You couldn't pay me enough... The week before Thanksgiving, Ah-ma took the OG to Little Hands so that she could take her first set of class pictures! I wish I had been there because Ah-ma said that is was hilarious – imagine trying to get 8 babies to stop crying and sit still for a class photo. At one point, Ah-ma said that all the babies had calmed down and the photographer was getting ready to snap the picture, when…the OG started screaming. And then all of the babies started screaming! He did eventually get a cute class photo, but there were tears on half of the babies’ faces. Poor guy - it’s no wonder the photographer charges so much for the pictures! At least, for her individual picture, the OG doesn’t have tears in her eyes, but she does look like she is doing “The Robot” – she must have inherited her dad’s dance moves. We don't have any digital pictures from the class photos, but for anyone that wants to come over, we have an 8x10 hanging up on our dining room wall.
A Traveling F
ool
After spending weekends in Wisconsin, Indiana and, again, in Wisconsin, the OG wanted to see what the world outside of the Midwest looked like. So, we decided to take her to visit Uncle Jason in San Francisco. We were a bit nervous for the plane ride, even more so because she had caught a cold the day before we left. But, as you have come to expect, she was a total angel. After we boarded, she stared around at her surroundings for a few minutes and then promptly fell asleep. She slept most of the way, waking up when we were somewhere around Denver. Even after she woke up, she just smiled and played with Ah-ma and Ah-Gohng. The closest that she came to causing havoc was when she tried to pull the hair of the man sitting in front of us (he didn’t have that many hairs left, so I don’t think he appreciated it).
“It tastes oak-y”
Straight off the plane, we zipped through San Fran to pick up Uncle Jason and headed up to Napa Valley. There, we spent time relaxing, eating and drinking wine. At first, we were all a little timid – were we supposed to swirl the wine in our glass? Swish it around in our mouths? Use the spit buckets? Gradually, we loosened up and by the end, we were all tossing back the 2 oz pours like it was nobody’s business. I think the OG especially enjoyed getting fed that day (look at her legs).
Hello, Stranger
The OG has taken to staring at strangers. She will (from what I can gather, randomly) p
ick out a stranger in the crowd (almost always a male) and then continue to stare at them with her wide eyes until they look at her and smile. If they don’t notice at first or don’t respond to her stare, she just continues looking at them until they do – however long it may take. The kicker is that as soon as the person she is staring at makes eye contact with the OG and smiles…she looks away and finds someone else to stare at.
This, I Do Not Understand
Never in my life (or the OG’s life) have so many people asked whether the OG was a boy or a girl. This was the typical scenario…we’d be walking down the street or shopping in a store and
someone would walk by and say something like “what a cute/beautiful/adorable/smiley baby,” but then this was quickly followed by “is ‘it’ a boy or a girl?” What?!?! As most of you know, 95% of the clothes that Olivia wears is pink, maybe even 97%. Even wearing pink, even wearing a dress, people would still ask if she was a boy. Actually, in many situations, the person would just assume that she was a boy – I was too exasperated to correct anyone, but Stephane took it upon himself to do so. So…if one day you open this blog to find a picture of the OG with a giant bow taped to her head, you will now know why.
Taking in the sights
On Monday, we were back in San Francisco. Since Stephane had never been before, we spent the day taking in the “touristy” sites. We walked around Nob Hill and Chinatown, then spent the rest of the morning at Fisherman’s Wharf, eating clam chowder from sourdough bowls and watching the sea lions push each other off of the platforms. In the afternoon, we drove down the “crookedest street” and across the Golden Gate Bridge. At sunset, we tried to find a vantage point from which the Bridge appeared to be golden, but to no avail. The Golden Gate Bridge just looked a rusty red color to me.
A trip of many “firsts”
On Tuesday, Jason took us around to some of his favorite spots in the city. After brunch at a little French bistro, Uncle Jason and the OG rode on a swing together. The OG LOVED it – she laughed out loud every time Ah-ma gave them a push and they swung a little bit higher. Since she loved the swing so much, we thought we’d see how she liked the slide. I’m not sure if she enjoyed that or not…she mostly just looked scared, as she came down. We’ll have to try that again when she’s a bit older. After the playground, we went to the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building houses many gourmet, specialty stores – even though we had just eaten, we bought bread from the bread store, cheese from the cheese store, meat from the meat store and cookies from the bakery (as an aside, I had my eye on a beautiful cake platter at the bakery…and, if Santa 
Claus happens to be in the San Francisco area, I think he should be reminded that I was a very good girl this year). Outside the Ferry Building was a farmer’s market, which had beautiful fruits and vegetables - we promptly bought some strawberries and oranges, after inspecting the selection at all of the stalls. Next, we drove over to a park in the Mission to have a picnic. We found the perfect spot – half in the sun, half in the shade…and there was a guy singing and playing his acoustic guitar. We could have stayed there all afternoon, but since there were more foods to be eaten and stores to be shopped, we moved on…but not before stopping by the Bi-Rite Creamery to try Salted Caramel ice cream. I’m not sure what the highlight of the Mission was – the picnic, the ice cream or the fact that a lady stopped on the street, after catching a glimpse of the OG, saying “I wasn’t prepared for that cute!”
Meeting the Family
We have a lot of family in the area, so on Thanksgiving, we all congregated at my cousin Audrey’s house. Audrey and her husband, Jorge, just moved from Berkeley, earlier this year. They have an amazing back patio area with gorgeous views of the hills and the sunset. Audrey and Jorge also just had a little baby girl named Alina. Alina and Olivia are about 3 months apart - but, you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. Alina is already almost the same size as Olivia! The two cousins enjoyed looking at each other and the OG practiced the “gentle touches” that she learned at school. It was so much fun introducing Olivia to all of my favorite cousins, their children and my favorite auntie (Alina's grandmother).
Rice-a-Roni We couldn’t leave San Francisco without a ride on their famous cable cars. So, on our last day in the Bay Area, we rode a cable car from Fisherman’s Wharf all the way to Chinatown. At that point, we got off and tried to hide in some shops so that Ah-Gohng wouldn't make us go to the airport 4 hours early. But, he must have a sixth sense for these things and he immediately spotted us as we tried to duck into the store. Oh well.
Sweet H
ome, Chicago It’s a fact of life that no matter how great a vacation is…there is always some amount of happiness in getting home and sleeping in your own bed. The OG was, once again, a peach on the plane – there were no hair pulling incidents this time. Thanks to Uncle Jason for showing the OG such a fabulous time in San Francisco. She can’t wait to see him in a few weeks, when he comes home for Christmas!
You couldn't pay me enough... 
ool 
ick out a stranger in the crowd (almost always a male) and then continue to stare at them with her wide eyes until they look at her and smile. If they don’t notice at first or don’t respond to her stare, she just continues looking at them until they do – however long it may take. The kicker is that as soon as the person she is staring at makes eye contact with the OG and smiles…she looks away and finds someone else to stare at. 
someone would walk by and say something like “what a cute/beautiful/adorable/smiley baby,” but then this was quickly followed by “is ‘it’ a boy or a girl?” What?!?! As most of you know, 95% of the clothes that Olivia wears is pink, maybe even 97%. Even wearing pink, even wearing a dress, people would still ask if she was a boy. Actually, in many situations, the person would just assume that she was a boy – I was too exasperated to correct anyone, but Stephane took it upon himself to do so. So…if one day you open this blog to find a picture of the OG with a giant bow taped to her head, you will now know why.
Claus happens to be in the San Francisco area, I think he should be reminded that I was a very good girl this year). Outside the 
ome, 
