Happy Anniversary

Today is our 6th anniversary.
We are in Seattle.
At a seminar.
Romantic?
Um, no.
Not even close.
Neither is this photo.
But that's kind of how we roll.

I love you, hun. :)

(You know I'm not good at mushy stuff.)

Labor Day-bor + Surprises from Ivy

(Bonus points if you know where "Labor Day-bor" comes from!)

We took the girls to the zoo on Labor Day. Sophie loves the zoo. She also loves having her picture taken as you can see.

If you can't tell, there's an alligator right behind that fence, sunbathing on the sand. I didn't think the fence was high enough, but I guess alligators have short legs. Maybe they aren't the best jumpers.

After we saw the animals Sophie rode some of the rides outside the park. She'd never been on any rides before, so we were anxious to see her reaction.

Steve got her settled in the sparkly blue VW bug she picked out. (atta girl)

She waited patiently for the ride to start, clutching the steering wheel.

The ride started and after the initial surprise that her car actually moved, she was all smiles. (I don't put quarters in the ones at the mall. She has no idea, and she loves playing on them. Why ruin a good thing?)

After the cars we headed to the carousel. She was more nervous about this one, but after the first run, she didn't want to get off. And she wanted to ride on a zebra.

I just realized that we have no pictures of Ivy at the zoo. She stayed in the stroller just about the whole time and slept while we were at the amusement park. So, here's a little clip of her latest accomplishments: crawling and dancing.

I can't believe how fast this girl is progressing. Sophie took forever to get past army crawling (though I could hardly call it that... it was more like yoga planking). Ivy has gone from being practically immobile to crawling with her knees and pulling up to things (like low baskets and stairs) in just a month. She's the most determined and fearless little thing I've ever seen. I've caught her by the feet several times as she tries to plunge herself off the couch or the bed or down the stairs. It scares me a little, and I think it means a more thorough baby proofing than we did with Sophie.

It also means we will not be putting up the Christmas tree this year.

The little shake she does does halfway through cracks me up. She does it all the time now, and I have no idea where she got it from!

Adding Calories

The other day I gave Ivy half of a pineapple-orange yogurt popsicle. (Steve ate the other half and left that one in the freezer. That man can't hold his popsicles.)

Of course Ivy loved it. I think she's teething, too, so it probably made her gums feel good. I had to take it away halfway through so she wouldn't go completely numb. Her poor little mouth was freezing!

That little finger is always pointed up.

I'm glad at least one of the girls got daddy's nice, full lips! Guess who kissed all of the popsicle off her face? :) (I'm not sure what's with her left eye, though. It seems to show up like that in photos, but doesn't look that way in person. )

Food is Awesome

Last Saturday we went to the Eat Real Festival in Oakland. When I heard that there was a festival entirely dedicated to food, I had to go. We'd never been down to Jack London Square before OR ridden BART (the light rail), so it was a day of firsts for us.

We forgot we had parked our yacht at the marina or else we would have hung out in there to get out of the heat.

The festival was free and all of the street food was under $5. I was hoping they'd have funnel cakes or something, but the food there wasn't like typical fair food. (Sorry, no corn dogs or deep fried Snickers, either.) There were signs everywhere about putting "real" food back into fast food, people passing around "why you should be a vegetarian" flyers, and street food from all over the world (We ate some tamales and Korean BBQ). They had an indoor farmers market and we sampled things like lavender honey, freshly made goat cheese, orange watermelons, raw milk (speaking of hippies), and chocolate.

Because of the heat we camped out in the corner of the air-conditioned vendors building and ate our lunch. The girls had a few rounds of "Ring Aroung the Rosey" to pass the time.

It was too hot to leave her outside when we got home, and she'd had meltdown after meltdown, so we didn't want to wake the beast . . .

Ivy was well-rested an happy, so we got some shots of her smiling. She's a total stone-face around people she doesn't know, so here you go . . . she's happy, really!

That bottom left pic reminds me of a Sears portrait with props in the background. Heh.

Can We Still Be Friends?

Sometimes when I get on here I assume I can just say what I want because it's my blog. Technically I can, but I run the risk of offending someone when I do, which sometimes comes across a bit insensitive or judgmental -- even in person. I don't know why I do that, and I'm trying to be better about it. In my last post I bad-mouthed my doctor a little and insulted rice cereal. I wanted to apologize if I offended anyone, and maybe try to explain myself a little better.

I really like my doctor, and I know she was just trying to do her job, and I respect that. I'll leave it at that.

As far as rice cereal goes, it's great for teaching babies how to move food around in their mouths, and it does provide some iron, but what I was trying to say was that it isn't very nutritious (unless you get brown rice cereal - that's a little better).

My thoughts and beliefs on a lot of things have changed since we moved here, and I think I'm turning into a hippie -- in some ways. I have a more holistic view on health care than I used to, I bring my own bags to the grocery store (that isn't too strange around here), and I try be more aware of where my food comes from (and what's in it). Don't worry, I won't ever join a commune, give up grooming, or put "Yes We Did!" bumper stickers on my car.

So, if I blog one day about how I would never own an American car, eat peanut butter (except if I'm pregnant), or put a giant hair bow on either of my girls, know that it doesn't affect how I feel about a friend* who drives around in a Focus, eating PB&J, while straining to see what's in her back mirror because of the hydrangea on her baby's head. I still love you. And you can tease me all you want about being a hippie.

*No particular friend. I made that up to prove a point. One of my best friends used to drive a Focus, and although I teased her about it, it hasn't affected our relationship.