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"

Bubbles

Here is Fiona learning to blow her first bubbles with a friend of ours at her baby's first birthday party:

And success:

After celebrating her own birthday this week, fiona did well partying with others, she sang the birthday song appropriately and ate cake, and played with the birthday girls toys doing her best to share them.

A potty of any other name....

The cup we use to transfer a bit of lunas food to her bowl in the porch is a 16oz cottage cheese container...Fiona had a sudden need to piddle this morning after drinking out of the hose earlier. She grabbed the nearest thing: the cottage cheese container, I snapped this picture to embarrass her when she is older.
Love
Louise

UPDATE: Later in the day, while under the watchful (?) eye of Grammy Vicki, Fiona decided to cut out the middle man and poo directly into poor Luna's bowl!!! We'll have to put a stop to this "creativity" in potty selection!
D

The rest of the day...

Eating a cupcake quite seriously

Fiona's new ball

Fiona and Katie (Fiona's "Au Pair") Swinging

Who got her a tambourine and where will they be in the morning?

The birthday has come to an end. Fiona passed out after a cupcake induced frenzy once we got home from the park. She was happy throughout but quite tired by day's end. It was windy but she didn't seem to notice.

We had a picnic in the park, friends, presents, snacks, cupcakes, playing. Fiona lucked out in the present category. But was also quite civil and said her "thank yous" and shared well with everyone. Especially Tish who got a cupcake specially from fiona.

Above are some pics, there will likely be more to come as there were more cameras out than just ours.

Fantastic Two

Fiona is two today, We are having a party today but here is a bit of an update on the day, more to come...
Fiona opened her present this morning and was quite delighted to find her own soccer ball, though she is still having trouble with pronouns such as "mine, yours, his, hers, ours, etc" It was clear who this ball was for.
Fiona has enjoyed helping make the cupcakes for her party, we put the icing on them today after lunch which led almost instantly to a mid-day bath and a nap, now some time for Mummy to rest before the party inthe park. It's a bit windy today and it rained last night. I guess that fiona havinga spring birthday will have to get used to planning for any eventuality.
I'll post pictures of the party later,
Love
Louise

Picnic After Breakfast

Here is Fiona picnicing on her blanket with her buddies: doggie, beaver, kitty, and teddy, (mingo could not attend) this morning. The menu, raisins and banana chips in an ice-cube tray.

Drinking Responsibly

Fiona loves to drink from the hose, thoughshe's also been spotted drinking from a watering can and the dog bowl. I was thinking of attaching a bubbler/drinking fountain to the tap outside to help her drink more responsibly when outside, but the hose is pretty easy.

Caught Dancing to The Gourds

Spoon Licker

Here is Fiona helping to make some blueberry muffins yesterday. Of course the licking of the spoon is always the best part.

The talking is still amazing, she's increasing her grammatical prowess by the day. Many things are commands still, which can get a bit tiresome though.

Potty training continues, she still has trouble remembering what needs to be done when we are at the park, but at home she's got it all under control. Yesterday morning as we were lounging in bed, the sound of her green potty being picked up off the tile floor caught our attention, followed by running footsteps down the hallway in our direction...Fiona brought the poo in the potty to the bedside to show us (OH JOY). She often refers to these offerings as "a mountain" as there was one that I referred to that way once. We really do need to be careful with what we are saying around her.

Goats and Such

No we haven't ridden off into the sunset, I just lost the camera with the latest photos and didn't have 5 spare minutes to look around for it. Things have been a little busy... runny noses and less sleeping going on around here lately. But things are looking up, Devon just discovered the camera only an arm's length from the computer under some papers. So here's the latest.

We took Fiona to a a BBQ at one of my friends places last weekend (devon finally admitted that a bunch of nurses together are cooler than a bunch of evolutionary biologists) Anyway, The Friend, Victor, has goats etc., some of them quite young...here's Fiona and Devon and the baby goat.
There was also archery for the under 2 set, a shining example of things that are left out of the parenting books, perhaps for good reason.

Life is good, we are happy, mostly healthy, and enjoying the warmer days lately.

We're planning a Birthday party for Fiona at her favourite park, we're giving her a soccer ball of her own to kick around and a lifejacket, Don't tell her.
The birthday will be at 5 at Garfield park, hopefully it will be a warm afternoon, we'll have some horse's doovers and lemonade and She can help Devon warm up for his soccer game after the party. Of course y'all are invited.
Love
Louise
PS any good remedies for a kid with a cough?

That's our baby riding a bike!!!!

So the deal is that when she rides in the street,we make her wear her helmet...and undies. I'm still in shock that our little girl pedals herself around! She's pretty good at steering too if you ask me.

The potty business continues, a bit on and off so to speak. We are still working on the rule about not pooing in the grass, and that if you drop a flower (no matter how lovely) in your potty to float in the piddle, it is NOT OK to fish it out, and even less OK to then lick your fingers. Whoever thought one would need to state the rules THAT clearly?

Just wanted to keep you up to date on the miraculous abilities of a clearly gifted child.
Louise

Easter Eggs!

Louise worked late last night, so Devon and Fiona went out for Hot Crossed Buns for breakfast at the local bakery.

Then Fiona had her first easter egg hunt once Louise got up... Her attention span lasted for just about all eight eggs that were hidden in the garden. It's a bit difficult to explain the existence of the Easter Bunny (should be a marsupial! Easter Platypus?!?).

Poo, snails, tantrums etc

We are still working on the toilet training, having a few more "accidents" lately but we are trying to keep a stiff upper lip about the whole thing. The stickers and big girl undies aren't much of a bribe any more. Do we need to up the ante?

Lots of tantrums lately: Fiona, not us...She now hits herself in the head crys and caps the whole thing with a fling to the floor, often screeching so furiously that she quivers. This is something that happens when we hold our ground on things like, " you can have more rasins later", or "mummy is practicing guitar for one minute, then we'll read that book, " or "we don't eat cookies for breakfast" or " we already watched the snail for half an hour, lets go inside for a while."
I've taken to putting her on her bed to finish her tantrums because as I have told her, "it hurts mummy's ears."

Speaking of her bed, the crib is now out of her room and she is left with her big bed which she seems just fine with. The first nap after the crib was "disappeared" involved just a quick, "the crib is gone," she shrugged her shoulders and we haven't heard any more about it. Much easier than I thought.

Love
Louise

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