i'm a bit late at posting this, but i've been collecting this for awhile...


Things that I dug in 2009


Rex

seriously. cutest, best baby ever.

other stuff (not nearly as cool):


memories:
- finding out that we had become an aunt and uncle. Kevin called Steve while we were out on a Vampire Tour of San Francisco (super cheesy) to let us know that Jackson had arrived. I think everyone on the tour was annoyed that we got a phone call and stayed on it, but when we told them they were all super excited for us.

- whale watching off the coast of Maui. AMAZING. Definitely cooler than I thought it would be. We saw tons and tons of whales and spinner dolphins. It was fantastic.

- labor/giving birth. Steve has heard me tell the story enough times, and yet I hope I don't ever forget the details. Maybe I should write a well-overdue post about it.

- all of the amazing people who came to visit us in the hospital and right after Rex was born. We had a full fridge and didn't get lonely. It was amazing.

- summertime in Michigan. The best time to be there. And we had all kinds of help from Rex's grandparents while I adjusted to motherhood. We had an amazing picnic party with many of our friends that I dubbed Rexapalooza

- going up to Sonoma for a family get-away before I went back to work. We discovered a great live band at the Schellville Grill and I got a huge kick out of watching Steve dance and sing with Rex

- hosting my mother in Pacifica for a few months. She was an amazing help to us, watching Rex and helping ensure my smooth transition back to work.

- taking Rex trick-or-treating in San Carlos with the gang.

- my birthday party dinner at Shalimar in Ann Arbor. Sharon hired a balloon animal artist. Truly impressive.

- hosting Pacifica Moms Club events. I believe we had a dozen kids under the age of one and their parents at our house for two different events. Whoa.

- Steve playing Santa at the Pacifica Moms Club Holiday Party. Check out this photo of him with Rex. AMAZING!

- Holiday Tea at the Fairmont with Dave, Michelle and Aliya. I had always wanted to have fancy high tea.

- going with Ann to Three Forks Ranch and driving a dogsled. Hee-yah!


there were some awesome additions this year as well:
- Sam Michael
- Jackson Hall
- Zara Verosub
- Jonah Wolosin


fave books i read this year:
- When the Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin. Favorite book of the year, by far. Also very sad. Everyone should read this book. My mom loved it too...
- The Agency by Ally O'Brien. Ridiculous, and fun.
- The Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea
- It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita by Heather Armstrong
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett



foods (you know me, I love food!):
- quinoa: For some reason I hadn't had it really before this past year
- salt and pepper pistachios
- the crab ramen that I had at Sansei Sushi on Maui. That place rocks!
- Benton's Bacon. This one just got in under the wire, as Steve ordered a shipment of various pig products from Benton's in December. Their bacon is to die for. Make it S-L-O-W-L-Y on the griddle. The whole house will smell, yes, but it will make you happy.
- chocolate chip cookies. I took two of the chocolate chip cookies that they bake in the cafeteria at YouTube pretty much every day while pregnant (and still sometimes do) and then warm them in the microwave around 3pm and have them with a glass of milk. And pretty much everyone that I work with knows that I do this, but I can't stop...
- repetitive, yes, but the chocolate chip cookies at the Google SF office are also worth mentioning. They're baked small (silver dollar size) and thick, with fleur-du-sel on top. DIVINE.



music:
- "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti & Spearhead
- "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz*
- "21 Guns" by Green Day (we saw the musical "American Idiot" this year too and I liked it a lot)
- "The Fear" by Lily Allen (I sang this pretty much nonstop in the car on the way to and from work in March-April)
- Rawhide (Rex's favorite song for most of this year)
- Radiohead Lullabies (another favorite of Rex's, and ours, since it knocks him out every night)
- "I Love" by Tom T. Hall (Tom T. Hall's album "Songs of Fox Hollow" was one of my favorites as a kid. Rex really digs it too. He goes nuts when we play the homemade video of this song that is up on YouTube here.
- "Single Ladies" by Beyonce (Steve loved this so much... I mostly love this video of a baby dancing to it. CLASSIC!
- "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas (OMG, Steve loved this so much too...)




*I had this song on my 2008 list too, and normally wouldn't say that a song truly embodied two different years, but here's the thing... When this song came out, I thought it was hella cute, and loved it. And then in February 2009 when we went to Maui for our babymoon, they were playing it on pretty much an endless loop at the hotel, so now I'll always associate it with that trip and that last romantic vacation together before Rex came along.