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On Thursday I ordered a new Fastrak transponder for our "new" car. I'm going to be using it on Monday to pick up Ian's parents from the airport. To my surprise the transponder arrived today. To test it out and to beat the heat we drove across the bay to Pacifica.
We took the scenic route through Half Moon Bay and up along the coast. While we drove with the AC on (the only AC we have access to is in the car) Harriet got a well needed nap.
We had dinner at Rockin Rob's at Rockaway Beach. We haven't been there since Sean was about 18 months old. He has no memories of eating there. The kid who used to run around in the thick Pacifica fog in shorts complained about how cold it was (when it was probably 70° F). We splurged and got a scoop of ice cream for dessert.
Afterwards we walked down to the sea wall by the Lighthouse hotel. We stayed to watch the sunset. As we watched we also saw pelicans diving for fish, a small pod of dolphins swimming where the waves were braking and farther out near the horizon we saw a small pod of gray whales coming up for air every so often.
Sean and Harriet loved watching the sunset and all the wildlife. As Sean and I were sitting together on the anchor statue he told me that this was his first sunset.
By the time we got home it was ten o'clock, an hour and half past the kids' normal bedtime but it was so worth keeping them up late to see what we saw.Current Mood:  chipper Current Music: The Ark (Dr. Dog) |
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A new drawing from Harriet. She's always drawing these happy-faced monsters. Current Mood:  amused Current Music: Silver Darlings (The Browne Sisters And George Cavanaugh) |
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Harriet insisted that I check out a Nancy Drew mystery to read for fun. In the cover of the library book is an inscription from a father to his daughter. It's a very nice message and it saddens me a little that only 9 years later the book is no longer in her collection. How did it go from being a loving gift to a library book?
The inscription reads: 12/09/2K Dear Emily,
You must always remember to be on the lookout for a mystery. Life is a mystery to be resolved and then truly lived.
The unexamined life is an empty life. The best thing about a good mystery is that it can teach you how to ask questions in order to get the correct answers. It may be true what they say, that women are really stronger than men; except for some men. The world can be your oyster, all you have to do is find it, grab it and open it. I love you.
Daddy
It's a little incoherent but still the sentiment is sweet. Current Mood:  contemplative Current Music: Old Woman (The Browne Sisters And George Cavanaugh) |
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Drawn by Harriet.Current Mood:  sleepy Current Music: Fogarty's Cove (Stan Rogers) |
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Sean has so many drawings now that he has started a scrap book to keep them together. Today we bought him the scrap book along with some goodies to decorate the pages. Meanwhile Harriet is old enough for her own "treasure box" to match her brothers. So we got her a balsa wood box just like his for her to decorate and put her treasures.
Then it was off to Target for summer jammies. They've grown so much they don't fit into any of their light weight jammies from last year.
Home for a quick lunch before heading out to Castro Valley for an open house. Sean's preschool has expanded to a second site. The new site is for grades 1 - 3 and is starting as a summer school program. It will then be an after school program in the fall. Sean and Harriet had so much fun testing out the new school's playground that we stayed an hour!
Then home for scrap-booking and decorating of the treasure box. Once Harriet had her box decorated she did her own scrap book page but decided to hang it on her wall.
Before dinner I collapsed for an hour nap while Ian cooked homemade spaghetti sauce from the local farmers' market. Current Mood: chipper Current Music: How to Dream (Sam Phillips) |
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This song is causing a bit of trouble in my family. My son HATES it with a fiery passion. My daughter LOVES it with a similar passion. It's the first track in the CD changer in my car. When my son is in the car, I am NOT to play it. When my daughter is in the car it's the first thing she requests. When they are both in the car I have to mediate between the two loudly shouting at me.
I have also learned that the song takes exactly the amount of time to go from my daughter's preschool to our parking spot in the carport. Current Mood:  ditzy Current Music: Video Killed the Radio Star (The Buggles) |
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Harriet has been making rocket ships (and making blast off noises too) out of the pop beads. To me they look like 1950s rocket ships from the old pulp scifi novels.
Meanwhile her brother is making robots out of them. I will post a picture of them soon. Current Mood:  cheerful Current Music: Love for Sale (Talking Heads) |
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I still have double rows of books on the shelves and there is now twice the chaos of toys on the floor. Most of these double rows will be moving downstairs once Ian moves his books to his new office over the summer.Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Since I've Laid My Burden Down (Mississippi John Hurt) |
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Sunday we spent a lovely day at our local park to celebrate our neighbor's second birthday. Sean and his older brother are school mates so it was extra fun this year.
The kids playing ball. There were actually 2x as many kids playing but it was hard to get them all in frame at the same time.
That's the birthday boy's oldest brother (and Sean's school chum) on the right in the green shirt). Harriet's on the left and I don't remember the other boy's name.
The birthday boy is right behind Harriet on the ladder.
Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Ya Laure Hobouki (Natacha Atlas) |
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Harriet has wavy hair. I never appreciated just how wavy it is until I gave her hair a proper brushing. Normally her hair doesn't get that tangled but she's been sick and having a bad hair day because of her illness. Today I wrangled her and got her to sit down long enough for me to de-tangle her hair.
