Our Family Blog

Mommy's season opener

2009-04-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today, the family and I got to see our first baseball game of the season. (Well, technically Mike's second ballgame this year.)

Oakland did not win (the game wasn't even close) but we all had a lot of fun.

After the game, Amelia and Diana told us their personal highlights of the day. Amelia loved singing "Take me out to the Ballgame" and the new and improved scoreboard dot races ("chip racing").

Diana's favorite thing was, of course, the cotton candy. And while I'm not normally a huge fan of cotton candy (Amelia passed all together) the four-color, four-flavor cotton candy at the game was pretty darn good. And while I wish Oakland had won the only game I'm likely to see in person all year, I was very happy that we went and I had a wonderful time with Mike and the girls.

Lisa

Disappointment

2009-04-10T23:09:00.001-07:00

Things have been going well. Diana is going to school part time, and she loves it. Still, she was a little disappointed when the teacher asked her what song she wanted to sing, then didn't know the words to her favorite Disney song. Why Diana's teacher hasn't bothered to learn every song in the animated version of Hercules is beyond me.

Amelia and Diana were both disappointed when they missed an opportunity to throw a coin into a hollow stump and make a wish. You see, while riding a small train through a local park the train conductor announced the arrival of the "lucky tree" too late for mom to hand coins out to her daughters. Still, I did have the chance to toss one in myself with a swift throw over my shoulder.

When the train stopped, and the girls began complaining that they hadn't made their wish, I happily offered my lucky wish to the two of them. Amelia said that she wanted to use my lucky coin to wish for a new teddy bear. Diana, following her sister's lead, asked for the same thing.

Oddly enough, a few days later I was told that Amelia would need a stuffed teddy bear for class. Apparently students graduating kindergarten and pre-kindergarten normally bring home-made bears and collect signatures from fellow students as a graduation memento. I knew that the girls wanted new teddy bears, and my sewing machine was already up and running, so I agreed to make bears right away.

We got our bear pattern from school (a silhouette cut from a cereal box) and went straight to our local fabric store. Amelia chose a pink floral pattern and raspberry pink buttons for her bear. Diana wanted blue fabric with white polka dots (which I thought was okay, since her class wouldn't be signing the bear).

Amelia was excited to watch every step of the bear-making process. With dad's help, Amelia and Diana even stuffed the bear. Amelia wanted to bring her bear to Target and to lunch before I had a chance to sew her little stuffing hole. I finished the bear in the car, worried that she would lose all of her stuffing the first day if I didn't finish quickly.

Amelia's bear looks kind of funny and simplistic to me. The bear's legs are long and spindly and, like Hank Hill, the bear has no butt - no butt at all! But Amelia thinks her bear is great and loves the fact that we made it ourselves. In fact, if you ask her, she'll tell you that she made the bear.

Tonight, Diana's bear is almost complete. I will finish sewing the red, white, and blue bear tomorrow - hopefully before anyone loves the stuffing out of it.

Lisa

So who's the fool now?

2009-04-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

I left Diana alone for a moment, and she painted her face. Don't I feel foolish?

Reminds me of something Amelia said to me this morning, "I'm sneaky, but I'm still pretty nice." Both of the girls can be sneaky, but we love them just the same.

I haven't been blogging much, because I have been worn out every evening. Many nights I stay up to complete online training for my part-time job. The training is mind-numbingly dull and drains me of my will to live. This is not the best mindset to have when I would approach the blog, which is supposed to be happy and friendly. BUT I'm pretty sure I have all of my really important online work finished, so I'd like to welcome my brain and my smile back and give a shout out to all my peeps in the world of Internet blogging.

Now for the news: The weather has been beautiful. However, the warm sunshine and spring flowers have driven my family indoors. If you can't fathom why lovely spring weather would be avoided, check out the pollen count data for Northern California on weather dotcom.

And speaking of numbers, some of you know that I have undertaken a quilting project. For those of you unaware of my domestic undertaking, I have undertaken a quilting project.

So now you know.

Weeks ago I found myself beaming with pride because I had completed the required 108 squares needed to assemble my daughter's twin size bed quilt. But as I began to piece the quilt together, I found that I kept running out of specific colored squares. Beginning to feel a tad frustrated, I took out a pen and paper and calculated the actual number of squares needed to complete my first, fairly basic, fence rail quilt. I came up with 186.

After taking my first quilting class I realized that quilting required a lot of intelligence and skill in areas such as geometry and math. Apparently, the author of my quilting book missed the math section, somehow. Still, the book I'm using is a good one and I'm willing to sit down and sew another 78 fence rail blocks if that's what it takes to get the job done.

Lisa

"That'd be the butt, Bob"

2009-03-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

(If you're curious about the title for this entry, click here.)

The past couple of weeks have been hectic, but fun. One thing we all enjoyed was another trip to "Old" MacDonald's. Of course, it's all fun and games until that greasy food starts to make it's way through the girls' digestive tracts.

But while at MacDonald's Diana showed me that she could play the piano with her butt. In case I didn't understand what she was doing she told me, "Look, I'm playing with my butt!" She played a fair version of "Jingle Bells" and asked if I would like to try it. Amazingly enough, I had no luck at all playing the piano with my butt.

Diana has been enrolled in school part time and now attends classes the same hours as her sister. Diana loves school, and didn't seem anxious at all to join a classroom full of new faces. When I bring her to her class, Diana does a happy dance around the room. I try not to take it personally.

Amelia is doing extremely well in school. He received a 45/45 on her kindergarten assessment at the local public school. She also did very well on her assessment at her current preschool.

But we all knew Amelia was sharp. Tonight I was giving her a hard time because everyone wanted to play "cheers" at the table but her. I called her an old stick in the mud and asked her, "Do you know what a stick in the mud is?" She immediately answered: "Dirty."

She is one smart cookie.

Lisa

Diana at school

2009-02-12T21:40:00.000-08:00

This week Amelia's preschool class had a party to celebrate Valentine's Day. As she often does, Amelia's teacher invited Diana and I to come to school that day and join the party.

My intention was to let Diana stay for a few minutes while the class had their snacks and received their valentines. However, it turned out that the Valentine's Day party wasn't the first thing on the agenda.

Diana moved right into Amelia's class without hesitation and was invited to join with the students for "circle time" and "share day." Amelia and Diana both shared the Valentine's Day Disney Princess balloons they picked at the grocery store the night before. Once circle time was over, the girls got in line to wash their hands for snacks. Before moving to the sink with Amelia, Diana leaned over to me and whispered, "I got to have circle time and it was really fun!"

Diana did everything with Amelia's class and at the end of the day she told daddy all about her day. She played games, ate cookies, read a book, and played outside on the swings. She even learned how to do the Bean Bag Boogie! At one point, when the students filed into the office so that the teacher could photocopy her weekly newsletter to parents, Diana looked over her shoulder and whispered to me, "I'll be right back."

I think it's time we put Diana in school part time. She loves it, and I know she'll do well. Now if we can find the funds...

Lisa

A landmark of another kind

2009-02-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to grandma and grandpa, Diana now has her first "big girl" bed.

I had a wonderful time cleaning Diana's room and setting up her new bed, though I wasn't sure how Diana would feel about being back in her own room. Surprisingly, Diana loved her new bed and was very happy to be back in her own room. I can't say the same for Amelia.

The way Amelia has been acting, you would think that she was simply tolerating having her sister in her bed at night. When Diana climbed into her own bed, in her own room, the other night, Amelia cried. She really missed her little sister. Amelia confided in us that she needed her sister to be close by in case she had bad dreams. I suggested that she bring a stuffed animal to bed so that her stuffed friend could help her feel better in case of bad dreams. Amelia said, "But it's just a toy, I need a real person."

Amelia's doing better, and it was endearing to her how much she was missing her little sister.

Wednesday afternoon the girls and I travelled to Sacramento to visit my brother ("Uncle Chris"). As you might guess, Sacramento has several historical markers, so it wasn't terribly difficult to locate a marker on line that would be fun and interesting for our group to visit. The funny thing is, the marker I chose to visit is one that I have looked for several times before.

You see, according to the Internet, California Historical Marker #780 is in San Joaquin county near Tracy. But I have to tell you, I've looked for it where it was supposed to be, and it just ain't there. Because I felt confused and frustrated by my inability to find this spot I did some more digging and found that the marker was actually in Sacramento. That made me wonder if the location of the western end of the first trans-continental railroad was actually in Tracy, and the marker had been moved to Sacramento, or if the first listing was just plain wrong and the western starting point had been in Sacramento all along.

It seems that the correct answer is "B." And truthfully, it makes a lot more sense to me that the trans-continental railroad reached out from the site where gold was discovered and not from Tracy, California (no disrespect intended).

The railroad museum where Historical Marker #780 was actually located was quite impressive. A large collection of railroad engines are contained within the museum along with informative plaques and life-like figures in period clothing. You can also enter several of the engines which are usually manned by individuals who are familiar with the trains you are visiting.

While the girls liked the full-sized engines, they really loved the toy trains located on the museum's second floor. Upstairs there were very elaborate electronic train sets and two wooden "Thomas the Tank Engine" play sets. This was where the girls spent most of their time at the museum. As for me, I think I might like to return to the museum and spend much more time exploring the real trains and reading about the history of trains in California and in America.

And if I win a million dollars, I think I'll start collecting the china set they're selling at the museum gift shop - but that's neither here nor there.

Lisa

More funny stuff

2009-02-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

Though we've visited a new historical landmark, and we have a new addition to our family, I've been too tired to record any of it here.

I should be more rested tomorrow.

In the meantime, let me tell you a joke Amelia shared with us tonight. "Why did the banana get together with the peach? To make a banana, strawberry pie!"

There was another good one about a banana getting together with a split to make a banana/strawberry sundae, but I can't remember the exact phrasing.

Regardless, enjoy this great, new video until tomorrow. (When you may get to read all of the news fit to print, maybe.)

Lisa

More images "before and after"

2009-01-28T21:58:00.000-08:00

Today was payday for mommy. I'm sure this seems an odd day to be getting paid, but mommy has an odd job.

Something I have been waiting to do, due to a lack of funds, is get haircuts for myself and the girls. Diana has been wanting her hair to be a bit shorter, and Amelia desperately needed to get her bangs out of her eyes. Both girls got their hair done this morning, and both of them now look prettier than ever.

When we arrived at the hair salon this morning, Amelia and Diana headed straight for the hair cutters' chairs (which, in this case, are actually cars). Diana was a bit faster than Amelia and scrambled into a red hot rod before anyone could ask her to wait her turn. Luckily, someone was available to cut Diana's hair. Even more fortunately, there wasn't a lot of protest or other difficultly when I asked Amelia to get down off the side of her Hummer and wait until someone would be available to give her a trim.

I guess this means I'll have to stop calling Amelia "Joey Ramone" and "Chrissie Hynde."

And while I've been putting off paying for haircuts, I've also been postponing making my blog updates. Most importantly, I haven't listed two new California Historical Markers.

Marker #436 is located on the edge of a park in Ripon. We often pass through Ripon on our way to and from Fresno, but this is the first time we actually exited Highway 99 to visit the town. Ripon seemed like a nice little community, and the park's playground was a fun spot for the girls to run around during the long trek through the valley.

Historical Landmark 915 is located outside a gift shop that also sells admission tickets to explore California's only petrified forest. In fact, if my memory serves me, I believe this to be one of only three petrified forests of its kind in the USA. The odd thing is I'm pretty sure I have visited a petrified forest before somewhere in either Arizona or New Mexico. I was a teenager at the time and not especially excited about the trees of stone, but I do remember my trip to the "Old Country" (Oklahoma) as a pretty memorable adventure overall.

I do wonder how much the girls will remember about all of these excursions into and around California. If they forget a lot of what we have seen together, will they look back through the photographs of all of these plaques and think their mom was a bit of a nut? I guess only time will tell.

Lisa

P.S. Yes, that is Diana's coffee. She asked for some of her own when we went to Starbucks - so I got her a decaf. latte. This girl is going to be a big bundle of bad dietary habits by the time she's five if I'm not careful.

Our out-of-town scoreboard

2009-01-16T20:40:00.001-08:00

One again, I had a reason (however dubious) to go to Tracy. Once again, I found a historical marker in the vicinity that we could cross off our list.

California Historical Marker #777 is in a fairly remote location surrounded by farmland. I guess that explains why someone (or some individuals) felt they could steal the historical marker without being caught. Marker #437, which was also misappropriated, was off on its own as well, if I remember correctly.

After trekking down the road 500 feet to get a photograph of the sign indicating where the marker was supposed to be, I started to wonder how much progress I had actually made in my quest to visit every marker. (And after seeing some nasty roadkill along the path, I wondered if this was all worth it.)

Looking mostly here at the blog I have determined that Amelia, Diana and I have now visited about 18 historical markers. I say "about" because the girls slept through one visit, and I have driven by at least one strange looking marker that I did not photograph. But let's not quibble over the fine print and simply say that so far we have visited 18 markers.

According to information available on the Office of Historical Preservation website, there are more than 1,070 historical landmarks in California. I guess that means we still have to visit another 1,052 (or so) landmarks if we want to see all of them. And we're reaching a point where the landmarks are getting further and further away, making the task a bit more challenging.

But of the landmarks we have seen thus far:

two plaques were missing and presumed stolen,
one was "tagged" with graffiti,
one was blocked by a pick-up truck,
and two of the locations did not have actual historical plaques of any kind

Still, despite the stolen and vandalized markers, the creepy roadkill, and who-knows-what-else we may have to face, I still think this is a worth-while endeavor.

I wonder if a near complete collection of California Historical Markers would be enough to convince someone, somewhere, to give me admission to a graduate program in California history...

Lisa

The good, the bad, and the snobbish

2009-01-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, I decided that the time had come for us to use up our Cosco gift card. We've had the gift card for two years or so - I guess we just never get around to going to Cosco. Going to Cosco last Friday, for only the second time ever as a shopper, I was reminded of why I generally don't like shopping at Cosco. To me, it doesn't matter how good of a price I can find on apricots and cherries if they come in such massive packages that I know half of the fruit will be rotten by the time I'm finished with it.

Regardless, I had made up my mind before I left the house that I would look for a Historical Marker near the mega-store. I plotted my route with Google and set off down the road.

The road to California Historical Marker #740 was long. All along the route I kept my eyes open for a second marker that was supposedly nearby, but it wasn't found. After several minutes of driving I was about to give up my quest. Luckily I remembered that this marker was located at a Vehicle Recreation area and when I finally spotted some hills that had been carved up by vehicle traffic, I knew I was close by.

When I reached the gate leading to the Carnegie State Recreation Vehicle Area I was disappointed to read that I would have to pay an entrance fee to search for my plaque. However, after speaking to the park ranger at the gate, I had her convinced that my daughters and I had no intention of going four-wheeling in the big, red car. In fact, not only did she allow us to enter the park for free, she also knew (after a quick check) where the historical marker was located.

The girls and I parked close to the target, but not so close that my car would necessarily be in any photographs I took of the plaque. The girls were more enthusiastic about being in my pictures than usual. In fact, Amelia even took a couple of pictures of mommy and Diana in front of the marker. One turned out pretty good.

After we got our shot, the girls wanted to play. They had been in the car for quite a while, so I wanted them to be able to get out and run around a bit. I didn't feel we could go very far away from the entrance, since they had been nice enough to let us in without paying a fee, but the girls found their own fun in collecting rocks. The pile they made was impressive enough for a couple of photographs and made me think, once again, that Amelia really needs to sit down and watch The Long, Long Trailer.

Today, the main reason for traveling out of town was so that everyone in the family (except me) could visit the doctor. Daddy had the longest, and most intensive appointment, so I thought I would find a nearby marker while he was undergoing his procedure.

Of course the first task involved getting both girls their flu shots. I foresaw that going very poorly. Once one of the girls had her shot and cried, it would be almost impossible to get the second daughter to sit still for her vaccination. Surprisingly enough, things went incredibly smoothly. Not a single tear was shed, in fact there were no complaints at all.

So once the girls got their shots and band-aids, we were off. It took some time to find the first street we were looking for. Once we found that first street, everything fell into place - until we got to the road that the marker was supposedly on. Google maps indicated that the marker was on the right-hand side of the street. I drove the entire length of the road (to a reasonable distance) back and forth but I didn't see a marker anywhere. I finally decided to go to a nearby winery in the hope that they might know where I could find either the Cresta Blanca Winery or the plaque that indicated where it had been.

The first person I spoke to was the valet who parked cars at the Wente restaurant. He was very helpful and knew that the tasting room was adjacent to the Cresta Blanca banquet room. He said we could wander about the grounds as we wished and he seemed certain that the employees in the tasting room would be able to assist us.

So we drove around to the tasting room and parked nearby. I brought the girls with me into the tasting room and asked if any of the three or four people working knew where the historical marker might be. Most of the group was baffled and confused by my request, but one young man knew exactly what I was talking about and brought me directly to the marker. I was surprised to find that the marker was next to a cork tree that was only about 100 feet from the tasting room. It amazes me sometimes that people can work somewhere and have little to no knowledge about the areas around them.

Our visit to the Wente winery wasn't quite like our earlier visit to Hop Kiln. While the employees at Hop Kiln were friendly and chatty, the sommeliers at Wente were stand-offish and snobby. The winery was clearly designed for well-off individuals to enjoy and not for the likes of my little traveling band. Their loss - when the thousands of individuals who frequent my blog realize what snobs work at Wente, I'm sure their business will collapse. (Of course I'm kidding.)

While we were wandering around the winery I got a phone call saying that Mike's procedure was going to take much longer than expected (apparently, the doctor scheduled to perform this procedure was a tad bit late coming in this morning). Since we had lots of time to kill, we went out to lunch and then to a playground near the medical center where daddy was being seen.

The girls had a great time playing in the warm sun. Diana sang one of her new favorite Disney songs while she played. Of course, Diana doesn't know many of the words, but she's happy to repeat the bits she knows over and over again...

"Can you feel the love tonight?
Why won't he be the king I know he is?
The king I see inside.

Can you feel the love tonight?
Why won't he be the king I know he is?
The king I see inside.

Can you feel the love tonight?" (etc.)

Amelia has recently been having fun pretending that she's a super hero. Her super hero name is, "Super." And today she enjoyed climbing to the top of the playground and announcing, "I am a super hero!" She would then seek out people in need of her help by asking, "Is anyone in trouble?" She seemed a bit disappointed when no one acted desperate for her help.

Lisa

The glamour that is - Stockton

2009-01-07T21:29:00.000-08:00

The weather's been cold, so I had plans to take the girls back to the Children's Museum in Stockton. The first time we went there, they both had a lot of fun.

One Monday, a few weeks ago, I had planned to bring the girls to the museum, but after checking the web page I saw that they were closed on Mondays. The next time we were going to go was January 2nd, but though that was a Friday the museum was closed for the holidays. Today, there was nothing keeping us from going to the Stockton Children's Museum.

The museum was nearly empty, and we had a lot of fun. Amelia was sliding down a tube slide that Diana wouldn't enter. Eventually, Amelia told her younger sister that the slide would be fun and not to worry. She went on to reassure her sister by saying that the dark slide was "not so deep in monsters."

Amelia, Diana and I also had fun in the museum's art center. We glued small colored pieces of paper and yarn, adding a few sparkly bits of glitter near the end. We sat all of our papers on the designated shelves to dry. Sadly, the art room was closed while we were exploring the museum. I guess our artwork will now be part of the permanent display.

It was very difficult to get the girls to leave. Luckily, the museum closed at four.

Before leaving the house I charted a path from the Children's Museum to a couple of nearby historical markers. I was grateful to be leaving the museum at four, even though that wouldn't give us quite enough time to travel to Historical Markers outside of Tracy. (I decided it was best if we eat at home because of my checkbook and my diet.)

Downtown Stockton, if you haven't seen it, is very nice. It seems very obvious that the city is working extremely hard to revive its downtown region. The rest of the town, however, still doesn't look so hot. I hate to say it, but maybe this tagged marker is simply a reflection of its surroundings.

Honestly I can't say which is worse - the stolen landmark off Highway 205, or the graffiti on Historical Landmark #513. Amelia immediately noticed that someone had painted on this landmark and wondered where the paint had gone. I wondered if the people who spoiled this marker read the plaque before messing it up. The story is actually quite interesting, and I'm learning a lot about California during this quest.

Lisa

Caving

2009-01-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

The weather has been cold and damp, and I've been desperate to find ways to get the girls outdoors without freezing them down to their bones. I had been thinking of searching for a new (to us, at least) historical marker when Amelia made an odd comment. I don't remember what the context was, but I heard Amelia say, "There are no real caves."

Of course there are real caves. And one fact about caves that you may or may not know is that they almost always maintain a constant interior temperature. When visiting the underground gardens in Fresno the guide pointed out how much cooler the underground home was than the surface during the blistering hot summer. I reasoned that the interior of a cave, though cool, would have to be warmer than the weather outside, and I started investigating California caves online.

My first search brought me to The California Cavern which, coincidentally, is a California Historical Landmark.

Stopping at Angel's Camp for lunch I actually felt warm when I got out of my car. The weather in the sunshine was (according to the big red car) 50 degrees. I pulled off my sweatshirt for a while and patted myself on the back for deciding to come up to the mountains for some warmth.

The weather was only a touch cooler at Cave City. A dozen signs led the way to The California Cavern.

Walking away from the counter at the gift shop (where we purchased our tour tickets), Mike reminded me to ask where the actual Historical Landmark plaque could be found. The man behind the counter told us that he didn't have an actual plaque. He went on to make a comment about the rowdy individuals that would accompany the placement of an actual marker by the California Historical Society. I wasn't sure if he meant that the society members were ruffians or that wild bunches like mine would likely show up when the plaque was placed.

Either way, the story was a bit funny to me. I suspect that those who specialize in or are interested in California's history aren't too wild and crazy. Of course, I'm excluding myself because I also consider myself a linguist, and we all know how zany and out of control linguists are.

At 1430 we walked down a path that led to the cave entrance. Here, everyone over four foot tall had to don a skullcap to protect against likely bumps. The tour guide, who was really upbeat, gave us a run-down of all the caving rules. The most important rule was that we not touch the cave walls and formations (exceptions were pointed out along the length of the cave). If I hadn't paid attention, or had missed this rule somehow, I would have been okay because Amelia felt she needed to verbalize this rule over and over and we travelled through the cavern.

She's a good rule-follower, just like mom.

The cavern was very beautiful inside and had an interesting history. The reason this particular cave was designated a landmark was because early California gold miners who visited the cave were requested to graffiti their names on the cave walls. There was a room where local church groups would gather to sing once a week (because of the great acoustics), and a great column where a stalactite and stalagmite met was the site of several weddings.

