Thursday, October 29, 2009

Monday, October 26, 2009

Apple Hill

Finn and I were admiring the Fall colors in the trees the other day while we were driving, and I quizzed him, "So Finn, what season are we in now?" and he replied, "Fall!......and another word for Fall is Awesome!" I almost didn't correct him.

This was a fun-filled Fall weekend! We had a great visit from our friend and Santa Barbara upstairs neighbor, Doug. Here's Nate and Doug standing at the river's edge, just a 1 minute walk outside of our back yard.I forgot how amazing Sacramento looks in the Fall.


And then we joined forces with Dave, Liza and company and headed up to Apple Hill for some Fall festivities at a few of the apple farms there. My family used to go up there when I was little, but it's been years.








I don't know what I like most about this photo. The great look on Finn's face, Thomas' hug or the fact that it's framed by porta-potties and a dumpster! Either way, it's a keeper!


Good ol' family photo


Selah could NOT walk by a fallen apple without picking it up and taking a bite. Apparently she LOVES apples.





Baby Wendy, a.k.a. the easiest baby in the world, just hung out the whole time - taking it all in.


The whole clan at the Reed homestead....overlooking their 4 acres.


On Sunday I peeled myself out of bed to do the Four Bridges Half Marathon. It was so fun......relatively speaking. I've wanted to do this run for a few years now, and now that we are here, I couldn't resist, even though I was ill prepared. I really like the 1/2 marathon distance (I'm not super fast) and this one is a beautiful run circling Lake Natoma, my college rowing stomping grounds. It was a gorgeous day, and I didn't die! Today, however, my whole body is angry with me. Especially my jaw - who knew?


After the race, we headed to Granny Peg's and Papa Toms for some brunch.




Finn and Uncle Josh having a heart to heart on the curb.




Side Note:
Is it just me, or is Selah beginning to resemble the little girl "Boo" from Monster's Inc.




HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Our little climber

The other day I was in the kitchen and one moment Selah was playing next to me on the floor and then I turned around and she was standing ON the kitchen table, just looking at me like, "Hey! Look what I can do! Pretty cool huh?" She's been climbing EVERYTHING every since. Bookshelves, step ladders, tables, and couches mostly. She'll hoist herself up on the couch and then just jump off into a crash landing and she thinks it's the greatest thing.

Notice the broken blinds behind Selah? Yeah, that was her.


Well, thanks to our recent addiction to craigslist and my husbands mad handyman skills, we now have a climbing structure in our backyard for our little monkey. And, it came with swings, so that's where Finn's been for the past week, asking us to push him "as high as the trellis, so my head hits the trees, so high up in the sky!" He says it that way verbatim every time.

(I'm borrowing my parents' camera and forgot to change the date display. These were not taken in 07)









Friday, October 09, 2009

Returning

We had our first visit back to Santa Barbara! It was glorious!

I was expecting SB to feel very nostalgic, but actually it just felt so normal - like we never left. It was awesome to see the gang again, AND the reason for our coming in the first place, to attend our friend Jill's wedding! (an absolutely beautiful and romantic event). We were there for a week, so we got to do some of our same old SB things, long runs along the ocean, Finn's favorite parks, playdate with Vanessa, story time at the library, farmers market, visit Nate's old school on Healthy Jueves day, meet baby Cornelius who was born right after we left, go to a fun hiphop class and a yoga class with Jos, and we even played on our old softball team to fill in for a couple who were out of town. It was a really fun visit (though I have no photos to prove it) and made us miss SB so much.

Then we came back to Sacramento and shizzam it was......FALL! Sacramento in the Fall is lovely. Stay tuned for Pumpkin Patch pics!

Catching up....(a.k.a. stalling)

So....I lost my camera, again. This time I think it's for realsies. It's been 3 weeks. I don't mean to point fingers but, I think Selah threw it away in the garbage. I love her dearly, but I wouldn't put it past her. I have seen her do it and I usually retrieve the item, except for when it was my sandwich one time. Man! It's such a bummer - just when there started to be so many reasons to snap photos:

Finn started preschool! And he's loving it!

It's a parent co-op preschool, so I help in the classroom once a week. He is really thriving in there - it's been about 3 weeks now. He has discovered that he loves to cut. Just give him a piece of paper and some safety scissors and you'll come back to a pile of homemade confetti on the floor and a happy kid.

He loves his teacher, Miss Anita. But he talks more about 3 yr old Sophia who thinks he's "a really funny guy" according to Finn.


Selah is saying more words now. This summer, Selah started signing the usuals (milk, food, more, all done, hat, bye bye) and could say mama and dada. Now she says lots more words (baby, pee pee, hi Mama, hi Dada, book, Ni night...) and signs them for extra emphasis. If she wants milk she gets her face really close to mine to ensure eye contact and open and closes her fist (the sign for milk) and then says "muck a muck a muck". I'm counting that as a word by the way......L's are hard for toddlers.


Selah's a good timer. She's pretty independent. She'll follow Finn around sometimes, but most of the time she's exploring something by herself. And now she sings or hums most of the time, lately the tune to "Are you sleeping brother john". It's so cute. She also sings Eee I Eee I O when we sing Old McDonald. But it's more like " Eeee I eeee I eee I eeee I eeeee I....." It drives Finn crazy. "Selah.....say the O!"

Monday, October 05, 2009

Selah's Salon


Today a wonderful thing happened......Selah started playing with my hair! I was sitting on the floor reading to Finn, and Selah walked toward me holding one of my hair ties. She walked around me to the back of my head, as if to say, "Here Mom, I'll put your ponytail in for you." I sort of cringed, ready for a hard yank of my tangled hair. But to my surprise, Selah started playing gently with my hair - for the next 15 MINTUES just letting it slide between her fingers, NO PULLING! She seemed to like the way it felt in her hands. The funny thing is, she kept taking a peek at the front of my head, to check and see how my hair do had changed...like a hair stylist would do. I will be the happiest person in the world if Selah grows up to be a hair stylist. I don't "do" hair. (But I LOVE people playing with my hair!)

With Selah's sassy personality, I better not encourage her too much. She's into being contrary these days. I'd be better off telling her "hair play" is a no no. She'll be sure to do it all the time!

p.s. Finn's latest thing is making up words. He spends most of his alone play time talking - either pretending to say Mass or singing or lecturing.....Today his made-up word was ......"fauk". (yeah...) He's getting dangerously close to a different word there. What should I do? So far I'm ignoring it, assuming he'll move on.... but he keeps throwing it around. (sigh)