Being Outdoorsy

I like to think of myself as somewhat outdoorsy. In Arizona my friends and I did a lot of hiking and bike riding all over town. But now I have to face reality...those adventures were 15 years ago. How can it be that long ago? Over the past 10 years, I've dragged Chris hiking in New York and a few times in Virginia, plus river kayaking once in VA and a dozen times lake kayaking here in Minnesota. Of course, last year we did a lot of hikes along the North Shore during our vacation. I say I like camping, but the pop up tent I bought 6 years ago is still in its box. I bought it for Chris as a Christmas present...talk about a gift really for myself. Chris is not big on the outdoors. He hates the way sunscreen feels on his skin, mosquito bites get cartoonish huge on him, he is allergic to bees, and doesn't like when he gets wet sitting on grass or benches. He'd rather shovel a foot of snow then mow the grass. That's why I'm the yard master in the summer and he does it in the winter. But I drag him out in the summer anyways. One day I will get him out for a night of camping!

Penelope seems to have taken after me X 10. She'd live at the playground if we let her.

She uses this Little Tykes car at least an hour a day.
And you know she loves the swings!
"Mommy, you said this is a tennis outfit? Where's my racket?"
On Sunday it was drizzling on and off in the afternoon, but she was throwing a tantrum every 10 seconds stuck in the house. We went to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden at Theodore Wirth Park. It is on the west side of Minneapolis, which is only a 15 minute drive. It is so peaceful (minus the screeches of Penelope as she saw ladybugs, butterflies and chipmunks). It was hard to believe we were close to the new Twins stadium and downtown. There are multiple trails. We only made it on one since Penelope wanted to be carried halfway. Wow, my triceps felt that! I plan to go a few more times this summer since there are different flowers in bloom every month.

Then the big event is we got a Burley from my friend Elisa!! Yay! Chris bought a bike last week so we just needed a princess mobile for Miss Penelope. Growing up my mom rode all over Sierra Vista with the three of us in a Bugger. I've got good memories of sitting back there coloring and listening to music on our portable tape recorder.

Here's Penelope all hooked up to my Schwinn.
Here we are before our 5 mile ride. Penelope had toys, snacks, teddy bear and books. I didn't have such a big smile halfway through. I need to get that bike tuned up. It kept jumping gears at the worst times. It has never done that before. Not sure if it was due to the weight of the burley. I have no idea how my mom rode miles with 3 kiddos in the back.
We rode along the Mississippi river to Minnehaha park. The falls are absolutely beautiful. One of the best parks in the city.
Penelope did walk quite a bit, but she never turns down a ride on Daddy's shoulders.
What is that saying about toddlers only having a 2 minute attention span? Penelope played at this bike rack for 20 minutes. She went in and out of the dividers, balanced on the beam, practiced jumping (squat way down and then take a step). Finally she left the bike rack when we pointed to dogs across the park.
Penelope and Chris checking out the falls. She has been taking that teddy bear everywhere with her. Of course, the one white stuffed animal we own is the one she chooses to be her lovey.

We switched the Burley on the way back. Penelope screamed her head off the entire time. We stopped a couple of times, but there really aren't places to play along the way so we just kept going with a screaming banshee in the back. We did the 5 miles back much faster than we should have...we will both be sore tomorrow!

I'm looking forward to many more bike rides this summer. I've already marked out different routes I want to do on my Minneapolis Bike Map! :)

That irresistible red guy

We are surprised to learn that Penelope has a favorite cartoon character. Yes, Elmo. We have 2 elmo books, which we've read a few times. Suddenly this week they are the books she wanted to read over and over again. I know she has never seen Elmo on TV. Maybe all the kids at day care talk about Elmo? But for whatever reason she is on an Elmo kick. I don't mind. I think How Big is Elmo is a great book.

First taste from our dirt

Well, we are gardening between the alley and garage again. Maybe it will be more successful this year. I think I've convinced myself that there is enough sun here to grow veggies, but I've realized the shade from our tree reaches this area by 2:00. We'll see what happens this year. My little plot is about 3x3 so I only have a few things: 2 green bean plants, a zucchini plant, one pepper, lettuce (all will be picked in the next 2 weeks) and I started swiss chard from seed. Chris planted tomatoes in buckets and put them on the south wall of our house. They have doubled in size this week. I'm thinking of planting things there, but it is pretty close to the house. We already have occasional trouble with moisture in the basement so I don't think watering a vegetable garden there would be the best idea. Ahh...the joys of an old home.

