Welcome

Welcome to the world, Baby Lucy. We love you already and cannot wait to meet you (sooner rather than later if wishes came true). And giant congratulations to Pe-Pe and Daya (Pete and Andrea)! Man, do we miss you guys.

Sports: bringing families together

Here's another take on the joy, love and togetherness embodied in the Easter message...

This went on for an hour or so. Just not sure if she or Appamee was more entertained.

Easter

Or, the day we won a parenting award for depriving Grace of a nap and encouraging her to eat chocolate all day long, especially when we wanted to distract her from going up and down the stairs over and over again (it required supervision because there wasn't a railing).

Checking out her Easter basket and new books.

Chocolate! She figured how to unwrap those things so fast, we had to hide the rest. And yes, she was wearing snowman pajamas on Easter. Weren't you?

The Egg Hunt:

Grace got a little help from cousin Katy.

And a head start.

But she quickly caught on and was in there with the big kids (mostly in their 20s, in fact).

She was very serious. In fact, when we tried to count her eggs, she freaked out and grabbed her basket away.

Were they helping...

or taking candy from a baby?

There's chocolate in these eggs!

Chocolate is way more important than looking at the camera. At least all three of us are on the same side of the lens!

The hunters (and a few hiders).

Did we miss any?

Reliving the glory.

The sweet taste of victory.

Good food, good company.

Grace ate only asparagus for dinner (but probably 4 servings worth) to top off her day of chocolate. Not pictured is her laying on the floor behind our chairs saying "I sleepy." But she was only sleepy until Scott (cott!) and Anthony (appameee!) finished eating and were available to play. Then, she jumped around the house, giggling and shrieking until it was time to go home.

Crissy Field

We finally made it to Crissy Field! We've been hearing about it forever, but never managed to get over there. Too bad we waited so long. It used to be an army airfield in the Presidio and has been turned into a great park with a walking trail along the water, a yummy-looking cafe with a menu designed by Alice Waters (next visit!), and terrific views of the city and Marin. Plus, the path is wide enough that Grace could push the stroller (she is so over riding in the stroller) and only hit about half the other people.

Partners in Crime

Girl time

Grace was born with wild hair (thick and almost black) and it has only gotten more so. Dueling cowlicks, half ringlets and half straight, all different lengths and getting thicker by the day. I used to trim it to keep the mullet in shape, but suddenly her hair got long. Add to all this the fact that she FREAKS OUT when I try to brush her hair. She covers her head with her hands, runs away and cries "No, no, Mommy! No hurt me!" I know that she is mostly faking it, though, because if I can brush her hair when she's absorbed in another activity, she doesn't even notice.

Anyway, last time I had my haircut I was chatting with my stylist about it and she said to just bring her in and she would even out the back. So, a week or so ago Grace had her first big-girl, salon haircut. Emily, who connected me with the place since I always love how her hair looks, met us there to document the occasion. There was a bowl of chocolates in the waiting area, and the next morning Grace said, apropos of nothing, "I had choc-at at da hair pace." Cracks me up what she remembers.

Grace was a great sport about it - give the girl a little attention and she's a total ham. As we were leaving I said to her "say bye, lovey" so she turned to Teri and said "bye, lovey!"

After our salon time, we headed over to the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lovely time running around and blowing bubbles. When we first arrived, we talked about finding the ducks so Grace took Emily's hand and started running, saying "hurry, hurry." Apparently the ducks were going somewhere.

We found a patch of grass to blow bubbles and play. Emily tried to teach Grace how to play Duck, Duck, Goose. It sort of stuck... Grace would run away and start hopping around, saying "mother goose, mother goose."

If you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

What a lovely way to spend an afternoon!

Reading/Watching

I was late to the Downton Abby party, but I powered through all of season 1 during February. Perfect for rainy, dark winter nights and nap times spent folding laundry. Around the same time, I picked up Gone With The Wind. GWTW was triggered by reading the book of essays by Pat Conroy that my mom gave me for Christmas. He described the book's resonance and impact as part of the southern literary canon (did I really just write that? pretentious much? zomg). Having never read the book or seen the movie, his piece inspired me to finally read it. It took forever to finish because 1) it is 1000+ pages, 2) i have an almost 2 year old child, 3) the sfpl kept not allowing me to renew it because someone else had reserved the exact same copy so I would have return it and wait for another copy to come into my branch, and 4) sometimes I just want to watch weeds season 6 or american idol. Anyway, while I realize both works are fiction, they do speak to women's lives at various points in history and piqued my interest as mother of a girl.

