Some more from our trip to San Francisco, including the aquarium, the hotel room, and the beach

Here aree some shots from our trip to the zoo:

Here are the kids at Fairytale town. Somehow, we only took pictures of them on a couple of things. Oh yeah! We were going down the slides and stuff too!

What a busy, fun week we have had!! John and I decided to take the week off becasue daycare was closed. This is really the first vacation we've had as a family since David's been born, and before that, I guess was when we went camping when I was pregnant with Isabelle.

We debated about what to do. Naturally, we wanted to do too much stuff in too little time, or attempt a big adventure like camping with a 2 and 3 year old. (I'm so glad we realized that was a dumb idea before we did it!) So in the end we decided to spend a couple of days in San Francisco, and then spend the rest of the time doing things with the kids that we can't usually do because work keeps us busy... GREAT plan.

On Saturday we spend the day with Mike, Heather, Jordan, and Colin. Isabelle has been asking to play with Jordan and we rarely get to spend time with them even though they are pretty close. Again the busy life for all of us keeps us from seeing freinds as much as we'd like. Anyway... we had a great time there. We played in the pool and just enjoyed good company of good friends.

Sunday we packed up for our two day getaway to SF. We left on Monday and drove to Tilden Park where we had a quick picnic lunch and then rode a mini steam train!! We all enjoyed this 15 minute little adventure through some redwood trees and the cute little village they had set up. They even had a steam whistle!! Then we went to a place called The Little Farm. This was just what it sounds like! They had fenced areas where you could pet the goats, sheep, cow (if they got close enough) and feed them lettuce or celery if you brought some with you. We didn't know to bring any, but some nice people shared theirs with us and Isabelle got to feed a goat. They also had a big pig and some chickens. My favorite part of this stop was taking a break to sit under a tree in a nearby meadow and cool off before getting in the car... David spotted a squirrel looking for crumbs around a picnic table and took off chasing him. It was one of the most entertaining things to see him running around the tree as the squirrel spiraled up the tree to get away! Maybe it was something you just had to see... The other fun part was watching Isabelle chase a big yellow and black butterfly across the meadow. Just priceless moments of carefree innocence.

After that we drove to check into our hotel. (Isabelle chattered and sang the whole time.) We stayed at a nice hotel with a huge lobby with a great big fountain in the middle and tiered floors that all faced inward. They had elevators that looked like pods to me, that we could watched go up and down because they also face in toward the lobby and were glass on that side... Probably not great for people afraid of heights... Once in the hotel room, the kids had a ball!! I think they thought it was more of an excercise room then a bed room, as they were on and off the beds with increasing frequency. Oh, and then there were the pillows! Kids love to have 7 pillows per bed. There were also curtains to play hide and seek in... literally hours of fun jumping on and off the beds and hiding.

The beds sat really high off the ground, and were not movable, so we decided to take the mattress off one bed and put it on the floor for the kids. This worked well for the most part. David is a wiggle worm and we found him in various corners throughout the night even though I tried to barracade the mattress with pillows and luggage.

Tuesday we went to the zoo. If you remember, we had been a couple months ago, but didn't get to see it all. This time I think we saw everything, including the lions humping...er....giving each other horsey rides... that was interesting. Isabelle was very attentive. David just wanted to see the heavy construction that was taking place on the other side. After the zoo we planned to go back to the hotel for nap, but for reasons not worth explaining, we didn't do that. The kids slept in the car for a bit and then we went to Baker Beach. David had a good time playing in the sand, but Isabelle didn't get enough rest so she didn't want any part of being at the beach. We headed back to the hotel then and had a nice dinner and shared a banana split in the room before bathtime. It's been ages since John and I have had a banana split, and the first one for the kids. After bath we had another slumber party of jumping on beds and running around...then David and I settled down together and Isabelle and John snuggled up for a movie.

