Hot, hot, hot!

It's been a little hot around here recently. That's the only reason I haven't had much to say on-line. By the end of the day, I feel a bit tired.

Actually, I have been doing work around the house...And watching bad movies at night. Tonight, however, I'm worn out. Diana was exhausted as well. Her first nap was three hours long (yes, I checked on her repeatedly after the first hour). After her nap we all went out to get Amelia a haircut, and she did such an excellent job sitting still in the chair we followed this with ice cream. (Today Amelia had "brown" ice cream with M&Ms.)

We went home, Diana ate some more, and she was ready for another nap. I put her down for a nap at three and woke her up at six.

Yes, I did check on her repeatedly.

Almost the entire time Diana was sleeping I was horizontal on the couch. I don't know if it's my hay fever or the hot weather that's making me sleepy, but I have been tired.

It might be because I have been staying up 'til midnight. In order to avoid doing this again, I am going to bed right away. I will try to post a photo of Amelia's new haircut soon.

Lisa

Amelia's first movie

Hi, this is Mike. So, today I thought it would be nice to take Amelia to our quaint downtown movie theater. They have the 'G' rated "Meet the Robinsons" and after playing outside in the morning, a movie seemed like a good idea since it was a hot day.

The movie was scheduled to start at 2:00 and we got there with about ten minutes to spare. Amelia is almost three, but not quite, so she didn't have to pay! (I would have paid for her anyway :-) We got up to the concession stand and I ordered myself some popcorn and a Pepsi and Amelia a kid's combo. She saw the popcorn and was jumping to reach it on the counter, she was so excited. Her combo also came with a box of Mike & Ike's (or as Amelia called, them, "jellybeans") and a drink - water, for her.

We got into the theater and it was small, and empty. No, wait, there were a couple of teenagers making out in the corner, but that was all. Amelia and I took a seat in the middle - she knew how to work the fold-down seat because it was just like the baseball game. I was optimistic that there would only be a few people there, which wsa great in case Amelia decided to make noise. After all, the teenagers wouldn't care.

But, lo and behold, several more people (all families with kids) came in just as the previews were starting. I suppose people more movie-savvy than me realize that a 2:00 picture actually doesn't start until about 2:15, with everything that's tacked onto the beginning. There was a small boy that looked maybe about 1, so Amelia wasn't even the youngest.

When the green "This preview is approved for all audiences" screen came on, Amelia said (quite loudly), "Oooh, it's a DVD!" She didn't seem to understand the Spiderman preview, but she really enjoyed the Shrek trailer - Shrek 2 is one of her favorites. After a couple more previews, they showed a Mickey Mouse short - something I thought was great. She saw Mickey, Donald, and Goofy - all folks she knew. And all the while she was eating her - and my - popcorn, having a great time.

Then the movie started, and it was a pretty good animated film. It was about a boy, an orphan, who is really smart and invents something really cool for the science fair - a memory device so he could try to remember his mother. But some time travelers came back to stop him. Kind of like a kid-friendly Terminator, I guess.

One thing Amelia didn't get was that you have to be quiet in the movies. I tried explaining it to her, but she just would get so excited to see something she knew (like big singing frogs, or a dinosaur) she had to tell everyone. And she would repeat herself until I acknowledged that, yes, that was a giant bubble she saw (or whatever). Not that she was the only one that was a little noisy, but still, I decided we should take a little trip outside. The door had a glass window and was pretty thin - we could see and hear everything just fine from the other side. And, lo and behold, a couple of minutes later the one-year-old and his dad came out too. The dad and I exchanged a look, and a nod - one of understanding of mutual fathers of toddlers who can't always sit still for two hours!

We talked and she finished her "jellybeans" then went back in - but this time, on the side and further up. She was a good girl, and even when she did talk, folks couldn't hear from our new location. By the time it was over, she was a happy, bouncy little Amelia. All things considered, I think she did very well.

I think, though, that what she remembers most are the jellybeans... but that's okay. After all, they were Mike and Ike's... mmm, good.

Child labor?

"Let me take you down [the street],
'cause I'm going to[o?]"

Yep, strawberry fields.

Unlike diamonds, strawberry fields aren't forever. In fact April's about the best (and almost the only) time to visit a California "u-pick" strawberry field. So today I brought Amelia and Diana out to pick some strawberries.

Amelia actually did an excellent job of picking berries. Almost every berry she picked was ripe and red. She also did not try to sample the merchandise, and I was proud of her for that.

