Botanicals

More Table Mountain goodness. I spent a day in April with Maggie and friends exploring this wonderful botanical paradise outside Sacramento.

Onto summer. My mom helped me get my summer vegetables in (squash, gourds, cucumber, basil, cherry tomatoes, and regular tomatoes (mix of common and heirloom varieties)). Still need to plant the pole beans where the lettuce is growing. We also planted pretty shrubs in the front yard in a lonely area that faces the street and has been plant-less since we moved in.

If you haven't discovered hot lips sage yet, buy it! It's amazing! Also loving our native deer grass, English lavender, roses, and native California fushia. Planting purple needlegrass soon, found at our local CNPS native plant nursery run by volunteers at a Day on the Farm (Soil Born Farm-sponsored). Had forgotten purple needlegrass is our state grass. It's a native bunchgrass that is near and dear to botanists and occurs in our regional grasslands.

Ok plants, grow, grow, grow...

Picture time

Easter has come and gone, our spring vacation is over, birthdays have passed, and summer softball begins soon. We just travelled for a week through central California visiting family, the beach, and friends. Maggie was our little travelling buddy and she impressed us. We logged 1,200 miles and she barely made a fuss. I think it's a combination of her getting used to road trips, growing up/enjoying her surroundings more, and having a DVD handy with her favorite shows if the ride got too long.

The Tour of California is filling our nights. Maggie and I watched the racers whiz through old Folsom during Stage 3 in the drizzly rain, Maggie yelling "Go, go, go..." to anyone and everyone that was listening. We're enjoying the cute things Maggie says and does every day. She's repeating things more than ever (Michael...watch it :-) and copying everyone around her, especially kids. She wants to: cook, find the cat, draw, jump, go to storytime, hide, swim, go to the store and push her own cart (thank you Trader Joe's for having kid-sized carts), eat her vitamins, drink milk before bed in the sippy, hold my hand in the car, wear Hello Kitty bandaids, crack her own hard-boiled eggs with an "I did it!" at the end of the 1/2 hour process :-), be naked, go to the park, see her closest buddies, and the list goes on. This is the stuff I want to remember for myself and for her sake. We've had great success in elimating the binky to strictly sleeping - woo hoo! I was waiting for this day to arrive. With milestones like that, my best success is in letting go and then letting it happen more naturally to wear there is less fighting, some ah-hah! moments, and a happy family in the end.

 Life is good.

Maggie eyeing Eden's Easter loot



Look what I found Dad! (the real prize inside was jelly beans-thanks Uncle Dave!)



Table Mountain day trip - Maggie's first time holding lizard



Feeding giraffe at the zoo - Maggie got cold feet at last minute

Such a fun experience and great day at the zoo with 4 moms and 6 kids

Daddy and daughter in Cayucos

Tidepooling and playing with beach rocks - who me?



Visiting Amber and family, SLO college friend



Getting older

The spring has been such a flurry of activities that it hasn't left me much time to watch TV, get on the computer, etc. I think it's been a good thing. Goodbye winter.

Trading off with that has been exercise and staying busy. And this past month I've felt my age creeping in on me. I'm 31. That's still young, right? I realize I'm not in my twenties anymore and that I've had a baby, but come on, really? I've been exercising quite a bit and even though I remember to stretch most times (mostly beforehand) I end up pulling a muscle or being so sore afterwards that it takes me a few days to recover. I went on a run last week that made me feel great and so alive and strong...but it also left me limping around all weekend, especially after being idle for awhile. It's not fun seeing this change in your body, especially when I feel healthier in many ways than I did at 22. Grr...

I asked around and it sounds like I need to do more stretching afterwards and eat more protein. Drink lots of fluids, etc, etc. So much to remember in order to be active and healthy, jeesh.

Life has been full though and I'm really loving it. Maggie seems to be growing like a bean. Age 2 so far is really fun. I love talking with her, seeing her remember events or people, talk about her day in disjointed words, or cuddling with her. I hope she never loses her baby smells, I'm so going to miss that one day when I realize it's gone.

Breather

One minute I'm in a winter wonderland surrounded by so many feet of snow and fresh powder and the next minute I'm surrounded by green rolling hills and blooming wildflowers. Our days have been very full and I've been taking it one day at a time, not sure how else to do it. It's working for the most part.

