Palm Sunday

Hooray, hooray for the BIG EGG DAY! While this production occurs at our house every year, Nana and Papa are the egg suppliers. Orange for Nedy, pink for Bop, green for John John, yellow for Samuel and blue for Josiah...each stuffed full with money, candy and gadgets galore. The big kids love the egg hunt, mostly because a) unlike the community model, there's no competition for the loot and b) they can pretty much buy a car with the proceeds.

Augustus is our resident over-sized chocolate rabbit. I adore his plastic self.
So does Ned.
"Egg open! Yook 'side, Mama!""Mama! Throw egg you! YOOK Mama!" (notice airborne orange egg)"Oops, Mama! Egg open all self!" (don't pay any attention to that guilty expression...)The start of the mass opening. Since Nedy previewed her findings along the way, she decided to take the opportunity for her favorite outdoor activity--raking. (Although watching her cousin climb into the birdbath was a close second...)Don't ya just love a good over-sized chocolate rabbit?Can you tell who is very excited about sitting at the kid table while Mama and Baba sat in the dining room?

Stuck in water.

Hank (a.k.a. 'Mao Mao') is...how shall I put this...seasoned. He's not a spring chicken anymore, and Dan and I frequently remind Nedy that Mao Mao is old and "set in his ways."

Tonight Mao Mao was staring into his half-filled food bowl, doing his usual refusal to eat until his bowl is topped off routine. Dan noticed him sitting there and told him to just eat what was in his bowl, followed by a reminder that he never goes without food and his "scarcity mentality" was wholly unnecessary.

To which Ned responds with the most genuine look on her face, "Mao Mao...old. Set in waves. Stuck in water."

I mean, seriously?!?

Linz-meier and general eye irritants.

This morning was Ned's 24 month well baby check. (Yes, I know she's 27 months. Why take a kid for a well baby check in the midst of swine flu madness, I ask?) So we've been preparing Ned for this doctor visit because a) she'd have to get naked for the doctor (c'mon, that is traumatic) and b) it involved a shot--her second seasonal flu. In preparation, we told her that doctors help to keep us safe and healthy, and that it's important to tell your doctor if something with your body isn't working quite right so that maybe she can help.

This morning Ned woke up and I asked her what she was going to do today. She thought about it for a few seconds, eyes darting back and forth and said, "Hmmmm... Oh, I know! Doc-or Linz-meier!" Ned likes Dr. Linsmeier. She's a really nice gal and will even take the time to check out Turtle at appointments. Ned always announces herself (patting her chest) as "Doc-or Linz-meier" when she addresses our near-daily wounds ("Ooooh, Mama, leg hurt?") with her little plastic medical kit. Recently she's taken to wrapping our appendages in an ACE bandage that somehow found its way to the kit. ("All done. Feel bett-uh?") But I digress.

So today at the office, Ned found herself a bit concerned about the shot but quickly forgot when Dr. Linsmeier entered the room. She (Ned, that is) was a little shy at first, but managed to blurt out, "baby naked" just in case the doctor didn't notice, I guess. Anyway, after the usual appointment stuff, Dr. Linsmeier asked if we had any questions. And Ned says, I kid you not, "Linz-meier, eyes watering, all time." So I guess--in light of our instructions about telling the doctor when your body's not working quite right--she decided to address her annoyance with her very occasionally watery eyes with the good doc. And that fantastic "Linz-meier" didn't miss a beat and informed Nedy about allergies and general eye irritants. With a straight face.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this little former light-weight is now 28.4 pounds (50th percentile), 35 inches (50th percentile again), and 48.something for head circumference (50th percentile yet again.) Dr. Linsmeier said, "You'd never know a year ago this kid was just learning to crawl--amazing."

You go, baby girl. :)

Poor baby.

Recognize this kid?


Yeah, me neither.

A week following our trip to San Francisco, Ned came down with a nasty nose-running, eye-bulging, phlegm-induced coughing virus. Okay, okay, so I tend to over-react and suffer a *bit* (ha!) from the overprotectiveness that I hear frequents first-time Moms. So, we did all the right things: humidifier on high all day, steam time in the bathroom three times daily, nose sucking, fluid forcing...you get the picture.