Though Diana became over-tired and a little feisty toward the end of our tour, the girls were very good most of the time we were underground. Still, I was glad that Mike had decided to come with me. He wasn't sure I would be able to handle both of the girls alone, in a cave, and he might have been right. For one thing, some of the passageways were damp and slippery. I'm sure I couldn't have held on to both of the girls hands in many of the narrow tunnels.

As usual, Amelia had some brilliant things to say that made those around her smile. The tour guide loved to hear her exclaim, "How beautiful" when we would enter a particularly lovely "room." I'm sure she also got a kick out of Amelia's requests at the end of the tour that we go right back and do it again. Though the tour was an hour and a half long, Amelia was determined that we seek out one of the other nearby caverns and take another tour that very afternoon.

Amelia was also extremely impressed with the guide's demonstration of how miners would use tin cans and candles as make-shift flashlights while traveling through the cave. But Amelia's best line came after we had spent a few moments in complete darkness. Shortly after the lights came back on, Amelia inhaled quickly and said, "I can't believe my eyes!"

Walking back to the car we talked about our favorite parts of the cavern tour. Amelia loved using her imagination to find shapes in the rocks. She compared it to another game where we look for different shapes in the clouds. Diana said she liked finding animals in the rock formations the best, too.

Because I am collecting photographs of California Historical Markers, I noticed that there were two more markers on the way out to the cave. Because we were hoping our grouchy toddler would sleep a little before the tour, we didn't dare stop on our way to Cave City. However, on the way back, both girls fell asleep so quickly that I didn't have the heart (or the nerve) to wake either of them up for a photograph by a rock with a plaque.

One marker wasn't obvious to me until we had driven way past it a second time. Another is the one you see here: California Historical Marker #258 - Forth Crossing.

Mike suggested that I try to get a photograph of myself with this marker. After taking at least a half dozen photographs I did manage to get both myself and the plaque in the same shot. Oh, and I also managed to keep the toppled basketball backboard and hoop that had fallen a couple of feet away out of the photograph. I thought that might diminish from the historical significance, somehow.

Lisa

P.S. If you need ideas for my birthday, I just found this online.

Cooking with Amelia (and mommy)

2009-01-03T22:57:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago, maybe months ago, Amelia was watching one of her favorite cartoon shows and learned that you make your own pizza and top it with almost anything you like. Over the past several days Amelia has been asking her mom if we could make pizza at home. She didn't understand that pizza wouldn't simply appear for her on demand, and thought I could hand her some dough immediately.

I had never made pizza from scratch, but I knew it involved adding yeast to flour. In my mind, anything that involves yeast also involves a great commitment of time, so I have been doing my best to postpone Amelia's pizza project.

When Amelia asked to make pizza again today, I had run out of excuses. The weather has been terribly cold and I knew we weren't going anywhere, so I told Amelia we could make pizza. But again, Amelia wanted the dough right at that very moment. She got grouchy when I told her we would need to go to the store for mozzarella and mushrooms.

Back from the store, we dove right into our project. I asked Amelia whether she wanted to make thin crust pizza or pan pizza. She told me that she wanted to make round pizza. That sounded reasonable to me.

Amelia helped pour ingredients into the mixing bowl and even helped roll out the dough. And making dough for a pizza crust is nothing like making dinner rolls. In fact, I was happily surprised when I found out that pizza crust doesn't have to rise at all, it only has to rest a few minutes.

The dough made two medium-sized pizzas. Amelia topped her pizza with marinara sauce, cheese, mushrooms, yellow bell peppers, broccoli and olives. (We sampled some of the ingredients to make sure they were good.) Amelia was disappointed that daddy had eaten the last of our carrots, but I wasn't sure I wanted carrots on my pizza. (I also snuck some red onion on my half of the pie.)

Daddy made a different pizza with the girls adding some cheddar cheese and salami. We cooked the pizzas one at a time, and I thought they were both surprisingly good. Mike thought the pizzas would be better if the crust were thinner, but since we didn't have a pizza pan we could only roll the dough out until it barely fit on our cookie sheets.

I ate two pieces of pizza, myself. I'm not sure if this was all right in terms of my new diet, but I didn't want to miss out on our very first home-made pizza pie.

Lisa

P.S. I hope to take the girls out on an adventure tomorrow, despite the cold weather. We'll see what happens...

Giving 2008 the boot

2008-12-31T23:08:00.000-08:00

Good-bye 2008.

Though there were some good moments this year, this wasn't the greatest year on memory. In fact, I think most would agree this year was pretty lame.

2009 has to be better. It be better immediately, at the stroke of twelve, but eventually things will get better for many of us.

I have my grapes ready. I'll be up for the New Year - PST! (I don't care that it was midnight hours ago in New York.)

And though I complain, most annoyances didn't touch Amelia and Diana. There may have been times when we couldn't afford this or that, but in general this was a fun year for the girls.

Amelia and Diana loved going to Disneyland during the holiday season and recount their memories often. (Diana never forgets to mention that we had popcorn in Tomorrowland, some of the best ever.)

The girls had a great Christmas, Amelia got everything she wished for, and Diana was thrilled that Santa's reindeer found our house after she left a sparkling trail on the front lawn Christmas Eve.

For me, 2009 is going to start with a diet. I know it's better to say, "lifestyle change," but the first phase of this plan is a diet, plain and simple. Right now my refrigerator is full of sweet treats, but beginning tomorrow I'll be enjoying a few days' worth of whole grains and fruit.

In 2009 I'd like to continue searching for California historical markers. This is something I've really enjoyed this year that didn't cost much and taught all of us a lot about the history of our most excellent state. I'd also like to write my first children's book. And then there are the standard promises: to lose weight and exercise more.

Most importantly, I just want 2009 to be a helluva lot better than 2008 was, for all of us.

Lisa

P.S. These photos were taken of the girls today at a local mall. As you can see by their faces, they don't care how much our home has been devalued. And they love mommy, no matter what she weighs. I guess this is a wonderful time to be a child.

Mele Kalikimaka!

2008-12-25T01:20:00.001-08:00

It is now approximately 0130 PST.

The final gift has been wrapped. I just finished watching "Beavis and Butthead do Christmas" on DVD. I cleaned up the ribbons, tags and tissue, and now it's time for me to finally crawl into bed and wait for Santa.

But before I go to sleep, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and tell you a short story.

Only a couple of days ago Amelia, Diana and I were talking about visiting with Santa Claus. Amelia reminded us that she had asked Santa for a turtle for Christmas.

Monday afternoon, Diana and I went shopping for Amelia's Christmas presents - including a toy turtle. Now I don't know how much Diana understands, or if she knows what's really going on at Christmas time, but as soon as Amelia said something about wanting a turtle Diana said, in her quiet voice, "Mommy, you bought a turtle for Amelia."

I was a tiny bit worried that Diana would think I had something to do with Amelia's Christmas morning gifts, so I said nothing. But after a short pause, Diana wrapped her arms around my neck and told me with a big hug, "I love you, mommy."

And that is the best thing about Christmas.

Lisa

Holiday merry-making

2008-12-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

Goodness, we've been busy! Last week the girls and I went to Disneyland with grandma. The weather was spectacular and Disneyland was exceptionally beautiful all decorated for the holidays.

Saturday, Amelia had her school Christmas pageant. After getting back from Anaheim around ten on Friday night, I found myself ironing rhinestones to Amelia's brown "deer costume" at the last possible minute Saturday morning. Amelia was terrific, performing "The Little St. Nick" along with her class of preschoolers. And Amelia knows she's good - in fact, as soon as her performance was over, and she met her dad near the stage, she blurted out to him, "I did a great job!"

Sunday was a day of rest and rain - both things that we could use more of this time of year. Today, the girls learned how to make gingerbread cookies. Daddy recently bought some gingerbread mix at Trader Joe's, and though I've never been a fan, I thought the girls might have fun making cookies with mom.

The girls loved rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters to make snowmen, Christmas trees, candy canes and stars. Once we got down to the last little wad of dough, I let Amelia try making a cookie by herself. She rolled the dough, cut out the gingerbread man, and carefully handed the cookie to mom for placement on the cookie sheet. Amelia was very pleased with the work she had done and told her sister, "I'm a big girl, so I can make cookies by myself!" She then sympathized with her sister, who needed a little assistance making cookies by saying, "I know it isn't easy being two."

It sure is funny hearing my words coming out of Amelia's mouth.

Amelia was very excited to tell daddy all about how she made a cookie without any help from mom. And though I don't normally like gingerbread much, I have to admit that Trader Joe's gingerbread (like most things they make) is pretty darn good.

Lisa

Amelia's prayer, and marker #534

2008-12-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

I'd like to open this blog entry with a prayer. Specifically, I'd like to share Amelia's meal time prayer with all of you:

"Bless my mommy and my daddy,
both so dear to me.
Help me, through the coming day,
a loving child to be. Amen."

Amelia's prayer is great, and she's been reciting it at dinner time for a few days now. After she recited her prayer on Saturday, Diana followed with a prayer of her own:

"Once upon a time,
there was a little bit of Jesus,
and a lot of broccoli."

You can't make this stuff up.

Honestly though, Diana's prayer was sweet and she mentioned both the most important prayer recipient (Jesus) and the healthiest choice on her plate (broccoli). But, on to the blog and the events of the day...

Today the girls and I hit the road hoping to make a little cash by selling used baby clothes at Once Upon a Child. In the off chance that no one would be available to purchase my fine collection, I found a historical marker to visit nearby.

I spent quite a bit of time this morning sorting baby clothes into piles. If the clothes had any stains or showed any sign of wear, they were culled from the pack. When I left my house I left with five grocery bags completely full of clothes for little girls ages newborn to twelve months. When I left Once Upon a Child I left with a used DVD (Pooh's Heffalump Halloween), a check for $27.00, and five almost completely full bags of baby clothes. According to one of the women who had reviewed my bundle, many of my clothes were rejected because they weren't the current style.

You can't make this stuff up.

I guess it was a good thing that I had also planned to visit the Vaca-Pena Adobe. The adobe was relatively easy to find. It wasn't as big or exciting as the Petaluma Adobe - the doors were locked and the museum was closed - but the girls enjoyed the visit. Most importantly, I got a photograph of the girls in front of California State Historical Marker #534.

(I've basically given up on having the girls pose for these photographs. As long as they're in the shot, I guess that's what matters.)

The area around the adobe wasn't especially well maintained. The park had a small pond that was completely green with algae and contained a discarded plastic orange chair, as an example. The park also had a public restroom, but maintenance personnel locked its door sometime between our arrival and the point when we actually needed to use the bathroom. But the grounds had pamphlets available and with the guide I found the "second oldest orange tree in California" and a great shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Next door to the park was a strange sight. An old amusement park for children sat behind a chain-linked fence, falling into ever worse disrepair. The park's owners lived on the property and it had several notices reminding folks to KEEP OUT. Beyond the chain link fence were some cute ponies, who probably used to give little girls rides, an old go-cart track, and a drained lagoon with a bizarrely twisted stairway that likely used to lead kids across the pond and into waiting boats. Very odd to see a place like that looking such a wreck.

Despite the strange imagery of it all, or maybe because of it, this was certainly one of my favorite stops so far. The girls loved the ponies and made a fun game out of rolling pine cones across the empty parking lot. These pine cones were very compact and sounded almost like rocks when they hit the pavement. I mention this because at the end of our trip, poor Diana threw one up in the air and it came down right on top of her head. I felt terrible for the poor girl when she started to cry.

She's fine, of course, but I guess that shows just how dangerous pine cones (and the natural world in general) can be.

Lisa

Holiday whirlwind

2008-12-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Lately, the family has been busy. And I've been too busy to sit down and maintain our family blog. But here are highlights from the past several days...

First, we faced the challenge of the historical marker that doesn't look like a CA historical marker.

According to information from the web, the first historical markers placed in California didn't adhere to any type of strict criteria. So, I guess it's reasonable to assume that all California markers don't look the same. That might explain why I missed this marker in Livermore during all of my previous trips to Portola Park. Even though this plaque doesn't look like others that we have seen, I think we have to assume that this really is California Historical Marker #241 - Livermore Memorial Monument.

On a side note, can you tell by the photograph which daughter wanted to hold hands for the picture and which one didn't?

The next day, Amelia's school was participating in our local holiday parade. Amelia loves parades and thought that being in a parade would be even better than simply watching one from the sidelines.

The theme of Amelia's school float was "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Amelia wanted to dress like Tinkerbell for the parade. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy convincing Amelia that there were no fairies in a "A Charlie Brown Christmas." (Eventually, I found the program on YouTube, and then the concept seemed to make a lot more sense to her.)

Dressing like a Peanuts character isn't as easy as it sounds (but dancing like one, is a lot of fun). After looking at Amelia objectively, I decided that she would make a great Marcie. Looking at images of Marcie online I bought an orange shirt, some black pipe cleaners, and a fabric pen. Tracing an image of Marcie onto her new t-shirt was easier than I expected, and I think she looks great.

Not only did Amelia look terrific (in my humble opinion), but she also completely mastered the parade "smile and wave" routine. (If you don't believe me, watch this.) Amelia's school won first place in the parade, and I like to think we did our small part for the school's victory.

The following weekend, wanderlust drove us to UC Davis where alumni and their children enjoyed playing with eggheads and chasing ducks at the arboretum.

Watching Diana running after ducks reminded mommy of visiting UC Davis with Amelia when she was a toddler. When Amelia was even younger than Diana is now, she raced after ducks at almost their exact same pace (and degree of grace in movement). I'm sure I still have this on film somewhere...

Since we're reviewing the events of late November, I have to mention Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was spent at the girls' great-grandmother's house. Dinner was very good, and the bread stuffing might have been the best I'd ever had.

The girls had a great time playing all of the musical instruments that they could get their hands on. The flutes were squeaky, the piano was funny, and the clown horn was...a clown horn.

Amelia's best instrument is probably still the harmonica. If we had just a little more money, I think we'd invest it in music lessons for the girls.

From our secondary base of operations in Santa Rosa we travelled to two California historical markers. The first was at an old hop kiln. (Apparently, wine country was previously known as "beer country.") The building was really interesting and beautiful in its way, and it now housing a wine tasting room. I drink so little anymore that even tasting wine is enough to make me giggle - and open my wallet.

If you're wondering what I'm doing in this photograph, it's because we had to wake poor Diana from a deep sleep to get this picture. It amazes me that a little girl who's never tired in the least can fall asleep so quickly on a long drive in the car.

Down the road we spotted the previously elusive, California Historical Marker #835 - Cooper's Sawmill. However, it seems someone thought the plaque was set up to designate parking for a big, red truck.

And I thought the truck in Morro Bay was bad!

In the guy's defense, they did place this marker in a parking lot. And locals I had spoken to before had never heard of the place. More than that, no one would have expected a bored housewife and her daughters to come by looking for a snapshot of the marker.

Luckily, this marker isn't too, too far out of the way. Now that we know where it is, we can always try, try again. And if you're reading this, red truck driver, find another place to park during the Christmas season por favor.

On to historical markers that truly are out of the way...Here is a picture of the girls in front of California Historical Marker #296 - Copperopolis.

Read it aloud, it's fun to say - Copper-opolis.

This marker wasn't far off highway four, and just down the street from a small park that housed antique copper mining equipment. The girls were relieved to get out of the car after such a long drive and danced around the marker (literally) and ran back and forth through the Copper mining park.

On a side note, this was one of the first parks I've ever seen that had no parking whatsoever. All of the signs read, "Private road" and "No parking" and all the curbs were painted red. We wound up parking across Main Street and walking to the park.

(The girls were pretty good about keeping off the antique mining equipment, but Diana liked climbing atop nearby signs and markers.)

Following the curvy bit of highway four for another dozen miles or so we reached Angel's Camp. I had been through Angel's Camp before, and remembered that there were markers in Angel's Camp, but I didn't think I had ever seen one. Logic told me that if I hadn't seen a marker in Angel's Camp, I needed to drive a different road to stand any chance of finding one.

Sure enough, not far down the road was California Historical Marker #499 - Red Brick Grammar School. The school serves as a museum now, but we arrived too late to go inside. Still, from the windows you could see everything. Again, it was almost impossible to get the girls to stand still for a photograph, but it felt good to hit two distant markers in one trip.

And the beat goes on...

Lisa

Jesus Christ, Superstar Astronaut

2008-11-21T12:44:00.001-08:00

When the girls are doing something they probably shouldn't do, it isn't easy to decide whether or not to photograph it. In this case, I kept telling Diana, "No, no, you aren't supposed to sit on that!" But isn't the picture cute? On a related note, have you ever noticed how many fragile, ceramic items that Hallmark stores keep in stock? I didn't give it much thought until we walked through a Hallmark store at the mall yesterday. Luckily, nothing was broken, but I felt like a nag constantly saying, "Please don't touch that. Please don't touch that. Don't pick that up!"

Recently, both girls have been spouting all kinds of gems I've been eager to record here. For example, Diana has been demonstrating some strange fears and phobias lately. She doesn't like skeletons, and thinks they're scary. That seems reasonable enough. But she also doesn't like the song, "Little St. Nick" by the Beach Boys. I have added this song to Amelia's "car repertoire" because she will be performing the song (along with the rest of her preschool class) next month at a Christmas show. Still, every time that song plays, Diana fusses and complains saying that the song is scary.

Even funnier than that, Diana got angry a couple of days ago when I shut the music off before the end of "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath. I guess Mike Love is much scarier, in Diana's eyes, than Ozzy Osbourne.

Amelia has also been full of preschool spark lately. Sometimes she makes me laugh out loud, and sometimes she just leaves me speechless.

A couple of times recently Amelia has told me how much she likes birthdays. Amelia is really looking forward to her next birthday, and her next birthday party (as I've mentioned before, any birthday usually means CAKE). A while ago I gave Amelia a timeline for all of the upcoming birthdays, telling her that mine was first, followed by daddy's, hers, and Diana's.

Somewhere in the conversation I told her that the next birthday we're actually going to celebrate is Jesus' birthday. Her next question was, "Will Jesus be here for Christmas?" I told her, "In many ways, yes, Jesus will be here." That answer satisfied Amelia for a while.

A couple of days later, Amelia asked again about Jesus' upcoming visit to our home. This time it seemed obvious that she was talking about a real flesh-and-blood Jesus. Now I was in an awkward position, because I didn't want to have to explain that Jesus died, but isn't really dead, but is eternal, etc. That seemed like too big of a concept to put on her four-year old mind. I took the easy way out (or at least I thought so at the time) by telling Amelia that "Jesus is no longer on the earth."

I admit, I didn't see this coming, but Amelia's response was, "Maybe Jesus can take Her rocket ship to earth to visit us, or we can ride on our rocket ship to visit Her."

Oh, so much to explain. I couldn't even find a good way to explain that Jesus was a man. After all, He was a man while on earth, but if He is God then He isn't exactly a man or a woman. And in many ways Jesus does live on other planets when you think about it.

Maybe the best thing to do would be to tell the story of Christmas around Christmas time and see how many questions that can answer. And though Amelia's thoughts about Jesus are very unusual, I have to give her points for creativity.

Lisa

The quest continues

2008-11-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, the weather was great. But still the girls were spending far too much time indoors watching television and making a mess. So I took matters into my own hands. I quickly logged onto the Internet looking for a nearby and modestly interesting historical marker for the girls to visit. I decided that the trip to Cooper's Sawmill (CA Historical Marker #835) would be easy, fun and informative. The sun was already descending, so there was no time to waste. I grabbed the girls and their grandmother and we headed up 101 to the road that seemed a straight shot to Marker #835.

The drive was really beautiful. We drove along the Russian River (site of Cooper's mill) and past several major wineries. At one point along the road we stopped for a potty break and for snacks. While in the grocery store I asked about Cooper's Mill and the obviously local gal behind the counter told me that she had no idea what I was talking about. So, we got back on the road.

After a while the natives became restless, but I pressed on. I found a campground that looked promising and that I guessed might contain a historical marker. (After all, it did have a local museum, train cars and bear carvings.) At the campground gate and information center I asked again about the mill. Again, I stumped the local informant. Though this woman had lived in the area some 29 years (if I remember correctly) she had never heard of Cooper's Sawmill. And yes, I told her it probably didn't exist and that there was only a marker left behind. Only very mildly disappointed, we headed back to home base.

That night, after the girls went to bed I told "grandpa" about my adventure. He was fairly familiar with the area and after some searching he found the exact location of the marker. The marker was, indeed, right on the road I was driving, but I had passed it by several miles. Seeing exactly what it looked like from the satellite view, I reckon I could get there again if I tried. Besides, the drive is great and if we started off early enough we could spend some time hiking and just poking around.

The next day I decided to travel to a marker that I had been very close to before. Once, on our way to grandma and grandpa's house we had tried to see this historic location, only to find that it was closed for the evening. Grandpa volunteered to go with us and showed us how to find the Petaluma Adobe (CA Historical Marker #18) by traveling the scenic back roads from his home in Santa Rosa to Petaluma.

The weather was great, and the scenery was terrific. The fall colors were beautiful and I got a hundred beautiful photographs out of the trip. Everyone had a lot of fun and besides all of this admission to the adobe was only $2 for adults (children were free).

I mention the price, only to contrast it with another place I visited on my way home with the girls. As we drove home, racing a BART train for part of the journey, Amelia asked if we could go to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. She had been very good, and insisted that she was very hungry for Chuck E. Cheese pizza. I wasn't sure I wanted to drop $20 on mediocre pizza and racket, but the girls had been very good.

So, we went to Chuck E. Cheese - after I explained the conditions for our unplanned visit. I asked the girls what they wanted and they asked for pizza with black olives. After some pressing, Amelia said she also wanted mushrooms and sausage. So at the counter I ordered a medium, three-topping pizza; a salad; a bottle of water; and a juice box. The total came to over $31! I could hardly believe my ears.

Sure, we got a few meager tokens with our purchase, but I know for certain that I didn't have anywhere near as much fun at Chuck E. Cheese as I did on my $2 ticket to the adobe. Maybe the girls had as much fun at Chuck E. Cheese, but they liked the adobe a lot, too.

Oh, and to put the icing on the cake, if I had the time and energy to do so, that same $2 ticket would have gotten me into Mission San Francisco-Sonoma (marker #3) and Vallejo's adobe in Sonoma (marker #501). I guess what I'm saying is not to underestimate the value of places and experiences we all can have that cost us next to nothing. With a recession upon us, this is an important lesson, indeed.

Lisa

Big Kids in Little Clothes

2008-11-13T21:34:00.001-08:00

Last night I decided to go through my Halloween box (the orange and black box stored in the garage) and move some old costumes out of the box and into a new, not as of yet discovered, location. When I went to bed the box was nearly as full as it was before I started, and a number of Halloween costumes were left on the couch without homes.

