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?

November

The energy I have available for updating this blog is inversely proportional to the mobility and terrible twoishness of Maija. But in an attempt to at least put up the occasional update, here are a few photos and some comments from Anja below.

The often attempted but rarely achieved sibling photo with both looking at the camera:

Halloween costumes (scrub jay and alligator)

And I love this painting that Anja made. I left her with her finger paints (full 8oz containers) for about ten minutes before I realized it had been quiet for a while.

Me: Anja, how is your painting coming?

Anja: Good. But I'm almost out of blue paint.

She told me that the blue part is a river, and that the painting is called "Perch Lake." But that she needed more blue. The best part is that she had no idea that this was not the normal way to paint a river. We have another 3D finger painting up on the wall already.

Kids love air cleaners:

Anja says funny stuff:

Anja: Maija tried to EAT me!

Me: No, she just kissed you.

Anja: Ahahahahahahah! (runs away)

Anja: Some kids have a mommy and a daddy and some kids have just a mommy or a daddy.

Me: That’s right. And some kids have two mommies or two daddies.

Anja: I wish I had two mommies AND two daddies!

Me: Oh, okay.

(then later, when I told Jay the story, Jay says, “I wish there were two of me too.”)

Anja: (after eating dinner) Well, you sure have a messy kid here.

Me: Are you talking about you?

Anja: Yeaaaaah…

Anja: Mommmyyyyy! We forgot to buy WOOD!

Me: Oh, what would we do with wood.

Anja: Build a play house. ReMEMber?!!!

Me: Oh yeah.

Anja: We just keep wasting and wasting and wasting.

Me: Wasting? What are we wasting?

Anja: All of these days!

Me: We are wasting all of these days without a play house?

Anja: Yeah!

Anja: Remember when we saw a bear when we were hiking?!!

Me: A bear? A real bear? I don’t remember that.

Anja: Me neither.

Anja: (holding two plastic frogs) Let’s play Simon Says with these guys. (gives me a frog) Simon Says be a birdie.

Me: Cheep cheep cheep. (my frog walks around)

Anja: Simon says be an egg. (waits 20 seconds, during which my frog doesn’t move) Are you being an egg?

Me: Yup.

Anja: Simon Says be a panda.

Me: (my frog stays in one spot) My frog is eating bamboo.

Anja: Why do pandas eat baboons?!!

Me: No, bamboo, not baboons.

Anja: Pandas eat baboons?!

Me: No, bamboo. It’s a kind of grass.

Anja: Oh.

Me: What’s this a picture of, Anja? (referring to a scribble of black with a tiny scribble of green)

Anja: That’s the monster. And I’m covered in Monster Block.

Me: What’s Monster Block?

Anja: It’s something you put on yourself that keeps the monster from dropping bombs on your face or your teeth.

Me: Kind of like sunblock?

Anja: Yeah.

Anja: I’m a little nervous.

Me: What are you nervous about?

Anja: I’m nervous about… my cup.

Me: What about your cup makes you nervous?

Anja: I don’t know why my cup makes me nervous.

Anja: Mommy, you have one kid and one baby. I wish we had two kids and two babies. That would be a lot of kids and babies!

Me: Maija, you’re a cheese monster today.

Anja: NO! Maija’s not a cheese monster!

Me: She’s not? Then what is she?

Anja: Just regular Maija.

Anja: (makes sign language symbol for I love you) Mommy, I love you.

Me: I love you too Anja.

Anja: Daddy, I love you.

Jay: I love you too.

Anja: Blue I love you. Blue says, “What does that mean?”

Me: Blue, you’re silly.

Anja: We sure have a silly dog!

Anja: (while playing with plastic animals) What kind of ice cream do you want?

Me: (via my plastic toy) Hmm, moose tracks. Moose tracks is my favorite.

Anja: We’re all out of moose tracks. We have duck tracks and pig tracks.

Me: I’ll have duck tracks.