Here's my pretty lettuce. It made it through the frost a month ago and then the 90 degree days earlier this week. I picked one today and we made BLT's. Yummy! I'm going to be eating salads all next week. I really have been weeding, but when I look at this picture I realize I need to do more.
I set my camera to close up micro setting. My chard is growing at a snail's pace. I planted 8 seeds. I didn't realize that I can tear off chard leaves and it will keep growing. Good thing it looks like only 4 plants are going to make it.

"Mommy, do we have a milk plant? I'd like to get refills while I'm out here"

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris is 29! Whoa! Our last year in our twenties.
These sign pictures were much easier when Penny was a little blob
Penelope and Pooh. This is Chris's bear from when he was a baby. Awwww!

(Yes, she is looking a little disheveled. We only had a few minutes while Chris was in the shower.)

Little Miss Sunshine

I can't think in this record breaking heat and humidity. There's a reason the honors dorm had air conditioning at college. It was the best incentive ever! This year we might plug in that window air conditioner.

So here's some pictures of our little miss sunshine who doesn't seem to mind the heat.She's an expert at blocks! This was the best $10 we ever spent. For a bunch of colorful cardboard, they have provided hours of entertainment. Plus, since they also are nesting blocks they are easy to take with us (like to Great Aunt Janet's condo where babyproofing is not a priority)
Streeeeeetch!
Boom! They all fall down.
Just being cute.
Yes, we play in the Target parking lot. I'm sure this is a parenting no-no.
But it's a lot of fun.
She's got great form. I'm scared that I might have a cheerleader on my hands. I wouldn't know what to do with one of those.
When my mom was here she hooked up a leash to Penny's car. It has been Penelope's choice transportation on our walks.This weekend we hooked Cece and Penny up together. Mush!
Helping mommy water her garden.
Getting water from the rain barrel.
"Okay, mommy, I"ll supervise. You keep mowing the lawn. I'll let you know when I need some more ice water."
When else in your life can you wear a monochromatic yellow outfit with a peter pan collar and not end up on What Not to Wear? She got many compliments in Target...or that may be from sitting in the cart and waving hi to everyone we passed...uh oh...do I have a pageant girl? I certainly wouldn't know what to do with one of those!

My little Dr. Doolittle

It's a good thing someone in the family remembers to feed Cece.

I

This afternoon we had a picnic dinner at the Lower Riverside park along the Mississippi river. There were so many bugs in the air I think we got a whole serving of protein just talking to each other. Penelope had fun meeting the caterpillars.

I'm pretty relaxed with most bugs...but when she touched a cockroach on the wall beneath the caterpillars I grabbed her hand and screamed nooooo so loud Penelope's hair stood on end.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Why eat the toast when you can just lick the jam?

A family of social butterflies

Nice weather weekends can be a blessing and a curse. We try to fit so much in that Monday is here in a snap. I started Friday night with book club. I've been parts of book clubs through public libraries, but I've always been 20 years or more younger than everyone else. So when my friend Kelly invited me to her book club I was very excited. They are a great group. Many of them have babies or toddlers. I also like being able to discuss The Real Housewives and Saturday Night Live, while also discussing the book. This month's book was The Help. It was really good and good discussion for a book club. Oh, and Karen who hosted this month made the best chocolate pie. yummmmm...

I got home around 11 pm and told Chris I wanted to sell stuff in the neighborhood garage sale the next day. He looked at me like I had 2 heads. Usually on Friday's I'm snoring by 8...sometimes earlier. No joke. I love sleep. But instead I lugged up tons of stuff from the basement, mostly things from our apartment that don't have a place in this house. We sat outside from about 9-2. We sold a few things. I'm amazed when people will barter something from fifty cents to a quarter. Excuse me, I just saw you eating a $12 waffle at the Birchwood and now we are going to haggle over a quarter? So ridiculous. Penelope and I went shopping at other sales while Chris held down the fort. We got a few things for her, like some puzzles and a snowsuit.

