Summer Camp 2013 - The first two weeks

Cornelia is in the middle of her first summer camp experience.  It’s even “sleep-away” camp, as they say.  She’s spending four weeks with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Roy in Port Angeles while I work out of the Seattle office for four weeks and Ken works in Los Angeles on HomeMade Simple for six weeks (and possibly more).  While it’s tough to be away from her so much, at least I get to see her on the weekends.  Ken won’t get to see her until he’s back in San Francisco in mid-August.  But Cornelia is having a spectacular time, even if Ken and I are missing her a lot.

 

Dressed and ready to go to the airport.

Cornelia and I flew to Seattle on Saturday, July 13th, and stayed with Aunt Kathy until Mom and Dad arrived on Sunday night after finishing the Seattle to Portland bike ride.  (Yes, Cornelia’s grandparents finished a 200-mile bike ride for about the 12th year in a row before they came to pick up their granddaughter!  I think Coco’s gonna be sporty.  It’s inevitable.)  Cornelia was still up at 9:30 p.m. when they arrived - which in hindsight I realize was an indicator of the “up past her bedtime” pattern which was to follow.

"I'll just make myself at home, like Daddy does."

Her first week in Port Angeles was quite busy and much like her stay last September.  Of course she helped around the house; she carried the newspaper and mail in to Grandma every day, she helped Grandpa fill the birdfeeder and sweep the deck and the driveway, and she even supervised Grandpa washing the cars.

"That way to the playground, Grandpa!  That way!"

After all the chores were done, she kept busy splashing in her wading pool on the deck, riding bikes with Grandma and Grandpa, testing out the new playground at Shane Park, and even taking swimming lessons with Grandma.  

Coco loves her swimming lessons.  And, why not?  It’s a combination of two of her favorite things:  water and other kids.  Grandma was a bit concerned about whether or not Coco would do well when it came to sharing some of the pool toys.  She didn’t want Coco to be expelled on her first day of swim class.  But Coco did well; sharing when she was supposed to.  She liked jumping into the pool with Grandma catching her.  And there was another one of her favorite things too:  a slide into the pool!  Grandma thought it was for the bigger kids (the four-year-olds) but she was wrong.  At the end class, all the kids could slide into the pool and of course: “Coco do it!” “Coco do it!” “Coco need it!”  As you might imagine, Coco had a hard time being patient but she did manage to get four turns on the slide (with Grandma catching her of course).

Trying on jewelry for the dinner party.

Uncle Ned and Aunt Stephanie visited for a few days and their first night included a dinner at the house with friends Dan and Wendy.  Coco dressed up of course.  Cornelia had just one dinner party during her first week at Grandma and Grandpa’s.

Coco’s second week in Port Angeles included a trip to Hurricane Ridge to see the deer and to play in the snow, followed by a trip the next day to the Hoh Rain Forest.  She is learning her wildlife and she knows what a moose looks like - at least a moose on a sticker.

 

"I found the deer!"

"Where are my skis?"

"Where are the fish?"

"Where's the bear?"

Grandpa, Coco, Grandma, Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Ned

I started Skyping with Coco at bedtime from the office and one evening we even had a little puppet show (with thanks to my colleagues who have various stuffed toys on their desks at work).

Last weekend we all went to Yakima to see the Walsh family (and for Dad’s high school reunion).  It was a typical weekend in Moxee: congregating at the Pitt’s house, wading in the pool, barbecuing and eating ice cream.  Coco got to spend time with her cousins Donovan (“he who opens doors”), Bella and Dylan.  My cousins Erin, Stephanie, Tracy and Mathew were there as well, which was great.    

Splashing with cousins Bella and Donovan.

 

 

Daddy, Great Grandma Betty, and Coco

 

We even visited Coco’s great grandmother Betty, which was really quite wonderful for all of us.  And we even got a chance to see four of the six Wingenbach kids - Kay, Dot, John and Jim who happened to be in Yakima as well.

