We're Back

Here's a quick catchup of the past year, as a prelude to regular weeklyish updates to come!

This is from last fall, which is the last time I updated anything here.  We're currently in the middle of the hot and dry season.  But we still wear sweaters at night, of course.
 

We go to the coast every chance we get.  I love a beach where you can wear sweaters:


This is the turnaround point for my usual weekly long run:

Here we are inside a redwood tree at a park near our house.
Just cute.

At Armstrong Redwoods State Park. They were pretty excited to pose for this picture.

We've had a lot of great family visits this past year, including Grandma R (twice), Grandma & Grandpa, Two great aunties, several regular aunties, and a cousin. Here is one amazing hike I took with Auntie Beth and Cousin Ivan to Alamere Falls at Point Reyes. Beach waterfall!
Anja loves to dance. Maija loves to try to do whatever Anja is doing:
We almost didn't see snow at all this past winter, so one Saturday we left a 70 degree day and drove to this (see below) and back in the same day:
Anja turned four. And I made her, as requested, a pink dragon cake that I'm pretty sure I can never top. Right down to the fruit rollup wings and chocolate dragon eggs.
Anja ran a 5K. I honestly didn't push her to do it, she had been asking to run a race like Mommy and Daddy for some time. So I signed us up. The night before she changed her mind, but I told her we should still go, and just check it out. When we arrived, a friend of hers was there (six years old) and suddenly Anja couldn't wait! She held hands with her friend and sprinted for the first mile - we were passing adults and creating a wave of laughter as we went. By the third mile we were walking, but she was still so proud of herself. And yes, that is the smallest shirt they sold, but she still really wanted to wear it for the race.
We went camping for Memorial weekend. Camping is harder these days than it used to be, simply because both girls require constant entertainment of some kind. But they sure have fun.
They (we helped) made this really awesome castle at our campsite of rocks with pinecones for people. They had really funny names and one of the pinecones was a fighting princess who protected the castle.
American Graffiti Days in Petaluma (where the movie was filmed) is always fun. This is the car Anja liked the best:
We had a scrub jay next in our orange tree in the front yard a few months ago. The babies fell out the nest and we watched the parents feed them for days in the yard until they were big enough to fly away.
Maija turned two! She was a little embarrassed by the attention I think, but she loved her penguin cake (I tried for a Wallace & Gromit look).
Maija had her first haircut and was not impressed:
Maija woke up from her nap and quietly covered herself in desitin. "Look Mommy, sun block!" I told her, "Good job" and put the desitin out of reach.
We just returned from a wonderful trip to Michigan to visit Grandma R. So beautiful:
We had plenty of hammock time, camp time, cousin time, and all around great family visiting.
Usually more reserved around groups of people, Maija really opened up on this trip, and was even talking more by the time we left.
We were able to relax a lot more on this vist than on the last few, since the girls are a little more independent. But you still really need to be moving to keep up with Maija.
Cousin Rosalie made garlands for everyone.
S'mores at camp.
Rare family portrait!
And of course the yearly cousin photo in Grandma's back yard.
Anja loves flying her kite on the beach. It's always windy here.
We had a great beach trip last week. We discovered that you can find as many sand crabs as you can hold by digging down in the sand after the waves recede. We had a great time finding them and adding them to the pool Jay had made.

And as always, comments from Anja.  Plus now some from Maija!  Some of these are dated, as they are from before Christmas last year, but still so funny:

Anja:  I love you thiiiiiiissss much (arms open wide)
Me:  I love YOU thiiiiiiiiiissssss much
Anja:  And I love you THIIIIIISSSSSS much
Me:  I love you from here to the moon.
Anja:  I love you from here to the stove!  Hahahahaha

Anja:  It’s hard to wait when I’m so squirmy!

Me:  (to Anja when we are eating sandwiches in the car after visiting Cal Academy)  Anja, what was your favorite part of Cal Academy?  I think I liked the penguins best.
Anja:  Uh, I liked the snacks best (the sandwiches we are eating right now).  And the penguins.

