Q1

These are my babies. It's amazing how one minute I can be so in love with them and love everything about motherhood and then the next minute feel so overwhelmed, inadequate and all I want to do is lock myself in the bathroom for just one moment to myself. And then I hear a click on the door handle and remember that Ethan knows how to unlock the bathroom door with his "special key", a quarter. So much for that moment :). Raising three children has so many wonderful moments but it doesn't come without some hard ones too.

After a fun Christmas break in Utah, we got back to work in San Francisco continuing our routine of preschool, ballet, yoga, swim, playdates, parks and museums. I must say, I have gotten pretty good at loading and unloading my cargot. The E's are so great about staying close by me and holding eachothers' hands while we walk across busy streets. I carry Aida in the infant carrier, Eav holds my hand and Ethan holds Eav's. My little Eav needs someone on boths sides of her just in case she feels like chasing after a pigeon. I want someone to take a picture of us walking in the street because it really is so sweet and nuts all at the same time.

Ethan is trying to earn his Blue Ribbon in swim. He is taking breaths while swimming to the middle of the pool. He can dive for objects at the bottom of the pool and today he did a new trick, which was a little 360 degree spin under water that he was very proud of. He loves to get on the computer and find the "notes" page and type all of the names he can think of. His note today said, "ethaneavaidajackcalanrawleymithona," some of his favorite people I think.

Eav keeps me guessing everyday. I should just give up trying to predict what she'll do next. She has to experience everything and cannot just take your word on anything. I have to remember that as does things like climbing on the counter to cut tomatoes with a sharp knife, or not being able to keep her hands out of the sink filled with dirty plates and water and rummaging through my bag for the 10th time in search of her favorite treasure these days, gum. She loves it. She gets the biggest grin on her face right after she pops a piece in. Who knew she was so easy to please?

And then there's Aida. This picture says it all. I have always described her as the easy going one. She is normally so smiley and so content. However, for a about a month or so she would cry every time I would set her down or leave her side. I think she was frustrated because she wasn't mobile, maybe hungry because I was a little low on my milk supply, and/or just wanted mommy. Either one, she is happy as can be now. She does the army crawl all over the house and has discovered a whole new world of things she can put in her mouth. I have to keep a very sharp eye on the things around her because she has

perfected her pincer grip and can get the tiniest crumb into her mouth.

Rawley and I got to spend a full weekend together, kid-free. It was fabulous. Rawley's mom came to SF and was a superstar with the kids.

We went to Las Vegas for the 7's Rugby Tournament. The funny thing about it was that it happened to be Valentine's weekend too. We saw some Las Vegas characters with lots of love to give. We shopped, relaxed, ate good food and danced with AK47. (Andrei Kirilenko, #47 on the Utah Jazz) We met with our good friends Luke and Brenda and Luke's sister and brother in law. It was a very fun group. The word and song for the weekend was AK47 and "Tick Tock." Everytime a game would start/end, a horn would blow and everytime I thought of that song because I think there's a horn at the start of the song. So Brenda and I started looking up the lyrics and right then they actually played the song on the speakers and Brenda got very excited and got everyone's attention in her Brenda way. It was a hilarious moment. It was such a fun weekend. We love you Luke and Brenda.