Devon's Kayak Weekend

Devon has been busy kayaking in the surf kayak contest this weekend.

Had a few good waves, and a pretty good beat down in one heat too! Some friends made a video slideshow of some of the good and bad parts of my heat. Unfortunately I got knocked out of the contest and didn't make it to the quarter-finals, but our friend Chris Harvey came back from the UK and won the contest for the second year in a row! He even did some good babysitting for Fiona too!

Lately

Sorry for the hiatus in posts...the usual, life, cleaning, feeding ourselves, and potty training has been keeping me away from the computer.

It is spring in our yard and Fiona has been taking advantage of this in exploring the yard, digging for worms, picking flowers, planting then replanting plants, watering with her watering can, she tried to drink from her shovel yesterday, another thing I never thought I'd say: " Don't lick the shovel!"

She has been doing well on the toilet thing though at the moment she prefers by far to poo in the grass outside which is not our favourite. We're working on that. She still has some trouble pulling her own pants down and so we get around that by her not wearing any.

The other morning I was looking in the drawers and cupboards for my measuring cup. Long after I needed it it was found, "yellow teddy" as he is known here was using it (I think as a potty)
It was good to see that the teddys are still enthusiastic about potty training too.

We hope that y'all are well and either coming into spring or cooling off nicely in autumn where you are.

Love
Louise

SCAT!!! Drat!

Todays lesson verbatim. "We do not eat poo, ever!"
I will save you the visual.

Fortification

Fort building is a big deal these days, we have this one in our living room at the moment. Fiona brings in only the necessities of course including flamingo, kitty, bear, and horse.

Public Toilet

Today, more potty success, fiona had a self initiated and completed poo in the potty this morning. Much celebrated for an activity before 8AM. She had had countless piddles in the potty today including three during the hour we were watching Devon play soccer. Fiona used the public toilet for the first time which included the all important lecture about "DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING" It went well and she was just a little bothered at how loud the flush was as compared with home.

Also note how skillful the mother is taking a photo and holding atthe same time.

More pics of fiona's day out

Here are some more pictures of Fiona Doing fieldwork with her daddy:Fiona in the back of the truck

Fiona Helping with tagging the salmon

Fiona having a "coffee break" in the back of the truck

ANd sharing some with Devon.

Fiona and Daddy at Work

Fiona got to go in the field with Devon this week. There were fish promised... and Daddy delivered. Fiona had a wonderful time throwing stones into the river and watching the fish in the bucket. We would do just about anything to listen to her giggle.

PIDDLE IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!

So Fiona has been working really hard on her potty skills today, since first thing this morning Devon has been singing and reading to her, then today the nappy for a little while and after lunch, naked in the porch with the potty, I had given up hope and was ignoring her, when I heard, "Piddle" and "mummy" from the front of the house. I asked her where the piddle was figuring I would be wiping the floor or blotting the couch, but she said "potty" and there is was, only about a tablespoon full but it was piddle.

A celebration was had and this is Fiona with her "dora the explorer" training pants on and a kitten sticker on her arm.

What a day!

Naming Names

Just to give y'all an update on Fiona's Vocabulary:
Over the past couple of days she intermittently calls herself "ona" which I think is a step ahead of the Fff Fff that she has used until now.

She is pretty conversational in the one and sometimes 2 syllable words but mostly says the last part of the longer ones. It is so much fun to watch her pick up new words by the minute. She always gets her point across which is a great change from the nonverbal cries she had as a little baby.

She's doing well with her spanish. She says "hola" for and "adios" (hello and goodbye), says 'paso" for que paso (what's up).

Our Happy Valentine

Here is Fiona, with a little prompting (OK a lot) wishing you a happy valentines. We're full of love here, and hope you are too.

Happy No Poo

After a big morning bike ride to my soccer game, Louise went off to work, and Fiona and I spent a Saturday afternoon around the house... including a good bit of time happily reading but NOT pooing on the toilet. Eventually its gotta happen!

Devon

First Night

Last night Fiona slept through the night in her big girl bed. There were a few loud noises from the room at about 1am but I think that it was just her bumping into the wall. This morning, she was unable to get out of her room but she didn't seem too distressed. There was actually much less hollering for "MUMMY!" than other mornings.

Potty training continues at a dreadfully slow pace, she can sit on the potty for quite a long time (today she got to play with play dough for the first time but only while she sat on the potty) but never poos or piddles until the nappy is back on. We just might give up again soon.

