No, no videos. (promise!)
Lulu didn't want to eat her dinner tonight and claimed she needed to go to the bathroom. We were dead-tired from a). an early morning wake-up by said toddler ~6:30ish, b). 5+ hrs of single-parentdom for me that included a toddler birthday party in 100+ F heat, and c). working to build a new rabbit hutch in 100+ F heat for my darling, devoted husband, so we let her.
She goes into the bathroom, keeps the door open, and proceeds to play. This isn't unusual--she will often claim she needs to go to the bathroom and then start "washing" her hands (which means playing in the water and soap). I did peek in once and saw her sitting, fully clothed, in the tub playing with her bath toys.
So, a full 30 minutes later, she (finally) comes out and tells her father that she has ice cream for him. And sure enough, he comes wandering down the hallway after about 5 minutes with a cup with a ball in it and a scoop-type thingie (he claims is his "spoon") on top. This is "schokolade" eis.
Eventually we have to put an end to her ice cream party and give her a bath because she's covered head-to-toe in glitter from her haircut yesterday and a birthday party featuring unicorn horns this afternoon.
Don't ask.
21 July 2012
16 July 2012
Camping II
Oh, and before I forget--we bought Lulu her own Kelty kids sleeping bag back last fall and this was its inaugural trip. It was cold enough at night that when we woke up in the morning, she was burrowed completely inside it. All we could see was the top of her head and hear her snoring softly.
Adorable.
Adorable.
Camping
Walter took this past Friday off as a furlough and we all went to Devil's Postpile National Monument for a quick weekend camping trip. It was great timing, too, because Merryhill's theme was also camping. The kids read camping-themed books, talked about what you do when you're camping, and enjoyed a picnic lunch outdoors with sleeping bags and campfire songs on Friday.
I didn't want Lulu to miss any of that, so we picked her up after lunch on Friday and headed up into the mountains. It worked out nicely, too, because Lulu took a nice, long nap while we travelled which helped make the trip shorter (for her).
She has been quite concerned about bears lately and all this talk about camping made her quite preoccupied with bears somehow getting her. So, we tried really hard to not emphasize the bear thing too much while we were camping. I explained what the bear locker was for and that if we kept our food in there, then the bears wouldn't want to come to our camp (or into our tent).
She was really enthusiastic to camp (thanks, Merryhill!) and eager to help set up our tent. What I had forgotten was how absolutely filthy dirty she gets when we're camping. Thankfully, I brought plenty of clothing, but her shoes and socks were just covered with a fine, gray dirt within seconds of our arrival. It probably didn't help that she proceeded to entertain herself by "sweeping" the dirt with an old branch from a pine tree for a broom, thereby stirring up a big cloud of dust. By the time we left, her nose was just black from all the dust--no matter how many times we made her blow her nose.
But, a dirty kid is a happy kid, right? If that's true, then she was ecstatic.
Our hike on Saturday ended up being longer than either of us had wanted and while Lulu was initially willing, she soon grew as recalcitrant as a mule. No kidding. She got hot and didn't want to do anything but stand in the shade, so we ended up hiking from one shady spot to another. That strategy worked pretty well until we got to an area that had burned in a forest fire in 1992.
No trees = no shade.
So, Walter finally ended up becoming the object of hatred for parents along the trail by carrying Lulu on his shoulders. Seriously--the other parents would give him dirty looks as their kids looked at Lulu then plaintively begged their parents to carry them, too. What those other parents didn't realize was that Lulu, trooper that she is, had walked the better part of 3 miles already. By the time it was all said and done, Walter estimates we walked about 5 miles (from our campsite to Postpile down to Rainbow Falls and back up).
When we got to Rainbow Falls, we saw the Czech family we ran into the night before when we were investigating the hotsprings/bathhouse at our campground (or lack thereof due to the windstorm). They had three little girls--one just older than Lulu, one just younger than Lulu, and a 6 month old baby. They were all eating their sandwich lunches, happy as can be until Lulu saw two long sticks on the ground and picked them up (they were just the right length for a Lulu-sized walking stick). Apparently, that act caused the oldest Czech to go into meltdown mode. I'm talking full on crying and wailing and pointing at Lulu holding the sticks.
