England IIIa - Winchcombe with Grandmother

Of course, I SAY I'll do fewer picture, but I'm not really capable of that! Between me, and Adeline, and the arrival of lovely SUNSHINE, many photos were taken. This will span 2 posts!

Hanging in the back yard with Grandmother:


At the miniature village at Bourton-on-the-Water:

(this is Iain and Ria in the periscope mirror....its supposed to be turned around so you can see them as monsters in the little village ;-)


A pint and a tea...
and then back to Winchcombe, where Ria indulges in her tendancy to channel Imelda Marcos. Even better when the shoes are BIG and PINK!

A Visit to Guiseley - England II

Oh, goodness.

The last time I put up a bunch of posts in 1 day, the goal was to be able to put up pictures from Iain's 1st day of school....that was 6 weeks ago, and I'm still nowhere near there!

I'm going to have to change my posting style so that I get these things up faster. Its pitiful to still be in July! I'm generally of the "more photos is better" brigade, but I'm going to try to err towards fewer photos, and more timely. But in the meantime, I still have to get from July to October! Engand, Tor's visit, start of school, Vancouver, and Iain's birthday. Lots missing!

That said....after visiting Miles and Margaret, we were off to Guiseley to meet our littlest cousin Rowan! Oh, what a cutie! And we got to see his parents, Alastair and Bev, too!

We appeared to have taken very few pictures in Guiseley, but A&B took lots of LOVELY pictures that are on on Rowan's blog. So, be sure to visit http://rowanspages.blogspot.com/2008/07/visit-from-william-mona-iain-and-ria.html
to see great pictures of our visit to Guiseley.

Here is Iain, Ria and I looking at some ducks:

while cousin Rowan slept in his stroller:


Here is a picture Iain took of Ria and Rowan trying to get out of their baby cage!


And here is the lovely group photo Alastair took just as we were leaving....No, Ria is NOT picking her nose, she is saying "shhhhhh". ;-)

England 1: Visiting with Miles and Margaret

Off to England we go!

The flight over went pretty seamlessly....at least, as seamlessly as a flight can go when its 10 hours long, you are travelling with a 21 month old and a 4.75 year old (Iain was a dream, Ria was a handful), and your kids have slept HARDLY AT ALL before arriving in London at 7am England time (11pm California time). Ria got a 45 minute nap in, and 1.5 hours of night sleep. Iain got in just that 1.5 hours of night sleep.

Then we cleared customs, took the airport train to Paddington station, then a cab to Euston station, then waited 2 hours for our train to Lancaster. It was during this chunk of time that we determined that Ria is a "happy drunk" when she is utterly sleep deprived. Iain is more of a somewhat maudlin, but on the happy side, dude when exhaused. All in all, less painful than we had feared!

During the ~3 hour train ride, Ria (thank heavens!) napped the whole way. (She tried mightily to stay awake, but lasted maybe 3 minutes). Iain gave in for about 10 minutes, but other than that didn't sleep. We got to Lancaster, got picked up at the train station by William's Uncle Miles, and the children proceeded to STAY AWAKE until 7 & 8 pm, respectively (I think...), happily playing and eating and running around and smelling flowers. Their resolve to stay awake when anything remotely interesting is happening around them is truly astounding!

Iain had only 1 bad night while acclimating....Ria had 5 bad nights (this can also be read as: Mona had 5 bad nights). But the days were wonderful!

1st up: Miles' and Margaret's house in Brookhouse, near Lancaster. On our 2nd day, William's dad John, along with Alastair, Bev, and little Rowan, showed up, as well as John's and Miles' cousin Cherry.

Here's Cherry:
Margaret turns out to have "baby magnetism", Ria LOVED Margaret, and would turn to her for a snuggle and a kiss when she got an owie, despite the fact that her not-nearly-so-beloved Mommy was standing right there!

I stole this lovely group photo from Alastair's blog, as I didn't have the forethought to get a group photo myself. Top row: John, Bev, Alastair, Rowan, Cherry, Margaret & Miles. Bottom row: us.

On one end of the table: John, Miles and William.

On the other end of the table (well, tecnically also the next night ;-), is Ria with her best buddy, Margaret, who she had by this time christened "MarMaMa".

Silly Crochet Projects

Doesn't everyone need a crocheted Cthulhu?

Ria is 21 months!

With Eric and Cynthia's camera in hand, we can take Ria's 21 month photos!