Then after all of that I went to a work event called Social Butterfly. It was at the swanky restaurant/bar Seven. The weather was absolutely beautiful to be on the rooftop.
All dressed up to hit the town.

Carly, Elisa, me and Katie--always a treat to see everyone all dolled up. We don't look like this at the office.
Me and coworker/fellow mommy blogger, Jackie Lee. I'm looking a little manic. I promise I only had one fruity drink. This is more of my "Oh my gosh, it is 10:00 and I'm not in my pajamas. What is going on?!"

Penelope doesn't seem to care if mommy and daddy stay up late. Right at 6 am I hear "mama, mama, mama." We headed to the farmer's market and also stopped at the sculpture garden.
Penny enjoying some tulips
Ahh...beautiful day for the park.
Hiding from Daddy
"Daddy, I see you!"

Over the past couple of weeks Penelope has realized that the 3 year old next door has a treasure trove of toys. She now says "na na" whenever we go into our yard, which means "I want to go play with Brenna's toys!" For the most part Brenna likes to share with Penelope. This weekend her parents brought out her barbie jeep. Oh my gosh, you'd think we never did anything fun with Penelope. She told us it was the best thing she has ever done. Brenna drove her in circles for over a half hour.
Pretending to be in a parade
My little cutie! Don't you love Brenna's concentrated look? She had driven over her parent's bushes quite a few times and was trying to steer better.

Then later in the day we started chatting with our neighbors on the other side of the alley and ended up having an impromptu barbecue at their house. They have a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girl so it was a lot of fun. Plus, they read the same sci fi fantasy humor books from England that Chris loves. Chris hasn't ever had anyone to talk to about these books so he was pretty excited. He kind of had his own little book club this weekend too.

Phew...then we had to go to work...

I probably won't get to posting much this week since I didn't get any laundry or cleaning done over the weekend so enjoy this video in the meantime. (we usually don't force food on her like this, but she was making hilarious faces when she said no.)

Baby to Spanish to English

Penelope's language development is growing like crazy! A lot of it we don't understand. She explains in full jibberish sentences multiple times and then just decides her parents are idiots (who knew they had this perception so early?). But besides the jibberish we are getting lots of new words, even if they require a little translation:

English

Dank doo = thank you

nee = please or peas (depends on context)

boppy = potty

I get down = I want to get down or I want to climb up and sit down. This is the first set of words she has put together.

nana = banana

ackle = apple

Spanish

nano = mano (hand)

Bavo = bravo

uno

agua = any type of drink and she gets quite angry if you can't decipher agua (milk) from agua (water). Thankfully she does the sign language for milk when she says agua (milk).

Over the past couple of weeks she has been saying "icky" and handing me things. I keep saying "But Penny how is this piece of paper icky?" Or "why is your block icky?" She did it to Chris last night and he realized "Oh my gosh, she's saying "Aqui!" That's "here" in Spanish for non-spanish speakers. The same thing happened with mano. She'd be at the playground and stop and say nano. She wanted me to hold her hand to help her up the stairs or ramp.

I'm certainly being challenged with all of this translation. I can barely translate Spanish to English in my mind, much less do it from a baby version of spanish. Oh well, I guess right now it is just one big languague to her and soon she will figure out who in her life speaks which language. Then she probably won't ever speak spanish to us. One parent at daycare told me her preschooler and toddler talk in spanish all the time to each other, and she has no idea what they are saying. Kind of scary!

First parent teacher conference

Today I went to the first parent teacher conference at Jardin Magico. I didn't really know what to expect and was a little nervous. Not sure why...that's just how I am I guess. Penelope came with me and we sat with 3 of her teachers, Nina, Wendy and Thelma. Nina and Thelma spoke in spanish and Wendy translated. They had 2 sheets of paper completely filled with comments. They walked me through every part of their activity schedule.

Here are the main points: Very friendly and outgoing, spends most of the free time part of the day at the book corner, and is one of the best eaters and nappers in the group.

