workshop went by really quickly. it was just the drive home that seemed to take for-ever!

i've been interested in photography for a long time. i remember my first camera. i got my le clic when i was about 5 or 6, very cool! did you have one of these?

in high school i got a generic 35mm that i think my mom won on the radio. i'm pretty sure i used that until it broke.

my parents got me a 35mm rebel when i graduated from college (i was so excited). chris and i have had a few pocket digital cameras, i got my dslr rebel a couple years ago, and then i got a portrait lens last summer after anabelle was born.

here are a couple pics from the workshop (thanks jason & julia!)

shooting on manual definitely has a learning curve (an endless learning curve, i think). there are several things to think about and adjustments to make. since i'm still so new at it, i figured it might be best to start practicing when anabelle is stationary (which doesn't happen as often as it used to). i decided to try shooting my first real 'manual' pics while anabelle was in her highchair and in the bath. here are a few of my favorites that i've taken so far.

so fun!

i have lots to learn and lots of practicing to do which is completely fine with me, yah!

new moves and new noises

i'm catching up on videos too.

anabelle is going to be on her feet in her crib in no time at all. it makes me laugh sometimes when i got in there to get her and she's just sitting up playing with her toys and she has turned her sleep sheep back on just relaxing to a little beluga whale.

listening to katy perry pandora radio and enjoying some dinner.

how old does she have to be before i can buy our fabulous matching aprons?

how about the cool wooden play kitchen?

she just started making this noise over the weekend. it's even more fun when papa plays along.

*this morning, i felt the tip of a tooth!! (bottom front right)

go anabelle!

iphone

never really thought i'd own an iphone but after years and years of talking about it chris finally got one and well, i did too!

i'm still figuring out how it works, finding apps i like, and playing around with the camera. thankfully i'm getting better at the navigation. one of my first attempts when i was looking up how to get to my nephew's birthday party approximately 25 miles away, it told me it was going to take over 8 hours. oh, then i realized i had somehow selected 'walking directions'. ha!

as i wait for my old computer to be repaired so i can get the rest of my photos and put together anabelle's 10 month slideshow, i'm enjoying my new computer and loading it up with new folders full of new pictures.

here are a bunch of pics that have been hiding on my iphone.

- - - - - -

ready for miss betsy's birthday party

praticing the new trick daddy taught her

checking out my fabulous new handmade camera strap - thanks jen!

(buy one for yourself and ALL of your friends on jen's etsy shop, www.browardpatch.etsy.com)

sweet bed head

after her first day of swim class

rise & shine!

another happy morning together

fun & sunshine at the park with auntie amy

fun & sunshine can be exhausting

playing with papa

dinner time!

the headband helps keep food out of her hair . . . well, sometimes