The Adventures of Rosa and Eliza

Some noteworthy events!

2012-01-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Oof. It has been a tough few weeks, getting ready for Christmas and travel, being out of our time zone and our routines (although we had a wonderful visit!), then coming back home to Eliza having an ear infection and molars coming in and not sleeping through the night since we've been back, then Rosa having either food poisoning or flu bugs twice in the last week. I have a bizillion pictures to post, but just don't have the energy tonight.

But - I just wanted to jot down a few milestones and fun observations from the past few weeks:

Rosa
* learned to ride a pedal bike today! (no training wheels! we love balance bikes!) I promise video soon!
* now uses the word "like" in her speech, as in "how about we like go to the playground or something..." (somehow I was hoping she'd skip this!)
* has really been wanting to help me cook lately - lasagna, french toast, scrambled eggs, almond butter and jelly sandwiches (ok, that's not cooking, but she can make her own sandwich!), etc.

Eliza
* new words: pee pee, poo poo, choo choo, beans (she says eens, just like Rosa did), oof oof (woof woof), and probably others I'm forgetting
* told me "poo poo" today, then went and sat on Rosa's little potty (with her clothes on), and sometime shortly after this did have a poopy diaper
* insists on eating with whatever utensil she can see on the table that is the most ridiculous / ineffective. Tonight she would only eat her lasagna off of a butter knife. Sigh. At least she was eating.

October 2011 and Eliza's 1st birthday!

2011-11-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

Eliza is now one year old! Unbelievable - that year went so fast. There were so many times during the year that when I remembered back to when Rosa hit a certain milestone (rolling over, solid food, etc.), it felt like she had been with us longer. With Eliza, all those milestones hit and I was just left saying where did the months go?

This video is old - from back in July. I meant to post it and don't think I ever did. Here's the little one shortly after she learned to clap.

At some point when Eliza's balance while standing started getting better and better, I realized that I didn't have any videos of her crawling, and that if I wanted to have some, I better do it soon before the crawling disappeared! The first one has the added bonus of the "uh-ohs." The second one also shows her climbing skills!

I still haven't managed to capture her walking on video (she's going all the way down the hall now, Frankenstein-style with arms outstretched!), but I did get her doing what we call "Compost Driver." She loves to cruise around the kitchen holding on to our compost bucket. Don't worry - the lid snaps closed very tightly!

Eliza has been taking a big midday nap for about a month now. On days that Rosa is not in preschool, this has actually become a really nice opportunity for some Mommy-Rosa time... as long as I can refrain from cooking or cleaning or doing all those many things that need to get done in a given day. One day I was about to recycle a box, and Rosa wanted to paint it and make it a house, so we did! Other times we have baked pies, made paper airplanes, read books, swept the leaves in the backyard, and other "projects" that one or the other of us dreams up. It's a good time for us!

This picture kind of reminded me of a picture of Rosa's Tanti Kira as a little girl, playing inside a cardboard box.

One day Rosa's preschool took a field trip to a cupcake store around the corner from the school. Since it was unfortunately not a day she was in school, and the field trip was happening right during Eliza's nap time, we didn't join them, but I decided that we would do our own field trip that afternoon after Eliza woke up. They were so cute sitting at the little table outside the store, devouring cupcakes together!

Rosa and Daddy, on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
Daddy and his girls!

I had to take these pictures one day at lunch because Eliza was just covered in her food!

Here's one of Rosa's preschool teachers reading to a bunch of kids in the school's courtyard.

For my 40th birthday(!!!), I asked my dad to pick out a better bass amp for me as my present. We went to Guitar Center to pick it up, and Rosa says, kind of quietly, "Mommy, I want THAT kitar." Can you tell which one?

THIS is the one. I told her - someday!

Rosa and Danya experience their first cotton candy. It was Danya's mom's idea!

Rosa's school had a big Halloween party fundraiser the Saturday before Halloween. I volunteered to be a face painter, although I hadn't really done it before. So the weekend before, I borrowed some face paints and an awesome How-To book, and went to town on Rosa! By the end just about every square inch showing was painted!

