Birthday Craziness

The month of May is always busy in our household....Mother’s Day, my sister’s birthday, and then my birthday. This year was a big birthday for my sister Susie. She turned 30!!! We started the birthday festivities off by flying to Pasadena and dropping Catie off with my parents. My mom and dad took care of Catie for 4 straight days! Now that doesn’t really seem like a long time until you realize that they were taking care of an almost 2 year old that is incredibly active, loves to run, and gets into EVERYTHING! They seemed to have a blast and Catie was kept super busy while we were away. She had a couple of play dates, got her haircut, went shopping, had lunch with the ladies, went to the Huntington gardens, and got tons of hugs and kisses. My parents said that it was great but I am sure that they were exhausted. They did an amazing job and my mom even thanked me for the best mother’s day gift ever…taking care of Catie. If that’s the case, what are you doing for your birthday mom?

Well, we dropped Catie off and then Susie and I went to Palm Springs and 13 of our close friends, including Colin, flew in for the weekend. We had a wonderful time hanging out in the pool, playing golf, eating, talking, laughing and maybe having a few cocktails. We think that it might have to be an annual trip. Here are two pictures from the weekend (I haven't downloaded mine yet).

After a week of getting things back to normal once again we geared up for another birthday celebration…mine (I choose not to disclose my age). I started the day with a massage while Colin dropped Catie off at his parents for the night. ***On a side note…. I promise that we don’t normally pawn Catie off to people as much as we have done this month. The massage was wonderful and the sun started to shine just as all of the fest ivies began. A bunch of my friends and I went to the Tiburon Wine Festival and had wonderful time sipping (or gulping in some cases) wine and sampling yummy food. After the festival we headed back to our house for a BBQ and several “non- festival attendees” joined us. We had a great time and it meant so much to me that so many people came. The night ended with a few drinks at the Silver Peso in Larkspur. A perfect way to celebrate my $# birthday. A big thank you to everyone!

We have busy summer coming up: a few trips to Tahoe, Catie’s 2nd birthday, a couple of trips to LA, and maybe Hawaii in the fall. However, the biggest summer festivity is happening next month. Auntie E (Colin’s sister) and Ken are getting married in Seattle and Catie is going to be the flower girl. We can’t wait for June 26th!

Backyard Antics

Things have been busy in the O’Connell household. Last weekend Colin’s sister (Auntie E) and her fiancé Ken came into town to celebrate Barbara’s birthday. On Saturday night we all went to dinner to celebrate and Tom surprised her with a 3 week trip to Europe in September!! What an amazing gift (Colin take note…someday). It was a wonderful weekend and Catie is sure going to miss B and Da when they are gone (but she is pretty sure that they will bring her back a few things).

Now that Spring is officially here, we have been trying to get our backyard ready since we know that we will being spending a lot of time in it. I really wanted to plant vegetables so we had to weed and fertilize the soil first. Colin and his dad worked really hard on getting everything ready and then I went to work on planting veggies and flowers. We have named our vegetable garden “Catie’s Garden” and it consists of watermelon, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers (red, green and yellow), basil, mint, cilantro, garlic and tomatoes and carrots are being planted on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed that everything grows!

Not only did Colin and I spend time working in the yard but so did Catie.

First she helped mow the lawn with her new lawnmower

Then she found some mud puddles and tried to clear out the water for us

The end result is one dirty toddler

She cleans up well though and is ready for Spring

This weekend we are walking in the Bay Area Brain Tumor 5k walk. In June 2008 one of best friends from college, Jackie Oswold, was diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma (a grade 3 glioma) in June of 2008. She went through a treatment program of surgery, radiation, and chemo that was completed in May of 2009. Now, in order to avoid developing a chemo resistance, Jackie is not currently being treated. Instead, she waits and hopes every day that her tumor (which she named Turk) isn't growing undetected in her brain. Living with cancer isn't easy. But, she holds out hope that someone finds a cure before it's too late. Jackie needs a cure NOW. To donate to the National Brain Tumor Society please visit my Bay Area Brain Tumor Walk page.

