Thursday, February 17, 2005

Eva's Valentines Celebration

Today was Valentines Day at school for Eva . I’m not sure how much of it was for the parents but it was quite an adorable event. Eva, Eli and Mama made a valentine for the exchange. We used a doily Grammy gave mama a long time ago and then cut out a big heart from the Swedish napkins from auntie Heather Allen. The real artistic value was added when Eva and Eli added the blossoms made from crumpled hot pink napkins. They represented the cherry blossoms we see all over the city. Eva was quite enthralled with the glue stick. She was an expert by the end of the project.

Anyway, we fist made cookies. Eva patted the dough and rolled it out with a rolling pin. Certainly there were diversions along the way – like squishing the dough between fingers. Eva liked using the heart-shaped cutter. She was quite good at this task. I kept glancing across the table at Delphine and Kusha eating the dough in the hopes Eva would not take their cue. To my surprise, the thought never entered her mind – only a matter of time before she discovers such joy.

After play time, we re-entered the kitchen area to find pink tool wrapped around each little chair, complementing the vases of red tulips enveloped in red tool. We were ready to have a full on tea party. There were stands of heart-shaped almond butter/honey sandwiches, and humas/cucumber ones, and another stand of tomatoes, carrots and apples. The tea was served with tea pots. Eva did her usual slurping of her red tea and eating the parmesan cheese straight from the spoon. We managed to get three bites of soup in before she got to the cookies – she emerged from under the table to gather her treat. She was in heaven by this time. Two of the parents read poetry over the uproar of the children at play.

Eva was quite a challenge to get down for quiet time. She finally hushed long enough for me to get Eli down for his nap. 45 minutes later she started whining by the door. This annoys me since she can easily wake Eli from this vantage point. I peered down the hall once to see books flying out from underneath the door – one more ploy to get attention. I finally went in to hush her. As it turns out, her foot was caught in her doll bed. I felt just horrible as I gently turned her little ankle to ease it from between the slats. My poor baby. We ended up just coming out into the living room to play. She was a bit wound up on sugar from her cookies.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Eli in February 2005

Eli can says “ha uuu” for thank whenever you give him something. He hears us coaching Eva enough in this ritual of thanks. Eva now says Yes with a very pronounced SSSS. This exact enunciation replaced her most recent yep.

This morning Eli did his normal waking and daddy came in to get him so he could join he and Eva. Eli protested and stayed behind. Walking back and forth to the door bringing me a pretend item in his hand - saying "hi hi hi" over and over again. His beaming smile was such a pleasant accompaniment to the day.

Eva in February 2005

Eva is really in to saying,”no no, never never do this” as she is determined to get her point across to the family. She is also in to turning off and on the lights in all the rooms. The other night she turned on the light in her room at 4:30 am and began playing in the hall outside of my room. All during dinner tonight she wanted to turn off the kitchen light. She loves moving her little chair from place to place to assist her.


Eva is beginning to loose her toddle. She can run, swinging her arms so that I can see what she will look like soon. I watched a 5 year old run down the beach on Sat and imagined watching Eva run like that – her legs taking her so far so fast. Eli is really moving on his feet now. His little bow legs tip you off he is still a babe learning. He can now get some speed up in to his own version of a trot. I just love watching them both.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Silly Mommy

Later, before dinner I finally found Eva and Eli’s funny bone. I put a clothes pin on my nose and said OW loudly and they just giggled uncontrollably. Eli was busting a gut with this new state of mama’s nose. We all laughed for a good 15minutes on the kitchen floor. Then Eva was putting it on her finger – she quite like the song I sang about her new finger. She finally skipped off to tell daddy about it and took the implement of our focus.

Hosting friends

Today we hosted Lenn,y Suzy, and Mielle for brunch. We had a delicious meal of asparagus, spinach, cheddar, parmesan scramble, potato and sweet potato hash, sausage and bagels. Yummmmm. It was fun cooking with our friends and having the children run about. Eating was a bit more stressful. Eli took to showing off with a loud shrieking scream during the entire meal. Seeing Mielle, and the night before Leon, sitting on their parent’s lap on the bench was enough for Eva to protest loudly against her own booster seat. Our family definitely over-whelmed the three of them - but they can handle it!