For weeks, Rosa had consistently been saying she wanted to be "tiger-mouse-dragon-fairy" for Halloween. This is pretty typical of Rosa, who seems averse to choosing one thing over another. (e.g. "I love ALL the colors!" or "I want the muffin AND the croissant!") So I got tiger tights and mouse ears and a dragon hat and we already had a fairy dress. But then on Halloween night, Rosa announced she wanted to be a ladybug. Ugh. No ladybug costume. And I had spent a decent amount of time gathering all the parts of her previously scheduled costume. But I decided not to make a battle out of it, and told her she could wear her ladybug rain jacket. Which she did. Oh well - better luck next year!

I was a dragon, and Eliza, who has been called "Little Pumpkin" more than "Eliza" in her life, was supposed to be a pumpkin. But she was so sick (fever and cough) that she stayed home for trick-or-treating. But we at least dressed her up for a picture, poor thing. It's good that she stayed home too, because she got worse before she got better.

For the second year in a row, we trick-or-treated with Rosa's friend Ember. My phone takes lousy nighttime pictures, but you get the idea of the cuteness.

Our pumpkin.

I was pretty amazed at the evolution of Rosa's drawing abilities! She originally told me this was a picture of her holding Eliza, although the story changed in the video below. You can see she is also starting to write her name! (Although there are a few extra letters.) And she knows very well that R-O-S-A spells Rosa, darnit!

Eliza's 1st birthday, bronchitis and all. We had cupcakes! Happy birthday, Little Pumpkin!

Eliza walking - pretty much!

2011-10-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

There's a lot going on in the Luszcz household these days! There are also lots of good pictures and videos, but it's late and it takes SO long to upload them, so they will have to wait for another day (soon). Sorry Grandma!

I remember when Rosa started to walk, we were not quite sure when to officially call it walking. And it has been the same with Eliza. I remember with Rosa, she would take a step or two, then drop to knees and crawl. And then when it hit about 10 steps in a row, I think we said, "Now we have to call it walking." We hit that point with Eliza about 5 days ago I think, this is the official announcement that Eliza is walking! Now we just have to catch it on video.

And in Rosa news, 5 nights ago, Rosa told Jeff that she wanted to sleep in panties, not a pull-up. I was at one of my many meetings for Rosa's school that night. But I got home before she went to bed and got to witness her going to bed in panties for the first time, and hope for a dry morning. And dry it was! At this point, 4 out of 5 nights have been totally dry. One night, actually at 7:00 in the morning, literally a minute or two before I was about to go in and wake her up, I heard her wake up crying because she peed. But she's had two more dry nights since then, so it doesn't seem to have made her scared to try again. This is very exciting and such a milestone!

And I just have to share one more little Rosa anecdote. Rosa's preschool does a lot of awesome field trips. This past Wednesday, I knew they visited a Buddhist temple near her school, and I was so curious to hear what she would have to say about it. When I asked her what they did on their field trip that day, she told me they went to a place that had lots of poodles, and that lots of things were made of glass and belonged to someone else (read: not allowed to touch!). Oh, and that they had cookies in their backyard at the end. So sweet and interesting, to get a glimpse of the world through the filter of a 3-year old!

I will do my darnedest to get the next batch of pictures and videos up tomorrow!

REALLY big girl bed

2011-10-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

This past May, we took the 4th wall down off of Rosa's crib and called that her "big girl bed." Now that we are hoping to move Eliza into Rosa's room sometime soon (read: anywhere from 1 week to 3 months), we started the process by transitioning Rosa to a twin bed - this is a REALLY big girl bed. Our friends got a great bed frame from Ikea that had railings on it, and we thought this would be perfect for Rosa too. And she loves it. I wondered if she might resist and want to sleep in her old bed, but she loves having this new REALLY big girl bed.

And now, here are a bunch of random pictures from the past - mostly of Rosa since Eliza wasn't born yet for most of them! I finally figured out how to download pictures off of my phone, and looking through them was a fun trip down (recent) memory lane. So I thought I'd share a few!

Rosa made an aluminum foil hat, June 2010.

Rosa had a fantastic time on the kiddie rides at Kiddie Playland (is that the name, Dad?) in Cleveland in summer 2010.

Rosa with double harmonicas going - when one is just not enough!

Rosa and her buddy Mateus on the bus - too cute!

