Craigslist Obsession Redux - the Stokke Story

Not long ago I bought a Stokke chair for Samuel off of craigslist. I paid a pretty penny, but was willing to pay a premium because the chair was located less than 2 miles from our house.

Samuel loved the chair so much, and we found it so incredibly useful (previous to the entrance of the Stokke into our kitchen and lives, Samuel stood on a regular chair to eat dinner. Yes, we are such lazy and incompetent parents that we were teaching our child to stand at the dinner table), that I decided to begin searching for another one that Shira would use (albeit many months from now).

I began my search before Shira was born, though I didn't search with much urgency in the beginning (figuring I had plenty of time to find one). Since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided I could be picky. I passed up several Stokkes that were good deals, but simply farther than I want to drive. I also ignored Stokkes that were more than I considered to be "a good deal".

Shira was born and I began to be a little more serious about locating this Holy Grail of mine. After emailing the owners of several possibilities, and being informed that the chair had already been sold (including one in which I called 20 min after it posted and I was the fourth person interested) I became more and more concerned that I might not be able to buy one even if I threw my "good deal" and "close by" requirements to the wind.

Finally, last night, I found one that was half the price that I paid for the original chair. It however, was located in San Francisco. Ugh. What a drive for a silly piece of furniture. But I told the owner I would come pick it up without a doubt. So last night, Steve, Samuel, Shira and I hopped into the car at 5pm, endured getting stuck behind an accident, and made it into the sunset by 6:15 to purchase this beauty ;).

Needless to say, we could not subject Samuel and Shira to another hour long car ride without some dinner and a chance to run around a bit. So we had an impromptu picnic in Golden Gate Park with take-out from Park Chow.

Samuel and Shira were both a dream in the car on the way up and on the way back. My Craigslist Obsession turned into a charming little adventure and a good time was had by all. Thanks family for putting up with your silly wife/mom...

Greatest Dad Ever (and husband too).
Shira enjoying her first time in Golden Gate Park.

Where did Samuel go?
Shira scoffed at our take out - she brought her own picnic with her.

Death Defying Feats

Now that Samuel has learned how to really jump, he wants to jump off everything he sees. Since we went swimming at Auntie Lottie's house, and Samuel saw cousin Brendan do a cannonball, every perch inside and outside of the house has become a diving board.


Meanwhile, Shira has been engaging in her own extreme physical sports - namely lying on her tummy and holding her head up...

Wednesday at the farm

Every Wednesday for the past few months I have been leading a walk to our local farm. The idea behind this little hike is that it is short enough that the kids could walk if they wanted to, and everyone can run around at the farm and look at the animals (and I always buy fresh eggs) before it is time to return. This is the only hike that I continue to do on Stroller Hikes, simply because Samuel refuses to put up with the rest. Gone are the days when he was willing to ride on my back in the Ergo for a 2-3 hour hike.

Up until today, the walk being short enough for the kids to hike has been more a theory than a reality. Although the toddlers are completely physically capable of walking the mile to the farm, most of the time Samuel was unwilling to, or I was too impatient to allow him to.

Today, all of the 2 year olds decided to take on the challenge. It was less a walk to the farm, though, than an all out run.
Samuel has become very fond of holding Sophia's hand and telling her where he would like to go and what they should do next. Sophia then informs Samuel that she has no plan to do that and proceeds to inform him of what she will be doing. Samuel invariably agrees with her plan.

Case in point: Samuel said, "Sophia, walk farm." Sophia replied, "No Samuel, I am playing in tree."


Since the kids were leading the way, we had a few stops. In addition to the hollowed out tree, it was necessary for everyone to check out this big fallen tree. Everytime I walk past these trees (and a couple of other spots) I have thought about how much fun they would be to climb and play on. I was wondering how long it would take before the toddlers considered that too.
Samuel, Lillian, Sophia and Jesse across the top, Shannon below.This is a new favorite past time at the farm - learning how a pully system works.

Luna the Cow. An ever popular stop on the farm circuit.
These piglets share Shira's birthday. Of course, their mom only had to be pregnant for 3 months. Then again, she had ten babies.

training the new chef in the family

have helmet, let's ride

Yesterday Samuel and I rode on my bike to Auntie Lottie's house to celebrate Brendan's 6th birthday, while Steve and Shira traveled by car. It has been quite some time since Samuel and I rode together, and we discovered that his bike helmet was in disrepair. We made it a priority to go to REI today to exchange our broken helmet for a new one, and were sucked into the REI vortex. Naturally, we were unable to leave without making a purchase. In this case, it was a backpack for Samuel. My hope is that he will now carry his essentials (and possibly even Shira's diapers) and leave me footloose and fancy free once again. Ok, that is probably too much to ask, but as anyone who sees these pictures can attest, he looks pretty adorable with his backpack on.

Once the helmet was on, Samuel refused to take it off. We did manage to convince him that he couldn't actually get in his carseat with the backpack on. Luckily he accepted our solution - he could hold it instead, rather than simply refusing to get in the carseat. I kind of like the idea of him wearing his helmet in the car. This way, I can't whack his head when putting him in.

Shira is a good sport, always coming along for the ride.

First spin with the new helmet.

Our triumphant return, backpack still on.

Saved by Bubbie

From the day we left the hospital with Shira, I have been going strong, not cutting back on our usual daily activities, and even adding some old ones back in that I hadn't done since before I got pregnant, like rock climbing and running. Well, it has all caught up with me, and when we got back from our most recent trip to Minnesota, I found myself waking up in tears in the morning and feeling unable to leave the house. My mom came to save the day. And hurray for husbands who know when it's time to call Mom.

Bubbie is excellent at creating new games out of everything she finds. Here she and Samuel are using our CSA boxes as a ramp to roll marbles into the back of this pick up truck. Pickup truck and marbles are "estate sale" specials - Bubbies favorite place to find toys for Samuel.
No visit would be complete without a little bike riding.

Not even the trees get neglected when Bubbie comes. Our loquat tree has looked sad for some time now as part of it was diseased. But the true reason for the drastic haircut was that Samuel requested that Bubbie make him another teepee from the loquat limbs. Steve has his work cut out for him come yard pick up day.

how many times would you ride the carousel if it were free?

Our friends Amy Peter and Lucy discovered that there is a carousel that is free all day long once a month. Unfortunately for us, we never managed to go to the carousel with AP&L while they still lived here, but this Tuesday we did manage to make it and enjoyed more than a few spins with Efsun and Alara. Apparently, the operators of the carousel have created a few rules of their own that I did not find posted anywhere, either on their website or anywhere around the carousel. This did not prevent the teenage girl who stood guard at the entrance from enforcing the rules however. She curtly informed me when I arrived with Samuel that I could not stand next to him on the horse since I was holding a baby (even though said baby was in a wrap and couldn't even be seen).

"That's fine, I'll just ride one of the horses," said I.

No dice, I wasn't allowed to do that either.

She plaintively asked if there wasn't someone else who could ride with him. When pressed she reluctantly told me I could ride on the bench on the carousel. So I scooped Samuel onto a horse, belted him in, and went to sit on the bench one row back. Insolent teenage girl returned to inform me he was too little to ride alone. Huh? Why didn't she tell me that when she told me I could ride on the bench?

It all came out in the wash anyway - several other moms who overheard the conversation offered to stand next to Samuel who then decided he was too scared and wanted to sit with me on the bench anyway. After 3 or 4 spins Efsun showed up and Alara impressed Samuel with her bravery such that he was willing to sit on any of the animals as long as those two joined him.