FOR TEGAN

 Dear Tegan,
Thank you so much for allowing me to share in the celebration of your marriage to Ben this past weekend.  You were absolutely glowing, head-to-toe, with your infectious laugh and beautiful smile.  The evening was truly enchanting.  If nymphs and fairies exist, I am sure they were in attendance as you exchanged vows under the canopy of pine trees with a warm breeze blowing.  Loved, loved, loved all of the wonderful details you put together - vintage mugs for each guest, the polaroid station with wooden frames hanging from the trees, white lights and tiki torches lighting up the night, the tree house honeymoon suite, vintage church pews for ceremony seating, a glowing teepee for the kiddos to play in, a rope swing, homemade guacamole sampling to compliment the taco truck feast, homemade snowball cookies and candy apples set on sticks, beautiful wild flowers everywhere, and the bomb dance mix to get your guests moving.  Wow!   You could tell that so much love and creativity was poored into every detail.  It was truly one of the most magical events I have ever attended. 

I wanted you to know that when the guests were urged to get up and say a few words to the bride and groom, I was really tempted, though my own fears and self-consciousness kept me in my seat.  Not one for public speeches, I thought of all the things I wished to say.  Rather give a public declaration there, I hope you will accept this semi-public declaration on my blog (which I know you read) instead :)   I know we have not kept in the best touch over the past 15 years, but I am thankful for the fact we have been able to hold a friendship from a distance.  Whether through our blogs, facebook, updates from Ade, or the occasional times we have seen each other in person, I love seeing the beautiful person you have become: a runner, an amazing mother, a teacher, a master sewer, an adventurer, and now a wife.

If I had had the guts to stand in front of the microphone on Saturday I would have shared some of my favorite memories from our first year together at UCSB.  Often I hear people tell horror stories of their first year of college in the dorms.  I feel so lucky that I had such an opposite experience.  Thankfully you requested of Coach Pete to "live with a runner" before roommates were randomly assigned.  I remember the day Adrienne called and asked if I wanted to live with a girl named Tegan.  "She is trying out for UCSB cross-country, too, and I know you will like her."  Well, she was right.  When I arrived to San Nick with my family on move in day and saw the tiny blond-haired girl from Nor Cal there with her mom, I knew we would be friends.  Needless to say, I did not make the cross country team, and instead decided to join a sorority.  Despite the difference of our extra circular activities, we bonded as I curled my hair for sorority rush and you packed your bag for practice.  As I reflect back I think of all of our hilarious moments of that first year.  Both of us were on the 2-meal-a-day plan at the dining commons which was not enough for our voracious appetites.  We would sneak out rice and garbanzo beans, or makings for smoothies in our "tups" so we would be sure to have snacks back at the dorms.  That was after, of course, we blew through the packs of Pop Tarts and Power Bars my mom had packed for us at the beginning of the year.  I have fond memories of dancing to "Mikey's Mix Tapes" and acting out every karate chop of "Kung Fu Fighting".  You introduced me to a new range of music, and to this day I can't get enough of Joni Mitchell's Blue album.  Brandy, you ARE a fine girl, what a good wife you will be.  I recall a chocolate cake fight where your B-Day celebration resulted in yummy frosting in our hair, on our walls and all over our clothes.  Those clothes that were mostly our everyday uniform of Levi cords, vintage T's, and V-neck wool sweaters that we would borrow from each other doubling our wardrobes. There was the night we decided it was a good idea to take every freshman's right of passage and leap from the Goleta Pier into the dark ocean water below with the boys from the Santa Cruz dorms.  Yikes, you cracked your sternum, perhaps not our best judgment call.  When winter arrived we made a snow storm of construction paper flakes that adorned our closet walls until late spring, and who could forget dressing in hoodies to go spying on the boys we had crushes on.  Do you remember, embarrassingly enough, coloring ourselves with yellow highlighter so we would glow with the black light?   Oh, and dance parties at Eliza and Ade's.  I am sure I am forgetting so many of the things that kept us up talking late into the night, and laughing throughout the days.  I am so glad to have shared those moments with you.  So many firsts as we tread on our independence of moving away from home for the first time.  I hold those moments dearly as a huge part of my college experience that helped shape who I am today.

