Ale helps "Great" Auntie Barbara and Uncle Scott celebrate their 40th anniversary

This was a fantastically fun Stahle family reunion! Plus, Ale got to galivant with her second cousins Cooper and Carson. Here she rolls mandarins with Carson...

I like shoes!

Piano twinkles...

a stroll at Russian Ridge

We saw trotting horses, wild flowers, tired mountain bikers, native American grinding rocks, expansive ocean vistas, felt crisp mountain breezes...and took a little nap.

expanding my reach...

There's something up there I want...let me bring my stool over and stand on my tip-toes and then I can reach it!

Ale teaches Big Daddy adho mukha svanasana

Chillin with Cuz Moira

With Great-grandpa Joe and a 95 year age differential

Chris & Sunny's wedding frolicks

Ale helped Tio Chris and Tia Sunny celebrate their wedding at Stanford MemChu...Where was Chris when we snapped this?
At the reception, Ale decided she was going to imitate Big Daddy's facial expressions...first, wry bemusement...

Next...furrowed consternation seasoned with a little hyperbole...when will they bring the chocolate cake slices near our table?

Milk...it does a Bubba good

Ale has adapted well to quaffing her moo juice...up to 24 oz./day. Here she demonstrates the proper form and concentration.

a Polipino surprise visit!

We returned from our snowy sojourn in Tahoe to find Uncle Robert (Jeanette's brother), Auntie Gosia, and Cousin Kazik waiting for us. They spent three days visiting with us, during which time Ale passed on her wily wit and wisdom to Kazik from her vast reservoir of infantile expertise, including how to do the moon walk, blow razzberries (which Kaz has now mastered!), and fine-tune one's technique of food-painting the floor with jettisoned nibbles.

a snowy odyssey...

We joined Uncle Jesse and Auntie Jenna for a weekend trip to Tahoe. Big Mama joined Jesse and Jenna for two days of snowboarding while Big Daddy decked out Ale in her eggplant snowsuit, tucked her in the Beco carrier, and snow-shoed around the mountain. Day two at Sierra-at-Tahoe was particularly nice terrain for snowshoe scampering...

This is my mama...

She gave me my chubby cheeks and my pilipino eyes...

Ale, where's your tongue?

spoon connects with mouth

Ale's displaying increasing eating independence, drinking from cups and here showing how she likes to spoon to mush to mouth...

Precocious ribbon...

Ale's daycare provider, Tita, put this ribbon on Ale. Apparently she tried to tear it off until she saw herself in the mirror, smiled broadly, and decided that she liked what she saw. She kept it on the rest of the day... She started practicing for this look when she was two months old (click here)

prelude to a potty...

We're moving towards the potty-training days and figured we would get a head start and get Ale accustomed to sitting on the can...

Crazy hair!

Inaugural munching...

First summer bbq of 2009!

To further the festivities of Ale's first birthday, we enjoyed the inaugural summer bbq of 2009 on January 17th in solarific Burgess Park with ~20 friends. Even Cousin Leslie made it up from Monterey. We grilled up some chicken and sausages, together with other yummians. Jeanette made Ale a fancy sunflower swirl cake...which Ale was thoroughly disinterested in...

the birthday party crew

The chef bbq pauses a minute to enjoy the fruits of his labor with Matt and Jesse...
princesses Anya and Mckayla, together with Beth, Brooke, and Leslie, show Ale how to get down and dirty in the sand...
the cakerific good-stuff...