4 Years

This is one of my favorite photos from our wedding portraits. I am saying "Aren't we supposed to be walking now?" Ever the micro-manager, even during the portraits. Thank you Tim, for always putting up with my gentle (or not so) direction. Happy 4th. Each year just gets better.

Roxanne

Tim and I snuck out tonight with 55,000 other people to see The Police in concert, who did not disappoint. Almost better than the fantastic show, was that Matilda did great for all 5.5 hours that we were gone!

Roxanne's red lights. Me and my handsome date. We had such a nice time together, just like the old, pre-baby days. Good timing for our wedding anniversary this week.

Watermelon Massacre

Matilda is a big fan of watermelon lately, so we had a little fest at snack yesterday. She was full of vim and the camera was sitting nearby so I captured some craziness to share.

Notice the toes pressed up against the tray - she spends all meals strengthening her toes with little flexes pushing off. She especially enjoys "juicing" it by squeezing pieces in her fist resulting in her armpits needing more attention at bathtime lately.Not sure what she's grabbing for here but look at all the teeth - four on top and four on bottom now.

Concentration

Studying her newest animal book this morning while I got
the diaper bag loaded with snacks for an outing.

Hippie

Bakers Assistant

Busy Morning at the Office

"Hello strangers." " Hello Mama." Headless " Snack?" In a sandstorm.

Everything in Moderation

Just to be clear, Matilda feels the same about salad as she does about Daddy's chocolate cookies.



As the video ends Matilda is mushing up a piece of avocado, which she did go on to eat. She has come full circle with avocado now and is back to loving it.

She's a Lover

As if she didn't already do a thousand things everyday to endear herself, Matilda is very lovey lately. It is so sweet and makes everyone go aaawwwwww. She has been handing out kisses left and right. She makes her toys kiss her, each other, and you. She asks to play the 'ride the pony' game that we've made up just so she can skip to the 'all tired out' cuddly part. She comes up spontaneously for hugs. She even gave kisses to the cast iron face on this park table.

Along the same lines she is very into sharing food lately. Yesterday during one snacking episode alone she offered food to: me, the cartoon on my shirt, my knee, my sock, a photo of Daddy and me, Tiptoes the stuffed pig, a block, and Hughie bear (pictures below). What if she's empty handed when the urge strikes her to share you ask? Never fear, this innovative girl will extract a pre-chewed bit back out for you. Please feel free to decline, she doesn't seem to be offended. Today she started a new routine during lunch. She would chew on her toes a bit and then offer them to me for a taste, then the nearby birds, then back in her mouth, and so forth.

Enough Pictures Mama

Vocabulary

Last weekend at the Santa Barbara Zoo we realized how close 'seagull' and 'eagle' sound. We tried to differentiate for Matilda but she made the same sound for both. Today we found something to complicate matters even more:

Spooked

Running from something moving in the bushes at the LA Zoo.

1st Pigtail

Complements of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to California. Matilda's preferred reading of late. It's been in for 5+ minutes now. My money is on 7 minutes total, any takers?

Too Young For Coffee?

Yesterday the Boston Globe had an interesting article on the growing trend of kids drinking coffee. Other than water, Matilda will usually rejects just anything you offer her to drink. However, she does often show interest in our beverages. Knowing she usually won't even take a sip, I let her go for my iced latte the other day. In keeping with her strange taste preferences (this is the kid who ate two entire raw green onions at dinner last night) she went bezerk for it and wanted more. Looks like my days of peacefully sipping coffee are over and I will have to commence stealing sips in the corner while distracting her with flashy toys.

Peacock Hunting

We went back to the zoo Friday, taking Gigi and the Herrmans with us this time. Matilda was delighted to find the normally bustling playground almost empty. Only one other "early bird" beat us there.

It's a Symbol of Friendship Where I Come From

As documented in many a photo, Matilda is quite smell obsessed. She gets it from her father. A common game around here is for Matilda to pick up an object, give it a good sniff (complete with wrinkled face and nose), and then hold it out to each person or stuffed toy present to sniff. She explains what you are expected to do by making a big sniffy face while offering the designated item. This is sometimes followed by a sniffing rampage where anything not tied down is subject to this olfactory inspection.

Yesterday, while walking along the pier in Santa Barbara Matilda was carrying a piece of driftwood when we ran into a family with a little girl around 3 years old. Matilda marched right up to her and after a quick button appraisal deemed her worthy of sharing in the sniffy game: Matilda shoved the stick sideways right up under the stranger's nose. The poor little girl just froze, looking to her Mom for guidance. Sensing some confusion, Matilda put the stick under her own nose and gave it a sniff, as if to say, "It's for smelling, like this." And then she offered again. We decided at this point to intervene and release the very polite family, continuing our own walk. Our explanation to Matilda that not everyone wants to smell her driftwood sent the litlle girl's family into peels of laughter. The whole interaction cracked us up and we spent part of the drive home replaying possible thoughts going through the little girl's head.

Tales of the New Playground OR How to Break My Heart

Since our playground has been closed, due to the fire, we have started frequenting another local playground. While slightly less awesome than Shane's Inspiration, there is a dog park next door so Matilda doesn't seem too miffed by the change. Matilda is currently obsessed with riding things (our knees, backs, the guitar case, her donkey, etc.) and spent most of the time today going back and forth between these pelican and whale bouncers.


The new playground has a slightly different vibe and a much higher nanny-to-parent ratio. Wednesday, I had two encounters related: one amusing and one not so. My funny exchange was after Matilda had gone barging into the middle of a group to steal a ball. The nannies discovered I spoke Spanish after I answered a question they had asked each other in Spanish about Matilda. They then proceeded to ask many questions about my Spanish speaking skills and finally after beating around the bush for a while one woman just blurted out, "Please speak Spanish, I want to hear you!" It was fun to be a trick monkey and practice my language skills again.


The heart breaking part came when I was chatting with another little girl who had gravitated to play with Matilda and me. The girl had very large buttons that M was very excited about and kept getting all in her face to yell BUH and push on a button. She rode the bouncers for a few minutes with us and then gave me a play by play as Matilda wandered around. "She going. She coming. She going. She coming." Then the girl told me she goes to the playground with her mommy. She was clearly there with her nanny and so I said something about how that was nice. She then went on to very sadly say, "I want Mommy and Daddy.'" She wasn't crying about it but I almost was. Especially after she repeated it a few times. I am sure her nanny is nice enough and not neglectful or anything. Even I have moments many days that I feel that way, but this just really touched me.