13 years.....

We had a great evening and dinner. We are finding it's a bittersweet stage of life. And so... time together sans boys is pretty cherished these days. That's the good part of this stage. Valuing each other and time spent together....

because the flip side is.... The boys are so darn hard right now. Our weekends spent together as a family are incredibly draining...and yet....Jeff & I have pulled together as a team like never before in our marriage. Its the best of times because the boys are so amazing.... and yet whew its the toughest of times too.

We spent the evening celebrating the best of these days of ours. Jeff's job, my new job, Charlie's strikingly strong personality, Max's accommodating yet stubborn sweetness. Our love of California and our happiness with the choices we've made in our life.

It was a great evening together.

And we were home in bed by 9:30....we are in our late 30's now:) so that's the icing on the cake of great evening out (to be home early:).... such a fun evening celebrating 13 years of marriage.

Happy Anniversary to us.

October Sunday

Let's race Mama!!!

This boy does love to run....
And climb...thank goodness Uncle Nick's in town to help with the crazy monkeys...

Listening to the street drummers....
Walking to Taylor's for cheeseburgers....
A rest on the way there....
Is my cheeseburger done YET?!

Pumpkins!!!

I love this time of year.

and am so happy we have Half Moon Bay a short 20 minute drive from home.

check out the cute dirty cheek Max has...he was very into the dirt, not so much the pumpkins like big brother Charlie.

The great equalizers.....

these are the things that I believe are what make life meaningful. The things that bring everyone to a common place. When we lived in London, it was an American accent....immediate connection. That sweet older man on the plane who had a red haired daughter himself...my instant surrogate Dad. Breastfeeding issues....need I say more?! I won't but whew what an equalizer in life.

In my new job back at Stanford Hospital, I'm struck (and to be honest dealing emotionally in this newbie stage of working- I found myself bawling after watching Dirty Dancing the other night), on one of the greatest equalizers in life....cancer.

I know I'm already becoming a different person for the few hours I've shared with my patients who's life has halted at this nasty yet beautiful? equalizer in life. The beauty I think comes from realizing maybe for the first time or not for a long time what really matters to you. For me its my faith in God and my family. This past Sunday at church held more meaning than it has in a long long time. And the nasty part....the fight and anger in getting to the beauty part of it all.

And what do I really know about that journey...not very much, thank God. I just feel so privileged to be able to walk alongside these individuals two times a week.

Charlie & Puppy

Whenever Charlie is asked "Do you have a dog??" he answers.... Yes, I have Puppy!

His stuffed Puppy is his closest companion. Puppy is never far from Charlie's side. Max has even learned to find Puppy and bring him to Charlie....saying CHAR CEEE....PUPPY!

Puppy helps Charlie to process thru most everything that happens, from timeouts, shots at the drs, Daddy being away, etc. What happens to Charlie in life, is acted out with Puppy shortly after.

And so when Charlie was the special person at school today (because mom was the helper in the classroom) he was allowed to bring one special thing from home. Without a doubt Puppy was the one who traveled to school with us.

The moments of Charlie 'introducing' Puppy were priceless. Charlie kept saying over and over...'Puppy is SO SO special. I love him SO much'. And then he proceded to walk around the room and encourage everyone to smell Puppy. Becasue of course Puppy just smells so good:) We did wash him in case someone did want to smell him.

It was an adorable moment. For Charlie, Puppy and me.

Put on a Grouchy face.....

I'm mean.......

put on a smiley face.

First day of preschool....last year of preschool before kindergarten. Where did the years go? Charlie was in not so rare form and had few smiles.

I said....'Just stand by the railing, I don't care what your face looks like!!'

And this is what I got....

And then this....still some crazed sweetness in this independent boy of mine.
All my boys on the first morning of school.

The boys will play.....

For Labor Day weekend, Jeff & Charlie headed camping for the second annual "Burning Man" Festival. Burning Man being some reference to roasting marshmallows....not sure of the story there....Probably too many kids and too many beers, the Dads all come up with some goofy name for the weekend.

Addendum. Sorry for the below blurry image. Apparently there is a real Burning Man Festival

Glad to know that at Jeff & Charlie's Burning Man weekend they are simply filling up this little wired man with marshmallows to burn. Not sure of the lesson these kiddos are being taught....but we'll worry about that one once they start asking questions I guess. I'll refer that one to Jeff to answer in the future.

Anyways....take a look at the photo below and can you say CRAZY and what a fun group of Dads they are!!! Rock stars! To take so many 4ish aged kids camping....

Again...check out the madhouse of kids trying to get their hands on a marshmellow. Charlie's on the far left in the brown shirt in case you can't find him:)

Charlie scoping out the campsite.

