The end of 2011

The week between Christmas and New Years was an eventful one.  We started out with a family outing to the zoo.  And when I say "family outing", I mean LOTS of family!  Joe's sister, Dana, came up to visit, along with her husband, Frank, and all three of her daughters, plus two sons-in-law, and three grandchildren.  Add in our five and you get the crew you see below:

As you can see, the cousins rented some wagons to tote the three "big" kids around in and we rolled along through the zoo, seeing nearly every animal there was AND riding the carousel.

We even caught the tiger out and about:

Caroline was a little fussy, but we were able to keep her focused by feeding her bits of soft pretzel.

By the end of the day, Daniel was pretty zooed out:

All fifteen of us met up at Mel's Diner, where I had my first experience as a mother questioning someone else's parenting.  We had called ahead, so they had two tables set up for us, but hadn't placed the high chairs yet.  We got them arranged so that we were sitting child-parent-child-parent-child, with Caroline on the end by Joe.  All three babies adore amusing themselves with spoons when we go out, so we made sure we had extras and let them have at it while we waited for Dana and everyone else to make it to the restaurant.  

Another family was seated in the booth down by Caroline.  Their toddling two year old took a fancy to her (can you blame him?)  She had dropped a spoon on the floor, and when he picked it up, I warned the parents that she'd probably licked it and maybe we should take it away.  They didn't seem too worried, so I wasn't either.  Until they sat down in the booth with their two older children, leaving the toddler to roam around Caroline's chair, grabbing spoons from her place at the table, sticking them in his mouth, and then offering them back to her.  We tried to politely say "no thank you" a few times, but the parents didn't notice, so we eventually had to switch her seat with Joe's so she wasn't exposed at the end of the table (of course, her little suitor came up behind her chair offering her treasures he'd found on the floor) and finally the mother got the hint and went in search of a high chair to put him in.  I can't imagine the looks we would have gotten if we'd allowed the Salvateenies to go "free range" in a restaurant!

After resting up from the family outing, we went out to the park on Tuesday.  It was chilly, so everyone bundled up and we went in search of a playground nearby.  The ones we found either did not seem to have baby swings or had no parking near enough for us to determine if there were baby swings, so we went back to Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park.  After a happy ten minutes on the swings, we thought we'd let the 'Teenies walk around on the grass for a while.  Caroline was not really "in to" walking on the grass, but Max seemed to enjoy it.

and Daniel enjoyed trying on my sunglasses.

On Wednesday, we all went car shopping!  That's right - time to trade up to a "family vehicle".  We found a listing online for a nice used minivan at a local Chevy dealership and went in for a test drive.  While we waited, though, Caroline let us know she preferred the red Camaro (specifically the red one - she had no interest in the white or black models).

But she wants to see if it's possible to get a left-hand drive model (maybe I've been watching too much Top Gear with her...)

Daniel thought the Camaro was pretty spiffy, too, and promised to let Caroline ride in the passanger seat as soon as he gets his license.

We tried to put Max in the Camaro, but he preferred the Corvette hard-top - in black.

They were all very sad we ended up with this:

Friday we headed to Berkeley for a post-Xmas celebration with my aunt's family, including my cousin Jacinda's new baby, Anahita (she's 6 months old and has inherited a lot of our hand-me-downs, though she was bigger at her 6 month appointment than Caroline was at her 12 month, so there's a possibility that won't work for much longer!).  The babies were really enjoying exploring my aunt's house and we were running around so much catching up with them that I got very few pictures:

Grandma is the only one who posed in this picture!

Taking Anahita off Grandma's hands

Jacinda and Anahita

Max and Caroline explore the kitchen

"No! We can't leave yet! There's more to see!"

"So this is where the big girls are playing!"

Caroline found the gifts beneath the tree and instinctively picked up the two marked with her name! And because their Xmas tree was not protected by a baby gate, Max and Daniel seemed to take an immediate interest in it, exploring the needles and even pulling off an ornament. This new-found appreciation for ornaments made its way home with us as Max finally noticed our tree and reached up on his tippy-toes to rescue a stuffed bear from it's perch on the plastic limb.  He was nice enough to get Daniel into the act, too.

And with that we wish you the happiest of New Years!