Santa:  And what do you want, Little Girl?
Anja:  A unicorn!
Santa:  A unicorn.  And anything else?
Anja:  Yeah, a turtle.

Maija:  OOOOOOOH!
Jay:  Do you want more o’s?  Ok, here you go.  Are you going to eat them or give them to Blue this time?
Maija:  BWUE!

Anja:  What's in here?
Me:  A present for you from Grandma Roberts.
Anja:  Tell me about it.
Me:  Well, it's a present for you, and it's from Grandma Roberts.
Anja:  Oh, and what is it?
Me:  Well, it's for Christmas, so it's a surprise.
Anja:  (sadly) Oh.

Anja:  My belly is not full of ice cream yet.
Me:  How much ice cream is enough to fill your belly?
Anja:  Fifteen thousands.  Fifteen thousands is enough ice cream to fill my belly.

Jay:  (on New Year’s Eve) Is anyone else staying up with me until midnight?
Me:  (joking) I have a lot of reading to do, so I’ll be staying up.
Anja:  Well I have a lot of playing to do, so I’ll be staying up.

Anja:  This alligator is drinking soda.
Me:  That’s nice.  And what is soda?
Anja:  It’s just a drink.  Made from lemons.  And hearts.
Me:  Hearts from animals?
Anja:  Yeah, some animals have hearts on them.  Some people just open up deer to get their hearts and make soda out of them.  They just hammer and hammer them until the hearts break open and they can get juice out of them.  And then they add some water.  And that’s how you make soda.

Me:  Anja, I love you very very very very VERY much.  I sure am glad you are my daughter.
Anja:  But MOM, I love this tree!  (hugs Christmas tree)

Anja:  (from the other room)  Mommy, where should I put my undies?
Me:  Are they wet?
Anja:  No.
Me:  Then they go in the hamper.  Wait, why did you take your undies off?
Anja:  I’m taking all my clothes off.
(a minute later, comes running through the kitchen)
I’m naked!  I’m naked!  Hahahahahahah!!!!!!  (This goes on for several minutes.)

Jay:  Maija, would you like strawberry or vanilla ice cream?
Maija:  Mamimma!

Anja:  Mommy, did you know that unicorn is another name for fire helmet?

Anja:  (yelling from the other room)  Oh no!  We’re out of toilet paper!!!
Jay:  What?  Our unemployment papers?

Me:  Anja, can you do me a favor?  Can you check on Maija for me and make sure she’s okay?
Anja:  (comes back ten seconds later) She’s in the BATHroom.  She WAS playing in the toilet, but now she’s not.

Me:  So, what did everyone do at Bob’s (daycare) today?
Anja:  Well, we didn’t share, and we took too long.  But then we finished reading The Cable Car and the Dragon.

Anja:  Here, you can hold the tooting horn.  Heh, I said “TOOTING”, hahahahaha!

Me:  I can’t wait for potato soup.
Anja:  Me too!  My heart is beating SO FAST!
Me:  For potato soup?
Anja:  Yeah!  The heart beats and pushes the blood around, and the soup goes into the blood.  I have blood inside me, and you have blood inside you!

Jay:  (reading a candy heart)  This one says, “Love me”.
Anja: What if one said something really silly, like “punch me”?

Anja:  Mom.  The skin of the cucumber is where all the vitamins are.
Me:  Yes, that’s true.

Anja:  (holds up her hand with the sign for “I love you”) I love you, did you know that?
Me:  Thanks Anja, that is really nice.
Anja:  I was TALKing to MAIJA!
Me:  Oh.

Anja:  First I thought Maija was pooping, but then it was me.

Anja:  Sometimes I call balloons Rooti Patooties.

Jay: Let me have an extra turn since I'm behind, and then we'll go around in order like before.
Me: It's candyland.

Me:  (to Maija who is making plates of pretend food)  What do you have Maija?
Maija:  Pan-paints.
Me:  Pancakes?
Maija:  Yah!

