Thanksgiving

The Hicks and Brown families have had many things to be thankful for this year - especially the last eleven months with Lila. Holidays are always special but Lila seems to make them more fun! We spent Thanksgiving at her Great Grandma Mary's house in Ridgecrest. Lila Mary is named after her Great Grandma. They were both really happy to spend those two weeks together.

Catching up with Nana...

Grandma sharing her water with Lila...

Reading "Brown Bear" for the 100th time...

Lila and her GREAT GREAT Grandpa Irvie...

We ate for an hour... Happy Thanksgiving!

How to entertain a baby at the dinner table...

Lila helped Uncle Paul with the Thanksgiving dishes...

Lila and Poppa

Reading "Brown Bear" again...

Lila's First Halloween

... and momma made her wear a duck suit!

Fireside in Arnold

Four Teeth

She Does Crawl!

Hey Stranger

Lila & Stuey

Introducing Stuey

Lila has a new pal to play with. We adopted Stuey a few weeks ago. He's just over two months old so Lila is no longer the baby in the house...

All Rise!

So, a few days ago I heard a very loud BAM! BAM! coming from Lila's room. I thought she was napping but it turns out she was wide awake. Time to drop the mattress!

Goats

We went to the Oakland Zoo last week with Stella and Maggie. Lila saw lots of animals but actually touched a few goats and took a picture with the elephants. Good times.

Flagstaff, AZ

We visited Flagstaff two weeks ago to attend Tim & Julie's wedding. Lila loved hanging out in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard!

Lila and her Poppa

Lila, Dolly and Grandma

Lila & Lou

Three Generations

The Berzerkley Effect

Grandma bought Lila a tied-dyed dress since that's what everyone wears in that hippie town down the road. It has been a huge hit.

Lila Bean & StellaBinella

We went to visit Maggie and Stella last week. Here are a few pictures of the two little gals kicking a few toys around. Stella is just a few months older than Lila and she's very close to walking!

Nan & Poppa

The Grandparents Brown came to visit last weekend. It was our second weekend in the new house so we were thankful someone could entertain Lila for a while.

Not sure about the flame chef pants, Poppa.

My Grandma Rocks!

Practicing our crawl.

Prunes & Oatmeal

Despite the desire to put anything she sees in her mouth, Lila still seems unimpressed with a spoon holding food.

It's a Baby in a Bar. So What?

Big news! We bought a house in Oakland! Well, Eric says it's Piedmont but that's just so everyone knows we are in a nice/safe part of town. Which it true. Anyway, I cannot express how exciting this move is for us - although so very bittersweet. Next week the Hicks' will leave our beloved Polk Street. We are definitely ready for the change but it's still sad to say good-bye to all the friends we have made over the past ten years. The thing I have always loved about our little neighborhood is how tight everyone is. Especially in a big city, it's very refreshing to walk out your front door to familiar faces. All the local merchants know us by first name and over the years have become like family. I always loved living here, especially while I was pregnant. Everyone anxiously awaited the arrival of the "Princess of Polk Street."

Last Sunday, we had a little celebration at the Bucaneer. It was great fun and we have many pals to thank for it. Anyone who knows Eric and I very well must know about our long history with the Buc. Since this is Lila's blog, I won't get into here. I will say, however, that we will miss these guys more than they know. Teague, Starla, Marty, Tony, Jill and all our friends we became so accustomed to seeing each week made the past ten years on Polk very special.

Who Needs A Thumb?

Lila's mouth eventually finds everything.

The Tourist Club

Patrick and Marie came to visit us this past weekend! Saturday we hiked down to the Tourist Club in the Muir Woods. The Tourist Club is a members-only Swiss chalet pub that is open to the public on weekends.

We've been a few times but this was Patrick and Marie's first. Of course they loved it. Who wouldn't like walking through coastal redwoods and drinking hefeweizen? Good times.

We took this shot on the way back. The fog came in which made for a pretty cool background.