elsa's moods

from this:





to this, in 1 minute flat.

Our autumn moment

Elsa's First Halloween Parade

Oh Happy Day, I am in the Halloween Parade and I see OMA watching, here I am Oma...

Aren't I cute my Tiger "Wild Thing" costume?

WAIT.... I don't want to make another circle ...

Oma is here and I want to hang out with her....

Extreme sadness cannot be soothed by my teacher !

And NOW they want me to pose for a class (The "2"s photo).

Is there no end to this ordeal?

Having said all of this for Elsa, the good news is that she recovered quickly from her Parade trauma and happily told me about the parade later with a big smile.

Oh, the resilience of the young.

It was fun to go to her first parade and I almost cried, too!

Elsa models the vest that Aunt Kate gave her today at the scumptious Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland.

It was a glorious perfect day.

Elsa has very good taste in shoes, too.

Elsa's very first boat trip - ferry from Larkspur to San Francisco.

my FAB new shoes

October 2nd

I picked up this leaf out in Point Reyes.... the colors are even more brilliant than my rendition.

October 2nd is Margaret's birthday and it turned out to be a really good day. I spent time with two good friends, both of whom knew Margaret. This gave me a chance to remember with stories and to have an opportunity to share with them about this remarkable woman.

Fall is my favorite season for many reasons. I love the richness of the light and the colors that are all around as the leaves change.

On Thursday, I showed Elsa how to stomp through a pile of dead leaves. We had so much fun doing that .... I really got into my own "Kid" and did a lot of stomping, too!

It is such fun to see things as a 2 year old does, the wonder of it all. It gives you a whole new sense of adventure when you take a walk down the street.

Gretta comes over for a play date

Elsa's 2 year check up...

In short, she is not. Short, that is.

• Elsa’s in 75-80th percentile in weight at 29.8 pounds.
• She’s in the 95-100th percentile in height at 36.5 inches.
• Forget the noggin measurement, but it’s still 95th percentile.

The pediatrician warning me that people might expect her behavior and/or development to be more advanced because, at just 2 years old, she is about the height of a child a full year older. I think there is something to this… will have to watch for that and speak for her to make sure she isn’t facing unrealistic expectations.

Also, as if to confirm that she is in fact two (you know, in case I missed it), her every other word is NO. Which is often immediately followed by an impassioned demand for the very thing she just refused. She just can’t help herself from saying no first. It’s kind of hilarious. Except when it’s annoying. I can only hear NO, MAMA! about 10,000 in a day before it gets a bit old.

And she doesn’t want help with anything. I DO IT is one of her favorite sentences. And NO WANT IT is perhaps the other. For the record, she does also know the rarely-invoked “I need help” and “sorry, mama” phrases – how I love them so.

Elsa meets Great Aunt Barbara

Elsa met Great Aunt Barbara last week while she was visiting. Here is a photo of Barbara showing her how the zipper works on her Baby Doll. Elsa was intrigued and put a dime in the little pouch. Barbara is great with kids and Elsa loved getting to know her.

happy light

Came in this morning and discovered this miraculous transformation of my "Happy Light." Sometimes I just love working here.

A Very Special Family Reunion

Sunday was a very special occasion for our family. My two sisters and brother all met together in the same place and at the same time. What makes this rather remarkable is that it has been 40 + years since this has happened. Due to life circumstances and being in different locations, the four of us were never able to gather at the same time.

My sister, Barbara came visiting from Texas so we all met at a local pizza parlor. It was such fun and so very good to be together once again. Barbara and I are the daughters of Warren with our mother, Ruth. We are ages 75 and 73.

Nancy and Warren are the children of Warren and his wife, Milly. Nancy is 65 and Warren is 63.

We were not raised together but lived in the same area for most of our growing up years so we would see one another at family gatherings.

Nancy, Warren, Barbara and Elizabeth

My wonderful brother-in-law, Dave Bosch was there, too. He is more like a brother-in-love. Nancy and Dave are such dear family to me. Dave and I get along really well and like to tease each other, too!

I am so happy to be able to share these photos with all of you. Barbara and I are having a wonderful visit.

Elsa photos - fun with hair

cool article on Marin Rowing

This article ran in the SF Chronicle today -- pretty neat.

Be sure to click on the photos! (none of yours truly, but some good shots...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/28/BAEP15P421.DTL

Dogs go to heaven!

A Couple of Images

While I was down at my silent retreat I had an image of a bunch of peonies. Peonies are my daughter, Porter's favorite flower. They are so beautiful and colorful. I did a watercolor sketch of a few of them in my journal. Here they are....


Porter sent me this sweet photo of herself and Elsa hanging out on the porch at Silver Lake. Elsa is the 4th generation of Merrimans to enjoy this magical place. When you are there, you have virtually no contact with the outside world, very nice!

Elsa is a tall drink of water

Took Miss Elsa to the doctor today - she wasn't feeling great. (She's going to be fine.)

Asked them to weigh/measure her, as she's recently been busting out of her clothes at an amazing rate. And eating like a truck driver.

They weighed her, and, to my amazement, she has not gained an ounce since January.

Then they measured her, and in that same interval, she has grown - get this - three inches! Holy Cow. Guess that explains where all the food was going...

I'm pretty psyched, because her new measurements put her cleanly in the TALL category. A true Merriman. :-)

At 22 months:

Elsa is 27 pounds; 63th percentile for weight.

Elsa is 35 inches; 90th percentile for height.

how do you catch a cloud and pin it down?

 

like a log

 

cool video

Here is a great video - just published - of last summer's Ethiopian "blog union"... a gathering of adoptive families with Ethiopian kiddos. Elsa and I are in here in a few spots - and Jan makes a quick appearance too!!

Woofstock at Waterloo

Lulu and her Orvis catalog pose

Lulu and her Orvis catalog pose
Originally uploaded by pamplemousse2007

My sister Porter has been visiting me in Austin, so great to have her here and perfect weather for it too.

She brought her killer-diller camera and got this great shot of Lulu at Bull Creek. It's Orvis catalog time!

We had a great time going to Hula Hut last night and following that up with a visit to "Hey Cupcake", an airstream trailer selling, well, cupcakes.

This morning, we met up with an Austin-based blogger buddy of Porter's who turned out to be great, lively, funny and warm. She and her hubby are also adopting from Ethiopia, so we made plans to go to Aster's soon.

Drove out toward Wemberley but then found out that Elsa is feeling under the weather, so turned around so Porter could fly back to San Fran tonight and be there for her little girl. Slight bummer, but we've had an excellent visit all around and I'll be back in Cali very soon.

Artichokes

 

...are so lovely, I wish I wasn't too pooped today to paint these. But they will get eaten and maybe I'll just paint from the photo. It's spring!

A dog's life

Joy of Sticks

Lulu

Your cuteness dose for the day.

Lulu on March 1, 2009

 

This is what March 1rst looks like in Austin!