Anja: I wish I had two mommies.

Me: That would be fun. And two daddies?

Anja: No, just one daddy.

Anja: Daddy, when I get bigger, then I will be able to marry you.

Jay: Aw, you can’t marry me, because I am already your daddy.

Anja: (looks at me) Then I want YOU to marry me.

Me: That would be nice, wouldn’t it? But you can’t marry me because I am already part of your family. You can’t marry someone who is in your family, you have to marry someone who isn’t in your family, and then they become your family too.

Anja: (thinks for a minute) Then I want Shanti to marry me! (the mom of the five year old boy next door)

Anja: (running around and around the kitchen and living room) I sure have a lot of energy! I sure have a LOOOOOOOOOTTTTT of energy! Hahahahahahaha

Anja: Sometimes tofu is really big. And it falls from the sky! And it lands with an earth-shaking boom!

Me: Anja, what was your favorite part of today? Remember when we saw the banana slug?

Anja: Uh, yeah, and it was eating POO POO! That was my favorite part. And when Maija fell down in the mud and I saw her MUDDY BUTT! Those were my favorite parts.

1 year old

This will not be a very wordy update, but I want to put up a few pictures and videos before I get too far behind. Maija turned one, and we had a joint birthday party with some friends whose daughter was turning six on the same day. The CSA we belong to allows members to use their farm for parties, free of charge, and to come fish, or go for hikes, etc anytime. So we and about a dozen 6-year olds had a great time at the farm. It's a great place, without any services, just the farm itself. They even have a barn owl nest in one of the barns, complete with giant fluffy babies that stare down at you when you walk under.

Anja looks very serious here. She was hunting ladybugs.

Anja is still very much into her dresses, and looking like a princess, in her words.

Maija and the other birthday girl and their respective cakes.

Maija and her great baby belly, cruising around the farm.

Anja and cake fingers.

This is one of the best videos ever of Anja. It cuts out a few seconds before the end, but it shows Anja putting her animals to sleep at night, complete with the following for each one: a kiss on each cheek, a hug, and the reading of "the words", which to her means the little plaque above her bed about a butterfly kiss, a ladybug hug, and sleeping like a bug in a rug. Thank Great Aunt Lois for that one! Anja is so loving with her little animal world, and has been for some time. I hope she does not grow out of this phase soon.

Beautiful baby. Her blue eyes are developing some hazel flecks in them, like her dad, and her hair is lighter now than it was a few months ago.

And she loves her sister. They are really very good together. Anja is helping us lately by "watching Maija" and she is very good at noticing if Maija is doing something she shouldn't, "No, Maija, NO! You will get HURT!" And then when we get Maija, "Whew, that was a close one!" She is genuinely concerned that something might happen to Maija.

Point Reyes is amazing.

I run here.

Maija loves shoes. Really really loves them.

For the 4th of July, our little block has a pretty good display of non-scary fireworks, perfect for little kids, so we didn't even go downtown for the big fireworks. There were about 10 kids total, all running around like crazy animals, eating snacks and playing games. It was really fun. And it was even a rare warm evening for us, so perfect.

When Anja hears music, she will often do this, a sort of hybrid tai-chi, ballet dance.

Here is Anja on our neighbor's lap during fireworks.

Jay and I actually did a training run together. We are running a marathon together next week, the 5th anniversary of the first time we ran it, the morning of our wedding. So it was really nice to get to run together a few weeks ago for a long run. Usually we have to take turns while one of us is with the kids.

Brushing teeth is pretty high on Maija's list, just below wearing shoes.

Maija doesn't have too many words, but she sure likes to say cheese.

Spittooey!

Many comments from the kids:

Me: In a few minutes we’re going to the store to get a secret surprise for Daddy.

Anja: It’s even better than a dinosaur?!

Me: Yup.

Anja: What is it? An alligator?!

Me: Nope.

Anja: A horsie?!

Me: Nope.

Anja: A spinosaurus?!

