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.

Wonderful Grapes

We are just back from a weekend camping in Sonoma, near the Russian River. It was a beautiful weekend, but we are still not convinced of Fiona's suitability as a camping partner. This weekend it seems she has become afraid of the tent. So, not as much sleep as we would have liked but we made up for that with lots of fun. We picked grapes for homemade wine with friends and enjoyed canoeing at the lake and a swim there with Fiona. She got to touch some little fish caught by our friend Morgan. She threw frisbee for a very motivated border collie who didn't mind that the longest throw was only a couple of feet. As you can see by the photos, Fiona had a good time eating Cabernet Grapes... Merlot ones too, but we didn't take pictures there.

The drive home found us scrambling to find her a dummy (pacifier) we had two with us on the trip up and none with us on the trip home, We found that the Safeway in Novato is well stocked with her prefered type. She slept for a while after the dummy diversion, we drove home across the Golden Gate bridge and through San Francisco and down the coast, Fiona woke up in Half Moon Bay where Devon used his Daddy navigational Skills to find a wonderful park where we could take a break from the car.

Home again last night Fiona became the wonderful sleeper we know and love.

Our car loaded up and ready to go.

Fiona and Louise in the vines.

Riding ont he "tractor" picking up the bins of grapes.

Sneaking another grape...

First Sprinkler Day

Here is Fiona Playing in the sprinkler in the front yard for the first time. She loves water for drinking, bathing and playing.

Davenport

We had a family trip to the beach this morning at Davenport north of Santa Cruz. Fiona Devon, and I had slept in a little and so we risked getting off the usual nap schedule leaving after breakfast. It was a little cold but that doesn't stop Fiona from rolling around in the sand. As usual the best toys were rocks and dry seaweed and even a long pelican feather. Luna lolled about as she does and Devon went kayaking. Back home now and Fiona flopped into bed to sleep. Simple pleasures.

New Teeth

I'm pretty sure that Fiona has three more teeth now, but when I ask to look at them or feel them I get a resounding "No" from her. I've caught a couple of glimpses, so I think we are up to a grand total of 7 teeth. This morning she's walking around with a necklace on and talking on the phone. Busy, sophisticated girl.

Talking more and more

Even though Devon still doesn't think she articulates well, Fiona is trying really hard to talk recently. Here are some of her words with translations:

Dada = daddy
Dada = mummy
digiiiiiiii = dog (usually said at earpiercing pitch)
Dada = Dummy (pacifier)
hoool = hole
oooow = owl
dat = bat
poo = poo (good job fiona)
poo = pool
dat = date one of her favourite foods still
aaa = car
dahdah = Buddah

Hopefully we'll have some new words to post soon.
Love
Louise

Mum and Dad's big day out

Hi all, Still doing well here...We took advantage of John and Vicki this last weekend to leave fiona for an afternoon and add a little kayaking to our life again. Not the whitewater that devon would have liked. actually quite flat, we went kayaking off of Monterey and had a blissful time followed by a wonderful lunch where neither of us had to pretend to be a tiger and take a big bite of lunch "a la fiona." At john and Vicki's ther ewas a bit of screeching about the nap. but we think that they'll have her back again despite it.

Take care,
Louise

Beach Bums

Today was a beautiful day in Santa Cruz...as good as it gets really. No fog, warm and sunny, gentle waves lapping at the beach. We took Fiona for a play at the beach after her afternoon nap. Everyone was in a good mood. We rode our bikes there.
Of course the day started off well for Fiona getting a little reading in unencumbered by her potty. This happens to be The Comic News she's reading and Fiona is wearing her new blue backpack (thanks Grammie)
After this and a couple of meals and naps we were off to the beach here are a few pictures:

Big Day

Hi All, it was a big day here, two very short naps and a trip to the used baby store and the pool. I don't have pictures of most of it but Devon cam e home from work and took over on the baby duty. I sat. Needed it. He got to read "Siesta" and play with the puzzle. Fiona is not too adept yet with the puzzle, has a bit of trouble lining things up but generally knows where the animals should be.
As for the books, she has quite a library and brings certain books depending on her mood. Some she is looking for certain things on each page and others she just has a favourite page that she jumps to every time.

