Heads Up

Camila is going to take her first solo steps any minute now...

She can stand up unassisted by props or people and will play standing for extended seconds. She is walking around holding on to furniture (just a little) and from prop to prop (rarely). And walking holding just one of my hands (she prefers two). And I've caught her a few times walking & pushing Liv's baby-doll stroller!!!

I have yet to get any of this on film. But I'm trying to always have the Flip or my camera with me or close by and will hopefully catch her first steps to share with you.

thanks for visiting!
~emily.

Halloween

 We visited the local pumpkin patch and corn maze a couple times, but as I've mentioned before  - even if I do remember the camera I don't always have free hands to take the pictures... :(

It was a great time and there would have been some cute pics of the hay ride, pumpkin patch, pig races, etc sigh.

One of our visits was with the MOMS Club, and one of the other mommies shared these pics with me! Thanks, Kate!

Liv & Lilian visiting with the goats.

 

Seed Corn "sand" Box

 

We painted pumpkins with our neighbors, Liv loved it so much, we did some more painting at home. At one point I looked over and saw her brushing paint on the soles of her feet. LOL

Unfortunately she had way more fun getting paint on her body than getting it off. 

It's the price we pay, honey!

Camila Luna as a little monkey!

We hooked up with our friends, the Coffees

(from our aquarium outing and the above pumpkin patch photos)

Liv trick-or-treating, dressed as a dragon-princess!

Super Daddy rushed home in the midst of an outage to take his kids trick-or-treating! 

Wow! What a good daddy! Thanks, Jeff!

A - B - C

Enjoy!

Fun & Treats

 Liv learning puzzles

 (and wearing piggies in her hair...lol)

 Daddy playing magic wands with Liv

Liv earned a treat!

Playground

 Swings

Wood chips. 

(Camila is finally listening to my urgings not to put everything in her mouth!)

 its raining

Beach Trip

 It was one of those rare days when it gets HOT in Alameda 

I had been watching the weather and saw it coming and planned a trip to the beach.

And as previous trips, its a ton of stuff to pack up to get us all to the beach, but worth it.

 The girls had a great time playing in the sand and wading in the water. I was too busy playing to take many pictures... we had a great time, but don't have much to share here... 

Not Much News

Hello. I haven't posted recently, I know!

Camila and Liv are no longer on the same nap schedule! OH NO! But both are doing very very well! (Each of them actually went down today with NO FUSSING - Holy Crap! --  its a damn good thing, too, as it is really hard to be in two places at once! LOL) And while I miss those couple hours to nap or catch up on chores... I am enjoying the one-on-one time with each of the girls.

Camila is very, very mobile. It keeps me running, but is fun for all of us. Except maybe Liv, who is acting more jealous these days. Camila is in the stages of new achievements every day (signs, teeth, crawling, standing, new sounds & games) that we are all very excited about - and I do my best to include Liv in these things: "Liv, Thank YOU for helping teach Camila a new sign!" But observing her behavior (when she thinks I'm not looking) I am reminded of a dog establishing dominance in the family/pack. She'll take toys away and then determine when/if to give it back or maybe whack the baby on the head with it. AAAGHH!!! Or show off in front of Camila "Can you do THIS?" and then balance on one foot or something, or even take food off her highchair tray! It's a constant challenge to balance their independent development, guide the course of their early friendship, and establish MY dominance as Alpha Momma!

Along these lines. Why am I surprised by the difficulty establishing "The Golden Rule" as part of the normal thought process? It seems like second nature; but, I guess, second nature is still second. Kind of like teaching good toilet habits; maybe? ((me, rolling my eyes - don't get me started.))

We've recently joined a local stay-at-home-mom's club. Which should provide more play activities and other support functions and community involvement opportunities. I'm excited.

We're (Jeff is) winning the battle against the varmint hordes for occupation of our hillside. We're reclaiming our landscaping back from the critter invasion - but now we're looking at a replacement phase. I can't believe we're going to have to buy & plant dozens of flowers, shrubs, and grasses - not to mention the irrigation parts! Damn rodents! Sheesh.

We're trying to get organized for the holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.  It's an interesting exercise to realise that choices we make now will keep/establish (or not) traditions and memories for these special little people in our family now. Cool.

Camila's First Sign

Camila's first ASL sign looks a lot like clapping but is contextually "more."

Two days ago Liv and I were encouraging Camila to sign "more" (touching grouped finger-tips together) as I was feeding her yogurt. And she focused intently to get the fingers from both hands to do her bidding. 

We are all so proud of her!

Genoa Candy Dance & Horse Ride

I am absolutely kicking myself for leaving the memory card to my camera in the laptop at home (not to mention the spare cards I now own... grrrr.) I have only this single pic that Jeff took with his blackberry to share with you. 