Getting a little more recent, Rosa and one of her rocketship creations.

We went to a magic show and Rosa got chosen to assist the magician!

Rosa and Mateus get a new perspective on the playground!

Daddy and Eliza on Long Beach in Long Island, summer 2011

Rosa and her preschool class, enjoying "ice pops" on a hot fall day.

Forgot if I already posted this... Rosa's first haircut at a real beauty salon!

Two cute nudies on a hot fall day.

Preschool

2011-09-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here we are, leaving home for Rosa's first day of preschool. It was an exciting day - Rosa had been looking forward to "going to school" for weeks! It's a co-op, so I work one afternoon a week, and my day happened to be Rosa's first day, so I just stayed all day. She had a ball (I was exhausted!) and has loved it ever since. I think she's proud to have a school that she goes to!

One day after school, we went to a playground (what a surprise!). I looked up at Rosa, who had climbed to the top of the climbing dome. One day, they are holding on to stand themselves up at the bottom, the next, they are at the top!

And now follows the series of cute pictures, for all the grandmas out there!

We had some hot weather recently , unusual for San Francisco. There are only 2 parks (that I know of) that have sprinklers, so we went to one of them. Rosa got soaked!

Eliza chose to stay dry.

We saw lots of friends there, and one of the moms brought popsicles.

Here's Rosa in one of her new dresses from Tanti Kira. Thanks Tanti Kira!

Here's Eliza in her ladybug dress from Murray - everyone loved it!

Rosa loves to help. She always asks me if she can help me cook, or make the bed (she made my bed one day!), or anything else that looks grown up and interesting. Here she's helping Jeff fix his bike tire.

Eliza is (somewhat inconsistently) repeating or saying about 6 words now - Mama, Dada, Elala (Eliza?), uh-oh, bye-bye, meow. Wow! She's also playing peekaboo (really helps keep her occupied to get her diaper changed), which I almost caught in the beginning of the video below.

Eliza is also standing on her own now... look out world - she'll be walking soon!

Jeff walked into the playroom and said "Holy ****!" I came running from the kitchen... didn't expect to see this! I have now put child locks on all the windows!

Eliza slept until 7am!

2011-09-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Just had to record this first! She has also been saying the cutest "uh-oh" in the world for several weeks (usually either before or after throwing something on the floor from her high chair) and has been napping for 2.5-3 hrs in her crib for her morning nap! Life is good! I need to discover an easier way to post pictures. The whole process (from camera to computer to blog) takes a long time and is a big deterrent to me posting pictures. Sorry Grandma Lois - too tired to do all this tonight!

Oh Lordie... (everyone is ok)

2011-07-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

I got the call from Jeff (home with both girls) tonight that started, "First, everyone is ok. We're going to the hospital because..." Because Rosa was hanging from Eliza's clip-on high chair and pulled the table over on her head. With Eliza in the chair. Yes - all true. And everyone is fine. Eliza walked away without a scratch, and Rosa has a bruise and lump on her cheek. After pulling a table over, some piece of which landed on her head. And none of the glasses that were on the table broke. Amazing. All while I was driving to band. I of course turned around and drove to the hospital where everyone was in high spirits. I think Rosa is trying to tie my record of 4 sets of stitches - in the head - before age 5. Sorry, didn't manage to snap any pictures of tonight's events. The girls looked cute in the matching hospital bracelets. Oh, and we will evaluate the effects of these events on Rosa's ability to refrain from future hanging on the clip-on chair. If she seems like she might possibly be tempted to do it again, yes, we will get Eliza a different high chair.

What else... I'm backlogged on reporting Eliza milestones because I still don't know how to get pictures of my phone. And here's why. I had mastitis this weekend. Ugh. Severe shaking and fever spikes, seriously painful breast, and now unknown future of milk supply. Not fun.

But back to Eliza. In the past week, she has started clapping, then inch-worming, then pulling up to standing, then crawling, as of today. I think the clapping started in earnest last Thursday (will see date if I can ever get that video off my phone). Now she claps any time I clap and say "yay!" She claps when she eats. She claps when she wakes up. She claps when I close the door and say "night night." She claps when Rosa gets her all excited. It seems to be the go-to reaction to everything these days. Very cute.