Her mother and I quickly tried to defuse the situation (she by calming her daughter down and me by trying to persuade Lulu to share her sticks). Lulu generously offered one of the sticks to the Czech girl who promptly grabbed BOTH of them and handed one to her younger sister. Lulu and I just sat there in shock--I honestly thought that they could each have one--while the Czech mother said thank you and the family quickly left with both sticks (being uncomfortable with the attention they were drawing, I suspect). The watching crowd of retirees (a la Greek Chorus) tried their best to reassure Lulu that she had done a nice thing and one nice man even tried to give Lulu another stick, but she refused. At that point, I don't think she wanted anything more to do with strangers or sticks that caused other girls to unexpectedly scream and get stolen out of her hands. I don't know that she remembers it now, but I was dismayed that she saw how nice gestures can end up going unappreciated.
Thankfully, our hike back was uneventful after that and she really enjoyed the chocolate hazelnut s'mores we made after dinner that night. True to form, the chocolate was her favorite part. And afterwards, she got a big kick out of foraging sticks to throw into the fire and watching them burn.
She did well on the drive back to Sacramento today, too. She took an almost 2-hour nap while we were driving through the Sierras over Sonora Pass, waking up as we started getting back down into the Central Valley. By the end of our drive, she was pretty stir crazy--we fed her gummy worms to keep her happy. There were three color combinations: yellow/green, red/orange, and red/white. When she asked for a gummy worm, I would ask her which color she wanted. When she told me which color, I made her tell me which fruit was also that color and what it tasted like before I gave it to her. The green ones really stumped her!
She was so happy to be home, too. She ended up playing with every toy she has before dinner. Walter joked that perhaps we need to take her away from her stuff more often!
And now, some really cute photos from this past weekend:
I didn't want Lulu to miss any of that, so we picked her up after lunch on Friday and headed up into the mountains. It worked out nicely, too, because Lulu took a nice, long nap while we travelled which helped make the trip shorter (for her).
She has been quite concerned about bears lately and all this talk about camping made her quite preoccupied with bears somehow getting her. So, we tried really hard to not emphasize the bear thing too much while we were camping. I explained what the bear locker was for and that if we kept our food in there, then the bears wouldn't want to come to our camp (or into our tent).
She was really enthusiastic to camp (thanks, Merryhill!) and eager to help set up our tent. What I had forgotten was how absolutely filthy dirty she gets when we're camping. Thankfully, I brought plenty of clothing, but her shoes and socks were just covered with a fine, gray dirt within seconds of our arrival. It probably didn't help that she proceeded to entertain herself by "sweeping" the dirt with an old branch from a pine tree for a broom, thereby stirring up a big cloud of dust. By the time we left, her nose was just black from all the dust--no matter how many times we made her blow her nose.
But, a dirty kid is a happy kid, right? If that's true, then she was ecstatic.
Our hike on Saturday ended up being longer than either of us had wanted and while Lulu was initially willing, she soon grew as recalcitrant as a mule. No kidding. She got hot and didn't want to do anything but stand in the shade, so we ended up hiking from one shady spot to another. That strategy worked pretty well until we got to an area that had burned in a forest fire in 1992.
No trees = no shade.
So, Walter finally ended up becoming the object of hatred for parents along the trail by carrying Lulu on his shoulders. Seriously--the other parents would give him dirty looks as their kids looked at Lulu then plaintively begged their parents to carry them, too. What those other parents didn't realize was that Lulu, trooper that she is, had walked the better part of 3 miles already. By the time it was all said and done, Walter estimates we walked about 5 miles (from our campsite to Postpile down to Rainbow Falls and back up).When we got to Rainbow Falls, we saw the Czech family we ran into the night before when we were investigating the hotsprings/bathhouse at our campground (or lack thereof due to the windstorm). They had three little girls--one just older than Lulu, one just younger than Lulu, and a 6 month old baby. They were all eating their sandwich lunches, happy as can be until Lulu saw two long sticks on the ground and picked them up (they were just the right length for a Lulu-sized walking stick). Apparently, that act caused the oldest Czech to go into meltdown mode. I'm talking full on crying and wailing and pointing at Lulu holding the sticks.
