Otis' First Birthday, the Holidays, Melanie's 40th Birthday and more...

It's been close to four months since we've done a blog update, a whole lot has happened, the holidays, Otis' first birthday, my fortieth and much much more.  Be patient, it's a big one!

Otis started taking steps a couple weeks before his birthday. Tony lost a bet to our friend Mat who said he was pretty sure Otis would be taking steps by his birthday and he was right. 

The Sunday before Thanksgiving Otis and I went down to the east bay to celebrate Xander's first birthday.

My mom was able to stop by and stay with us for Otis' birthday week on her way to Santa Fe.  So thankful that my mom was able to be here for Otis' first birthday, Randy and the rest of my family were absolutely missed.  We had a small dinner celebration on his actual birthday with mom, Tony's grandma Bev, Otis, Tony and me.

12/08/11 - Otis and Gramma Marsha

The day after Otis' birthday we had a bigger family birthday dinner party, I think there were fifteen of us total.  Before dinner, Gregg stopped by to bring Otis his birthday present.

12/9/11 - Grandpa Gregg, Otis and his rocking horse

12/9/11 - Nana Debbie and Otis

12/9/11 - Gramma Marsha and Otis

Uncle Gean and Otis

Otis' first cake

Cousin Alice, Tony, Otis and Cousin Lee

Otis and Daddy all tuckered out

The next day we had an even bigger birthday celebration.  Otis' Pie Championships!  Tony went around and counted at one point, out of curiosity, there were fifty two people here, it was crowded.  There was a LOT of pie!  I don't remember exactly, but I think there were six or nine savory pies and twenty two sweet pies.  They were anonymously voted on, it was pie chaos.  I had to take Otis on a few walks to get away from everyone.  He'd been getting his walking groove on and having to be held the whole time, as not to be trampled and not have the run of the place definitely took its toll on him.  When Tony was announcing the pie winner, I brought Otis out of his bedroom, at this point everyone in the house sang happy birthday to him, he seemed to be in complete shock.  By the end of the night, when it was just the three of us and our friend Scot who stayed the weekend, Otis was so very happy to have his house back!

(Thank you Tony Rotundo for taking photos)

Brad Meyer

Mike and Bea Robinson

Tony Rotundo, Otis and Curly Windels

Sig Hafstrom

Melanie and Lacy Anderson

Maureen Cane and Mat Glaser (who won the $10 bet with Tony)

Jenny Robinson and Sage Glaser-Cane

Matt and Leila Madrone

Yona MacPhee

Scott and Curly Windels

Tenoch and Jose Gonzalez

Sabina MacPhee and Susie

Lacy Anderson and Otis

Sabin MacPhee

Emilia Ortega

Jane Grassadonia, Logan Crump and Melanie

Dylan Yoches

Melissa and Noah Yoches

Cheesecake (technically pie) by Melissa Yoches, so yummy!

Blake Anderson

Josh Mitchell

Brad Meyer, Melanie, Otis, Tony and Scot Adam

The holidays...
Typically on Christmas Eve morning, Tony and a bunch of his guy friends meet up very early in the morning and head to Monte Rio to play golf with Tony's dad, his uncles and a bunch of their friends.  This is an all men sort of deal.  So, while the boys are off playing golf and getting drunk, some of us ladies have been getting together for food, drinking and general hang out.  Tony now works at Whole Foods and Christmas Eve is the busiest day of the year for them, so he's unable to take the day off.  He went golfing Christmas Eve 2010 and then to work, where he had a difficult and super busy day.  After last year Tony decided he was opting out of golfing this year.  So I thought we were off the hook for getting up early on Christmas Eve morning, I was wrong.  We were surprised on Christmas Eve morning by the Anderson's, MacPhee's, Adam and Maria with breakfast prepared at OUR house.  Tony had to leave for work just after 10am, so they wanted him to have some friend time before going to work.  After a difficult adjustment on my part, I was happy everyone was there and Otis had a seriously good time.

Otis and Blake Anderson

Here's a great video of Otis and Blake: http://youtu.be/-FnFVoWVGTw

Blake Anderson, Otis, Trevor Anderson, Yona MacPhee and Grant Anderson

Otis and Yona MacPhee

Otis with Lacy, Grant and Trevor Anderson

After everyone left I gave Otis his first haircut

We spent Christmas at Tony's grandma Bev's house.

