Taylor

Meet Taylor.
And her husband, Carter.
Carter's been around in our lives for a long time, and we gladly welcomed Taylor a couple of years ago. They have a lot of cool toys that make their way around the country, like these portable rock walls.

Taylor's been asking for a play date with Jasmine and went to all the trouble to order this ahead of time.
So on a beautiful sunny day, the second weekend of spring, Jasmine packed up her paints and spent the day with Taylor (mom and dad went off on a bike ride).
So very spoiled.
And if that wasn't enough to delight, Jasmine was then treated to frozen yogurt.
Yes, my sweet girl, the world is your oyster.
4 hours later, this is where she landed. Just for the record, when I did finally pry her away from Taylor's sweet lap, she was asleep before the car reached 60 on the freeway.

All smiles

We've been on the go in a serious way this last week. But there's always a little time to hang out at the playground. This was last weekend as we gradually made our way to get haircuts. Notice the disheveled appearance of a certain someone's hair. This was only magnified by 10 for me. Seriously, 5 months since my last haircut? It's no wonder I've struggled to get ready for work in the mornings.
And just for the record, Jasmine dressed herself entirely on her own this particular morning. She picked out her clothes, layered her shirts, put on shoes and sandals competently and is entirely diaper free until bedtime. She defines independence and aptitude.
Home at last (it's an hour to get to the salon), J coyly refused to turn around to give me a picture until she had her expression just right.
And later, a favorite spot for her, in her Daddy's arms.

The rest of the week included speech therapy (now weekly) which is an hour away, a hearing test today--you guessed it--an hour away and of course, her normal 2 days at school. But does she complain? Not lately, anyway. We're hoping weekly speech therapy is making a difference. It's not like we can keep this girl quiet these days. She certainly doesn't act like speech is a challenge for her. We'll get those consonants down eventually and with her enthusiasm for learning, we're feeling very optimistic.

Seasons

Last week,

and yesterday.

Springtime is arriving, at least in this part of the world. I'm not sure what weather my aunt took back with her to NYC, but hopefully the daffodils, cherry and plum trees and other seasonal pleasures will not disappoint. We are giddy with the taste of spring, but alas, poor Jasmine is--once again--sick with a cold. They seem to occur with alarming regularity and while we do our best to feed her well and keep her warm, she just seems susceptible to whatever little germs are around. She is undaunted by feeling poorly and as is the case for most of us with little kids, we have to tighten the reins on her to keep her from overdoing it. That's where Ni Hao, Kai-lan comes in very handy (Jasmine's new favorite show. I'm already planning on taking every episode ever made when we make our way to Ireland sometime this year). In the meantime, we hope everyone else is blessed with this magical time of year.

17

What prompts a child to put on every single pair of undies in her drawer? Boredom? Higher intelligence? Raw talent?

We counted 17, not including the one just removed due to unforeseen circumstances.

When East meets West

When East coast meets West coast, that is. My awesome aunt, who 2 years ago took me rafting for 8 days down the Grand Canyon, finally has arrived from Manhattan for a visit. Here's what it looked like 2 years ago, pre-parenthood. Just another day on the Colorado river.
And now? We go to the zoo for our excitement. Accompanied by our own little monkey.
We did manage to catch a brilliant day in the Sacramento Valley, in between rain storms. We also thought if we took the stroller with us, J would feel compelled to take a little rest. Silly grown-ups.
The Sumatran tiger, lazily soaking up the sun, was of mild interest to J, who preferred finding things to climb up, jump off or run after.
Nothing stops a kid dead in her tracks like a big cup of fries. Especially when that is rarely on the lunch or dinner plate. Jasmine enjoyed feeding the birds that were not behind bars. All in all, it was a lovely day at the zoo.

More Emmy

We were invited to Emmy's house for a barbecue Friday night and the developing bond and friendship of our girls couldn't be more clear. Jasmine was so excited before we left that she started packing all of her things.

As if she was moving out.

We quickly reminded her that we would be returning home--that night--so she could leave a few of her things behind. It was an act of congress to get her to put her jammies away and leave her assorted blankets and stuffed friends. We settled on one blanket, one animal and her usual change of clothes in case of accidents (frequent occurrence when the party gets hopping).

It didn't take the girls long before before they were cozying up for a slumber party.

On second thought, rocking in the lazy boy wasn't a bad choice either.
Pretending like they could actually lie down for the night, this prone position lasted all of 5 seconds.
There was another 2 year old at the party, and she had to be strongly encouraged to join the older 2 girls. They're a tough pair to infiltrate. When she finally did join in,
Emmy moved on to greener pastures.
The girls decided to join the grownups in the main room and spread out on the floor. This was all just a pretense to create the impression that they were getting tired. The screaming, dancing, chasing, running around the house and raiding the cupboards was the surreptitious plan all along.

Pajama day

Yesterday was "Pajama Day" at pre-school. Whoever came up with that one is brilliant--I would love to go to work in my pajamas. Jasmine was pretty excited as well and you better believe she was involved in picking out her jammies and loading up her backpack. She took 2 of her favorite blankies along with her special robe from her Nana in Ireland.




Not only did she get to wear pajamas to school, they ate freshly-cooked pancakes. Not like she doesn't get that at home, but somehow I think it's more exciting when you're surrounded by all of your 2 and 3 year old playmates. I can't imagine cleaning up syrup after that shindig. It didn't surprise me when I got home last night that I was immediately ordered to sit down while Jasmine had all of our magazines spread out on the floor and she was serving them to us, hot off the griddle.

Home life

Oh, the things that happen on the home front. I only truly can appreciate it now that I live with a 2 year old. What she manages to come up with just cracks me up to no end.
J decided to shed clothing down to her skivvies and wear only her backpack. This picture nicely illustrates not just how long-legged our girl is, but the fact that she is officially potty-trained. On the advice of many experienced parents and pre-school teachers, we skipped over the pull-ups and went straight to big-girl panties. Oh sure, we have accidents, mostly at school, but for the most part, she's good to go, even out and about in the world.
And here she is, fixated on Dora the Explorer. I made the mistake of downloading a season to our computer, having no idea what I was introducing to our home life. Forget the toys, the crayons, the blocks and babies; it's all about Dora these days. We have to work really hard to restrict her use and trust me, she's persistent to the point of obnoxious. The outfit? A new set of floaties, still unused, that we will take to the pool with us this weekend. Go figure.