Here are some pictures:



Puzzle
THis is fiona's self portrait, she pushed the button.

Hungry Gorilla

Recently, Vicki brought over a calendar for Fiona to see pictures of of gorillas. This one is of a gorilla signing that it wants to eat. When Fiona looks at the picture she responds to it by giving her own sign that tells us that she is hungry. Empathy. I'm not sure, but she sure seems brilliant to me.
Here is Fiona from this morning taking advantage of Devon who was lying on the floor not reading, she climbed up on him with her nappy in his face, and put the book in his hands. Subtle eh! I'm not sure if Devon could see much of what he was reading but Fiona babbled along with the turning pages in a sing-song voice not much in the way of words but reading none the less.

Snakes!

Fiona keeping busy riding in her ar seat with a collection of toys.
Fiona riding on Devon's Back while chasing snakes inland from Pescadero with our Friends Jeff and Melissa. Fiona got to touch a snake and a lizard (not the rattlesnake!!!), We kept her out later than responsible parents really should have, but it was a wonderful place and the company was good.

More soon.

Redwoods

I don't have a photo of yesterday but here is what we did. We had a wonderful time. We took Fiona on her first (on foot) hike in the redwood forest. It was wonderful. Giant Redwood trees reaching up into a summer evening sky...The smell of redwood dust mixed with the scent of the laurel trees warmed by the setting sun riding on a gentle breeze from the ocean. Devon and I have hiked that trail lots of times together but walking with Fiona between us holding a finger from each of us we felt so lucky. She made a point to step on every rock in the trail, picked up sticks, occasionally teetered towards the poison oak(making me nervous), she tossed stones into the creek, pointed into her ear as she listened for birds, and squealed with delight at the other dogs on the trail or when Luna rejoined us after a jaunt through a meadow...and then Fiona had to rush home and go right to bed.

I hope you are all well,
Love
Louise

V Day

So today Fiona was wandering around in the yard (naked as a jay bird) when she stopped, grabbed her potty, and placed it carefully in front of a good patch of flowers. She sat down, without putting her feet in the bowl, and after a couple of minutes VOILA....her first solo, poo in the potty. We had a small celebration before sending it down the toilet, this may be the start of something. we'll keep you posted.

First Artwork

Hi All, life bustles right along with fiona honing her walking skills. She has recently taken to turning in circles as if to make herself dizzy, she walks backwards and sideways, and is getting increasingly proficient at opening doors and cupboards. Here is her first foray into the art world.
I can see that we are going to need a place to keep her pictures soon, the fridge just won't be big enough!
love
Louise

Cherry Plum Bum

Hi All, we are in the warm lovely days of June when the cherry plum tree in our back yard produces fruit. Last year the crop was poor, affected by a late freeze and wind storm, this year it made up for that by producing a bumper crop. We collect them in huge buckets and are processing them as fast as we can. Devon is about to resort to fermenting them. As it turns out Fiona loves cherry plums too. Her bum however has a little problem with the after effects of lots of acid fruit. It s difficult to keep her away from them as they are all over the house and yard. As you can see she helps herself, pits and all. I suppose that it's good that she likes fruit so much. Just wish she was old enough to help with the pitting.

Love
Louise

Fiona in the morning

Lately we have been enjoying sleeping in more often, don't get us wrong, Fiona still wakes up at sparrowfart but we have a trick: Stock the farthest places in the house with the most loved toys, and in the morning when she is itching to get onto the bed and rub books into your face remind her gently that her penguin, her ant, the ball, nay Luna is in need of finding and off she goes for a few minutes allowing her parents to eek a few more minutes of sleep out of the night.
We hope you're getting more sleep than us,
Love
Louise

Wishful Thinking

Hi all, It has been a long time since I posted anything new, but we have been well and enjoying our start to summer here. We were busy agonizing over a car purchase for a few weeks in there and finally got a new family station wagon. with lots of bells and whistles and a backseat for Fiona and a place for Luna too.
The new car is very plush compared with what we have been used to, we also got Fiona's little green potty which is a bit of wishful thinking but we hope that she has potetntial in this area. For the moment she spends a lot of time running around in the sunshine "sans pants" being surprised by her piddles when they happen.
I hope that she is making connections in this area, learning to sit on the potty can be a challenge, it's surprising the ways she choses to sit on it not knowing the custom, feet in the bowl are never a good idea.