The Gymnast

On Friday mornings Catie and I go to Tumblebugs at San Francisco Gymnastics. She loves running around using all of the equipment, jumping on the trampoline, crawling through tunnels, and climbing all over the mats. Mom loves the extra long nap that Catie always takes on Friday afternoon! After class she gets stamps on each of her hands and she goes bananas over them. Every time we drive past the building (it is next to her swim lessons in the Presidio) she points to her hands and gets really excited.

We are headed to Pasadena tomorrow for Easter. It should be a great weekend and Catie is going to an Easter egg hunt (with a petting zoo) on Sunday. It should be a blast!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Love The O'Connell's little leprechaun

SOLD!!!!

I know that it has been over a month since I lasted updated our blog, but I promise that I have a valid reason why.

Well after 276 and 5 offers our house finally SOLD!!!!

We only had a 30 day escrow and the buyers were not really flexible on us renting back so that meant that we not only did we have to move quickly, but we had 30 days to find a new home! YIKES!!!! We decided to rent a place so we can take our time in purchasing our new home and let me tell you folks…we love our new home. It is in a great neighborhood (shopping and parks are all within walking distance) and it has a huge front and back yard which we really wanted. The most important things is that Catie loves it.

Here is the front of our new house. Sorry it is so gloomy but it hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to take a better one.

And here is Catie's new slide set

Her new car (she spends all day opening and closing the door and getting in and out)

She is doing some gardening

Her new playroom
So now that our life has settled down again I will be back updating our blog regularly.

Here is a quick video clip of Catie getting the giggles.

Oh and Happy Birthday (one day late) Erin/ Auntie E. We hope that you had a great birthday!

H2O

Catie loves water. The first time that she went into a pool she was 1 month old and she didn't mind it at all. In fact, she slept through it.

Catie's favorite thing is bath time. She loves taking a bath and tries to get in the tub even when she is fully clothed.

She will put her face in the water and lay down on her back. Well, we figured that since she is walking now and loves the water, it would be smart to sign her up for weekly swim classes. Colin informed me that he would be the parent in the water with her and that I could come but only watch. I was told that since it is sports related he would take the lead (awesome for me- swimsuit avoided) but I really think that it's because he doesn't want me to ask him to take Catie to another music class (that was a little too much for Colin).

Every Sunday from 12:30-1:00 we head to La Petite Baleen in the Presidio where Catie and her dad have swim class with 4 other children and their parents. Due to her age and comfort level in the water, Catie is in a class with 2 year olds and I think that I was more traumatized during the first class then Catie was. They had her trying to jump off the side of the pool, dunking and swimming with her face under water, floating on her back....oh my gosh! Half way through the class I went to the management and said that I think that my daughter might be in the wrong class. My exact comment was, "You want my daughter to jump off the side of the pool when she only just learned to walk 2 weeks ago"! The teacher assured me that everything was fine and that every week she would get better.

Well, last week was our second week and Catie actually did very well. She didn't cry when she was on her back, halfway pushed herself off the side of the pool to Colin and seemed to enjoy it much more. It will be fun to see how much she progresses over time.

Now if I could only convince Colin to take Catie to another music class.

17 months and 1 day....

Catie's Christmas present to her mommy and daddy was (drum roll please)......she decided to start walking! I think that she was motivated by spending time with my cousin's kids and wanting to do what they do. The funny thing was that she was not at all timid. She just stood up and started to walk. Yeah Catie!!!

On a side note- Catie LOVES watching the video of her walking. She will sit in front of the computer and stare and herself, smile, hit the buttons to make it go backwards and then forwards again. I think that my poor family has had to watch the video about 100 times since it is Catie's new favorite show.

On a final side note, we had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and I will be updating our blog this weekend with stories and pictures (we have a lot of them). Until then, here is a clip of Catie walking down my parents driveway. Enjoy!