This afternoon the girls insisted that they both wanted to try on the costumes. After a quick trip upstairs to rotate the laundry, I came downstairs to find Diana struggling to put on a pair of pumpkin footies made for babies 0-3 months of age. I convinced Diana that there was nothing we could do to make this outfit fit and suggested that she try on Amelia's old bee costume.

Diana was unhappy that she couldn't really wear the bee shoes, but she fit into the costume reasonably well. Though it was obviously tight, Diana didn't want to take the costume off at first. But Amelia was itching to try on her old black-and-yellow suit, so Diana gave in and decided to share the suit.

Surprising, Amelia could fit into her old costume, but just barely. She struggled and struggled with the bee slippers until I convinced her to give it up and wear them like clogs. Looking at this old picture of Amelia as a bee reminds me of how much Amelia has grown over the past three years. I'm also surprised to see how much she has changed. It makes me wonder if Diana's hair, for example, will darken as she gets older.

Lisa

I wanna rock!

2008-11-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

This afternoon the family and I returned home from Morro Bay. Long before we hit the highway on our way to SLO county I had decided that I needed to get a picture of the girls at a historical marker while I was visiting the area. The easiest and most obvious marker (for me) was Morro Rock.

So after a fun morning at the beach, and on our way back home, we stopped at Morro Rock for a quick photograph. I wasn't sure I would be able to get a good picture because this was a holiday weekend and I worried that the area might be crowded. Luckily, when we arrived at the parking area below Morro Rock it was almost completely vacant. I parked away from the marker, so I wouldn't have to worry about my car showing up in the scene, and got the girls out of the car.

At the very same moment that the girls were situated on either side of California historical marker #821, a truck pulled into view. The driver stopped almost directly behind the marker (from our vantage point) and stayed there. I was baffled. Why was this man parking right in the middle of an empty parking lot when the canoe on the top of his truck suggested that he might want to be a tad bit closer to the ocean? He got out his cell phone and chatted away, taking no notice of the tourists nearby. Mike worked very hard to get good photographs of the girls (and me) at the marker without signs of the truck or the canoe. (In the photograph above, you can just see the shadow of the offender on the ground.)

As you might have guessed, the truck left very soon after we did. This little bit of irritation had me annoyed for some time, but after a while I realized that not only was this not a big deal, it does make for a cute story.

Hopefully, there will be even more details, more photos and more stories from our trip posted here soon.

Lisa

The strength of democracy

2008-11-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

Amelia's getting older now, and daddy thought she might be old enough to watch the Presidential election results as polls closed across the west. At eight o'clock, I was saying my final good-nights to Diana and the television was declaring Barack Obama to be the new President of the United States.

Amelia was happy and excited, because as she had been watching the states getting colored on the map she had decided to root for blue to win. Sure enough, blue won. The Democrats won by a landslide.

I don't want to say that I predicted Obama's victory, but when I vote for a Democrat (in fact, more than one Democrat on my ballot) you know that something's in the air.

Amelia enjoyed popcorn and looked through a field guide to birds while awaiting Obama's acceptance speech. Amelia found a favorite bird on nearly every page. One minute her favorite bird was a hummingbird, then it was a duck, next thing you know it was a red-headed woodpecker. In fact, Amelia pointed to one of two very similar red-headed woodpeckers and said, "See, that's me." I looked at the bird's range and told her, "Coincidentally, this bird is found in Indiana. The other one is only found around Texas and Mexico." Amelia told me, "I've never been to Mexico, but I'd like to go there. I love going to places I've never been." I thought it was great to hear that. I guess Amelia really was born a ramblin' gal.

Amelia also confessed that she enjoyed pretending that she was still living in Indiana. This was the first time I got her to admit that she KNEW she lived in California, but liked to talk about being in Indiana. Amelia also said that she would like to be President one day. Assuming she keeps an open mind and continues to enjoy traveling, I bet she'll make a terrific president. (She's already a very good debater.)

Of course, getting Amelia to bed at ten was difficult. She was cranky and after she heard me say that maybe I shouldn't have let her stay up so late she scolded, "You shouldn't have let me stay up so late." The following morning Amelia's crankiness and her great desire to travel RIGHT NOW made her a handful. She begged to go to the snow. Then she pleaded to go to the beach. At the sporting goods store (I need a new swim suit) she was hooked on a basic fishing kit. She insisted that she wanted to go fishing and nothing I could tell her would assuage her. I reminded her that I didn't have enough money lying around to buy fishing polls, bait and licenses. That didn't make a bit of difference to her. (In her defense, she has been wanting to fish for a long time now.)

And while Amelia was hugging her chosen fishing kit (lures, floaters and all) Diana was clearing hula-hoops off the store's front wall. I felt like I was going crazy trying to keep the girls from tearing up the store. I didn't get a swimsuit, but I did manage to get out of the store without buying a fishing kit or a hula hoop...or a lollipop or a nerf football or any of the other myriad of things that the girls wanted.

I still need a new swimsuit. Mine is becoming thread-bare, somehow. I briefly considered taking the girls to another sports shop and trying on more suits, but quickly decided against it. I did, however, pick out new gloves and matching hats for the girls so that we can bring them to the snow when the snow levels are a little lower than they are now.

Lisa

Trick or Treat

2008-10-31T22:22:00.001-07:00

This Halloween was the second Halloween that the girls got to go out and trick-or-treat. Last Halloween the girls had a difficult time remembering to say the magical phrase, but tonight they did say, "Trick or treat" from time to time. On at least one occasion, Diana repeated "Trick or treat" while walking away from a home we had just solicited, but both girls did really well and looked really cute.

The first home we visited was that of a good friend of grandma's. As soon as the door was open, the girls were invited inside for candy and photographs and small talk. When we reached the second home the girls demonstrated what they had learned about the holiday by ringing the doorbell and walking directly inside a neighborhood home as soon as the door was answered. Daddy rushed after the children, and everyone had a good laugh. However, I guess this just goes to show why young children aren't allowed to go out trick-or-treating without their parents.

Lisa

Dude, where's my historical marker?

2008-10-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

The weather has been getting a little bit chilly here in California, and noticing that Amelia did not have many long-sleeved shirts in her closet I thought it was time for a shopping trip.

While many clothes that I buy for Amelia fall right off of her, Carter's clothes seem to fit her really well. So we got in the car (after feeding the animals at Amelia's school) and headed to the nearest Carter's outlet store.

Since we were headed out of town anyway, I thought it made sense for us to try to visit another historical marker along the way. I found one online that sounded like it was nearby, and down the road we went.

As we headed down the highway that had been suggested by Google maps, I learned something new about Amelia. Turns out that her biggest pet peeve is listening to her sister make clicking sounds with her mouth. As we were driving and Diana was clicking away to her favorite songs, Amelia was throwing a fit. Although Amelia was driving me crazy, a big part of me thought this was hillarious. I told Amelia that it was okay if Diana's noises bugged her, but she had to learn to relax and deal with it. I suggested that she think about something else to which she replied, "I can't think about anything else." I told her that it bugs me when people pull into a driveway and honk, waiting for their party to come out (instead of getting off their lazy butts and knocking on the door). Amelia said, "And Diana's clicking is the thing that really bugs me."

Everyone calmed down as we neared our freeway exit. Amelia had asked a dozen times where we were going, and I told her we were going to a park none of us had ever been to. I didn't know what kind of park it was, all I knew was that California state historical marker #437 was near the Mossdale Crossing Park.

Somewhere on I-5 there was a sign telling us to "exit here" for the Mossdale Crossing Park. So, silly me, I followed the freeway sign instead of my Internet directions. At the end of the offramp was a second sign, but that was the only sign there was. The road we were following took us straight into a large cluster of new home developments. There were signs everywhere, but they only pointed to clusters of homes for sale. As we went on we encountered a park that was more-or-less complete and open to the public. (The park was labeled a 'future park' and still had a chain link fence around the public restrooms that were under construction.)

Amelia said, "There it is!" I told her that this wasn't the right park and she said, "But this is a park we've never been to before." I couldn't argue with that, so we parked and went out to explore the park.

While at the park I called my dad and told him that I was having a hard time finding my historical marker. He gave me new directions, that sounded easy to follow, and would lead me to State Historical Marker #780-7 (site of completion of the Pacific Railroad). Very good, now I have a new plan...I decided to let the girls play for a while at the park and then we would get back in the car and try to find our new historical marker.

Little did I know that half of this park was a water park. There wasn't a drop of water anywhere when we arrived, but the park had valves - somewhere - that kids could operate turning on a rush of running water. As soon as Amelia saw other kids playing in the water she asked if she could play too. I was very hesitant, but I figured that it would be okay since we were going to buy the girls new clothes anyway. If their clothes were damp, I could simply remove them and replace them with warm, dry clothes after all.

I guess I forgot how wet the girls could actually get, when given the chance. Diana was completely drenched and cold. I didn't want her standing around in wet clothing, so I offered to remove her shirt. After I wrung out her shirt, she started to remove her pants on her own. I tried to help her, making sure that she kept her diaper on. She pushed my hands away a couple of times before I told her, "You have to wear your diaper, Diana." She said, "I don't want to wear my diaper!" Next thing I know, this girl is running around naked in the park! I was a little embarassed, since the other kids at the park (who were also very young) were boys. At least Amelia kept her pants on.

Finally I got the girls back to the warm car. I put their wet clothes in the back to dry and thanked my lucky stars that I didn't live in this town and would likely never see any of these people again. I drove rather slowly to the freeway (so the clothes would have a moment to dry) and got back on the trail of my new favorite bit of California's history.

I must admit that my dad's directions made more sense than those I had gotten from Google. And they made a hell of a lot more sense than the street signs I had seen thus far. Though I made a few wrong turns at first I finally found the marker I was looking for. At least, I think it was the marker I was looking for. It was pretty damn hard to tell when the actual plaque was missing!

Now who would steal a historical marker, I ask you? And how did they do it without being caught? I realize that the marker is a bit off the road and away from most of civilization, but you would have had to have had a crowbar to pry this thing out of the concrete, I would think.

Not to be derailed, I entered the park nearby looking for the second marker that was supposed to be in the area. I drove around the small parking area, and up to the boat launch, and didn't see a thing. I finally parked in the shade and said, "Maybe I'll get out and look around a bit." Amelia said, "I want to come too!" I reminded her that she was only wearing underwear at this point and she said, "I want to run around nekkid!" I did not allow her to run around nekkid. Instead, I grabbed a free brochure and got back on the freeway headed for Carter's.

When we got to Carter's I checked the girls' clothes. They were still incredibly wet, and I could not convince Amelia to put them back on. (Once she had one leg halfway on she said, "No, no, no, it's too cold and it's still wet.") So, I put Amelia in a long, zipped-up coat and held Diana and went into the Carter's outlet store. Boy did I feel like an idiot with two naked kids running around a clothing store! Of course, once I got out of the store and got the girls dressed in new, warm clothes - it was all good. Then the girls and I went to Texas Roadhouse, Diana and Amelia danced the "Boot Scoot Boogie" and both received many complements on their lovely attire.

What an adventure! Adventures in mommy-hood...Sometimes things just don't go as planned, but if you roll with it I guess you can still have fun.

I considered trying to take the girls to a California mission today (where there would be no question about finding a historical marker), but I just didn't have the energy. There's always the weekend, I suppose...

Lisa

No historical markers to speak of

2008-10-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I brought the girls to the California Jelly Belly factory. The tour was interesting and it was free and we got lots of free samples at the end of our tour.

Of course, the idea behind all of the free samples is that they will make you want to buy more Jelly Bellies. At the "free sample" counter at the end of our tour I asked Amelia and Diana what flavors they thought they would like to try. Diana wanted cotton candy and Amelia chose raspberry. I have to admit that the raspberry Jelly Bellies are pretty darn good.

As for myself, I bought a bag of cappuccino and latte Jelly Bellies and a bag of ice cream flavored beans. Apparently, Jelly Belly is connected to Cold Stone, somehow, and now Jelly Belly beans come in flavors like mint mint chocolate chip and birthday cake remix. I love birthday cake ice cream from Cold Stone, and the matching Jelly Bellies are quite good as well. Their new apple pie a la mode Jelly Bellies are nothing to sneeze at either.

So all-in-all we had fun and ate too much sugar. Two things I can take away from the tour that make me like Jelly Bellies are: 1) Jelly Bellies are made from relatively normal ingredients (like sugar and corn starch) and 2) Jelly Bellies are made in the USA. Yea, for the USA! (I'm beginning to really care whether or not products I purchase are made in the USA. Maybe we should all start paying close attention to this.)

Another thing I enjoyed were the portraits in Jelly Bellies. There were several portraits of former President Ronald Reagan at the plant, and I took pictures of almost all of them. There was also a portrait of Amelia Earhart in the plant that said "Amelia" in bold red letters at the top. Unfortunately, this was in a portion of the plant where we weren't supposed to use our cameras. I probably could have gotten out of there with a picture, but I'm big on following the rules - as most of you know.

Lisa

Story Time

2008-10-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

Diana wanted to pick out her clothes for the day, and it seems that everytime Diana picks an outfit it's almost always a dress. Amelia wanted to wear the same dress as her sister.

I think the girls look lovely in their dresses, but it does make me wary of taking them to the park (since they may burn their bottoms on the slides). But the girls had to get out of the house, so I took them to the book store. The girls like to play with the train set at the store, but they also love "reading" books that they find in the children's section of the store.

Listening to Diana read is a lot of fun. As she turned the pages of a book filled with dinosaurs all I could really understand her say (again and again) was, "Who had nothing [get] to eat." I guess Diana's book was all about hungry dinosaurs.

Diana also got excited when she spotted a book about the Wonderpets. You haven't heard cute until you've heard a two-year-old sing songs from the Wonderpets. Amelia got excited about the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie because she remembered it from an episode of Blue's Clues that she has on DVD. Mommy was excited to find a Disney Princesses book on manners. We'll be reading this book quite a bit if I have anything to say about it.

Lisa

Baby fat

2008-10-01T22:55:00.001-07:00

There are oh-so-many reasons why it's hard to lose weight when you have little ones at home. Here's another reason: they like to eat ice cream. Yeah sure I could buy the girls ice cream and pass on it myself, but then I wouldn't be Lisa, would I?

I have never seen the girls make more of a mess with ice cream than what I saw today. See, Amelia's always asking for ice cream in a cone, so I thought I'd get cones instead of cups for the girls this afternoon. What I hadn't anticipated was that the girls would set their ice cream cones on the counter to eat them instead of holding them in their hands. The cones came with handy "drip catchers" and plastic holders but that didn't prevent the girls from making a huge mess by knocking the cones over again and again. One time, Amelia's bounced down her shirt and pants and landed "splat" on the floor. (The girl working the counter gave her a new cone - upside down and in a cup.) Diana never EVER uses a utensil to eat anything (unless she's prodded to do so), yet today she insisted on eating her ice cream cone with a spoon causing it to continually tip over. Ugh!

But melted ice cream wasn't the nastiest mess we dealt with today. Luckily, I didn't see much of this take place, but after Amelia and Diana came in from playing in the back yard Amelia told me that she and her sister had been turning snails into slugs. Yuck! I bet that wasn't too successful an operation.

Believe me, I do my best to teach the girls to be nice to all of God's creatures... even the snails and slugs. I don't know where they get these ideas. Diana has no fear of bugs, and this makes her mother crazy. In one day she destroyed some snails, picked up a dead bee and stood on a trail of ants undisturbed that they were climbing all over her legs.

Yes, I tell her that ants bite. Darn good thing these aren't fire ants.

And if you've been following our adventures to the historical markers of California, here's a photograph of the girls in front of the Burbank home in Santa Rosa. The funny thing about the Burbank House is that it doesn't have an official plaque like the other sites we have visited. So maybe it's impossible to get photographs in front of all of the actual historical markers throughout the state. But we'll keep taking these side trips and see how many places we can see. The girls enjoy the adventure, and so do I.

Lisa

T-I-R-E-D

2008-09-24T21:52:00.001-07:00

Monday morning I flew in from Detroit. I had fun in Michigan, and didn't do anything crazy or keep odd hours. Yet, I'm still worn out.

Diana, as you can see, wasn't the least bit tired today and did not need a nap.

Amelia didn't need to sleep this afternoon either. In fact, when I lay down for a quick nap on the couch (while Diana slept in her dad's chair) Amelia almost immediately jumped on me and tried to make me crazy by repeatedly touching my nose with her index finger. I tried to stop her by removing my nose and placing it in my back pocket, but her "finger nosey" torture continued. I then attempted to remove Amelia's nose, but I could not convince Amelia that her nose was actually gone. After touching her own nose, just to verify that it was still there, she told me, "You can't remove a nose!"

So I didn't get any sleep at all today. I am about to remedy that situation right now and carry my carcass upstairs and into bed. I hope to get plenty of sleep tonight so that I will be ready to chat a bit tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Lisa

Scratch off number 916

2008-09-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Since visiting the Mount Diablo coal field last week I have been trying to decide if it would be plausible and worthwhile to bring my daughters to every historical marker in California. Working the math in my head the task seems silly. If I were to visit 100 sites a year - two each week - it would take more than nine years to complete this task.

At the same time, there are worse ways to spend one's time. This might develop into something cool, like a California travel guide. At the very least the girls and I are learning a lot about the history of our state and some of the people who have helped to develop it into the wonderful and eccentric place it is today.

In the off chance I wanted to take this task to heart and commit myself to the goal of reaching every historical marker in California, I checked the Internet for interesting sites near my dad's home in Fresno. (It helped that I spotted a sign along Highway 99 indicating that we were near historical marker 916 - The Forestiere Underground Gardens.) Reading the description of the Forestiere Underground Gardens it sounded intriguing, and it didn't hurt that the site was located along the road home.

So for $12.00 Amelia, Diana and I took the 12:00 tour of the gardens. Both girls seemed really enthusiastic about the tour, though Diana said that she thought the place would be "scary" after standing in the shade of an overhang of grape vines. Maybe there was a little part of her that thought the journey into the ground would be like a tour of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

As the tour coordinator described a list of "dos and don'ts" to our group, Amelia endeared herself to the crowd. Talking about the temperature differential between the underground tunnels and the surface and describing some of the features of the tour, our greeter paused just long enough for Amelia to step forward into the crowd and state, "And, it's going to be cool!" Many of us snickered at that one.

The tour was moderately interesting, and much of the site was closed off due to renovation or issues with water run-off (pretty odd in September). I wasn't sure the girls were getting much out of the visit, but the moment our tour was done both girls wanted to return to the beginning and visit the caves again.

For me, the most amazing thing was something that couldn't be seen in a tour and that was the drive that Mr. Forestiere clearly must have had to turn a rock-hard piece of presumably useless land into a garden. Trees that could not have grown in the shallow top soil have been thriving for, in some cases, 90 years underground growing though holes cut into the surface of the earth. Mr. Forestiere was even so innovative as to graph citrus trees together making the best of limited earth by producing single trees that gave multiple varieties of fruit. If it were possible, this would have been a great place to spend a longer stretch of time, with a much smaller pack of tourists. It would have been nice to sit still and absorb a bit of the ambiance of Mr. Forestiere's underground lair.

I still haven't made a commitment to visiting all of the historical markers in California, but the idea is a tempting one.

Lisa

P.S. Though this has nothing to do with today's post, I have to share one of Diana's funniest quotes with you. A few days ago as I was getting Diana out of the Big Red Car when I noticed a nasty and familiar smell. I asked Diana, "Did you poop?" and she replied, "I'm not poopie." I told her, "Well, I smell something. What's that I smell?" Her response: "Maybe it's flowers."

Hilarious. I assure you that what I smelled was not flowers - unless it was those nasty smelling society garlic plants we have in the back yard.

Workin' in a coal mine

2008-09-08T21:41:00.000-07:00

The morning seemed warm, so I thought today might be a good day to take the girls to the mall (to let them play out of the heat). The girls had a great time at the mall's indoor play area and we all had a nice lunch together. And just like the last time we were at this mall, Amelia found herself talking to a Spanish-speaking girl and the resulting misunderstanding made for another hilarious Amelia quote. Though I didn't hear everything the other girl was saying, I did hear Amelia's response: "I'm not an asi es tu, I'm just Amelia!"

Maybe Amelia needs to learn Spanish.

After leaving the mall, my curiosity got the best of me and we headed to a new destination. You see, somewhere in the back of my mind I have a dream of taking my girls to every historical site in the state of California. I figure I could take a photograph of the girls at each marker to keep track of where we'd been and where we were going.

Of course, in my dream I have a great sponsor who helps me pay for gas and incidentals along the road in exchange for acknowledgement in my popular blog.

Today I brought the girls to California historical site number 932 - the Mount Diablo Coal Field. And even though all of the buildings within the park were closed at site 932(some due to renovation) we still had fun. The scenery was lovely and the girls both loved climbing up and down a huge mountain of dirt and rock that had been displaced during mining operations a hundred years ago. The dirt that had been piled up to make the hill we climbed was so fine, that it got all over the girls' clothes and skin. Poor Diana looked like a miner by the time we headed back to the car.

So maybe I'll pull over more often when I see signs indicating that a historical marker is nearby. Maybe I will try to see all of the designated historical sites in my state. I realize that California is a really big state, but a journey of a million miles starts at the first historical marker.

One down, about 983 to go...

Lisa

funny stuff

2008-08-30T08:49:00.001-07:00

I bet you're wondering about the picture. A few days ago I took the girls to a sporting goods store so I could buy myself a pair of goggles (I recently joined a gym and started swimming). The girls were all over the store and even climbed into all of the kayaks and inflatable boats on display. They especially enjoyed bouncing in the top boat in a pyramid of rubber rafts.

Anyway, when I finally found swimming goggles both girls wanted a pair of their own. I had almost talked them out of the goggles when Amelia found the snorkels. She thought they were very cool and was impressed when I told her that I already had one and would let her see it. That evening, just before bath time, Amelia started asking me for "the thing with a 'J'." After thinking long and hard about it, I realized that she wanted to see my snorkel (the breathing tube is shaped like a 'J'). She tried it on, but not long enough to get a picture. Anything Amelia does, Diana wants to do too, so after I put the clearly-too-big snorkel on her I grabbed the camera. I managed to get one shot before she asked me to take it off.

But I'm not here to talk about water sports. Last night Amelia came up with another one of her brilliant one-liners. At the dinner table I asked Amelia if she needed to use the potty or not. After Amelia said, "No, I don't need to," Diana told her, "'Mia, you should use the potty." To which Amelia replied, "You sound just like your sister."

I bet she has no idea how funny she is.

Lisa

P.S. My linguistic note of the month involves how language learners acquire adverbial phrases. Diana's new phrase is "after all" and for a while she was using it at the end of nearly every sentence. (Like: "I want a chocolate chip cookie, after all.") You can learn a lot about language acquisition from a toddler.

Fool me once...

2008-08-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

It was a hundred degrees outside today. A good day to let the girls play outside in the pool.