Some of Maija’s words:
Nah neh (napkin)
Bang ben (blanket)
Ping ping (penguin)
MOM (mom)
Ah-yuh (Anja)
Boo (Blue)
Ban ben (bandaid)

Maija: (while walking from the house the car, wearing her mittens)  Minmits, minmits, minmits.  Minmits.  (shows them to me)  Minmits!  Minmits, minmits.
(then I opened the car door, and she saw her other pair of mittens inside)
MINMITS!  Minmits!  MINMITS!  MINMITS!

Anja:  I yelled BOO at Maija!
Me:  Did she like that?
Anja:  No.
Me:  Then don’t do that again.
Anja:  Uh, I think she liked it.  But she ran away.

Anja:  Mom.  I’m really good at taking pictures.  I’m ready for a real camera now.
Me:  Oh, okay.  We’ll have to see.
Anja:  No, I AM ready for a real camera.

Anja:  Loco?  What does loco mean?
Jay:  Loco means crazy.  Or weird.
Anja:  Yeah, like loco library.

Jay:  Daddy’s a Yooper, do you know what that is?
Anja:  No.
Jay:  A Yooper is someone who comes from a very special place in Michigan, called the U.P.

Anja:  This guy has really bad news.
Me:  The frog has bad news?
Anja:  Yeah!   He had an x-ray, and he has a disappearing bone!
Me:  Oh.
Anja:  And it really hurts!  A disappearing bone is really really Really REALLY bad NEWS!
Me:  Yeah.  What will you do for him now?
Anja:  Uh, he needs a shot.  And he doesn’t need a bandaid.  And he does need this.
Me:  A slinky?
Anja:  Yeah.

Anja:  (while pretending to be an injured baby tiger)  I need some elk- uh, some elk drink… something to drink that is made out of elk.
Me:  Elk juice?
Anja:  Yeah, elk juice.
Me:  Oh, okay.  (I give her some elk juice)  Do you know how to make elk juice?
Anja:  Yeah, you just put in some elk… and some strawberries.
Me:  Is it lumpy?  Does it have a lot of chunks in it?
Anja:  No, you just mix it.

Me:  We’ll have to go downtown and get your hair cut soon.
Anja:  Yeah, at Lions & Tigers & Hair.  And I want glitter in my hair.
Me:  Okay, we can do that.
Anja:  And I want to get a mohawk.
Me:  A what?
Anja:  A mohawk.
Me:  Do you know what a mohawk is?
Anja:  Yeah.
Me:  Do any of the kids at preschool want mohawks?
Anja:  No.
Me:  How do you know what a mohawk is?
Anja:  Uh, I saw a guy downtown with one.
Me:  And you want a real mohawk, with no hair on the sides and just hair on the top?
Anja:  Yeah.

Me:  Do you like bedtime, Maija?
Maija:  No.
Me:  What DO you like?
Maija:  Not.  Bedtime. (points at her furrowed eyebrows) Angry.
Me:  Bedtime makes you angry?
Maija:  Yup.

Anja:  What does successful mean?
Jay:  Successful means you are really good at doing something.
Me:  (we were driving at the time) Like, Daddy is really good at driving, so he is a successful driver.
Anja:  And I am good at running.
Me:  That’s right, you are a successful runner.
Anja:  And Maija is good at playing.
Me:  Yup, she’s a successful player.
Anja:  And she’s also a lion tamer.

Anja:  Mommy, why do grownups have to have kids?
Me:  Well, they don’t Have to have kids.  But some grownups have them because they are really fun to have around.  And they can love them, and play games with them, and do all kinds of fun things with them.  Does that sound like a good reason?
Anja:  Yeah.  But I still want to keep living with you and Daddy.
Me:  Sure, that’s fine.
Anja:  And we will have FIVE kids!
Me:  We will?  Who will?
Anja:  All of us.  And I will feed mine a bottle.

Anja:  Whoah!  That crane fly freaked me out!  It pulled the nuts out of me!

Anja:  Daddy, I love you.  Even though you toot a lot.

Jay:  Why is parenting like whack-a-mole sometimes?