Getting a Little Caught Up

Some recent fun times:

Bubble baths
Running through sprinklers
Watermelon and sticky faces
Monsters and Aliens in 3D (those glasses sure are fun)
BART Rides just for the fun of it
Lots of family snuggling in some new bedding
Riding trikes with friends every evening
Roasting marshmallows in the back yard
Scaling cliffs with babes to get to secret bonfires
Creating an ‘Art Wall’ for Stella
Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles

And we're all FINALLY better from the bug that had us for almost three weeks. Yay for doctors!

Muir Beach

It was perfect weather to head to the coast. One of our favorite spots is Muir beach. Not too crowded, not too big, clean, and plenty of tidepools to investigate when the time is right.

We spent the entire day running from waves, chasing crabs, playing in the sand, and touching sea stars;

Conquering Fears

There are many things I love and admire about Stella; her sense of humor through most everything, her kindness and patience towards others, her courageous little spirit.
When Stella was about a year old, we were playing at a park, when she got curious about the ‘tunnel’ slide. She spent quite a few minutes investigating and ultimately debating whether or not she wanted to try it out. As soon as she appeared to make up her mind to slide down, I put her on the slide to head down to Glenn. By then, Stella had been down many slides, so I didn’t think much about putting her on this one. It wasn’t too steep, and Glenn was waiting with open arms down at the bottom. The moment Stella started moving down the slide, she became terrified, and has since refused to even go near any closed slides.
Today, Stella and Glenn came to see me at work. It so happens there is a little park downstairs from my office, and whenever these two come for a visit, we are often eating lunch down on the grass, kicking a ball around, or chasing each other up and down the play structure. For the first time since that dreadful day down the tunnel slide, Stella (who is now over 2 ½) decided to give it a try. She loved it and spent a good while climbing up the stairs just to go down this slide. I have loved watching this beautiful little one grow from a cautious, but curious little babe, to a brave and adventurous (and sassy – that’s my girl) kid.

Rolling Green

Last night we decided to picnic at the park for dinner. We did the usual, flew on the swings, ran around like crazy people, dug for buried treasure in the sand, and observed various creepy crawlies. The highlight for Stella, however, was learning how to roll down a grassy hill. Glenn decided to show her how it was done. To digress for a moment, let me just admit that Stella has recently been using this kind of fake sounding laugh. This courtesy chuckle appears when one of us is practicing our comedy or slapstick routine for Stella. But, Glenn rolling down a grassy hill in a public park beckoned forth a true belly laugh from our little one. Clearly it was the funniest thing she had seen in a while, because each and every roll down the hill elicited these beautiful, musical laughs from Little Miss. The only thing that topped it, was when Glenn took Stella with him rolling down the hill.

Here are a few other pics from our park date:

Chez Stelle

Stella made her first Rice Krispies Treats the other day. Thought I'd share the experience:

Tuppence A Bag

Feeding the birds is always fun, mostly because it can be amusing to watch seagulls or pidgeons take off with an ENTIRE slice of bread in their beak. This, we know, is just how the toddlers feed the birds.