Ursula at 13 and 14 months- enjoy!
To return to Ursula's current pictures click on the bear.


She's figured out what keys are for and spent about a half hour this afternoon on this escape attempt. Let's just hope she doesn't get any taller ...

Update, November 30th, With a strenuous frown and a little "boo hoo" (from us) we can make our daughter cry. It's a horrible discovery and made us feel awful, when we ... ahem ... tried it the second time. Just to be sure. It was very hard to believe it could be so simple. She imitates our expressions, but we didn't realize until now how deep the emotional tie was. Stunning, but not terribly useful, since it doesn't seem to work at all when trying to get her to back down off the TV console where she will impishly stroke the TV screen.

Here's some homework for all the relatives we'll be visiting: learn how to juggle and hop to it. If you want to get a picture of her laughing. Don't worry, you can start out with fruit or bowling pins or something. At least for now she's not demanding knifes or molotov coctails. That whole "hot pocket" in chicken falsetto is so last year. Okay well there are two other alternatives: an emphatic "hiya!" with chopping motion, or 80's glam-rock hair swinging. [s]

Ursula is a bit confused by these small mule-like horses that were painted like cows...

Update, November 27th, World Champion Vladmir Kramnik lost a chess game to the Computer World Champion today. It wasn't some mindbending crush of silicon vs. flesh...Vlad simply missed a checkmate in one...oh, so human. Which brings us to this morning...Ursula was sitting on my lap watching a chess game and kept murmuring 'hiss, hiss' which took me a second to realize 'horse!' or knight. Can she really see through those complicated abstractions at 14 months?!

And teething has taken another turn...last we reported a 5th tooth...and now throw in another two...making 7 emerging teeth at once! She's going to grow up and either be a dentist or an anesthesiologist. [e]



This baby has a suckling problem that was easily solved by the farmer


Spring ram just a day old


Teething more and more and more


Last time she saw Kahlua- she was smaller


Morning yogurt with mom and a quilt


Happy Thanksgiving at the Inn at Occidental with Dad, Ursula, Mom, Grampa, Aunt Jen, Connie, Aunt Erin and the Top Chef Nani (note: Ursula sneaking a couple of rolls before grace)


Eat your heart out Marla...the young Ursula Frances on her first canvas

Update, November 22nd, Ursula is ready for her 2nd. Thanksgiving Feast. We celebrated last year with the Hongisto/Scheffer/Hickman clan. This year we are Occidental bound for Grampa and Nani Wolsborn's. Looking forward to the calories ;)

Ursula now has 5 teeth and a month and a half ago she had ZERO. It has been a rough adjustment and last night she was in the throes of a 24 hour flu. We think she got sick when she was licking the metal bar in the Target Store shopping cart.

At dinner tonight she ate the homemade wholewheat pizza (with her favorite sliced pears) and about half way through wiped all the food away and signed for 'cookie'...we guess that this activity associated with sugary desires will only get worse. And yes, she is still not walking unsupported.....who ordered the reptile baby...*sigh* [e]


And why stop on the canvas...(thankfully dad picked up these spare rugs at SCRAP for 25 cents to protect the floor)


"Is this how you got that awesome haircut at Supercuts, dad?"


Yay! She has learned (with a little help) how to put in the complex shapes


Ok, she walked over with her wagon, unclasped the lid, threw overboard the magazines, climbed in and made a little reading nest...


Watch out Jennifer Beals...we got a chair dancer (she climbed up and sat politely...dad went to get the camera and came back to find her in this most dangerous position)

Update, November 19th, Ursula has been listening carefully to every word we say to pick up new vocabulary. This was the interchange in the car yesterday:

Eric (sing-songy): "I love you Ursula."
Ursula: "What?!"

Not really the heart-melting response we were hoping for. [S]

We think a 5th tooth is emerging. Not sure if it's a cuspid. [E]




For the troglodytic Apple IIe users that can't see our WMV format videos
Here is Ursula being the momma!


