The Q girls visit

Picking Sara & Sophie up at the airport.

Sophie was right away enchanted with her "big girl" cousin!
Ain't nothin' better 'an naked babies! (When my sister visits, my Southernness comes out.)

The Day of the Stitches (bum bum bummm)

We were having a lovely day at the park.

Sophie looking for E.

And then, E tripped and took a spill down a couple of stairs. Blood was pouring onto her shirt, and at first I thought she might have bitten her lip or cheek. Then I realized she had a gash on the bottom of her chin. She was VERY upset when I subsequently started packing her up to leave the park, way more worried about leaving than about her chin! I wasn't sure what to do. She was still bleeding, which seems like an obvious sign that we should leave, but a dad at the park went to get a first aid kit from his car. By the time he came back, the bleeding had pretty much stopped, and I was finally getting a chance to look at E's chin without her flailing about. In the meantime, she continued having fun. Our adventurer!

And, yes, she has no shirt on. Because her shirt was now covered in blood. Crazy kid.

Sophie loved the swing.

Showing "Baby," as E called Sophie, how it's done.

Wheee!

I look horrid in this photo, but I have to post it to show E's prowess on the gym. She climbed up that completely by herself, and she's been doing so for about 2 months now! I have to say, I'm glad she wasn't hurt on something like this, so I'm not tempted to restrain her exploration (or feel that I let her do too much)!

My sweet Sophie!

E & S were so cute together, truly like big/little sister. S would follow E around, and E would act like she was too cool for school... but not too cool to give S lots of hugs and kisses. When she wanted to.

First time I'd taken E to a fast food restaurant! Weird, huh! I guess we really don't do fast food very often.

Those eyes! It is like I'm sitting with Mike mini-me.

Sara's definitely sitting with Joe mini-me! If you don't know Sara & Joe, take my word for it, S looks JUST like her daddy.

E did, as usual, a great job at eating lunch, and ate more chicken than waffle fries, which is good. They were both well behaved :)

It kinda looks like she's upset, but I think she was laughing and making a face.

Yes, they're in matching dresses. And for the record, I'm wearing Sara's clothes here and she's wearing mine. I love having a sister!

Eating dinner at home.

Happy girls!

E looooves to put on socks. Doesn't matter whose they are. This is one of my workout socks. Apparently only one foot was feeling athletic.

Waiting at the doctor's office to get the stitches out. You can just make out E's fingers at the top of the stroller and her eyes peeping through the back. I think she and Soph were trying to make their escape without us noticing.

Plan foiled!
Look at S's face - just along for the ride. I swear, she'd probably do anything her cousin asked her to! I foresee this being trouble later.....

E's chin, btw, is doing better!

E found my necklace and put it on herself. Don't hate her because she's BE-A-UTIFUL.

It's not easy being this glamorous, darling.

I have a few more to put up, but that's it for now! We had such a good time with the Quesenberry ladies: THANK YOU for making the flights! We know it wasn't easy travelling! We love you XOXO

This is another Grandma/Nanny video: only Rita & my mom will want to watch it all the way through (and maybe our Aunt Darlene)! But, it shows how good E's getting at exploring 'how to eat,' i.e., using cups, utensils, etc.

We've never had a problem with E being super messy, but I do sometimes ask myself, "Hmm, I wonder if I should stop her from doing that?" I tend to err on the side of letting her explore, figuring that experiencing textures of food and consequences of action ("when I pour this on myself, I get wet") is a good thing. And I try to keep in mind that I have to let her be age appropriate - what I let her do at 17 months I don't have to let her do at 2 years! So that said, here is E and The Glass of Milk.

(Question: is it just me, or does it drive you crazy how Blogspot's photo uploading system is all wonky? These are out of order, and it seemd way too hard to put them in the right place.)

I know I say this every post, but I think where we live is just gorgeous.
This was the view from the park today.

"Hey, Mom!"
Sweetest Baby in the World.

The next few photos are some of my favs from the past couple of weeks.
Yesterday, I started putting out some of the fall decor; notice the figurines on the bookcase.

And here's E wrapping her figurine in a blanket, haha! She does this all the time. One night this week, I look over, and she has about five toys lined up, and is wrapping them up in a blanket, one by one. I feel like I'm a good mom when I see her 'taking care' of her 'babies'!

And now it's bear's turn.

I dressed her in new fall clothes, and of course she couldn't wait to get down from the changing table and see the girl in the mirror!

She looks so grown up!!

E in her party dress; on our way to Hugh & Katrina's to celebrate Katrina defending for her PhD.

They're good friends of Mike's. Hugh and Mike are collaborating on the grant that Mike's been working on the past couple of months (and which is nearly done, thank God!! It's been an all-hands-on-deck effort this past week!)
This is a view from UCSD graduate housing (where Katrina lives). Craziness, huh?! Yeah, that's the Pacific, not just sky. Sometimes it's hard to tell; they melt into each other.

