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7.21.05

Francis’s First Birthday Party

You only turn one once. Francis’s first birthday was certainly memorable, although she won’t be the one to remember it. When do kids start developing lasting memories, by the way?

Anyway, we had this party on Saturday and it was more fun than we could have imagined. There was a donkey pinata! (congratulations to Noah Breit for emptying the donkey of his sweet candy innards). There was swimming! There was a tent! (On that one, I have to emphasize “was” because the wind destroyed the tent yesterday). There was cake! (cake that we baked in our neighbors’ oven because ours doesn’t work. Thanks Ben and Maureen!). There were gifts! Thank you all who came and celebrated with us. We’ll remember Saturday always.

As for Francis, she laughed (when she got frilly dresses from Grammie), she cried (when we sang Happy Birthday to her), and she slept (like a rock after most of the people left).

It was a particular pleasure to have such great representation of the Carlsson Clan there. Carl “Babe” Carlsson was my dad’s roommate at N.D. from 1950 – 1952. Despite the distance between Texas and Illinois, our families have been close ever since. In this set of pictures, you’ll notice a family picture of three generations of Carlssons (which now includes Lucases and LeCocqs as well). Thanks for coming, guys!

Filed in: francis | holidays
7.21.05

Kicking Off Francis’s Birthday Weekend

Francis had some visitors this weekend. Matt and Jennie came from Atlanta on Thursday night, and Mom Gulde came up from Amarillo on Friday morning (at 1:40 a.m., to be exact, thanks to a SWA delay).

The whole crew came downtown on Friday afternoon after exploring Oak Park in the morning. Here are some pictures of the group in my office (where we had the good fortune of sharing birthday cake with my coworker Diane), at the Sears Tower, at Giordano’s getting some deep dish, and finally at home putting in the curlers.

Filed in: francis | holidays | visitors
7.14.05

New Movie!

Sooner or later, every parent comes up against this question:

“Is my child in real danger, or should I grab the video camera?”

A couple of days ago, Sally faced this issue when Francis climbed up on top of her play table to look out the window. The problem is, Francis doesn’t know how to walk, much less dismount anything taller than a single stairstep. So after she saw all there was to see from the tabletop, she realized that she didn’t know how to get down.

At that point, Sally had to decide whether to videotape Francis, or rush to her daughter to keep her from falling on her nose. Tough decisions like this are what make parenting such a challenge. Sally had to weigh several possible outcomes before grabbing the video camera. Maybe it would have been different on hardwood instead of carpet. As it turned out, I think Sally made the right choice.

My favorite part of the video is actually not the dismount, which is sudden and hilarious. My favorite part is when Sally is taunting her daughter: “what are you gonna do, Francis?” and France is giving it right back to her in baby language.

Click on the title, “New Movie!” to view the scene. Be patient; it takes a minute to download.

Filed in: francis | movie

by Sally

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July 14, 2005 - 11:07 pm

Drew, Amber and Megan - **** Four Stars! A real class act, her ability to capture the audience is delightful.This girl has got a future….question is will they be ready for her!

July 15, 2005 - 2:10 am

Kristen - I was sitting on the edge of my seat the WHOOOOOLE time. Good work, Francis Pantis!! We're so proud of you!

July 28, 2005 - 6:31 pm

Kristen - We shared this parenting story with our birthclass last night. Thanks for being such good role models!

7.12.05

Hey, what’s down there?


Francis in her playroom
Originally uploaded by The Gulde Family.

I was just sitting at my desk working when I turned around to see Francis climbing up her toys to peek out the window. She wasn’t making any noise to prompt my turning she was just very quietly plotting her escape. The joke was on her though, because I then got to watch her for the next 10 minutes try and figure out how to get down. Unfortunately for you, I didn’t get a still photo of it, but it was Hilarious. She ended up kind of sitting and sliding down the wall onto her booty. A bit surprised she looked at me and then stood right back up and was ready to do it again. What a smarty pants. As you scroll through the photos take special note of her hair…not that you could miss it. I think it might be time to get a haircut. Ah… somehow that makes me sad, but I don’t think I can put it off any longer.

Filed in: francis

by Sally

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July 13, 2005 - 1:53 am

Drew, Amber and Megan - NO! don't cut her hair, just keep putting it up. you'll be sorry. i cut megans hair for the first time right after her 2nd birthday, and i wished i had never touched it. francy,if possible, will look even more adorable if you let it grow and put it up like you do now

7.10.05

Roller Derby

So by now, you should all be familar with Francis’s long, plentiful, crazy head of hair. Well, yesterday I felt inspired. Francis got the sponge roller treatment.

I don’t think my mom curled my hair as a baby (frankly, I didn’t have any.) But I’ve seen photos of my mom’s hair in rollers when she was a little girl. Her hair was always in ringlets with bows. Always crazy adorable and picture perfect. That was back in the day when mothers would iron their children’s clothes. When did they have the time to do all of that? I can barely find the time to curl my own hair, let alone iron anybody’s clothes.

Anyway, Francis and I have been sick this week (and when she’s awake I can’t work) so I thought I’d give it the ol’ one-two and see if I could pull it off. The photos say it all really. From a technical standpoint, I think my hair rolling days are numbered. Fortunately, I have the cutest girl of all time. So even though it turned out to be a mess it might be the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.

As always, click through the title of this post to view the entire set of pictures, and see the curly head.

Filed in: francis | sick

by Sally

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July 10, 2005 - 9:14 pm

Drew, Amber and Megan - Sally I was always jealous of your hair in high school. I remember one time we were getting ready for a double date.You and Joe Brown and me with Chris Marczak. You were taking the hair rollers out of your hair and it looked soooo cool. I never got the hang of hair rollers.

July 10, 2005 - 9:15 pm

Kristen - My mom and I giggled at the pictures of Francis in rollers. Thanks for helping to make our day brighter this morning. I think with a little practice you could become the world's best baby hair roller. Don't Give Up. 🙂
I love you! I hope you're having a great birthday today!! Love and miss you.