Me: Nope.

Anja: What is it? I’ve tried everything!

(then about five minutes later:)

Anja: I know a good present for Daddy. Daddy likes dinosaurs! Daddy, do you like dinosaurs!?

Me: Auntie Heather is leaving, did you say bye?

Anja: Bye Auntie Heather!!! Don't hit your head on anything!!!

Heather: Okay, I won't hit my head on anything.

Anja: (holding her brachiosaurus) This guy is eating pinkets.

Me: Oooh. What do pinkets look like?

Anja: They are squares. Little round squares. They are kind of like shapes.

Anja: Mommy, you know what animals eat sorny plants?

Me: Sorny plants?

Anja: No, SORny plants!

Me: Sorny plants?

Anja: NO! SOOOORNY plants!

Me: Sorny plants? Forny plants? Oh. Thorny plants!

Anja: Yeah! That’s right! Sorny plants.

Me: What animals eat thorny plants?

Anja: Camels eat sorny plants!

Anja: (to me) When you were a baby and I was your mommy, I took you to the library and got you a movie! And you ran away. Ha ha ha ha. You were a silly baby! Ha ha ha ha. And you climbed a tree ha ha ha ha ha! And I climbed up and got you! Ha ha ha ha ha.

Anja: (holding up a new pair of underwear) These are from my brother. My brother gave these to me.

Me: Oh, your brother? What is your brother’s name?

Anja: I don’t know. These are from my brother. He lives… he lives… I don’t know where my brother lives. He lives in Meesmeezana. And he gave me these! For my birthday. And I said thank you. That was nice of him. And he gave me a bobcat! And I named him Bobcat.

Anja: (to Jay on his way out the door to go running) BYE DADDY! Don’t get hurt!... and don’t forget to bring us some flowers!!!

Anja: (while driving down the road) Mommy! I just saw a porcupine eating a hotdog!

Me: Wow. Hey, I see a porcupine eating a hotdog over there!

Anja: Yeah! There’s another porcupine eating a hotdog on the edge over there!

Jay: I see a badger eating a donut!

Anja: A donut???? Badgers don’t eat donuts!!!

Anja: Daddy, we don’t have an attic.

Jay: That’s right.

Anja: But everybody else has an attic. Tigers have attics. Tigers attics are up in the trees. Tigers live outside.

Anja: Mo-om. Did you know that tigers poop?

Me: Mmm-hmm

Anja: And lions poop. Lions, tigers and hair!

Me: But hair does not poop.

Anja: Nope. Did you know that food goes down, down, down into our bellybutton. And then stays there for a long time with our food friends. And then comes out as poop!

Anja: (while we are at a busy road, waiting to cross the street) Rocky isn’t feeling good, his tummy hurts.

Me: (Rocky is her toy gecko) Maybe Rocky should drink some cold water, or some cranberry juice.

Anja: I don’t have any of that. Here, he can just drink from my breast (lifts up her shirt and proceeds to breastfeed her lizard in front of all the cars driving by).

The explanation for this next one is longer than the quote. During potty training, we tried using a “poop wand” for Anja, which is a magical fairy wand that she was supposed to hold while on the potty, to help the poop come out. Now whenever we go to the toy store near the costume section we get this:

Anja: Look Mom, a POOP WAND! (holds up a fairy princess wand)

Maija: Scheeeeee! (cheese)

Playing together

A rare photo of me and both girls. At Cal Academy of Science.

The girls being cute together.

Maija loves the oranges we get from our orange tree. She scrapes off little bits of the peel and chews on them. Yum.

Anja and the bounce house at the farmer's market.

Anja and I sometimes go for little hikes "up the mountain" at a little county park down the road from us. From the top you can see downtown Petaluma. She brought her baby flamingo (flingy-mingo) this last time. She is carrying her in her pouch. Because flamingos have pouches. To keep their babies warm.

