My Poor Cat

Why doesn't she learn to stay away?

He came after her the other day and she did hiss at him. It was a first! Scared the living daylight out of him. Anthony hasn't "loved" Tigger too much since then.

Fun with Olives

Who doesn't enjoy putting olives on their fingertips?

New Dress-up Clothes

Anthony LOVES playing dress-up and until now only had one purple tutu. A neighbor had a bunch of dress up clothes for sale and I got Anthony a lot of fun stuff. (You can't see his shoes which have purple fur.) He is also wearing a tiara (with flashing jewels) AND a princess hat.

For those who question my indulgence of Anthony's love of all things beautiful, read "Boys and Boas".


I'm kind of annoyed at Maria at daycare. Anthony came home today and informed me that Maria told him that tutus were for girls. I was so sad to hear him say that, he takes such JOY in dressing up. My solution is that ballerina clothes are only for the house. Okay, for Robert's house, too. Its akin to the "Julie Hahn Memorial Sandwich".

My Favorite Things

I'm not a gear person, I'm not a gadget person.

I carry a Smartphone because my husband works for Palm and it makes me proud to hold up my phone and say, "My husband made this." My diaper bag is the messenger bag I got with my pledge to KQED.

I would like to take this opportunity to single out my two favorite things:

1. My Barnes and Noble E-Reader, my beloved Nook. I've always been a reader and I've been reading so much more since my Christmas present arrived. The best part, the VERY best part, is that I can read library books for FREE. That's right, library books. Despite the state of the California economy, our local libraries are still increasing their electronic book selection. I have cards to THREE different libraries and am in seventh heaven.

Its funny, when I first heard about e-readers I rejected the idea completely. I was truly in love with paper books, couldn't imagine replacing them with some electronic gizmo. The Nook's e-ink really feels pretty darn close to paper. Its not like reading on a computer screen, which I still reject. After reading the article "Is Google making us stupid?" I'm further convinced that single use e-readers are the way to go.

2. My Ergo carrier. I got this when Anthony was about 8 months old and weighed a ton. I used it constantly in the beginning, he lived in it at my college reunion, I carried him through airport security in it when he was almost two, and I still occasionally use it at the Farmer's market. Yes, I can carry a 3o pound kid around, for short periods at least. Anthony loves it too! When he was a baby and needed to nap while traveling, I'd put the sleeping hood up as I felt his arms and legs go limp and he'd take a nice cozy nap.

I remember last summer we'd be at the market and I knew he'd found something he wanted to taste when I could see his little arm out with the grabby fingers gesticulating madly at some tasty morsel.

Anthony says...

Anthony has been saying some pretty funny stuff lately.

1. "Mommy, I'm NOT proud of you." (He was kind of mad at me at the time.)

2. "Angels have wings and fly like airplanes."

3. After flying around like a forest fairy, who also flies like an airplane, "Mommy, I'm just pretending."

4. "I'm going to tell Daddy on you." Seconds later: "Daddy, Mommy said no."

5. With genuine concern to his pal Robert who was showing off his band-aid, "Was there blood?" Mama generally won't give out band-aids unless there was blood.



By the way, this isn't our bathroom. Anthony and three other kids were in the bath at Robert's house when I took this picture. Two Donahue children and two neighbors. Nothing like a group bath between friends.

Speech Development

Obviously the photo has NOTHING to do with speech development, but I used it as I dig his scooter.

I think that speech development is one of the most fascinating things I've witnessed. Anthony started off really late but caught up fast. His enunciation was always darn perfect, though. Its fascinating how he figured it all out, including correcting all the mis-steps. For months he called Jessica at daycare "Jecaca". Then one day he just started saying her name correctly.

The transition from "me" to "I" was equally amazing. First, of course, it was "My do it". Heck, everything was "My do it". Then one day he said to me, "I can do it." He still didn't conjugate his "to be" verbs correctly and would say, "I are". I never corrected him and within two weeks just switched to saying, "I am." Its just fascinating to watch.

Its never occurred to me to dumb-down my vocabulary when Anthony and I talk. Consequently he can use words like "excursion" fluently. That one makes Mama so proud. Today I had him say good-bye to a neighbor kid with, "Thank you for instigating today's fun." Bob accuses me of using 25 cents words a lot; I hope Anthony will be able to beat me in Scrabble when he gets older!

Just like "Curious George"

We went camping at Portola Redwoods State Park this weekend with my friend Celisa and her family, just like in "Curious George Goes Camping". Anthony knew what camping was all about--eating marshmallows. We got out of the car and the first thing he asked was to roast marshmallows.