Love
Louise

Tantrum in progress

Here is fiona at the end of a tantrum, It was all about running over the dog with something, I can't remember exactly, before I found the camera it was quite dramatic, much flailing of limbs and screaching on the ground. I though this would show a different side of her.

Happy Mother moment number 4,188,756,342

Fiona came up to me while I was making dinner and asked quite clearly for a "bit" of "broclii" I handed it over to a ravenous veggie eating girl.

Turtles in the bath

Here is Fiona enjoying one of her favourite pastimes. I'm looking forward to taking her back to the pool this summer, partly because it will be fun to swim with Fiona, and partly because it will be summer and therefore not as cold as it is right now.

Special Bed

So, Fiona has had her "special bed" set up in her room since we realized that she can climb in and out of her crib, but up until yesterday she used it as a play spot, and a platform to be able to reach the light switch. Yesterday, before I went to work, I was getting her ready for her nap and asked her, as I do every nap, "would you like your special bed or your crib?" She always says "CWIB" back...yesterday she said "bed" and then proceeded to nap for almost 2 hours in her bed!!!

YAY

Heads and shoulders knees and toes...

Sleeping dogs

Fiona helping Luna to nap.

Goodbye Tahoe, Hello Fiona!!!!!

As you can see we had a lovely time away. We missed Fiona terribly of course, but held ourselves together valiantly and slept in to almost 8 two days in a row! A great big thank you to John and Vicki who put up with many poos and uncounted book readings. We are looking forward to our next getaway, but also looking forward to Fiona getting old enough to enjoy trips like this with us.

Louise Snowboarding

We had a great time in Tahoe for the weekend. Here's a video clip that shows the lake in the background. Devon got the year wrong in his commentary , perhaps he was giddy with too much rest.

72 hours!!!!!!!!!

Hi All, Here are a couple of pics hot off the disk...I'm giving Fiona her last bottle before I put her to bed for her nap, only today, I'm going to work and then Devon and I are leaving for a snowboarding weekend together. So I won't see her for about 72 hours. I've been trying to focus on all the annoying stuff today to make it easier to leave but she's so lovely I can't do it for long. Fiona incidentally is having John and Vicki come and stay for the weekend so she can play in the manner to which she has become accustomed, all over her own house. I'll hopefully give her another cuddle on Sunday. ....SIGH.

Out for a ride

Devon and Fiona and I went for a ride along West cliff drive and then visited the Fungus Fair, but by far the favourite part for Fiona was the park and the backhoe. It's still a bit unwieldy for her but she loves to give it a try. Was a bit disturbed that other kids were using it too. This may be an uphill battle. Fiona pointed out in a stream of nouns everything that she saw on the way home, and it seems that she knows the names of just about everything she sees. Where sis she get all of that. We stopped and watched a bit of soccer on the way home. She got straight to napping when we got home, We have a little bed in her room that we are calling the "special bed" by way of trying to make it more enticing, but she still prefers her crib and asks for it by name over the new bed. Incidentally we found her inside her crib the other day, she had climbed up and into it, so we know that she could get out, it's just a matter of time until we hear her go bump in the night. Let's hope that special bed gets some use soon.

Love
Louise

Blackout

We have had a rainy couple of days here in Santa Cruz, rainy and windy. There was no power here for most of yesterday, others had it much worse we sat by the fire and played, went for a stomp in the puddles and had candlelight dinner together. The only little bit of excitement was that the skylight in the bathroom blew off in a gust of wind. Devon went up on the roof in the worst of the storm and fixed it. Fiona gets points for going into the bathroom and discovering the puddle forming inside...she was a bit worried about it and said "uh-oh" thus summoning help. Explaining that we couldn't watch her Winnie the poo DVD or look at You Tube on the computer was a bit of a worry...I told her that there wasn't any electricity and she accepted it, I'll have to try that on other days too.
Here's some video from dinnertime:

Sleepy New Year

Fiona sleeping in bed with Daddy, both of them sick and tired.

Our New Year Photo, home with a cup of milk.

Fiona, obsessed even when sick, with Teddy having a nappy on.

