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