Imaginative Play

Samuel has begun to do a great deal of imaginative play in the last few weeks in a way that we have not seen in the past.
He particularly enjoys his trains and legos, taking them out at least twice a day and creating long tracks with multiple bridges that he calls "cities" with the former, and houses with the latter.
He creates drama with the trains and duplo characters. Trains, people, animals, motorcycles and tractors all speak and have their own roles to play.

A Whole Different Side To Happy Hollow

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Happy Hollow and had a great time with the animals. Steve, our resident zoo and animal lover wanted to get a chance to see what he had heard so much about so we went again yesterday, and found a whole new side to the park.
Apparently the zoo is just one small part, and there is a huge kiddie amusement park side to Happy Hollow. We also discovered that Samuel is an amusement ride fiend at only 3 years old. Doesn't get it from his Mommy, who shed tears and endured major anxiety before riding her first upside down roller coaster, and stuck her head under her Dad's shirt when riding the Log Ride.

Lucky I didn't fall in.

Steve and his girl

(Did I mention that I spent the three hours before going to Happy Hollow at San Jose State taking my comprehensive exam for my credential and MA? Only 100 hours and a thesis to go. Woot!)

This is Peter

Meet Peter. He is our contractor.

This is the Building and Planning Office (Samuel took this picture)

What might we be doing at the city Building and Planning Office, you might ask? Why, submitting our remodel plans in order to get Building Permits, I reply.

Time to retire the high chair

I tried Shira out in the Stokke last week, and she was very pleased to sit at the table. And very stable. Samuel saw what was happening and wanted in on the action.So we pulled the second Stokke over and adjusted it just for itty bitty Shira.

What's coming on Friday?

Our CSA sent out the list for what we will get in the box:

- Strawberries or mystery
- Salad Mix
- Broccoli
- Butternut Squash
- Snow Peas or Sugar Snap Peas or Artichokes
- French Tarragon
- Fennel

• Steve will be lucky if there are any strawberries left when he gets home from work.
• Salad mix will be gone by Saturday, most likely.
  
• Broccoli - I frequently make a pureed soup, but maybe I'll try something different and do it Asian stirfry style with sesame seeds, ooh and soba noodles, maybe tofu?
  
• Butternut squash will probably end up in pumpkin spice muffins to be shared with friends.
  
• Peas will be eaten raw as snacks or thrown into a salad.
  
• Fennel will also go into salad raw, or straight into Steve's mouth.
  
• Tarragon....hmmm, I'll have to think about that one. I know when I was cooking out of my "Once Upon a Tart" cookbook a lot, it favored tarragon. Maybe I'll have to check that out again.
  

Any suggestions?

Mommy? Are kiwis made from cow milk?

Me: Kiwis are fruit and grow from the ground (ok, I know this isn't very accurate, but it's what I said in the moment)

Samuel: Oh. Like the oranges we like to eat?

Me: Yes.

Our Newest Bicycle

Our early bday present to Samuel (or is it really a present for me?)

And that's a hula hoop around my neck. We're on our way to Lillian's birthday party (that's her gift).

Well, anyway, now we can ride together again. I just have to toss the Ibert and Shira on the front and away we go.PS Samuel loves it. He kept shouting faster! faster! and giggling the entire time we were on it. And asked to ride it every single day after we got it. His balance on it is pretty amazing considering his feet barely reach the pedals and a good portion of the time, the only thing keeping him on is his balance and grip on the handle bars. That's my boy!

Minnesota Grandma and Grandpa come to town

and read stories

do art projectsbuild stuffand play with babies

Hotel, Dinner with Wine, and Brunch in the Morning

Ahh, it's good when Grandma and Grandpa come to town...The most gorgeous man on the planetDinner at Canteen

The time we got out of bed in the morning

Happy Hollow Zoo

Just reopened and has been the talk of the town, so when a friend announced on Facebook that they would be there, and we didn't have our usual Wednesday plans, we headed on over. It was all it was cracked up to be and we walked away with a membership. With any luck, the crowds will clear out soon enough, and it might be added to a regular weekly or biweekly rotation this summer.This was the view that I saw for most of our time at the zoo. Samuel would stop at each animal exhibit for a solid 45 seconds, make sure that he located the animal, ask what it was called, and then would practically sprint to the next exhibit, saying, "I want to see more animals." That was the mantra of the day. "I want to see more animals."
The Samuel that I observed at the zoo was a confident and determined 3 year old that I hadn't seen before. He was so decisive about where he wanted to go and what he wanted to see. As you can see in this picture, I clearly wasn't moving fast enough for his pleasure. (That's the back of Sophia - Samuel also told her what to do and where to go.)

Samuel feeds a cooperative dwarf Zebu (not a cow)

By far Samuel's favorite part was feeding the animals. Unfortunately for Samuel (and all the other kids) the petting zoo animals were clearly some of the most well fed beings on the planet. I've never seen a goat turn down food, but these goats were actively trying to avoid the children that wanted to feed them.

Yummy Artichokes

March 2008...

April 2010...I would have included a plated pic, but they were eaten too quickly :)

Remember that grass?

...that Samuel brought home from preschool and I figured was promptly killed by overwatering...

but that I feared I would be weeding out of our bay tree planter?

Shira Crawls!

Shira is trying SOOO hard to crawl.

We hadn't really thought about her movement or lack thereof, until we had her 9 month appointment and I realized we should check out the Dr. Sears book to see what the developmental milestones are for this age range. Ahh, the poor forgotten second child.

Anyway, we realized that we should maybe encourage Shira to crawl, since this is around the right time, and neither she nor we had made any effort. Within two weeks she went from not even trying to move out of a seated position to constantly being on her hands and knees. She just didn't want to make the effort without us paying attention ;)

So now she slithers all over the floor, spins herself around, gets on all fours and back to the seated position, goes backwards, but the actually crawling forward seems to be just a couple of days off.

Update:
I wrote this post a few days ago and hadn't had the opportunity to post it yet. As of yesterday, Shira is crawling! She doesn't go very far yet, just a couple steps, then she gets on her tummy to rest, but so far she is moving even further today, than yesterday. I imagine she will be zooming around the entire house in just a couple of weeks.