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The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my sister and I took the kids to what is quickly becoming one of our favorite places: The Living Desert. It has something for everyone… animals, indigenous landscaping, a merry-go-round, a petting zoo, and you can even buy beer and walk around drinking it.
Hunter liked the life-sized bronze statuary that accompanied every animal exhibit:
Magnus liked the butterfly enclosure:
He really was thrilled with all the butterflies flying around. Reaching out to try and touch them as they fed from flowers, floated through the air.
I liked the giraffe exhibit:
At first all we could see of the giraffe was the very top of his head behind a huge grass-covered bank. As we watched he lumbered out from behind the small hill and came toward us as though we had called him. The dry earth under the light of the afternoon sun conjured a scene that is as close as I ever want to get to Africa.
I love this place…
Last night we made sugar cookies and allowed Hunter to stay up a little later than usual to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. She gets a kick out of being allowed to stay up after brother to watch a movie with mom and dad.) So there we were, snuggled on the couch and I decided to rub Hunter’s tummy a little. She jumped up and said, “Is it over?!”
Our daughter, who has only ever fallen asleep while something has been going on around her one time in her whole life (Disneyland, June 2007. She was nine months old.) was out cold. Of course, she protested vehemently when we offered to stop the movie and finish it later. But not five minutes after that, I suspected she might be asleep again so I held my hand over her eyes and she didn’t make a peep.
Cutest thing ever…
There were many things going on in the days leading up to Halloween…
First, Hunter built a “Haunted House” at preschool (Hunter is wearing her brother’s hat and vest…):
Then there was the Halloween Party at preschool:
Magnus went to the party too:
And Cousin Sydney’s birthday trick-or-treat party:
Magnus and his cousin Charlie:
All in all, a good, busy Halloween.
So I am the worst mother blogger ever… but we’ve been busy doing fun stuff like going on family walks around the neighborhood in the evenings.
So I decided that Hunter needed to have a feather boa for her dress-up collection. Of course, she doesn’t seem to understand that the feather boa is more of an accessory than, oh, say, an article of clothing.
Later this same day, the four of us were out in the living room playing “Princess”. Have I ever mentioned that “Princess” is one of Hunter’s favorite games? She usually plays the princess (obviously) and insists that Papa plays the prince or sometimes the “horsey”. (I am usually relegated to the role of the dragon or Maleficent…)
The game goes like this: Hunter dresses up in one of her princess dresses, her princess slippers, and tells her Papa, a.k.a. the prince, to “kiss me up.” She then lays down in one of the living room chairs, pretends to close her eyes, and waits for her prince to come kiss her. Sometimes I chase them, yelling things like “Rrrarrrr!”
Anyway. The other night we were in the living room and Hunter wanted to play “Princess” (no princess dress this time, just the feather boa and her princess slippers…), but we weren’t really cooperating with her. I kept telling her that I didn’t want to be the dragon, I wanted to be the princess. Hunter began to get upset, finally declaring, “I’m the Princess! I’m the one with the slippers!”
That kid is the guts.
I’ve been back at work and neglecting the blog… but here’s a little sample of what we’ve been doing:
Hunter has taken to dunking herself in the tub. Is especially funny when she feels the need to tell us something while her ears are under water… since she can’t hear very well, she yells.
Hunter is also very adept at folding things… dish towels, cloth napkins, pieces of paper. We didn’t show her how to do this, it’s something she started all on her own.
Michael coaxing our suicidal puppy across the narrow concrete bridge over a ten-foot drop into a spillway on our family “hike”. This is their second trip across the bridge… on the first, Griffin didn’t seem to notice there was a drop on either side of the path, and nearly plunged to his death. Or at least the vet… Fortunately for the dog, Michael was the one holding his lead. He managed to catch Griffin without snapping his neck and lowered the ninety pound dog to the bottom and safety.
This is Hunter, on our family “hike” (a total of maybe thirty minutes of walking…), refusing to go any further.
And finally, Magnus. He’s reached the tile… now what?
Back to work in thirteen days…
I so do not want to go.
Here are the top ten current events (I use the term loosely) I would rant about if I felt like it, in no particular order:
- Nationalized Health Care
- The lesser Kennedy as change agent
- Obama taking a page from the Bush playbook
- Al Frankin on the Senate Judiciary Committee
- The ‘new’ Newsweek format
- That idiot Croc-hater guy
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- While we’re on the subject… Megan Fox as hotter than Angelina Jolie (she’s not, and I don’t even like Angelina…)
All right, the top eight things I would rant about if I didn’t have to go stop my daughter from systematically dismantling the play room while her brother looks on. Sits up and looks on, I might add. What baby sits up before he rolls over? That’s what I’d like to know…
Hunter Grace, ten months old
About two years ago, when we were in the middle of a camping trip at Malibu beach, Hunter Grace, then ten months old, decided that she would no longer eat anything that anyone else fed to her. Pasta and other baby finger foods aren’t exactly camping fare so I hadn’t brought anything like that with us. We ended up paying six bucks for a box of mac & cheese at the camp store and Hunter has happily fed herself ever since then.
Until now.
It probably has something to with Magnus eating solid food, but Hunter almost always reaches a point in every meal where she will not eat anything else unless I feed her, or allow her to eat from one of brother’s baby spoons. So more often than not, I find myself sitting between the two of them at meal times, feeding bites of food to first one, then the other. Magnus doesn’t care as long as everything arrives in a timely manner and Hunter thinks this is great fun.
Me? I think it’s time Michael and I started eating dinner after the kids go to bed.
On Friday, after dinner, we decided to load the kids into the bicycle trailer and go for a little ride around the neighborhood. During the course of our ride, Michael suggested that we go check out the trail head for the mountain bike trails that start literally less than a mile from our house and head off into the San Bernardino mountains. Michael has ridden these trails many times, but I never have, mostly because of that whole baby thing.
Anyway. We rode over to the trail head and the next thing I knew, I was through the rocks marking the beginning and on my way up the trail. I always forget how much fun riding a mountain bike is until I’m doing it again. So Michael called to me before I was too far up the trail because he couldn’t fit through the rocks with the trailer unless he had help. I lifted and Michael pulled and we were off, up the trail, children in tow.
We only rode for a few miles, mostly over fire roads, but it was so fun. Hunter had her arm around her brother’s shoulders and was yelling at her papa to “Go faster!” Magnus was just hanging out, taking everything in.
When we arrived home and went to take the children out of the bike trailer, we noticed for the first time that they were both covered in dust. Neither one complained, nor cried, even though they were getting their first taste of mountain bike dirt.
So Hunter, age two and a half, and Magnus, age six months had their first mountain bike ride. The first of many, I’m sure.
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