Her mother and I quickly tried to defuse the situation (she by calming her daughter down and me by trying to persuade Lulu to share her sticks). Lulu generously offered one of the sticks to the Czech girl who promptly grabbed BOTH of them and handed one to her younger sister. Lulu and I just sat there in shock--I honestly thought that they could each have one--while the Czech mother said thank you and the family quickly left with both sticks (being uncomfortable with the attention they were drawing, I suspect). The watching crowd of retirees (a la Greek Chorus) tried their best to reassure Lulu that she had done a nice thing and one nice man even tried to give Lulu another stick, but she refused. At that point, I don't think she wanted anything more to do with strangers or sticks that caused other girls to unexpectedly scream and get stolen out of her hands. I don't know that she remembers it now, but I was dismayed that she saw how nice gestures can end up going unappreciated.
Thankfully, our hike back was uneventful after that and she really enjoyed the chocolate hazelnut s'mores we made after dinner that night. True to form, the chocolate was her favorite part. And afterwards, she got a big kick out of foraging sticks to throw into the fire and watching them burn.
She did well on the drive back to Sacramento today, too. She took an almost 2-hour nap while we were driving through the Sierras over Sonora Pass, waking up as we started getting back down into the Central Valley. By the end of our drive, she was pretty stir crazy--we fed her gummy worms to keep her happy. There were three color combinations: yellow/green, red/orange, and red/white. When she asked for a gummy worm, I would ask her which color she wanted. When she told me which color, I made her tell me which fruit was also that color and what it tasted like before I gave it to her. The green ones really stumped her!
She was so happy to be home, too. She ended up playing with every toy she has before dinner. Walter joked that perhaps we need to take her away from her stuff more often!
And now, some really cute photos from this past weekend:
13 July 2012
First Time Bowling
We had a playdate yesterday with Shaya and Tina. It was so hot yesterday and Tina and I both really wanted to be indoors, so we decided on a bowling playdate. It worked out well--we had access to booze, food, and air conditioning. Bowling FTW!
Here are a few action shots:
It had been a while since Lulu and Shaya had seen each other, so there were lots of hugs to go around, too. This is what happens when you try to take pictures of two squirmy little girls in low lighting:
Seriously, can they be any cuter? And I love that they've known each other since they were drooling babies who couldn't sit up by themselves. (That's the thought that comes to mind when I see pictures like this)
And this is my favorite picture of all. I like the constantly swinging legs wearing bowling shoes!
Here are a few action shots:
 |
| Shaya looking like a super model |
 |
| Lulu concerned that her ball wasn't coming out |
 |
| I love that she always finished bowling like a gymnast |
 |
| the moms caught a little action, too |
 |
| Hooray! |
 |
| me helping Lulu |
 |
| high-fives all around! |
It had been a while since Lulu and Shaya had seen each other, so there were lots of hugs to go around, too. This is what happens when you try to take pictures of two squirmy little girls in low lighting:
 |
| finally I broke down and used my flash |
And this is my favorite picture of all. I like the constantly swinging legs wearing bowling shoes!
06 July 2012
Lulu eating her way through Europe
For lack of a better title, that's pretty much what most of these photos are. I don't know why I have so many photos of her eating cookies and ice cream other than it's about the only time she stood still long enough for me to get a shot? The rest of the time, she was going a million miles a minute, chasing pigeons like their lives depended on it (I shudder to think what she might've done with one if she actually caught it!).
From San Gimignano, Italy, enjoying a local delicacy
Eating her pasta pomodoro in Chianti
There are too many funny photos of her eating ice cream in Würzburg for me to share them all one-by-one, so here's a slideshow:
And eating ice cream while Mommy and Daddy enjoy a glass of wine at the Residenz:
And enjoying some chicken nuggets, french fries, and ketchup at Playmobil Funland (repeated like a mantra when you ask her what her favorite foods are):
From San Gimignano, Italy, enjoying a local delicacy
And from Siena, Italy, showing off her future Playmate of the Month moves
And eating more ice cream (also in Siena):
Apparently, "The Elaine Bennis" move is becoming her signature photo pose
For a change, she's pestering cats (not pigeons) in these photos
Waiting for dinner by reading a book with Daddy
There are too many funny photos of her eating ice cream in Würzburg for me to share them all one-by-one, so here's a slideshow:
And eating ice cream while Mommy and Daddy enjoy a glass of wine at the Residenz:
And enjoying some chicken nuggets, french fries, and ketchup at Playmobil Funland (repeated like a mantra when you ask her what her favorite foods are):
And last, but not least, enjoying a Schneeballchen (snowball) in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This is like a funnel cake wadded up into a ball form and then covered in powdered sugar (or chocolate or your topping of choice). I wisely chose powdered sugar for its easy clean-up:
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