Another E eating shot: she's figured out drinking the milk from her cereal bowl. I laughed the first time I saw this, as neither of us taught this to her (or at least not on purpose). It made me think of my parents; apparently my dad gave my mom a hard time the first time he saw her do this. Sluuurp! We all know there's nothing better than cereal milk!

If you're wondering why I've been MIA for awhile, look over to the right, just below the About Me blurb: it's my new blog/column as the Philanthropy Examiner for Examiner.com! You can join the Facebook page for my column by clicking on that box (or you should be able to, if it's working correctly. If not, click here to join!) (If you're not on FB and still want to check out my column, here it is.) I've been working hard researching for articles and getting my writing on.

It feels great (although nerve-racking) to have an expectation that I'll be consistently writing. Obviously, what's great is that I'm not in a contract, so I can give my self/our family space to do more or less. However, that does not mean that the voice in my head, that Do Your Best! voice, is quiet. It doesn't matter if anyone notices or whether I'm getting paid, I want to do my very best. Learning what my best means in the context of being part of a family - this organism that needs my care and attention - is new. Difficult. What I always wanted.

I'm very glad to have Mike, because I admire how he juggles his demanding job and his commitment to us. Not that he's perfect - and neither am I - but he helps me figure out how to do life. And he's been very supportive and very encouraging of my new endeavor.

As I've mentioned before, that's that I believe feminism is about: that a woman's contribution to the family is equally respected and valued. So far, after hours and hours of work, I have made, wait, let me double-check.... $3.14. (I get paid according to the amount of traffic, time readers spend on my column, etc. It's going to take a little while to get the money coming!) Yet, it is a good opportunity for me as a "stay at home" mom, and it is valued by my husband. And one day it will be more than $3.14.

So that's what I've been doing. I've been debating whether I should keep up this blog, as most of you are on FB anyway and see E's photos there, but I know I'll still need to write mommy thoughts, so I think I'll still be around.

In fact, I have some good videos to upload. Coming soon.

Happy Labor Day!

Our Labor Day was pretty much like every other day, since Mike had to work (see previous post about the looming grant application deadline...) However, E and I did celebrate by making Welcome Fall cupcakes - the Ghirardelli chocolate cake I made a couple months ago with a new peanut butter frosting recipe! FYI: I bought these cute cupcake/muffin paper holders that had pumpkins, leaves, etc. printed on them. When I lifted them off the plate after the cupcakes were done cooling, I saw that some of the color from the paper had come off on the plate - which means they must have done the same thing to the inside of the cupcake! If you care about such things, as I do, you might want to avoid those! Oh well, they're still cute, and I don't think it'll kill us.

E helping by licking the batter.
She was eating lunch when I started baking, and I had her seat turned towards me. She started saying "more!" and motioning that she wanted something. I couldn't figure out what it was, though, until I realized I had just got the beaters out. There wasn't even anything on them, but she was thinking ahead...

And our second celebrating was the Changing of the Wreath!
Please excuse my sweaty workout top in this one. I had just walked in the door from a heated yoga class. Which, btw, I LOVE. It's not as hot as bikram yoga, but still toasty. To me, the heat is awesome because 1) it warms up my muscles way quicker, so I can stretch more deeply, and 2) the heat makes me focus more on my breath, as if my mind wanders, it starts thinking about how hot it is, which reminds me to go back to breathing!

Anyway, sorry my shirt's so gross, but E looks adorable!

The next few photos are some of my favorites ever. Emma was eating sorbet and frozen berries and was really going to town - she was covered in it! Of course, I got out the camera. She looked so serious in the first pic, so I told her, "Give me a smile!" and the next photo shows her response.... what a ham! That is the one thing that has surprised me most about kids' development - not just E's, but her cousin Sophie's, as well - how early they develop a sense of humor.

When she saw that I was cracking up, she put on a whole show....

Another mealtime face. I'm putting this one up b/c I think it looks like such a Mike face.

"Mommy, can I get down now, please?!"

E has totally gotten into crayons and pens. And her Buddha belly makes a perfect canvas, obviously.
You may also notice the crayon marks on her high chair. She did that while I was talking on Skype to my sister. Sneaky, sneaky.

Today we all took a much-needed day off (Mike has been working like a madman on a grant application) and headed up to Temecula, where there's several wineries. We ended up at Wilson Creek, which was billed as the family-friendly winery. Playground at a winery? We're in!
(Despite what you might think if you've seen the movie Sideways - or never been around wineries - it's not just people getting sloshed! There were lots of kids there, and it was lovely to have a glass of vino in the sun. Ok, so it was really hot, and we sat in the shade mostly, but still.)

E made friends with an adorable girl, Grace, who's 2. Lucky for us, Grace had cool parents that Mike and I had fun talking with, too.