That said, we had a great weekend! It's a fairly long drive (3-4 hours) to Genoa, NV. But we have wonderful friends there - we haven't been up ALL SUMMER - and this weekend was Candy Dance: which is almost worth the trip all on it's own!

The twins, Leo & Adriano, turned 6 last month. And are still very loving and inclusive toward Liv. We brought up some dollar store foam swords complete with sound effects and lights -- a big hit with the boys as you can imagine. but Liv was all about getting into the sword fight, too! As she ran into the fray, I pulled her aside, suggested she notice how rough the boys play and find her big brave heart and go play (and to tell them "No." and walk away if she wasn't having fun)! She had a great time and came running back all smiles with sword in hand... "I didn't get hurt!" "Of course not! I'm glad you are having fun, brave girl." And so it went! She took her share of tumbles and bonks, jabs and slices, but hung in there and even instigated some sword play. The boys were very good about accomodating their little buddy. They each asked me several times how old Liv and Camila are, and: "I'm six. When will Olivia be six?"

Leo and Carlota were, as usual, gracious hosts, Carlota prepared a fabulous dinner and as their home faces the park, we had a gorgeous European style meal on the terrace complete with a selection of live traditional cowboy music (some yodeling, some George Strait, you know: Candy Dance Style! (which, interestingly enough, did not include any Mexican music.)

This photo is obviously Liv and Mommy going for a horse back ride. We had a gentle (lazy) big ol' blonde named, Rocky. The name Rocky suited him perfectly in Liv's opinion because, as she explained to me: "Its very rocky to ride him, side-to-side, side-to-side: Rocky!"

Fly Over

On a recent return flight from NJ, Jeff took this pic as the plane flew over the Diablo Range enroute to SFO. The arrow shows home & the golf courses & vineyards of Diablo Grande.

Some Pictures

Some Pictures doing what we do:

Liv painting

Camila crawling

 Camila clapping

 Sunglasses modeling

Picnic

    Beautiful weather here... 70 degrees, sunny, light breeze. The girls and I went for a nice stroller ride and playground/picnic adventure earlier today. Happily, we ran into Klaudia and her grandfather at the park (thought I might...I had tried to call Kate and her dad answered her cell phone...lol) I packed extra snacks and they joined us for the picnic.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

We finally made it to the MB Aquarium... after all these years! Thanks to M&L for sharing their member/guest passes, and thanks to Kate, Keith & Lilian for joining us! 

(you can see Kate's post and more pictures here.)

Liv, Lili, Jeff & Camila taking a mid afternoon break so the gr'ups could get a cup of coffee!

Camila Luna (and Mom) hanging out by the kelp forest tank. WOW... I could spend all day watching the tall (30' or more??) kelp sway -- beautiful.

Liv and Daddy petting starfish in the touch-tank.

the Rocky-shore tank with crashing WAVES!

more, more, more!

I loved this circular room-sized herring tank

I

I also loved the Jelly exhibit... we didn't capture it properly here, but the tanks were lit with neon to really show off the jellies. So the water was a brilliant dimensionless aquamarine and these jellies were a fantastic orange... an amazing spectacle!

Remarkably, and unexpectedly, we had BEAUTIFUL weather. One just never knows when heading to the coast in the summer. We packed everything from t-shirts to sweatshirts & fleece blankets. But we lucked out! As there is lovely outdoor access throughout the aquarium: and much to see in the bay (sea otters wrapped in kelp, harbor seals hauled out on the rocks, and more!) Not only that, but many tanks are lit with only natural light - and are much prettier on a sunny day.

Was Mr. Keith doing something silly?? 

Lilian reaching for the stars... 

(ok, spiny urchin)

sea horses and really cool shrimp

Colorful Coral exhibit

Little green sea turtles flying by at toddler-eye-level.

(btw, while many exhibits are little-kid friendly - there many more tanks that were designed at big kid/adult eye level, the backpack/bjorn combo might have been better than the stroller.)

Liv has been chatting away about the things she saw at the aquarium, she had a nice long conversation with Miss Deeva our mailcarrier, and Michelle, our neighbor. and frequently with me. She loved the giant octopus, the sea horses, the sea otters, and and and...

Clapping

 Camila has been working on this all week!!

She's got it now!

Last Campfire

We're home in CA now. We had a magnificent stay at Cranberry Lake with Em's (my) parents. (thanks, guys!) Friday night Grandpa, Jeff and Liv built a lovely campfire which we all enjoyed at dusk and nightfall.

Liv demonstrated her bucket drumming skills that she picked up from watching Street Beat at the State Fair

post s'more cuddle

A Few More C-Lake Pictures

The Whole Happy Crew!

Camila emptying the drawer (again, and again, and again!)

Liv with buddy, Bjorn, and new mega legos from G'ma & G'pa Ruoss

Tired Kiddos.

:(