last day of ballet class

Maddy took her first ballet class this summer.  It was a "mommy and me" class, which meant that I participated in each of the classes with her.  I'm not sure if me being there caused her to misbehave more than she would have without me, but she loved to do her own thing (instead of following the teacher's directions).  In fact she would do the exact opposite of what the teacher asked her to do which led to a scolding and this:

Yes, that's Maddy with her arms crossed and pouting.  She was finally able to jump over the "river," her favorite part of class.

The class ended with a curtsey and a rose stamp on her arm.  We won't be returning to ballet lessons right away because Maddy has decided that she wants to take up karate instead.

conservatory of flowers

Grandma was in town this weekend visiting us from Southern California.  Both she and Maddy love flowers, so we thought it would be a good idea to visit the conservatory of flowers in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

 The Dahlia garden had the most beautiful and perfectly geometrical flowers.  Maddy had a grand ol' time running around the grounds.

evan's first birthday

Last weekend, we celebrated Evan's first birthday.  Maddy knew it was going to be a pool party and she couldn't sleep the night before in anticipation.  She kept asking, "Can we go to the pool party now?"

When we arrived, daddy wanted to have a bite before swimming, but Maddy was having none of it.  She finally got some pool time, I mean, A LOT of pool time.

 


After we'd finally convinced her to come out of the pool to eat, we had a difficult time coaxing her away from the pool shower.  What a water baby!  "Not yet mommy!" (first picture) "Just three more showers" (second picture).

saturday

There's nothing quite like a Saturday in the summertime.  Our weather has been colder than I'd prefer (high 60s), but whaddaya gonna do?  I'm still expecting summer to arrive late in the season like it did last year around September or so.  Better late than never.

Today began with Maddy's ballet lesson.  Afterward, I couldn't resist stopping at a block yard sale on Central Ave.  I picked up a bracelet from India for a buck and Maddy scored a bottle of bubble soap for a quarter.  We then had a dim sum brunch at East Ocean; I was surprised by the variety of food that Maddy was willing to try: shrimp dumplings, a pork bun, and shumai.  I rewarded her with a mango pudding that she had her eye on, but she ended up taking just a couple of bites.

A couple of blocks away, the farmers' market was still going on and we picked up some fresh organic strawberries.  Maddy's been so into them lately that I want her to gobble up as many of them as she wants.  

he's not fat, just well loved

We took Baxter to the vet recently and placed him on the scale as usual.  Forty-two pounds.  Ooops.  Out of curiosity, I asked the technician to look at his records to find out what his weight was on his first visit to the vet shortly after we adopted him in March of 2004.  Thirty-one pounds.  I tell myself that he must've been underweight when we got him.  After all, he was in a shelter, depressed, and not eating well, right?  

by herself

Maddy will rarely play by herself.  Although she has enough toys to fill a toy store, she'd rather play with mom and dad.  We recently had to put many of her toys in storage in an attempt to declutter because our home is on the market for sale and we thought she'd freak out.  But no, she hardly noticed.  Most of her toys have been neatly tucked away in bins for the past two months and she has barely touched them. Today, she finally decided to pick out a few toys to play with.  Daddy was upstairs and he called Maddy's attention toward an octopus that was on TV; I quickly shushed him and told him that Maddy was playing by herself.  This was such a rare event that we wanted to leave her uninterrupted.  I oftentimes hope that she'll grow to like entertaining herself because playing with her constantly is, frankly, exhausting.

ice cream before dinner

When Maddy asks for ice cream before dinner, I rarely say no; mostly because I'm too busy preparing dinner to argue about it.  So, I scooped her a little of her purple ice cream (Maddy only eats purple ice cream; it's her favorite "flavor").  

Just one more serving please?  No.  Kanae made a special treat for us, Japanese croquettes, and brought them to work.  The croquettes are made with potatoes, beef and/or pork and sauteed onions; they were coated with egg and panko crumbs and fried.  They were delicious and I knew right away that Maddy would eat them.  (Yea!  I don't have to worry about what to feed Maddy tonight!).  Although Kanae said they should be eaten with a Tonkatsu sauce, I "Americanized" the meal and served it with ketchup.  

Maddy ate every last crumb.  I neglected to take a picture when the plate was full, so here are her last couple of bites.  She also enjoyed yummy summer strawberries that were actually sweet for a change. 

I think she ate eight strawberries.  We were on a roll tonight!  Good eating Maddy!  Oh, and here's a gratuitous picture of Baxter that I'm throwing in just because he's so darn cute.

what's gotten into her?

After swimming lessons last Friday, Maddy wanted to play in the small area designated for little kids who are waiting for their siblings to finish up lessons.  As with all kids' play areas, it usually looks as though a hurricane tore through it.  I sat down, checked some emails and when I looked up, you can imagine my complete surprise when I saw Maddy.....organizing and cleaning up!  Huh?

Why do you suppose she got the urge to CLEAN up this space?  Why doesn't she ever have those urges at home?