Amelia was the first one in the water. She floated around on her "boat" while Diana took a nap and I worked in the garage. When I first heard the echoes of footsteps through the garage ceiling I went in to check on Diana. She felt much better after her nap and even greeted me at the top of the stairs with a diaper in hand.

As soon as Diana came downstairs she wanted to know where Amelia was. When she saw Amelia outside, she wanted to go outside, too (in fact, she asked that we all walk to Starbucks in the pleasant 102 degree heat).

The moment that Diana stepped outside I asked her, "Do you want to get wet? If you do, I can get your swimsuit for you." Diana assured me that she did not want to get wet, even when I pressed the issue. I asked her nicely, before returning to the garage, to please not enter the pool while dressed.

Anyway, I don't know why I thought Diana would remain dry - she's jumped into the pool fully dressed at least a half dozen times before. Still, I guess there's a small part of me that believes she may, one day, want to keep her clothes clean and dry. Maybe when she's, I dunno, 14 or so...

Lisa

All the trees were there...

2008-08-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our family made a day trip to the redwoods. While we did many of the same things we do every time we visit the Big Trees state park, we also tried some new things and visited new locations within the park.

Driving all the way through the state park we arrived at a parking area near Beaver Creek. When we first brought the girls down to the creek Amelia seemed unimpressed. In fact, she kept trying to sneak away and head back into the woods. (When Amelia wants to leave, she'll cup her hand to her mouth and whisper, "I'll be right back.")

Once the girls walked a few feet down the creek they found it a bit more interesting. And when dad showed the girls how he could get a stone to skip across the water they became excited. Both of the girls couldn't wait to grab rocks of their own to toss into the pool. Amelia was actually pretty good at skipping stones - she did a better job than mommy did, anyway!

After several minutes of skipping rocks, daddy thought the girls might like to play "Poohsticks" - just like Winnie the Pooh and his friends do in A Day for Eeyore. The girls were very excited to play Poohsticks and had a terrific time. As usual, it was difficult to drag the girls away when they were having such a nice time, but there were other things to see and do.

So we traveled on to our more common haunt in the park where around 80 years ago some fool thought it a good idea to fell the largest tree ever seen so it could tour America. Amelia had a great time chasing squirrels here while Diana showed off a pine cone she had found on the ground (she even held her find out to show a stranger telling him that she had found a pine cone).

One again, getting the girls back to the car was difficult, but we got them aboard the Big Red Car in time to visit a nearby playground. This particular playground has one of Amelia's very favorite slides. Amelia and some of her new friends had a great time playing with Amelia's big, red, bouncy ball while Diana had a great time playing with daddy on the swings.

On our way home the girls and I shared a cold pasta salad and a plate of vegetables. Diana fell asleep on the road, but Amelia was awake until we arrived home. The girls went to bed much later than usual, but everyone had a terrific time.

As a funny aside, whenever I spend time with Diana before bed I always asked her if she had fun that day. Almost every night, without fail, Diana says that she had fun "cooking cupcakes." Tonight I promised her that we would buy more cupcake mix. I guess that means I'm in for another mess a bit more anxiety in the kitchen in the near future.

Lisa

A Hoosier in California

2008-08-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

So often one of the girls will say something terribly funny and I will forget what it was before I get to my computer. So, I thought I would sit down and transcribe my conversation with Amelia before it left my memory.

I actually got up and exercised a bit this morning. Amelia thought my workout clothes were funny and made a comment about my shirt. I read the letters on my shirt aloud to her and told her that it said, "Indiana." (This is one of several shirts around the house purchased at bargin prices just off campus at Indiana University.)

Amelia said, "I live in Indiana." I corrected her by saying, "You were born in Indiana, but you live in California." She scoffed, "I can't live in California."

So I asked Amelia, "Where does mommy live?" She said, "You live in California." Ah-ha! "So, if you live with mommy don't you live in California, too?"

Amelia, without missing a beat, replied, "I can't live with you. You live in California and I live in Indiana."

Can't beat that logic, can you? I guess that means that the beach we visited last weekend was actually Indiana Beach, and I guess she can't remember moving to California from Indiana "when she was a tiny big girl last year" (her phrase, of course).

Lisa

There's no place like home?

2008-08-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning and Diana and I were off to take Amelia to school. Once we had escorted Amelia to her classroom, it was time to return to the car. On our way to the car Diana said, "I don't wanna go home. I wanna see animals." She was very sweet, so I brought her out along the fence that borders Amelia's school so that we could see the animals.

Today we got to see the animals' caretaker bringing fresh water and food for the animals. This made most of the animals happy; in fact, one of the geese jumped into his "bathtub" full of water for a splash almost immediately after it was emptied, rinsed and refilled. (The ducks looked on as they waited their turn.) But many of the birds found the fresh water and feed to be a good reason to assert their dominance over the pen mates. I had no idea that a peahen could spread her rather boring, brown tail just as well as a peacock, but I found out the reason behind her display pretty quickly as she chased a pen mate and pecked at her.

The term "pecking order" actually comes from observations of chickens who chase and peck chickens smaller than they are. Today wasn't a good day to be an immature rooster surrounded by huge hens.

Diana and I tried to find snacks to feed the bunnies and actually found that they liked the green leaves of some nearby weeds. Diana thought it was great fun to feed the bunnies. It was hard to get Diana back to the car.

Once Diana was in the car the first words out of her mouth were, "Don't wanna go home." I assured Diana that we weren't going home just yet and took her to Starbucks. Diana told me all she wanted at Starbucks was chocolate milk, she then proceeded to eat more than half of my morning bun. When we left Starbucks Diana told me, "I don't wanna go home." Luckily for her, I had already made plans (mentally) to visit Home Depot.

Home Depot had almost everything we were looking for, but they didn't have any sage. I recently saw some sage with bright red flowers at a nursery. A few days later, I saw the same sage "all grown up" into attractive bushes. But until I accidentally killed a bush I had nearly killed a year ago (when I transplanted it) I didn't have a spot to put the sage.

As we left Home Depot Diana went through all of the "barns" (storage sheds) assembled in front of the store. On our way to the car Diana said, "I don't wanna go home." I told her that we still had to go to Lowe's to pick up some sage.

Getting Diana away from the fountains in the gardening department at Lowe's was difficult, but we were finally back in the car and on our way. Diana repeated, again and again, "I don't want to go home," but at this point it was time to pick up Amelia at school. Once both of the girls were in the car Diana said, "Don't wanna go home." Amelia agreed, "I don't want to go home either." I took the two of them to the grocery store (where I forgot to purchase peanut butter). Then we finally arrived back home. We didn't have much of a choice at this point - we had to get our groceries home.

At home, Diana helped me plant one of my new sage bushes. I guess home isn't quite as much fun as many of the other places we go, but I'm surprised at how much Diana prefers being out to being at home. Funny thing is: it's still almost impossible to get her changed and dressed in the morning so that we can go out.

Lisa

Disposing of income

2008-08-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while Amelia was at school, Diana and I went to check out a "new" chain department store that had opened in town. The store looked so clean and orderly that a part of me thought it might be fun to work there a few hours a week. (But for minimum wage?) I found some summer items on sale for ridiculously low prices and actually liked a few things after trying them on.

As usual, Diana wanted to help mommy out and offered to carry my clothes to the dressing room. She seemed really over-burdened by mommy's clothes, but insisted she was doing just fine. After making our purchases, I brought Diana over to Amelia's school to look at the animals. She had a great time talking to the chickens, the peafowl, the goats and the sheep. I enjoyed listening to the huge, black pig snoring away in the covered corner of his pen.

The weather was reportedly up to 95 degrees in our home town yesterday. I felt antsy, hot, and a little bored and was eager to hit the road for a trip to just about anywhere. Luckily I found out, when Mike came home, that he had the same idea. I called my mom and after some rushed packing we headed down the coast.

Though the weather was unusually erratic this morning, this afternoon the thermometer on the porch told me that we were enjoying a temperature that hovered around 72 for most of the day. Walking with the family to the beach we were surprised to discover that it wasn't much colder near the ocean. The girls had a great time, and I'm crossing my fingers that the weather will hold up again for tomorrow.

Lisa

First cooking lesson

2008-08-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

Recently Amelia made a strange comment regarding the origin of pastries. It seemed she had no idea that you could actually make cakes and cupcakes yourself at home. So I decided that I would help the girls make cupcakes for the first time.

Amelia chose chocolate cake and chocolate frosting for her first baking experience. I did everything I could to keep our cooking lesson from turning into a disaster. I had the girls sit at the kitchen table, brought all of the ingredients together for them, grabbed the biggest mixing bowl I could find, and let them try things slowly - one at a time.

Because my recipe called for three eggs (and I had more than a dozen on hand), I thought I would give both of the girls a chance to break an egg. First, I demonstrated how to break an egg into the empty bowl. Then I let Amelia break the second egg. Her egg came out scrambled by the time she got the shell open, but there wasn't a single piece of shell in the bowl (that I could see) and I was proud of the job she did.

Diana did okay with her egg, but watching her with a raw egg in her hands was very nerve-wracking. Once she had tapped the egg a few times on the side of the mixing bowl she brought the egg down to her lap to better crack the egg open. In my mind all I could see was a lap full of runny, raw egg. I kept reminding Diana, "Over the bowl. Do it over the bowl," But she got irritable when I tried to move her hands and said, "I do it!"

Eventually I got the bright idea to slide the mixing bowl under Diana's hands and she got all of her egg into the bowl. Sure, there was one large piece of eggshell, but it was easily spotted and removed by mommy.

The girls did a good job with the water, the oil and the mixing, but weren't particularly good at separating the paper cups at first. In fact, when I handed Diana her half of the paper cupcake cups she wasn't sure what to do with them, even after a demonstration. When I took her cups and divided them in half again for her, she put the two small stacks of paper cups into two recesses in the muffin pan and proudly declared, "I'm done!"

Though Diana was a good helper at the kitchen table, she wasn't exactly the image of patience waiting for the cupcakes to bake. After about five minutes she started bouncing with irritation and crying, "I wanna cupcake!" When they came out of the oven, it took all of my wiles to keep the girls distracted long enough for the cake to cool before it was frosted. Even then, Diana started eating her cupcake as soon as I took my eyes off her and before I had given her any frosting.

The whole thing was a great experience. I would have chosen white frosting, but other than that everything went perfectly. I don't think the girls are quite ready to stir fry anything, but I may try to let them help me in the kitchen a little more in the future.

Lisa

Amelia's first week of preschool

2008-08-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

So far, so good. Amelia has enjoyed preschool this week. After her first day of school, she didn't want to come home. It didn't help that her sister was there. The two of them quickly found some toys to play with and hung out for several minutes after class was officially over.

I met one of Amelia's teachers and she seemed very nice. She said that the only problem she had was in getting Amelia to stop doing whatever game or project she had been doing and to move on to something else. I told her that wasn't surprising and to also look for Amelia's tendency to believe that there is one and only one right way to do something. I told the teacher that Amelia even tells her little sister the right / wrong way to play with her toys. The teacher said, "I see, she has to be in control."

That's it, Amelia has to be in control. People have, on occasion, said that about me as well. I guess neither of us like it when things aren't being done a particular way. Maybe Amelia will have a career as a Marine Corps drill sergeant. I can see it now...

Lisa

Because sharing is caring

2008-08-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is just a short note to let all of you know that we haven't forgotten you. But, unfortunately, most of us have been sick. It started with Diana, then moved to me (despite the fact that most adults have already had herpangina and won't catch it). Once I was over the terrible virus it seemed that everyone was doing well, and we were thankful that Amelia didn't get sick.

On the one day that everyone was relatively healthy we all went to the zoo. The weather was good, and most of the animals were out and easily photographed. Each of the girls got to choose one ride before we left the park, and Amelia chose one that reminded her of the teacups at Disneyland. Diana chose the carousel, and decided that she wanted to ride on the back of a gorilla. At the end of the day I asked Diana what her favorite animal was at the zoo and her answer was, "Gorilla!"

Though we all had a good time, Amelia woke up in the middle of the night with a high fever. Just when we thought the virus would pass her by, she got zapped by the same bug that had already hit Diana and I. Her fever actually climbed higher than mine, but she was over the virus fairly quickly.

Luckily, Amelia had no fever at all today. This is important, because tomorrow is Amelia's first official day at preschool, and her school's policy is that you must be free of any fever for 24 hours before returning to school. That certainly makes sense to me, since we don't want to pass around our germs.

Amelia's excited about school, and I'm excited, too. Still, nothing changes the fact that this is just one more indication that Amelia's getting to be a big girl now. When I think of Amelia going off to school, especially when I think of her going off to kindergarten, I get a little sentimental. I keep thinking of that ABBA song that always makes me weepy...

Who would have known I'd grow so mushy in my middle years?

Lisa

November 2000, all over again

2008-07-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Mike and I took the girls to a nearby mall. While the girls were playing at the indoor playground, Mike went for a look at a nearby sporting goods store. After several minutes he emerged with a surprise for the girls: a new Slip-and-Slide with bonus "sleds."

When the girls got home we surprised them with the Slip-and-Slide. The girls weren't sure how to use the toy themselves, but they were happy to have daddy slide them down the watery, plastic path (which wore daddy out after a bit). And despite the fact that they both froze once they were out of the water, they wanted to continue sliding as soon as they had warmed up in the sun.

The next morning, poor Diana woke up with a fever. Her fever stayed pretty constant into the next day, so we took her back to the doctor's office. It turns out that poor Diana has a throat virus, that she's just starting to recover from today.

But the real reason I bring up the doctor's visit is that part of every doctor's visit is a visit to the scale. Michael was never really convinced that Diana weighed more than her sister, and it looks like Mike was right. According to the doctor's records, Diana weighed 26 pounds in April, 33 pounds last Thursday, and 26 pounds yesterday.

Mind you, Diana hasn't been eating much because of her sore throat, but I don't see any way she could have lost seven pounds in four days. So it seems that Diana isn't as big as Amelia, after all.

As a side note, the doctor's suggestions included making sure that Diana gets lots of cold food, like ice cream and Popsicles. I thought it would be easy to get Diana to eat either of these things, since she's always liked them before, but last night she refused to even try the Popsicle we gave her. After several failed attempts that included reasoning with Diana and begging her to try the Popsicle, Amelia piped up. She asked, in her funny way, "If Diana doesn't eat the Popsicle, then who will?"

I think we knew the answer to that one.

In fact, after Diana REFUSED to eat the ice cream I got her as an afternoon snack, Amelia was there again to lend a helping hand. What a good big sister.

Lisa

Diana's two-year stats

2008-07-25T21:22:00.001-07:00

I knew it would happen.

I knew, with utmost certainty, that one day Diana would weigh more than her big sister. Well, it seems that day has already arrived. According to the nurse (and scale) at her pediatrician's office Diana now weighs 33 pounds. Amelia normally comes in around 31-32 pounds (she registered 32 pounds during her four-year check-up).

So Diana is now at the 95th percentile for her age group for weight. She is also at the 95th percentile for head circumference, and she's above the 95th percentile for height.

And, of course, she's above the 95th percentile for cuteness.

It's hard to know where she's getting this great height from. Her sister Amelia is taller than average, too. Looking at Amelia and Diana's mom (me) you wouldn't guess I'm carrying a gene for height anywhere in my DNA. Or maybe I was meant to be tall and all the cherry cokes and Ho-Ho's I ate in high school stunted my growth somehow.

If Diana keeps this up, she will wind up looking like the goddess of her namesake...And I'm not suggesting that's a bad thing. To the contrary, she may find herself sticking up for her big sister at some point in the future - who knows?

Lisa

Modes of Transportation

2008-07-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

On Monday I suggested to the girls that we walk down to the park (and Starbucks, of course). However, instead of letting both girls ride in the red wagon I thought Amelia might like to ride her bike. She was excited to ride her three-wheeler and said she wasn't a bit tired when we reached the park.

I was really impressed with how well Amelia did, though she did need a little help whenever she was going up an incline. And I mean ANY incline. No matter how shallow the climb - even if it was an incline of two degrees - it would make Amelia slow to a stop. But I'm sure that the more she rides her bike, the stronger she'll be and the less frequent her stops.

Yesterday was daddy's day to come home early, so he brought the girls outside to help him wash the truck. They both did a great job.

After a lot of scrubbing Amelia decided that she wanted to be the wash-down person instead of the scrubber. She pointed the spray nozzle every which way while trying to squeeze the handle and get the water to flow, and I was a bit concerned she was going to get a face full of the wet stuff. But she finally got the hose working and did a good job of hosing off the truck. As you might of guessed, Diana also wanted to use the hose after seeing Amelia do it, and she did a great job as well.

Both girls were soaked after they finished the truck, but everyone had fun. At one point, Amelia was directing Diana to scrub small patches on the side of the truck, which Amelia would immediately rinse. This went on over and over and became extremely funny after about the third run through.

Lisa

Happy Birthday, Diana!

2008-07-17T21:23:00.001-07:00

Even though today wasn't the day we chose to celebrate Diana's birthday it was, in fact, Diana's birthday.

To celebrate Diana's birthday we decided to let her open one birthday present. There was only one present in the house from someone actually in the house, so Diana opened her present from Amelia. Diana's present was a new Thomas and Friends DVD. She asked to watch it right away.

After Diana had watched Thomas two-and-a-half times, and after I had cleaned the kitchen floor, I got the girls into the Big Red Car for a trip to the park.

Before running out the door myself I took one last look at my e-mail directions. Even though the directions were to a park I had never been to, in a city I'm not really familiar with, I figured I would memorize them quickly and get there in a timely manner.

Well, after a few wrong turns I did arrive at A park. It wasn't THE park, but it did have a very nice duck pond and a helpful staff who told me exactly where to find the park I was looking for.

Amelia really wanted to visit the park near grandma and grandpa's house because it has a train, ponies, and a carousel.

Well, this park didn't have any ponies, but it did have a lot of the things that the girls enjoy. Admission to the park was very reasonable, and the park wasn't crowded, so it seemed that the rides went on for a long time.

The girls had a good attitude throughout the day, and almost always did what mommy asked. Amelia even let me take a few silly photographs of her, though on at least one occasion she informed me that she was "too busy" to stop and smile for a photograph.

Though the park wasn't Disneyland, it did have one thing in common with the Magic Kingdom: it had dinosaurs that you could see from a train that circled the park. In fact, once Amelia realized that there was a train ride she asked if we would be seeing any dinosaurs.

The dinosaurs didn't move, bellow or screech, but you could ride them. Mickey Mouse would probably slap your hand if you tried to ride the stegosaurus in its prehistoric grand canyon.

One of the girls' favorite rides was the ride with the whales. As Amelia described it, they rode the whales "two times and for lots of times."

The whale ride was the first one they rode in the park and the last ride they went on before we left for lunch. On our way out the gate we walked up to the whale ride and found the last two children there on their way out. Once the ride stopped the operator asked if Amelia and Diana wanted to go around again. Of course, they said, "Yes." The operator asked the girls (and mommy) if they wanted another ride again another eight times or so and each time the girls said, "Yes, again!"

At some point I had to say "No" to the repeated rides because I knew that Diana had to be hungry. Amelia still complained when she had to leave her whale and both girls told mommy that we would have to return to the park after lunch.

After lunch the girls and I went home for cupcakes. The cupcakes had beautiful pink roses on them when I bought them, but they were a little rough for wear after the drive home.

Of course, they still tasted the same.

Diana wasn't sure how to handle her cupcake at first and looked hilarious leaning over the frosting with her mouth open wide. Diana got green frosting all over her face, her clothes, the floor...you get the idea. Amelia was much neater, though she also took several bites of her cupcake without touching it with her hands or a fork.

On Saturday, we will have a real cake - a real chocolate cake. There will be more presents, but probably no carousels or whales...unless I will qualify as one after eating huge hunks of chocolate cake ;).

Lisa

The latest thing

2008-07-15T21:48:00.001-07:00

The girls have been acting in unusual ways recently. Amelia has been having fun making everyone in the family wear mouse ears. She and Diana usually wear Minnie Mouse ears and either mom or dad are put into a pair of bow-less Mickey Mouse ears. (These mouse ears have Amelia's name on the back and Tinkerbell on the front, but Amelia still insists that they are Mickey Mouse ears.)

Amelia wants the family to be dressed in their mouse ears much of the time. In fact, she even wore her Minnie Mouse ears to the bookstore, yesterday. Amelia also demands that mommy participate (and do so accurately) when she sings the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. After Amelia sings, "M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E" the first time I have to respond with, "That's me!" If I mess up and say, "That's me!" the second time Amelia spells Mickey Mouse I am quickly corrected.

Diana is very excited about her upcoming birthday, but she's been good about not opening her birthday presents. There have been moments when she's been caught tugging at the wrap a bit, but she always stops when she realizes she's been spotted. Amelia keeps her straight, too, and tells her to save her presents for her birthday.

The main thing Diana likes to do with her gifts is to take her smaller present, carry it to the family room, slam it down on the floor, and sit on it. All I can say is it's a good thing this box doesn't contain a ceramic tea set or a frail antique of some kind. Once Diana loses interest in her giftbox seat Amelia will pick it up and move it back to it's proper place on Diana's gift pile. (Amelia's an awfully good big sister.)

Lisa

Unseasonable weather

2008-07-09T20:47:00.001-07:00

Diana hasn't been napping, which means that she has been very moody recently. And because Diana has been moody, she's been right at mommy's heels begging, "Pick me up" much of the day. Today she followed me to the stairway closet as I went to fetch the vacuum. I expected her to complain about the vacuum cleaner, but instead noticed her peeking around me and into the closet. She looked up at the coats hanging there and asked that I get one for her.

Before I go on, let me point out that it was about 105 degrees outside at this particular moment in time. I didn't think Diana would last long in a ski jacket, but she insisted that I help her zip up her coat and pull the hood over her head. Once Diana stepped away, Amelia took her place and asked to wear a coat of her own. (Amelia insisted that she could zip the coat herself.) The girls kept their coats on for quite some time. Daddy saw the girls in their winter wear when he arrived home - he didn't ask for an explanation.

Amelia has been attending a class for preschoolers this week and she loves it. She's made some great projects and is having a lot of fun. Diana is jealous. The first day we brought Amelia into her classroom Diana jumped up on a chair and made herself comfortable right next to her big sister. Diana whimpered when I took her out of the classroom and refused to get back into the Big Red Car for some time. Once I finally had her buckled into her seat she cried that she wanted to go to the party with Amelia. I realized that the tables and chairs did give the impression that Diana was going to miss a party with cake and balloons and explained that Amelia was in class - not at a party.

I usually take Diana out for a bit after dropping Amelia off at class. The first day I brought Diana back home she looked at me and said, "I want 'Mia." It was very sweet. The second day we pulled into the garage she asked for both daddy and Amelia. She was disappointed to hear that neither of them were home; and thrilled to see them later that afternoon.