Anja loves insects. I mean she LOVES them. She is petting this darkling beetle she found. Every morning she saves pillbugs on our sidewalk and puts them in the grass, sometimes with little nests made out of a leaf. Also sometimes she feeds them with things like a blade of grass.

Lately Anja wants to wear dresses all the time. Like Cinderella. She also still likes stickers.

Maija runs around.

Every night after dinner the girls have some sort of running around game. Ideally they wouldn't get all worked up right before bedtime, but we usually don't have the heart to stop them. At times like this I wish I could freeze time.

Maija says, "Don't stack blocks!"

Maija loves dragging things around.

Anja loves to be the mommy. At the children's museum she is protecting her duck babies on her lily pad.

Maija doesn't have any real words yet, but she really likes making noises and imitating us. Or getting us to imitate her, as in this case.

The girls sure like chasing each other around.

I let them think they were playing alone in their room. Anja is really great with Maija, now that she is realizing she has someone to play with. Covert video below:

Anja's comments:

Jay: (on Mother’s Day) We are doing secret card-making activities. You can never guess what we’re doing. Can I have an envelope?

Me: I like living here Anja. What do you think?

Anja: I would rather like a flying house. With some balloons.

Anja: Mommy, do you like cimmamon? I do. I like Cimmamon. It starts with the letter “cimma”. It’s kind of like chinchilla!

Anja: (to her Tyrannosaurus Rex) What do you like to eat?

Me: (as Rex) Squash, and ants on a log. And other dinosaurs.

Anja: No, that’s not nice. Other dinosaurs are fossils. But some dinosaurs are not fossils.

Me: Okay, I won’t eat other dinosaurs anymore, I’ll just eat grass.

Anja: No, that’s yucky.

Me: Let’s go home and have a snack.

Anja: Yeah, brachiosaurus is hungry for a snack.

Me: What do brachiosauruses eat for snacks?

Anja: Pinkets.

Me: Peanuts?

Anja: No, PINKets.

Me: Oh, pinkets. What are pinkets?

Anja: They just come from birds. From the sky.

Me: What do they look like?

Anja: They’re just round. They are also ROUND. They are just ROUND, like a donut.

Me: Oh. What do they taste like?

Anja: Like strawberries.

Me: Oh. Okay.

Anja: Why is that car there?

Me: That car is broken, someone has to fix it. Do you know who is good at fixing cars?

Anja: Yeah, Daddy. And Rob is good at fixing cars too. And Ian is good at washing cars!

Me: And what am I good at?

Anja: Uh, work.

Me: Oh yeah? And what do I do when I work?

Anja: Um. Just that work that you do.

Anja: Daddy let’s play a game called RUN! (runs away)

Anja: This is my flingy-mingo. Flingy-mingos can’t fly. They climb trees. They have sticky wings and feet. Like snakes!

Me: Sticky wings and feet like snakes?

Anja: Yeah!

Anja: (playing with a penguin puppet that she put on a stick) This is a potty stick!

Jay: A potty stick?

Anja: Yeah, it’s for going potty.

Jay: You can’t use a stick for a potty.

Anja: Yes you can. The poop just comes out, and goes down the stick (elaborates with her finger) and it stops here. And you can look at it for a minute. And then it turns into food!

Jay: Oooh. Usually food turns into poop, not the other way around.

Anja: (puts a santa hat on my head) You’re Santa. Do you have any presents for me?

Me: Yeah, here’s a baby for you (gives Maija to her).

Anja: Oh. Yeah. Hey, my present is walking away!

Anja: Mommy, this is my breast. It’s where I feed my baby! I need to get something. I need something for my breast.

Me: A bra?

Anja: Yeah! We should get one of those!

Me: (driving past the high school) When you get bigger, you will go to that school.

Anja: Yeah. And I will drive cars too!

Anja: Bones are inside our bodies.

Jay: That’s right. Do you know what else is inside our bodies?

Anja: Brains!

Jay: That’s right. What else is inside our bodies?

Anja: Poop!

