she will like water, she will like water

We had a water filled weekend, to Ramona's initial disgust. After watching Ramona obsess about playing in Max's water bowl, I figured we had to try water again. Surely she must be over her fear of water if she wants to play in a bowl full of dirty, drool filled water. So, first I let her play with some Tupperware with water in it. She thought that was kind of fun (not as fun as the dog bowl though), and eventually picked up the container and dumped the water all over herself. She did not scream, just seemed a little stunned, and I even got a picture post-dump where she looks slightly pleased.

The next step was buying a baby pool. So, I blew it up (which almost made me pass out), filled it with water, put Ramona's swim diaper on, and put her in the pool. I started with just her feet, which just made her whimper, but when I sat her down in the pool......the crying really started. I'm sure that people walking by my house probably thought I was torturing her, which in her mind was completely correct. We have yet to go back in the pool, but I'm going to try again this week. The upside was that she did like the little plastic boats I bought for the pool, enough to distract her from her screaming for at least 30 seconds.

To take a break from water, we went to two first birthday parties on Saturday. Grayson and Sofia from our PEPS group turned one last week and had really fun parties. We went to Grayson's party first where we played with the other pepsters, as well as the Howells. Grayson really got into eating his cake....his mom had to eventually take some of it away, so he didn't go too crazy on the sugar. At Sofia's party we got to see Toljabee (yes, I looked it up......Sofia's mom just called it the Korean business), which is when they put out objects on a table that infer a certain career path, and then the one-year old chooses one to predict their fate. Sofia picked the dollar bill, even though her dad tried to sway her to choose the computer chip........so we'll see if she ends up working in finance like her uncle.

Yesterday was the best day of all. We walked to the market, then Ramona came home and took a nap.....so I went on a bike ride with my mom. When Ramona woke up, we went on a boat ride with the Howells, and Kim and Ben. Eric is a member of the University of Washington Boat club, so we got to go on a 26 foot sailboat, which Eric captained for us. Ramona had to wear a life jacket, which was pretty horrifying to her. I also went swimming, which was amazingly refreshing. It was a real Seattle summer day for us. It made me really love this city (and love knowing someone who belongs to a boat club). That night we had dinner with a bunch of friends, and Kim made homemade veggie burgers, yum!

It was a packed weekend in the city, and next weekend we get to go to the cabin!

Ramona's first sushi

After celebrating with the Howell's Ramona kicked back with some kappa rolls Sat night....

water is not her friend

We had such a fun weekend, unfortunately we have no pictures of Ramona playing outside, which I assure you she did a lot of. On Saturday we went on a picnic with the Poasts, and brought the camera, but didn't take any pictures. I think we were distracted by Ainsley falling down a hill, and hitting her head on the concrete. She was fine, but she has a nasty goose egg on her forehead. Besides that we had a nice picnic, Ramona and Ainsley got to play at the park, and Myla just got ooohhed and aaahed at.

Yesterday we went to Ava's 2nd birthday party. We started the party off rocky by putting Ramona in a swim diaper and trying to put her in a kiddie pool. She was not happy with that idea. She did, however, get all of the rest of the kids' attention with her screaming. Once we settled inside, without sun or water to enrage her, the party was great. She crawled around the house, played with toys, and really got a kick out of Luna, their Boston Terrier. Ava looked like she was having a blast, and was excited to see her friend Ramona.

Last night we had friends over for dinner, and we got to sit on the back porch....which is our favorite place to eat. Today I'm going to try to stay outside as much as little Ramona can take (I'll give her a break from water today though, try again another day).

10 months!

I can't believe that Ramona is going to be a year in two months! She is really getting bigger fast. Also, now that she is crawling, she seems like a different child. She has already shown off some fantastic toddler traits. Her favorite thing to do is find something she shouldn't be playing with (my phone, the dog bowl, cords, etc....), then crawl towards it, look at me mischievously, and pick it and put it in her mouth. Its pretty funny, though slightly tiring. Luckily, she is still crawling pretty slow, so we can keep up with her if we are paying attention. Looks like we will always have to be paying attention.

For Ramona's 10 month birthday we had some cupcakes, and she finally got to taste one. She actually didn't get to eat much chocolate frosting, because most of it ended up on her face, but she loved the cake part.

