Discovery Museum

When my mom arrived last week for a visit, Riley was so excited he wanted to show her the most happening spot this side of the Rockies. So naturally we drove up to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Marin. First stop: Clifford the Big Red Dog's playhouse. Riley showed Grandma how to feed Clifford by placing giant bones on a conveyor belt and turning a wheel until they fell into the humongous canine's bowl. As you can tell, it takes a lot of concentration to feed this dog. Riley must be campaigning for a puppy because he was insanely serious about the task at hand, spending a good half hour loading these bones.

Next, Rilz showed Grandma how to fish for crabs. While snapping this pic, I suddenly noticed the gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge right beyond the museum. What a sight!

We decided to take some more pictures close to the bridge, and I was surprised by an even better sight: photographic evidence of my recent weight loss.

After I stopped nursing in October and could again partake in many of the foods I had missed because of Riley's food allergies, I went a bit nuts for my friends Ben and Jerry. Very quickly I gained 17 pounds. I love the next picture, taken in December, because it reminds me of a happy day with my family, but it also shows that 17-pound weight gain.

Thanks to Weight Watchers, Andy's excellent cooking and support from friends, I've lost 24 pounds since then. These new photos alerted me that it was time to buy some new jeans (three sizes smaller!) and celebrate a successful return to healthy eating.

Bite Scat Shoe

Riley had a heck of a day. Here are some highlights:

1) His friend at daycare twice bit him in the face, so hard that even at bedtime he still had a dark red, full mouth imprint on his cheek. The best part: Riley thought it was funny. I hope that's a sign he's unflappable and not that he's America's Next Top Biter.

2) He laid a log in the bathtub (d'oh!) and, when quickly pulled out, he let loose on the potty for the very first time.

3) He was very excited for his daycare field trip (he wanted to see the "ee-cock!"). When his crew arrived at the zoo, the teachers were mystified -- where the heck were Riley's shoes? After searching the car high and low, the only possible answer was that, in transit, he had removed his shoes and chucked them out the car window. What a goof!

Thanks for the entertainment, Rilz!

Awesome

Every day, new words pop out of Riley's mouth as if they'd always been there. One day, he'll casually say "arm," "star" and "sock" and then next day he'll bust out with "barn" and "silo." I find his use of silo, in particular, to be hilarious. If a kid living in one of the biggest urban areas in America is only going to have a couple hundred words, who would have guessed that one of them would describe a grain storage facility? A kid who loves farms, that's who. The boy is head over heads for all things agricultural, especially farm animals. He has never once uttered his own name, but he can say "donkey" and "farmer."

Riley specializes in nouns, but he also gleefully shouts out certain verbs while he's engaging in them. "Jump," "scoop," "dump" and "honk" are all favorites.

He's cuckoo for colors, especially his absolute favorite color, yellow. He delights whenever he encounters something yellow and can shout out his favorite word. In true San Francisco style, he likes to differentiate among garbage, recycling and compost cans. "Where does the mail go, Riley?" "Blue!!!" 

For a boy who loves both waste bins and large trucks, yesterday provided a real treat. On our way to daycare we encountered a compost truck. We trailed the truck for an entire block watching it dump a dozen compost cans into it's mid-section. The driver shook Riley's hand and put on a big show for him which included sound effects. When the driver first approached, Riley's eyes widened until he looked like he'd just met the President. He was star struck! 

As the compost truck pulled away, I exclaimed, "That was awesome!" Riley agreed and, for the first time, said, "Awesome!" Throughout the day, he walked around trying on his new word on for size. Later (with a little kibitzing) we captured it here.

 

The mice will play

Andy went backpacking last weekend and Riley and I knew exactly what that meant: When the daddy's away, the mice will play. We set out to get into all sorts of trouble while pops was gone.

We went to a birthday party and had our first taste of gummi candy.

By the end of the bag, we were feeling pretty goofy.

We played in a tent with the two birthday girls, Sophia and Neala.

On Sunday morning, we played a funny game where Riley sat in his carseat for 45 minutes while mommy, who had locked Riley, her keys and her cell phone in the car, ran up and down the street looking for someone to call for help. True story. Riley was such a good sport. For the first 25 minutes, he cracked up as I played peek-a-boo and made funny faces through the back windshield, then he fell asleep until AAA showed up. Good boy.

We needed some more fun in our weekend so we decided to play beauty parlor:

Ha!

Then we played the San Francisco stereotype game. Riley slapped on his Obama t-shirt, showed off his painted toes and played iPhone apps as we strolled to an independent bookstore. 

We were glad when daddy got home. We got ourselves into enough trouble for one weekend.

Coloring eggs

When I was a kid, I loved to color Easter eggs. After helping Riley create his first set of beautiful eggs,  now I think I understand my own adoration of the tradition. My mom is an artist. And I mean a good artist who can find inspiration in a cardboard box or a broken lump of cement -- and who actually gets paid for her paintings and drawings. My sister is equally creative with a paint brush and a microphone. Me? I can craft a beautiful to do list or write you a killer decision chart. But if it doesn't fit in a box or come with instructions, I don't really know what to do with it.