I just want to say thank you for your friendship and for the good memories.   May there be many more to come.  Also, a huge congratulations to you and Ben.  He seems to be your perfect soul mate - both gentle and kind - and clearly loves you and Loma very much.  Wishing you much love, laughter and happiness in all the years to come.

xo,
Cathi

p.s. I borrowed the image from your facebook :)

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN - JIGGITY JIG

Right now I am pondering whether to begin sipping a steaming cup of coffee to start my day, or whether to hold off and see if Annabelle will fall back asleep so I can, too.  Last night was a late one.  Annabelle and I have finally returned from our last trip of the summer and though we had blast, I am glad to sit tight in New York for awhile.  I have just two short months left of maternity leave and I want to maximize quality time with our girl with minimal planes, trains, and automobiles.  Due to some stormy weather in New York, our flight was slightly delayed putting us at JFK at 1:00 am.  Nate picked us up at the airport and by 2:00 we were back in our cozy apartment for a final feeding, a little playtime and eventually bedtime. This final trip of the summer really put our travel skills to the test.  We flew to Las Vegas to spend time with my family who was attending my cousin's wedding at the Mandalay Bay.  Then from Vegas we flew to Northern California to attend the wedding of my roommate from freshman year at UCSB, Tegan.  Between hotel switches, layovers, and rental cars in a 4-day span, Annie E is proving herself to be quite the traveler.  At not even 4 months old she has been on a plane 7 times!  She seems to mostly sleep during travel time, adopting a "wake me when we get there" attitude.

Anyways, now that we are home, I am feeling the urge to blog and give an update on our girl.  She is changing so fast every week and I want to be sure to savor and document the moments of her short life so far.  Annabelle is more lovable than ever with her big cheeks that I just can't stop kissing.  When I kiss her little feet or her cheeks she opens her mouth in a big 'O' of happiness and attempts to get some laughs out that right now sound like "eh, eh, eh."  Speaking of laughs, to date we have had 4 good belly laughs from her.  They are not yet a regular occurrence, but when we are surprised by one, it is the most joyous sound to hear.  She has discovered her feet, as I mentioned in a previous post, and just loves to hold onto them when she is lying on her back, rolling side to side.  She has perfected "happy baby pose" which comes in handy during diaper changes.  Annabelle can now grasp her toys and tries to put everything in her mouth including her hands, which makes for a very drool-y baby.  We often now say to her in our best Julia Childs voice, "Hello, I'm Droolia Childs," which we think is much funnier than she does.  She continues to want to stand like a big girl with our support, strengthening her cute little legs that are getting chubbier by the day.  This is also helping her strengthen her neck muscles for added head support, though she still has a bit of a bobble head.  When standing she always looks side to side, back and forth, just to make sure she is not missing anything going on around her, reminding us of an owl with her big eyes.  Aunt Ade believes she comes from a long line of owl ancestors.  Her hair is a constant source of amusement for us, growing in at strange patterns.  The dark baby hair that never fell out, continues to grow longer competing with the new growth that is coming in lighter (almost blond).  The circular spiral pattern on the top of her head that we refer to as the "eye of the storm" is in full effect, as is the mullet-like long pieces in the back that we call her "mud flap."  Depending on the humidity, her hair can be curly or straight, giving her some versatile styling options.  Annabelle gets more vocal every day.  Her language of "om" is adding new sounds that she is beginning to string together into a babble.  She enjoys reading her books and tries to help turn the pages.  Her favorite books so far include the Baby Einstein Animal Book series, a gift from Barb Letterman, and My Cat Just Sleeps, a gift from the Boosers'.  She has proven that she can roll from her stomach to her back, though she only performs this move at her own will, and extremely sporadically.  Other miles stones: she can now ride in the Baby Bjorn or the Moby wrap facing out rather than in with her head on my chest.  I believe she enjoys this brand new view of the world.  I am loving introducing her to new games and songs and mostly dance around making funny faces and voices trying to get reactions out of her.  Some of her facial expressions remind me so much of Nathan and I see more and more of him in her everyday.  As she grows, so do her list of nick names which now include the following:

Annie E

Annabellita (my favorite)

Annabellewski (Bellewski for short)

Bella-rues (Her Russian Name)

Banana-Bell

Cabana Anna

Molly B (Courtesy of Grandpa Mike)

Pookie Bear (which I don't particularly like, but it keeps coming out of my mouth)

It will be amazing if she ever recognizes her real name since we continually call her by her nick-names!  Here is a recent picture taken the day before we left for our trip.  She is wearing her "Breastmilk - 100% Organic" Nutritional Facts shirt, a gift from Aunt Ade. 