 

 

Pride Weekend 2013

As one of the "high holy days" for gays, Pride this year did not disappoint.  The U.S. Supreme Court rulings this week sent the celebration into the stratosphere, of course.  The Court declared a key section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional on equal protection grounds, giving legally married same-sex couples the same federal rights as heterosexual married couples. In a second case, the Court took no stand on the merits of California's ban on same-sex marriage, leaving a lower court's decision that overturned Proposition 8 as the last word. 


San Francisco City Hall
(that's so gay . . . .!)

So, in San Francisco this weekend, 1.5 million people (that's 1,500,000 people) filled the streets for the city's 43rd annual Pride parade.  It was the largest in the city's history -- with half a million (that's 500,000 people) more than last year.

For those of you who have never experienced the San Francisco Pride parade, it should be on your bucket list.  And apparently a lot of people checked it off their bucket list this year.

San Francisco Civic Center after the Pride Parade

For us this year the festivities included friends Joe and Francisco visiting from Los Angeles, dinner with Jeff and Eric on Friday night, and a backyard barbecue and friends renewing their vows on Saturday afternoon. 

The pace then picked up on Saturday night.  Saturday of Pride weekend is known as Pink Saturday and the Castro is the epicenter for the party.  (The Pride parade on Sunday is downtown and the celebration is at the Civic Center.)   We started the evening with drinks with friends at Ken's store (closed, of course).  We realized several years ago that the store provides the perfect place to enjoy drinks with friends in a comfortable setting while watching the crowds surge past the windows.  The media reported an estimated 75,000 people came to the Castro on Saturday night, so there was plenty to watch.

Cornelia was there, of course, and LOVED it. (Note to grandparents:  Please don't fret.  We left the Castro long before dark and before most of the party-goers had arrived.) "Out! out! out!" She wanted to be out of the store and in the crowds.  I took her on three walks through the Castro.  She loved the rainbow balloons everywhere, the pink and sparkly dresses (on the boys and the girls of course), the dance music blaring at every intersection and the excited crowds.  On my shoulders she could see everything and kept repeating "Yaaaayyyy!" and wishing everyone "happy pride!" (and, yes, there is nothing more adorable than a two-year-old wishing people "happy pride!"). 


Pink Saturday in the Castro

Sunday morning we planned to walk in the parade with a gay parents organization.  Unfortunately, after waiting two hours for the group to take its turn in the parade and realizing that it was not going to be our turn for some time, we decided to head to the Civic Center for the real party.  Since our staging location for the parade was right on the parade route, Cornelia saw a lot of the parade and was very entertained.  Although she was mostly obsessed with getting her hands on her own balloon.  Fortunately another parent in the staging area had a bag of balloons so she finally got one.   

Cornelia is figuring out how to get her own balloon.

Waiting for a turn in the parade.

At Civic Center we made our way through the crowds with our stroller -- loaded with diapers, snacks, water, video camera and a zonked-out toddler -- to the playground.  (Note:  This is quite a change from our approach to the festivities at the Civic Center several years ago.)  The playground is completely fenced off and only parents and children are allowed in.  (No velvet rope, but an exclusive crowd nonetheless.)  Once inside it was like an oasis of family-friendly sanity in the middle of the insanity of the 1.5 million revelers.  Ken and I both commented that if we had known it existed we would have had a kid years ago.  Ken's sentiments changed a bit when he figured out they weren't serving beer in the playground. 

All in all, we had a wonderful pride weekend.




Pride Weekend is exhausting!
(But she's hanging on to that balloon!)



Dog Fest 2013

Every year McKinley Elementary -- our neighborhood elementary school and one we hope Coco might attend someday - holds its fundraiser in Duboce Park.  The event - Dog Fest - is pure genius:  hold a neighborhood festival for kids and dogs at a dog park in the middle of the Duboce Triangle.  It's packed every year.  There are dozens of booths for dog food - from gourmet to all organic - and booths for doggie accessories and of course doggie adoption booths.  And there are booths for little kid games like the ring toss and others I didn't get close enough to figure out.  There are hot dog booths too, of course.  In the middle of it all is a dog show with dogs in myriad costumes (that goes on and on and on . . . ).