Grandpa Gregg and Otis

Otis and Nonni Bev

The day after Christmas we went over to Tony's brother Gerry and his wife Laurel's place to celebrate.

Cousin Alice and Otis

Cousin Alice, Nana Debbie, Otis and Cousin Lee

Otis and Cousin Alice

Otis and Nana Debbie

Post-Christmas fun...

On December 30th, our friend Adam Singer came over and ran electrical in our dining room and installed a chandelier that we purchased shortly after we moved into our place.  It took over a year for us to get our ducks in a row for this to happen.  Thank you Adam, thank you, thank you, thank you!

For New Years Eve Scot came up from Santa Cruz to hang out with Otis, while Tony and I went to a party in Santa Rosa.  Tony and Sabin dj'd, I danced.  Happy 2012!  A little on the late side. 

Thanks again Scot!!!

Here are some early 2012 Otis photos.

Nonni Bev and Otis

Tony and I have been taking Otis to the park for him to run around.  It's fun watching him explore and get excited about rocks, sticks, leaves, trees, etc.

On January 19th, I was able to capture some of Otis' fancy dance moves on video, check them out here:
http://youtu.be/Pzm9HBgvc08


I celebrated my 40th birthday this year.  Cathie escaped the weather madness of Seattle and flew down on the Friday before my birthday.  The following morning, Mike, Jenny and Bea Robinson came over to watch Otis for the weekend, an excellent birthday gift!  Barbara, Jason, Jennie, Jeremy and Melissa met over at our house as well.  We all carpooled to Toulouse Winery, where we met up with Sabin and Xochitl for lunch and wine tasting.

Sabin and Xochitl MacPhee, Barbara Hasselbach, Jeremy Yoches, Melanie, Tony, Jason Ware, Jennie Kulczyk, Cathie and Melissa Yoches

From there we headed to Husch Winery for more wine tasting.

Melanie, Tony and Xochitl

After wine tasting we all drove to The Stanford Inn, Mendocino where we all stayed.  On the drive there, we had an impromptu stop off on the coast.

After checking into our rooms at The Stanford Inn, we met up with our friends Jake and Ritu who'd checked in on Friday night.  Then to tea time, happy hour and dinner.  After a delicious meal, we all took over the indoor pool and hot tub area and when it closed down for the night, we all ended up in the Yoches' room playing drunken Cards Against Humanity.  The next morning, Tony and I had a pre-breakfast hot tub and met up with everyone for breakfast before heading down to Boonville.  Adam and Maria met up with us in Boonville, we all had lunch at a local taqueria and headed home.  Tony made me my traditional birthday cheesecake before we left for the weekend, which we shared with all who came back to our house, it was delicious!  I am a very lucky woman.  Otis was obviously well taken care of by the Robinsons, thank you again, you guys rock!  Also, to all of you who made it to my birthday celebration, it meant a lot to me, thank you so much.

Cathie stayed with us until the following morning.  It's always such a blessing getting to spend time with her.

Aunt Cathie and Otis

I love these...

On January 25th, we started taking Otis to Kindergym.  He loves it!  I wish we'd taken photos of him there.  Maybe when we start another round, we'll remember to bring the camera.

We had dinner with Josh and Molly Bergstrom on January 27th.  We also met their baby son Diego.  Afterward, we went to Gary and Erin's place in Alameda for a visit and to sleep.  The next day we had breakfast with them and after Erin went off to work, we walked with Gary to a park, so Otis could play.

More photos of Otis.

Otis in his room

On February 4th the three of us went for a hike with Jade and Stacy in Annadel Park. Otis and I went down to San Francisco the following Monday to have lunch and spend a few hours with Dana and Caden.

We set a deadline to have the garden beds built in our front yard by early Spring.  February 10th, Peter, Elizabeth, Josh and Tony built and filled the beds.  Josh's girlfriend Erin and their daughter Kora hung out with me and Otis in the house.  It was an all day endeavor and we're SO happy with the results.  Thank you so much you guys, the beds are beautiful!!!

Peter Nelson, Elizabeth Titherington, Joshua, Tony and Otis

That night Peter stayed over, while we were having dinner, this happened:
http://youtu.be/eRzVYtfDr-Q

The next day Tony and Peter did some irrigation reconfiguring.  That night I dropped Tony off in San Francisco for a night out dancing.  I drove down to San Jose with Otis to meet up with my friends Jim and Karyn who were visiting from southern California with their new baby boy James.  Jane and Logan met up too.  Such a good visit, I wish we lived closer to each other.