Jay: Yup, there’s poop in there.

Birthday, Easter and Spring

Hold on, this one is a long one! We are very busy here with working full time plus keeping the kids entertained. They are doing well, and sometimes have very cute moments:

Spring is amazing here in Sonoma County, and so green. This picture is from a month or more ago, and we have probably gotten the last of the rain until October or November. So we're enjoying the last of the green for a while. The river (small creek) near our house is still running but will soon be dry. (the picture below is NOT the creek near our house, but a trail in one of my favorite nearby parks for trail running)

Anja got to ride a real horse (was supposed to be a 'pony ride', but apparently they just have smallish horses for the little kids). Strangely I'm not sure if she enjoyed this more or less than riding the pink horse at the pizza place. We had built up this idea of a pony ride for weeks before we went and she talked nonstop about it all the way there. Once she was on the horse (safely led by an instructor around a small pond - about a 30 min experience) she didn't say a single word. I don't think I've seen her silent for so long.

Both kids seem so much older to me every day.

Maija loves her bumbo chair, although she never really sat in it properly.

We were at Armstrong Redwoods again recently. This is a great, easy place to visit with little kids. Lots to do, everything from driving tours to strenuous hikes. Maija likes this kind of activity:

For several weeks she had this amazing peacock hair that would not stay down. Now it's a little tamer as it grows out, someone recently called it baby bird hair.

I'm including this picture to show that not all our family photos quite work out.

Imagine growing up thinking that trees like this are the norm.

We took the kids camping at Salt Point State Park, up the coast a bit. I worried it might be chilly at night, but it was actually pretty nice. Maija is still not a great night sleeper so I didn't get much sleep, but other than that it was a good trip. We are still using two tents for camping, which seems to work out best. That way, one kid doesn't wake up the whole family.

Sometimes I think we should be advertisers for the Ergo, this baby carrier we use. I don't know what we'd do without it:

Anja loves camping. She has a ladybug sleeping bag, and her own water bottle, and is always excited to make s'mores and eat hotdogs. She didn't actually eat her s'more this time, but she sure had fun making it. She ate three hotdogs.

Maija loves flowers.

Anja had her 3rd birthday! She had a great one. She was so excited. All she wanted was "a dinosaur cake, and some presents, and for people to sing Happy Birthday to me." Done.

Lately Anja likes wearing dresses. Or actually nightgowns, as in this case, but we thought this nightgown from Auntie Beth and family was far too nice to waste on sleeping. And it has hot air balloons on it, just like her grandpa's.

Maija likes riding in the backpack carrier.

Just cute. Taking a break from hiking in Corte Madera.

Maija loves playing with her older sister. Anja is generally very good with her. Sometimes she gets frustrated when Maija doesn't understand or tries to grab her toys, but she is much better than I had hoped for at her age. I hope they continue to have fun together. Here they are playing a very gentle tackle game. Look at Maija running around so well now!

Anja now likes sitting on the big kids swings. She has finally stopped jumping off them unexpectedly.

Chasing clouds of gnats in the evening sun at the neighborhood park near our house.

Maija seems to understand quite a few words. And she is very good with the sign for bird. We haven't been very good at teaching her other sign language words, but she does use the sign for milk when she wants something.

Out of order, but here are the girls on Easter morning:

And Anja's contributions:

Anja: We should buy a mammoth. And I can ride on it.

Me: Where should we buy a mammoth?

Anja: At the mammoth store.

Me: And what kind of mammoth should we get?

Anja: A brown one! He matches my dog.

Me: Your brown dog?

Anja: Yeah, my brown dog. I named him Toby. And the mammoth has hair. And a trunk! And a long nose. A long looooong nose. And he has hair. And I can pet him! And he says, “Hee Haw!” Let’s get a real one.

Me: Okay. Good Idea.

Jay: (while getting ready to go “exploring” in the front yard with flashlights with Anja) I wonder if Maija would like to go exploring?