It's been a little while since the last post, Santa Came and went and Fiona is still learning to ride her tricycle, mostly we push her on it, but she seems to be able to pedal with one foot occasionally. She is great as sharing with her teddies who get to ride around the house quite a lot. The fussy baby that we have been dealing with for the past couple of weeks turns out has an ear infection, maybe both of them. The other night she was feverish when she went to bed and the Tylenol wasn't working to bring it down, By the morning she was 104 and shivering. We bundled her into the car and took her to the doctor, still with whole body shakes....So it's the ears, she's getting her first antibiotics in her life, today she is doing much better. She is still sleeping a lot, I think that yesterday she was awake for about 2 hours total, not much eating but lots of drinking which is enough I suppose. Devon has the same cold but he hasn't been quite as sad looking as her. We went to bed early on new years eve having canceled our kid friendly going out plan, everyone got some extra rest because it's best to take on the new year feeling your best. So hopefully her resolution is to get back to her wild and crazy self.

Love
Louise

Deck the halls

Hi All, We hunted, gathered, and then decorated our tree tonight. On the way to get the tree we stopped at several gaudy light displays around the neighbourhood, but Fiona wasn't as wowed as I though she would be. I think that seeing them from the warm car is not as wonderful as seeing them up close in the street at night. We go across the street to see the neighbour's lighted train display pretty often and she likes that. As for the tree in our house, Fiona helped to decorate it and there are plenty of durable ornaments down low for her to rearrange. It is likely to be a cautious week keeping her from climbing it I think.

We stopped by a friends house up the coast today. There are cows on an adjacent property and we went to say "hello" to them. Other than the county fair where the cows are pretty bored, fiona has not seen cows much. She wanted to see them when we were a little way away, but then as we got closer and the cows were full size and mooing at us, Fiona, (I was carrying her) clenched onto me with arms and legs, and quite definetly said BYE!!!!!!! to the cows, blowing them a hasty kiss as she looked away. Maybe in a few months she'll have a change of heart.

Drying Teddy

We have been pushing the potty training with Fiona and apparently this had rubbed off on her, but not in the way we would like: Yesterday she brought a dripping teddy to me she said "Teddy...poo...Gruuuuunt" and I got it, teddy had tried to poo in the toilet and his feet had accidentally touched the water in the bowl. He's drying in the sunshine today. At least we may have a chance of potty training something around here.
Louise

Grandad's Visit

Fiona's granddad Ken visited this weekend. Fiona had a good time and we went for a bike ride together and out to a great brunch place. Fiona did very well with her table manners, crayon's at the table help, she had a fruit salad and dipped each piece in whipped cream...nutritious? Fiona is wearing her warmest Jumper, It was my jumper when I was little, a few moth holes but it keeps her warm.
Love
Louise

Manamanah

Guitar Practice

Fiona has been helping me with my guitar practice as you can see. Hopefully she'll choose her own instrument one day but for the time being she shares with me.
Love
Louise

MILO

Here is fiona enjoying a spoonful of her mum's morning Milo. She finishes off by saying her name too still just "FF"

Since the last post...

No more progress on toilet training,we'll just keep up with out "fruitless" efforts and hopefully by the time she is going off to university she won't poo in her pants.

We had thanksgiving and fiona got to wear a festive dress, she helped make dinner rolls see the photo and guess which one is hers.

She has picked up a lot more words in her vocabulary her is a sampling:
Dinosaur, Milch (milk), Luna, sweep, chalk, bowl, bottle, poon (spoon), "no" is still a big one, phone, MILO, She has photos of the cousins and makes good attempts at "Charlotte, annie and Ollie" annie sounds the best. "Come" and "here" are used to get mummy to follow her into the bushes int he garden. "OUT" os often directed at Luna (I suppose we say tat a lot), she says Kiss, "Where-di-di-go" is still her hide and seek game followed bu "di-di-is" (which is "there she is").
It's fun all this language stuff.

Fiona at the moment loves to go for bike rides, play int he garden, go for walks around the block and look for cats which she tries to call by saying 'Kitty-kitty" we are rarely successful at this.
Taking her to the shops these days can be a bit challenging because there are so many things that she wants to grab. We still have yet to have a throw down tantrum in public...only a matter of time.

So, I hope you are all having a wonderful December,
Love
Louise

New hope

Yesterday I had said to Devon, I'm losing hope with this whole toilet training thing. Today, fiona at lunch time says "Poo"--no questions asked, I put her on the toilet and Viola...another poo in the potty. She's got a case of the runs at the moment so maybe the more frequent need will give us more chances. Now, that's making the best of a bad situation.

Love
Louise

Hitting the Hard Stuff

Hi All, Just a quick update about our current adventures in parenting. Fiona is talking more and more every moment. She has figured out that saying "please" gets her what she is asking for most of the time. She is putting two words together in command form like the other day at the park when she wanted me to come down from a bench I was on, she said "Mummy down" while pointing at the ground...clever girl.

