Green Family visit

My cousin Jan, her husband, Gerry, and daughter Neily came through town on a roadtrip last night and stayed the night at Casa Valenzona. We loved having them visit our home for the first time. We shared a few great meals (it's lucky i know lasagne for dinner and pancakes for breakfast- 2 of my limited specials!) and stayed up late for girl talk with good wine (Jan and Christie) and boy talk with good cigars by the pool (Gerry and Guy). Neily was so sweet to bring boxes of her toys to hand down to Avery and some very special hand-made gifts. Thank you Neily! Avery will love her new books, dolls and games. Unfortunately, Avery came down with the horrible-sounding, but very common "Hand, Foot and Mouth virus" and a cold the day before their visit so our normally joyful, sleeps-through-the-night baby was a bit irritable and decided to wake up crying every hour through the night! Sorry, Greens! We hope they will get more rest at their hotel in Monterey tonight. We hope they love the aquarium too. Here are a few pictures taken before they left this morning for SF and Monterey (please note Christie's sweet pajama attire and bright green socks- it's the uniform for all deliriously tired mommies :-)

Fun in the Sun with my Nana

Now that Avery can sit up strong by herself, we've been getting her out to enjoy the great weather and crawl around on a blanket in the grass. It's so fun to watch her feel the grass for the first time- we take these things for granted! While mommy was away doing some work, Nana set up a picnic on the front lawn and Avery and Nana had so much fun with their cups of water and hats. This close- up shot is one of my new favorites- I just love my sweet girl! Avery also loved showing Nana the coastline at Fort Cronkhite today. Such pretty views and nice warm weather- we are loving the approach of Spring!

Sunny days are here again!

After weeks of rain, the sun has come out and the weather is warming up! We try to keep Sundays as family day, so we headed to Fort Cronkhite- right near the GG Bridge- for some lunch on the beach and a walk along the coastal trail. It was the first time for Avery to wear her flappy sun hat she got when she was born- it was great at keeping the sun off her pure, sweet skin. It's weird to think that her skin has really never been affected by the sun and I wish I could keep it that way for the rest of her life. I'm sure she'll reject my idea of having her wear a turtleneck in the sun when she's 5! We had a great day together and took some fun pictures. Avery has a bit of a runny nose in these pics because we think she's finally teething. Hard to believe she's almost 11 months!

Fun with Nana

Nana Judy is visiting this week and we've been having a great time! I always love when my mom visits because Avery gets to spend time with her Nana and it gives me support and help. Avery has been crawling up a storm and Nana has been spending a lot of time around the house watching her crawl. We have an area set up in the living room that is safe for Avery to crawl freely- basically a circle of furniture as barriers. On this day, we brought her into the other room to crawl around, but kept having to turn her around when she found a non-baby proofed area. She's also babbling alot and has a few key words- "Hi!" and "up" when we pick her up. It's amazing to see her develop. I hope you will enjoy this new video!