Then the next day, we noticed she was definitely making forward locomotion. Not gracefully, but undeniably. She would get up on her hands and feet, lunge forward, sit up, and repeat. Then yesterday, I had the computer open on the couch, and boy did she want it, so with all her might, she grabbed the piping on the couch cushion and pulllllllled herself up, and voila! She was standing, all by herself. Then today, she finally found her knees, and is doing real crawling. Lots going on in that little noggin these days!

And on that note, I sign off. I promise some pictures soon

Rosa's 3rd birthday and July 4th

2011-07-09T11:48:00.001-07:00

The last month or so has had some big events, most importantly Rosa's 3rd birthday! As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Some random (and cute) harmonica playing.

The night before Rosa's birthday.

We had all of Rosa's presents (from us and the relatives) waiting for her when she woke up. She knows what presents are all about!

Rosa and some friends playing in the sand after a Bernal Bambinos event on Rosa's birthday morning... just a cute picture.

Eliza was there too.

On Rosa's birthday, we had pizza for lunch in a restaurant with Ember and Paxton and their families. After this birthday pizza lunch ended, Rosa informed us that the dress she was wearing was called a Pizza Dress. Indeed it was!

Here are two more portraits from the Rosa portrait gallery:
Her rocking horse, Cinnamon
and her baby sister, Eliza.

Here's Rosa's birthday party, which was actually the day after her birthday. This is the kids doing a bean bag toss. They made the "bean bags" earlier in the day by filling socks with sand. I think this was more fun than the actual bean bag toss!

The Happy Birthday song. It was so windy at that point we didn't even try to light candles.

Eliza and Baby Macy were born 1 day apart!

Lin, Lyla and Lander. They've gotten so big!

Eliza is now spinning in all directions and scooting backwards. She wasn't so happy when she got herself stuck under Rosa's crib. And as is usually the case when Eliza does something that gets attention from Jeff and I, Rosa had to follow suit and do what Eliza did.

Right before our camping trip, Eliza was covered in baby food and I think Rosa had gotten pretty dirty and sticky that day, so I decided they needed a bath. The quickest way of course was to do them together, so they took their first sisters-together bath!

We went camping in a wonderful county park called Memorial Park. We were taking a little hike to the swimming hole that turned out to be more adventurous than Yvette and I expected! Thankfully Eliza (under the polka-dot blanket) slept through it all (and I didn't slip!).

Here's our beautiful campsite. I love this park!

Jeff made a spiral in the sand and Rosa and Paxton walked it like a meditation labyrinth.

When we got back from camping, we took the girls to their first July 4th fireworks show. The city fireworks were pretty far away, but there were volunteer fireworks all over the place! We had let her nap that day from 4-6pm (a very late nap!) so she could stay up for the fireworks. I guess we sort of overshot, because she didn't go to sleep until midnight that night. Sigh. Tired Mommy and Daddy, excited girl!

More brushing

2011-06-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

Rosa loves to get her hair brushed. I use a really soft brush they gave us from the hospital when Eliza was born to get the tangles out, then my regular brush, just for the feel of it. Rosa sits very still with her head tipped a little bit back, her mouth a little bit open, and her eyes a little bit closed. When I stop, she says "More brushing!" I know exactly how she feels. I love getting my hair brushed too.

In other news, as of early June, Eliza is waving. I credit it to Papa Misha who was out visiting with Grandma Lois, and did some nice slow waving with Eliza. That was the first wave I saw from her, and now she's doing it more and more. In fact, she and I wave at each other every night when I put her down in her crib and am saying "Night night." I've found that if I keep a big smile on my face as I turn off the light and close the door, she usually doesn't cry. (Hope I'm not jinxing myself!)

And finally, we had an absolutely lovely 3rd birthday party for Rosa yesterday. At a playground (as requested), with lots of nice friends, and a beautiful day. What more could you ask. Pictures coming soon (it's too late to do all the downloading, selecting, uploading, captioning, etc. tonight).