I have no clue how tall/heavy she is.....no pediatrician visit until 24 months! ...and now that i have 2 kids, I'm just WAY too forgetful to do those tiny little 1 minute tasks like weigh/measure. 2nd child syndrome. Definately 30-ish pounds, though, and into the 2T clothes, so tall still.

-16 teeth still, 4 to go, but those are still months out. I love the bits inbetween the teething spurts.
-WALKING!!!
-Speaking in 1-word sentances, a noun or a preposition. Generally she labels something, or states what she just did with something ("in", "out", "up", "down"). Pronunciation is good for us, and some other parents, but general folk won't have a clue what she's saying.
-Iain and William have decided that she needs long hair, now that she no longer massages all her food into it. So, this time I just cut her bangs and left the rest. She hates having it put up or held back (hairbands or clips), so it just flops around in her face, mostly.

She's still happy, and he LOVES her Bubba ("Brother")! When she wakes in the morning, and we pull her out of her crib, she shouts "BUBBA", and tries to get out her door to go wake him. We don't let her wake him until 7, though. Unfortunately, she is still up notably before then, most days.

Summer Days at home, & the camera breaks again

The summer is here, and we have a quiet month at home (well, we went camping, but, you know what I mean!). Here is another bath-time, with Ria all poised to make a big stomping splash!

Daddy getting his exercise:

AND! a video thereof:

Right about ......HERE..... you should insert a quiet little [crash]. It wasn't as loud as it should have been, but it indicated that Ria had gotten just that one millimeter taller required to be able to reach the camera stash spot. Possibly the strap was hanging down a bit. In any case, down it came. And, off to Canon it goes (again). Needless to say, it won't be back in time to document our trip to England. Poot! Luckily, Eric and Cynthia lent us their compact digital camera, so we won't be camera-free in the meantime ;-).

Here is Iain and Ribbit (the robot, which he got from Uncle Andy....Ria got a robot from Auntie Eva) having fun at the Childrens Discovery Museum:

Guess who forgot to put the baby gate back up across the laundry room door! Ria LOVES the drier...after this photo she spent DAYS trying to get over/through/under that gate to get back into her cool hidey hole.



SNUG FEST!!

Hiking at Fremont Older Open Space Preserve

Iain and I, back at our favorite "Mommy Date" (i.e., no Ria) hike spot.

Iain spotted this deer:

Iain all set to hike. (He insists on "using" William's hiking poles, as I can't make it through much without MY hiking poles. Iain says he has bad knees, just like me ;-)


Iain took this photo. I was trying for one much like it, but Iain's turned out fabulous, and mine sucked.

Under the Oaks! This is what the shady section of the hike looks like.

Camping at Big Basin

This year's camping trip to Big Basin happened in mid-June. Somehow, we managed to not take any pictures with William in it, and very few with our cohorts. At this point in time (late August, when I'm actually writing this), we've made a vow to take group photos at all major events (family gatherings, camping trips, etc), so for next year's camping trip we'll pull out a tripod and document properly. Until then, however, here's what we got!

Mona and a smutsig Ria ("filthy", that is, but the Swedish word sounds messier, somehow ;-). There is a LOT of dust in a California summer under the redwoods!

Iain and Perry making silly faces (Sarah was unable to join, at the last minute...poot!)...Perry is REALLY GOOD at silly faces!

Jay, Bex, Perry, and Iain: at a waterfall near the end of our big hike. The boys managed something like a 4 mile hike! As each one got tired, the other one would perk up, and then they'd be chasing eachother down the trail again.

Boys on stump:

Girl at log:

And the days go by...

Iain hanging out inside the Chako's (pillow and duvet cover):

And Ria working on her new masterpiece on the new addition to our household!

Iain and Ria, but Ria's busy:

And....GIRRRRRRL POWER! How do you like her new shoes? She loves them, they are "mink" colored (she says).

Much DOOM!

1/2 way between the actual dates, William and I shared a party, for my (Doom, Doom Doom!) 40th and his (2 years post-Doom) 42nd birthdays. We celebrated with 2 cakes, of course ;-).

Here is W bringing my cake out with the requisite 40 candles....the "before" flames pictures and the "after" smoke photo. (The strange thing between the cake and the candles is a paper plate that William rigged up to catch most of the wax....it did a reasonable job!) Wow, you get lots of smoke with 40 candles! I must be OLD! ;-)

Here's the cakes. On the left is mine (a swedish Kladdkaka, with only very little wax!), and on the right is me holding William's cake (a coffee cake, as in, coffee flavored). I had a little snafu with his candles, thinking we had a "2" in there, but we only had a "4", so its a "4" with a Roman numeral 2 ("II"). That's why it looks rather silly!