Except in the spring. Easter is the one time of year I know how to create something beautiful. But lest you think I'm especially talented at Easter egg dying, think again! It turns out Easter egg decorating is the rare art form that allows people with the talent of a one-year-old to feel like Jackson Pollock.  Behold the boy's mad skills. He swirled, he whirled. With total abandon, he would partially cover an egg is one color, drop in it another color, smudge the colors with his little paws and then sprinkle the egg with a third color. The results were pretty magical.

  

I'm so proud of my little Easter expressionist!

Of course, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this Type A mama gritted her teeth and sighed every time he dropped an egg in a dye. Cuz he really dropped  them -- crunch! We ended up with 20 gorgeous, totally cracked eggs. Apparently fractals are his signature.

On Easter morning, Riley searched high and low for his eggs, both the painted ones and the plastic eggs full of stickers. 

He was terrifically happy each time he discovered an egg. I've been terrifically happy each day since. Each morning, I perch one of his little beauties on my desk -- a rotating collection of Riley's greatest works -- and get to admire his artistry until lunch.

Double trouble

When I was pregnant, Andy and I had this feeling (hope?) that I'd have twins. It became such a strong hunch that when we saw Riley's first ultrasound, we were actually quite surprised to only see one little jumping bean on the screen. I'll admit I was disappointed. Then I gave birth and realized how cuckoo bananas my low-lying desire for twins had been. Seriously, I'm not sure how we would have made it through that first upside-down year without dropping at least one of them off at the fire station.

But here's the crazy part. Thoughts of twins keep creeping back into my mind. I derive a strange joy from looking at pictures of twins and often think about how I would manage them (where would they sleep? when would I sleep? might be a better question). I think about how I would dress them, whether they'd get along and all the fascinating twin studies they could participate in (three cheers for science!). I'm not pregnant -- and not trying to be -- but I wonder if, some day, I'm possibly fated to incubate two little babies simultaneously.

It's a fun fantasy, but, for sanity's sake, let's hope that's all it is.

Easter Egg Hunt

Reason #436 that my mom's group (now, more accurately, our neighborhood families group) is awesome: one of the moms organized an Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos. Thanks to the incomparable Casey (Lucia's mom), on the day before Easter about 25 kiddos got to experience an egg-stravaganza at our local playground. While the adults noshed on potluck brunch and sipped coffee and mimosas, the kids got to hunt for 400 plastic eggs that Casey had filled with fantastic treats like stickers, play-doh and mini-bubbles. I wasn't sure at first if our group of 1.5-2-year-olds would know how to hunt for eggs. Boy, did I under-estimate them. They had a ball. And when they were done, many of them dumped their eggs and went and found them all over again. It was a hoot.

We showed up early to help hide the eggs.

We sequestered Riley in the playground while his pops dropped eggs all over the lawn. It was not such a bad place for a kid to be stuck, and Rilz was pretty patient, but we knew he was itching to tear into the action. Finally we set him and the other kids free, and the hunt was on.

"Come on, GiGi. It's time, it's time!"

While other kids combed the grass, Riley and his friend Jack challenged themselves to find eggs hidden among the plants.

Riley also perfected a technique for opening the plastic eggs we like to call "The Karate Kid."

One of the cutest elements of the day, was seeing the neighborhood kids dressed in their Easter finest, including fashionista Beatrix, adorable Lucia -- the inspiration for the event -- dapper Owen and bunny-eared Fiona.

Once the kids filled their baskets, they started checking out the awesome goodies inside. Here's Murphy, bargaining with Trixie for one of her play-doh eggs.

The kids' attentions eventually turned to other finds like the gorgeous calla lillies decorating the park and the inflatable chocolate bunny (which Riley rode, hugged, wrestled and pounded for at least 10 minutes).

Riley also ate a ton, as chronicled here on the blog of one of his best pals, Fiona.

The party was pretty much a dream come true for these kiddos. A million thanks to Casey, whom we can only guess is a high ranking ambassador to the Easter bunny. And thanks to Jack's dad, Simon, for taking several of our favorite pictures above. It takes a village, and we're thrilled with ours.

Too much fun

We are still recovering from our holiday extravaganza this past weekend and a whirlwind, super fun visit from Riley's Grandma, AKA GiGi. We are all tuckered out!

Passover

We like to mix it up in our house, especially during the Spring when we get to celebrate both Passover and Easter. This year, as the two holidays converged, we had a fantatsic holiday weekend, packed with notions of rebirth, reflection and tradition-building. In the span of 48 hours we enjoyed two Passover seders, 2 Easter egg hunts and Riley's first attempt at coloring Easter eggs. Our cross culturalism was on full display last night when the Easter eggs cozied up to the seder plate.