For Coco, however, the piece de resistance (say that with a French accent), was the bouncy house obstacle course.  Coco, we are learning, is quite fearless and quite physical.  She may end up being quite sporty.  She has recently become quite good at climbing.  For example, she now climbs a ladder - rather than taking the stairs - to slide down the big slide at the play ground.  Well, she loved her some Dog Fest bouncy house obstacle course.  She went through half a dozen times and probably would have kept going all day if we hadn't had to stop because we used up all our tickets.

Check out this video.   

Easter Weekend 2013

We had a really wonderful Easter weekend in the country this year.  Cornelia – at nearly two years old – was old enough to really enjoy the holiday, and we had our friend Josh and his sons Adam and Noah with us for the entire weekend.

Ken and Coco were already in the country when I arrived on Friday night after a week of traveling for work.  I rode up with Josh and the boys.  As I stepped out of the car Coco came dashing across the yard, “Daddy! Daddy” she yelled happily.  Ah, what’s better than that?  But the joy of our reunion was short-lived because from behind me bounding out of the car came Adam and Noah’s golden lab Chewper (a name that’s a combination if his given name Trooper and an unfortunate habit . . . ).  Coco’s shrieked with delight and she was lost to me for the evening.  She followed that dog around for the rest of the night, calling “Chuupa! Chuupa!” again and again, which was quite exhausting for her since the dog was thrilled to be in the country and constantly on the move exploring a world of new and interesting smells.

The boys had a great time as well -- doing what boys do.  On Friday night after dark they were in the backyard with headlamps hunting tree frogs.  Saturday, after a blueberry pancake brunch, they took a trip to the secret pond where Chewper enjoyed swimming after sticks and the boys explored the woods and took to climbing trees.  Two boys, a dog, a muddy pond and the woods?  Does it get any better than that?  In the afternoon we colored our Easter eggs around the dining room table.  (I think it’s been, what, nearly 40 years since I last colored Easter eggs?)  Saturday night was a barbeque at Rielly’s place with the usual Anderson Valley suspects. 

Sunday morning Coco and the boys had their Easter baskets from the Easter Bunny and Coco had another one from Grandma and Grandpa.  Then we went down to Boonville for the Easter egg hunt at the county fairgrounds.  Coco found four eggs.   Then it was back up to the house so the boys go hiking for a bit before everyone headed back to the city.

"Coco do it!" (a regular refrain these days)



Waiting, waiting, waiting . . .



Well, it ain't an Easter Egg.

A rice krispy treat covered in white chocolate.  "Tank yu!" to uncle Mike

Noah, Josh and Adam

 

Basket No. 1

Consider this basket ransacked.

Coco and the boys

February 2013 Report (with videos!)

Coco is still growing fast (I guess I’ll be saying that for about, um, the next 18 years or so . . ..) and her second birthday is just around the corner. 

Her favorite games change as she gets a bit older and a bit bigger, and she definitely likes physical play.  She loves spending time at the park and she goes just about every day.  Just ask her if she wants to go to the park and she’ll say “yes” and go get her coat.  At the playground she charges around between the swings and the slides mostly.  She’s always been pretty fearless at the playground.  Last week Ken took her to the playground at Delores Park which has a really big slide – or at least a slide that should seem really, really big to a two-year-old.  She was undaunted and raced up the stairs and down that slide again and again and again and apparently again many times.  (Check out the video below.)  Our challenge at the park these days is limiting her time on the swing so that other kids can have a turn and reminding her that the slide is not just for her and that she has to take her turn.  “Coco’s turn!” is a phrase she knows well. 

