Little Farm

This is Little Farm in Tilden Park, Berkeley. Its a free, which is awesome. You can feed the animals if you bring your own lettuce or celery (only foods allowed so they don't get fat). They have some cows, a pig with piglets, chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits and geese. When the animals put their noses over the fence to be feed, the kids can pet them. There is also a free tiny nature center/museum and a scenic level hiking path that goes into the hills.

John gave me a gift to remember him by

The other day I was on the Bart to work when I looked in my bag. Inside was a chewed Foot Book. I guess John saw my bag was open and drooped it in for mama to read. Or, just to have somewhere to put it...

our house

Treasures

Treasure pot

walnut husk "juice" and mud on john's face

Took a walk

we took a walk before I had to go to work. We just walked around the grounds of our house, then down the driveway to the mailbox and back. John liked the walnuts (?) in their husks lying all around. This is him walking back up the driveway, carrying as many as he could fit in his hands. By the time we reached the stairs, he had only one left, but he kept that one in his fist as he climbed all the way up the stairs back to the house. He left it in a dirty flowerpot with some other "treasure"

he made me carry him down the slope of the driveway after awhile, down to the mailbox, but he walked up hill all the way back by himself. With his nuts.

Daddy loves IM

Daddy here,
I work in an office, and end up in front of my computer most of the day. IM is the best portal into what's going on at home! I sometimes even get pictures! I know that I'm not the first person to use this tool to keep in touch with the home life of my kids, but it's still great.

Starbucks sippy cup recall

I bought this yellow chick cup at Easter from Starbucks. A month or two later, john drooped it on its face and the face shattered. I was sad, and put the sharp shards and faceless cup away. This weekend, I was getting coffee, and I saw a sign that said these cups were recalled because they break too easily. Score! Glad I kept the cup. I called the number today and they will send an envelope for me to send back the cup. Then they will send a check for $6 and a $5 gift card. Awesome!

911!

Here's the excitement today. John had been trying to rip apart our printer and I kept picking him up and throwing him on the couch, where the cordless phone was lying (I called Starbucks about the cup recall). John was stomping on the phone and pushing the buttons. Apparently, he managed to dial 911. Later, I was sitting on the couch reading to John, when I heard a tap at the glass door. I saw a man in uniform, and assumed it was UPS. So I ran outside, and it was the sheriff (El Sobrante is unincorporated, so there is no police force). He wanted to know if everything was all right, because they got a 911 call. I said it must have been the baby. He said he thought so, because all they could hear was baby noises (John's temper tantrum from being taken away from the printer). I thanked him and he left. How embarrassing!

october 18 photos

baba

John was carrying around this empty milk jug, saying "baba" yesterday. Well, thats where baba comes from I guess.....

How we get out of the house

When its time for me to go to work, I get ready at 2:30pm and Charles comes to pick me up at around 3pm. This is also when Nana comes up to take care of John. John is coming to understand what this getting ready means: mama's leaving him. He starts to get anxious and act up, gets clingy. When daddy comes up the driveway he hears the car and goes to the door. He loves visiting with daddy but hates letting daddy go, and hates that daddy takes mama away.

How it usually goes lately is first daddy says goodbye and hands baby to mama then goes out the door. I used to just hand him to Nana, and let her hold him while he kicked and screamed when I said "byebye." One day, as I was leaving, I picked up a plastic toy orange that hinges open to reveal plastic orange slices. He loves opening and closing this orange and shaking it to hear the pieces rattling. He was so interested, he didn't cry when I left.

So now I give him this little electronic ghost keychain. It has a button on the back that turns on its powerful blacklight eyes, and plays a loud "ooooooeeeeeeeooooo" ghostie sound. He loves trying to turn the button on (he loves pushing buttons and getting an effect, he will do this endlessly until you are driven insane). He will sit in Nana's lap and not cry when I go to work.

that's how we get out of the house.

John's favorite yogurt

John's favorite yogurt is Stonyfield Farms Organic Yobaby yogurt. I chose this because it seems only baby yogurt comes in whole fat formula, which is what the doctor recommends until he's 2 or 3. Baby yogurts tend to also be organic. To be fair, this is pretty much the only kind of yogurt we tried, so I don't know if its fair to call it his favorite, but he likes it. We tried Horizon's organic yogurt, and he didn't like that so much.

I like to get the kind that has cereal in it already. Cereal is necessary because its a good source of iron, but John doesn't like the baby cereals much. I have been mixing it into yogurt for a while now, but the yogurt that comes with cereal in it has a nice texture.

