Happy to be in the Mountains

Waking Grandma

Sometimes the best thing in one's day is the cuddling that happens before you get up. Grandma is rarely around in the morining, so LIvvy wanted to make sure she got her fill at Packer Lake.

Midwestern Girl

One Midwestern Guy + One Midwestern Girl based in California, give birth to California girl who is unmistakably a Midwestern little girl. Or at least she can pretend to be.

Potty in the a.m., Potty in the p.m.

We've been asking Olivia to take a few minutes to sit on the potty when she wakes up and right before she goes to bed -- mostly to establish routine and partly to prevent accidents. While she's flawless at noticing when she needs to go to the potty during the day, when we ask her to do so she throws out all sorts of excuses. My favorite? "But I don't have that funny feeling. I don't need to go potty."

Pink with Black Nose

The other day we were driving along and Livvy said, "Hey Daddy! What's pink and has a black nose?" Me: "Huh, what?" Liv, wagging her elbows: "It flaps it's wings." Me, thinking, and then suddenly: "A Flamingo?" Liv: "Yeah, I just saw one over there. It wasn't real, though." She does this on a daily basis, adapting her words to fill the gaps in her ever expanding vocabulary. She's pretty good at it.

Big Day Out with Thomas

We took Liv to Thomas' Big Day Out, a festival at Roaring Camp near Santa Cruz. We actually had a lot of fun. Unlike most kid things where you get charged for everything, this one was relativley low key and most of the activities were included for free. Livvy had a blast.

Little Farm with the Co-op Kids

Jenny, toward the end of co-op, started to take the kids on more and more field trips. The little farm was always a hit. Here the kids are looking intently for fish in the pond.

Shady Bench

A sunny, extremely hot (109) day is a perfect excuse to hang out naked.