Penelope

Yesterday, Penelope went to live with her person, Lisa. Penelope lived with us for the past year while Lisa lived in Italy for a post-doc position, researching and writing about terrorism experts. Lisa is moving on to bigger and better things (although Italy doesn't sound too shabby to me) and Penelope gets to go with her this time. Penelope's travel plans include: a few months stay in Ohio, then jetting off to England (when her visa comes through).

We enjoyed her staying with us, but I think she'll be happier with her dear Lisa. Here's wishing Penelope safe travels and a nice long stay in England.

Los Angeles - April 2009

I sort of can't believe that I didn't post these pictures. But then again, I sort of can believe it. These are pictures from our trip down to LA in April. We drove down for Great Grand Popi's 90th birthday party, stayed a few extra days, and then Clara & I flew back up, while Molly & Zach had a more "leisurely" drive back (enjoying the Santa Monica Pier, Carmel Valley, the Monterey Aquarium, among other things).

good timing, though, since we'll be headed back there in a few weeks for GGpa's 90th... I wonder if it will take me 5 1/2 months to post those pictures? :)

The nice thing about the delay is that I get to enjoy seeing how much has changed in those few months. Molly was still completely fascinated by the construction equipment, and pretty tentative in the park on the rocks. Clara was so much littler, and so much more baby-like! A lot of things have also stayed the same, of course.

Little Farm Fair 2009

On Sunday we went up to the Little Farm for their 3rd Annual Little Farm Fair. Astute readers might remember that we were at the 1st Little Farm Fair two years ago, with just one kid. The tractor's been fixed up, they didn't provide ear pro, and the girl has grown up just a little (!) but interestingly, the same firefighter (Mike) was there. We didn't get a picture this time. Molly wasn't as interested in the fire truck, partially because her friend Rylyn wasn't that interested. But we did get to hang with Mike the firefighter when Molly got a monstrous splinter in her foot that required me to extract it. Mike cheered us on (and provided stickers, hats, and cool bandaids).

This year we rode the bus up with Rylyn's family. They're threatening to cut that bus line. While that makes me sad, I kind of understand. We've only ridden it twice since we've been going up to the Little Farm, and both times it was pretty empty.

Coastal Cleanup

We went to our first Coastal Cleanup today. It was pretty fun. We biked down to the marina, got bags and tally cards, and went off to pick up a seemingly endless supply of cigarette butts and cigar tips.

The girls enjoyed themselves. They had a predictably limited attention span for picking up tiny pieces of trash in the seaweed, and a predictably longer attention span for playing in the water. The site we chose (Strawberry Cove) was billed as being very child friendly and was packed with kids.

In the end Molly was very proud of her pinecone/feather sculpture, and very excited to lead us in a "parade" back to the main site. After sticking around for some of the raffle, Zach and I biked the girls home.

In other news, Clara has decided to be potty trained. She's shown a very keen interest for a while, but I've been putting it off. Finally, her daycare noticed and took it on with almost no issues. She spent the entire last week at daycare with diapers only at nap, and only a few accidents. It hasn't gone as smoothly at home, but it hasn't been terrible. Perhaps we should use the jellybean method her daycare uses...

Afternoon Snack

Sometimes they're up. And it's lots of fun. This is Molly & Clara enjoying an afternoon snack of frozen peas and edamame beans (or Mama Peas as Clara calls them).

You'd never guess from this series of pictures that just minutes before Molly was screaming and hollering and me and Clara and hurling every insult she could think of ("You're a Bad Bad Mama. You. Shouldn't. Do. That. That's. Not. O.K." and "NOOOOO!" etc.)

Supposedly she was upset because Clara had the clear bowl and she waaaaanted it (even though, moments before, she had declared the clear bowl unfit for her use).

In a rare moment of Zen parenting (or "Mindful Parenting" as my favorite parenting blog* calls it) and kept myself centered until she calmed down. We acknowledged that she wanted the bowl and she started coming up with ideas to help. They settled on sharing the bowl, and even shared the chair!

* Greater Good Science Center's "Half Full Blog" by Christine Carter. Check it out. It rocks.

Misc. Molly

Mollly; Molly the Fire Fighter; Molly the Fairy; Molly the Paper Bag Princess.

Park