Now he's over 1 yrs old, he can have the strawberry kind. They have a limited flavor assortment for younger babies if you follow the guideline of no allergenic foods before one.

long night

John got pesty last night, not letting either of us sit down or eat. This made mama snappish and cranky. Finally, it was bed time, midnight. He went to sleep right away, I think because his crib is so much more comfortable than the playpen he was sleeping in. However, he woke up at 4am and started crying and crying again, like the first night. We didn't go get him and after 20 minutes I could hear him turning on his music box and talking to his stuffed animals.
He woke up screaming again at 8:30 when dad got up for work. I brought him upstairs with a bottle, hoping he would settle down to sleep. That's when we got a call from the washing machine rebate people. I attempted to answer the phone buy leaving baby and running down the stairs. I missed the call and baby was definitely awake when I returned. Siigh. Oh well. We went downstairs and watched Little Einsteins and made coffee and toast.
I fed him some yogurt with lots of extra cereal and orange slices for breakfast, and now he is pushing his toy car back and forth. If you pull it backward, it shoots forward and pops the beads in its interior. Very cute.
I have to go to work at 3pm.

John's favorite baby food

John's favorie baby food is Healthy Times Baby Food. Its organic an a little hard to find. Its at local Berkeley stores. At 90 cents a jar, I don't usually buy it. Gerber and Beechnut are cheaper. I get this when we are at the park in Berkeley and I didn't bring food with me. He really enjoys eating this, even the Little Stews, which is mostly mushed squash and lentils! I really should buy more of this stuff. I highly recommend it; not only is it good for him and organic, but its apparently tasty!

lorem ipsim

Lorem ipsum vim ut utroque mandamus intellegebat, ut eam omittam ancillae sadipscing, per et eius soluta veritus.

this is a quote that is used as an example of a blog text when you go behind the scenes at your blogger account, fiddling with the settings.
a quick google search shows people are wondering what this means

its dummy text used in publishing.

here are some websites explaining this publishing oddity. see:
http://www.lipsum.com/ and http://www.lorem-ipsum.info/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum
.
there are lorem-ipsum text generators on the web. http://www.lorem-ipsum.info/generator3

The text is derived from Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils) Translated it says ,"Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"
lorem ipsum is random words or bits of words taken from the original latin of this passage (thank you wikipedia, link for this wiki is above)

Interactive Books

Hand Hand Finger Thumb: I pat the book whenever it says "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" John has taken to patting his chest when I do this. Very cute. He gets very excited when its time to do this and is on fire with anticipation when I'm about to turn to a "dum ditty" page.

Pat the bunny: he knows this book well now. He pats the fur on the bunny, pulls up the little square of cloth over Paul's face to play peek-a-boo, he bends over to sniff the perfumed flowers in an exaggerates way, he looks at himself in the mirror (and says "nana" for some reason), he puts his finger through mummy's ring , feels daddy's scratchy face, and reads bunny's mini book. We love his sniffing, and dad is trying to teach him to put his finger through a real wedding ring and feel daddy's real scratchy whiskers, but John's not doing it yet

Goodnight moon: I taught him that the old bunny lady is the bunny's Nana, so when John sees her, he says "Nana!" , often without prompting

trick or treat!

give me some candy!

I won the costume i really wanted off ebay

I won a lion costume off ebay for him, the expensive one i really wanted, but the Spirit Halloween Store sold out of it, like, instantly. Nana has already bought him a simple lion from the grocery store, but i dont like its mane. Now I feel conflicted about which costume to use.

Its Rainy and Cold today

Here's a picture of the Golden Gate today. From sfgate.com

What we did todayOct. 14th 2007
Today is John's 14th month "birthday"
its cold and raining
john went on the portch to play in the rainhis socks got soaked. he splashed in some standing water in the plastic cat carrier we left outside.it has 1" of water. when it was spashed empty, john sat in it
i made him come inside and change into a warm blanket sleeper
john slept through the night last night, so i guess he is used to his new bed (the crib). this is the second night in the crib. the first night he cried and cried at 4am. he didn't like the "strange" bed.
we need to change batteries on the crib musical toys. the mobile music box is sounding pathetic.
for breakfast we had a bottle, blueberry whole organic yogurt w/cereal, honeynut cherrios (which have no honey), and coffee.
we are watching yo gabba gabba : halloween for the 10th time. i think this kids band is the shins in disguise
its 2pm and john is bringing me books and saying mama mama. we read "are you my mother" and he seemed upset that the baby lost his mama. then again, he started saying baba so i got him some milk and put him down for a nap