Indoors she likes playing “choo-choo” around the breakfast room table with Mari.  She follows Mari around the table and Mari says, “choochoochoochoo whoo! whoo!”  She likes dancing to her Barbie “Swan Lake” video.  She doesn’t like dancing alone; she’ll point to a spot on the floor and say “dance” pretty emphatically.  She likes Dora the Explorer (of course) and seems to follow along when she watches an episode.  She also discovered the art of getting dizzy, spinning around in her room until she gets dizzy enough to fall down.  She thinks it’s pretty funny.  She likes “chase with daddy” almost every night before dinner.  Daddy sits on the floor in the middle of her room, she hands Daddy the stuffed friend of choice for the day, and then she runs in circles around Daddy while Daddy makes her stuffed friend chase her.  Sometimes we we go through two or three friends before we’re done. 

She is becoming very helpful around the house.  (I hope that lasts awhile!)  She will help set the table for dinner, carrying her little plate, the napkins and the silverware to the dining room table.

Her words are getting really quite good.  She can recite words back almost immediately and pretty clearly.  We think she grasps the concept of “two” at this point, or at least is very close to getting it.  A few weeks ago we made our first visit to a pre-school.   We visited a Spanish immersion school in Noe Valley.  We hope they liked us and we might get a spot if one comes open.  Although we’re not sure yet, we might like to have Coco in pre-school for two days a week starting this summer.

(In the video with the bubbles at the park, listen for the other dad's comment to his little boy about "doubling up."  Pretty funny.)

This is not what it looks like. 
It is NOT a toddler in a Cougar oufit watching the Super Bowl
sucking on a lime after taking a tequila shot.
It's only four out of those five things. 

Sunday morning pancakes in the shape of a bunny.

We call it "The Brown Thing" now.  She doesn't want to give it up.  We hide it.

Bubbles at Duboce Park.

Coco and Daddy.

Sleeping Beauty. 
(Puhleez.  Like you thought I wasn't going to use that
as the caption for this picture?)

January 2013 in Review

Cornelia is really showing us everything she's learning these days.  She's saying more and more words all the time.  Too many to count.  She is very good with "please" ("peez") and "thank you" ("taankuu").  Her latest expression is "meechu!" which is her way of saying "Nice to meet you!"  She says it a lot; she says it to people on the street, to her dollies and sometimes even to her daddies.  She's learning the ABC song too, although at this point it's mostly "beee . . . ceee. . ." followed by other sounds.  She knows it's a song and she's trying to get the hang of it.  Ken has been working with her on her colors and she's getting good at them as well.

She really likes Play-Doh right now and Mari keeps her well-supplied.  If we need her to play on her own for a while we just set her up with her Play-Doh and she's quite content for a good long time.  She is starting to play pretend games too.  The usual game right now is the Sleeping Game.  She'll rest her head on her hand or she'll lay down in the middle of the floor, close her eyes and pretend to snore.  Usually she puts her dollies to bed and then lays down next to them and starts snoring.  The other night I brought her down to the kitchen to get some milk before bedtime and she laid down in the middle of the kitchen floor and pretended to sleep.  It's pretty dang funny.  At dinner she likes to hold hands with her daddies and sing her Happy Song, swaying from side to side.  It only has one word - "Happy" - repeated over and over again.  That's usually followed by the Up and Down Game, which is holding hands with her daddies around the dinner table raising our hands up ("up!") and down ("dn!") at her direction.

She has started to watch a bit of TV although she doesn't watch much.  When she knows bedtime is approaching she'll say "Tee!" and run for the TV room.  Mostly she watches the Goodnight Show with Nina and Star on the Sprout channel before she goes to bed.

Ken says this looks like a painting from
the Dutch Golden Age.  I knew I should have taken that
art history survey course in college.

Shopping with her grocery cart and groceries from
Uncle Scott and Aunt Tami.  
"Have you seen the price of peanut butter these days?!"

Out for a ride on her new trike!

We were all packed for the weekend . . .
until I turned my back.

Watching the sun set at the beach.

Helping Daddy with yardwork.

Big cup for a big girl.

Sporting her new handknit sweater from Auntie Karen!

Daddy and Papa