Good Day, Sunshine!

I know it's February, and I should be complaining about the cold, foggy days, but, well, that would be lying.  The weather has been gorgeous for two straight weekends -- I'm talking short sleeves and flip flops gorgeous -- and we certainly have taken advantage of it.

Last weekend, my parents and my best friend Kristen and her husband Todd came over.  We had a great time, and we definitely appreciated my parents watching Charlotte while we went to our friends' annual Super Bowl party.  Charlotte just had such a blast with my parents.  In fact, on Monday morning when Chris was combing out Charlotte's hair (which she hates), and Charlotte called out "Mimi!" I think my mom was pretty tickled that Charlotte was calling her for comfort.  And after they left on Monday, Charlotte has continued to talk to Mimi and Papi all week.  She talks to them on the phone and she calls out their names when she sees their pictures around the house.  The funniest is when she sees this painting and shouts "Papa:" (American Gothic, by Grant Wood, which we have as a magnet on our refrigerator):

Poor Papi. :)

Charlotte also learned the French word for diaper sometime over the weekend, which I didn't know until Monday night, when she pulled out a clean diaper and said "cou-couche" (couche is the actual word, but like all French speakers, my mom makes it double-speak, like I do for the words for bread and bath - "pain-pain" and "bain-bain").

The rate that Charlotte is learning new words is astounding.  Like the other day, when pointed up at the sky and said "moon."  Or today, when we were driving to Fairytale Town and she was looking at these French-English flashcards that my friend Kristen got her and said "house" while pointing to the card with a picture of a house on it.  (Charlotte doesn't read, obviously, so she just looks at the pictures and we usually point out the English word).  Clearly, something has clicked and she's voicing all the words she's recognized for months.

Speaking of Fairytale Town, we went there today.  It is such a fun place, located in Land Park in Sacramento.  There are animals to see that go with specific fairytales (three goats for the Three Billy Goats Gruff, a giant spider for Charlotte's Web, the four bunnies from Peter Rabbit, etc.), which is where Charlotte learned to say baaaa for sheep when she saw Mary's Little Lambs the first time we went last September.  There are several fun things for the kids to do -- Charlotte loves the slide from Jack and the Beanstalk, but her favorite is actually Cinderella's pumpkin carriage.



Charlotte liked this big bunny more than the real, live bunnies

 We also went to the Folsom Zoo yesterday and  then went on the little steam train that runs adjacent to it.  Charlotte had so much fun.  The entire drive home, she was pumping her hand up and down and yelling "choo-choo!"  The conductor was great, and taught us how to take better pictures with our camera, because apparently he also has a BA in photography.

On the train, getting ready to go



The picture taken by the conductor, who programmed all these settings that we didn't even know about, and gave us tips on taking pictures of people.

 Oh, and I forgot that Charlotte helped me bake cookies to give to her friends at daycare tomorrow for Valentine's Day.  She was such a good helper, even if all she really wanted to do was eat the cookie dough.



Helping roll out the dough...




Charlotte is clearly happy with the results

 All in all, a fabulous two weekends.  I even took an hour-long bike ride during Charlotte's nap today.  I saw some beautiful white bird of prey about to stalk something, but I didn't hang around to find out what; I also saw a hawk resting in a large oak tree; and, best of all, I nearly managed to run over a wild turkey as I crossed a small bridge.  The turkey was in my path as I neared the bridge, and I figured he would just get off to the side.  Instead, he decided to start running across the bridge, with me two feet behind him.  And he was still there when I made the trek back across the bridge on my way home, some 20 minutes later.  This time, he just flew up right in front of me and landed on the railing of the bridge.  The bike ride was so nice, flying along the bike path, alongside the creeks and huge, leaf-less oak trees.  It really made me appreciate all the wildlife that exists around these wetlands in Folsom.  The ride also made me want to get a bike trailer immediately, so that we can enjoy a bike ride as a family.

I'd say we enjoyed our 75 degree weather to the fullest.  Good thing as the rain is back, starting tomorrow and lasting all week.

Contemplating Life with Twins

(I promise the meaning of this title will be evident soon).

Last weekend, our friends stayed with us for the weekend.  Keith and Maggie moved to Ohio three years ago, and I can emphatically say that we all miss them a lot.  They have a son, Colin, who is a couple months younger than Charlotte, so both families were excited to see them play together. I think Maggie said something like "I had these grand visions of the two of playing so well together."

Instead, what happened was this:

You can see that these two could be boy-girl twins - same color hair, same color eyes

Whatever toy the one had, the other one wanted. A lot of crying and whining ensued.  And it wasn't just because these were Charlotte's toys.  The same thing happened when we went over to our other friends' house. Maybe it's just that the two are about the same age.

Here's Charlotte trying to stake claim to what's "mine, miiiinnee":

I mean really, she walked all over the place with the walker she hasn't touched in months and the little popcorn ball thingy, all because Colin was interested in them.

We actually had a really fun weekend, despite the sibling fighting.  At one point, we had seven children aged three and under in our house. Talk about chaos!  Let me amend that. We had one three year old, and Charlotte was the next oldest at 16 months.  Okay, now that's chaos!

And Charlotte and Colin actually played well together in the bathtub and during meals. I think Maggie took some cute pictures of the two of them in the big tub. During meals, they were seated next to each other and would give each other high fives. 

