my two girls - one furry, one not

why dinner sometimes takes 2 hours

Grayson - foster doggie

Very sweet, quite shy Grayson, a beautiful Catahoula leopard dog who I'm fostering. His first night here. Loving him!

Cupcake!

Elsa and I presented a cupcake to our friend Suzanne the other day - for her (belated) birthday.
The look on Elsa's face says it all. :-)

trouble with a capital T

improvisation

A boring Sunday, spent mostly at home...  what to do?
How about a pair of mittens and a magic wand?

 

  

 

Elsa "reads" fine literature

(Extra thanks to Aunt Kate who left her book behind by accident...)

evening video viewing at Oma's house

belated Xmas video fun

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.