P.S. Annie E is now napping and I just finished that steaming cup of coffee.  No sleep for mama.  Perhaps I will catch up during the afternoon nap.  :)  More on our trip later...

EL SAL

While Annabelle and I were visiting California, Nathan was doing some visiting of his own.  He was on a 'guys' surf trip' in El Salvador.  He had a great time with his buddies, Drew, JD and Jason and supposedly they scored some good waves.  Not being one of the guys, I clearly have never been on a 'guys' surf trip.  If I had, I guess it wouldn't be a 'guys trip' and for that matter, would be more of a family vaca than a 'surf trip'.  Anyway, how I imagine the 'guys' surf trip' is the boys surfing 4-5 times a day with breaks to eat, nap, and drink cervezas.  Repeat.  Here are some photos from their El Sal adventure.  Looks beautiful.  I hope to one day visit on a family vacation!

I HEART PAPPI

CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES

As promised, I wanted to give an update on our California adventures.  Two and a half weeks ago, Annabelle and I said goodbye to Nathan at JFK and boarded our flight to California.  Traveling solo with a baby was slightly more challenging than having Nate with us, but we managed quite well.  Annabelle slept for almost the entire flight in my lap, while I occupied my time watching a the American Airlines movie and horrible TV entertainment that followed.  One thing about traveling with a lap infant, is knitting or reading are out of the question as both hands are likely to be occupied.  Next time I am going to download an audio book for my ipod.  We arrived safe and sound, and Aunt Ade and Papa John were there to greet us curb side.  Unfortunately, traffic was horrible back to Westlake, since supposedly it was the some of the first good weather Cali had seen in some time.  We learned quickly that Annabelle hates traffic, and let us know every time we came to a creeping halt.  She was like the movie Speed: go below 55 mph and the bomb will go off.  Regardless we made it to the Village and had a good time catching up with the family.

On Tuesday evening Annabelle and I were scooped up by Jessica for our drive down to Laguna.  Dion and Donnell's Grandma Dorris was kind enough to loan us her beach house for the week.  It is perched just above the glorious Victoria Beach. Almost every room in the house offers amazing views of the sparkling Pacific and stretches of white sand beach.  It was the perfect venue to reunite our group of college girlfriends with all of our children.  Between the six ladies, we managed to bring together our 7 children for the first time.  The oldest being Milo at 2 1/2 and the youngest, out little Annabelle, at 3 months.  You can imagine the craziness that ensued.  It was amazing to watch all of the different stages the kiddos were in and fun to see what I have in store as Annie E grows older.  The toddlers, Milo and Wyatt, ruled the roost, running around playing cars and chasing seagulls.  Donnell's twins, Paisley and Preston, were crawling about, pulling themselves up on everything including each other.  Looks like the Coulehan's will have two little walkers on their hands very soon.  Sweet Waylon and Ruby were still content playing quietly with their toys in one place, but from the looks of things that won't last long with Ruby beginning to get her scoot on.  Annabelle watched in amazement at her older friends and took to her typical eating and napping routine.  Beach time proved to be quite different than that of our past - no longer are the days of bounding off for an ocean swim or even conking out for a nap.  We had our hands full hauling umbrellas, snacks and sand toys down to the beach and then keeping eagle eyes out for the kids.  Though different, it was incredibly rewarding watching the kids enjoy themselves and each other.  At night after Donnell did her famous assembly line feeding of the babies and they settled off to bed, the adults enjoyed some quiet time amongst the static buzz of five baby monitors.

Each night we feasted on a delicious meal and relaxed with a glass of wine while we caught up with each other.  Adrienne came down for the last two nights and she Annabelle and I had a sleepover in the master bedroom.  It meant so much to me to spend time with these fabulous ladies.  I am truly blessed to have each of them in my life always offering a quick laugh, a hug, advice, and their friendship.  I miss them dearly when in New York and look forward to family vacations in future as our kids grow up together.  Here's some pics of the kiddos (from oldest to youngest, left to right: Milo (Dion's) Wyatt (Jessica's) Ruby (Dion's) Paisley (Donnell's), Preston (Donnell's) Waylon (Jen's) Annabelle (mine)...

