our new friday night ritual

So nice to have a little slice of nature right in our backyard. Going for a sunset canoe ride has become our Friday evening ritual, and I love it. Dad & Em are the fisherpeople, and I try my best to steer. This particular evening, the water was like glass - a mirror image of the marbled blue sky. It's so quiet and still and all you have to think about is which side to paddle on. We can talk (or not) and just be together and make memories.

These two crack me up - cut from the same cloth, I tell ya.


Aaaahhh, now that's a nice way to end a busy week.

daffodils and a cane pole

I felt a little bit like a country song yesterday. Daddy's gone fishin', baby's pickin' flowers. You get the idea. It was just too nice out, and since we've been feeling cooped up this winter, we decided to break in Emma's fishing pole. A Barbie fishing pole. That she LOVES. She is so enthusiastic about everything, it's just so darn cute. She was thrilled to go fishing with her dad, so I offered to take pictures.

It must have been our lucky day, because Roger caught not one, but two fish. (cue the Dr. Seuss rhyme). Emma had a great start - casting and reeling, and even calling for the fish to come. But as all three-and-a-half-year-olds do, she lost interest, and found greater pleasure in the daffodils. The best part for me was breathing the warm fresh air, hearing the woodpeckers and seeing my family together, enjoying the outdoors.

focus

This was one of those events that you picture going a little.....differently. I don't know why I expected everything to click the first time. Emma was SO excited to ride her bike. I found the bike last year at a consignment sale, but her legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals, and she just wasn't that into it. She got her basket and her streamers for Christmas and this year, has been patiently waiting to bedazzle her bike with them and go for a spin.

Yesterday was gorgeous outside and she was so pumped. I could hardly stand it. She had seen other kids riding their bikes, and she wanted to learn so badly. She kept telling me, "Mom, I'm not going to give up!" Ugh - melt my heart!! Within five minutes though, it was clear that this was hard work - for both of us. I am usually so good about explaining how to be safe, what to do with this hand, and how to move that leg. I was totally unprepared and more importantly, totally unrealistic with my own expectations. I was trying so hard to balance encouragement and praise with letting her learn by herself. I didn't want to do it for her, but it was so hard to see her struggle to turn the wheels. It's one of those experiences that we adults take for granted. Keep your eyes up, steer with your hands, pedal with your feet, push back to stop, stay to the right. That's a HECK of a lot for a little brain to process. I think it was an epic fail on my part as a mom, because I did get frustrated (mostly with myself) and by the end of the lesson, she was yelling at her feet to focus. :( I let dad take over, and he did much better, being the natural cyclist that he is, with a seemingly endless supply of patience. XO. :)

With the weather being so nice, the lake path was crowded, so our efforts were compounded by the fact that we had to stop every 2 minutes to let the fasters go by. In the end, it was a good experience for all of us. I think the highlight for her was having a basket on her bike. That was more thrilling than anything else! She enjoyed the snack breaks we had every 30 seconds, "Hold on mom, I need a drink. Hold on mom, I need a snack. This is a lot of work". Yes it is my dear, but we're not going to give up! :)

oh happy day

(Emma channeling her best Kanye West impression...)

Well, we got our wish! Our first pre-christmas snow day! (I don't count the one on Dec 5th because it wasn't all that exciting...)

What a week. Our hardwood floor installation started on Wednesday, and naturally, they are still not finished. The snowstorm of 2009 didn't help much, and we are going on six days of makeshift meals and carryout due to all our furniture being squished into the kitchen (not to mention all the dust/debris leftover from construction, etc.) Good news is, it's going to look AWESOME!! Pictures will come later.

We managed to get out of the house yesterday evening for a little snow-trapsing with the Emster. She loves the snow!! She doesn't love cold hands though, I have to work on that part... (I just ordered her a pair of real snow gloves and snow boots, to prepare for our upcoming trip to UTAH! More on that later too!).

So here are our snow pics. Boy, do I need to work on photographing in snow. All that reflective white surface really throws off my metering! It's certainly not my best work, but oh well.

We had fun walking across the street to get a Rotisserie Chicken for dinner, and of course, a gingerbread cookie for Emma. She noshed on that cookie the entire walk home...


Roger doing a little joy-riding with our neighbor...

Sunset in Swan Point
Still got that cookie...
And finally, it might be a 'smart' car - but it ain't gonna dig itself out of the snow!


Speaking of digging, kudos to Roger. He is our hero. He spent six hours on Saturday night driving people (patients) home from the local hospital who had been snowed in. He spent the better part of the weekend shoveling our three cars out of the mounds of snow, before helping most of our neighbors shovel theirs out too. It was a very collaborative effort, in order to avoid previous squabbles over parking spots. In years past, people would valiantly shovel their cars out of their parking spots and leave for work, food shopping, etc. only to come back and find their neighbor (who HADN'T spent the day shoveling, but instead quickly dusted just their windshields enough to see four feet in front) come back and park in the 'clean' parking spots. RUDE! There should be a law against this! Oh, and there should be a law that you must remove the snow from the *entire* car before you're allowed to drive. That big mound of snow on your roof? Remove it! Before it hits MY windshield after a gust of wind blows it off your car on the highway!

But I digress....

Somebody loves the swings

Especially when her Dada takes her! :)

Thank you, Thomas

After a rough week, we had to get out of the house. Much of the time we spent recovering this week was spent watching Emma's new best friend: Thomas the Tank Engine. I'd been hoping to avoid tv/videos until at least the age of 2, but I quickly had to break my own rule, and did so willingly :)

Emma loves trains now. One of the Thomas episodes features a carousel, and she loves that scene every time it comes on. So we killed two birds with one stone on Saturday, and headed down to Balboa Park to take advantage of the fabulous carousel and mini-railroad that apparently has been down there for decades. Who knew?!





So sad. The look on her face describes how we were all feeling, but she did truly enjoy the experience.

blowing off some steam

It's been a rough week here. After Emma got the Rotavirus, Daddy got it, and then Mommy got it. Oy! The only one who had a spring in his step was Parker, although he sighed a lot, no doubt frustrated that he was being neglected.

I had planned on posting these earlier in the week, but they seem fitting now. I think we're all on the mend now, but it's been a looooong week. So here's our goofy household letting off some steam.

Pardon my obnoxious narration - but Roger caught me off guard with emma's 'outfit', so I was a little hyper :)


Sumo Emma from Eeks on Vimeo.


Sumo 2 from Eeks on Vimeo.


Sumurai Warrior from Eeks on Vimeo.

And earlier that day, I caught Emma smacking her lips and pointing to the candy tub:


chocolate!! from Eeks on Vimeo.

Closing a chapter, opening another

We're so sad to have to say goodbye to our amazing nanny Mandy, aka "Mimi". She's moving back east to become a teacher and Friday was her last day with us. We're truly going to miss her. She has been like family to us, and Emma would jump out of my arms every morning that Mimi arrived to go and give her a hug. It was a teary farewell. I always knew that Emma was in outstanding, capable hands and as a parent, you can't replace that feeling.

The new chapter is now opening and Emma started school on Monday. She did great with the other kids, playing, interacting and being her usual busy self. However, it was a lot of new surroundings, and she didn't sleep very well the first two days. Then on the third day she got the Rotavirus bug and threw up for the first time. It was a rough night, followed by a second night of diarrhea but she's feeling much better and surviving with a steady stream of Pedialyte popsicles. No shortage of popsicles in this house -thank goodness for those things! :)

So here's a little run down of our first day. Getting ready to drive to school with dada:


Making sure her baby can come with her!

And after I picked her up:


It's been a big week!