Bear's on Bikes

Took a quick bike ride with the girls this weekend. It's actually getting easier riding with Jaq on the back of the bike. While I'm still too wimpy to take a long ride, (both b/c I haven't biked for "real" in a very long time so I'm out of shape and b/c I'm always dreading the GET OUT moment that comes somewhere along the trip) I am enjoying the short trips we have been taking. I even feel that there is a decent probability that I wont fall -- even though Jacqueline seems to have way more trust in my abilities then she should and is prone to leaning over in her seat.

Saturday was "Art in the Park" so we took off with the idea that we'd go see the sights and maybe hit the park along the way. About 2 miles in I feel something pushing on my back... hmm.. turns out it's Jacqueline's head as she has fallen completely asleep. After pushing her head back a bit and taking off again she flopped forward a second time. I then remembered that the bike seat has a recline position, we rocked her back a bit and took off again.

After finding out that Art in the Park was pretty busy, loud and crowded (hard to navigate with a sleeping baby on the bike) we decided instead to just make good on our promise of the actual park visit. Of course, as soon as we stopped at the park the baby decided to wake up and run around as well.

All in all a happy time for everyone. I did realize that this park was no place for the two girls without two adults as they immediately went in opposite directions. Good thing that both Bob and I were there as its a fairly busy street close by.


Ashton demonstrating the "proper" way to take a rest in the bike seat (note this is file footage from 2006)

Can't give it away

Now I know what you are going to say, you are going to say you could have warned me -- and to that I say "thanks for nothing"! So instead you are going to have to listen to the rant about our couch. How does this relate to the Bear girls -- well very vaguely but they are in the photo so deal.

Anyway here is the story -- I found a new couch, that was slightly smaller then the old couch and a bit less squishy. As you probably know, our family room is the size of a napkin and I'm always looking to find the smallest things to fit in it. So I found this new couch, it was at Costco, it was cheap -- I said what the heck -- and bought it. I then called St. Vincent's to pick up our old one. I specifically told them I had a leather sectional. They gave me a 4 hour window and I stayed home to wait for them.

The two guys show up -- we'll call them "Mutt" and "Jeff" -- and they see the couch and say "we don't take sectionals". I, of course shared a few nice words about how telling me that AFTER I had taken a day to work from home to meet them (in their four hour window) wasn't particularly helpful.

Now, I am looking forward to meeting additional people all weekend to come look at it to see if they want it. Why bother? I wonder myself. I guess b/c I can't seem to get comfortable with throwing out a couch that is still useful -- lord knows there were several times in my life I would have loved to have a couch this nice. But as I said sometimes you just can't give it away.

Water time

Finally, had a slow weekend. Girls were happy to get soaked in the back yard on the Dora hop scotch sprinkler mat (yes that is our most excellent fake grass).

I've finally figured out that the character is called "Dora" correctly by Jacqueline, but the show is "Do-Do-Dora" which isn't really too far off of the theme song in her defense.

On other song updates, I'm still struck by how cute the ABC song has become in our house. She gets the whole thing right until the end where it goes "QRS... Y.. and Z.. Now I know.." and so on (essentially in Jacquline's world "TUV, WX" are missing from the alphabet song).

The other big event for the weekend was the arrival of our new sofa in the living room. Its actually a pretty cheap one from Costco, but it fits nicely in our tiny family room and with some pottery barn pillows we think it will do. Of course within hours of the arrival it had things hidden under the seats and had cheerios crushed on top.

We also got a cool zen trellis to go on our new deck area but we're still waiting for the patio chairs before I'm going to post a photo of that. In the meantime our old family room couch is on the deck waiting for the nice people from St. Vincent de Paul to come and pick it up next week (a comfortable if not exactly appropriate place holder).

All in all a nice and relaxing weekend (finally).

All about Allergies

Well I guess I feel some satisfaction to say I was right -- Jacqueline is allergic to pollen in grass.

We just had her tested and she did great. They didn't make her stay still after all, instead she just had to avoid touching or rubbing her back -- which we did reasonably well.

She managed to charm everyone in the dr. office (patients and staff both) and even impressed mom when I realized that she is excellent at puzzles (baby ones of course). I also was able to confirm that while she says her colors well, she doesn't really know them yet (I've not been able to tell for sure b/c her helpful sister always says the answer every time I try to ask).

Anyway, back to the allergy thing. We got confirmation that she is not allergic to any pets or foods -- just grass. No shots though (I can't believe I'm sad about that), I guess she is too young, so instead she will just take allegra and hope she outgrows it.

Oh, of course I have to post a photo -- has nothing to do with her trip to the dr. but its cute.

Biking with Dad

When Ashton was about a year old Bob was able to get her on the bike for a ride. Here is a photo of the two of them with their helmets.

Memorial Weekend

Busy weekend by any measure. I took friday off to buy some new clothes and somehow managed to spend the entire day at the mall! Then Sat. started early with a new deck construction project. Grandpa Bob came and helped us level our driveway with the deck. As you can see the girls were very helpful to the process. Two days later we now have a cool place for our Buddha fountain but no furniture (as its still en route).

Monday, Tash and I took on a office filing project. While we probably only accomplished about 1/4 of the work (and managed to lose an envelope of paint colors for the house).

In the evening we ended our relaxing day by Daddy and the girls washing his car. Now the weekend is over, we are all tired and ready to get back to our regular routine. In fact I hear a meltdown happening in the next room so I guess this is the end of the weekend post as well.

Guitar Mania

Grandpa Bob came through with a guitar strap and voila -- musicians sprung up in our household. Of course the sunglasses were a necessary addition.

Its all music all the time now. Ashton can now whistle and snap and Jacqueline can be heard singing several songs on her own (Twinkle Twinkle, ABC, Happy Birthday, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, E-I-E-I-O and so on).

Ashton takes Jacqueline to her Music Together class on Thursday mornings and they really have a great time.