Pico

2011-06-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

Pico (pronounced Pee' ko), is Rosa's imaginary friend. She has talked about Pico for a long time, but it used to always be naming a baby doll or stuffed animal "Pico." Now, it's pretty clear that there is no physical object she's talking about, but there are long detailed accounts of the adventures she has with Pico, that very often include describing what form of public transit they have taken, where they sat, what they said to the driver and what the driver said to them. Go City Girl! I ask her questions about Pico - she says Pico is a girl, but often uses the pronoun "he" (she doesn't usually make this mistake); also, sometimes she talks about Pico and Panella, where Pico is a boy and Panella is a girl. Sometimes Pico is her twin and sometimes he is a baby (I think baby sister as opposed to HER baby). It's been really interesting to see this just take off in the last week or two.

Rosa is just fine!

2011-06-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

After that weird night last night, Rosa did wake in the night, which is not unusually, unfortunately. But today she was completely her usual, go-go-go self with no hint of headache. :-)

June 2011 visit

2011-06-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

Eliza said "Hey Mama" or something that sounded like it 2 days ago. She's been saying "a-da-da-da-da-da" for a couple weeks now.

Tonight, Rosa was doing her usual stalling at bath time, and started crying about not wanting to take a bath, which I ignored and set about making happen anyway. Then she really started crying in the bathroom, which I told her she would get in trouble for if she woke Eliza up. But she was whimpering so uncontrollably, I finally realized something was really wrong. She said her forehead hurt, and it must have been bad. I didn't see her fall or bump it or anything. I gave her some children's ibuprofen, and put her into her jammies. I left the room for about 30 seconds to fill the humidifier tank and came back to find her fast asleep on her floor. A full hour before she usually goes to bed (on a day when she's taken a nap). I've checked on her twice... I guess she's ok. Weird!

Also, here are a couple pictures from Grandma Lois and Papa Misha's recent trip. Turns out I didn't take many pictures. But Papa Misha did.

Here are my pix:

Rosa and her buddy Mateus at the little cars at the mall. At one point he had his arm around her!

Daddy and his girls.

Grandma Lois and Eliza.

One of those videos where you think it's a photo, but it's really on video. :-)

4 ladies!

Everyone in their jammies.

Rosa always finds cool settings on the keyboard. She was really jamming out, but of course stopped when I got the camera out.

What is that Smell?

2011-05-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

Rosa asks this question at least 20 times a day. Truly. It's as if her nose has just turned on. Of course, a certain percentage of the time, it's Daddy's farts (sorry - but it's true!). And then there are times when I have no idea what she's talking about. But I do know her smeller works. And she always says it like this: "What's that smay-ell?" Pretty funny.

And what about Eliza... she's a smiley, happy girl. In a nutshell: She's sitting up really well now, eating 2 meals a day, but still only pooping every 4 or 5 days sometimes. The prunes help, but they are no guarantee.

May 2011 (including a big girl bed!)

2011-05-23T11:06:00.001-07:00

It's been another full month! I am finally realizing that my blog entries are less of a journal about milestones and anecdotes, and more of a a series of photos with captions. That's kind of what it turns into when my blog entries are infrequent enough that I rely on the photos to remember what we've been doing the last few weeks.

This picture is of Easter morning. Jeff always says he's never in the pictures, so here's one that proves he was here. Rosa and her friend Mateus colored the eggs (what an adventure that was!), and I baked the Pascha bread.

That morning we did Rosa's first ever Easter Egg hunt at a neighborhood park. It was really fun! Rosa wore pink tights on her head to be bunny ears. Her friend Ember wore an egg hat. The moms wore new babies.
Rosa, complete with bunny ears, purse (to collect eggs), rain pants, and umbrella.
The Easter Bunny was there too! Rosa was brave enough to give him a hug!
Now we've jumped ahead a month to the "Spring Show" at Rosa's daycare. It was wild and fun, as you'll see! Here's Rosa's kitty mask.
Other kids telling about their masks:

"The Robot" dance. This was Jeff's favorite part!

