Thursday, May 27, 2010

Embarrassingly late birthday post

Better late than never?

A balance bike for her birthday IMG_2105

It’s still a little big for her, but she likes to ride it with us holding her. She does get a little confused and ask "pedals?” and try and put her feet where the pedals should be. This bike doesn’t have pedals, but instead she pushes it along with her feet and learns to balance on two wheels. When she has mastered that, we’ll add in pedals and maybe skip the whole training wheel thing. Although it does seem like such a rite of passage, maybe we’ll get some anyway.

A book and bubbles

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Skis

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Golf clubs (she always loves to watch the golfers when we run by the golf course)

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She uses the clubs a little like pool cues, but she makes contact with the club heads to the ball. Then she hides everything under the couch.

Birthday call with Grandma and Grandpa Bob IMG_2122

and Bob the Builder! Very appropriate.

Birthday cupcakes

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Two candles already. Unbelievable.

Less messy this year.

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The Sunday after her birthday, Dad let her try out her new skis.

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The best part of skiing?

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Eating snow.

Happy 2nd Birthday monkey!

Friday, May 07, 2010

Twas the week before her birthday

Her last week of being one has been a pretty good by most accounts. She’s exhibiting compassion when she wants to make sure the dog is covered with blankets to go to sleep. IMG_2068

This was followed by commanding the dog to lay down. Thank goodness Seasha is a good sport! The cat-she would rather have a blanket over her then Little S’ newest trick. Little S has taken to picking Poster the cat up and carrying her around until she gets caught doing it and we make her stop.

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Not photographed; the time she tried to pick Poster up by the tail. For being a 15 year old cat, she’s being very tolerant. If this is the end of being one, two ought to be interesting.

During her pre-birthday week, we got to spend an afternoon with few friends of mine and their kids. The bittersweet part is that one of the friends is moving back to Tasmania, and little S adored her daughter. Since the house was being packed, there wasn’t much worry about breaking stuff. The kids quickly discovered if they pulled the cushions off the couch, it made for an impressive bounce, jump & play room. IMG_2072

As we enjoyed some adult beverages and grown-up conversation, we suddenly noticed it was quiet. And how were they entertaining themselves? In the bathroom. brushing their teeth. Of course! IMG_2076

and the shower of wonders

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(yes, the bathroom is gorgeous. They took the entire house from condemned to amazing in a few years.)

As if the bathroom weren’t enough fun, they also had a trampoline!

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We will miss them very much! It’s good to know I have friends to visit if I ever get to Tasmania though.

Even though the weather has been very un-May like, the outdoor activities are springing up like flowers. We had occasion to travel to the far away and very glamorous hamlet of Cornelius to our friend Tom’s house. She climbed the trees like a big kid (with some help from our friend Jacki)

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And we took a walk down the alley behind his house. Cornelius is a more diverse town than our neighborhood and before long, she encountered a couple of brothers. The youngest was three and his older (6?) brother was chasing him around yelling “besito” and trying to get his brother to kiss Little S. Mostly, the little brother was afraid of Little S. Little S just watched the scene, casually drinking out of her sippy cup and being amused at the way the boys were running around.  I convinced her boys are silly and we wandered back to the party, just in time for delicious buffalo steaks off the grill. Yum!

To cap off three days of non-stop fun, on Sunday, Big S set out for Mt. Hood with Little S and her ski’s in tow. She sure looked good out there! IMG_2091

Although her favorite part of skiing was eating snow IMG_2096

Or other snacks

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(She looks SO big!)

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Her favorite part of skiing was going in the tunnel that’s over they conveyor belt termed “magic carpet” that the kids use to get to the top of the small incline. At least she was standing up on her ski’s doing it. I’m sure next winter will include a lot more snow time.

A great way to end her last weekend of being one and preparing for two!