Strangely enough, it doesn't feel much different to be over the hill, rather than just barely under it, except for the extra pounds, that is!!!

Happy days

Happy kids, happy days in late May.

Music Appreciation

(WARNING! If you are looking at this post and thinking you've read it before so you don't need to scroll below it for new posts hiding below it, please scroll down anyways.....I've been post-dating my heart out, and we've finally hit late May!)
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It is interesting to watch how Iain and Ria are, at the same time, both strikingly similar and notably different.

They both love their music, and currently the greatest joy in the car for both of them is to listen to Oysterband singing "Put Out the Lights" and/or "Our Lady of the Bottles".

However....Iain prefers, and ALWAYS has, that everyone is quiet while he listens. Ria likes to sing along. Iain HATES it when I sing along to his favorite songs (which often include EVERY song on a CD), but Ria seems to prefer for me to so.

There's no pleasing both, eh?

(I will return you to your previously scheduled pre-dated posts with photos shortly ;-).

Ria Walks! (Finally!)

At Ria's 18 month pediatrician visit, the doctor said that if she hasn't bothered to try walking by 20 months, we should bring her in so we can decide what to do about it. Ria, clearly not wanting another doctor visit, decided to bring it in under the wire.

She finally took her 1st steps at 19.5 months, on 22 May 2008. Of COURSE she couldn't do it at home with us, she did it at Rachel's house, with Ryan's help. Luckily, Rachel managed a video of it!

(Note: The video is really loud, and when I view it it has a funny tinny sound ever since I edited it to add the caption.....so be sure to turn the volume down pretty low before hitting go!)

Trees and Water and Grass and Sun

In mid-May we did some "Extreme Gardening".

In our backyard we had (1) a small privet tree - but in our minds the only good privet is one that isn't there (lots of litte seeds, and little baby privets, ARGH!), and (2) a number of walnut trees (think lots of sharp walnut husk shards all over your grass, and add young children trying to actually play on the grass, OUCH!). In addition, the neighbor had a dead privet overhanging with lots of ivy.

With the goal of having our tiny little patch of lawn in the back yard be something that is actually pleasant to be on....we had the sources of the walnut husk shards removed. In the goal of no longer having a source of ongoing privet weeding in our own yard, we removed our small privet. In the goal of not having a dead privet fall on our children in the back yard, we had that one removed from the neighbors yard.

The result was....a REALLY SUNNY BACK YARD! eep! Not the ideal for a hot California summer.

Also, with the lack of trees all along the fence line, the whole back yard is kindof unbalanced....heavy near the garage, and highly open at the fence. If we'd known we were going to have kids at the time we landscaped the back garden 8 years ago, we'd have placed the patio on the other side of the garden to balance it all out, but there we are.

Finally, with the trees out, we had the nasty lawn ripped out, and resodded (with a nice little chicken wire layer down below the sod to keep those moles from ruining the lawn 2 days in, as they did last time!).

The lawn is gorgeous. the plants are loving the sun. i don't really like the feel of the backyard (hence no proper pictures at the moment to show how it looks now), and i don't know what to do with it to fix it....*sigh*....but we'll get there!

Here's the kids enjoying the chipper-shredder show:


With the back lawn newly sodded, we played in the wading pool in the front yard with our buddies Sarah and Perry.

1st: Ria enjoying the water. She clearly doesn't have Iain's early fear of water, eh?!

And, Ria in her Super-hero alter-ego visage:

And, (Iain picked these pictures ;-), Iain and Perry with inflated little donughts in their mouths:

And to finish the water fun pictures, we also have Iain and Sarah with inflated donughts in their mouths (do you note a theme?):

Finally....due to the status of the back garden....we put off the celebration of my transition to "over the hill" until the lawn could be rough-and-tumbled upon....early June. Photos of flames coming up soon!

A Day in the Life of a Duck

For Ria's pseudo-preschool for the fall (1 day a week for a couple hours....and I'll be there with her) we needed a family photo to put on the wall of the class. Here we are!

And....William and Iain determined that its not only Ernie and Bert that can be stuck on one's face, we've got a duck that's willing too!

Needless to say, Ria also wanted to give it a try.