Diana isn't quite ready for manual labor, it seems. And she wasn't very good about the sampling bit either. Funny thing was, after biting into a strawberry Diana would grimace and put the strawberry down. Amelia loved strawberries as a little girl, but I think Diana finds them a bit too flavorful for her taste.

Speaking of taste, "u-pick" strawberries have an awful lot of flavor. That's the best way I can compare them to strawberries in the grocery store. These strawberries just seem "strawberrier" somehow. Amelia ate about 10 berries when we got them home. I had about a half dozen (a couple with cake later on). Diana spit two out (the second one was in case the first dropped strawberry was an accident).

As a funny side note, Amelia asked to also pick grapes today. I have no idea where a "pick your own" grape field exists. Maybe somewhere in the San Joaquin valley, but I wouldn't bet on it. Regardless, when I told her grapes weren't in season, she still insisted on finding grapes to pick. In fact, she started wandering off to a nearby gardening shed after we got our strawberries looking for grapes.

Well, if anyone knows of a place where we can pick grapes, let me know. (I actually have it on some authority that picking grapes is hard work and not much fun at all. That may be part of the reason no one has a field of grapes open to the public anywhere.)

Lisa

"Cute!"

Yesterday morning Amelia came into mom and dad's room, as usual. She climbed up into bed between her parents, after handing mommy her blanket and said to me, "You're cute, mommy."

"Thank you," I replied, "I think you're cute, too."

Amelia then turned to daddy and said, "You're cute, daddy!"

"Thank you," said daddy, "So are you."

After a moment Amelia looked up at the ceiling and said, "We're all cute."

Well for sure one of us is cute, and she's got the hair and facial expressions to prove it.

Lisa

The evening news

Each night, before Amelia goes to bed, she recounts the events of the day to her parents. When Amelia has done something especially exciting or fun, she'll talk about it for days. Every night since Sunday Amelia has been talking about our trip to see the Oakland A's. Her favorite part of the trip may have been the ride to the Colosseum. We decided to take BART from Dublin for this ball game, and Amelia has been talking about riding on the white train ever since.

But that isn't the funniest part of the story. You see, as the game moved into the seventh and eighth innings Mike noticed our daughters becoming a bit tired. Three hours is a long time for a toddler and a baby to sit at a ball game, after all. Oakland was down two runs, and daddy wasn't optimistic about a come-back so he suggested we leave early. I hate leaving games early and I don't ever want to give up on my A's, but I felt he had a point. I knew the girls were tired and the crowd heading out to the BART trains would be crazy, so we left in the top of the ninth.

As we waited on the train platform, we heard news about the end of the game. With two men on, two outs, and two-strikes, Marco Scutaro hit a walk-off home run. I bet the crowd went crazy...Hard to know from the adjoining BART platform.

Mike felt really bad and apologized repeatedly for our having missed the end of the A's game. I was a little disappointed, but the main thing for me is that they won - no biggie.

Well, that night as Amelia was recounting the events of the day she said something that surprised us, "We missed it." Amelia knew that we had missed the end of the game and something cool had happened that we didn't see. Monday night, she talked about the game again (starting with the train ride) and stated again, "And we missed it." Mike felt guilty every time Amelia brought up the fact that we left early. Tuesday she reminded us again. Last night, as we were talking about the events of the day Amelia stopped, leaned forward, and said directly to daddy, "And we missed it."

Mike and I laughed and laughed. I'm so surprised that Amelia understands the situation so well. I don't think we'll be leaving any baseball games early in the future (barring something strange happening).

Lisa

The best birthday present

Today is daddy's birthday - happy birthday daddy! And while daddy still had to work today and couldn't get home until after eight, he did get to see Diana do something she's never done before: crawl.

She isn't crawling very much, really. She bounces up on her knees now (after much practice) and wobbles back-and-forth a bit until she moves forward an inch or so. Still, it's exciting to watch. (To see for yourself, click here.)

Diana has also learned how to sit upright on her own. She only figured this out a couple of days ago. Funny thing is, I didn't immediately realize what I had seen her do until I gave it some thought. ("Wasn't she scooting on her belly a moment ago?")

Both girls are learning to be picky eaters. Diana doesn't like eating anything that resembles baby food. Amelia was the same way. Diana would much rather try the dinner mommy's eating than whatever she has on her tray. So, I have been giving her a lot of finger food including small noodle pieces and chunks of watermelon. Diana LOVES the watermelon, but somehow almost none of it stays in her mouth.