For Amelia's part, she's been a sassy one lately. At my dad's house I caught her jumping on the couch and asked her to quit. When grandma Lola came in I said (half jokingly), "You're in trouble now!" Lola said, "We agreed that the rule was: No jumping on grandma's couch." Amelia's response, which made the three of us laugh, was, "But I don't like your rules!"

She's a rebel, that's for sure.

Lisa

Two of a kind

2008-07-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

Michael and I have been looking at old photographs recently and Mike observed how much Diana looks like Amelia when she was a two-year-old. In fact Amelia's hair, which is now a dark chestnut brown, used to be almost the exact same color as Diana's.

Whenever Diana sees an old photograph of Amelia from 2006, she is convinced that the girl in the picture is her. It doesn't matter that the girl in the photograph is posing in a location Diana has never been to, she still insists that girl is her.

So just to see how similar the girls really were when they were two, I decided to take photographs of Diana that were as similar as possible to those I took of Amelia two years ago. Though the girls are wearing the same dress, Amelia's hat became sour at some point and had to be thrown away. Grandma and grandpa's metal flag that used to sit in their front lawn "disappeared" at some point and is no longer available. But despite the differences in the photographs the girls do look remarkably similar. You can always tell Amelia and Diana apart by their eye color, but I'm beginning to wonder if Diana's hair will turn a rich brown like her sister's has.

Lisa

Really, really odd stuff

2008-07-03T21:23:00.001-07:00

The week started normally, with walks to Starbucks - and around Starbucks. The area in front of our local coffee stop is full of flowers and round "ankle buster" rocks that the girls love to clamber over.

Of course (as Amelia found out) it's all fun and games until someone wanders into a rose bush. Ouch!

Tonight I was trying to get Diana prepared for bed when in walks Amelia in this kooky outfit (I actually added the bow in her hair). Before I could even ask Amelia told me that she was dressed as a star, and the bow in her hair told everyone that she was a girl star.

Daddy helped Amelia stuff the blocks under her shirt. But she didn't mind wearing the odd garb at all. She wore it long enough for one of us to dig up a camera from downstairs and posed for several photos. I even managed to get a movie of her explaining her costume. Funny thing is, once she lost two of the blocks and came back in the room with big, square, foam boobies she refused to be photographed. Go figure.

Lisa

Fun in the sun

2008-06-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Today was neither too hot, nor too smokey, so the girls and I spent some time outdoors. In fact, here is a photograph of Amelia and Diana modeling their new bathing suits.

Early in the morning, around eight a.m., I had the girls dressed and in the red wagon for a trip to Starbucks. Amelia kept insisting that she had no interest in Starbucks and that she just wanted to stop by the playground that lies between us and our coffee. Nonetheless, I managed to get the girls to the coffee shop where, despite the fact that they had sworn that they didn't want a thing, they asked for chocolate milk and a donut (that we split three ways).

The girls enjoyed the park very much, but Amelia insisted on playing at the nearby elementary school playground. I had told her, in the past, that playground was part of the school and not open for us to play in. Amelia said that since she was four yesterday, she was five today, and would soon be going to school anyway. I explained to her that she was still four and wouldn't be in school for another year to which she replied, "Yeah, but I can pretend to be five." I thought that was pretty clever thinking on her part. She loved the elementary school playground.

Lisa

By the way, welcome to July. Diana knows her birthday is just around the corner, and was singing "Happy Birthday to me!" while sitting on my lap this afternoon. Not much could be cuter than a two-year-old singing, "Happy Birthday."

Root, root, root for...

2008-06-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

Mike and I took Amelia and Diana out to the ballgame this afternoon, and we all had a lot of fun. Mommy has been an A's fan since the 80s and dressed both girls in green and gold. Mike went in full Giants regalia.

The game was a blowout, and the A's lost badly, but even mommy had a good time in spite of the score.

Diana and Amelia enjoyed popcorn, ice cream, and a sno-cone. They were great sports throughout the game and applauded whenever anyone did well. It still isn't clear if Amelia is an A's fan or a Giants fan. (Mike jokingly promised treats to the girls every time the Giants scored a run.) Regardless of which way Amelia goes, I bet I can sway her sister the other direction if need be.

Lisa

A strange form of sibling rivalry

2008-06-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

Some nights Amelia and Diana like to empty mom's lingerie drawer. The girls usually try to put all of mommy's clean underwear in the washer. Tonight, I was having none of this and stopped them in their tracks. After all, I was in the middle of actually doing some real laundry and didn't feel like cleaning up another mess.

Once their first plan was foiled Amelia and Diana came up with another fun way to use mom's clothes. Instead of stowing away mom's unmentionables in the washer, Amelia thought she would try to see how many pair of mom's "really big underwear" she could put on at a time.

Diana followed suit, since anything Amelia does must be a good idea.

I'm not sure either of the girls actually put on a single pair of underpants correctly. In fact, both girls had bras around their waists at one time or another. Still, the results were really funny, and Amelia was really proud of the fact that she managed to put on five pair of mommy's underwear at the same time.

Lisa

Quotable quips

2008-06-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

Now that there's smoke in the air, and the air is usually uncomfortably warm, mommy is pressed to find inexpensive ways for the girls to have fun and get some exercise indoors. Luckily, both of the malls located near our home have playgrounds for the girls to enjoy.

While we were at the mall, I got a kick out of watching the girls and listening to their conversations. One of the funniest things I heard came from a boy who had to be around four or five years old. He may have been speaking to Amelia, maybe not, but he said in a loud clear voice, "I know everything: One plus one equals two."

And that is really all you need to know, isn't it?

Amelia also enjoys trying to practice Spanish on children she meets at the play ground or in the park. I heard her explain to a Spanish-speaking girl today that she was supposed to say, "Gracias" and then Amelia would say, "De nada."

I brought Amelia and Diana to within 20 feet of the mall exit three times today without successfully getting them out the door. The girls just couldn't bear to leave the mall - they were having a great time. While I was driving them home Amelia told me, "I don't want to go home," and Diana quickly agreed saying, "I don't want to, too." (Very cute coming out of the mouth of a two-year old.)

But, I finally got the girls home. Michael had told Amelia that I would tell her a story before she went to bed. I began by saying, "Once upon a time there were two princesses: Princess Amelia and Princess Diana..." Amelia corrected me quickly saying, "No, we're not princesses, we're just children!" and throwing her hands out for emphasis. This was too funny for me. After a bit of laughter I recommenced with, "Once upon a time there were two children named Amelia and Diana..."

After story time was over, Amelia insisted that I stay with her "for a couple of minutes." I asked her, for the sake of conversation, what her favorite part of the day had been. Was it the playground? The rides? The Cinnabon cinnamon roll? Amelia thought for a minute and said, "What DVD did I watch today?" I reminded her that we had watched The Wiggles in the morning, and she said, "My favorite thing was watching a DVD."

So I pursued this line of conversation and asked her, "If you spent the whole day at Disneyland, riding your favorite rides, and watched a DVD that morning, what would be your favorite part of the day?" She smiled and told me, "The Flying Dumbos!"

Well, it's nice to know Amelia likes SOMETHING better than sitting around and watching DVDs.

Lisa

Clean and dirty

2008-06-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

A lot of work has been going on here at home, but you wouldn't know it by simply looking around. Most of the work I've been doing is in the master bath and Mike has been concentrating on the garage. But when we aren't working, Mike and I are trying to help the girls enjoy their time at home (despite the heat).

Diana and Amelia both like painting, and it's a good way for them to pass a hot afternoon. Recently, the two of them completed some very excellent finger paintings. The only problem was cleaning up the mess when they were through. Looking at Diana I was baffled as to how she got paint on her face and legs, so I asked her, "Diana, how did you get paint on your face?"

Of course, all Diana heard was "paint on your face," so she reached a hand up to brush away whatever paint happened to be there - and added even more green to her messy face.

Another way that the girls have been enjoying the hot weather is by playing in the water. They love to jump in and out of the swimming pool over and over again. You see, the water in the pool is cold, so they get out to warm up and then back in to cool down.

Amelia kept trying to put pine needles and the like in the swimming pool, and I kept admonishing her, saying, "No rubbish in the swimming pool." Sure enough, the last time she and Diana shared the pool I heard my words coming out of her mouth, "Diana, no rubbish in the pool!" (This is why we don't swear around the girls.)

At night, mommy seals, sprays, paints and sands. Soon (I hope) you will see the fruits of my labor. And I hope you will agree that the bathroom looks better with a coat of paint (even if the paint is an unusual color) than it does covered in a wild green and white floral pattern that matches absolutely nothing.

Lisa

Another disturbing trend in the housing market

2008-06-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

It seems, now that many cannot afford homes of their own, they have taken to stealing houses piece by piece.

Imagine how upset I was when I awoke last week to find that my bathroom had been stolen! On a positive note, they left the kitchen - and they took that horrid wallpaper with them.
Now all I have left in my water closet is a hole in the floor that looks a lot like, well, an Italian toilet. Either that or a prop from .2001: A Space Odessey

"I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me..."

Lisa

Traveling south

2008-05-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon, our family left home to begin a long journey to Disneyland. Our first stop was actually in the opposite direction of our eventual destination, but we had to make the stop to visit Amelia and Diana's grandma and grandpa.

Heading straight south from grandma and grandpa's house to...well...grandma and grandpa's house we passed over the Golden Gate Bridge. Michael couldn't believe that this was only my second trip over the Golden Gate. Truthfully, I'm not 100% confident that this wasn't my first trip. I am certain that I have never driven up into the hills beside the Golden Gate and experienced the beautiful views the bridge and the city have to offer.

Good, though chilly weather has followed us down the coast to Morro Bay. Amelia couldn't wait to visit the beach (as usual) and was willing to skip dinner so that she could start collecting rocks and shells on the beach.

As Amelia walked the beach she stopped from time to time to pick up little treasures she found. She often trotted up to mommy with an excited, "Look what I found, mommy!" and after showing me her new prized rock she would dump the rock into her beach pail.

After a few minutes Mike and I began to suspect that Amelia's pail was getting heavy from all of the rocks it contained, but when we asked if her bucket was heavy she would say, "No," and insist that she carry the pail herself. Diana also helped to collect rocks, sometimes toddling hurriedly after Amelia and stretching her arm out to its full length so she could drop a rock into the yellow pail.

Tomorrow, the family continues on to Disneyland. In fact, our hope is to get there early enough to visit the park. I'm very eager to see how much Diana will enjoy Disneyland. Amelia says that she wants to get back on the Flying Dumbos first thing when we get to Disneyland. Diana says she doesn't want to ride on Dumbo, but I suspect she'll change her mind when we're there.

Lisa

Another Lisa who's no farmer

2008-05-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about my year as a farmer, thus far.

Last year, as some of you know, I tried to grow tomato plants from seeds. The seeds sprouted quickly and I became extremely excited and optimistic. But shortly after growing their first two tiny leaves the sprouts died, and I felt sad.

I did feel a bit consoled when I heard that tomatoes are especially hard to grow from seed. This year I decided to start a couple of easy squash plants from seed and plant a small tomato vine that a professional had already nurtured through it's difficult first weeks.

I sat my squash seeds in mulch pots right in front of my kitchen sink. Because this is where mommy spends much of her "quality time" I thought there was no way the little seedlings could be neglected. After waiting more than a month, I finally made up my mind that my little pots of dirt were never going to amount to anything and gave them up.

The worst story of my farm failures is the story of my poor tomato plant. The tomato I chose was one guaranteed to do well in a pot. My thought was, "If the plant does well in a pot and doesn't grow terribly big, maybe it won't need a tomato basket." The plant grew and grew and soon it had flowers. Eventually, the flowers became tiny tomatoes and those tomatoes grew and grew weighing down the little plant, which soon reminded me of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

Yesterday I looked for a tomato basket at Target, but all the baskets they had were at least four foot tall. I wasn't sure my 12 inch plant needed such a big scaffold and decided to wait. Then, this morning, I saw my tomato plant lying near the ground. I picked it up and gently leaned the plant against a pillar in the backyard vowing to buy a tomato cage that same afternoon. Within a few minutes, the wind blew the plant over a second time; I sat it up again.

All of this took place with under the watchful eyes of my daughters, who were very interested in my small, green tomatoes. Then all of the sudden, my tomato plant fell over completely, snapping off at the base. The poor thing looked like it had been attacked by a tiny beaver.

Feeling terrible about my plant I pretended to weep and complained about the tomatoes that would never ripen. Amelia, who felt bad for me, picked the plant back up, put it in the pot, and said, "It's okay. See, there's nothing to worry about." Her optimism is certainly one of her sweetest and most endearing traits.
On a positive note, most of my flowers are doing very well. The tulip trees look a little brown, but I think they're suffering from our recent heat wave. My gardenia looks very bad, but it's hard to give up on a gardenia. A full-grown gardenia is so beautiful and so fragrant I hate to think it will fail in my garden.

Looking for heartier plants I made up my mind to buy a hydrangea. These flowers remind me of my grandmothers' homes in the San Joaquin valley. If they can take the summer heat of the valley, then surely they can handle the heat here. (Keep your fingers crossed.)

So the bottom line is that if we all had to subsist on whatever food I could grow, we'd be a hungry family. Too bad you can't live off flowers.

Lisa

Growing up too fast

2008-05-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how quickly the girls are growing up. One day Amelia's a toddler and the next she's wearing make-up.

It looks pretty obvious that Amelia has a different complexion than her mother - either that or she hasn't learned the fine art of blending quite yet.

Diana, who was only a baby yesterday is now helping her mom with tasks around the house.

Here we see Diana helping her mom re-caulk a bathtub.

But while the girls feel ready to take on adult-like tasks, they don't always get everything right. When I stepped away this afternoon, leaving Amelia in charge of filling our new swimming pool, Diana somehow got a hold of the hose and took over her sister's job. Her only mistake was in forgetting to change into swim clothes of some kind before entering the pool.

Still, it's great that the girls are so eager to help mommy.

Lisa

Amelia's b-day

2008-05-11T22:10:00.000-07:00

Before I forget to do so, let me tell you about Amelia's birthday. Prior to the big day, mommy wrapped all of Amelia's gifts and stacked them neatly in the family room - surrounded by balloons. My theory was that brown boxes from amazon.comwouldn't attract anywhere near the attention that the wrapped packages would, so I wanted to leave the boxes unadorned until the last possible minute.

The girls and I got up early so we could drive to the airport to get "uncle Mike." While Amelia was messing around and dragging her feet (as usual), I helped Diana downstairs. Once Diana had reached the living room I turned my attention back to Amelia. As I called to Amelia upstairs I heard the familiar sound of gift wrap being torn. I barely reached Diana in time to stop her from opening her sister's gifts.

Driving to the airport to get Mike was fun. Diana became a bit grouchy toward the end of the drive, but Amelia loves going to the airport any time and for any reason. Mommy and Amelia were very happy to see uncle Mike again, and Diana took to him immediately.

On our way home, after a brief stop at my old college, "uncle Mike" asked Amelia what she wanted for dinner. He may have coaxed Amelia a bit, but her response was "Texas Roadhouse!" The last time we ate at Texas Roadhouse Amelia was eager to dance with the waitstaff, so this time we requested they play "Cotton Eyed Joe," so she could dance along with them. Of course, with all of the attention (and because I had my camera at the ready) Amelia was too shy to dance.

The staff sang "Happy Birthday to You!" at our table and gave Amelia a special ice cream sundae with four spoons.

As a cute sidenote, when uncle Mike briefly left our table during dinner, Diana fussed and cried almost as much as she does when mommy leaves.

Once we got home, we opened gifts and ate cupcakes. Amelia and Diana were so full at this point that they barely touched their cake. (Though Diana didn't eat a whole lot of cake, she did make a big, big mess.) Amelia and Diana opened Amelia's gifts together, and it's possible that Diana didn't know that this wasn't her special day as well. Amelia loved all of her gifts and frequently said, "Oh, I love this!"

Since her birthday, Amelia has enjoyed being four. We've been having a lot of fun with uncle Mike, and I wish he could stay past this coming Tuesday.

Lisa

Happy 4th birthday!

2008-05-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to Princess Amelia who turns four today!

(As you can tell by her clothing, Amelia's birthday was full of wonderful treats. I will try to tell you all about it tomorrow.)

Lisa

And a fan of frappuccinos

2008-05-02T20:39:00.000-07:00

Recently, Diana has been taking her naps in Amelia's bed. And tonight Diana asked to go to sleep in Amelia's bed at the end of the day. This wasn't the first time she had asked, but each night I say, "No" because I know that the sisters will play and keep each other awake until all hours of the night.

So tonight we decided it was time to take the side off of Diana's crib and convert it into a toddler bed. As soon as we turned Diana's bed into a "big girl" bed she climbed right in. She bounced and smiled like this was one of the best days of her life.

And Diana's such a good girl that we haven't seen her poke her head out of her room once.

As for the frappuccinos, I think Diana's hooked. I usually give her the very last sips in my cup, which are made up almost entirely of whipped cream.

Hmm, maybe it isn't the frappuccino she wants at all...

Lisa

Diana in the box

2008-04-28T22:29:00.001-07:00

The girls and I had a lot of fun while they were preparing to go to bed. One thing I especially enjoyed was playing Hide and Seek with Amelia and Diana. Amelia is good at Hide and Seek, except that she tends to tell me where she's going to hide ("I'm going to hide under the bed and you try to find me"). Diana likes Hide and Seek, but usually doesn't get to ten before she runs down the hall to find her sister ("One, two, three...ready or not!"). Diana doesn't always hide when the time comes either, sometimes choosing to watch mommy count with her eyes covered.

After Hide and Seek was supposed to be over, Amelia got the idea to hide in mom and dad's laundry hamper. I told her not to go in there, worrying that she would knock the thing over and get hurt. Because Amelia wanted to get in the hamper, Diana decided it was a good idea, too. Funny thing is, though Amelia couldn't quite get into the hamper Diana swung her leg up and over the lip of the hamper and pulled herself up and into the dirty clothes bin. I didn't really want her to do it, but I was really impressed that she pulled it off.

As daddy pointed out when I told him the story, it seems pretty likely that Diana can get out of her crib at this point. And Diana insisted on sleeping in Amelia's bed again during nap time. I think it won't be long until Diana will be in a big girl bed of her own.

Lisa

Me too!

2008-04-23T23:13:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, Diana loves doing the things that her big sister does. Whenever Amelia gets to do something good, bad, or indifferent, Diana's right there motioning for a chance to do the same thing saying, "Me, too!" or "My turn."

Last night when I was coming upstairs with the girls' blankets I found Diana at the top of the staircase complaining because she could not seem to get Amelia's underwear to fit over her pajama pants. Though she normally insists on doing things herself, Diana accepted my help and was thrilled when I pulled Amelia's underwear up over her pants. She wore the panties as she and Amelia ran up and down the hall dumping mommy's lingerie drawer into the washer. She even wore them to bed.

Diana tried to pull on Amelia's underwear again tonight, but gave up quickly and went to bed in her jammies. Still, if I were a betting woman I'd bet that Diana will be out of diapers and into underwear, just like her big sister, within six months.

I guess time will tell if I'm right.

Lisa

Various messes

2008-04-17T08:56:00.001-07:00

I haven't provided any updated information about our hummingbird friend, because the news I had to share wasn't very good. After noticing that momma hummingbird wasn't coming around anymore, I went outside to investigate. Looking closely on the ground beneath the hummingbird nest I saw tiny bits of egg shell. It seems that the hummingbird eggs fell from their nest - or were helped down from their nest.

As I mentioned before, a jay bird had been near the hummingbird's nest and this had made mommy bird upset. Checking data on the scrub jay in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds I read, "...frequently noisy and conspicuous. Many condemn it as a nest robber..." I suspect Humpty Dumpty was pushed.

As an aside, the same day I found the broken hummingbird eggs I also decided to begin watching season one of The Sopranos (yes, I am a little behind the rest of the country). I found it ironic that I was watching Tony Soprano becoming terribly upset at the loss of a family of ducks who left his yard on the same day I was feeling sad about the loss of a pair of hummingbird eggs.

Yesterday I found a dove's nest in a tree in the front yard. My advice to the dove is to look out for jay birds.

Other than the bird chronicles, things are about the same here. I have been trying to get the girls to do things that don't involve staring at electronic screens, but it seems everything they choose to do is terribly messy. Amelia and Diana went through two packets of paint (that were supposed to last through at least three painting sessions) in a day. And they get through bubble-blowing solution suprisingly fast, too. The messes have been horrible, and I can see why some parents just give up and let their kids spend their days in front of the television.

Lisa

Lisa as landlord

2008-04-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest hummingbird news:

I walked out my front door this afternoon to mail a birthday card and heard a hummingbird complaining loudly about something. I thought I should take a moment to find out if the ruckus involved our new tenant and sure enough she was having a fit because a blue jay was sitting in her tree.

I moved in a little closer in hopes of scaring off the jaybird, and he flew off. I expected the hummingbird to return to her usual quiet, happy self once the jay was gone, but then she started complaining because I was too close to her nest. I slowly backed away muttering, "Okay, okay, I'm leaving."

I still can't say for certain whether there are eggs in the hummingbird's nest or not. I suspect the hummingbird hasn't laid her eggs yet, since her nest seems to be expanding. She may actually still be building her babies' home.

On another note, Amelia made me laugh today with all of her imaginations and invisible friends. Amelia spent a lot of time this afternoon riding imaginary trains from Thomas the Tank Engine back and forth through the house. At the park she worked hard handing out pretend berries and flowers to whomever happened to be standing by - but the best line I heard from her today came when a boy showed up to the park and Amelia asked him, "Are you here to see the engines?" (I wonder what that boy was thinking when he heard this...)

Lisa

springtime

2008-04-01T22:32:00.001-07:00

Once again I have been failing in my tasks as master blogger. But here is a lovely image of the girls in their Easter dresses to make up for being out of touch for so long.

Amelia, Diana and I recently went down to Morro Bay for a visit. All of us had fun. Diana, who is usually a big home-body, now loves visiting all of her "gammas and papas." (Though she still gets testy near the end of any long drive.)

Though I got some terrific pictures of the girls on the beach, the weather near the Pacific Ocean wasn't great. It was so cold and windy it turned all of our ears red. In fact, it was so cold that the girls actually paid attention to my request that neither of them get wet during our trip to the beach.

As I usually do before I take Amelia anywhere I asked her if she needed to use the potty. And as is normal for Amelia she said, "No." Of course, once we had been at the beach a few short minutes she admitted that she really did need to go to the bathroom. I was happy, because this gave me an excuse to get out of the cold.

What's funny about all of this is that as soon as Amelia finished her trip to the bathroom she asked to go back to the beach. My response to her request was a polite and understanding, "No," but in my mind I was thinking, "Are you out of your mind?"