Anyway, I was really struck by the parallels between the Civil War and Reconstruction-era South and pre-WW I England in terms of the expectations and options for girls and women. Scarlett O'Hara's and Mary Crawley's lives are so prescribed and essentially tied to finding a husband. I know the debate rages today, and I'll not go into it here, about whether the women's movement has really improved women's lives because now women feel pressure to be perfect wives, mothers, and workers. However, thinking of what Grace will face when she reaches Scarlett's and Mary's ages, I am greatly relieved at the contrast between present and the past. Scarlett had a baby and was married and widowed at 16, Mary was almost too old to get married at 20. When Grace is 16 I hope she's worried about nothing more serious than college (and not too worried at that) and extracurriculars and driving safely, and at 20, I hope her biggest concerns are coursework and how to choose among the many exciting options.

Recent Graceisms

Grace is a full-on conversationalist now. She speaks in sentences, generally with accurately placed verbs, subjects and, lately, says please without being reminded. A few recent highlights:

When I got to daycare to pick her up one night last week, she looked up and said "That's Gracie's mommy."

She was playing with her toy phone and I pressed one of the buttons. She said "No do that. I'm working." (Woops - where did hear that?)

When I was trying to take her picture, she said of the camera "Put it away!" I said, "but you're so cute!" And she said "No, no cute! Put it away!"

Steve's pager went off during dinner the other night. Grace said "Ohhh, the pager!"

Spring!

We had weather in the 70s last week. This meant long evenings in the park after work/school, sleeping with the windows open, and watching baseball in the evenings. It reminds me of those days as a kid toward the end of the school year when going to bed on time and getting all the homework done just wasn't that important. I was all the more appreciative when we skyped with Rachel and her girls on Saturday and they showed us the snow in their backyard and the snowman they built on April Fool's Day.

And a moment of digression, here. Skype is the answer! It is so hard to find time to catch up with far-flung friends, especially those in other time zones who have kids. But, with skype, Grace can be involved instead of insisting that she get to talk on the phone and then not say anything. And, she loves to see other people via skpe. With Rachel and crew, she was so excited to see "the kids" as she kept calling them, but was pretty bummed that she couldn't reach their toys. Plus, I love seeing "the kids" too.

Anyway, back to spring. And the birds are singing their happy little, sunny day hearts out as I type this. We love the park, especially when we don't need jackets. Even better when it's light late enough that Daddy can join us on his way home from work (yea, we're the family that is still there when others are coming back after dinner; and sometimes Grace eats cookies before meals, too).

If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me lately that Grace has really become a little girl, I could pay for her to go to college, or maybe lunch. Nevertheless, these next few make it so clear. . .

This is what happens when you ask her to say smile and say "cheese" (if only she wouldn't squint!).

Imagine her delight when she saw Daddy coming across the park to catch her on the "big slide." She still jumps up and down and giggles when he gets home. Those two.

Between storms (or, the post in which i further display my obsession with the bridge)

March was rainy. Rainy, rainy, rainy. As in reservoirs are now well above 100% of normal and the governor has called off the drought in effect since 2008.

So, while my dad was here, we took a few chances to get out between storms. It was muddy, but the lingering raindrops on the trees and the clouds made it well worth it.

Saturday we headed over to the Land's End trail.

On Sunday, we decided to walk across the Golden Gate bridge. It's 1.7 miles across, so we figured it would make a good "hike" roundtrip before the promised rainstorms. The last time I walked across (part of) the bridge was with Emily as a freshman in college. That was actually during a storm, if I recall correctly, and it's a good thing the photos aren't digital or I would feel compelled to post the classic shot of us leaning into the wind while it held us up, hair and jackets blowing all over the place. Anyhow, having flashbacks, I made everyone bundle up and off we went.

The rain held off and we had a great time. The views of Marin, Sausalito, back toward the city and across the Bay Bridge and East Bay were awesome. We saw seals and dolphins (maybe porpoises) under the bridge. I am regularly awe-struck by the dramatic juxtaposition of wild and man-made around here.

Other highlights of Pop's visit included...

Playing on the music concourse in GG Park.

Feeding Elmo crackers.

Goofing off.

Reading.

Napping.

Taking allllll the books off the shelf (thanks for teaching her that, Dad).

Plus, Steve and I got to go out to dinner just the two of us. I got to go shopping by myself and do some cooking. And, Dad makes a neat g&t for cocktail hour. Thank you for visiting, Dad! Isn't it so nice that your car wasn't stolen this time?