One day at snack time, Rosa gathered all the babies and high chairs she could find in the house. She is eating popcorn (paaaa-corn), which she now eats for afternoon snack every single day.
In early May we took a trip to Pennsylvania for my Aunt Marilyn's memorial service. We also got to see Jeff's grandpa and cousins. It was Great-Grandpa's first time meeting Eliza!
Another of Rosa's self-portraits, which I believe will be in a famous collection someday. She was apparently sad about something just prior to taking the portrait.
As promised, here is a picture of Rosa's first trip to the dentist! I had heard all about kid dentists having videos and other tricks, which this dentist had none of (I was kind of disappointed!). But she was very gentle and good with kids and did a great job explaining what was going on in simple, non-scary ways. She poked, polished, and applied fluoride to all 20 teeth in Rosa's mouth, with perfect cooperation from Rosa... better results that I would have guessed, even with videos!
After Rosa began letting herself out of her crib every morning, and some nights, we decided to take the bars down on the front of the crib, thus converting it to a toddler bed. Rosa had to show us that she could stay in her crib when she went to bed at night for a whole week, and once she did that, we were ready. Here's how it used to look:
The crib is from Ikea, so it comes apart and goes together with Allen wrenches. Rosa helped with all the nuts and bolts and was actually very adept at this.
Then the last part required a Philips-head screwdriver, which she was also good at, thanks to the toolbox set we recently got her.
Here she was, reveling at the coolness of her new biggirl bed! She has done FANTASTICALLY in it ever since! I don't think she has climbed out (or fallen out!) once after going to bed in the 2 weeks that she's been sleeping in it like this. We did add a guard rail, which helps keep her from falling out by accident.
Eliza proved to be much happier, not to mention safer, in a clip-on high chair than she had been in the Bumbo chair (little blue chair that sat on the table - see Easter picture), so now she and Rosa are the bookends of our table.
Last weekend we took an awesome trip to a local goat farm! The kids all loved seeing the goats and romping in the grassy field.
Here's Rosa "protecting" Paxton from the goats. She's gotten into the protector role lately...
And here's Rosa, Peter, and Mateus, the Three Musketeers, romping in the grass.
Everyone had to wear "lunchlady hats" to keep their hair contained in the cheese-making room.
And Eliza was there too!
There's Daddy and Eliza holding court in the tasting room.
As if seeing a goat farm wasn't cool enough for one day, we and Ember's family went to a beach on the way home.
It had cool sandstone cliffs.

It was NOT a warm day, mind you, but by the end of it, the girls were enjoying the water, Northern California style.

And then the next day (see what I mean about a busy month!), Jeff took Rosa to the Maker Faire. The Maker Faire is Robotics meets Arts'n'Crafts with some Burning Man mixed in, just to liven things up. I stayed home and took some long naps with Eliza. Jeff and Rosa left home at 10:30 am and got back at 6:30 pm - this was a LONG day for Rosa. This picture sums up my mental picture of what the day was like for Rosa... a little overwhelming!

Here Rosa met some home-made R2D2s. Apparently, the guy had spent 6 years making them in his basement.

And here, the kids were spinning a 9,000 lb rock that was stood on its side with some ball bearings. Apparently there were lots of kids there and lots of neat kid activities.

And on that note, I close. I kind of hope for a calmer June, but am not counting on it!

Eliza is sitting, Rosa went to the dentist!

2011-05-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

No time for uploading pictures this late night, but that will come. Just wanted to use the blog as a diary to jot down a few milestones!

April 2011 - solid food for Eliza

2011-04-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

Wow - it's been a busy month! I meant to do a posting the day Eliza ate her first food from a spoon (back on 4/13), and it's taken until today to actually make time to upload pictures and videos.

I'll start this post with a cute picture, with no particular story to tell about it:

A couple weeks ago, Rosa was doing a lot of talking about "the forest" and often "the tigers that live in the forest." So I decided we should all go to Muir Woods before the summer tourist season starts and it becomes impossible to park within miles of the park. When we arrived, I settled in to nurse Eliza. Jeff just missed a picture of Rosa and I sitting at opposite ends of this bench, both nursing our babies.

But he did manage to catch us both carrying our babies on our tummies!

Jeff and Rosa by the slice of redwood that began it's life in 900AD and fell down in the 1930s.

Beautiful, huge trees.

Rosa and Jeff lay down on the path and looked up at the patterns of the branches. Several people stopped and took pictures of them. I think they wanted to lay down and gaze up at the branches too!

Here's the littlest Miss on the ride home, clutching her Sophie the Giraffe. It reminded me of a picture I had taken of Rosa, what seems like so long ago!

