Category Archives: Uncategorized

Happy Arbor Day

Posted on March 7, 2013 | 1 Comment

In case I haven’t seen you already today… Happy California Arbor Day. :) You would not believe how much of my life revolves around Arbor Day lately. We’ve just kicked off our big California Arbor Week Tour with the TreeCircus and we have 10 straight days of educational shows and tree climbing at sites throughout California. It took some magic to pull this one out of the hat, but someone up there must be pulling some strings for us. (Either my grandpa or Luther Burbank, most likely both.)

Today I celebrated in Palo Alto at a “spa day” for El Palo Alto, for which the city is named. It’s over 1000 years old and got some extra loving care from volunteers today including a full intensive “check-up” to make sure it’s healthy and strong.

This weekend I’ll be at two Arbor Week events in Oakland… at a Friends of Wood Park tree planting on Saturday and at a TreeCircus show/tree climbing event at Fairyland on Sunday. Then the tour heads south and I get to take a break… :)

So anyway… if you think all this tree love is a bunch of bologna, I suggest you visit InvestFromTheGroundUp.org and read about how rad trees actually are. Not only do they clean the air (duh), they raise property values, lower electric bills, filter rainwater, provide homes for animals, reduce stress levels, encourage people to spend more time in downtown shopping districts, and yes… create jobs. Trees… I am forever indebted to you. Thanks a mill.

(PS – I am sticking to my oath of giving up exclamation points for Lent and it was especially hard during this post. Just had to get that out there.)

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Street Kids of the Haight

Posted on February 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

If you ever been to our neighborhood, you’ve noticed quite a few homeless youth around. I constantly go back and forth between wanting to help them (especially the ones with face tattoos) and accepting that they’ve chosen this lifestyle. I know it’s a mix of both, but here’s an article that really explores the influences behind these kids and where they came from. From what this journalist explains, they’re all pretty stoked on their lifestyle and would rather have the freedom of sleeping outside instead of being a slave to a rent check. They’ve never bothered me, so I say live and let live.

{peace dove shirt from Etsy seller IceCreamTees}

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Bike ridin’

Posted on May 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

We’ve been planning on getting Tilly a bike seat for her birthday for a while, but the weather on Sunday was just so beautiful that we gave in and bought it early! We had planned on buying one from REI but we did some quick cost comparison on our iPhones while we walked to our local bike shop, and decided the local place was worth it.

That afternoon we found ourselves whizzing down JFK along with dozens of other San Franciscans! We went all the way to the beach and kicked back for a while on the grass at the Park Chalet. On our way there, I could hardly contain myself… It was so wonderful!

I think we took a little too long at the beach because Tilly was looking pretty tired as we saddled back up. Right on cue, she tried to fall asleep on the ride home but instead just cried the whole way. Boo! The whole ride home is uphill, and luckily Tilly was on Josh’s bike, so I tossed him the keys and he zipped home to get her to bed. Meanwhile, I slugged up the hill… I kid you not, a jogger passed me. SAD! But I didn’t stop and finally conquered it.

I can’t wait for our next ride, hopefully this weekend. Maybe we’ll make it a Sunday tradition…

Here are some pics. Doesn’t Tilly remind you of Bob the Builder in that yellow helmet? So cute.

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Posted in San Francisco, Uncategorized

Tagged san francisco

up up up

Posted on January 5, 2012 | 1 Comment

We have totally been loving the new show Up All Night. If you’re a new parent, or know someone who is, it’s a must watch. And I don’t even like TV. We have been in 95% of those situations in the past 6 months, and it’s nice to know we can laugh at ourselves!

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A friend of mine shared this thoughtcatalog post on facebook yesterday, called 20 New Year’s Resolutions for 20-somethings… at first I thought it was a joke, but then I actually read it and I decided I need to adopt 70% … Continue reading →

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Posted on January 4, 2012

taste it.