Amelia nearly cried when we got in the car the next day to drive home. She really wanted one more walk to the beach regardless of the weather.

I also got to take Amelia to the movies while I was on the Central Coast. Amelia and I saw Horton Hears a Who and we both enjoyed the film quite a bit. Amelia is becoming a very polite young lady and sat quietly for almost the entire 90 minutes that we were in the theater. In fact, when another child at the end of the row was making noise she looked at me and said, "We have to whisper here." "That's right," I told her - feeling very proud.

The other bit of exciting news is that a hummingbird has decided to nest outside our dining room window. I have spent a lot of time these past two days taking photographs of the tiny mommy-to-be and have tried my best to see if there are indeed two eggs in the bird's tiny nest...If I were about a foot taller, I would already know if eggs are there. As for now, I'm just assuming the hummingbird is warming something besides down and spider webs.

Lisa

P.S. As one of Amelia's bedtime games she requested that we talk about all of the rides she saw (and some she didn't) at Disneyland. Though the best stories have been told, I will still try to finish my long-winded tale of our trip to the Magic Kingdom.

More evidence that Diana's getting to be a big girl

2008-03-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Just as I was getting ready to put Diana down for her afternoon nap, she slipped away and into her big sister's room. She climbed up into Amelia's bed and asked me to draw the blinds and turn off the lights (which were already off). Then she put her head on the pillow and said, "Sleep," while making pretend snoring sounds.

This isn't the first time Diana has done this. A month or so ago I thought I would give Diana a chance to sleep in Amelia's bed, but she was out of bed and wandering around within ten minutes of nap time. Today, I told her, "You can stay here, but you have to stay in bed and try to sleep." She said, "Okay," and I shut the door. I returned, quietly, upstairs to check on her several times. The first time I heard her talking quietly to herself - after that there was silence (so I sneaked in and took a picture).

Diana slept for a good two hours, though she seemed a bit confused when she woke up. I'm proud of her for staying in bed and going to sleep, even when she could have easily gotten up. Diana's a good girl who wants to grow up and be just like her big sister.

Lisa

(Nearly) the last word on Disneyland

2008-03-15T22:13:00.001-07:00

If I don't finish telling you about my adventures at Disneyland soon, I'm sure I'll forget everything that happened while Amelia and I were there.

When we last left our heroines they were traveling from Tomorrowland across the park and into New Orleans Square - home of Lisa's favorite E ticket adventures. Coincidentally, as Amelia and I made our way through the center of the Magic Kingdom crowds had gathered for the Disneyland "Parade of Dreams." Remembering how much Amelia loved our small-town Christmas parade we sat down and waited for the Disney parade to arrive.

The first Disney cast members on the scene were the fairies. The blue fairy from Pinocchio, Tinkerbell, and the fairy godmother from Cinderella were all at the head of the parade, but Amelia was most excited about seeing the fairies Flora, Fauna and Meriweather from Sleeping Beauty. The fairies were followed by many scenes and characters from several different Disney movies. Amelia knew the names of many of the characters - even those from films she has yet to see. The float that really got her attention was the giant image of Ursula the Sea Witch, who followed behind Amelia's friend, Ariel (the Little Mermaid). After the parade was over she told mommy with amazement, "Ursula talked to us!"

When the parade ended, Amelia and I headed through the center of Disneyland and into Adventureland. Upon entering Adventureland (where the Jungle Cruise was closed for repair!) Amelia made comments about how neat it was to be in the jungle. But shortly after crossing through the Adventureland gates she was asking to return to Disneyland. (It took a while for Amelia to understand that there was more to Disneyland than Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.)

Most of the things I had planned to do in Adventureland weren't available while we were visiting, but we did go on a tour of Tarzan's tree house. Amelia enjoyed the tree house and whenever she heard the sounds of lions roaring or monkeys calling she would peer off into the jungle to locate the animals.

After we finished our tour of the tree house Amelia and I traveled to New Orleans Square. Since we hadn't eaten in a while, I thought this might be a good time to grab some apple fritters.

Now, here's where those of you who can find nothing funny about boogers (and you know who you are) should skip ahead. If you can't stand to read about boogers, skip the italicized paragraphs and rejoin Amelia and I at the Haunted Mansion.

Disneyland was not terribly crowded when we visited, and the line for apple fritters wasn't a long one. Still, during the time I stood in line (carrying Amelia) Amelia had decided she should clear her nose of obstructions with her index finger. Embarrassed that she was doing this at a lunch counter I rolled my eyes and pushed Amelia's hand back down to her waist. The young man behind the counter laughed and said, "I have the same problem with my kids all of the time."

I smiled, ordered my fritters, and the crew behind the counter worked to fill my order. During this time, Amelia reached out the same finger with which she had been "performing impolite tasks" and stealthily wiped it on the metal, food-service counter. This caused a couple of the good-natured employees to bust out laughing. The young man who took my order said, "That'll add some flavor to our gumbo!" while another girl referred to Amelia as a "Delicate little princess." It was all very funny.

The employees enjoyed their laugh so much that they offered Amelia a free chocolate chip cookie, which she declined. When I told Mike this story, after our day's adventures were through, his comment was, "Great, that's just what we need - for Amelia to be rewarded for gross behavior with treats!"

Amelia and I finished our snacks and rode the Disneyland Express all the way around the park and back to New Orleans Square, which was not my original intention. My reason for boarding the train was to ride it to "Toontown" and to visit Mickey Mouse and the Disney Princesses before these areas closed at eight. But I was mistaken in thinking that the dinosaurs and the Grand Canyon scenes you travel through on the train were between New Orleans square and Toontown. This is not the first time I've made this mistake (the dinosaurs aren't listed on the Disneyland map).

As a side note: on our second train ride through the Grand Canyon on our way back to our hotel we sat next to another young girl a little older than Amelia who was visiting the park with her mom. When she heard me tell Amelia that dinosaurs are actually extinct everywhere in the world except Disneyland she corrected me stating, "The dinosaurs aren't real!" I told her that I was sure they were real...that was what my dad told me when I was a little girl at Disneyland. I did my best to keep up the tradition of confounding my daughter by assuring her that everything at the park was, indeed, real. When our train passed by the frozen, stuffed, big-horned sheep and bobcats in the canyon I told her the same thing my dad told me: "Look, they're so afraid they can't even move!"

One reason why I'll always go back to the Disneyland Express (besides the dinosaurs) is that it's always nice to sit down and rest. Amelia had made the decision, somewhere along the line, that she was simply too tired to walk and had me carry her both in line and from ride to ride. This was exhausting. I was sorry "It's a Small World" was under repair, not because I love the ride but because I could have used the rest.

On the flip side, it was a good thing I was carrying Amelia as we entered the Haunted Mansion. Shortly after stepping through the mansion's front door Amelia was asking that we skip the ride and try something else. She was also worried about the stretching room with "no elevators and no doors" before she saw it, since we had visited it to some effect on line before leaving for Anaheim.

But the Haunted Mansion is still my favorite ride at Disneyland, and I wasn't going to leave without a tour unless it was really clear that this was going to cause Amelia some unnecessary stress or worry. As we exited the elevators ("See, I knew we would find a way out.") I assured Amelia that the Haunted Mansion was completely safe and that no ghosts could possibly hurt her as long as we remained on the path set out through the mansion and in our doom buggy.

I also told Amelia that the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion could never leave the property. Amelia questioned this when she saw that we were leaving the mansion with a hitchhiking ghost by our side, but again I told her that was just a joke and no ghosts would follow us home. (To take a virtual ride through the Haunted Mansion, click here.)

(my final thoughts on our trip to Disneyland SHOULD be posted here, soon)

Lisa

Born to be Wild

2008-03-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Amelia and Diana get to show off their wilder sides at the local Children's Museum.

They also got to dive a police car, a fire truck, a bus, an ambulance, a tractor and a helicopter. A fun day, but it is beyond me why a children's museum wouldn't offer any real food of any kind.

Lisa

...It's my birthday too, yeah.

2008-03-06T22:02:00.001-08:00

Truth be known when a family member has a birthday, everyone benefits. After all, stores don't sell decorated cakes for one. Amelia and Diana were thrilled to help mommy eat birthday cake. Amelia picked out a Cars candle for the cake and helped mom blow out the candle. She then explained that her birthday would be following the next day and everyone should go out to purchase new toys for her.

Diana discovered that buttercream frosting works as a great hair-stiffener. Colored frosting also produces terrific designs on your hands and plate when it's properly smeared around.

Amelia did not join her sister in smearing cake, choosing to eat her treat instead. If you received the latest movie you'll hear Amelia explain to Diana, "It's not finger paint!"

Lisa

P.S. Yes, I will try to finish the stories I have to tell about Disneyland soon.

Submarines, Cars, Rockets, and our first hot meal.

2008-02-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

Leaving the crazy snowman behind, Amelia and I headed for the new Finding Nemo Submarine ride. The last time I was at Disneyland there was more than a two hour wait for the subs. Micki and I chose to skip it then, but Amelia was very excited about seeing Nemo live and under the water.

Before getting in line I thought a snack was in order. I got myself a new bottle of Dasani tap water and Amelia asked for cotton candy. This was the first time Amelia had ever had cotton candy and this candy was huge and pink. Watching Amelia try to eat it was priceless. I spent a great deal of time in line trying to take the best possible picture of Amelia's cotton candy on my camera phone. Once I finally had a picture that was "good enough" (the direct light and shadows made things very difficult) I spent another good 15-30 minutes trying (and failing) to email the photograph to Mike over my phone. At some point, Amelia and I both gave up. I put my phone back in my purse and she handed me three-quarters of a giant, pink blob of spun sugar. I ate a little of the cotton candy and started to feel queasy (I can't eat sweets on an empty stomach), I tried to give the treat back to Amelia, but she wouldn't take it. At least she has the good sense to know when she's had enough and to say, "No," even if the food item is a treat.

By the time we finished eating and photographing our giant cotton candy we were already about two-thirds of the way to the boarding area for the Submarines. I remembered the earlier Disneyland Submarines and thought that nothing this ride had to show me could possibly be worth 90 mins. of standing in line. Somehow, though, Amelia and I ended up at the very front of the boarding area for the next boat. And it was here that I asked for, and finally received, a "First Visit" button for Amelia.

Our boat docked and the gates opened. I knew that we were to wait behind the yellow line until it was time to board, but Amelia kept trying to push through the debarking crowd and to get into the submarine. (As you can tell, I spent a lot of time saying, "Wait, not yet!" during this trip.) After we descended down into the submarine Amelia got excited about the blue folding chairs. She wanted to put one down and sit right away. Again, it took some coaxing to get her to walk the full length of the submarine and sit at the stern.

The Finding Nemo Submarine ride was much, MUCH cooler than the original Submarine ride had been. Amelia loved it, and I found it kind of funny that we got swallowed by a whale for the second time in a brief afternoon. The only thing I didn't like about my ride was that somehow I found myself in the booby-trap seat. As we dove deeper into the ocean (wink, wink) water started to drip down onto my leg. I slid my legs off to the side and made a comment to Amelia about getting wet. Her reply was, "You're not getting wet." I beg to differ, Amelia.

From the submarine ride it was a quick walk to Autopia. This was where Amelia would get to steer a car for the first time. It may seem that I don't have much to say about Autopia but I have to tell you that this ride was the funnest ride I was on at Disneyland. Amelia really had no idea how to steer at all, so once our car got onto the narrow guide track each time we hit a curve we really hit a curve - over and over again. Amelia and I bounced and banged around in the car so much I sometimes wondered if she was going to be thrown from the car. Sometimes I would grab the wheel to steady us, but most of the time Amelia and I found ourselves cracking up as we repeatedly banged into right and left turns.

Getting out of our car we headed into Tomorrowland for a bite to eat. Tomorrowland Terrace didn't have a huge variety of food, but it was convenient and I wanted to be around when the next Jedi Training Academy took place. I read off a number of food items to Amelia and she told me that she wanted a cheeseburger. I reminded her that they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and other kid-friendly food, but she insisted that she wanted a cheeseburger.

If you know Amelia, you know where this is headed. Once we finally found a table and sat down Amelia ate all of her fries and asked me to pull the cheese off her burger for her. She took one bite of the American cheese, decided it was not for her, and was done with the burger. A whole burger gone to waste. (I was full after eating my marginally palatable veggie burger, or I would have tried to help her out.) After eating we watched the beginning of the Jedi Training Academy (Amelia was not interested) and headed out again.

The next thing Amelia wanted to do was to ride on the rocket ships in Tomorrowland. Now, I might be wrong, but I remember the rockets being located where the Tomorrowland Terrace stands. I walked completely around a funky display on the Terrace roof that I swear used to be the Tomorrowland rocket ships and could not, for the life of me, find a way to get onto the elevator that I saw on the top of Tomorrowland Terrace next to the "rockets."

But that's why Mickey gives us maps.

Once I figured out that I was stuck in a Disneyland time warp I took Amelia to the new rocket ships at the entrance (from Main Street) to Tomorrowland. Standing in line for the rockets was interesting because: 1) we were behind a little girl who was also named "Amelia" (and her sister), and 2) Buzz Lightyear passed by our line while we were waiting. Seeing Buzz was pretty cool for both of us. When Amelia talks about her trip to Disneyland she mentions Buzz Lightyear and says, "He was pretty neat!"

I have to say that for all intents and purposes, the Disneyland rockets are just the same as the Flying Dumbos. The view is different, because of the location within the park, but the ride goes around and around while little ones like Amelia control the ship's altitude - up and down and up and down. After being on the Dumbo ride, Amelia was an old pro at the joystick controls, so we spent a lot of time at the very highest point of the ride. We both enjoyed the rockets a lot, but once the ride was done I thought it was time to head across the park to my favorite, classic, E ticket rides...

(to be continued, Lisa)

Follow the bouncing ball

2008-02-24T22:36:00.001-08:00

I thought it might help you, the blog readers, follow our trip through Disneyland if you had a map. Looking at this map you can see our path from the Flying Dumbos (54) to Storybook Land (64) to the Teacups (58) to Alice in Wonderland (52) and on to the Matterhorn Bobsleds (59).

I will try to add maps, when I can, so my narrative will make more sense to readers who have not been to Disneyland a dozen times or more.

Lisa

Sunday morning

2008-02-23T23:17:00.000-08:00

Now, where was I?

I woke up before my alarm clock sounded on Sunday morning. I got out of bed and headed for the shower after the usual lousy first night's sleep in my hotel bed. I came out of the shower and woke Amelia. I was so excited about going to Disneyland I was hopping and bopping on my feet. Looking at the clock I thought there was a good chance we'd make it to the front gate very near opening time.

But Amelia was moving as slowly as molasses in winter, which is her usual pace. After seeing the swimming pools outside our hotel window she made up her mind that all she wanted to do was swim. I reminded her that we were going to Disneyland and she said, "After we see the backyard." I was surprised at her lackadaisical attitude, but since she had never been to Disneyland it was hard for her to believe it couldn't wait for a half hour or so.

Finally, I got Amelia dressed. We ate some trail mix and headed downstairs to catch a bus to the main gate of the Magic Kingdom. The trip to Disneyland was made up of three "rides": the elevator, the escalator, and the bus. You see, every time we entered or exited the hotel, we had to ride both the elevator and the escalator. This meant that while our room was on the sixth floor we would take the elevator to the fourth floor, get off the elevator, walk through a corridor of conference rooms, and ride the escalator down to the lobby. Amelia was afraid of tripping on the escalator, so I had to carry her each time, up and down the two long escalators. (Yes, this did get tiring.)

When we reached Disneyland the ticket lines were moderately short. Our ticket salesperson was very helpful and gave us two-day park hopper tickets, good for 30 days, for the price of one-day, one park admission. So, our tickets were half price. If the drive weren't so long, I would take Amelia back to Disneyland (with our free passes) in a heartbeat.

As we went through the gates I grabbed a map. Amelia asked for a map of her own. I showed Amelia the Disneyland train at the station and asked her where she wanted to go first. Of course, Amelia wanted to ride on the Flying Dumbos. (While I was still trying to convince Amelia to give up diapers and give the potty a try I told her about rides at Disneyland and actually found a YouTube movie of a child riding the Flying Dumbos. She had decided, even before arriving at Disneyland, that the Flying Dumbos were her favorite ride.)

Amelia was great at Disneyland, but it was a long time before she understood the concept of standing in line. At our first ride she continually tried to push herself ahead of the crowd. When the ride stopped and the Dumbo elephants were empty she saw no reason in the world why we shouldn't be able to simply push ahead and hop on board.

Finally, we found ourselves in the final, short line ready to board our Flying Dumbo. The riders came off and we moved around to find an empty seat. Somehow, by the time we moved around the ride, every single Dumbo was occupied. Another father became rude and upset that his daughter was unable to climb aboard the ride. I figured that several guests who had said they would ride together decided to go it alone. Eventually, everyone was seated but Amelia and I. We stood aside, politely, and waited one more turn. Amelia was very, very good about having to wait and I told her she would be first next time and could choose any elephant she wished (she chose the one in green, her favorite color). I made a comment to one of the ride attendants that this would be Amelia's first ride on her first trip to Disneyland. They suggested we get her a free "First Visit" button (they were all out at the Flying Dumbos). It took quite a bit of asking and several rides before we found one, but Amelia now has a Disneyland "First Visit" memento.

Amelia loved the Flying Dumbos. She loved the fact that she could move the elephant up and down by herself; however, she was a bit cautious about how high she flew when we started out. Instead of climbing up, up, up, she would go up a bit, then down, then up a bit more, and then back down to the bottom. I finally brought us to the very top of the ride just before it finished.

When the ride was over Amelia was really good about letting others have a turn and left without a fuss. She was eager to move on to the next ride, whatever that was going to be. Amelia kept repeating, "We're going on ALL the rides." I didn't think she would be tall enough or old enough for every ride, but I was happy to go on as many rides with her as we could squeeze in.

From Dumbo we rode the boats through Storybook Land. Amelia marveled when we rode through the whale's mouth. She enjoyed the ride a lot. After that, we headed over to the Teacups. Reading the posted warnings I saw the suggestion that people who get motion sickness not ride on the Teacups. I thought to myself, "I have no idea if Amelia gets motion sickness or not." Images appeared in my mind of the poor girl going green as we whirled around, but I figured we would try the ride and hope for the best.

Amelia smiled the entire time we were spinning in our yellow teacup. This made me feel more confident about the other rides we had ahead. If this ride didn't bother Amelia, she should be fine on almost anything. We went from the teacups to the Alice in Wonderland ride next door and rode a giant caterpillar. Then we headed to the bathroom for an unannounced bathroom break. Knowing Amelia, I knew that if I asked her if she had to go, she would say, "No," so I never asked and never hinted that we would be ending up in a bathroom. Amelia trusted me because I had been to Disneyland several times, and she didn't have a single accident all day (hooray!).

The obvious choice for our next ride, location-wise, was the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The Bobsleds move quickly and again I was worried they might be too scary for Amelia. Putting first things first, I realized that I had to see if Amelia could make the minimum height requirement before wasting any time in line. Amelia was about an inch above the minimum, and was ready to ride. To prepare her, I explained that the ride was fast, and that the Abominable Snowman ("Do you remember him from Monsters, Inc?") lived on the Matterhorn ("But this snowman doesn't carry snow cones.").

I held on to Amelia throughout the ride. I tried to gauge her reaction to make sure she was having fun, but this is difficult to do when someone is sitting directly in front of you. After the ride was over I asked, "Was that fun?" and she said, "Yes, but that crazy snowman was scary!" Now, whenever she talks about the bobsleds (which she mispronounces in a number of really amusing ways) she always mentions the scary "crazy snowman," which I find hilarious.

(to be continued...Lisa)

It begins with the Haunted Mansion

2008-02-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that we recently booked a great trip to Disneyland for our family in May. So you may be wondering how and why it was decided that Amelia and I should go to Disneyland last weekend.

It all started at the doctor's office. On Friday our suitcases were packed and our family had every intention of visiting my mom over the holiday weekend. However, because Diana had been acting very grouchy, Mike thought it would be a good idea to have her checked by her pediatrician on our way out of town. During Diana's checkup the doctor listened carefully to her breathing and discovered that the poor girl had bronchitis.

All of us were disappointed, but because we knew that our Diana can't help but cough and sneeze all over those she loves, we decided that we should not visit relatives over the weekend. On the drive back home we tried to think of alternate family plans, but nothing came to mind. We didn't want to put Diana through very much in her weakened and cranky state, and we didn't want to risk giving those we love bronchitis. Still, we left our bags packed in case Diana felt much MUCH better the following day.

Saturday rolled around like any other day. In fact, the day was so much like any other day that mommy became irritable thinking of her afternoon of cleaning and gardening (normally a task I enjoy, but not like a vacation). When daddy went upstairs for a shower, Amelia hopped on mommy's lap in front of the desktop computer. Somehow, Amelia and I started talking about Disneyland again, and I searched the Internet for virtual tours of the magic kingdom.

After exploring Main Street, Disneyland, on line I was excited to find a page devoted to my favorite ride: The Haunted Mansion. I was most impressed with the fact that the web page not only had all of the spoken text from the "ghost host" of the Mansion, but it also had the lyrics to songs sung by the ghosts along your journey.

When daddy came downstairs again he found me reading the on line texts: We have 999 happy haunts, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers? I showed Amelia photographs of the room with no doors and no windows and asked, hypothetically, how do you get out? She didn't have an answer for that puzzling question, but I assured her that I had visited the Haunted Mansion dozens of times and always managed to escape without any trouble.

Around that time daddy asked if I would like to go to Disneyland. I love going to Disneyland, so the answer seemed obvious to me. But none of this changed the fact that little Diana had bronchitis. I thought it would be very unfair to expect her to ride in the car for eight hours when she felt so sick. Michael then said that his plan was for Amelia and I to go alone.

At first I felt as if I just couldn't go without Mike. I didn't want him to miss out on Amelia's first trip to Disneyland. But Mike was very understanding and pointed out that Amelia and I had talked about going down to Disneyland many times in the past. In fact, one of Amelia's favorite bedtime games was for mommy to name and describe rides at Disneyland.

You see, when we decided it was time for Amelia to give up diapers once and for all we told her that we would take her to Disneyland once she made the switch to underwear. At this point, Amelia hadn't worn a diaper in almost a week. She had some accidents and there was a lot of moaning and complaining and bribing and coaxing, but Amelia was doing well.

So once mommy and daddy agreed and daddy made the reservations on line, he took Amelia aside and asked her if she wanted to go to Disneyland. It didn't sink in for quite some time that daddy meant she would go to Disneyland RIGHT NOW. We were practically packed and ready to go, so it wasn't long until we hit the road.

