Point Reyes, Part I

We were suckered into backpacking this past weekend and now I wonder why we waited so long. I had a blast, Zach had a blast, and most importantly, Molly had a blast. We went with some great co-campers, including a 4-month old baby who was just amazing. Totally cute, charming, and sweet (she was the one who suckered us into it - we figured if a 4-month old could hack it, a 16-month old could!). And the non-parent adults in the group were very accommodating to us parents and kids. All around, a great time.

Photos - top: Heading back up from the beach; middle: Molly helps Kim settle in to her tent, Molly tests her boundaries; bottom: Molly leans into the wind on the beach, Molly returning from her adventure in the grassy meadow.

Stripes & Separation

Here's Molly sportin' the stripes at Zach's folks place over father's day weekend.

The other day I (well really it was Zach, but he used my login, so it has my name on the post) posted a picture of Paz holding Molly & Kira. That picture was remarkable, in part, because Zach was able to take it with me standing nearby. See, Paz is with Molly 3 1/2 days a week and she's been coming over every week for the last ... year (could it be that long?!). Last fall at some point, as Molly started to learn how to crawl, she also started getting some of that separation anxiety (with a dash of stranger anxiety thrown in for fun). Pretty soon, she also figured out that when Paz arrived, her parents left, and would promptly break down in tears upon Paz's arrival.

Over the months some days have been better than others, but the morning routine on days that Paz comes over usually went something like this: we all get up, get dressed, start eating breakfast; Paz arrives, Molly bursts into tears and throws herself into my arms; Paz and I juggle things until breakfast is over at which point I try to convincingly tell Molly everything is fine, I love her, I'll see you tonight, & goodbye; Molly tries to convincingly tell me that the world is ending and she'll never survive the day; Paz tries to distract her, and I try to slip out as quickly as possible. On a good day, the distractions might work and Paz and Molly might be able to walk me to the door to say goodbye. On a bad day I leave for work to the tune of Molly crying.

The thing is, I know that she's fine. Every once in a while I get the glimpses of the two of them together and I can see that they adore each other. At one point, when I was partially employed, I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with Paz and Molly. Of course, Paz & I thought that would be fun, but we soon found out that it wouldn't work. With both of us there, Molly was inconsolable. So, after trying various techniques to get Molly to hang out with both of us, I decided to close myself in the office and, I don't know, look for a job or something. Moments later I heard giggling and laughing coming from the living room. And sure enough, Molly was having a blast with Paz.

So, to make a short story long, the remarkable thing that happened the day that picture was taken is that Paz walked in to the kitchen holding Kira, when Molly, who was finishing up breakfast with me, ran over to Paz and started insisting on "up, up, up!" For a second I saw surprise flash across Molly's face when she realized that both Zach and I were standing right there, but we were so excited and positive that she quickly took pride in being in Paz's arms. So far, the trend has continued. Last week she even started signing "work" when Paz came over and proactively said goodbye to me & Zach before we had to go.

There's a part of me that's wistful for the reassurance that Molly is so attached to me that she can't stand me leaving, but there's another part of me that's really excited to see this next level of development. I'm sure all the other parents out there have similar stories, right?

This Kid Rocks!

Follow the adventures of our lovely leading lady as she rearranges rocks in her grandmother's garden. Where she picked up this fascination with rocks, who knows? But she certainly enjoys those rocks. Even these heavy ones that can be difficult to transport (and sometimes drop).

Botanical Garden Part II

Botanical Garden Part I

We went to the botanical gardens the other day. Yet another wonderful part of the park system that I now work for. It was hot, but beautiful. I have to point out that Molly picked out most of her clothing that day. It was really cute. I started to dress her by putting her in the longer, flowered dress and jeans. Then she went over to the (clean) laundry basket and picked out the white smock dress and insisted that I put it on. In typical toddler style, she completely broke down when I didn't. So, on it went. This was a battle I didn't even see the point of. After happily showing off her dress to Zach, she wandered off and found the blue shoes, brought them back to me, and insisted I put those on, too. It was clear she was building up to something, and indeed she was. Once the shoes were on, she marched up to the front of the house, clearly determined that we were heading out!

fuzzy fuzzy cheeep cheeep cheeep

Since, really, Molly isn't nearly cute enough, we decided to up the cute quotient of our household this weekend by adding four 1-week old chicks to our family. For the last few days we've immersed ourselves in learning about brooders, chick starter, peeps, and squeaks. They're really very cute and seem to have settled in to our dining room nicely.

And yes, Molly absolutely loves them. Whenever we talk about chicks or chickens now she starts saying "cuhk-cuhk-cuhk" (her version of "cluck cluck cluck", as in "what does a chicken say?") and runs over to the brooder (chicken-eese for warm clean home for chicks) to see them. If we're not there to unlatch the door she peeks under the sheet we have hanging from the side to keep the drafts down. If we do unlatch the door she dutifully opens it and then leans over to look at the chicks, and reminds us to "shhh" if things get tooo exciting.

She's also gotten a little territorial of the chicks. When one of her kid-friends came over to see them she enjoyed showing the chicks off, but wasn't too pleased when her friend wanted to lean in and look herself. Molly tried to push her friend away.

Because the chicks need to stay warm we're keeping them in the dining room for now. Which is convenient a) because we finally moved the "guest room" into the office, and b) because we don't have a coop! This buys us some time to design and build the coop.


PS. Just kidding about Molly not being cute enough - she seems to get more and more amazing every day.

Paz

Amamos a nuestra amiga Paz...