The next day we headed to Steinhart Aquarium which is in a temporary location while they rebuild the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. The first week of the month, museums, aquariums, flower conservatories, the zoo, the exploratorium and I'm sure other places have a day when admission is free. That was fun, but the kids were wearing out and Isabelle melted down waiting for the penguin feeding, so we left. We had a lunch date at the Emeryville Public Market to meet our friend Mark, who happened to be in town from SoCal, and so we went on... After an always entertaining visit with him we headed home. It sure wasn't easy going from seventy degree weather to a hundred and four...gotta love the Sacramento valley in July.

Thursday we met some of the kids' friends from daycare at a local pool. It was great because it had a shallow area starting at eighteen inches and gradually getting deeper and a water slide!! The kids were really into the slide and we went down it about 7 times. David would get to the end and say "again, again, again, again slide!!!"

On Friday we went to FairyTale Town in Sacramento. This is a park that was developed about 50 years ago to promote imagination and literacy. It has all these statues and sculptures and stories along the way about popular fairytales... Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella, Three Billy Goats, Peter Cottontail... you get the idea. There were slides and things to climb on and Mr McGregors Garden to water and animals to pet (and smell). It was a fun activity for a couple of cool morning hours.

Saturday we went to a 3 years old's birthday party. That was a good time!! This little person is a friend of Isabelle and David from daycare. The family had borrowed a bounce-house and had a nice shaded yard so we all enjoyed visiting and blowing bubbles. And there were CUPCAKES!!! David pooped out and fell asleep on John's shoulder.
Isabelle didn't want to leave, but was too tired to finish sentences.

Sunday was a quiet day... Whew. We just swam and played. Isabelle loves the water. We can't get her out of it!! David likes it just fine for about 15 minutes and then says..."time to go"

I felt mildly guilty that we did absolutely nothing but play for our whole vacation. I mean, we cleaned the bathroom and kept things picked up, but no major projects like we could have done with a whole week off. But thinking about all the fun we had and the joy of being with the kids and watching them play... moments that I can't adequately express in a blog post, the guilt wore off... cleaning and organizing will all be there tomorrow and the next day. And when I woke up on Monday, sure enough it was all still there.

We'll get some pictured up here in a couple of days. Incredibly, we forgot to bring our camera out, but we did run to a drug store and got a disposable. We just haven't dropped it off yet.

Everyday there must be something new with these kids. Which is a good thing. Just this evening, I was getting them ready for a bath, so I turn on the water and then had to go out to the living room to get Isabelle. David was excited to take a bath, as always, and was waiting just outside the bathroom like he does every night. Except tonight, he has figured out how to open the bathroom door, or maybe I didn't close it adequately, and in he goes. And before you know it, he climbs into the tub, with his clothes on! Then he just sat there like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

I guess I'll have to change my m.o., and get them both in there before I turn on the water.

In other news, it seems the most fun thing these kids like to do is put on their rain boots, and stomp-run around the house.

The other most fun thing is to go outside first thing in the morning (well, after a cup of warm milk) and help Julie water the plants. And yes, that could go on for hours, but Julie reminds them that the plants only need a little bit each day.

David is really starting to talk now. It's so fun to hear him putting words together and speaking more clearly. He likes to repeat (or at least try to) everything we say. He's also saying short sentences like " I do it," but mostly it's just two words together like "truck gone" or "Belle, Belle snack." He likes to point out what belongs to everyone now.

I came home from work one night and this is what I found in the middle of the living room floor. Apparently Isabelle had decided that all of her critters needed baths and set about finding appropriate tubs for them. My favorite is the chicken in the cup, although the ones in the open purse are pretty creative too. John suggested she go to bed when she couldn't finish sentences..."ok bear, now you take a bath... so bear and you bear...." rubbing eyes... "now bear, you..." sigh
(click the picture to see all the details...)

Happy Father's Day!!!! We had a fun day! John's Mom, sister Susan, and brother-in-law Greg came up on their way to the Lake and stopped in for lunch. The weather was predicted to be hot, but luckily it stayed pretty mild for our little BBQ. We also have a great tree that provides shade, so even when it's hot in the sun we have it pretty nice.