So why did Ned wind up waking up 4 days into this virus looking nearly unrecognizable?

Simple answer, thank you Doctor. "Whoa! Her right ear is a mess!" Yep, Ned's first ear infection and first course of antibiotics are under our collective belt.

Think she's feeling better?

One year.

One year. Amazing. Really, AMAZING.

Love is amazing. I'm short on words tonight and long on love for the most amazing little peacock on the planet. I love you, Ned.

Always and forever.

San Fran Day 4: Golden Gate Park

Saturday morning we got our usual early start and caught the Metro to 9th and Lincoln, just outside Golden Gate Park where there was a Lunar New Year Flower Market at the Arboretum. The market was particularly cool because it had scheduled performances throughout the morning including San Francisco's Red Panda Acrobats, Vietnamese traditional dancing, and the West Coast Lion Dance Troupe. Ned thought the acrobat guys were interesting enough from vantage point on Baba's shoulders, and the Vietnamese dancers were beautiful. But nothing compared to the Lion Dancers. We had moved down to the front row and sat on the floor to be right in the midst of the action. I knew the dancers were getting ready outside, so I escaped for a few minutes--camera ready, of course--to catch the start. Outside I saw the guys getting inside their huge two-man costumes as the drums began pounding at a near-deafening level. The lions began weaving their way inside and I followed. I was so excited to see the look on Ned's face when she caught sight of them. She's such a lover of adventure and takes such interest in everything that I thought for sure the lion dance would be tops on her list.

Yeah, either that or they would induce terror that I haven't seen in a year. Score one for complete terror.

As I rounded behind them as they took to the stage, my eyes met Ned's screaming, tear-streaked face and outstretched arms. "MAMAAAAAA! MAMAAAAA!" I scooped her up from Dan and she clung to me for dear life for the rest of the performance. Occasionally she'd pick up her head to see what the lions were up to, but only for a second or two before burying her head again. I kept whispering in her ear, "There are Babas inside of there. I saw them when I went outside. There are two men inside each costume. Those are just costumes, like how Big Bird is a person in a costume." She wasn't buying it.

This performance was fantastic. Like, 'hairs on your arms standing up' kind of fantastic. After the show, the lion dancers were outside with their costumes allowing the kids to touch the huge lion heads. After a few moments of hesitation, Ned decided these lions were pretty cool and she pet them, looked inside their mouths and even pointed out to me that the men standing by the lion heads were just "Babas wear costumes. Ohhhhhh-kay! Yike Big Bird!" Yep, Ned, just like Big Bird.

Afterward, we roamed around the amazing San Francisco Botanical Gardens. These gardens are free (they are part of Golden Gate Park) and are absolutely huge and gorgeously maintained, mostly by volunteer effort as I understand it. It is so cool to see how much Nedy enjoys being outside and checking out plants and such.

We headed over to the de Young Museum sculpture gardens where this hilarious man showed Nedy this trick he does with his reflection in the corner of the building. She thought this was amazing and stood watching him for a couple of minutes before looking up at us with this huge smile.

The Japanese Tea Garden in the park is phenomenal. We roamed around for a couple hours here. Nedy enjoyed crossing all the small, irregular stone bridges ("Mama, be cau-ful! Danger, danger!") and even climbed up to the top of the steep Taiko-Bashi Drum Bridge. After all of our adventures around the tea garden, Nedy announced it was time for tea in the little tea house. Let me tell you, this kid loves tea. She drank a half pot of green tea by herself, being careful (or 'cau-ful', as it would be) to "not drink yeaves". She also enjoyed the fishy rice crackers and gelatinous dessert.