And even more photos of Otis.

Otis LOVES the book Slide Already, thank you Gelsey!

Butt in the air while sleeping, yes.

In February I decided I need more balance in my life.  Trying to find time for myself has been difficult, so I'm now doing monthly craft days at our house.  The first one was on February 18th and was an absolute success.  There were eight of us crafting.  Tony took Otis over to his grandma's house to hang out.  I took the time to organize my sewing bins, which I hadn't had the chance to do in years.

I've heard from some people that Otis is ALWAYS in a good mood, here's proof that's not true.  I see this face so many times every day, mostly while I'm working or doing dishes. 

On February 21st, we had a somewhat unexpected visit from my dad and Darlene.  They were driving down from Everett, Washington on their way back to Georgia.  My dad is finally retired from Lockheed, so hopefully we'll get to see more of him.

Otis and Grandpa Jeff

Otis loves the sausage attachment for Tony's kitchenaid.

On Friday, March 2nd we brought Otis to Howarth Park to play.  So far, Tony and I are having a tough time meeting other local parents.

The Andersons bought a house in Santa Rosa and moved in on March 3rd.  Happy to have them closer and hope this means we'll get to spend more time together!  That night after helping them move, Lacie Murphy stayed over at our place.  The next day Erin came over to help me with some planting.  We had this grand idea of setting up a baby oasis for Otis and Erin's nine month old daughter Kora in the front yard, so we could do some yard work.  Well, they weren't having it.  Otis and Kora were happy to play, as long as we were standing right there.  As soon as we walked away to do some work, they would both start screaming.

Otis peaking behind his crib

Kora and Otis

More Slide Already!

Fancy pajamas for a visit over at the new Anderson pad for some wine and chatting on March 6th.

Otis reading.

Tony and I brought Otis to Bodega Bay last Friday, March 9th.  His first time at the beach since we went close to a year ago.  He enjoyed it much more this time around.  He was fascinated by sand and only tried to eat it once.  Otis loves sand!  Eureka Dunes here we come!  Well, maybe not this year...

 After Bodega Bay, we picked up Bev and went out to dinner at Sizzling Tandoor in Santa Rosa.  On Friday nights they have belly dancers.  I don't think anything has captivated Otis' attention like those belly dancers, he was completely and totally mesmerized.  I wish we had video of Otis watching them.

Last Saturday, March 10th was my second craft day.  Six women showed up to craft over the course of the day.  I spent my time organizing my crafts and I feel super accomplished.  Kimmie ended up staying well into the night, which was very entertaining for Otis, who seems to be quite the Kimmie fan.

Kimmie and Otis

The day after craft day Lacie came over and hung out with me while I did some planting and then with Otis.

Lacie and Otis

A few mornings ago, I was putting laundry away in our bedroom.  Otis is pretty fascinated by the laundry basket.  I turned away for a minute and when I looked back, Otis had flipped the basket over and climbed on top of it.  Somehow he climbed back down, and then up and then down (repeat).

Otis and Tony good times.

Video of Tony and Otis dancing:
http://youtu.be/IPAl3hY08aM
Video of Super Otis:
http://youtu.be/iWH4cGhcG5k

Otis is a total dare devil now, he's climbing on and curious about everything.  He has nine (maybe more) teeth, one of his molars just cut through about a week ago and he's still teething like crazy.  He had his fifteen month doctor appointment last week.  He had a growth spurt and is now in the 50% for height and is still cruising along in the 10% for weight, where he's been since he was born.  He says "uh oh," "I did it," "yay" while clapping his hands and I'm sure a lot more we're not giving him credit for.

Tony's birthday is on the 24th (same as my brother Greg's birthday, happy birthday Greg), our good friends Charley and Theresa are coming to visit from New York April 14th weekend and we're going to Cabo the following week with Bev, for a week.

Hopefully we'll get a chance to update this blog more frequently so you guys don't have to spend so much time reading it.

I hope 2012 is treating you all well so far.  More soon...

Lastly, I'll leave you with a photo of Otis from this morning.

love,
~melanie.
and Tony and Otis