Unfortunately, it was a LONG time until we were ready for a campfire. First, Anthony had to help set up the tent after our picnic lunch. There was some banana slug exploration and squishing. Then we went on a hike to see "The Big Tree", a 1200 year old Coastal Redwood tree. It was about 1/4 mile each way. He walked about 2/3 of the way in (it was uphill) and trotted out on his own power. Then we went on another jaunt down to the creek to play. Boy was that fun! Daddy showed off his prowess skipping stones, EVERYONE threw rocks into the water and Anthony and Daddy waded in to play.

Grown-up dinner was fabulous. We did shrimp and pineapple (and spices) in foil packets and it was good. I'll remember the recipe for the future.

Then we finally roasted marshmallows. Anthony didn't want to get too close to the fire, it was hot, so Mama roasted it for him. He sure loved eating them, though. We let him eat three perfectly toasted marshmallows until I cut him off.

Bedtime was interesting. It took him a LONG time to settle down and fall asleep and then he woke up in the night. We snuggled him in with us but there was little sleeping to be had. My favorite was when he started demanding to sleep in a tent! (We all wanted to be sleeping in the tent at that point.) Morning was even better--he was up early, discovered he could unzip the tent himself and next thing we knew he was OUTSIDE the tent in his pj's calling, "People, where are you?" Fortunately I realized pretty quickly that he wasn't in the tent with us and scrambled out to take him for a walk so that everyone else could sleep.

I think we're all a little sleep deprived, but I'm up for more camping again, I think!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Tonight we took Anthony to his first baseball game, to see the San Jose Giants play the Lake Elsinore Storm. It was a great time, even for those of us who don't appreciate baseball. Anthony got to high five Gigante the Giant, play in the bouncy house a bunch, climb up and down the bleachers, and at the end of the game he ran around the bases with the other kids. That was pretty darn funny to watch, he couldn't keep up with the others in his group and got left behind pretty quickly. Then he got lost somewhere between first and second base for awhile. He got back in it and gamely trotted around the bases as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Anthony did miss out on two important parts of baseball. He was bouncing away while they sang, "The Baseball Song". Too bad as we'd practiced and he was pretty darn good. Another complaint: they didn't actually sell Cracker Jacks at the stadium. Hello! The song even mentions them by name! He did enjoy his peanuts, though.

We Wore Anthony Out Today!

What a great day! We started our day with a trip to the San Francisco Zoo. Favorites included seeing a giraffe eat breakfast about five feet away, grizzly bear feeding time and a ride on the Little Puffer steam train. Grizzly feeding was pretty cool--fish and fruit got tossed in the pond and the bears had to catch them. They were pretty amazing hunters, a few seconds of stalking and boom, they scooped the fish into their mouths.

Anthony was pretty wiped out, he was ready for a nap well before his regular nap time. Of course, he walked nearly the entire way. Alas, we forget the camera so we don't have any pictures!

After a three hour nap we headed over to Eagle Pool (practically in our neighborhood) for family fun day. Anthony had a great time swimming in the pool and even got practiced jumping in. We swam for about 30 minutes until his lips were blue and he was shaking all over. Then we got out and watched the big kids jump off the high dive. Anthony REALLY wanted to jump off the high dive, too. Alas, Mama said you have to be at least five years old. Then we swam and turned blue for awhile longer. Even after his long nap, Anthony was ready for bed tonight!

Best Weekend Ever

A few more pictures...

(At the bottom Kelly is riding on Anthony's tricycle. We brought it so he'd have something to do while the other kids played. I think she's the only one who rode it this weekend.)

Best Weekend Ever

We spent the 4th of July visiting the Techaus at their home in Arroyo Grande. Can I just say that it was the best weekend EVER??? All the adults were in complete agreement about what made it so great--the kids and how well everyone played together. I was a little worried that the big kids would be off doing their own thing and ignoring Anthony. Boy was I wrong!

Kelly and Zarina spent the whole weekend playing with him. When they weren't, their siblings were! First thing out of Anthony's mouth when we woke up Sunday morning was, "I want to go play with the big kids." They pushed him on the swings, taught him to hula hoop, (more pictures later), bounced with him on the trampline and Kelly even took him for a joyride in the jeep. It was really great watching all the kids play together (even the 14 year olds came out and played for awhile.)





































No pictures, but we did let Anthony stay up for fireworks. He loved them, absolutely loved them!
(Fireworks are legal in Arroyo Grande so we set a bunch off, then sent Anthony to bed and did sparklers and the rest of the show.)