Posted on December 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

I rearranged my iphone apps according to color and it makes me so happy. I wonder when it’s going to wear off…

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Time is on my side. For now…

Posted on December 29, 2011 | 2 Comments

It’s amazing how Tilly has changed in 6 months! I feel like for the first three months she was so needy and kinda fussy most of the time. Then from three months to six months she was so sweet and content. 6 months has really been the “sweet spot” because Tilly is so happy and interactive, but not crawling or so inquisitive that she can get into trouble. Now that she’s almost 7 months, I notice that she is getting much more hyper and active! Lots of leg kicking, arm banging, babbling, etc. It’s so fun to watch her grow. At this point, she is still only rolling one direction, but can sit on her own and can stand pretty well too, with us helping her balance.

She got lots of fantastic christmas presents, but the best by far was two teeth!! They are just peeking through, it’s easier to feel them than it is to see them, but they are there. And Tilly is letting us know, believe me. Lots of chewing on anything in sight… I have become a firm believer in the power of the pacifier. And although we were overwhelmed with amazing gifts ourselves, the best by far was from Tilly… she sleeps through the night now! 6pm to 6am. I SWEAR!

We’re up to 2 meals a day and it’s getting easier, but still not easy. Favorite foods are bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, avocados, and sometimes peas and mangoes. I tried ground lamb but that didn’t go over too well, so I’m gonna wait a few weeks and try again since our doctor recommended it. Maybe I’ll try beef instead.

Here are some pictures of our romantic SF Christmas Eve (we may or may not have finished off a bottle of Dom Perignon saved from our wedding…) and our quiet, lovely Christmas morning (I cooked Croque Monsieur and we watched the Nutcracker!). We have lots of friends visiting in the month of January, starting this weekend with Oscar and Aline! Yayeah! Happy New Year. xoxo

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Tagged holidays, san francisco

Anybody out there?

Posted on October 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Lately I’ve been on a mission to find other new moms in San Francisco. I signed up to attend a playgroup formation session through the Golden Gate Mothers Group this month, but I just got an email that it was cancelled. Ugh. So then I decided to attend a Mom’s playdate at St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Lower Pac Heights on Wednesday… turns out Tilly & I were the only two there! I waited for half an hour and then headed home, kinda bummed.

So today I decided to take a long lunch break from work and drive over to the Yoga Tree on Valencia to try out their Mom + Baby yoga class. I’ve been putting it off because I’m happier walking to the yoga studio on my street, but they don’t have baby classes so I sucked it up and made the trek. (it’s like 2 miles, I’m a total sissy.)

It was awesome!! Of course I’m kicking myself for not checking it out sooner. First of all, there were like 20 moms there, all with babies under 6 months old. Everyone rolled out their mats and then set up a little blanket for their baby at the foot of their mat. They require that the babies are “pre-crawlers”, so that kind of keeps things in order. It was great because you can just let your baby be a baby, and if you need to stop the class to feed/change/cuddle, you totally can. And I totally did. It was a little insane because there was at least 1 crying baby making noise throughout the entire hour and a half class, but it was happy chaos. I noticed at times I wasn’t paying attention to what the teacher was saying one bit. But that’s okay. I left feeling more flexible, and the best part is that I had real conversations with 3 other moms in the class. Success!!

{that gorgeous watercolor above is by Stina Persson…}

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Tagged baby

No Tilly, No Cry

Posted on September 22, 2011 | 3 Comments

For the past month or so, Tilly has had meltdowns almost every evening around 6pm. I guess this is a normal thing, according to my mom and mom-in-law, and I just have to be prepared to eat dinner standing in the kitchen for the next year or so…

We’ve tried lots of remedies (including her vibrating chair, a bath, swaddle, etc), but our favorite meltdown cure is a Bob Marley dance-a-thon. I think it must be the gente rhythm and overall cheerfulness of the music… Tilly loves it! Sometimes we hold her and dance to the beat, other times she lays on our bed and we dance like goofballs in front of her and make her giggle. It’s weird to me that she already finds things funny at this age – I didn’t expect it but I’m welcoming it with open arms and doing everything I can to make her laugh.