First Day of Pre-K

Alex started his Pre-K class today.  What a difference a couple of years makes!  He was very excited to meet all of his classmates (15 in total) and spend time with his new teachers Miss Debbie, Miss Penny and Miss Natalie.  It should be a fun year, his last one at The Nurtury, before Kindergarten at Los Perales next year!  Can't wait to hear how it went.

Walking!

Mimi Walking! from David Chng on Vimeo.

Video of Julia walking!

Anglerfish

Alex's version of an anglerfish, as seen in "Finding Nemo".  Interestingly, he did not have a photo which he was using as a guide.

Helpful Brother

Sometimes Alex is very interested in pushing Julia around in the Cozy Coupe.  Not always, but sometimes, yes.  The other day was one of those days.  As you can see, Little Miss enjoys it very much!

Tilden Steam Train

The summer is almost over and school is starting for Alex on Thursday.  This means that the steam trains in Tilden go to their Fall schedule, which means that they are only open on the weekends.  We squeezed in one last weekday visit today.  It was the first time that Julia was actually awake while we were on the train.  She seemed to enjoy the fact that we were moving in a vehicle and she was not strapped in.  We had a little picnic lunch afterwards to round out the morning.

The Littlest Biker Girl

Julia is bound and determined to ride the Strider bike.  She gets the helmet and tries to put it on and then tries to pick up the Strider bike by herself.  We put her on it and push her around, which she likes.  Obviously, it is going to be a bit before she can actually ride it herself, as she is still tiny!  You can see that she has to grow quite a bit before she can reach the ground and the seat is down in the lowest possible position, but that does not stop her from trying!

Red Devil Squid

Here's Alex's picture of the red devil squid which he drew yesterday.   I think he is getting very good with his drawings.

Enjoying the Park

We had a fun morning at the Commons with Max, Isla and Gina.  Max and Alex decided to go into the sprinklers, with all of their clothes on, despite the fact that it is the coolest day we have had in months.  Needless to say, they were a bit chilly afterwards, but that didn't stop them from going in multiple times.  Julia loved the swing and also enjoyed climbing on the play structures like a big girl.

Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito

On Sunday we took a little trip over to Sausalito to visit the Marine Mammal Center.  It is a hospital for marine mammals who become injured in the wild.  They bring the animals in and treat them and then re-release back into the wild, or if they have a condition which would make them unfit to continue to live in the wild, they will place them at a different facility, such as a zoo.  The animals at the hospital included sea lions, elephant seals, fur seals and harbor seals.  You could view the animals in their enclosures from a viewing platform and there were classrooms with lots of educational displays and resources to learn about the variety of animals and the reasons why they end up at the hospital.  We also saw the fish kitchen and the exam room.  Alex was impressed with the "whale bus" out front and Julia was just happy to get to crawl around in the picnic area.

Mimi Walking

Mimi Beginning to Walk August 1, 2012 from David Chng on Vimeo.

This video is from August 1st, but just got around to uploading it to Vimeo.  Julia started to put some steps together then and continues to more steps every day.  So proud of herself, too!

Alex's Drawings

Mama Whale and Baby

 Portrait of Daddy

Portrait of Julia which Alex drew at the Doctor's office the other day.  

Playdate

We met up with some former classmates on Friday for a fun playdate at Del Rey School.  They had a tire swing which was super cool and was at one point holding five of the friends, while the two older siblings helped push.  The time was dispersed between going on the fun tire swing, playing on the play structures and riding bikes around, hence the helmet on Alex's head.  No, I don't require him to wear a helmet on the swing, he just finds it most efficient to keep it on, so he can run over and get onto his bike quickly, without the hassle of putting on the helmet again.  Ha!

Books

 Alex and Julia squished together on the same little chair.

 Julia lugging "her" bookbag around the library.  She loves to "carry" bags, all sizes and shapes.

 Stopping to see what is in the library bag.

Taking a break to do some reading right next to the air conditioning vent.  It was a very hot day, after all.

Happy Birthday, Julia Child!

 Look at those knife skills!

 Alex cut up all of the strawberries for our crepes last night.

 His "chef face".

 Mini sous chef in a box.  We needed a way for her to be a bit more enclosed in the kitchen stand and a box did the trick.  

Taste testing the strawberries.

This week would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday.  Just think of all of the inspiration she has provided to people everywhere, to get into the kitchen and cook.  In honor of her birthday, we made crepes last night.  Coincidentally, Alex earned the last ticket towards his kitchen knife yesterday too, so he proudly broke in the new knife, by cutting up all of the strawberries and peaches for the crepes.  He did a great job and was careful to keep his fingers out of the way.  We enjoyed some savory crepes with chicken, shallots, spinach, fresh grape tomatoes, oregano and feta cheese and then some sweet ones with strawberries and nectarines with honey sweetened goat cheese.  They were gobbled up!  

Biker Girl

Julia found Alex's helmet and came to have me fasten it for her.  Once it was on, she headed out to the bikes and started to try to get the bike down.  Odds are that she will start to ride bike pretty early ;-)

Backyard Waterpark

It has been very hot here over the past week, so it seemed like a good idea to break out the kid wash yesterday and cool off.  The kiddos enjoyed playing in their backyard waterpark, complete with the multi-purpose snow sled!  Afterwards, we hung out on our shady back deck and enjoyed some mango coconut ice pops.  Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

Garden Girl

Julia is definitely tough and tenacious.  She loves to be out in the garden with me and has picked up that I am frequently clipping plants and taking off dead leaves and blooms.  She, however, does not distinguish between dead or alive, so in the past week, she has managed to pull every pepper from the Padron pepper plant (and tasted them) and has done some serious damage to the plant in the process.  She loves to pull the flowers off of the petunias too.  In order to reach her targets she actually climbs up those rough stones to get up onto the ledge where she can reach.  No fear and no pain!

Swimming

Alex finished the last of summer swim lessons last week.  After six weeks in the pool, he made alot of progress.  He moved up a level and can swim short distances without help.  Thinking that a continuation of lessons in the Fall might be a good idea, since he seems to be on a roll.  The photo above is a picture of Alex with his instructor Caroline who taught him the last two weeks in the Polliwogs.

Girl of Many Talents

 DJules mixing some tunes

 Chef Julia (in keeping with one of the inspirations for her name...the fabulous Julia Child)

Julia loves music and loves to "dance".  She knows how to turn on the stereo in the ex-box room and now enjoys turning up the volume and doing a little dance.  Previously, she would point to the stereo and squawk at you to turn it on, but now she has just taken business into her own hands.  Gotta love a girl with initiative.