DIRT!!! Perfect shirt for this boy. Can you see his hands??? and you should have seen him when he arrived home. He had SUCH fun with no mom telling him this and that. and we all know a little dirt is actually good for us. the fiber and all, right?!

Charlie visiting with his neighbor tent mate Elizabeth. Sweet girl who spent most of the overnight sitting right there at the door of her tent. I'm surprised Charlie slowed down long enough to visit with her.

Max & I had a great 24 hours of time 'alone'. It went much to quickly and we are already looking forward to the Burning Man Festival of 2010!

I've been neglectful....

And we've had quite the eventful month! I think I'm becoming better suited for these 'month at a glance' posts....

Charlie & Max had their first visit to Chinatown. I look dead tired in this photo (I'm getting old!!) but I LOVE the boys expressions. There were so many new and interesting things for them to see here. And even though its San Fran, these two golden headed boys caught so much attention in Chinatown. Jeff had fun showing us many of the tastes and sights he's been seeing in his work travels to Asia. Have to say at this stage I'm happy to see these new sights safe and sound in San Fran's Chinatown rather than across the ocean....at least with little boys in tow...

Jeff & I booked our first daytime babysitter on the weekend. We took a Sat for about 6 hours, hiked in Marin, had lunch in Sausalito and just enjoyed a relaxing Sat together. It was wonderful and I think we need to do the daytime babysitter at least once a month. And check out the fleece!! that's August in San Fran....crazy weather:)
These two little monkeys have really kept me on my toes this month. Charlie was all adorable smiles pulling out his wellies....but whew we've had tough month of lots of talking back, tantrums, and time outs. Maybe there's a 4 year old who's ready for preschool to start??? I know there's a mom who is.....
And this sweet Max...so so sweet...but so so busy....I want to soak up this age and am looking forward to some more alone time with Max this fall when Charlie is in preschool three mornings a week.
ahhh....and the absolute highlight of the month....Jeff & I got away for a long weekend to LA. It was amazing...left us wanting more time together and not ready to head home. A good way to end a weekend....

Sausalito Children's Museum...

We had a great day at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.    We spent the day with our friends the Swinsons before they move back to Charlotte.  Beth & I were fast friends when we met the first of this year and I'm so sad they are leaving us behind so soon:)

Sweet Max on the big boy toys....

Love his cute behind:)

JT & Max literally sharing their lunch....

A happy five some.... so hard to find in life.  But these five get along so well and stay happy while playing.  Sadly (so sadly) this was our last hurrah with Abby, Caroline & JT before they all move back to Charlotte.  So THIS is what it feels like to be left behind....we Merkels are not used to THAT feeling:)

An attempt at a family shot:)

And sweet sleepy Max on the drive home from the museum....LOVE IT:)

Grab a coffee.....Here comes the month of June...

Some of these were in my head as separate posts....but who has time for that??  It's almost August.  So here are some highlights of daily life in June 2009

Here's how we found Charlie one Saturday morning.  Filling up on marshmallows for breakfast.He went out to the garage and found them in our camping stuff.  

He calls them s'mores...even if its only marshmallows.  

We are loving www.diapers.com  Seriously, you order by 6pm and they arrive the next day.  And the price is great!  Also fills up at least an hour of play when the boxes arrive.

We are finally seeing some headway in Charlie's ability to play nicely with Max.  Just in time for Max to hit the toddler stage and be the terror.  

The annual pancake breakfast at our fire station.  We got there at the start of the morning 8am since we're all up by 6am anyways!!  and had the fire truck to ourselves!!

Zoo day with Charlie's school friends.  

LOVE the searching on the map.  

They had no idea where they were but the knew were they were headed!!!  

They stopped and searched this map at least a handful of times in our morning there.

Wyatt, Grant, Andrew, Charlie, Miles & Owen

We moms all agreed this was the best way to see the zoo.  

The boys literally ran from one animal to another for 3 hours.  

There was no fighting and they were exhausted at the end of the visit!  

Cute Jeff trying to keep an eye on the boys at one of the festivals in our park.  

I sat on the opposite side of the music area so we could have double access to all exits!     

I love this photo of Max & I.  

I'm loving his curls and can't bring myself to cut them off.  

But I'm getting one too many comments on what a cute little girl I have....

so it must be done soon:)

And the wrap up of the month.  

Our new dysfunction with sleeping...

I think we've had them all over the past 16 months.  

Charlie only sleeps on the floor now.   

Wise mom friends and the pediatrician all say its fine and normal.  

Sigh.

 Happy belated June!!