Family Vacation

We dusted off the old tent and took Matilda for her first camping trip last week. It was a fabulous time all around. Our two biggest fears were the drive and the siren song of the campfire, both of which we all survived. M did surprisingly well with the long drives, and had only two major tantrums because we wouldn't allow her to climb in the fire pit. Tim & Matilda were both fighting off a cold so it was mostly a low-key napping in the tent type trip with a few little hikes.

We had most of our traditional camp food, including the foil dinners you see here. Sadly, the s'mores ingredients came home unopened so Matilda will have to wait until our next camp adventure to try that delicacy.

Hiking in Andrew Molera State Park. Matilda was content to walk back and forth across these bridges for 20 minutes at a stretch. She also spent long patches of time inventorying all the pine cones, leaves, squirrels, dirt, etc in our campsite. I can't imagine her ever getting bored out there.






Self-family portrait at a Highway 1 overlook.









I am always amazed by the beauty of Big Sur and once again it did not disappoint.

Handprints

Who needs an easel when you have the patio wall?

Picture Junkies

For those of you currently experiencing the pains of Matilda withdrawal, Adam is much faster than we are and has some great shots from our weekend together. Thanks buddy. I'm sure he posted them so fast just because he got home hours before us as Alwyn probably did not demand to stop at every playground between here and SLO.

Baby's 1st Camping Trip

This was one of the highlights for Matilda. We called him a terrorist squirrel. He would stand under the picnic table by our ankles during meals, fearless. He would walk right up to Matilda if she was holding a snack. He stole this graham cracker out of the garbage.

Another post to come soon about the trip. First I need some sleep in my bed and to work on the pile of camping debris that has buried the living room.

Technically Challenged

Crap. I just managed to erase all the saved messages we had on our answering machine. There were only 5 or so, but they were a choice few. My favorite being the one Sarah left on the day Matilda was born, calling to check whether "it came out yet?"

Big Hair

Cloth Diaper

We discovered another use for the ever versatile cloth diaper this weekend at the Long Beach Aquarium. I wonder if they bought these from our diaper service, or snatched them off some unsuspecting toddler? Matilda & I will have to be more careful when we return with our newly purchased membership.

Phrase

Matilda's language development has exploded recently. She learns new words daily, will often parrot words back that she hears (no swearing yet), and has an ever expanding vocabulary of sounds (animals, cars, toys, etc.). These new found communication skills can sometimes make M more frustrated when she is trying to get her point across. Often we find that she is very clearly saying something, repeating the sound over and over, gesturing in some vague direction, and leaving Tim or I bumbling through for a possibe meaning. I'm guessing this is probably the age where teaching baby sign language would have been most beneficial, if only we weren't such slackers.

This Wednesday Matilda took one more step in developing her grammar skills and relieving us of sign language guilt: she paired two words to make a phrase. "Nurse please." That's our little boob junkie. We have been working on please and thank you with her lately. She also has a tendency to butter me up a bit before asking to nurse, coming over to give a 'spontaneous' hug or kiss, before making her request. Smart little cookie finally put it together that saying please was a sure fire way to get her nurse on.

Pensive Cutie Pie

Recall

After so much news of recalled products recently, we finally have one of the contaminated items. Here Matilda models her lead bib. Thankfully just two of the three bibs we have in regular rotation are made by this company. So only 60% of all meals eaten in the past 5 months were consumed with a sprinkling of lead.

Kitchen Assistant

"I think the gazpacho needs a bit more lemon juice."

Hit Me

I have had this photo on my cell phone for over a month now and keep forgetting to post it. This is Matilda's snack-ready-position. She has a similar version in the jogging stroller with her little hand hanging out anticipating another deposit of snack.

Vocabulary Building

Matilda is saying so many new words everyday now that we have completely lost track of them. Some she uses regularly, others she'll just repeat once and then is most likely filing them away for later. The past three nights she has halted our bedtime routine in order to name all my body parts. It is like she's drilling them in for a pop quiz. For the record, here are all the parts she can currently name:

Hair
Eyebrow
Eye
Nose
Mouth
Teeth
Chin
Cheek
Boob
Mole
Belly Button
Elbow
Finger
Pinky
Thumb
Knee
Toes

For a some items the words are very clear, but for many it is just a sound that we recognize as her word.

Misinformation

On a recent visit to the petting zoo I overheard a preschool group talking about the sheep we were all gathered around. One little boy asked what they were eating as he observed them chewing their cud. The chaperon (Volunteer? Parent? I don't know. Let's hope not teacher.) said, "Oh, they aren't eating anything." Pause. "They are just grinding their teeth." Pause "See, you can't see any food in their mouths. That is why their teeth are so flat and wide, because they grind them all the time."

We all know that little lambs have razor sharp teeth just waiting to be worn down with grinding. Stressful life for those poor tooth-grinding sheep. What they all really need is to just be fitted for a nightguard.

The sheep sure weren't the ones grinding their teeth by the end. Why couldn't she just say, "I don't know"? The pauses in her explanation made me suspect she was making it up, although nobody can really be sure.

Soccer Shins

OK, this is a really crappy, even out of focus photo. But get a load of those shins. Girlfriend has been playing hard. Looks like she's ready to find a toddler soccer league.

Clean

I just hope it still looks this nice once it dries.

Blink

Where did the weekend go? I need it to be Friday night again.

Farm Girls

We headed back out to Underwood Farms today for a visit with our chicken friends and some U-pick. The main objective today was raspberries and boy did we ever succeed! Enough raspberries for a pie AND for casual snacking. As I checked out, the cashier commented that she was impressed we managed to pick so much, referring to my toddler "helper" who was then occupied dismantling the stack of shopping baskets. M was actually very good for the whole event staying quite entertained. It also helped that the raspberry bushes were covered with perfectly ripe fruit to fill our wagon. Compared with our previous visit on a weekend, the u-pick was not at all busy and we barely had to search to fill the baskets. On our way out I picked some tomatoes and Matilda ate them almost as fast as I could put them in the cart. She then had a visit with the rooster who was desperate for some company on a quiet Friday afternoon. We promised him that tomorrow lots of visitors would be back to stuff him with 25 cent grain handfuls.

Yogurt

Matilda demonstrates fine spoon skills. Today was more of a fire hose kind of lunch clean-up, rather than your typical washcloth lunch.