It was really interesting to see the difference in personality between the two. I don't know what can be chalked up to gender differences or just personality differences.  For example, Colin is crazy fast.  He's still a newish walker, but that boy can move.  Anytime he saw Tandy, he took off.  He's also much more adventurous.  At the playground, he would climb up anything and didn't mind going face first down the slide. Charlotte is much more cautious, although I think she tried some things she normally wouldn't have because of the peer pressure.

It was a great weekend, if exhausting.  I don't know parents of multiples do it! I only wish Keith, Maggie and Colin lived closer by.  Next time, maybe the little twinsies will play together better.

Yosemite Camping Adventure

Hi Everyone,

Just got back from our first camping trip as a family!  We went to the Yosemite Valley, and it was beyond fantastic.  I hadn't been to Yosemite for over four years, which means that the last time I was there, Chris and I weren't even married yet.  A lot can change in four years.  Heck, with Charlotte around, a lot can change in just a few days or weeks.

Yosemite National Park, being as popular as it is, requires that you book campsites four months in advance.  So back in May we decided to book five campsites in the Valley.  There was a glitch in the system, so we wound up not getting all the sites together, but it didn't wind up mattering.  Everyone was pretty close by.  We went with 22 people, including five children under three (three of whom are under the age of one!).  All of the adults (those sans children) decided to make the trek up Half Dome on Saturday, making Chris and me kind of jealous not to be able to join them.  Chris has summited Half Dome seven times, and I've summited it twice (almost three times, but the last time Quarter Dome was covered in snow, and I didn't want to do it), and it's such a feeling of accomplishment when you get to the top.

But it worked out for the best because we had a great time exploring the Valley with Charlotte.  First, let me admit to you that I was worried about camping with Charlotte.  We didn't know how she'd sleep, how she'd handle the cold, or how we could keep her from getting filthy.  On the last concern, it became immediately evident that there was nothing we could do to keep her from getting dirty.  Charlotte adored the dirt.  She walked all over the campground, picking up strewn bottle caps, shoving dirt and pine needles in her mouth, chasing after tree squirrels, and throwing rocks.  I basically had to stop worrying about the dirt and embrace it, because the second I wiped it off, Charlotte would stick her hands back in the dirt.  She was so covered in dirt that she reminded us of the Peanuts character, Pig Pen.

Check out those adorable itty bitty hiking boots!

The dirt on this bottom? A speck compared to the fistfuls she would pick up.

To protect her from her from stubbing her toes, I bought Charlotte some adorable Keen hiking boots that were on sale at REI.  They have reinforced toes, and even though this trip may be the only time she ever wears them, they were well worth the money.  She stumbled and tripped on countless rocks over the two day trip, but not once did she hurt herself.  Money well spent.

I was most worried about how Charlotte would sleep at night.  Luckily, Chris' parents got us a family-sized tent for Christmas, and it was great!  The tent was big enough for a full-sized air mattress for us, the Pack N Play for Charlotte to sleep in, and plenty of room to spare.  Both nights Charlotte slept great; we never heard a peep from her.

The cold mornings proved to be the only sticking point.  The Valley gets really chilly in the morning, much more so than the early evening, because it takes so long for the sun to rise over the granite.  Although we dressed Charlotte in warm fleecy outfits, her hands were freezing, and she would not keep her mittens on. This caused her to get really upset until we brought her back to the tent to warm up, after which she brightened up considerably.  Diaper changes were also a challenge because the wipes were so cold to the touch. Poor thing.  I hope she'll figure out soon that mittens = warm hands.

Cold mornings

While the large group of childless adults hiked Half Dome, we joined the Wiseleys on a hike to Mirror Lake to get a view of Half Dome from below.  It was our first time really using the baby carrier we bought on sale at REI, and it was fabulous.  When we first tried it out at home, Charlotte screamed and screamed while we were putting her in the carrier.  Once we got her outside, she stopped crying and actually enjoyed herself.  In Yosemite, Charlotte didn't even cry once when we got her in the carrier.  Mirror Lake is actually a seasonal pool, so while we were there it was nothing but a huge sand pit.  It was about a three mile hike roundtrip, and the only downside was that Charlotte fells asleep on the way back, but was up so high in the pack, she had no where to rest her head.  Her head would flop every which way, and Charlotte would whimper with her eyes closed.

In the backpack and ready to go!

The Merced River, I think

Playing in the sand at Mirror "Lake"

Falling asleep on the way back to camp.



It's amazing the amount of stuff you have to lug when you're camping, but you have to multiply that by five when you're bringing along a toddler.  From food, to a booster seat, to the Pack n Play, to a dozen onesies, it's a lot of stuff.  We brought sippy cups that you could recycle when you're done using them, which ended up being a wise decision because Charlotte kept dropping them in the dirt. 

I could go on, but I won't.  Camping with Charlotte turned out to be so much better than we could have hoped for, and it was made even more enjoyable by the fact that we had so many friends with us.  Charlotte had a great time, and we can't wait to do it again.  Our friend, Elizabeth, even decided to come just with Baby Samantha (who's only three months old), because her husband Lawrence was sick.  I was astounded, but Elizabeth handled it like it was no big deal, which, as it turned out, it wasn't. 

Camping Mamas! (Left to Right): Stephanie and Charlotte (15 months), Elizabeth and Samantha (3 months), Amber and Tucker (almost 9 months), Susan and Jackson (11 months)