It was nothing elaborate, just some garden chairs, salads and other good food, bubbles, sunglasses and a nice afternoon. It was fun to see family and the kids had a good time with a casual picnic and interacting with family they don't get to play with too often. We meet for lunch often but there just isn't time or room for very much playing, and usually involves too much time in the car.


Isabelle also helped me make a cake for John. She is quite a good helper! She added things and stirred and even washed the bowl afterwards. The best part was eating it after lunch. Everyone complimented her on what a good cake she made!

In case you can't see in the pictures, the kids' shirts say " I listen the 80's heavy metal music with my Daddy!" I thought they were quite cute and appropriate! Rock on!!

David had his first real haircut on Friday, June 15th. I trimmed his bangs, and a little off the back before, but he had that really weird layer in the back because the top baby hair falls out, but the bottom doesn't really... He had the most adorable curls in the back, which lucky for me, also cover up any crooked cutting. I would have loved to keep the curls, but then he would've have had a mullet and well, that just wouldn't do.

He didn't want to sit in the chair by himself, so he sat on John's lap. Sitting still was tough, but he was good most of the way through. At the end he wanted to tear off the cover-up thingie and run around. His haircut is really cute though. He looks like such a big boy!!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I uploaded more pictures to the dotphoto sites for the kids.

Lately, the kids have been a little photo shy. Maybe too many flashes. But the other day Julie caught David during a time when he must have been feeling very glamorous, or flirty, photogenic, or whatever. He's such a ham.

One of the things I love about raising these two kids is watching the development happen. Or wondering how the development happens. I was thinking about this just the other day when Isabelle was making a connection between two unrelated things. I don't remember exactly, but it was along the lines of,
"Look, Daddy, that looks just like Lion King!" Just as you have no idea what she is talking about, neither did I. But I was able to quickly peer the surrounding area, and saw a yard which had a lot of tropical style plants in it, as many of the scenes of the Lion King do. And I congratulated her on her keen eye site, and powers of recognition, only with slightly different words. But she does continue to learn so many new words. And this is what prompted me to start this post.
In retrospect, it seems very difficult to learn the distinction between first and second person. When her picture comes up on the screensaver, sometimes we say, "There's a picture of you." Or at other times we say, "Do you want us to hold you?" And mix in the occasional, "Please give that to me." So Isabelle is having trouble with the correct meanings of 'me' and 'you'. They are crossed, as I'm sure you can see from the above examples. When we are talking about her, we are using the word 'you'. And conversely, we use the word 'me' for whichever of us is not her at the moment.

I know she will learn this one day, I'm not worried about that. but I wonder how long it took me, or you, to grasp that distinction.

Since you love to see pictures of these two, here we are last weekend at the local farmer's market with some friends. David didn't want to have any pictures, I guess.

A few weeks ago, actually, we decided to pretty up our entryway. The kids got so excited when I arrived at the front door with a bunch of flowers and a couple bags of dirt. Oh boy, dirt! So I made a big pile of dirt on the sidewalk, and asked if they could help by putting some dirt into the flower pots I lined up. David didn't really fill any of the pots up. But he took his little gardening shovel and scooped up a lot of dirt. And threw it in the air. I think he's going to be a astrophysicist, I mean, the way he's already studying gravity and aerodynamics. And maybe chaos theory. But he did carry his trusty broom around with him, and did a good job of clearing the edges of our little gardening adventure.

Isabelle was a big help though, as long as the help meant putting dirt into pots. She would have been happy to do that all afternoon. She even started to dump out the pots, telling me that she needed to do that one over again to get the right level of dirt in it. Every now and then, I pulled a pot about half full of dirt from the filling/dumping station, and planted a flower. Eventually, I got them all planted. "But Dad," her little voice would say, "we need more dirt in this pile over here on the sidewalk for me to put into the pots today."

But I had lots more fun in store, for it was then time to water! "Dad! Can I hold the pitcher?"