She has also started hitting us during times of frustration and excitement. Any suggestions about what might work here would be helpful? We're mostly just shunning her after she hits us, game over, little time out, will this work? How long will it take?

Also please notice the picture of Fiona who has discovered the television. She managed to get the DVD going herself the other day. We had no idea she could figure that one out. She has one DVD that came in a magazine that has some Winnie the pooh and other cartoons on it. I wonder how long until she notices that it's the same 20 minute loop.

Here is her latest artwork too...

WEANED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting for a while to post this because it has been a bit off and on: Fiona has still been breastfeeding once each morning for the past few months, but this week I think she has finally given up and realized that the milk and weetbix that await her for breakfast are far more filling than my dwindling milk supply. So, I'll finally pack away the battle worn nursing bras for good and accept that my little baby is growing up. We'll look forward to the day that she can bring us breakfast in bed. or at least look forward to her sleeping in and not needing breakfast until after 8AM. It's been wonderful to get to feed her for such a nice long time, part of me wished that it would keep going longer and part of me is jumping for joy that I'm off duty in that department.

Fiona Folding

Here is fiona folding her washing, a favourite activity.

Big Shoes, Bigger Hat

Fiona is into putting on hats and shoes. Here she is in a particularly silly hat and in her daddy's shoes.

Tiger Girl

Fiona was a tiger for Halloween. Quite a good roar out of that girl.

She's working on her talking, her new words of note: House, push, Dummy (finally), shoe, sock, two, bowl, and fish. Da is still the word she uses for yes and again. She has copied the way that we saw "where did it go" (sounds like "weah-di-di-go") and says it as one long word when she has lost something, but I don't think that it is a sentence because she isn't really putting words together on her own. We'll keep you posted.
Love
Louise

Weekend at Grammy and Grampy's house

Hi All, We had our first overnight away from fiona this weekend. Devon's parents agreed to look after her over a saturday night while we enjoyed Fiona-free camping in Big Sur (much more relaxing than our recent camping with her). This time we stayed at an amazing private property with spectacular views, even from the loo! The trip was a retreat with Devon's work, and the property belongs to our congressman, Sam Farr, who was also there. Interesting group to have grown-up conversations with. Also went surfing with friends and generally enjoyed a temporary lack of responsibility. Very nice, and very nice to get back to Fiona and all her craziness on Sunday. Below is what Fiona did while we were away, courtesy of Vicki.

SATURDAY:

After you left: distraction strategy worked, no fuss. She liked and clearly identified the glass fish in the patio.

Lunch at noon: string cheese; cottage cheese with guava sauce; small piece of bread with butter & jam; grapes, strawberries, apple; pieces of date bar; milk.

Afternoon nap: Went down nicely, slept 2:00 to 3:20.

I almost blew it by saying, when John came back from his afternoon lecture at the museum, Come to the window, look who is here! Fiona lit up, calling Mommy! But Grampy was welcomed warmly anyway.

During the day, she mentioned Mommy a few times, but not with significant distress or in any particular context. Told her that Mommy and Daddy would come tomorrow, which seemed OK.

Afternoon outing at Carmel Point was stretching it, but she enjoyed it and did fine. Didn't like Grampy disappearing with his group of students. Altogether 4:00 to 6:30 by the time we got home, but she had snacks (raisins and crackers) & water. Luna also got crackers.

Played on the beach for about half an hour, digging with the red spoon in the shelly sand and filling a plastic jar; looking a shells; climbing on the rocks.

Tired of that, we returned to the car, where Luna was waiting. Played with the steering wheel and all the buttons, great fun. [Display screens are now off; we will have to figure out how to reset them. Don't know how she did that!]

Walked a little, while waiting for John's group to return; very keen group, tho only middle-schoolers. Fiona said hi to various walkers. She really liked a spiffy-looking black convertible sports-car of some kind, wanted it! I had to explain that it wasn't ours. You need to discourage this expensive taste in cars....

Back in the carseat, Fiona indicated her left shoe, whimpering a little. Does it hurt? Yes. I took it off, and found several rocks in it! No complaints about the right one (and no rocks). So that was pretty clear. She's a good communicator.

Hungry for dinner: two big helpings of curly whole-wheat noodles with cottage cheese, cream cheese, sourcream, plus green peas. Grapes, strawberries, apple; pieces of date bar; milk.

