Month two

Well here we are in month two of post-socal move, and besides missing everyone more than I could have imagined things here are great.

Did you know L.A. Has two kinds of weather; hot and hotter. It's forecasted to be 82 degrees on Halloween. That's just plain silly if you ask me.

Well I will write more later.

Don

Discoveries

We went to the Children's Discovery Museum today - Kelli especially loves the water play area.

Look - a ball! (And a wonderful smock, Mommy says)We put the ball in the water . . .and the vortex sucks it down!

Sending the ball down the track.This volcanic ball tower is a big hit with all the kids - especially when it splashes the adults!

Kelli's Feet

As we were heading home today at the end of a long outing, Kelli said that she wanted to get out of the stroller and walk. I told that she could if she walked fast, because I wanted to hurry up and get home, to which she replied "I don't walk fast or slow, only my feet go fast or slow." This was a revelation to me, as I had not previously realized that her feet set her pace independently of her control. This being such a startling revelation, I just had to share it ;).

For the record, after I told her that her feet would have to go fast, they managed quite a good pace - in fact, a couple of times she got ahead of me and I had to run to catch up!

Rolling On!

Okay, so our main computer is on the fritz. I think our young genius, Kelli, may have had something to do with it. That is why Amy hasn't been able to blog in a while.

So here I am back with some fun info for you. We got The Flip video camera and will have lots of videos for you. Some of the videos will make it to the Youtube page, others will just live in blogland, so check both places for the most info.

Here is a video of Alyce Rolling from her back to her front. The video is about 1 min, but the main event happens at about 30 seconds in.

Preparing for Disney Princesses on Ice

Daddy is taking Kelli to see Disney's Princesses on Ice tonight, so she wanted to give her Tinkerbell outfit a trial run ;).

While out for a stroll, she found a friend . . .

and stopped for quick game of toss the ball . . .

and run around the pole.

Then it was off for a quick jog before her afternoon nap . . .

Downtime

After such a busy and exciting day, Kelli decided to relax by taking a page out of Alyce's book. Fortunately, Alyce was happy to "share" her hippo (playmat) with Kelli ;).

Monkey Carousel

Kelli got a Barrel of Monkeys for Christmas and recently "rediscovered" it when I reorganized her room. Today, after playing the usual way way for ahile, she decided that her monkeys
wanted to go for a ride. It turns out that they fit quite well in this (formerly) musical carousel.

Monkeys on a merry-go-round :).

Kelli Learns to Shop for Produce (pt 1)

This afternoon Kelli and I (and Alyce, but she slept in my sling the whole time) went to the fruit and vegetable "stand" and Kelli had her first lesson in buying produce. She really took to it - she loves seeing all the fruits and vegetables and getting to help pick the ones we'd take home was like icing on the cake (produce-wise, that is).

So many to choose from!

Examining a bell pepper for wrinkles and blemishes

I found a good cucumber!
Is this a good lime?

Kelli Learns to Shop for Produce (pt 2)

We spent a lot of time on the tomatoes, so I thought they warranted their own post.

First Kelli discovered the beefsteak tomatoes - she was delighted by how big they were.

"Me strong picking up this big 'mato!"

I found a great one!

Then it was on to Roma tomatoes.

Is this one good?

Success!Me like tomatoes!

Lexi & Hailey

Our friend Lexi and her daughter Hailey stopped by for a visit this morning.

Isn't Hailey gorgeous?!?

Hailey, Kelli, and Hayley seemed to enjoy meeting each other.
In a gesture of friendship, Hailey tried to feed Kelli paper, which Kelli graciously refused.

Overall, I'd say they were knocked flat by Hailey ;).

New friends

Look Ma - No Rails!

Notice something different about Kelli's bed?

Tonight when Kelli climbed into bed she pulled off her guardrail (which has been loose for awhile) and said (roughly) "me no need this anymore. Me no going to fall out now." In light of such an eloquently phrased statement of "Big-Girlness" there was nothing I could do but agree and put away her rail. Admittedly, I've thought she was outgrowing it for awhile now - but still, her bed looks somewhat naked without it. Anyways, Kelli is now asleep in her rail-free bed - my they grow up fast!

Rail-free and proud of it!

"New" Friends

Our friends Matt & Pam came over for dinner tonight and since their daughter Emmy is 4.5 years old and Hannah is four days younger than Alyce, the girls had a great time getting to know each other - especially the babies ;)

Look! Somebody my size to play with. I like her!

Ooooo . . . a fist . . . wonder if it tastes as good as mineAlyce actually did follow this up by sucking on Hannah's fist when it came within reach, but unfortunately I didn't have the camera on them at that point.

The babies really seemed to enjoy "talking" with each other.

Our friend Matt w/Alyce - she seemed to like him pretty well too ;).

Alyce and Rosemary

This morning (while Daddy and Kelli were sleeping) Alyce and I (Mommy) went over to a dear friend of my family's to get a baby seat we'd stored in their garage - and give Rosemary a chance to hold Alyce. She was absolutely delighted by her - and Alyce took to her quickly, cooing awhile before falling asleep in Rosemary's arms.

Pleased to meet you.

What are you looking at? I'm happy here, thank you very much.

Think I'll go ahead and take a nap now.

Kelli Makes Tortillas

Kelli's Grandma got her a Kelli-sized baking kit - including rolling pin and apron - at Thanksgiving (so she could help make pies for Christmas). Unfortunately, the kit had traveled south w/Grandma and Kelli recently started missing it (probably because Don and I have been cooking a lot lately). Anyways, Grandma surprised Kelli by mailing her the rolling pin and apron and Kelli celebrated getting it back by making tortillas with Daddy.


The chefs are ready to go!
I've got my rolling pin!


And we're off!


I like rolling out tortillas!
Look what I made!Time to enjoy the fruit of my labors!

Magic Show Prep

Inspired by another Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode, Kelli decided to put on a magic show today. Since Goofy uses a suitcase as a stand to perform his tricks, she needed to set up on her suitcase before she could perform.

Setting up all the animals for the show took awhile.

After giving stern instructions to the rabbit, the stacking began . . .

We have a tower!

Every magician has to have a hat to pull the rabbit out of - finding a "good" hat took awhile. Kelli declared this one too big for her to use in the show . . .

though it seemed to fit her fairly well ;).