I was a little confused. We talk about the parents at parent/teacher conference? Sometimes I feel like I have a little clone!!

I asked if she says "no" a lot at school because it is her favorite word at home. They said "We can always tell when Penny is in a bad mood. She says no to everything, even if she doesn't mean it. We ask her if she wants water and she says no, but drinks the water" Hmmm...defiance for the sake of defiance. Sigh...once again proving that my mom's curse came true: I had a daughter exactly like myself.

They also told me that Penny loves playground time and gathers all the toddlers her age into the little mushroom house. She is also becoming less cautious around the playground equipment and trying new things on her own, like going up the ladder to the slide. I had to agree with them since this morning I set her down to color at the table while I quickly checked my work email. All of a sudden I heard a very happy squeal and found this:

She definitely has much more of a daredevil streak in her than I ever did!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

You know how I said our mornings are chaotic? This happened the same morning as pee pee in the potty.

May Day in Minneapolis

I love parades. Growing up I was always in the Fourth of July and Christmas parades with my musical theater group. We sang on a float made of chicken wire and folded sonic napkins. I wish I had a picture. We often won best float, and in my memory it was like the rose bowl float. It probably wasn't that great. My sister was in the parades also, but with her gymnastics group. That meant tumbling all the way down Fry Blvd. I think I got the better deal up on the float. I also love watching parades. I remember the years we watched the rose bowl parade at my aunt Jan's and Uncle Dwight's house. Then the year my parents came to NYC for Thanksgiving we went to the Macy's Day Parade. It was beautiful weather and a wonderful experience.

Sadly until this weekend we hadn't introduced Penny to parades yet. Minneapolis has a famous parade known as the Holidazzle during the winter, but we weren't really rushing to take a baby to a winter parade . Maybe this Christmas we'll get bundled up and go watch it.

However, I did see an advertisement for the May Day Parade in south Minneapolis. It is put on by the Heart of the Beast puppet theater. Anyone in the community can get together at the theater and make costumes during the winter or sign up as a group to perform in the parade. According to the website it has been going on for 35 years and the festival at Powderhorn Park has a turnout of 50,000 people. Made perfect sense to me. Of course Minnesota would have huge festivities for the arrival of spring. So we headed to the parade. Let's just say the parade is unique.

The theme was Uproar (not sure how everything fits in the theme...photos below)

There were some really cool bikes.

Boxes and rocks? I think this has some symbolism I didn't understand.

Cool costume of some sort of lion creature.

Really ornate paper mache day of the dead ladies.

More cool bikes. We used to see these odd bikes in the Uptown neighborhood. I think it must be some sort of club.

So I mentioned that groups can be in the parade. They had some rag tag marching bands. They were actually pretty cool because they included all ages. The brass band had some senior citizens and a few 10 year olds. The tuba player was being pulled in a rick shaw, which I think is pretty practical and something I would demand if I played the tuba.

I didn't video any of those, but I did film this group.

What can I say? They are enthusiastic...

Penelope seemed a little confused by the parade. It is an odd custom...especially this one.
If you don't want to do modern dance down the street, you can always paint your truck like a tiger.

I thought these were pretty cool costumes. They had a woman with them that ran to the crowd and said everyone breathe in 3. One, two, three, Ommmmmm... definitely not Macy's day parade.
I wonder if the elephant made it all the way down the parade route with its trunk in tact.

And for the child who doesn't want to dress as a tree, tiger, elephant, horse, owl, they can be skeleton creatures led by pirates.

After Penelope took her nap, we headed to the festivities at Powderhorn Park. There were so many people! It was like everyone needed a dose of the state fair complete with mini donuts, walleye stand, and fried oreos. Well, and an assortment of vegan options.

We headed to the "family stage" for some entertainment.
We found very talented hula hoopers dancing to some extreme new age music. Very few kids in the crowd, but I saw more dreadlocks then I've ever seen in my life. It was quite the mix of people. I wish I had gotten photos of the civil war belles and gentlemen eating a picnic.

The boats were decorated too. They had dozens of canoes giving free rides.

Penelope had a good time. Even though it was very different than any parade/festival I've seen, we'll probably take her again next year.