I have been enjoying reading people's blog and facebook posts more than doing any posting on my end. In the past few weeks, I've skiied and spent a weekend away with hubby, rode enough miles in the Party Pardee ride with our bike team to feel exhausted/great at the end of the day, played softball games, and mountain biked with girls from the team. Good times, except bike on roof rack + overfilled brain = crunched roof rack and some scratches. Crap. Work got a little stressful this past week and my head was in the clouds no matter how much hubby reminded me NOT to drive in the garage that night. I needed a stop sign or some kind of blockade in the garage to stop me.

Saw this on a blog post last week and it made me daydream. I've never wanted a permanent tatoo (instead, I went the tongue ring route in college) but I saw this and it got me thinking about tattoos that are cool. With all the tatoo talk in our house (the wash-off kind), you'd think we were covered in ink.

Maggie is two, but she says she is "sixyearsold" as one long word (inspired by a little girl at the park last weekend who said she's 6). She's still a shrimp but growing taller and I'm happy to be phasing out some winter clothes in preparation for summer. She is lucky to have a TON of hand-me-downs, I mostly go shopping in Maggie's closet. She's really chatty and some of the funny phrases she's been saying are "oh man" and "yeah, sure". When I came home from mountain biking and had dirt on my legs, she says "momma dirty" and then looks up at me with a concerned face and says "fall?". I love this little girl, she makes me laugh a lot. When we drive through a tunnel near our house, she asks us to honk and then laughs. Everything is "me do it" and then "help momma" if she can't figure it out. 

We got lettuce and some other spring vegetables in the garden, we'll see if this spring weather lasts long enough for them to produce. Excited for tomato season to be here soon!

Bubbly babe

Maggie is officially 2! As she talks more, communicates better, cries less, sleeps better, eats more, makes friends, and establishes her identity day by day, it feels easier to be her parent in many ways. Every day it takes effort to be the parent I want to be. We continue to make decisions that feel right for our little family and sometimes that takes a lot of work. Money may be tight at times, but I so cherish the tradeoff of having more time creating the life I imagine.

I love our routine of reading books before bedtime in our big bed. We all have our place and snuggle under the covers. Maggie really loves to read and it's especially fun when she reads to us or outloud. Oh, the cute things she says. It's usually a jumble with a correct word thrown in to show she is paying attention.

Michael thinks Maggie eats like a football player/teenage boy. I think he's in for it if he thinks that at 2. She's such a petite little thing, I'm thinking her metabolism must be off the charts. She loves to eat good food, which makes me happy. She doesn't care for bell pepper or mixed foods like casseroles or chili but she loves soup. She also loves her treats :-)

She's potty training for real now. Every day or week is more use of the toilet. She prefers the adult toilet with an insert and step stool over a little kid's toilet. Her latest funny word is "sure" in response to most questions I ask her.

She's riding her trike and we can't wait to get her on a balance bike. She loves band-aids to cover her owies, whether fake or not. Her hair continues to be a little mess of curls. She had her first dentist appointment this month. I was a proud mama when I knew instinctively that she would not have an issue laying down to have the dentist inspect her mouth. The dentist, who works strictly with children, said that at her age, 1 out of 100, maybe 1000 kids will do that for him without freaking out.

We threw her a home birthday party. We lucked out with weather by a few hours and I think she had a blast.





2 Things

I got solicitation mail this week that really made me laugh on three levels. It was addressed to me, with the spelling of my name correct, yet it was a Just for Men hair coloring coupon/postcard in Spanish. Repeat: not for Michael...for me. So, from what I can figure based on my unique first name, married last name, and whatever else "they" have on file, I'm apparently a middle-aged greying Latino man to the outside world. Nice. Brings back memories of recieving mail at summer camp addressed to Marvin Lemieux.

I started playing softball this spring after taking a few years off. Last week I subbed on a team, which was my rough introduction back on the field. My dad pointed out that last week's game probably motivated me more to shine at this week's game, a new team I've joined. After eating an alternative St. Patti's Day meal (I cooked this festive green soup and this shepherd's pie - both vegetarian and very tasty with a few mods), I ran off nervously but excited to play the 1st game of the season under bright lights in the one day window we had this week without rain. Not only are my team members nice, but they don't suck, the field wasn't swampy, I scored a bright orange team shirt with a team name I won't admit to here, I got two good hits in the outfield, and I played a new position to me (catcher) where I got lots of action. So excited to be back out there and getting some exercise.