"Of course, dear." And she did. She was a very good waterer. She poured it out very slowly and cautiously, so as not to send the newly planted flower on its side or out of the pot. When reminded, she concentrated on not pouring water right onto the flower, but instead onto the dirt at the base of the flowers. When we were all done, she naturally want to water all of the plants again! However, we were able to conserve water, and only use just enough. After looking at the lovely flowers all in pots around the front of our house, she looked up with a big smile and wanted to know when we could do that again.

Probably pretty soon, as we have a few snails that also liked our arrangement.

Couple more sprinkler shots:

We've had a couple of weeks of warm weather, so that means the sprinkler games have begun.

These kids just get so fun to watch. This morning the kids were playing a new game, which I will call 'Hide', in which someone hides under or behind something. I'm pretty sure you already know how to play this....and then the other will look for them. So this morning Julie and Isabelle got on the couch, and put a blanket over them. Out of sight, but not too hard to find. David didn't see where they went, as he was on my lap begging for a bite of my cereal. Then I said, "Where's Mommy? Where's Isabelle?"

David gets a big huge smile on his face and then immediately wants to investigate the large blue lump on the couch. As he gets closer, Julie and Isabelle know he is approaching, and with a bit of anticipation and a bit of silliness, try not to make any sudden movements or giggles, which of course, produces both. David gets really excited that he is about to discover them, and he does this little dance that I think only children can do. He gets on his tip toes and does a miniature running in place, combined with erratic hand movements in a circular pattern. I think he even lets out a squeak, before barreling into the blue couch lump.

Then one of them will run to another part of the home, and wait. With big, albeit quiet, smiles on their face for round two.

Here's David telling me, "No photos please. I'm busy sweeping!"



And Isabelle being, well, darn cute!

This last weekend was, of course, Mother's day. We got together with everyone for lunch, which was fun. As always happens though, one end of the table doesn't know what's happening at the other end. And the kids don't really know what it means to wait for food, but we planned ahead and brought some snacks to hold them over until the restaurant food gets to the table. Unfortunately, when we do that, they are invariable done by the time we get our food. Oh well. They were great though, and everyone enjoys seeing them. They also liked to play out in front of the restaurant where there was a big fountain.

Speaking of mothers day, we also went to a local festival of artists and musicians on Saturday which the kids really liked. Lots of stuff to look at, and potentially break or run around with! There was also a lot of really good food available throughout the festival. It turns out David really likes Thai Jasmine rice, and Isabelle really likes Asian spring rolls. Oh, and the huge strawberries again!




They both did a little bit of dancing to the music. But David really just wanted to run around like a little dog off leash, making sure we had to work to catch him. Isabelle also tried a little hula hooping, but the ones available were a tad too big. David also really enjoyed a solar energy exhibit which was powering a little fountain. He was just having fun with it, but other kids were trying to figure out how such a thing could happen, and how I could make the fountain stop just by leaning to the right.

Isabelle loves to ride her tricycle. But her tricycle has become a little small, er, Isabelle has become a bit too big for the little tricycle. So a couple of weeks ago I picked up a second hand bicycle for Isabelle. It's all girly and everything, with pink paint and glitter highlights. But it had been neglected for a little while. So I finally got it all cleaned up, fixed the tires, and added a little more fun kids stuff - handlebar streamers, in pink, purple, and white. I also picked up a helmet for her, and put on some training wheels.




And off we went!



Isabelle didn't like the training wheels too much. Actually, she didn't like the way the bike rocked from side to side. I told her it was so she wouldn't fall over, but she still gets that feeling that she is going to fall when the bike first starts to trip one way or the other. We had a good few minutes out on the sidewalk getting the feel of it. Of course, the pedals are not on the wheel, as she is used to from the tricycle, and when pedaling backwards, the wheels don't stop right away, as the brake has to engage and slow the bike down, which is also unlike the tricycle. So she's going to have to practice a little bit more, as we all did, before she starts enjoy riding on her own.