Plane tomorrow

Looking gorgeous in the midst of illness

In the lore of childrearing there is a bit about kids getting sick when one is about to go away/have an important event/or when is otherwise not convenient. Fiona has outdone herself in living up to that lore this week.
We are getting on a plane tomorrow morning for our "Midwest extravaganza" (post to follow) and so on Sunday Fiona came down with a malaise and barfing illness,: We took her to the doctor, got anti barfing medicine, then fever started then diarrhea, or was it the other way around....anyway, we now have a rather pathetic limp child who is still very cute but occasionally projectile vomits or blows out diarrhea. Sound fun? Apparently this is part of normal childhood stuff, who knew!?

So here is a bit of fiona over the last couple of days, this one of her on the potty is being kept to further embarrass her in her teenage years. She fell asleep on the toilet leaning into my lap.

So we'll be the ones with the sick looking kid on the plane to Chicago in the morning. She's looking forward to the plane ride and right now I'd do just about anything to make her happy. I'm bringing and extra change of clothes for the plane just in case though.

(watching Ratattouille on the TV. towel in place to catch barf)

Train Day

This weekend we participated in the Rail Trail Train Ride, We took the train from Downtown up through the forest to Felton and then rode our bikes down, the train ride was beautiful and the forest was cool and lovely and then we had to wait in the hot sun for the bikes to be unloaded, We had a bit more waiting while all 500 people got organized to ride downhill and then Fiona fell asleep. So she got to enjoy the train ride and then she was pretty much unaware of the ride back down to Santa Cruz. Here are she and devon on the train going up to Felton.

In nine days we'll be giving air travel another go on the way to Chicago, hopefully it will be more relaxing than the flight to New Zealand. We're looking forward to visiting with Jim and Mary Jo there and then doing a bit of camping on the Mississippi river. It used to take Devon and I 20 minutes to pack whether we were going for a week or a month, With Fiona we are both quite out of pracice and bringing a few different things, so this week we'll be packing a bit and playing a lot. Whan we get back from Chicago fiona starts Preschool at the Village School. It has a Yurt, lots of cool things to with, is close to the park:
Here is the Description:
The Village Preschool has been providing a Waldorf inspired enrichment and childcare for six years. We are located on the Westside of Santa Cruz. Our emphasis is healthy play and participation in life skills such as cooking and caring for animals. Our seasonal circle times are a fun bilingual experience. We travel through the days with song, safely contained by a rhythmic schedule including organic snacks and lunches.

Pretty Santa Cruz....Fiona is excited and as she has learned Mary had a little lamb, refers to school as "school-one-day" and points to herself, mentions that ther will be kids there and that she is going there "soon" June 3rd actually. She'll be doing that Tuesday and thursday mornings which will leave me with a good piece of time to catch up on bikerides, gardening, reading, surfing etc.

So we're looking forward to a fun summer.

Love
Louise

The Puzzlemaster

Fiona is really enjoying doing block puzzles these days. She got a couple of them for her birthday and really hasn't put them down since. We are getting better at them too.

Paddleboat

Here is Fiona with Devon and Vicki paddleboating in Monterey at the pond. She had a great time playing in Dennis the Menace Park too but for the paddleboating she was quiet and watching everything , not nervous, just taking it all in. WE chased down ducks and geese and she even got to steer (sometimes) When she got off the boat she said " again, boat." There may be more boating in her future indeed.

Fiona dancing

Fiona this weekend

Here is Fiona twirling downtown in her party shoes (Video to follow) There was a dancing festival downtown and she really got into the ballet and the hip hop.

Fiona looking pouty, which happens a lot these days, "life is hard"