Afterwards Fiona was clearly tired, but sweet, not cranky; puttered around happily while we made and ate a fast chicken-salad-dinner. Story, quick bath, in bed at close to 8 pm (Would Tiger like to go to bed? Yes.), went right to sleep. We have hopes of her sleeping late....

Two poo's, before and after dinner.

SUNDAY:

Moderately good night, despite some coughing, and one full-on standing wake up at 4 am. I mumbled that it was still sleepytime, laid her down, and apparently was convincing. She woke again at a few minutes before 6, rested with us for a few minutes in our bed, and then John was persuaded to be the hero (while I fell asleep until 8!).

Breakfast was Cheerios with raisins and yoghurt. Milk. Fluoride.

Stinky big poo after breakfast. A little irritated; put vaseline.

We all went for a walk on the rec trail with our hats and Luna, and were told we were "a picture." Lots of fun watching the boats, people and dogs, but especially climbing on the benches and drawing in the sandpath.

More milk, a story, nap from almost 10 am to 11:10.

Woke up happy. Many big smudgy kisses on Daddy's photo. Puttered. Helped Grammy with the flowers, dusting. Crayons.

Lunch at 1 pm, because earlier she insisted that she wasn't hungry. More noodles, etc., fruits, date bar, milk.

Another poo. A little irritated; put vaseline.

Outside with Grampy, building the chicken-house. Visiting with the Tom's and with Ranger, good time.

Milk, story, nap 2:45.

3:30, Devon & Louise home!

Shoes On

Here is Fiona putting her new shoes on. Quite grown up!

This news just in....

A miracle has occurred at 79 Alta Vista Drive:

Just a few minutes ago Fiona was standing at her toy basket fishing things out from the depths. She got a stern expression on her face and looked up at me (practicing guitar nearby). She patted the front of her nappy with her hand, and I asked the obvious: "Do you need to do a poo?" She nodded looking more concerned by the second. I raced her off to the toilet pulling her clothes off as we ran. We made it in time, and Fiona sat, had her poo, and reaped the reward of getting to flush it herself.
Maybe there is some hope in this potty training...
Love
Louise

PS: there was no time for a photo of this incident.

Small victory

Lately Fiona has mostly given up on her potty as seen in previous posts but instead has decided that the regular toilet is more her style. She asks to use it by tapping on it's lid or walking up to me and grunting then running to the toilet. Pretty clear. Anyway, until this morning this resulted in me holding her bare bum over the bowl while she grunted or just tried to get her hand into the water. Jump to Today, I figured it would be more of the same, pulled her PJ's off put her over the bowl and then VICTORY!!! A real poo in the potty. We celebrated and then watched it circle the bowl on the way out to sea. Her best reward is getting to do the flush part.

Wheels on the Bus with Capo

Here's Fiona's favourite You Tube video. Now that Louise is taking guitar lessons, she will soon be able to play this for Fiona all day long! Until then, maybe Uncle Nick and Auntie Nikki can help Uncle Jonathon make a video of him playing this???"

"F F" Fiona

Make two "F" sounds in rapid succession...that's how Fiona says her name. Here she is hoping to spend some quality computer time watching You Tube videos.

A walk in the woods

We took fiona on a long walk with friends Chris and Kate, at a local park this weekend. She did very well but preferred to walk on her own than be carried. She rode in the back pack with Devon for a good portion, and then we made the mistake of letting her out. Getting her back in was challenging and as you can see she protested. She loved the forest though, It was cool after our first rain of the season, lots of rocks and sticks and acorns to collect along the way.

PS fiona has learned finally over the last couple of weeks to say MAMA(actually pronounces it "mumum") and uses it well. This will get her far in life.

Lovely Girl

Here's our favourite baby being her sweet wonderful self. Currently however, she is teething. Sleeping through the night seems to be a bit rare at the moment. Some nights we have thought it was because she was hungry, hot, cold, wet, full, lonely, tonight we believe it is teeth and are trying some western medicine on her (tylenol/oragel). Most bad nights recently we have just gotten up, made her warm, cooled her down, stuck her onto her mum, given her a sip of water (which to her is like having candy, she loves it) , but generally cuddling in with us has worked though we get less sleep then. We'll keep you posted on how the sleeping saga goes, we hope to be back on track soon. Very soon.
Love
Louise

Inevitable

We knew this day would come: Brown Trout swimming with the turtles in Lake Bathtub.

Show Me Your Teeth

This is one of fiona's latest tricks...Say "Show me your teeth" and this is what you get. Beautiful, isn't she.