January 2014!

We started off the year by biking on the 17 Mile Drive at Pebble Beach.  It was a beautiful day and Kaitlyn loved riding with us along the beach.  Here is a family photo by Seal Beach.  Kaitlyn loved barking like them.

The rock further in the distance was covered with seals.  They were pretty funny to watch.

Here's the famous Pebble Beach tree.

After riding for quite a long time for Kaitlyn, we got back to the car and ate lunch and played on the beach.  She loved playing in the sand and chasing the seagulls.

Kaitlyn got legos or "wagos" for Christmas and loves to make towers, tunnels, gates, and stairs.  Here she is trying to walk up the stairs...

We are starting to read more paper books that aren't board books.  We still don't leave her alone with them, but she's getting a little more careful with some things.

 One of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do is get out all her plates, bowls and cups and stack them and unstack them and organize them in different ways.

Painting was so much fun until the end when she realized her hands were too dirty.  She loves to be clean, at least when she's done playing.

Another of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do is to feed the ducks at the Palo Alto duck pond.  She loves them and they love her.

This goose is bigger than her, but that doesn't scare Kaitlyn.

We were having so much fun until she ran and tripped into the concrete bench.  She cut her lip and was bleeding all over us and her cute pink dress.  She was not happy and had a hard time eating or drinking for a few days.  Luckily the mouth heals fast.  The only injuries Kaitlyn has had are bruises everywhere, raspberries on her knees and bleeding from her mouth. I'd say we've been pretty lucky so far.

One Saturday we went to the Oakland Zoo to change things up.  We also wanted Kaitlyn to see the elephants that the SF Zoo doesn't have.  Kaitlyn was so excited to go to the zoo, but didn't believe that we were at the zoo until we went through the entire zoo once.   She was not her normal happy self.  She didn't even care about the elephants!  Luckily we had time to go through one more time. This time, she must have realized that this zoo was fun too even if it wasn't her zoo.  She was perfectly happy the second time through and loved everything.  What a relief!

Here's a monkey who really wanted to be in the limelight.  Total crowd-pleaser.

At the turtles, Kaitlyn felt extra thankful and sat down and folded her arms to say a prayer.  I guess she's learning something...

Balancing on the giant snake was fun.

"Mommy's eyes!"