The first leg of our trip looked remarkably like the drive to Texas Roadhouse, and Amelia started to get suspicious. I asked Amelia if she was excited and she just shrugged. After a couple of minutes she asked, "Are we really going to Disneyland?" "Yes," I told her, explaining that we had to take the road toward Texas Roadhouse to start, but Disneyland was very far away and soon the road would look unfamiliar to her.

Amelia was great all the way to Disneyland - she ate her snacks and sang her songs. Amelia didn't complain a bit and never asked, "Are we there yet?" I stopped for stealth potty breaks twice on the road and Amelia didn't have a single accident.

Fireworks were going off over the Magic Kingdom when we exited Highway 5. I hated to wake Amelia, but I couldn't let her miss out. She was very excited when she realized we were right next door to Disneyland. She loved the fireworks, or what we saw of them. We checked into our hotel around ten o'clock. Around 10:30 Amelia insisted we turn on the TV. She was going to be up for a bit anyway, so after trying to convince her that there was nothing on she would want to watch at that time of night I started to flip through the channels. Amelia had me stop changing channels when she saw ice hockey on the screen. She was up until eleven watching Sports Center.

She is definitely her daddy's daughter.

(to be continued...Lisa)

Working hard at having fun

2008-02-20T09:48:00.000-08:00

Again, it's been a while since I've written to the blog. Amelia and Diana have been sick off and on recently and with all of the trips to the doctor and such, I've been a bit busy. Plus Amelia has finally given up diapers, which means many strongly coaxed trips to the potty throughout the day.

When our weekend plans were interrupted by Diana's bronchitis, Amelia and I somehow found ourselves on the way to Disneyland. Believe me, I will tell you all about how we ended up traveling to Disneyland and everything we did there, but it will take a little time. Soon, those of you I know well will be able to see all of our photographs and read the short version of our trip through the Magic Kingdom.

Until then, just trust that when Amelia isn't on the computer playing Clifford games or Barney videos I'll be trying for the sixth or seventh time to get YouTube to accept and post my Disney movies. More immediately, I'll be captioning and organizing more than a hundred photographs from our trip.

Fun, but a little overwhelming.

Lisa

Sister, Sister

2008-02-04T22:40:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, poor Diana found out she had an ear infection. A few days ago she got an upset tummy, but it didn't last long. Now Diana's doing great.

I should have guessed that it would be Amelia's turn to get sick this week. She's just now recovering from the stomach flu which left her weak and dehydrated.

But from all this I have seen how much these two girls love each other. A few days ago while Diana was throwing one of her usual temper-tantrums she flung herself on the floor banging her head and making her cry. I told Amelia, who had been sitting nearby that Diana hurt her head and she snuggled up to her sister sympathetically. She patted Diana on the back and said, "It's okay. It's okay." Then she brushed the hair from her head and said, "Oh, there it is," and kissed her head. I assured Amelia that Diana now felt much better.

Today, Amelia spent almost her entire day in bed. Diana missed her sister and kept asking for "Meeya." I brought her into Amelia's room where she asleep on top of her bed. Diana lay down next to her sister and patted her gently on the back. Then she asked mommy to adjust the blanket. I covered Diana and she said, "Blanket - Meeya." I carefully picked up Amelia's legs and put them under the covers and Diana was satisfied.

All day long Diana asked for Amelia and whenever she saw her she would pat her back and sometimes kiss her on the cheek. When the time came for Diana to go to bed, she wouldn't leave without a kiss goodnight from Amelia. I held Diana close to her sister and Amelia, who I thought was asleep, weakly leaned over and kissed Diana on the head. Two very sweet girls, indeed.

Lisa

Sticky

2008-01-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

We all know that Diana can be messy at times, but while I understand how a chocolate cookie can blacken her teeth I don't know how a rice noodle stays in her hair throughout an entire meal. Even more confusing, I have no idea how Diana managed to get a Post-it note stuck to the back of her head today. The most plausible explanation is that Amelia put the note on Diana's head, but I don't think she did it. Instead, I think that Diana's habit of sweeping her messy hands over her head is starting to produce some interesting results.

And if I only had a camera attached to my hand at all times...Diana pulled a saucepan out from the cupboard today and SOMEHOW managed to get both feet into it and squat down. Now that's funny stuff! Amelia tried the same trick, but couldn't make her feet fit.

I guess I'll be re-washing any pans I find out of the cabinets from now on.

The most exciting thing happening this week (besides the occassional glimpse of sunshine) is decorating Amelia's room. Back before Christmas Amelia and I found a set of plastic, glow-in-the-dark planets to hang in her room. Yesterday I thought it would be fun to pull the planets out of my closet and show them, again, to Amelia. She vaguely remembered buying the plastic planets at the toy store, but she was incredibly excited about putting them up in her room.

By the time I got all of the planets out, identified and ordered it was nearly time for the girls to get ready for bed. I knew that setting up the solar system would require a step ladder and hoped to postpone the task until today. But just as I began to hum and hah and state reasons why I didn't want to hang the planets from Amelia's nine foot ceiling she told me why I needed to do this for her: "Diana has butterflies in her room, so I should have the planets in my room."

I felt she had a point and lumbered up the stairs with my aluminum step ladder. After deciding where our imaginary sun would be I began by hanging up Jupiter, Mars and Earth. This took more time than you might expect, since it involved tying several knots in nearly invisible filiment. Once the first three planets were up, it was definately time for a bath so I told Amelia, "This may be the last planet for tonight." She fussed and whined saying, "No! Pluto is the last planet!"

Again, she made a good point.

After both girls were ready for bed I put up Venus and Mercury. I also put some small glow-in-the-dark stars on Amelia's walls. I attempted to replicate the Big Dipper on Amelia's wall, but it didn't look right. In fact, my arrangement was so bad Mike couldn't even locate my Big Dipper.

Once we turned the lights off the planets and stars looked really impressive. Amelia started to tell stories about the planets right away. The following morning all Amelia could talk about was putting up the rest of the planets. She nagged and nagged me while I was trying to eat toast at the breakfast table. I told her, "I can't put the planets up right now, I'm still eating breakfast." Amelia replied, "You can bring your food upstairs with you."

This time I wasn't buying it.

But after the girls went to their gymnastics classes and once Diana was in bed for a nap I finished assembling the solar system. Amelia loves being among the stars and planets, and I have to admit that her room looks pretty cool when the lights go out.

Lisa

Toby, Mavis, Rusty and other trains

2008-01-26T21:58:00.001-08:00

As many of you know, it has been raining A LOT in California. I have been through a couple of droughts, and I realize that California needs all of the rain and snow fall we can get - but the girls are getting cabin fever. Amelia actually came right out and told me last week that she was bored. So I racked my brain and tried to come up with something fun that Amelia and I could do in spite of the wet, chilly weather.

Months ago, while traveling up north, I noticed that there was a railroad museum along the road. The museum is only open weekends in the winter, and the hours make it nearly impossible to bring both girls (unless Diana misses her nap), but I knew Amelia would love it so I took her out there this afternoon.

When I told Amelia we were going out to see trains, she was mildly interested. It took a while to get her coordinated and dressed, but she was smiling when she got in the car. I told her we would have to get gas before we drove out to see the trains and she said, "First the bookstore, then we'll get gas." That's when I realized she thought we were only going to see the toy trains at our local Barnes and Noble. I told her that we were going to see great big trains and her interest was piqued.

Arriving at the museum I discovered that the tickets for admission were much more expensive than I had anticipated. But when the ticket vendor explained the train schedule and how Amelia and I could catch rides on both an antique street car and an old railroad car, the ticket price suddenly became reasonable. Amelia was excited too - she loves trains and always wants to ride them. Until today, the only train she had ever ridden was a BART train.

The volunteer train conductors could tell that Amelia was very anxious to ride the train and allowed us to hop aboard while they switched the train from one track to another. They asked Amelia if she wanted to ring the train's bell, but she nervously declined stating she could do it when she was older.

We took our first ride on the wooden street car. Amelia and I were the only passengers and the trip lasted a brief 15 minutes. Shortly after the first trip we boarded a second train for a 45 minute ride through the countryside. Two boys, a little older than Amelia, and their parents were along for the ride as were a handful of others. When the train reached the end of the line the conductors again offered the kids an opportunity to ring the bell and blow the train's air whistle. When Amelia saw the boys head for the front of the train she followed. And when the train stopped at a street crossing, she asked (and was allowed) to get up and ring the bell one more time.

Of course, Amelia was her funny, young self today - just like any other day. While the train was stopped on the tracks so that the railroad volunteer could tell us about the train's history Amelia became impatient. After a couple of short minutes Amelia waved her arms in the air and said, "Let's keep going!" (or something to that effect). It reminded me of our last dinner at a Chinese restaurant when Amelia, noticing that there was no more baby corn in her vegetable chow mein, called to a waiter saying, "More baby corn!"

Very funny, but a little bit embarassing.

Anyway, Amelia closed the place down, as she often does. She had a lot of fun and compared all of the engines we saw to those she knows from Thomas the Tank Engine. She was especially excited to see an old engine with black and yellow stripes (see above) that reminded her so much of Mavis.

Tomorrow it will rain again, but Amelia and I had a great time today.

Lisa

but the good news is...

2008-01-23T23:05:00.001-08:00

(Here's a peek at how two girls with colds spend their mornings when the weather's damp and frosty.)

January 17 Diana turned one and a half. Yesterday I took her to get an 18 month check up. The night before her appointment I noticed Diana acting really REALLY cranky. Tuesday morning the "baby teenager" slept until eleven o'clock. I assumed that she slept in so that she could catch up on sleep after an exciting weekend visiting grandma and grandpa.

Even after nearly 14 hours worth of uninterrupted sleep, Diana was still cranky. Grouchy and uncommunicative, she actually fell asleep again in the car on the way to the doctor's office. (And again on the way home.)

When we arrived at the doctor's office we all took a seat in the "sick" waiting room since all three of us have colds. The nurse asked me about some of Diana's developmental milestones, then Diana was weighed and measured. Her measurements were excellent, as usual. Diana is 33 inches tall (at the 80% mark for height) and has a big noggin: 48 cm around (at the 85% mark). Diana is a little lower on the chart for weight than she has been in the past (23 lbs. 13 ozs. - 45%) but she's had a cold for several days and hasn't shown much interest in eating.

So everything was going fine for my crabby baby until the doctor checked her ear and said, "Well, she's got an ear infection." She then moved to the other ear and said, "Make that two ear infections, and this one's worse." At least this explains why my cute and happy girl has been so fussy lately.

Diana already seems to be responding to the amoxicillin she's taking - and she loves the taste (go figure). In two weeks her ears will be rechecked and Diana can get the shots she missed because of her illness.

I'm sure she'll be thrilled.

Lisa

New year, new hair

2008-01-14T21:17:00.000-08:00

The girls and I drove down to a new hair salon today. The place we had been going to was fine, but this salon catered to children, so I thought I'd see what it was like.

The girls loved it. Amelia loved all the toys in the lobby (where they were playing The Little Mermaid). Diana loved sitting in a white Mustang while she got her hair cut. Even when she's sitting on my lap Diana is usually fussy and fidgety when her hair is being cut, but she was great today.

Whoever came up with the concept of these hair salons for kids came up with a great idea by playing kids' movies on screens on each side of the children's chairs. This means that instead of constantly twisting and turning her head left and right Amelia could focus on Ratatouille or Cars.

On top of everything else, both girls got their hair put up in tiny rubber bands which made them look adorable and very girlish. No one's going to call Amelia "my son" again for a while.

Lisa

Diana gives gymnastics a second try

2008-01-09T23:03:00.000-08:00

Last week Diana attended her first gymnastics class. She had a really fun time, but she was very tentative.

Today was a new day. Though Diana still clung pretty tightly to mommy, she only did so for a few short minutes. She boldly asked to play on the trampoline with mommy ("Bouncing!") and with a little coaxing she let herself be lowered into "the great pit of foam." She had a wonderful time in the pit - bouncing on her bottom and "swimming" around. She also loved the long tumble-track trampoline. Though Diana still doesn't know how to jump without help, she ran down the length of the trampoline over and over again, even when her class moved on to other things.

Diana is getting to be very good at communicating with mommy. When she wants to eat, she will take mommy's hand and lead me into the kitchen (sometimes even pointing me at the stove). But this afternoon, Diana pulled a little trick on mommy.

I had been sitting, just where I am now, in front of my computer. I was helping Amelia find YouTube movies with cute kitty cats, doggies and guinea pigs when Diana reached for my hand. Taking both of my hands in hers Diana led me into the kitchen, but then she turned around and rushed back to my vacant chair. When she began to climb the side of the chair I realized that I had been tricked. Diana didn't want a snack - she just wanted me to get out of "her" chair.

Such a clever girl! This isn't the first time she has requested that I vacate a chair for her, but this is the first time that she acted like getting me out of her chair was not her real goal.

But while Diana is getting smarter and more articulate by the day, there are still times when I don't understand her at all. While I was again sitting here in front of my computer Amelia pointed out to me that Diana had spilled milk on the floor. Spilling milk wasn't a big deal, since I was sure it was an accident, but then I saw Diana stomping on the milk box I had bought her at Starbucks earlier in the day and forcing gushing fountains of white out onto the tile. I guess it was fun for her to watch the milk splash, I don't think she hates cow milk (she usually drinks soy).

On a positive note, Diana does admit when she's making a mess. If I ask, "Diana, are you making a mess back there?" she'll reply, "Yeah." She doesn't show any interest in stopping what she's doing, but at least she acknowledges that she's being messy. I guess that's a start.

Lisa

It's Raining Men!

2008-01-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

Maybe Amelia's rheumatism was acting up last night; I'm not sure. Regardless of what it was that clued Amelia in on the coming weather, it's obvious that something told her that rain was in the forecast. How else can I explain the fact that she randomly broke into song last night and surprised mommy with a rendition of, "It's Raining Men, Hallelujah!"?

Amelia's dad, knowing that mommy sometimes enjoys singing this song around the house, had previously requested that the song remain off of Amelia's hit list. Well, I guess if she already knows the chorus, might as well play it in the car, right?

The funny thing about today's rain is that both Amelia and Diana loved being in the cold, wet weather. After returning from a short trip to the local book store I had to coax and cajole both girls into the house and out of the wet, nasty weather. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nastier, so I guess I'd better bundle both of the girls up to the gills.

Lisa

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T22:14:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone!

A new session of gymnastics classes began this week along with the New Year. This meant that both Amelia and Diana got to attend gymnastics class today. (It also meant that we had to arrive at class almost an hour earlier than usual, which made mommy's morning very hectic.)

Diana was a bit shy around her other classmates and their parents. She bounced on the trampoline with mommy - holding both of mommy's hands - but she clung fiercely to mommy's shirt when it was suggested that she join her fellow toddlers in the foam pit.

Diana was also cautious about entering the "bounce house" that was set up in class today. She was the first girl to approach the inflated castle and followed the extension cord to the air pump to see how the device worked, but she was a bit nervous about entering the house and jumping. After a couple of minutes Diana and I climbed into the house and Diana began to bounce while holding her instructor's hands. She left the teacher for a few seconds to bounce with mommy, but then went back to her class instructor. I guess she's a better bouncer than mommy.

What was funny about all of this is that as soon as the older children were allowed in the bounce house Diana eagerly followed her sister up and in through the trap door and started bouncing and bounding around the room like she had been there a dozen times before. Diana really looks up to her big sister and follows almost everything she does.

This afternoon, while Diana was taking her afternoon nap, I slipped outside and took down my Christmas lights. I also had Amelia help me take the garland down off our Christmas tree. It was a little sad to be putting the decorations away, but we have to remember that there are more holidays around the corner.

In a few weeks we can bring out our Presidents' Day decorations; then we can all go green for St. Patrick's Day. (Here, Amelia models some green decorations at a local hobby and fabric store.)

Okay, no one in my family is ethnically Irish, as far as I know. So there probably won't be any St. Patrick's Day decorations, or Valentine's Day hearts, or Lincoln and Washington silhouettes. But we still have mommy's birthday in our future - at that will bring all of us a yummy, decorated cake at least.

Lisa

Cookie time!

2007-12-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

It's already Christmas Eve!

After a short trip to grandpa's house our family arrived home just in time for dinner. On the pretense of making cookies for Santa Claus, mommy made cookies for the whole family to enjoy after dinner. As usual, the girls were extremely excited about the cookies and could hardly wait for them to be cool enough to eat.

As the cookies sat on the stove, out of reach of eager hands, I went into the living room to help place the girls' stockings under the tree. After a moment I turned around to see Diana moving daddy's new chair out of the living room and down our short hallway. I really wasn't sure what Diana was up to - I assumed she would move the chair to the family room.

Mike and I were really surprised when we saw what Diana was doing. She moved the chair to the middle of the kitchen, turned it to face the oven, and sat down to watch and wait for her cookies to cool.

Amelia soon joined Diana and I grabbed the camera to catch a shot of the girls staring at the oven and waiting for their treats.

Daddy and I are really looking forward to tomorrow morning. We may even be more excited than the girls, and I can tell you that Amelia is really excited about opening more presents.

Merry Christmas to you all,
Lisa

On the first day of Christmas...

2007-12-23T15:48:00.001-08:00

Slowly but surely our home and our family are preparing for the holidays. Little by little the house is getting cleaned and straightened. The girls are in great spirits and Amelia loves wrapping presents and practicing writing her name on gift tags.

Friday night the girls had their first real taste of Christmas when they got to open gifts from uncle Chris and aunt Gloria. Amelia and Diana loved their presents, and both girls especially enjoyed their toy chest full of princess dresses. Amelia wanted to dress up as a princess right away, and Diana followed her big sister's lead (as she usually does - though notice that the princess' crown doesn't fit perfectly on Diana's head).

In fact, it was difficult to get Amelia out of her princess dress in time for dinner. It was so difficult to take Diana out of her Snow White top the following morning that mommy gave in and let her wear it to bed for her afternoon nap.

I only hope the girls love the rest of their gifts as much as they've enjoyed these.

Lisa

Trying to prepare for the holidays

2007-12-06T22:31:00.001-08:00

Though the holidays are all about children, children do make holiday preparations very challenging. It is almost impossible to wrap presents with the girls' "help," and there's always the off chance that I'll accidentally wrap up one of the girls (since they keep finding boxes to climb into).

And I hate to suggest that I'm keeping score, but so far this year four of my Christmas ornaments have been broken. I have already glued one back together, but I guess I thought those plastic Hallmark critters were tougher than they really are. Because the ornaments keep breaking, and since I can't convince either girl to simply leave the ornaments on the tree, my tree is pretty sparse with decorations this year (outside of the lights and garland).

Always helpful, Amelia seems to have found a solution to my problem of how to decorate the tree without risking more breakage. Today I found a cluster of her stuffed animals on the tree and she seemed very proud of what she had done.

Why didn't I think of that before?

Lisa

Revisiting planes, planes and more planes

2007-12-04T22:48:00.000-08:00

Today the girls and I set off for our local Air Force base. Though I didn't accomplish what I had set out to do, both girls had a wonderful time (as usual) at the Air Force museum. Amelia loved all of the airplanes, from the giant transports to the tiny models. Diana loved the fact that I let her get around on her own two feet and did not put her in a stroller. Though I did have to keep her from crossing a couple of display barricades, Diana was a pretty good girl all the time we were at the museum.

For the first time, all of us actually made it to the very back of the museum. There I was surprised to find a huge jet engine (very cool when it's close enough to touch) and a model of the Apollo capsule. Both girls loved sitting in all of the cockpits that were open to the public and Diana is getting very good at saying, "Cheese" whenever she is faced with a camera.

Of course, the day wasn't event free. For one thing Diana can't possibly pass by a puddle of any size without stomping in it and splashing in it. Amelia joined right in. Diana's pants became so wet and dirty after playing outside that she rode home pantsless. (I didn't want her sitting in wet clothing when the weather was so cold.)

Another small incident involved one of the two Christmas trees set up in the museum. Diana is convinced that anything she finds that's round is a ball - and that all balls bounce. Though most of the Christmas ornaments she encountered when we started our tour were plastic, she managed to find one glass bulb as we were on our way out the door. It was impressive to see Diana grab the bulb and throw it with all of her might onto the linoleum floor. The gift shop manager was sympathetic when I told him what had happened.

When we got home, the fun continued. Amelia and Diana have become "partners in crime" when it comes to grabbing mom's clean lingerie and running it down the hall to put it in the washer. I watched the two of them jog back and forth down the hall with pantyhose, bras, etc. All the time the girls had huge smiles on their faces, loving the mischief and mayhem they were causing.

Then something changed a bit. Diana came toward me and I saw that instead of carrying a pair of my panties in her hand he had removed her diaper and was bringing it down the hall. I thought it was hilarious when she handed me her diaper and went straight back to her business of emptying my lingerie drawer. It was still funny when she got ready for her evening bath - mostly because I had checked the floors all up and down the hall and had not found a single questionable puddle (if you know what I mean).

Lisa

a.k.a. "Santa"

2007-12-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

Last week mommy took Amelia and Diana to the mall to see Santa Claus. Visiting Santa (and paying for a photograph) has been a Christmas tradition since Amelia was born.

This year Amelia seemed more interested than usual in jolly old St. Nick. The Santa Claus doll that I brought into the house for the holidays quickly became a good friend of Amelia's. She would sit next to him and repeatedly squeeze his hand so she could hear, "Remember, the spirit of Christmas lies in your heart," over and over again.

Amelia also talked about Santa Claus. One day she was describing the toy elf and said, "This is Santa Claus, or you can call him 'Santa'." Another afternoon I heard her say, "Santa doesn't share." I found this surprising since sharing has been such an important issue in our household recently and since no fictional character shares nearly as much as he does. I asked Amelia why she thought Santa didn't share and she pointed out that the toy bell he carries in his left hand is permanently attached.

Oh, that makes sense.

Thursday morning I asked Amelia if she wanted to visit Santa Claus and she enthusiastically said, "Yes." We drove off to the mall and found Santa in his usual spot. There was no line to see Santa and I spoke to an elf about ordering photographs. As I continued to talk I noticed Amelia slowly slinking away. She had backed off until she reached a nearby partition and when I asked her, "Don't you want to see Santa?" she fell on the ground in melodramatic fashion and said, "Oh no, not yet."

I told the elf we would return and took Amelia around the mall so she could calm her nerves. In the process I spent $20 on a singing Christmas tree that Diana loved so much I couldn't pry it from her tiny hands. (I now have to hear, "Rocking around the Christmas tree" a dozen times a day.)

Finally, after shopping and playing and snacking I convinced Amelia to take a chance on Santa since I was sure he would give her a coloring book after her visit. Amelia agreed to see St. Nick. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas she told him, "A coloring book." She got her wish in record time.

Diana wasn't sure about the man in red. She cried when I sat her on Santa's knee and though she calmed down very quickly she still felt much more relaxed with her fingers in her mouth. Her slightly scared look is actually really sweet to me.