(Rosa: 12/7/08)

Back to the present, Eliza has started solids! (Well, they're still pretty soupy, but it's the first step in the process!) We started with rice cereal, then last week she had avocado. I think tomorrow we'll start banana. She seems to like eating from a spoon!

Here's the girls doing a tandem ride in the swing! Probably won't be able to do this too much longer.
Miss Rosa Bosa at a birthday party... yummy chocolate cupcake!

A classic Rosa self-shot. You have no idea how many photos like this now populate my iPhoto. Someday I'll make a collage of them...

Last weekend we took a trip up to Sacramento. Our first stop was visiting Jeff's friends Catherine and Anthony. Catherine is a great bedtime story reader!

Rosa - in motion - at the playground right across the street from Catherine's house.

The next day we took a ride on an excursion train for Rosa's friend Peter's 3rd birthday.

Back at home, the next night two of Rosa's buddies had dinner at our house. It was an exciting night! It is pretty much impossible to get three 3-yr olds to look at a camera at the same time.

A timeless classic - kids jumping on Mom and Dad's bed! I was sort of floored to hear Jeff telling them to do that!

Thanks for the candy necklaces, Uncle Greg!

Two more videos of my adorable children:

Eliza has discovered the other baby in the mirror...

These two have started a band!

My big girl!

2011-04-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

Rosa has suddenly taken one of her bigger developmental jumps in recent memory. The biggest one is definitely the potty. She pretty much hasn't used a diaper except for sleeping in the last two weeks. I'm still finding her (clean) diapers tucked into pockets of random tote bags from weeks ago, and now it seems so strange to think of her wearing them. Funny how (my) perceptions of what's normal can change so fast. She still asks to wear a diaper occasionally, but so far I've always been able to talk her out of it without too much trouble.

Other "biggirl" (all one word to Rosa) things that she's doing all of a sudden are: not using a pacifier, not using a sippy cup at meals, doing much better at feeding herself (she's been able to do this for a long time, but getting her to stay focused has always been a challenge), dressing herself (she almost won't let me put clothes on her), buckling her own buckles in the carseat (with a safety check from mom of course), doing (toddler-level) jigsaw puzzles, recognizing lots of letters and numbers, and then, the thing that made me realize all of this stuff was happening at once, was when she showed me this picture that she drew on her chalkboard:

In the upper left corner is a picture of "Grandma." It's totally recognizable as a person! There's the round head on top with eyes and a mouth, two arms, and two legs! It blew me away! After months of seeing scratchy, scrawly lines and having her say, "This is an airplane," or "This is a tiger," with no recognizable features, all of a sudden this was a drawing of a person! Almost more than using the potty or stopping the pacifiers, when I looked at this drawing I felt like I saw her transform in front of my eyes. Pretty amazing stuff!

What a couple of weeks!

2011-04-08T23:23:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago ended with a super fun birthday party... 3 hours of jumpy castle with breaks only to suck down apple juice - 4 boxes worth in the end. Then in the car on the way home, we all got to see that apple juice again, if you know what I mean.

Then, after a relatively uneventful week, Rosa got the croup last Saturday at 12:30 in the morning. She didn't have any signs of any sickness when she went to bed, then woke up coughing like a barking seal and couldn't draw in a breath in between coughs. She was scared and we were scared, so Jeff took her to the hospital. Once she got the steroid and started breathing easier, I dare say she enjoyed her ER visit! Here she is playing "Rosa astronaut."

When she got home at 2:30am, she was feeling much better, although still wheezy. She said, "Mommy, is it morning? Can I go play in the playroom?" Thankfully she did fall asleep eventually. And that night was the only really bad one. She's been much better since, but still has the runniest nose this side of the the Mississippi.

And then this week, Rosa has started wearing panties! She has made ALL her #1s and #2s in the potty, with practically NO resistance! Hooray! I will spare you all the pictures of her proud moments.

And finally, our most recent family picture, taken by Making Dinner drummer, Zarah Gamaldi!
It was out at Ocean Beach after a day of filming for the band's next video (not finished yet). For a good chuckle, check out our two most recent videos at http://makingdinnertheband.com.

The Lineup

2011-03-28T22:17:00.001-07:00

Can you pick out Eliza from the line-up?