Saturday, February 12, 2005

Watch those waves at Crissy Field

It’s Saturday, and with pancakes as a start – we decide to head to Crissy Field for our family adventure. It was a beautiful day, not too windy just enough to add some drama to the water. The sun became brighter as we approached our destination. We had no problem parking – which we thought was either due to the 9:30 hour or the grey skies in the morning scared people away. Everyone in our car was in a good mood. Mama needed coffee off the bat so we started out with a stop at the Warming Hut. Daddy watched Eva and Eli. When I finally came out of the hut after unbelievably slow service – the late maker certainly could never get a job at Star Bucks. It took her 15 minutes to make three orders! Anyway, everyone was already pleased with the day. Eva was climbing on a big rock under the cypress pine and Eli was in the stroller momentarily – soon to get out and walk along the wall holding daddy’s hand. Eva soon joined in the game. Eva and Eli kept darting from side to side along the path – making me a bit nervous that they would be run down by one of the crazed joggers or a team of weekend bikers. It was fun being out with all the people. We spend so much time during the week at parks and places with just other moms or nanny’s. there were also many elderly European strollers out. They were all round and well dressed looking as if they were promenading along the main esplanade from what every country they hailed from. It added a nice mix to the usually overly fit-crazed Californians we meet on the path. We spent a bit of time with a family Eva picked up – mom dad and baby David (18 months) and the main attraction, Dexter 3 ½. Eli immediately jumped on to their Kettler bike - happy to sit in the seat of honor for a while before pushing it along. Eva ran up and down the hill with Dexter – chasing birds eventually - to the dismay of the elderly woman feeding the pigeons by the trash cans. Finally we got to the beach. Eva was finally in her element. We got her pants off but thought her froggy rain boots would be a good to leave on to protect her from the waves. Well, after 5 minutes of romping with daddy a wave got her and her boots – not phasing her a bit. Eli was happy to play with the sand toys, though he did brave the waves one or two times. We were not as smart and his pants got soaked immediately. Soon we had diaper clad children roaming the beach. One of the elderly woman walked by with a sour look on her face and said to me,” they must be cold?” and walked away shaking her head. I’ve always torn about this subject. How to keep them warm when they love to play with the water? Doon dexter and David were as naked as our children. THEN came the cool German mom with her mother and two boys we often see at the park. Both of her boys never got near the water, stayed completely clothed, never complaining - hats coats and all. I looked at Art - and we discussed what we’d just learned about keeping warm. Soon we pulled Eva from the water – clothed her in a dry shirt, pants and coat. She kicked, cried and rolled in protest of her new state. Eli’s dawned with a hooded coat (no pants due to water log). Soon we saw dexter and David equally dressed. The smart German mom put some sense back into these local mamas.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Dolores Park

This is the beginning of a family blog. This way our children can see their life from our point-of-view at some later date.

Dinner was just declared officially over by Eli. The instant water hits the tub, Eli took his lettuce leaf, a useful implement for dipping into veggie soup and humas, pointed it in the direction of the bath and repeated, “this this”. He then threw the leaf to the ground as if it were a flag declaring the winner of a professional car race – dinner is OVER -- NEXT. Eva promptly finished her last tortelini and climbed out of her chair. Like a well-tuned flute of the pied piper, the water draws our children out of the kitchen, thus the night-time routine begins.

They need a long bath to wash off the residual dirt from our family adventure to Dolores park on this lovely winter day. One would not know it were winter by the amazingly temperate weather and the cherry blossoms lining the residential streets all the way to the park. Both children piled in the Radio Flyer cart for the quick journey across the street to the park proper. Only Eli remained for the decent down the hill. As the last bit of sun stretched our shadows along the grass, Eli practiced throwing his favorite tennis ball, tempting many a’ dog with its bright yellow fuzz. He befriended a lovely German Shephard named Maddie. After a long courtship, Maddie made her move by sneaking in for Eli’s ball. Her grace and expert approach left Eli a bit astounded and reverent. He is rarely seen with out his ball these days, even without it he likes to say “ ball ball ball” as he extends his right arm – over and over.

We had good views of Eva as she moved from playing on the structure, meant for big children to the HILL! Here she went up with her Daddy only to roll to the bottom arm over arm to the bottom. What a face as she tumbled along - a grin from ear to ear.