So enjoy this annual tradition and look for more holiday pictures from us in the near future.

Lisa

The amazing Diana

2007-11-29T22:27:00.000-08:00

This week has been full of funny. Both Amelia and Diana have been hilarious.

For example, I took Amelia and Diana to Target a couple of days ago to look for Christmas gift wrap. My goal was to simply get out of the house, but my plan was to buy some cute gift wrap for the girls' presents. While we have plenty of Christmas wrap sitting around the house, almost none of it seems to suit the cute gifts we'll be giving the girls.

When I got Amelia to that section of Target which sells Christmas wrap I asked her to help me choose some wrapping paper. The wrapping paper she chose was nice, but not really what I had in mind for the girls. Still, if it was what she liked then that was what I would buy.

One of Amelia's selections was red paper with snowmen on it. Pretty basic Christmas wrap in basic colors. The other selection was a more artistic design with reindeer. This paper was pretty but full of non-traditional colors like pink, lime green and baby blue. Though I liked the paper, I thought it would be worthless unless we could find matching bows somewhere in the store. None of the inexpensive bags of bows I found nearby had any colors like those on this gift wrap, so I decided we should move to the front of the store to check out the pricier individual bows in the party section.

It was almost impossible to get Amelia to the front of the store. I did everything I could to avoid all of the toy aisles at Target, but it still took several long minutes to reach our destination. FINALLY we reached the bows and it seemed that they had all the pink, green, and multi-colored pastel bows a girl could want. I looked at Amelia, relieved that we were finally almost on our way out the door, and asked her what color bow she thought we should buy to match her paper.

Amelia looked me right in the eye and said, "White."

I don't think she had any idea why I burst out laughing. At that point, I was tired and starving and her comment struck me as the funniest thing I had heard in years.

Later that same day Amelia pulled out another gem. I had been reluctantly deep frying (I hate to deep fry because of the mess and smell) batter-coated tofu when my nose told me that I had to change Diana. Diana fought this diaper change with every ounce of her being, still I had to move fast in order to prevent my tofu from burning. After I finally got Diana into a clean diaper I rushed back into the kitchen to attend to my work.

A few short seconds after returning to the stove I heard Amelia state, in a dead-pan voice, "Diana's diaper's off." Sure enough, there was Diana standing in the middle of the family room floor holding her diaper over her head in one hand. She reminded me of a tiny Houdini and seemed very proud of her achievement.

I quickly rushed to her side and re-dressed Diana in her diaper. You don't leave a girl known as "puddles" without her diaper on for long.

The next day Amelia and I went outside to hang Christmas lights. Amelia was fun to talk to, even though she wasn't too much help. While I was moving the ladder around to the side of the house Amelia noticed the numbers near the front door. She read the numbers correctly and I was proud that she was starting to learn our address.

So I told Amelia, "You live at that address, so if you're lost and meet a policeman what will you say your address is?"

Amelia stared at me blankly.

"Amelia," I continued, "If a policeman asks where you live, what do you say?"

She thought for a moment and answered, "I live in Indiana."

Even though that information wouldn't do Amelia any good if she were lost, it was a really, really funny answer. Boy, if she met a cop while wondering around lost and told him or her, "I live in Indiana," they'd think she was very lost indeed.

Lisa

Thankful I can keep up

2007-11-23T22:15:00.001-08:00

Our Thanksgiving vacation has been a lot of fun. In fact, both girls have been having so much fun that they never want to go to sleep. I can't remember a time when Diana fought sleep as hard as she did her first night at my dad's house.

Although Amelia's hay fever has been acting up she's been a big bundle of energy. She's driving her mom crazy by constantly jumping and climbing over grandma and grandpa's furniture. Grandma asked Amelia who had told her it was okay to jump on the furniture and she answered, "Mommy." I don't remember saying this was okay, but I guess in photographing the action (it was really difficult to catch this picture of Amelia airborne) instead of scolding Amelia I sort of gave permission for her to bounce de facto.

I have to watch what I take photos of in the future, I suppose.

Lisa

Almost as fun to make as it is to eat

2007-11-19T16:30:00.001-08:00

Today Diana discovered that the best thing about yogurt is the squishy sound it makes. (I admit she does look a bit embarrassed about the mess in this picture, but I'm not convinced the sentiment is genuine.)

So as a tip for all parents out there - be warned that though your toddler may be secure and less than ten feet away and though you may only have taken your eyes off her for a minute or two, one little girl can make one giant mess.

Lisa

Early holiday fun

2007-11-17T21:45:00.001-08:00

Though the week started a little rough, all of us have been having a lot of fun these past few days. First of all, on Thursday, I finally found the playground that Amelia had been asking to visit for days. I had heard from both her and her dad that the park contained a big, red Clifford dog to play on. In my mind I pictured a giant, red slide shaped like Clifford, but the "big" red dog turned out to be only a rocking toy to sit on. I guess what matters is that Amelia finds it exciting.

Even more exciting to both girls than the plastic red dog is the fact that this park is right next to a fenced dog park. Amelia and Diana were extremely excited about watching the dogs run and play. It made me think about getting a family dog (I am still searching local pounds).

Today was "family portrait" day for all of us. We piled in the car around nine o'clock and rushed off to be photographed for this year's Christmas card. The photography session went much better than I had anticipated and both girls were very good.

After we ordered our photographs we all went out to lunch. We had some silly fun there as well.

This afternoon there was a Christmas season parade downtown. Amelia and Diana had a great time. Amelia got to pat a pony before the parade started. During the parade we saw a lot of horses, some goats, sheep, doggies, firetrucks, cheerleaders, a marching band, some local public officials...you name it! This was the girls' first parade and Amelia is already asking to see another one.

Mommy has already started on her Christmas shopping, too. I hate to rush around at the last minute, and I hate crowds. I am going to try to be finished with all of my Christmas cards and all of my shopping by December 10th. Wish me luck, everyone.

Lisa

Adventures in potty training

2007-11-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't want any of you to consider me a tattle-tale, but let me tell you about my most recent adventure in the on-going, potty training saga.

Monday night, as we were preparing for bed, Amelia insisted that she wanted to wear underwear to bed - not a diaper. I was very hesitant, since she had had little to no success with underwear in the past, but I concented. After all, if I don't trust her to wear panties then how is she ever going to progress away from diapers?

Still, after I put Amelia in a pair of "Happy Feet" drawers I explained to her (for the 12th time, at least) that she was not to pee in her underwear. The only places it is acceptible to pee are the potty and a diaper. Amelia said that she understood. We had this same discussion at least three times before Amelia went to bed that night. Each time she assured me that she would use the potty if the need arose during the night.

I was sure that Amelia would wake me Monday night. I was hoping she would wake me to ask for help in using the potty, but I might have accepted being awoken due to a wet bed. I was not awoken all night and was extreemly pleased to see that Amelia and her sheets were dry Tuesday morning.

At least, I was thrilled until my nose told me what had actually happened. Apparently, this girl just ignored her wet bed and went back to sleep. I would have never guessed that a girl would completely ignore being wet or dirty, but Amelia couldn't care less.

I did not scold Amelia, because I do want her to one day use the potty like a big kid. But, I did explain very clearly that you cannot pee in underwear. After my talk, I heard Diana wake next door. Amelia and I went down the hall to retrieve the baby together.

As she has often done, Amelia asked to play in Diana's crib after I brought Diana down to play with her books and toys. Amelia bounced in the crib and played with the toys there until I finally decided that we all needed to go downstairs to eat. When I picked Amelia up and put her feet on the floor I noticed a large puddle in Diana's bed. I just couldn't believe it - Amelia not only wet her own bed, but she also had the nerve to wet her sister's bed. Unbelieveable!

So I guess you know how I spent my afternoon. And you may understand why I'm hesitant to push Amelia to wear her underwear. She likes her undies and wants to wear them, but because she couldn't care less about the cleanliness of her bottom I can't expect her to see underwear as a reason to use the potty.

If you've heard enough about potty training, let me tell you a funny story about something Amelia said the other day. Yesterday afternoon as I was getting Diana ready for her nap Amelia said, "She doesn't want to take a nap." I told Amelia, "That may be true, but she still has to take one." Amelia looked at me and said quietly, "That's mean!"

I thought it was sweet that Amelia was sticking up for her sister. I explained to Amelia that mommy knows best and discussed the consequences if Diana did not take a nap. She seemed to understand.

Diana is also working on her speech a little more. Yes, her sister talks for her a lot of the time, but Diana is working on singing, "Twinkle, twinkle little star." It's about the cutest thing you've ever heard, and I will do my best to get it on film at some point. She is also an expert at saying, "One more," though the phrase sounds more like, "Un mun." This phrase is very useful when you want to hear one more story before sleep or to eat one more M&M.

Lisa (an exhausted mommy)

Getting better

2007-11-09T20:20:00.001-08:00

You all will be happy to know that Amelia is finally getting over whatever it was that she had. Though she seemed lazy today, she perked up in the late afternoon and acted like she was ready for a trip to the park. So, I brought Amelia and Diana to the "brown park" after a trip to the store. Both girls had a great time.

Amelia's favorite thing about the park is the other children. She integrates herself into groups of older kids and acts like a part of their family. Today she spent a lot of time chasing two older boys who had been playing together. When the sun started to set I told her we would be leaving soon. She answered, "But I want to chase the boys." I reminded her that she would have most of the rest of her life to chase boys.

Diana is learning to go down the slides by herself. She gets really excited when she reaches the bottom of a slide by only holding loosely to mommy's hand. In fact, when I tried to get Diana to sit on my lap and go down a slide with me she protested and fought to go down alone. She's getting to be such a big girl.

Mommy's almost figured out how to record and send photographs with her telephone (speaking of big girls). If you're wondering about this shot of Diana, she insisted on sitting all the way forward in her swing seat and looking down as she swung back and forth. I guess plain old swinging is boring now.

Lisa

Halloween and other scary stuff

2007-11-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

I realize that some of you are itching to see photos of the girls in their Halloween costumes.

First, let me tell you that this was almost "the Halloween that wasn't" since Amelia had a slight fever on October 30th. But on the 31st, she seemed to be feeling much better and was eager to get out and play.

We started the day by bringing Amelia to her gymnastics class in the IU cheerleading outfit uncle Mike bought her in Bloomington. This was perfect for class and Amelia looked great as a cheerleader, even though I don't think she knows what a cheerleader is.

We had a couple of choices for costumes for Diana as well. Here she is wearing one of her sister's tiaras and dressed as, well, princess Diana.

(Or princess "Minnie Pearl" based on the price tag on her head.)
Though both of the girls would look beautiful in anything, they finally settled on dressing as a witch and a cat. In fact, Amelia likes her witch costume so much that she asked tonight if she could wear it for Christmas. I explained to her that we don't normally wear costumes on Christmas - we'll see if she remembers that when the holidays roll around.

We only took the girls to about half a dozen homes on Halloween night. Neither of the girls ever managed to say, "Trick or Treat" with any degree of clarity or conviction, but they still got candy every where they went. As a bonus treat, almost every house seemed to have at least one big, friendly dog.

So I have to say that all of us had a good time. Grandma seemed to really enjoy knocking on doors and calling out, "Trick or Treat." The weather was cold, but I had a good time, too.

Neither of the girls completely understood what was going on, but they knew a good deal when they saw it.
Diana knew exactly what was in the little packages she was given at the door. She couldn't figure out how to open the treats, but she seemed very eager to get at them.

The following weekend, mommy had to go to work. Saturday was a little rough for me, but Sunday was awful and I came down with some kind of terrible cold.

The next thing you know, Amelia has the same cold, only hers is accompanied by a fever. This cold (or whatever virus it is that is floating around) zaps every bit of your strength for days if you catch it. As proof, check out this photograph of Amelia sleeping "on" the couch. I assure you that not only did the girl fall asleep in this position, but she was also snoring when I took this shot.

Daddy got the virus next. Diana had a fever today. I am finally getting better: Well enough to type away on the blog while everyone else in the house sleeps. Still, I don't want to relapse, so I'll be off to bed myself. Hopefully, I'll have the energy and mental clarity to write again soon.

Lisa

Cats and dogs and frogs

2007-10-30T14:16:00.001-07:00

I don't know if I feel this way as a mom or as a linguist, but Amelia's speech always seems to be a good topic of discussion for the blog. One of Amelia's cutest developments is her use of the pet name, "Honey." Amelia was calling her mom "Honey" all of the time for a few days and producing sentences like, "Could you come here, Honey?"

Of course, she also learns phrases that she over-uses to the very mild annoyance of her mother. One such phrase is, "I don't know." Whenever Amelia really wants to say, "No," she instead says, "I don't know." So if I ask her if she's ready for a bath or to eat some lunch, her reply will be an evasive, "I don't know."

After a couple of days Amelia's standard, "I don't know" response developed into "I don't know how to (fill-in-the-blank)." Sometimes this makes sense, but it just sounds silly and non-committal when Amelia says, "I don't know how to eat," or "I don't know how to sit down."

I assure you that although Amelia doesn't eat much or often, she knows how to eat.

Both Amelia and Diana are getting ready for Halloween, which is just around the corner. The girls may even get to go trick-or-treating for the first time this year. Although Amelia already has a couple of pricy outfits that fit her well, that didn't stop her from brousing costume accessories at Target. Her favorite Halloween item was a plastic double-headed ax. When I asked her if she planned on dressing like a princess for Halloween she said, "Yes." I explained to her that Cinderella might look a little funny with an ax, and she finally gave up on the idea of carrying one.

Amelia isn't sure if she wants to be a princess or a witch this year. Diana didn't own a costume of her own, so Amelia and I tried to decide what would be a good costume for her. Amelia thought that Diana should definately dress as Spiderman for Halloween. I didn't think this would be very feminine, but we checked a local store for a baby-sized Spiderman costume anyway. There were no Spiderman costumes in Diana's size...bummer.

Instead, Amelia and I decided that Diana could go out dressed as a cat. Here you can see her in her pink kitty outfit. I suspect she will need something warmer to wear at night, but we'll figure that out when the time comes. Notice also that Diana finally got the rocking frog she wanted for so long. While grandma and I were checking out the store that was the frog's home, we saw that the frog was on clearance. What better reason is there to buy a rocking toy frog?

Bet this is the first time you've seen a cat riding a frog.

Lisa

Amelia and the haunted quilt show

2007-10-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I made plans to go to a local quilt show at the county fairgrounds. Based on the show's description, I thought this might be something Amelia would enjoy. Mike didn't seem to have a lot of interest in looking at quilts - I'm not sure why not.

Anyway, I found my way to the fairgrounds without much trouble. The problems came when I tried to locate the quilt show on the fairground's grounds. The first thing I spotted was a flea market. I thought for a moment that this might be part of the quilt show, but it seemed a little tacky for that. I kept driving around the fairgrounds and located a back roadway that led to a parking area. The parking lot had a sign that read, "Show parking." I assumed they were referring to the quilt show and parked my car. Shortly after leaving the big red car I spotted a giant inflatable ship under attack by an octopus. I guessed that this had absolutely nothing to do with quilting, but walked a bit with Amelia in case the quilters were nearby.

It turned out that Amelia and I had stumbled upon a charity event that included a haunted house, a giant slide (within a giant ship) and a haunted train ride. I was fairly certain that Amelia was too young for the haunted house (even in the middle of the afternoon) and the ticket vendor (who had no idea where the quilt show might be) thought Amelia was too small for the giant slide. I started to lead Amelia back to the car, when she ran into an older boy who reminded both of us of a kid from our neighborhood. The boy was dressed in a black cape and wore a hockey mask on his head. He was also brandishing a fake dagger.

For a serial killer, the boy was very friendly. He told Amelia and I that the haunted house was "hecka scary" and suggested that Amelia visit a scary guy around the corner who would talk to her. She was a little hesitant, but off we went to see the scary guy.

Scary guy was pretty scary. He had a weird scarecrow-y looking pumpkin head and arms that waved about in an awkward mechanical sort of way. He spoke directly to Amelia and asked her what she was going to be for Halloween. Amelia responded by hiding behind her mother. Scary guy tried to be friendly and coax Amelia out from behind mommy's legs, but it was no use. Amelia had no interest in talking to the strange man/creature.

Taking Amelia's hand, I started again to lead her back to the car when she saw our friend the serial killer (and his mom and sister) board the haunted train. Of course, Amelia HAD to ride the train with mommy, so I spent $3 on a ticket. The train came back for us within a few short minutes and the conductor took our tickets. After ensuring that we were properly buckled in our seats, the conductor told us that should we see a giant spider or a dragon on our journey we would only have to scream to frighten the creature away.

This made me a little concerned, so I kept an arm around Amelia in case she got frightened. Sure enough, after passing by a few old horse stables we turned into a tunnel and there was a giant 8-foot spider. The spider's legs waved and shook while flashing red lights lit the spider's eyes. I screamed in order to protect us from the spider. It didn't get us - we were safe.

After the ride was over the conductor asked if we would like another trip through the tunnel. Amelia declined fairly strongly. When I strapped her in her car seat I took some time to explain that the spider was not real and that there are no real giant spiders. I think Amelia was more willing to believe her eyes than the word of her mother, but she reasoned that screaming was enough to keep giant spiders at bay.

Traveling around the fair once more I spotted a sign that read, "Quilt show ahead." Of course, the parking lot nearest the sign was right next to a dog show. I wondered if we would ever get to see quilts with the dogs jumping and playing in their Halloween costumes. I have to assume that Amelia did not see the dogs, because she seemed perfectly willing to follow me to the quilt show.

The quilt show was nice, and not at all scary. Some of the quilts were very clever, and I got a ballot to help select the best quilts in the show. Shortly after Amelia and I entered the first exhibition building I noticed a man carrying an exceptionally large and fancy camera. The man introduced himself as a photojournalist with a local freebie paper. He asked if it would be alright if he followed us around and snapped some pictures of Amelia with the quilts. Of course, I thought that would be perfectly fine.

It wasn't easy to get good photographs of Amelia in front of quilts. She flittered from one quilt to another like a butterfly. She seemed to like a lot of the quilts (which she called rugs) but was done looking at them in a matter of minutes. When the professional photographer had gotten some shots for the paper he asked me for some tag line information. He then asked Amelia what she liked about the quilts.

All Amelia would talk about was the giant spider. I suspect that none of her spider comments will make it into the local paper.

Lisa

What a surprise

2007-10-20T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today was interesting. Things didn't always go as planned, and we encountered many surprises. The greatest surprise was the discovery that Diana likes hot fudge A LOT. (Actually, that may not be very surprising to anyone...)

But before I can report on today's events, let me tell you about Diana's most recent check up. As usual, Diana is doing great. Her 15 month appointment went swimmingly. These are Diana's most recent statistics: Diana weighs 23 pounds 1.5 ounces. This puts her at the 60th percentile for weight. Diana is 32 inches tall, which makes her within the tallest 20% of girls her age (in other words, Diana is in the 80th percentile for height). Diana also has a big noggin, which comes in at the 85th percentile for her age.

And of course, Diana is right on target developmentally.

Because it's late, I will share my adventures with Amelia tomorrow (hopefully). Until then, enjoy this photo of our little one at dinner.

Lisa

Diana gets into mischief

2007-10-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

I stepped away for a moment to check my e-mail and heard crashing sounds. Of course, I hear crashing sounds every day, but these sounds were different. When I got up and moved ten feet into the family room I caught Diana and Amelia on top of the TV table. Diana has recently figured out that the bass speaker that accompanies the surround sound system makes a great step to reach the table.

Once I convinced Diana not to climb on the furniture, she was into the bathroom. I thought it was funny, seeing her standing in Amelia's almost never used potty, but I was less excited when she later walked out of the bathroom with the plunger.

One thing's for certain: the more mobile children become, the harder it is to keep them out of trouble.

Lisa

Finally, another new blog entry

2007-10-10T08:43:00.001-07:00

Here are some of the pictures we took last Saturday at the pumpkin patch. The girls both had a lot of fun, though this establishment was certainly much more expensive than similar places we've visited before.
Amelia enjoyed riding a pony and seeing the farm animals, but the thing she was most excited about was the "cow train." (A set of black and white barrels made to look like cows pulled behind an ATV. At $4 a head, this had to be an incredibly profitable little venture.) We were curious to see what Amelia would do in the hay bale maze, but Amelia found the maze remarkably easy since she would just climb over any bale of hay between her and her destination.

Diana's favorite thing to do at the pumpkin patch was pulling the wagon. Daddy and I were both impressed that she could get the wagon moving when it was holding such large and heavy pumpkins.
All-in-all it was a really fun day, and I'm glad that the girls get to visit a farm (of sorts) in the fall and pick pumpkins just about every year.

Lisa

Finally, a new blog entry

2007-10-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not having written earlier. As many of you know, I was out in the Mid West visiting "uncle Mike" who was hanging around between long deployments to Europe. I had a great time visiting Indiana again, even though I didn't do anything particularly unique or exciting. When you have two small children at home, it's almost impossible to do something as simple as going out to the movies. (I saw The Bourne Ultimatum in Indiana, which I thought was quite good.)

I didn't ruin my diet while I was away, but I didn't lose any additional weight either. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the "big ole brownie" at Texas Roadhouse, or the fried catfish I had with my Cracker Barrel breakfast. I guess there's no point in pointing fingers. The bottom line is that it's okay to cheat a little on your diet from time to time. And that's a good thing, because a lifestyle change that doesn't allow for the occasional (occasional) rich and chocolaty dessert is a change I do not want to make.

Now that I'm back in California I'm trying to come up with fun, outdoor activities to do with the girls. My plan for today was to bring Amelia to a local pumpkin patch for some fun. She was extremely excited about going, but when we got there we found that the hours posted on the farm's website were wrong. The pumpkin patch had just closed before we arrived.

We couldn't have been the only people who were confused. A number of other cars with children pulled into the same locked driveway as we prepared to leave.

Amelia did not take this turn of events very well, so I decided that we would go to a local park with a small vineyard instead. Amelia had a lot of fun running back and forth along the length of the park. Diana just had a great time walking. She started off in one direction and would not stop until she was physically re-directed by mommy.

On the way home, Amelia noticed how dark it had become. She followed this observation with another one of her classic and terribly funny lines: "I'm not bad, I just feel tired." Sometimes it's very difficult not to burst out laughing around that girl. Leaving gymnastics class Amelia reflected, "You have to listen to me," when I asked her for the third or fourth time to put on her shoes and get ready to go. At dinner, while she was refusing to eat her Parmesan, multi-colored noodles, she asked to get down from the table. I told her that I expected her to eat a small amount of dinner before she got down to which she replied factually, "I want to get down - you have to listen to me!"

I probably should have explained to her that little girls don't get to say such things to their mommies, but she was so cute I gave her a hug instead.

Lisa