Love
Louise

Whirlwind

Here are a few pictures of Fiona's Aunty Ju's whirlwind trip to Central California. We visited her In San Francisco, rode a cable car, Froze ourselves in the fog at Fisherman's Wharf, saw the golden Gate, winetasted in Santa Cruz, shopped downtown, and got to Monterey for the aquarium. A whirlwind but wonderful to have Family visiting.
Love
Louise

Aunty Ju and Fiona making pink friends in downtown Santa Cruz. What a wonderful day!
Fiona, Devon, Ju, and Louise outside the Mark twain Hotel in SF.
Fiona Riding with us on the cable car. At this age she isn't allowed to hang of the outside like her mum.
Fiona helping with a big cup of Horchata, note the new use of her straw skills. Incidentally Horchata, a mexican rice drink spiced with cinnamon is her first drink that wasn't milk or water.

The purse

Fiona carting her purse around. Actually, is is mine. She was playing with it one day, inadvertantly got it over her head and is now enamoured of being able to carry it around and stash toys in it. Very funny to watch.

Also Funny...to watch is Fiona sharing her bottle with her "Ugly" baby a recent yard sale find. She thinks it's lovely and can point out it's teeth, tummy, fingers, feet and ears, we're working on the other bits too but those are slower.

Our schedule is much more civilized now that we have fiona's babysitter "Nataly" coming a couple of times a week. Fiona is still a bit hit and miss with the sleeping business but we're doing OK with it.

Thanks for checking in,
Love
Louise

What a difference a year makes...

Last year on Mothers Day my mother Jane was here, Devon's mother Vicki, and I with Fiona walked along beautiful west cliff drive together. I was still feeling a little tired considering the newborn schedule, i was nervous about having Fiona out in the big world, but it was a lovely day and I will remember it as my first mother's day forever. This Mothers Day Devon is away and Fiona and I are hanging out (with Luna too of course), it's been warm and sunny in the afternoons and Fiona has been enjoying her naked outside time, splashing in whatever water she can find. What a difference a year makes, I'm still tired a lot of the time but I really feel as though I'm getting the hang of Fiona now, at least for this week.

Thanks for checking in,
Love
Louise

Back to real life

Fiona in her New red dress suit from Jim and Mary Jo Nathan

Fiona nad her dad going for a ride on "Fiona's Bike"

New Found joy in playing oursiide, the warm weather helps.

Fiona's upgraded car seat, now she can look forward in the car!

So we've been settling in for the better part of three weeks and Fiona is doing well though she has yet to sleep through the night. This has been somewhat exacerbated by a little cough and the long daylight hours here as we head towards the solstice. As always despite the lack of sleep we will be keeping her and continue to love her. Fiona has been walking exclusively since our return and she continues to show her mighty will, sometimes at the most inopportune moments. Yesterday I was at the grocery store trying to talk to the baker about a cake for a party...Fiona spotted a display with a large cartoon character in the store and nodded her head furiously pionting and climbing up mummy in an attempt to get to it. A few gentle "no's" led to screaming and we left the store withough making any headway ont he cake. Oh well, I suppose that this is the start of discipline for us. Devon and I are venturing into very unfamiliar waters here, and any advice would be appreciated.

more soon
love
louise

Tempest in a toddler

Hi all, I havent' got any new pictures off the camera lately but there are some good ones coming. I love this one, Fiona asleep in Byron bay on our recent vacation. Since we have returned home Fiona has discovered tantrums which was a shock to us. I have no idea where she figured out how to do it. If she isn't getting her way she sits down and leans forward far enough to repeatedly bang her forehead on the floor. It is quite a site though I have been trying to ignore these little tempests when they occur. I hope that she can't knock anything loose in her head and that she finds a more constructive way to deal with frustration soon. In the meantime I'll try to capture one of these evens on camera, look for it here soon.
Love
Louise

PS: the first top tooth is peeking out quite far now and the walking has become in no uncertain terms her prefered method of travel.