Amelia has become a picky eater as well. She has no interest in many dinner choices, so I serve her a lot of noodles. The result is that some days I find myself preparing at least two (sometimes three) dinners at a time. I probably shouldn't do this, in Amelia's case, but that skinny girl has got to eat. And she's got to eat more than the "stars" and zwieback toast I actually purchased for her little sister.

Lisa

Amelia's softer side.

Recently I've noticed that Amelia is becoming more sensitive and maybe even a tiny bit empathetic. She listens to mommy and daddy better and is a good girl most days.

For example, after having bought Amelia peanut M&M's the last two times we went to the store I was dreading the checkout line at Safeway. As soon as we got to the cash register Amelia started eyeing the candy, so I said to her, "No M&M's today, but you can still ride on the carousel." I was completely ready for a tantrum but instead she stood quietly for a minute, thinking about the situation and said, "But I can still ride the horsey." She understood completely and was very good about this small restriction on her diet.

While mommy trimmed bushes Amelia came up to her sheepishly and said, "I crunched a snail." "Oh," I said to her, without further comment. She then added, "I feel bad about it." I thought this was extremely sweet and told her that it was okay if she stepped on a snail by accident.

Amelia is also getting good about playing with her sister and sharing a little bit (the evidence is here). Diana is also becoming more sociable every day and she's also very close to crawling. Recently daddy and I have noticed Diana up on her knees as if ready to take off. Sometimes she rocks on her knees a bit, but mostly she realizes this is a good idea, but doesn't know how to proceed from this position (being on her hands and knees).

Of course, that doesn't mean the baby doesn't get around. In fact, it's nearly impossible to do a good job changing Diana's diaper. As soon as she's out of her old diaper she twists and fusses to get over onto her belly. Once she's there, she's on the move. She has even started escaping her room and slipping out into the hall at bed time.

Bottom line: the girls are great. They've been so well-behaved that mommy has even been able to complete some household projects like hanging a towel rack in the master bath. I can't know for certain, day-to-day how much (if any) time I'll have to do housework, but I try to get chores done around here one piece at a time.

Lisa

The great snail roundup.

First of all I must say that I'm thrilled Amelia is spending so much time outdoors. Both yesterday and today Amelia spent almost the entire day in the backyard. And according to what I have been reading, unstructured playtime outdoors is extremely important to a child's intellectual and emotional growth.

Having said that I don't understand Amelia's love of snails. All of the time we are outside Amelia's asking mom to find more and more snails. And everywhere I look I find a snail or two, which doesn't bode well for my yard.

So, my back patio is covered with snails and trails. It's a bit nasty, but Amelia is usually very careful when she handles the snails...And at least she isn't sitting in front of the TV.

As a side note, I couldn't get Amelia to head out the door this afternoon until I told her that we were going to Lowe's to get something for the snails. Sure enough, I found something designed just for snails - even has a snail picture on the front.

It's a good thing Amelia can't read yet.

Lisa

Big shoes to fill

Amelia is growing up so fast. When she climbs into the car for a trip, for example, she now tries to ride in an adult seat. She first plead to ride in the middle back seat, then the front passenger seat. Today she was asking to ride in the driver's seat. Putting her back in her booster seat I told her, "Sweetheart, you won't be able to drive until you're at least 16. That's 14 years from now - you're only two." Her response was, "Almost three." I was impressed.

Though she's only two (nearly three) Amelia doesn't seem to remember being a baby. This morning as I held her up and we walked by a collection of photos of baby Amelia she said, "Baby...Lots of babies." I said to her, "That's Amelia." Her response was, "No, that's baby. I'm Amelia."

Amelia made mommy laugh today as she ran around the house in her diaper. For whatever reason my girl refused to let me put her pants back on her, so I came up with a cunning plan to get her dressed. I told her that we could go to the park, but she needed to put on her pants and shoes. Amelia became very excited at the idea of going across the street to the park and was in such a hurry to get out the door that she stepped into the first shoes available and walked out the door with no pants on. (If you don't believe it, click here.)

I did stop her on the front walk, put her pants on and change her shoes.


Diana seemed to be eager to go outside as well. That girl is a baby on the move. I'm not sure what it is about wires and paper products that make them so irresistible to babies, but I got worn out picking our baby up and setting her back with her toys over and over again. Maybe it's time to break out the play pen (excuse me, play yard) so I can keep this girl safely contained.

Lisa