Pretty abandoned building in Oakland


Why use a spoon when you can feel the apple ooze (yes, that's cottage cheese in her hair)


Someone likes their salad

Update, November 11th, New videos: Walk, Momma, Hat


Everything is a hat...


Maybe she is right-handed and maybe we flipped the photograph...


Sitting still for the painting class


Results from the drawing class posing...

Ursula reproduced via paint


Vote early, vote often.

Teething sucks. Note tear on right cheek. *sniff* And yeah the toothbrush is cool, but where's my Elmo ™ toothbrush?

Update, November 5th, Everything on someone's head is now deemed a "hat!" ... including the rubber duck she just placed there because, you know, it's naptime. And, uh, naps are better with a duck on your head ...

The kitty continues to be of great interest to his chagrine. This morning they were discovered doing a stare-down while he was taking care of some business in the litterbox. It was one of those tasks where only his head is sticking (vulnerably) out of the box and his whiskers work back and forth while he ... um ... grunts. We hope there was no whisker-pulling and will be teaching Puku to shut the door for privacy.

Lulled into a stupor with a video Ursula fills in as model for the day at dad's drawing class. The skeleton, right, went first.

Ursula a la sumi brush.

"OoooOOOooooh!" ... her latest commentary on what's for dinner.

"I am learning how to share..."

Update, October 29th., She has become a vegetarian...and refuses to eat the chicken she loved last month. In fact, Pears, Carrots and Whole Wheat Pasta are the only things she is excited for recently.

It was a great moment when her new friend Shelby and mother walked in the other day- Ursula lit up with the biggest smile we have ever seen. It became a little tougher later on when Shelby took to playing with the 'Library Wagon'. While there wasn't any outright jealousy, there was a touch of sadness. They played together and chased each other from toy to toy.

Tomorow is a big day. We are taking Ursula to Dad's drawing class. The students will get an hour to sketch a baby...who will hopefully be preoccupied with a Signing Time video playing on the large screen. Hopefully, we can post a couple of the best drawings for everyone to see.


The mothers show Ursula and Shelby how the toys work.


Dad has been ripping paper for making Collages...Ursula learns to rip...



"Yay!!, I'm drawing"...and then she tries to eat the crayon...and then she throws the crayon on the floor


Spice girl helps out in the kitchen

Update, October 24th., There are only so many ways to tell Ursula no. We try politely, we raise our voices ever so slightly, and of course we try with sign language. We just cannot get her to not climb up on the coffee table, into the butterfly chair or attempt to get into the tub...the last one happened today and is the most frightening of her latest gymnastics.

She has a few new words in her vocab...Car, Hat and Horse (which unfortunately sounds like whore)...
Ursula adores her new babysitter Therese!


An imaginary friend comes to life with a game of Patty-Cake

Update, October 21st., Ursula has a wonderful new friend. Lilly sings about numbers, colors, animals and pleads with us to 'give her a hug' to sing more songs. She is also fluent in Spanish...! Cute talking frog dolls aside, Ursula does have a new playmate friend for real and has been having a blast with a weekly meeting/playdates. They chase each other around the room and share their toys together.

And not crying wolf...Ursula (finally) has teeth. Two in fact- but one on the top and one on the bottom...they chatter on the metal spoon with icecream ( dad has pushing on everyone this past week). With parallels to the film 'Meet the Fockers', Ursula will observe busty women with too much cleavage showing...and give the sign language for milk! Our apologies to a certain University employee. She was truly squirming when Ursula tried to roll into a feeding position.


Posing with her new bilingual frog friend


Someone likes their doggies...we must of petted every single roll (15)


Either she loves to crawl on coffee tables or has a thing for Jimmy Smits.


Ursula scouts studio space at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts.

Every one-year-old needs her own office - how about a military basketball court?

Being consoled after an afternoon flu bug.

Update, October 14th., We had a good and bad day. Early swim lessons were fun, but after a jaunt up to the Headlands and Sausalito, Ursula got some stomach sickness while in the car. We couldn't pull over fast enough to prevent Ursula vomiting onto mommy's shirt, glasses and hair! And after a few heartwrenching hours of this, Ursula took a nice nap, bath and was just like her usual self. If only we could know why this happened...Kudos to Ursula's Grandfather in NH...Papa has a new job!