Our day was winding down, so we headed on foot from Golden Gate Park to the Alamo Historic District where the painted ladies surround a park. When we got there, Nedy woke up from her nap in her stroller and announced, "Ummmm...pee-pees. All wet. Happy no." Apparently, that half pot of tea went straight on through...through her diaper, through her pants, through her shirt, through her jacket and through her stroller pad...yep. Good times. So we changed her in the park--fresh diaper, pink "China suit", Mama's sweatshirt and Mama's raincoat still riding in the sopping stroller, only on top of her waterproof changing pad. At this point we headed back to the hotel to address the great leak. So we started walking. And we walked. And we walked some more. It's amazing how things don't look so far on a map. Ultimately, we walked from Golden Gate Park to our hotel at the top of Nob Hill. Keep in mind the train ride from the bottom of Nob Hill is about 20 minutes... But we got to see so much of the city--including the "not-so-rosy" parts that the guidebooks don't talk about. Ned is now very familiar with the ways of the indigent.

Eventually we made it back to the hotel. By now it was 6:00pm and we just didn't have it in us to make the 2 block hike to the laundromat and then sit there for a couple hours. (Two blocks here can be a hike, given the crazy steep hills.) So we did things "China-style"--which seemed so appropriate, given our upcoming one year familyversary--and washed everything by hand in the bathtub and hung it on Dan's ironing board and hanger drying rack invention in front of the heat vent.

And then we ate leftovers, watched Big Bird in China and went to bed.

Ned woke up this morning ready to go. "Airport! Home!" We're ready to hop our last cable car down to the train. Pictures when we get home. :)

------------------------------------
updated with photos!

San Fran Day 3: Jen kills the laptop and a boat ride

Yesterday morning I killed the laptop. So badly that no amount of Dan's tinkering did anything. Completely frozen. I've gotten so used to traveling with a computer that not having a laptop for the next couple days wasn't an option. People live here, right? They need to get their machines fixed when they bust, right?

So we loaded up the laptop and headed out like locals to the Fillmore Street area. (And yes, the locals do indeed ride the cable cars.) A nice lady at Starbucks (first things first, after all) directed us to Staples where we dropped off our little guy for a full system recovery, along with recovery/back-up of photos. Goodness gracious. $200 later, we were out the door awaiting the "come pick up your little guy" phone call.

Apparently, I may have caused this little issue by shutting down the little guy improperly in the midst of a system update. I blame Vista. Piece of crap Vista.

In any event, no photos on the blog because the system was restored to factory settings, meaning we have no Photoshop until we get home and reload it. I'll update these posts with photos once we get home. Piece of crap Vista.

Soooooooo...after that ordeal, we stopped for the most delicious brunch at Crepevine. I had this awesome carmelized onion and cheddar crepe. (There are crepe places all over in SF...I wonder why?) Afterward we roamed Fillmore, Union and Chestnut Streets and took note of the crazy amount of high-fashion boutiques full of high-fashion people with, apparently, high-dollar wallets. Very cool, very hip, very out of my price range--especially following the 'piece of crap Vista' drama.

We took a loooooong walk through the city, around the Marina area all the way back to--you guessed it--the Wisconsin Dells of San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf) for tickets aboard the Bay Adventure--a boat tour from Pier 39, out under the Golden Gate Bridge (Gold-en Gate Bij! Orrrrrr-nge! Mama, yook!), and then around Alcatraz Island. Nedy thought this boat ride rocked. The waters got rough out by the bridge and the boat began bouncing around quite a bit. At first she looked alarmed, but her sense of adventure (and the often related gut giggle) won out. She was fascinated by Alcatraz for some reason...she said she would live there when she gets older...Dear God.

We hopped the cable car back to the hotel and then over to Staples to pick up our little guy. Hooray, he works again. (Nedy, of course, took the opportunity at Staples to remind us that, "Mama...broke computer. Ohhhhhh, Mamaaaaaa. Cauful!" Nice.

Back at the hotel, we ordered Thai delivery and watched Big Bird in China until someone finally clonked out around 8:00. And I clonked out, too. Hence this 'day after' post. :)

Ned woke up this morning at 6:00! (We slept in!) Right when she woke up she announced, "Boat ride!" When I told he we were going to the park today and I didn't think we'd be going on any boats, she scrunched up her nose and said, "ummmm, okay...cabe-oh car?" Yes, baby, you get to go on a cable car...again. :) Seriously, the cable car factor alone makes this a great place for vacationing with a kid.

Today is a full day at Golden Gate Park. I'd post pictures of it tonight, but, well, you know... :)
----------------

updated with photos!