These girls were seriously made to be friends. They're both lovers, literally falling over each other to give kisses and hugs, and very tough, not minding when said falling occurred. E loves to kiss so much, and it's always a little awkward when I can tell the other parent is super germ-phobic. Thank goodness for other "eh, whatever!" parents! I mean, I'm aware of germs, too, but there's only so much you can do!

Grace coming to find E.

Hello, friend!

We've had some great days over the last week. On Friday, Emma and I took a long walk to downtown Del Mar (it's only a couple miles away, but that gets rather long pushing a stroller uphill) to get our San Diego County library cards! I was really happy to find that they have a great kids' room. In addition to books, they have a nice selection of DVDs and great Melissa & Doug puzzles for kids to play with. We went again today, and E had a good time. She won't sit still to actually read a book at the library, though she will at home, so I think there are just too many new things that capture her attention. And not wanting to sit still and read does not in any way prohibit her from freely picking books from the shelf. We're working on that!



Both times there have been other kids there, as well, and I love watching E interact with them. The first time, it was a 4- and a 5-year-old girl. They adored E and kept trying to pick her up and make her sit on their laps, haha! E can take care of herself, so I didn't worry about it. They also helped her with some of the toys, so she indulged them by giving them some kisses. Today, there was a boy about age 6 playing on a computer. E kept bringing him books and toys, as if inviting him to play. I'm glad she's friendly - and confident!

Outside the library, taking a look at our finds.

I immediately thought of how different the above photo looks from E's first library trip just over a year ago, haha!:

I took this photo just to brag about what an awesome place we live in! It's hard to see, but between those trees to the left, you can see the ocean. Downtown Del Mar is such a wonderful part of our lives! It makes the crazy high rent worth it.

Our next fun event was E's first time at church. There's a lot of back story to this one, which I don't have the energy to go into tonight. For now, suffice it to say that I decided to try a Unitarian Universalist church. Palomar UU was the second one I went to, and I think I've fallen in love.

I checked out the nursery during my first Sunday, went to an "intro" tea last week, and brought E with me this past Sunday. The nursery coordinator is Mr. Bob. Yeah, I was a little surprised to walk in and find an older man running the nursery. While I am very careful about whomever I leave E with, my 'mama antenna' go on full alert when it comes to the men that are around E.

I was assured, though, as Bob sat and talked with me for as long as I had questions. And I have to say, I love Mr. Bob! I think E does, too.

I got to the church a few mintues early so E could have a look at the nursery beforehand (kids are in the main service for the first part). When it was time to drop her off, I carried her to the nursery, sat her down, and off she went, without so much as a look back! I was so glad she was happy! When I arrived to pick E up after the service, Bob was out there playing with the kids, actively engaging with them.

Like I said, I'll have more to say later about that topic. In the meantime, if you don't know much about UU (I didn't until last year), you might find this website interesting: http://www.famousuus.com/


Finally, catching a Cardinals v. Padres game at Petco Park on Sunday.

Poor baby girl's cheeks were pink from the heat, but we kept her well hydrated and used about half a bottle of sunblock. She had a great time playing in the sandlot at the park (brilliant to have for kids!) and climbing the stairs. Keeping up with her made me feel like I was running stadiums during high school track practice!

Attention Department of Health & Human Services!

Numerous academics, scientists, and policy wonks, among others, have raised concern that health issues that disproportionately affect women have been neglected in research funding. Many people have worked to correct this, and I daresay it is an ongoing battle.

Now I would like to propose a field of study that desperately needs attention: the illogical, unpredictable weight of postpartum women.

Exhibit A: A few weeks ago, I fit into a pair of shorts I had bought right before I got pregnant. Here is a photo of the shorts being worn to the ballgame on Sunday.

And here they are the last time I had worn them previously, when I was about 2-1/2 months pregnant. (Look how slender my face looks. Do you think my face will permanently be fuller now, or will it go back to "normal" sometime before E goes to college?)

When these shorts finally fit, I weighed exactly the same as I did at the beginning of the summer, when the shorts did not fit. Which was also, incidentally, the same amount I weighed about 6 weeks after I gave birth. Yes, that is right, I effortlessly lost all but five pounds of pregnancy weight in less than two months. Only to stagnate and suffer as I wear my jeans that “fit” but oh, not like they used to…..

Exhibit B: When E finally started logging some serious, consistent sleep at the beginning of this year, my trips to the gym became more frequent. I kicked it up another notch about three weeks ago, adding a Pilates class and (for the first time in two years!) strength training to my routine.

I have since gained two pounds.

How does this happen? I know, I know, muscle weighs more than fat, so in the initial phase of increased activity, one may see a slight weight gain. However, I also know that, however noble my intentions, my Pilates class isn’t building that much muscle yet. (I’m the youngest person in the class by about 30 years. It’s basically Pilates Lite, and the old man next to me still has better form than I do.)

Somebody should look into this.