La Jolla Cove

As Tom said this morning, we feel so yuppy and ridiculous saying "which" beach are you going to, nonetheless we are having fun exploring.  Today we checked out La Jolla Cove which had been recommended to us as very kid friendly and beautiful but hard to access on the weekend.  Well I can imagine as it was busy on a weekday.  We saw the seals on the beach.  There were lots of babies (one had even been born this morning).  That lasted for a little bit but Mara was really itching to get down on the sand and play with her sand toys.  The new ones were kind of a bust today as all the sand was wet but we built some castles, buried treasures and feet and watched the waves (and some seals swimming around and climbing up on the rocks).  It was indeed beautiful and peaceful.

Kenyan pancakes

Today's book report is brought to you again by the great book lists in The Picture Perfect Childhood. This month I selected a few of the books from the cooking through the year lists and February is dedicated to pancakes. As I was reserving books online I saw Curious George Makes Pancakes and added it to the list. So honestly, we've spent a lot of the month reading that book over and over. The cool thing though is Mara is starting to tell stories back by looking at the pictures. She especially likes doing this with Tom in the evenings.

But onto Kenyan Pancakes and this book review of Mama Panya's Pancakes. It's really quite delightful. The story has a moral along the lines of Stone Soup and would make a great pair to that book for a rabbit trail on generousity for a slightly older child. The book is also great for rabbit trails on African culture with a vocabulary list, map, etc in the back. Mara really latched onto the woman carrying her market goods on her head and wants to give that a try. The book includes a recipe for Kenyan Pancakes that we enjoyed for dinner tonight. They were slightly spicy, but not so much so that Mara wouldn't eat them. 2.5 pancakes later she was asking for no spice next time, I laughed The book suggested eating them rolled up with most any topping, sweet or savory so we enjoyed them with fresh chicken salad. The batter was nothing like the consistency of American batter and after seriously messing up the first one I was quite skeptical. Then I got the hang of it and they received a thumbs up from everyone here.

ETA: The leftovers were fabulous for lunch too.  I just warmed them under the broiler.
ETA2: Pancakes for Supper inspired art (though we had them for breakfast)

Mara loved this.  Ate the fruit and then redecorated her's and ate the fruit again. Then excused herself and finished the pancakes themselves later for snack (a common breakfast occurrence around here).

Photo catch up

So another place that exhibits my lack of baby step discipline is the frequency and bursts of posts here.  This is a catch up in pictures post from the last 2 months.  Many of these are from Mara's persepective as she has been using our point and shoot camera a lot.

 

Christmas

New Year's Eve (AK's wedding)

A whole lot of these

Great picture Mara (man I miss those colorful walls)

Love that smile

 

We got to have a second Christmas enjoying our new toys as we unpacked in February

Tour of the new house courtesy of Mara:

  

  

Alligator lizard seen outside our house when we arrived home from a hike.

And one last video thought for you.  This was our Friday evening after make your own pizza. 

 

Baby Steps

I have a Lenten resolution that I am working on and I failed at it miserably this weekend; but, I put my finger on something about myself today and I'm not giving up.  You see, I like changes to be quick and easy.  Painless, or at least a short lived effort with lasting results; but that isn't how life works, that's not how toddlers and preschoolers learn and grow.  Really all of us require baby steps and perseverance (I didn't I just write that about 15 times in the Valentines I just sent you all, guess that message was for me).

In my head this post started about a picture book, The Listening Walk.  We have been attempting to get out in nature more and have thus joined a local hiking group for preschoolers.  The first week we had fun for most of it until we HAD to leave.  Last week our outings were less successful with a whiny "hungry" kiddo.  I even contemplated throwing in the towel.  Last Friday after naps and right before closing time we stopped by the library and picked up a big stack of books we had on hold and a few more besides.  One such book was The Listening Walk about a girl who goes for a silent walk and notices the noises around her. Well Mara has gotten into this book and asked to go for a listening walk.  Now are walk today was far from silent but we had ourselves a great time.  We looked at flowers and took photos and looked under some rocks and used our magnifying glass and saw some birds and ate a snack (one we would usually turn our nose up at).  But not once did I hear "I'm hungry" or even an "XYZ hurts (insert meltdown)", and when we got back she even had an honest to goodness scrape on her arm that she calmly told me about.  This folks feels like a gigantic leap but I am choosing to see it as a baby step because our next hike may go great and it may not, but if we can string a few together (hopefully with more positive experiences than negative) then we will be making real change that can last and that is the attitude that I need to cultivate.  Anyway, I highly recommend the book.  I think it could be good no matter where your kid falls on the nature walk continuum.  It can take a whiny like mine and get them excited to get out there or a loud adventurer and hopefully get them to quiet down and use a new sense to explore nature (maybe we can try that lesson with the book next year).

So from picture book recommendation to spiritual and parenting lesson I am recommitting to looking at life as baby steps to help me make progress towards my goals.  Attitudes and boxes here I come.

Gratuitous cute kid pictures:

 

Serving Dinner

(I know 2 posts in one day wow!)

This is a story about the ironies of motherhood. 

I made beef stroganoff for dinner.  I served Mara some baby tomatoes and stroganoff, Audra had a sliver of red pepper, some meat, mushrooms and plain noodles.  Tom and I had our stroganoff and salad. Everyone had a slice of bread and something to drink.  Pretty normal, not much different than your house or any other night at ours.

Halfway through dinner, Mara has already declared her doneness with most of her meal still in front of her (minus the tomatoes and mushrooms) and Audra keeps reaching for me (unusual for her).  In desperation I was about to remove Audra from her chair when I finally realize . . . I had given her one of my stroganoff covered noodles and she was desperate for more! 

Audra proceeded to clean Mara's plate and Mara ate the few remaining plain noodles on Audra's plate.  And that is the essence of our Mara.

Wave!

Just a quick hello to let you all know were still here and doing well.  We are in our new house (and selling the old one is going great).  Our stuff arrived this week so we are busy checking out new people and sights and digging out of boxes.  My cell phone died so I am not ignoring you I just don't know you tried to reach me.  Drop me a line if you need contact info quickly, otherwise, we'll get it to you eventually in some more formal form.

The girls are great.  Audra claps now and gets into EVERYTHING.  The toilet lid must be closed at all times and all cupboard arrangements have to have her little hands and mouth in mind.  Mara LOVES (I can't stress this enough) the ocean.

We miss you!