I'll post more about Easter later this week, but I wanted to start with a few notes about Passover. Our super sweet holiday weekend started at the house of another neighborhood toddler, Max, who is one day Riley's senior. Knowing that a bunch of one-year-olds were not about to sit through a three hour seder, Max's wise papa shortened the festivities to about two minutes. First, the kiddos reclined on pillows, then tasted some parsley. To symbolize the ten plagues, the parents jumped around like frogs. Finally, in a nod to the Jews crossing the dessert, the kids crawled through a tunnel, as modeled by Riley's friend, Lucia, below.

The celebration was perfect.

The next day we hosted our annual seder with our dear friends Geoff and Elli, the latter of whom guides us through the ceremony using the feminist, humanist, free-range, open-source Haggadah she artfully wrote. My favorite part of the seder is when we talk about the efforts we've taken in the past year to improve our communities and pledge our goals for the next year. It's an inspiring way to focus on what's really important in life and honor all those who've struggled. Of course, I also love the food. Horseradish and Haroset and matzoh, oh my! Riley got his first taste of my world famous matzoh ball soup. I'm pretty sure he loved it, which is great because it's more or less the only thing I cook all year.

Riley must have been inspired by all of the Passover cooking because today he got down to business in the kitchen.

After carefully balancing a mixture of water and salt, Riley dipped parsley into his creation. He then tasted the salty herbs, a Passover tradition that helps us remember the tears of our ancestors, the pain of slavery and the struggles that people all throughout the world continue to face today. It's a somber ritual, and one I take quite seriously. While you can't expect such introspection from a one-year-old, it is nice to see him experimenting with some traditions.

Here's a little video that show more of his cooking attempt.



We have much to celebrate this Spring, including having this curious, happy little guy in our lives. L'chaim!

He'll tumble 4 ya

In time for the Summer Olympics, Riley has taken up gymnastics. Ever since he saw his cousin Rene do a somersault back in December, he's been trying flip himself over.

We figured it was time to harness the tumbling zeal with classes at our local kid's gymnasium. 

                             

Riley and his gal pal, Fiona, now have a standing date on Sunday mornings for coffee and a good tumble. Or tumbling while their two moms drink coffee. I'm always too tired at that time of morning to keep it straight. 

Riley's favorite activity at the gym is swinging from the trapeze. Except that he can't really do it. Four out of five attempts find him falling five feet onto a thick pad below pretty much as soon as he grabs onto the trapeze bar. But that doesn't stop the little bugger from trying. He loves it! [Sorry there's no picture, but he doesn't stay on long enough!]

At the end of class last week, Riley made two super cool discoveries. First, he saw, commandeered, and fairly adeptly rode a mini-scooter. He may not be headed toward a career in trapeze, but he does seem to have some natural talent on a wheeled board. Lord help me when he discovers the kind without handles.












As we were leaving the gym, we passed by a row of lockers. Recognizing that they were just his size, Riley jumped right into one and closed the door. Before I knew where he'd gone, he popped right out as if to say, "Surprise, I'm adorable!" He spent the next ten minutes hiding in and jumping out of lockers. It was pretty darn cute.

Train Fever

San Francisco, CA -- Reports from the World Health Organization this morning corroborated a significant outbreak of Train Fever. The epicenter of the epidemic appears to be a modest living room in San Francisco, home to a heavily symptomatic 21-month-old boy. "We've never experienced an outbreak of this magnitude," Dr. Andrew Hazelstein acknowledged. "I've cautioned the patient's parents that this fever may significantly reduce his ability to do anything but play with trains and may lead to excessive drainage of their bank accounts."

The patient's mother said, "At least now I can cook a meal in peace. Not that I would do that."

New playground

As regulars on the San Francisco playground circuit, we are thrilled by the new playground the city opened yesterday at Dolores Park in the Mission. And we weren't the only ones...the park was mobbed!

And who says there aren't any kids in San Francisco? (Okay the census does, as reported here by one of my favorite MILFs.)

The new playground is gorgeous. It curves with the natural contours and hills of the park (and those hills accomodate a 40 foot slide!). It is full of non-typical play structures, like the giant clothespins on the left of the picture above, that encourage kids to use their imagination. My favorite part is the music area, shown below. At the far left you can see a few of the bongo drums that together form a rainbow. On the right is a set of giant chimes and dead center is the big keyboard which Riley took a turn pounding upon.

Riley had a ball in multi-level sandbox. Here he is looking like a windblown character from The Outsiders.

As you can see in the background, pops and I are often a little tired by midday on the weekends. But here's the super awesome thing about this new playground. It is in the Mission. One block from Tartine. You can bet yer hipster behind that we are going to be well-caffeinated, clutching the best croissants in the city and heading to this playground for many, many Saturdays to come. Bye-bye yawns, hello Dolores Park!

Can't wait

It's Friday afternoon, and I am rushing home to see this guy...

Type faster!