While brushing it I got it straight enough to see just how long her hair has grown. If she had straight hair it would be long enough for her to sit on it! While her hair was so straight Sean said, "She doesn't look like Harriet any more!"
Of course five minutes later her hair had coiled right back up and she was back to looking like herself (but minus the tangles).Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Chord Sounds (Moby) |
| » Woosh |
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What a difference a few days make. It's now 30° F cooler inside (and probably another 10° cooler outside) than it was at the start of the week. We have fog, clouds and a cold, strong wind. It is wonderful!
Harriet has moved from being feverish to being congested and having a cough. Nights have been rough for her.
Ian has now come down with this flu or cold. Meanwhile in Southern California and Mexico there is a new strain of swine flu.
Apr. 24th, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
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| » Back to school today |
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Harriet's fever broke yesterday and this morning she woke up giggling. She has a little bit of a cough but wanted to go to school. So she's there.
The heatwave continues and it's hotter inside today than it was yesterday at this time by 2° F. I can see (through the smog) some fog over the mountains on the peninsula. Hopefully the high pressure system will break down and let the fog across the bay.
Apr. 22nd, 2009 @ 10:16 am
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| » Hot inside and out |
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Yesterday we had summer like temperatures. Not good. It got up to 97° F inside our home. Harriet came home from preschool with a 101 ° F fever. So she was suffering inside and out from heat.
Today we're expecting more heat but so far it's not as bad. Of course it's still the morning...
Harriet is home with me which means telecommuting to the sounds of Wonder Pets, Curious George, Dora the Explorer and whatever else tickles her fancy.
Apr. 21st, 2009 @ 09:36 am
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| » Open House |
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Wednesday was open house at Sean's school. He's doing great in his Mandarin immersion. He has two writing journals now: one in English and one in Mandarin. Here are some photographic highlights of the night.
Sean shows Ian his Chinese journal.
A close up of the journal
Sean teaches Harriet and Ian some words.
Harriet takes a turn at an activity.
Apr. 3rd, 2009 @ 10:45 pm
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| » Collage art |
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The kids and I spent a fun hour and a half tonight making collages. While they worked on their pieces I made two postcards to use in the future with Postcrossing.
Apr. 3rd, 2009 @ 09:46 pm
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| » Took my daughter to the park |
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I had promised Harriet a trip to the park yesterday but she ended up napping right through the time we had planned. So I picked her up early from preschool today and took her to the park -- just her and me. Sean was home with Ian.
I had offered to take Sean too but he's home from school for Cesar Chavez day and completely sucked into Luigi's Mansion. I don't normally let him play video games all day but I'm making an exception to day.
I took Harriet to the park at the top of Seven Canyons Road. Little League is back in season so parking was a bit dicey. We found a tight spot and had a fantastic hour at the park. Harriet first climbed and went down the slide and played with the race cars that are built into the climbing structure. Then she decided to go swinging. They don't have toddler swings so Harriet had to hold on while I pushed her on a normal swing. I pushed her for about half an hour.
While we were swinging we met Abby who I thought was about 9. I should have realized she couldn't be that old when she asked me to push her a few times to get the swing started. Anyway, while I pushed Harriet, Abby and I had a nice conversation. She wanted to know how someone as young as Harriet could talk so well. I didn't know how to respond so I just said, "Lots of practice." She liked my answer.
Anyway as we kept talking I learned that she's actually Sean's age but she's probably going to be taller than him. She's one of the tallest and buffest six-year-olds I've met. She's the middle child with an older brother who is 8 and a sister who is 2 days younger than Harriet.
Her younger sister spent the entire time in a stroller with a pacifier in her mouth basically doing nothing but watch and suck. I can see then why Abby was surprised to see Harriet playing and talking.
Besides the mob of kids (mostly siblings of the baseball players) we also saw three different species of migrating butterflies. There were still more stragglers in the Monarch migration and then two others. I think they were the American Lady and Clodius Parnassian (although they don't normally come into our county?). There might have also been some Painted Ladies. It was a swarm of butterflies of all different colors, shapes and sizes. It's so unusual that there were a pair of girls, Sarah and another girl, who were chasing them with butterfly nets (and having no luck). I can't remember ever seeing this many butterflies in the wild here in California.
Mar. 30th, 2009 @ 05:50 pm
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| » A nursery rhyme as told by Harriet |
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Dumpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Dumpty Dumpty had a great fall
"Aaaaaaah splat"
And she break her face and her hands and her feet and her legs
And all the kings horses
And all the kings men
Couldn't put Dumpty together again
But Dora and Boots could
Because they know where all the pieces go.
And Now Dumpty Dumpty doesn't sit on the wall any more.
She just stands on the ground.
Mar. 27th, 2009 @ 06:15 pm
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| » Back from the Oakland Zoo |
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I took Sean and Harriet to the zoo today after lunch. I love having a membership because I don't feel like we have to spend all day there. Typically after about ninety minutes they are ready to head home. If we go after lunch there is usually ample parking right near the gates.
