Mother's Day in San Diego

We started off Mother's Day with some serious excitement: a flight to San Diego! After our last airplane flight, I wasn't sure that I could face another flight with Natalie, but she did great. Well, okay, she did really well (oddly, she actually did better on our late afternoon return flight - perhaps because the flight didn't interfere with any of her naps but "merely" delayed her bedtime?). Anyway, here's Natalie getting hydrated before we board.We arrived in San Diego in time for a lovely Mother's Day brunch. This was quite the festCheck out the picture with Oma, Grandma Pat, Aunt Pru, Aunt Polly, and cousin Emilia! (Also, dear family, I have a couple of frames of this picture - through the magic of photoshop, I can actually produce one where everyone looks decent and is looking at the camera, but that will take time).
I had a lovely Mother's Day. Mike and Natalie gave me a wonderful bakery box, complete with home-made tequila sea salt marshmallows, espresso shortbread, moonpies, etc. If you ever need to send a little gift to someone, this is one awesome mail-order bakery!

Natalie enjoyed seeing her extended family.This was also the first visit that I feel like Natalie really "got" the beach. She wasn't afraid to take off running, chase birds, break for the water, eat sand, collect rocks, roll in the sand, etc.One super-sweet thing that Natalie did one day one the beach was to run around giving hugs in turn. So, she'd run to Grandma Pat, give her a hug; run to daddy, give him a hug; run to me, give me a hug; and then repeat the whole thing. This lasted, like, 5 minutes. So sweet!The beach was, of course, beautiful and lovely.Natalie also still enjoyed the swings. Interestingly enough, she seemed to have a real sense about which end of the beach had the playground, and she would eagerly walk in that direction.Here are a few flower pics. You know, for variety. Because I used to photograph things like that back in the day.You know what lives at Oma's house? A kitty cat! Natalie was SO EXCITED about the kitty cat - at least every ten minutes, she'd need to run and look through the window at it resting on its special chair. And whenever someone new arrived (or awoke), she'd eagerly show them the kitty cat all over again.Here are a few Oma pictures.It was also really fun to see Natalie discover my grandmother's house. I feel like she had the same sense of wonder and excitement and magic that I felt as a kid when I explored that house. That is one special house - interestingly, I have much more emotional attachment to that house than I do to my own childhood home.(special note to cousin Jesse regarding the above picture: that is a New Yorker. I'm just sayin'.)

One other thing Natalie discovered was stairs! Oma's house had just enough stairs that were just impossible enough to close off that Natalie really got some good practice - she can now go up and down stairs with pretty minimal assistance!And then, having packed a lot of living into six days, we headed home.

In other news....

Well, I feel like after a title like that, I'm supposed to have something very exciting to say. I don't, alas. It got miserably hot here for a few days, and then the last few days have been deliciously cool and rainy. My veggies might be a little stressed by the quick change, but I'm loving it. I'll take cold rain all summer long, thankyouverymuch.

In celebration of the cooler temps (as I write this, it's 45 degrees, and we have the heat on!), I made some delicious biscuits. I know Mike is the biscuit king in this house, but I got a bee in my bonnet for biscuits to go with our roasted red pepper soup last night. I made this recipe (thanks to my brother for buying me the source cookbook for my birthday) using Ford Farm Cheshire cheese, fresh ground black pepper, and oregano from our garden. Serious yum!Anyway, what have we been doing?
Well, back when it was warm (too warm, even), we went to an outdoor environmental festival here in town. I know, right? But it was actually very nice. We were among our people. We also picked up a free reusable shopping bag there. Natalie made good use of that.I think she just had some of her blocks in that bag (which was quickly relegated to the garage, where all bags like that live, given her proclivity to wrap things around her neck).

Natalie does, however, like to pick things up, carry them off, put them down elsewhere, move them around, etc. She is always very busy. In fact, last week, we had some garden center coupons go missing. I desperately wanted to find these since they offered an amazing deal on some roses that I wanted to plant in our backyard (this was my Mother's Day present from last year, so my goal was to get them in the ground before Mother's Day this year). We searched high and low. I don't have to tell you where we found the coupons, right?(Uh, we've also been missing her shoes since Friday. I can certainly tell you where they aren't.)

Speaking of finding things, please find the baby in the picture below.How about now?Or now?Natalie's had a real language explosion in the last week. New words include: door, flower, bear, monkey, duck, bear, moon, jeans, shoes, cracker, Grrr (for Gramps) and, uh, pear and phad thai (as a family, clearly we have our priorities straight).


Also, since we're doing videos, here's an older video of Natalie giving gentle touches to (and kissing!) doggies in a story book (credit for the book goes to Jen Em).


Natalie's reading tastes have progressed since then. Or, she is clearly her Gramps' granddaughter.Also, here's Natalie modeling a sweater I knit for a friend's daughter. I haven't given this gift yet, but I don't think that family reads the blog, so it's okay to share it here now (I hope). Anyway, this is sweater using the same yarn I used to make my first baby sweater (which was for the older sister in this family). I sort of made up the pattern as I went along, adjusting an existing pattern that called for very different yarn. Hence, it looks a little funky, but I think it's passable enough.Hang loose until next time!

About that cabinet....

Q: Is Natalie still playing in her cabinet?

A: Yes, yes she is. For those who might not remember, we cleared out one cabinet in our kitchen and filled it with Natalie-safe items. Our thinking was that she could "cook" or whatever when we were working in the kitchen.

Natalie is, as we've discussed, a climber. So she often climbs in the cabinet. We know this, and we're used to this. Here's an old shot of Natalie doing her thing.Here's a more recent shot of Natalie and the cabinet.Notice that small shelf? The one up to the left of her shoulder? (this is called foreshadowing)

So, the other morning, the three of us were in the kitchen, and then - suddenly - Natalie was gone. It was weird, though: we could still hear her happily chattering to herself, but she was nowhere to be found. She wasn't in the living room, the laundry room, or the pantry. I opened her cabinet, peered in at the bottom, and saw nothing. Still, the chattering continued, but we couldn't find her. Panic mounted. I started checking all the rooms again.

And then, just as I was about to loose my keep-it-togetherness (this is a family blog, no?), Mike looked again in the kitchen cabinet, this time crouching down to take in the whole space at eye level.

And guess what we found?I know. I know.

I think that whole incident (which probably lasted all of a minute) took at least ten years off my life.