We are continually amazed at Ursula's vocab list. She has the following words down pat: bird, duck, cat, dog, cow, milk, momma, dadda, bath, ball, balloon, button, water, cookie, shoes, socks, clock. There are some cute mistakes within these words...sometimes a bird is dog and seeing the ocean yesterday she exclaimed 'Bath!" And "clock," well ... she often forgets the "l" - let's just hope she never talks about the clock too loudly in public ...


Up on the Headlands (Golden Gate in background)


Enjoying the weather in Sausalito


Always excited for a balloon


She tried her best to 'pet' each doggy


Hens and Chickens gone wild


Ursula's changing table view now includes the larder of a predatory bird. You can just see the pigeon's tail sticking out from the bushes. Mom read about this behavior in Suburban Safari.

... I guess that's what to expect when you live up a steep hill.

Update, October 13th., Ursula is working on stringing words into sentences, but proficiency is still to come. Most of the time she prefers to imitate our sentences with all of the consonants removed. First thing this morning she was babbling something about "Dog, more book ball." Perhaps it's a list of what she wanted to see today. Is there a Strunk and White board book?

She startled us last night by standing completely unsupported for a few seconds. We were too breathless to grab for the camera. It must have been something like 7 seconds. It felt like forever.

Ursula gets training from DJ Gramma K in 1970s cutting edge recording technology so that someday when she is a sound engineer she can do it "old skool."

Update, October 10th., Favorite games: methodically pulling apart the roll of toilet paper that dad handed her, offering her parents half-eaten food, reading books to herself in dramatic gibberish, taking all the books off her shelf, asking mom and dad to answer the "phone," pushing the buttons on the tape recorder, waving to everyone in the supermarket with her best parade-float-wave, climbing over Mt. Mamma and Denali Dadda, hide and seek, chasing giggling parents, pointing at buttons and announcing "butt! butt!"

Ursula checks out the view (see below).

... the view

After an awful visit to the hospital for her one-year blood tests Ursula is consoled by her new favorite, absolutely awesome, toy. Thankyou Auntie Rachel and Uncle Leigh!

Update, October 7th., Ursula got her one-year blood tests (lead and hemoglobin) yesterday, but this time we had to report to the hospital for it, and were ushered into a little cubicle that resembled a draped voting booth. Gramma Kay was there for support while mom held on, but it had to be the worst doctor visit so far. Apparently baby veins are hard to find ...

Ursula will wrestle you for a peach if you're caught eating one, but she wouldn't eat the neatly diced pieces. She wanted them served this way.

Hiking back from a pine cone expedition in the Presidio.

Chasing the soccer team onto the field

Update, September 30th., Gramma Kay is coming next week for a visit. Ursula has been trying to say Gramma, but mumbles 'ggerm'. And if you listen close enough she can say 'baa-oon'- translation = baloon. And she can say 'bah----tawn' = button. She wants to walk, but only if mom is holding her fingers. It must be so scary to let go for the first time.


Wow, what a big brain you have... "Thanks Mimi, for the Pumpkin Hat!"

Update, September 25th., Happy Birthday!! Nothing beats turning one! Thanks to all our family and friends with your continuing support. And expressing how much you care for Ursula. This past year has gone by so quickly. We remember Ursula being in pregnant mom when dad was still living in Montana. She has lived in New Jersey, traveled to California, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Florida...and then she simply packed up all her toys and moved to San Francisco without any fear. What a first year!

We can't believe its almost time to look for pre-school, elementary, college- yikes. First things first...getting her walking, talking and smiling more.

"Does this mean I can have chocolate now?"

That dazed parental smile thing...


The afterparty sunrise shock..."where did all my relatives go?"


Pointing to the baby


We've filled her wagon with books to tempt her to practice walking, then noticed it's kind of like a prison library cart ...

Did you miss the last couple weeks of pictures?