Before we did anything both kids bought a stuffed snake with some money they got for Valentine's day. They got matching Coral snakes. Since we had a lot of walking to do, I stuffed them into my purse and they kept trying to burst out the rest of the day. It was very silly!
Today we saw the meerkats, lions, some snakes and lizards, and the African elephants. My favorite part today was seeing the elephants. Or rather, the guests to their enclosure... a flock of wild turkeys.
The gaps in the gates are high enough that the turkeys can walk right in. They didn't seem at all put off by the giant elephants. Likewise, the pachyderms didn't seem to notice the birds.
On our way back to the car we finally had a chance to do something we've wanted to do since we became members: ride the train. The train depot is actually outside of the zoo with a bunch of carnival rides. Since we're still newish members I'm still trying to figure out how everything works. We were the last ones on the train and had the extra fun of riding backwards in the caboose. It was a blast!
All along the tracks they have statues of wild animals. There are also beautiful plants and flowers and one spectacular view of the San Francisco Bay. We were sitting behind a foursome of Japanese tourists who were as enthusiastic about the ride as we were. We were probably the noisiest group on the train.
Mar. 8th, 2009 @ 04:15 pm
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| » New Shoes... New Job |
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Harriet has out grown her old shoes. Her last pair lasted the longest of all of them since she started walking -- about eight months. She's now in size 7 toddler shoes.
Ian has accepted a post doc at Davis so we won't have to move at least for two years. It's nice to have this part of his job search over. I'm happy that I can stay close to my BookCrossing friends and that both kids can stay in their schools for now.
It's finally raining. We are facing mandatory water rationing this year unless we get a bunch of very wet months in the near future.
Feb. 5th, 2009 @ 06:11 pm
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| » Harriet's blues |
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Harriet just hasn't been herself since Ian got back from his trip. We're guessing that a month off our usual routine (when you take in account all the holiday traveling plus Ian's trip) has just been too much for her. She isn't sleeping well and she's quicker to melt down into typical "terrible two" temper-tantrums.
What's really odd for her, she's started crying when we leave her at school. Specifically, when Ian goes. I think she's afraid he'll be leaving again and the next time we won't be picking him up at the airport ever.
She's also going through a growth spurt, having grown probably an inch or two in the last couple months. I know all that growing can take a lot out of a person.
Jan. 13th, 2009 @ 10:26 am
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| » Morris Dancing |
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Harriet and Ian are watching Morris dancing videos and Harriet is dancing along. She's totally addicted. It is the cutest thing. I wish I had a video camera.
Jan. 10th, 2009 @ 07:10 pm
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| » Short Story update and other stuff |
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I'm just shy of 600 words in my short story. I haven't been making the time to write. I originally had planned to write over the week before New Year's Eve but ended up with a stomach bug. Now I'm home with the kids while Ian has been on a trip. Of course I have time during the day and after they go to bed but I just haven't been motivated.
Somehow writing for Nanowrimo where the word count is king is easier than just writing for fun. Part of my not writing time I've been using for research but that's still not a valid reason for not having more done.
In other news, Ian is flying home today. He has two flights to hop across the country. His first flight got a late start by 20 minutes but he has enough time in his layover that the delay shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully the fog at SFO will be cleared by the time his second flight takes off so we don't get a fog delay.
Assuming the second flight stays more or less on schedule, the plan is for Sean and me to pick up Harriet 45 minutes early from school and make the drive to SFO. I don't want to be parked longer than I have to because parking is expensive and the kids get squirrelly. Then we'll pick up Ian and take him to Chevy's since he won't be buying meals on the planes.
Then home again and kids to bed.
Speaking of bed, Harriet and Sean now prefer to have bed time stories read together in the master bedroom. They'll tuck themselves into our bed and I'll read from the pile of books they've picked out. Then if Sean still needs a bath, he'll give himself one while I put Harriet to bed. If he doesn't, then both will go to bed at the same time.
Jan. 9th, 2009 @ 10:41 am
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| » Just me and the kids until Friday |
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Ian's in Washington DC for a conference until Friday. We dropped him off at eleven for his one o'clock flight. He just called about an hour ago to say he had landed and was in the shuttle to baggage claim. He plans to call again from the hotel but I'm not sure when.
After we had dropped him off I took the kids to the park near Lake Chabot. The kids like the sand pit there. They spent most of their time making castles and stomping them flat. Then they went sliding and all that running around wore out Harriet. It was time to leave when she started to melt down.
Lunch for Sean and Harriet was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I had left overs because I just don't like "PB Jelly" as Harriet calls it.
For dinner I roasted a chicken, steamed some rice and boiled some peas. It was our basic generic dinner. With just the three of us that chicken will probably last us most of the time Ian is gone.
School starts for Sean and Harriet tomorrow.
Jan. 4th, 2009 @ 07:16 pm
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| » Christmas party at Harriet's school |
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Harriet's class didn't sing -- just the 3 to 6 year olds.
Dec. 21st, 2008 @ 11:06 am
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