Anja: No! She doesn’t like exploring! She just likes lying down!

(Anja crawls into the kitchen, pulling a wooden duck on a string with her teeth)

Me: Hi Brio (the duck), who is pulling you?

Anja: I’m a horsie!

Me: And what is your name?

Anja: Uh, Singie ming.. gaga! Because I like to sing! On Mondays and Thursdays.

Me: Oh, hi Singieming-gaga. Can you sing me a song?

Anja: Yeah! Hmmm mmm mmmmm ummmm mmmm (goes on for about 30 seconds).

Me: That’s a great song.

Anja: Yeah.

Anja: I like cheese today. I like cheese on Thursdays.

Anja: (in the bathtub - while making one plastic duck pour water onto another one) "Here you go, YOU can drink some water from my BUM! Then you won't be so THIRSTY!!!"

Anja: (looking at the clock) But it’s not pointing at naptime, it’s pointing to four!

Anja: My tummy hurts.

Me: How much does it hurt?

Anja: Four seconds.

Anja: (after whining for a granola bar) My tummy hurts…

Me: Oh, then maybe you shouldn’t eat a granola bar.

Anja: My foot hurts.

Tahoe and crawling

How to pose your children for a portrait:

Maija is really getting around now. She crawls everywhere and pulls up on everything, and is just starting to let go and stand for a few seconds unassisted. She likes pulling books off the shelf and turning the pages.

Maija is loving fulltime daycare, and is a favorite there. When I come to pick her up, it is common to find another parent or older child holding her - everyone wants a turn. Everyone tells us we are so lucky to have had two "easy" children. Of course we think we are lucky, but not so much just for that reason!

A few weeks ago I took both kids by myself to Tahoe to meet up with a group of 25 coworkers for the weekend. I was there for two days before Jay came up for the last day. The drive up went really well, but before I could celebrate being Supermom, both kids decided to have various versions of colds (details omitted for sake of grossness), and neither wanted to sleep through the night. I went to bed with both of them at 8:00 the first two nights. The snow was covered in ice so we couldn't really play in it. Anja kept falling down since it was so slippery, "Mommy, I don't like snow!"

But at least we did get a cute picture. See below for smiling Anja and stunned baby face Maija.

I made a little hole in the snow with my boot and stuck Maija in it.

In local news, Anja LOVES the local horses. There is this one, at Pinky's Pizza, and also her favorite, named Champion, on the sidewalk downtown.

Comments from Anja and Maija:

Me: (talking to Maija whose foot is on her tray) We don't eat with our feet or hands.

Anja: No! We don't eat with our feet or hands. Or our toes, or eyes, or hair, or beards! Hahahahaha!

Anja: Maija goes to work.

Jay: She does? Where does she work?

Anja: At Berkeley!

Jay: What does she do there?

Anja: Uh, birds. She looks at all kinds of birds!

Me: What should we have for dinner tonight?

Anja: Ohhh, just some different kinds of stuffs. I don't know what kind. (puts finger on chin) We'll have to think about it.

Anja: Mmm.... it smells like movie night!

Me: What does movie night smell like?

Anja: It smells like strawberries!

Anja: (looking at all the cars as we are driving through town) Mommy, look at all the cars! There's fifty-five thousands of them! There's SO MANY cars!

(by the way, the next day at the same place she told me there were SIXTY-five thousands of them)

Anja: Mommy, your name is Sue! And Daddy’s name is Jay. And she’s named Heather. And she’s named Maija. And she’s named Blue, and she has front feet and back feet. And she walks on them!

Maija: Da.

Jay: She said “Daddy!” (does victory dance)

Anja: (squriming in her seat like crazy, trying not to pee her pants)

Me: Do you have to go potty?

Anja: No…oooo. (continues to squirm). I’m just… doing… yoga…

Anja: Maija doesn’t have any teeth. She doesn’t know how to talk. She doesn’t know how to say noodles or cup or tissue.