We've been enjoying the end of summer here, though the weather won't really start to change for another month or so. Popsicles on the front porch!
The slide at the park downtown!
We went to Point Reyes for the sand sculpture contest recently. It was a typical windy and cool day, but the girls didn't mind. While I was wishing I had a hat and mittens, they were running in the surf and sitting in the wet sand.
They both love the beach, but Maija has always been the first to charge into the water and stomp in puddles. Anja has been very cautious of the waves since we explained to her how dangerous they can be and how she should never go into the ocean alone.
But on this trip she was brave enough to run in the surf and play in the waves a bit. We've been reading a new book, "Ladybug Girl" about a girl who is afraid to play in the waves, but then is brave and learns that she can have fun in the water.
With our Cal Academy family membership, we try to visit fairly frequently. On this trip, the girls wanted to wear their halloween costumes from last year, which amazingly still fit. We also got to see the baby ostriches, and stand inside the "earthquake house", which shakes to simulate the Loma Prieta earthquake from several years back.
This past weeked we went on the longest hike we've been on with both of the girls. We did this hike once with Anja before Maija was born, but Maija never liked riding in the backpack carrier so she hasn't been on many really long hikes. It was 14 miles round trip, with a really significant climb over a 1300' ridgeline each way. We brought both jogging strollers. Some parts were so steep that I couldn't walk downhill behind the stroller or it would pull me along like I was waterskiing. So I had to walk backward in some sections, holding the stroller in front of me, on the uphill side. It was tough, but the destination was so worth it.
Maija found a "pine tone".
When we got to the beach, there was nobody else there. Not even a single person.
Mommy-imposed sibling pose:
We startled a couple of deer when we got to the beach.
This is one of my favorite beaches in the area. Since there is no drive-up access, you won't see many other people. You can see Jay and the girls there in the distance. We played in the sand, watched the pelicans, and looked for shells and feathers.
Here's the view facing south. In the distance about two miles away is Alamere Falls, a 50ft falls that cascades into the beach before running into the ocean. Also only hike-in access.
Jay somehow spotted this crab in the surf and saved it from a large gull who noticed it at the same time. After a few pictures he put it back in the water, deep enough to allow it to escape.
So beautiful here. Wish we could have stayed longer, but we needed to make sure we got back before it got too dark. We had the usual arguing and whining throughout the trip, but they both loved the beach, and really had a good time. I'm so glad they both really love to go on weekend adventures.
At our lunch stop on the way out, Jay tried to get the girls to stretch before going back into their strollers:
Comments from the girls:
Anja: Pretend these two dragons are friends. This one is nocturnal and this one is diurnal.
Anja: Mom! Maija is too powerful!
Me: Too powerful?
Anja: Yeah! She pulled the papers RIGHT OFF the refrigerator! That’s why she’s too powerful!
Maija: What’s that?
Me: That’s a rhinoceros.
Maija: Rhinossususs.
Anja: (from the other room) Rhinoceros does not rhyme with mango!
Anja: (while at the dentist's office, telling Maija what to do in the chair). You need to stay really still Maija. Here Mom, hold my toothpaste, I'm gonna hold Maija's legs down. (proceeds to pin Maija's legs to the dentist's chair)
Anja: If you look closely at my skin you can see gooses. I mean goosebumps. Hahahaha, I said gooses!
Anja: Maija! Come here! My poop looks like silly putty!
We finally went on our first camping trip to a hike-in campsite. It was only 1.5 miles from the car, so not too difficult. I don't think I'd like to go much further than that until Maija is big enough to walk the whole way herself. We brought our giant car camping tent and pushed Maija in the jogging stroller:
Glowsticks at night were a big hit.
In typical coastal fashion, the fog rolled in so we couldn't see the ocean from our site, like we could on a clear day. But it wasn't too cold.
Since it was just for one night, we left the camp stove at home and just brought snacks.
The girls liked wearing their own backpacks.
Anja even decided she should wear two backpacks, like Daddy.
Jay was out of town this week, and it was his birthday, so we made him a happy birthday video:
It is nice that they play together for stretches of time, like this. It allows me to make actual (not frozen pizza or cereal) meals when I'm the only parent home. And the percentage of time that the games end in tears is getting smaller.
And comments from the girls:
Anja: Wouldn’t it be fun if we had two mommies and two daddies?
Me: Yeah, I suppose so. But I don’t think we have enough room for everyone in our house. Where would the other mommy and daddy sleep?
Anja: In the guest room. Or they could just bring sleeping bags!
Anja: Mom? Can I do whatever I want?
Me: No.
Anja: Why not?
Me: Anja, can you check on Maija for me?
Anja: (a minute later) She’s just in the bathroom.
Me: The bathroom? What is she doing in there?
Anja: Uh, eating toothpaste.
Me: I’m sorry I can’t go with you on your field trip this time.
Anja: But WHY?
Me: Well, I have to go to work.
Anja: But if we had two mommies, one could go with me on the field trip and one could stay home and do some work!
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?
