Toddler Time

Shira walks! Last week Shira took her first step while Samuel and I watched. A couple of days later she took a couple of steps in a row for Steve. Today she repeatedly got up and walked several steps, each time walking farther than the time before. It is pretty clear that our crawling days are numbered. I must say I am pleased, I feel so bad about letting her rough up her knees on the ground all the time. That and she gets completely filthy. It's probably wishful thinking that she will be cleaner now that she isn't crawling. Perhaps she will not lie down flat (face first) in the dirt and make dirt angels, quite as often though.

4 Teeth in 4 Weeks

True to Silberman-Kafka form, Shira did not get a single tooth until 14 months, at which point she has done her best to catch up as quickly as possible. We haven't slept much for the past 4 weeks, but, fingers crossed, I think we are through the worst of it. Shira now has her top two and bottom two front teeth. Once again, it looks like my genes have won out.

Family Pictures

Samuel Rides a Two Wheeler

Several weeks ago I lamented to Steve that although Samuel is a pro at riding his balance bike, he wasn't much for pedaling. In fact, he almost never road the two tricycles that we have. Steve begged to differ, and recounted how just the day before Samuel had gotten on another child's tricycle at the park and was riding around like a speed demon.

As soon as Samuel had become competent on his balance bike, I had promised that as soon as he was comfortable pedaling I would by him a two wheeler.

The very next day, as Samuel, Shira and I were walking down the street, we saw a two wheeler for sale in someone's driveway that was not only the perfect height for Samuel, but was also BLUE, and only 17 bucks. It was fate. Samuel's size, favorite color, AND the right price for this Mom's bargain hunting heart. I didn't even try to haggle (shock! gasp!), that's how perfect it seemed. I bought it on the spot.

We headed straight to the park where Samuel got a few pedals in on his first try. We didn't have much time to practice, as it was our first day of preschool, and we didn't want to be late, but when school was out, we headed out to try the two wheeler some more. It was hard work and Samuel was tired.

A couple of days later, he wanted to try again, and lo and behold, by the time Steve got home at the end of the day, Samuel was a two wheel riding maniac. We now head over to the park or the elementary school black top twice a day to get Samuel's riding fix in. He's amazing.

Preschool without Mommy

Today was Samuel's first day of preschool sans parent. I had been prepping him for this, and although on Tuesday he was clingy during my day as a work parent, today he had no problem without me.

Not only was the day a success for Samuel, it was also a success for Shira, Penelope and I. Truth be told, I was probably just as nervous about today as Samuel was. Katherine has been taking care of Shira during my workdays, and today was my turn to fulfill my end of the swap by taking Penelope on Katherine's work day. So Katherine dropped Penelope off at our house at 11:30, I attached the trailer to Samuel's trailer bike, and I hauled Shira in the Ibert, Samuel on the trailer bike and Penelope in the trailer the 2 miles to preschool. My menagerie was at least 10 feet long, and weighed as much as I do.

The drop off was a little hectic with two babies in tow. I handed Samuel off to Teacher Claire with a big smack on the cheek and told him to have a good time.

Samuel looked a little nervous, but it was reported to me that after a couple of minutes he went about his business and had a great time. I hear that he rode the trikes, planted seeds (carrots and peas), ate grapes ("not off the vine, Mommy, they were just on a plant"), had bananas ("again" big sigh and shoulder shrug) for snack, painted a flower, wanted to paint a butterfly, and was perfectly behaved during circle time.

As for my day, it went better than I could have imagined. We got home and I tossed Shira and Penelope in the stroller, where Shira fell asleep after a 10 minute walk. I went home, and held Penelope while catching up on email, and she miraculously fell asleep sitting on my lap. Definitely not a child of mine.

End of the day Storytime.Samuel and Shira share a snack and a drive in the car before heading home.

Heard 30 minutes ago:

Mommy, Shira is so beautiful she looks like a Mommy.

Could I be any luckier?

Uncle Peter Drops In

New Favorite Game

Shira has shown little interest in walking, to date, but her new favorite game is to hold her arms up in the air and beg or scream for Samuel to hold her hands as they dance around the room.

Insulation, Stucco and Electrical Panels

As I write this, the house already looks different as they have put most of the drywall up. But here is a look at the house with the insulation in:And the outside in the process of being stuccoedAnd Steve's favorite, a comparison of our new electrical panel:And old electrical panel:Samuel's favorite: climbing into the crawl space under the house, and pondering whether there are raccoons down there (my irrational fear)Shira's favorite: jumping on the trampoline, surrounded by construction debris, and eating nectarines, figs, or whatever ripe food they can find
The last part of our house that is left from the days of, "I know we really should paint (landscape, weed, fix our bathroom, get plumbing that works) our house, and our neighbors must really hate us, but we are just going to be remodeling in a couple of years and it would be a waste to spend money on this now, just to redo it later." The side of our house, where we tore out a bougainvillea bush, and discovered that no one had painted behind it in quite some time. The idea is that this will finally be rectified when the whole house gets painted at the end of our project.

Return to Rancho

I restarted our Wednesday hikes this week, and can't believe I didn't make the time to do it before.Samuel is a great bike rider now, and can ride all the way there and back if he wants to. He didn't, of course, but he did ride a good portion.They both loved looking at the animals.
We got a gorgeous fall day, just the right temperature, with a tiny bit of sun showers. If I were a better writer, I might be able to express to you the beauty and peacefulness of being at the farm on a day like this. All I can say is, I don't know what has kept me away. This is the reason I love living here.

First Day of Preschool

Our trip to Minnesota was quickly followed by the return to school. Tuesday was the first day of our new preschool. We all got outfitted on the bike, Shira on the front in her ibert, Samuel on the back on his trail a bike. I dropped Shira off at Katherine's house, as it was a "work day" for me at preschool.Samuel was hamming it up for the camera. He was more than excited for his first day.Teacher Wilma greeted us outside with our class pet - a guinnea pig. Not sure if this guy has a name yet. The first day was a bit of a whirlwind.Samuel didn't really want to leave my side until they brought out a batch of green playdough. I didn't see him again after that. I was in charge of the painting station. And Samuel made sure to take full advantage of one of his favorite activities.
It was nice to see some old friends, as well as get the opportunity to meet some new ones. Samuel and Eliyahu finally decided to acknowledge each other at the end of class, as they both played in the airplane cockpit. Perhaps I was more excited to see old friends than Samuel was. Dani and I didn't wait until the end of class to chat up a storm.

I asked Samuel after class if he thought he would be ready to go to the next class by himself, and he said yes. He also said that he really liked preschool and wanted to go back the next day. We'll see how it goes, but it seems to be a good fit.

Minneapolis Activities

Samuel had a long list of activities to do while visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and we were able to accomplish all of them, except for one - we'll have to save the dinosaur bones at the science museum for next time.

We went to the Minnesota zoo, which was amazing. Samuel insisted on seeing the Gray Wolf first, which we did. Sorry no pics of animals, but here we are at the zoo.And here is one of the super cool playground that they had at the zoo.We visited a labyrinth at the Arboretum. Samuel quickly caught on, and was soon whizzing around corners and turning back when we hit dead ends. We didn't think that we would need to visit an indoor park for a summer trip, but we forgot how much fun Edinborough Park was, rain or shine. Samuel loved it so much, we went back again the next day.Shira thought it was pretty fabulous, too.