This weekend is supposed to be really nice, so hopefully we will have some fun family time in the sun. We are planning on having a picnic with the Poasts, and we are going to Ava's 2nd birthday party. Have a good weekend everybody!

crawling at lightning speed

Ok, Ramona isn't exactly crawling at lightning speed. In fact its more of a snails pace, but she is still moving forward, which is huge. She spends a lot of time being frustrated that she has to exert so much energy to get to the toys she wants to get to (and by toys, I mean: my phone, the remotes, cords, my shoes, and other such "toys"), but we are very excited to see her move on her own.

Ramona and I had a "girls weekend", because Justin was in New York at Britton's wedding. We did pretty good together, we hosted Shannon's shower, went to a party together, and went to the market with Dana and Brian. Busy, busy, busy.

Also, I got a job as a part-time kindergarten teacher at Peter Kirk elementary school next year. I am really excited, because even though I'm only going to be working one day a week, its nice to get my teaching career on its feet. Plus, Ramona will enjoy spending that day with my parents, she probably gets sick of seeing me day in and day out.

Summer is basically here, so we are looking forward to working on trying not to hate water. I am going to take Ramona to the wading pool, and also to Wedgwood Pool to try and work on getting rid of her water phobia. I'll keep you updated.

Oh, and its Ramona's 10 month birthday today. I can't believe she is that old......her first birthday is
just around the corner.

dads and grads

Wow, what a packed weekend! My brother graduated from the UW this weekend with a double major in International Studies and History. So, that meant he had three graduations! We only went to one, his International Studies graduation on Friday night, because we didn't think Ramona could handle all that graduating. The one that we did go to was pretty inspiring though. Many of the International Studies' graduates sounded like they had done some really cool things in their years at the UW, and had plans to do many more great things in the years to come. One Saturday we went to a party at my parents house for Louis after his big graduation at the stadium. Everyone who went to the graduation seemed pretty tired (including the graduate), but we still had a great time.

Yesterday was Justin's first Fathers Day, and we had a great time. We went out to Mae's in the morning for breakfast (Ramona enjoyed my omelet), and then met the Poasts at the zoo. The zoo was great, we were there at 9:30 in the morning, and it was virtually empty. I just went to the zoo the other day, but apparently I can't get enough. The baby gorilla is super cute, and the flamingos are beautiful, and apparently not as pink as those flamingo yard decorations. After the zoo, Mary Lee came over and watched Ramona while Justin and I went to the farmers market together sans baby. Justin and I got a slice of pizza and went into stores that have stairs (gasp), which we usually avoid because of the whole baby in the stroller situation. That afternoon we went to my parents house and hung out with my parents. My dad is still recovering from colon surgery....but he seems to be doing pretty great, with help from the Euro Cup. We had dinner at home together, and Justin said it was the best day. He likes to stay busy, and that is exactly what we did yesterday. It helps when you wake up at 6!

Ramona has been sleeping through the night the last few nights, and she has also been limiting her naps to two a day, which is nice for her parents. She is almost crawling, and likes to walk with help. She is also enjoying copying the things we do, she points, claps, and waves......its exciting to see what she'll do next.

Choose your own adventure

Justin had a dad's weekend, while I went to Napa Valley with my friends. He went to the cabin with Shannon and Robb (and Rosie and Rebel), and had a great time with Ramona (and Max). Though I don't know too much about their trip, there are some cute pictures that I thought I should post.

I had an amazing weekend. I'd never been to Napa, and it was a beautiful place. I was also hanging out with my college girlfriends, and it was really fun to see them again. As far as leaving Ramona for four days, I seemed to do ok. I was really happy to see her when I got back, but it was nice to have a mommy break. We did a lot of wine tastings (Beringer, Cakebread, Frank Family, Sterling, Rombaur, V. Sattui, and two Champagne places that I can't remember the names of), we went to dinner at the Culinary Institute, and we hung out in San Francisco for a night. I didn't have my camera, but some of my friends are going to send me some, so I'll try to post one or two.

Being back home is refreshing, I got a two hour massage yesterday, and have otherwise just been hanging out with Ramona. She seems to be inching towards crawling. She realizes that she CAN move towards the toys she wants, she just hasn't figured out how. She can scoot backwards, turn in a circle, and can crawl with her legs (but hasn't figured out she has to use her arms too). She is getting more active, and I'm really excited what she'll choose to do when she can make her own decisions on where to go, and what to play with (my guess is she'll decide she wants to play with the cords).