On Saturday Adrienne and I returned to Westlake for more family time and visiting.  We joked that my mom was cooking like an Italian Grandma.  Each night was a BBQ feast with fresh cold salads and of course, dessert.   Jamie and Katherine brought over little Hunter so the cousins could get some quality time together.  They don't really interact with each other yet, but it is fun seeing them together.

On Sunday Adrienne took me to the Hollywood Bowl to see Yacht and the Chemical Brothers.  She purchased a package of tickets for the summer and this was the last concert of the season.  We did it old-school Hollywood Bowl style by packing a delicious picnic. We met up with our old family friends Jason, Jamie and Chris Fiore and had some good laughs before the show started.  Adrienne and I really enjoyed Yacht who opened, and the Chemical Brothers brought me back to those early post-college days of dancing at Cochella.  As soon as the music started our entire section stood to dance and we didn't stop until it was time to go.  It was a perfect summer night and I definitely anticipate purchasing a summer package at the Bowl when we return to California some day.  What a great way to spend an evening.

The following day our family friends, the Ledterman's came over.  Alison brought her three kids Mckenna, Lincoln and Logan.  We pulled down the Barbies from my closet for Mckenna, though I think Ade and I enjoyed dressing them more than Mckenna.  Then it was pool time - we swam and played games with kids.  Annabelle even had her first jacuzzi which she seemed to enjoy.

On Tuesday my friend Kelly came over for a tostada brunch on the deck with mint lemonade and spring greens.  We caught up for the first time in ages and she got to meet Annabelle.  Later in the week we made our way to Venice to meet Katherine and Josh's little dude, Jagger (5 weeks).  He is incredibly precious, checking out the world around him with a sneaky little smile on his face.

Other happenings included a surprise massage as a B-Day present from Ade with lunch in Santa Monica, a quick catch up lunch with Colleen, a trip to the Getty with the Czerwinski crew and lots of quality time with Grandma Diane who came down from Petaluma for a quick visit.  Mostly I enjoyed waking up every morning to the faces that I love, relaxing, and spending quality time with the family.  I also managed to sneak in a trip to the orthodontist to have my teeth fixed.  :) The trip seemed to fly by and before I knew it we were boarding the plane back to JFK. We were sad to leave, but excited to see Nathan who we missed very much.  He was in El Salvador surfing for a portion of the trip, but he was quite ready to have his girls back by the time he returned to NY.  Somehow I managed to take over 300 photos while away, so now I am busy sorting through them, which is my latest project.  Here are few other random shots from our stay...Missing California already.  We'll be back.  XO.

VANS - OFF THE WALL

As if the seasons new exactly which day Labor Day was, the weather made a miraculous change on the 4th.  Gone are the steamy days of humid heat and hello to first days of fall.  Today was gray and raining so we threw on sweaters and took off for a rainy day activity - a visit to the MOMA.  As we cruised through floor after floor of Warhol, Picasso, Van Gough and Chagall, Annie E. found her own favorite piece of art "off the wall."  With her feet elevated in front of her in the stroller, she could not take her eyes of her shoes - checkered Vans slip-ons.  She spent the entire visit kicking in amazement that those spectacular shoes were attached to her feet.  It is the little things....

BACK TO THE NYC

After 2 1/2 weeks in California, Annabelle and I returned to New York last night.  We were sad to leave behind our friends and family, but very excited to see Nathan (Pappi) who was requesting our presence at home.  One of the last text messages he sent read:  "She is huge, bring her home" in response to a photo I had emailed him.  Annabelle did, in fact, have a growth spurt while we were gone.  At today's doctor appointment she weighed 11 lbs, 6 oz.  She is officially out of her newborn clothes and ready for the 3-6 month wardrobe.  Most exciting is she has officially graduate from her sleep sack, to "big girl" pajamas with feet, to keep her toes-ies warm.  Annabelle traveled like a champ for her second trip to Cali and will be an old veteran by the time we leave for two upcoming weddings in a few weeks.  Today, following Annabelle's doctor's appointment we are both a bit tired.  Annabelle seems a bit confused by the time change and a nap is definitely on the schedule for both of us.  Then it is off to Chelsea Market to prepare appetizers for Seder Dinner tonight at Mia's.  The stacks of laundry and mail, cleaning and unpacking will have to wait for another day.  More on our fabulous trip later.  XO.