Jen - e - fair

Our friend Jennifer came down for Thanksgiving. We had a great time -- went to Kevin and Rike's for Turkey day feastings in the evening, and pretty much played all day Friday, including a hilarious three way game of charades both Thursday and Friday after Ruby went to sleep. Perhaps my favorite moment, though, was when Ruby came padding her way down the hall on Thursday night, as she usually does, to get in to bed with us. She made it to the living room, stopped, and stood next to Jennifer as she slept. Jennifer woke up, invited her in, and Ruby never made it the rest of the way to us. Wow! I'll post a photo of the two of them. Cute!

Snow White

"Sara has a Snow White book."
"Have you seen it? Did she bring it to ECEC?"
"I like the look of it."

Endpaper

"Endpaper." My daughter, not yet 3, knows the word "endpaper," as in (showing me Eric Carle's -Animals, Animals_"Daddy, look at this pretty endpaper."
That is all.

ECEC

ECEC, the early childhood education center, is the new place that Ruby is going for daycare. She is in her fourth week there, and seems to really like it. She has some good little friends there, Sara (almost a spanish pronunciation), Sarah, Grayson, Otto (about to leave to go back to Germany) Audrey, Michelle, and William (the later two fraternal twins).

Her teacher is named Summer, and we really like her. Today, when I got there, Ruby was having a snack of Vinta crackers (we leave these in case the snack of the day doesn't appeal).

on another note, I went to Seattle for a counseling event a week early last week. Flew up there, checked in to my hotel, went in on Monday morning to find out that I was there the wrong week. Seriously!
kdd

Apparently there's some kind of thing where blogger drops all the photos from time to time. Not good! I'll have to go through and repost them all.

European Trip and Return

We missed the July post because we were away, and also, somehow, the photos have disappeared from the blog. Not sure what's up there; hopefully I'll figure it out soon.

A few tidbits from notes I took while we were away July 7 to the 23.

July 9: had lunch (breakfast, our time clock said) at Chez Marie, a Basque cafe on Boulevard Montparnasse. Ruby had a chocolat chaud, I think for the first time. That day, or maybe the tenth, I ordered a ham sandwich that was nothing like what you would think of when I say the phrase "ham sandwich." Jambon de Bayonne -- quatorze mois de sechage, the owner informed me -- utterly delectable. We also found a rocking rooster outside a vintage clothing store which Ruby enjoyed, and had Framboise blanche (white raspberries) which were also very tasty, and which I had never seen before.
A very nice visit with Jeremy and Laura, and a meeting with baby Leo. Jeremy played autoharp, at Ruby's remote control command, which they both enjoyed.
Met Nathalie and Romain at dinner in the Rue Cler.

more later,

kdd

June News

Just a few newsy things. Elizabeth's mom (Gama!, according as Ruby yells with delight when Sara arrives at the door in the morning has been here for the past week. She and Ruby went to the "special park" (Turtle Rock -- nice and shady in the summer), and to Irvine Regional Park (where Ruby rode the ponies -- twice -- although by this evening she was claiming "four times!") This morning, after the grand opening of the community center, Sara and I picked up Ruby from the center, and we went down to the farmer's market. There we saw Sonja and Ben (her little 3 year old friend), and Charlotte and Stella (twins) and their dad, Tom. We played "be careful of the baby," a game in which I sit on the ground and hold Ruby (or Ben, or later, Charlotte, or Stella) in my lap and say "Be careful of the baby!" and then the other toddler (Ben, or Ruby, or Charlotte, or Stella) runs at me and I, in a panic, throw the baby on the ground so that I can catch the approaching toddler.
Christopher came in the afternoon and Ruby had him (and all of us, and many of her stuffed animals) playing at super heroes, all of us complete with capes held on with paper clips at our necks. The five of us had dinner (Kale, tomato, carrot, chorizo, garlic stir fry) and Stricklands ice cream with strawberries after dinner. Sat in the back yard and froze our patooties.
Learned Dan Zanes is touring the west coast in the fall -- very exciting.

With Benjamin at the Farmer's Market

June 2010

Follow the Rules

R: Can cars come on the sidewalk?

K: No.

R: Why?

K: Because it’s a rule.

R: Like no kicking in the eyes?

I think I can...

("Reading" Raymond Chandler).

E: What does that say?

R: It says, "P.S., you can do it."

Sun Safety

R: "My friends are coming over, so I'm going to turn off this video."

E: "What are you going to do with your friends?"

R: "Put them in a cage so they don't get sunburned."

kdd

Sign: No Pants Ahead

Elizabeth, trying to get Ruby to wear pants and underwear: "If we're going back to the Santa Ana Zoo (imaginary, in the living room), you'll have to wear shorts and underwear."

Ruby: "Wait, wait, wait. There's a sign."

E: "A sign?"

R: "It says no wearing pants."

Baked Beans and Brown Bread

Elizabeth's father died five years ago today. Elizabeth is making baked beans and brown bread in his memory.

Ruby's first dream

This morning, Ruby's first words were "There was a butterfly -- way up high. And it spread it's arms." She went on to say that it was way up there, on a cloud. Not her first dream, of course, but the first one that she has said anything about.

In other less enjoyable news, I recently had a migraine for two weeks -- seriously. It still isn't really gone.

Also bought a Roku player, and am loving it!

It's a shame.

tonight at dinner (while eating strawberry number 5, on her way to 8), looking at it in her hand: "I don't like these very much." Pause. "It's a shame." Sigh. Gobble gobble.

I couldn't make it up!

kdd