My Little Shoe Lover

While I hit an amazing shoe sale at Bloomie's a while back, my little man was not about to be left out! Pabbi got some photos....

27 weeks and 20 lbs

'Nuff Said...

Our New Addition - Zoe the Kitty!

So, I'm a cat person. I can't remember a time growing up when my family didn't have one. When I went to college I sorely missed it and managed to convince my then-boyfriend now-husband to get one during our last year in Madison. We had that crazy-arse, borderline-psychotic animal for ten years before moving to Hoboken where we remained catless for 2 years.

I decided this summer that I had had enough of our fur free existence and we started on our journey to find a kitten to join our family. Initially we were focused on getting a Scottish Fold. This was a result of seeing some viral videos of Maru the Japanese Scottish Fold who seemed unmistakably awesome and sweet natured. After years of abuse by the aforementioned psycho feline, temperment was obviously very high on our list of "requirements" and the Fold is supposed to be perfect for families with small children...

However, the search turned out to be futile. Who knew that cat breeders don't return e-mail inquiries? I guess people are still spending their hard earned money on animals despite the economy.

After being ignored by a number of these crazy cat ladies, we (read: I) decided to take matters into our own hands and hit some local shelters and check out their selection.

Well, it ended up being the best decision we could have made, because we found the newest member of our family, Zoe.  Now the testosterone/estrogen balance in our family is a little more balanced...

While we were slightly nervous about being clueless about her background or personality going into the adoption, she seemed incredibly sweet and mild mannered when we played with her at the Pasadena Humane Society and once we found out she had lost her tail in some unknown altercation/accident we decided to give her a chance.

She has ended up being one of most amazing cats I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. First of all, she LOVES Markus. He is allowed to pet her and poke and prod her without and repurcussions. She actually seems to enjoy it! How many kittens enjoy playing with todllers!?!?There have been some good lessons learned about sharing and being gentle that I am sure will come in handy in three months time. 

She is one big fur ball of love and wants to cuddle as much as possible, but is also independent and does her own thing. She is a gentle soul and if you can't already tell, I am totally in love. We lucked out.

Watching a movie on a Friday night...

She is going to be SERIOUSLY disappointed

when she loses her belly perch....

Teeny Tiny Diaper

Dave came home from spending a few days in San Francisco for work on friday and pulled this little thing out of his pocket:

Yes, I used the magazine as a point of reference...this is a diaper for a 1000 gram baby. Markus was 3,650 grams when he was born (for you non-Europeans, that is 8 lbs). Do the math...yikes!

Dave was visiting the NICU at a hospital in San Fran and got a tour of the facilities.  As a result he saw a bunch of the teeny, weeny, itsy, bitsy babies that aren't doing too well. I'm glad it was him, because I'm not sure I could have dealt. It really made me think about what amazing people those doctors that choose to work in pediatric medicine are. Saints, that's all I have to say. Let's all take a moment and be thankful for the little things in life :) xo

Fern Dell walk in Griffith Park

This park is a whopping 1.5 miles from our house. Add the fantastic weather and the SoCal thing ain't so bad ;-)

Dirty Diesel

Little Dude looooves this song. It's a little grating after a while, but you gotta smile...

Just Another Day at the Rollo...

Ridin' My Trike

Ok, so he started riding his tricycle about 2 months ago and we'll be starting him off on a real bicycle around his birthday in three weeks, but I haven't gotten around to posting very much since we moved as y'all know....

Here is some footage. He's obviously got some work to do on his steering, but he's taking it one day at a time :)

New Favorite Food...

CORN!!

Sleeping Beauty

New Favorite Game!

New Camera!

We finally took the plunge and bought  a Canon Powershot G10 camera!

We are super psyched about the results - beautiful high quality photos that kick our old photos' butts. Hopefully it will also inspire us to take more photos and videos of our beautiful, photogenic little guy and the upcoming addition to our family....

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Amma and her Crew

Amma is quite possibly the richest woman in the world....she has the complete and unquestioning adoration of this incredible crew (including the buddha cat, Stulli).

xoxo

I Love Afi :)

It's been a loooooong time since we posted last, but hopefully things will change and we'll get a little better with keeping peeps updated with our ever-changing lives :)

One of the things we did during our blog hiatus was spend a month in Iceland with our fam. Markus Kari loved many things about our trip, one in particular was his afi...

Here's some video of the dudes doing their thing:

A Few More From Luca's B-Day Bash

Just adding a few more photos from Luca's awesome b-day party/ Enjoy!

     Deville's name misspelled....he deserves better ;-)

Smiley face is appropriate for the happiest little dude ever!

Parachute Fun!

Markus Kari attended an awesome birthday party this weekend. His little buddy Luca Van turned 1! I still can't believe it, but I guess time isn't going to slow down just because it freaks me out ;-) In any case, Markus had a fantabulous time and experienced his first parachute game which he looooooved!!! More photos from the festivities to follow...

Life Is Simple

It never ceases to amazes me how easily amused a toddler can be. Mostly, all Markus Kari really needs is his pabbi, but a little something like a flashlight never hurts...

Dancing with the Stars Here I Come!!

Ummm, maybe I'll have to do some work on the tongue control thing first followed by the getting famous thing, but now that we're moving to LA, maybe the latter will just happen instantaneously...

Markus Kari is a Closet Hippie :)

ABCs

Markus Kari first sang his ABCs for me when he came home from his first NBA game in Oct/Nov. It pretty much made me cry to see what a big boy he had become. Now he sings it 10 times a day, along with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old MacDonald Had a Farm and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Below is one rather successful run through of ABC followed by another, a little less successful, yet more "soulful" version. Enjoy :)

Markus Kari and the World's Best Buddha Cat

Stulli is the most loving, lovable, fantastic cat in the whole world as is evidenced by his patience in his dealings with small children (ok, he's also a pretty old cat these days, but he has always had this demeanor). If you listen to the dialogue in this video you'll hear Markus Kari's father teaching him that he has a tail - real quality parenting in motion here :)

Markus Kari and Katrin Jammin Out on X-Mas

Ummm...is it bad that I crack up at my son's lack of coordination every time I see this?