I put Eliza down to get dinner on the table and Rosa proceeded to line up everybody else next to her. Pretty funny. Eliza wasn't so happy about it, but I still took the extra 30 seconds to run and get my camera because it was so cute.

Arco iris

2011-03-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday, but someone didn't want to fall asleep last night. Sigh.

Yesterday was an interesting day. (With Rosa at daycare) Eliza took a 3-hour nap in the morning! Unheard of. Then, when she woke up, she had her tongue sticking out for most of the rest of the day. Cute, but a little strange.

That same morning, I awoke to a crash. Rosa was helping herself to a glass of apple juice from the fridge - from the gallon-size glass bottle. Luckily, it didn't break when she dropped it.

This morning, Rosa got to see her first rainbow.

March 2011 - the catch up

2011-03-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

So let's see. What happened between August 2010 and March 2011? I spent a couple more months being pregnant and exhausted.

Rosa was the cutest chicken for Halloween, Mommy was an egg, and Daddy was a farmer.

Then Rosa's baby sister Eliza was born the next day!

Then I spent a few months desperately trying to figure out how to be the mom of two kids. At the same time.

I see now that it is impossible for me to just skip to the present. A lot happened in between - a new being came into existence! So here's the catch-up, as concisely as I can do it.

My last bit of commentary - as of now, this blog is officially about Rosa AND Eliza. I didn't have the foresight to name it something that would work if we ever had a second kid. And I'm not going to rename it at this point. So Eliza, my sweet, I apologize for this first, and probably not last, time that you may feel overlooked by being the second child. But know that you're in good company. Just today I asked my mom and dad for a picture of me when I was between 2 and 3 years old, to see if my hair was as blond as Rosa's is. They found one of me at 18 months, but couldn't come up with any photos of me between ages 2 and 3! They said maybe there were some slides...

Anyway, now, without further ado:

Thankfully, Grandma Lois came out and spent a whole month with us! What a godsend she was - it was always great to have that extra pair of loving arms to hold one of the girls when they needed it.

It was a wild ride sometimes!

But there were many, many sweet moments...

Papa Misha came out to spend Thanksgiving with us.

And then they both went back to Ohio. And suddenly real life started. They left on a Tuesday around noon, and then Rosa napped, and then when she got up, there we all sat on the couch, me nursing Eliza and Rosa trying to get onto my lap at the same time. I remember I felt paralyzed - like I should hold this position for as long as I could since I couldn't fathom doing anything else until Jeff got home from work.

But eventually, I learned how to do other things, and life carried on (I can say that now that Eliza is almost 5 months old!), and we actually did a lot of fun and special things in December.

We took Rosa ice skating for the first time at an outdoor rink they put up for the holidays.

We also took Rosa for her first sled ride! They had a "snow day" at City Hall one Saturday in December where they trucked in snow and made a sled run. Rosa LOVED it! I think she was the only kid in snow pants!

After sledding we went into City Hall, which was just beautiful with its glowing white marble and glowing white Christmas tree. I don't think this video does justice to the look of wonder in Rosa's eyes as she took it all in.

Tanti Kira came to visit us from Christmas to just before New Years. Just as she had with baby Rosa, she had a magic way of calming Eliza down and getting her to fall asleep.

Rosa made out like a bandit for Christmas, but probably the best gift was a rocking horse! It was sent to us by a friend of Tanti Kira's whose kids had outgrown it. Rosa is a most enthusiastic rider and has since named the horse "Cinnamon."

Here's a family portrait timer shot.

About a month after Eliza was born, Rosa started refusing naps, which almost killed me (and I almost killed her!). We tried "quiet time" every day for several weeks, with Rosa alone in her room, but she would scream and scream until I would give up. We tried napping all together (Rosa, Eliza, and me), but Rosa wouldn't settle down at first. But eventually, this is what worked - the three of us have been napping together (on a twin bed in Rosa's room!) for several months now. Not sure how long this will last, but at least I get some rest. I often wake up before them though, and sneak out to get s few things done. Here are my sleeping girls!

I'm trying to be good about taking a picture or two of Eliza every now and then!

This perfect line-up deserved a picture.

Rosa swinging with her friend Ember.

In February, we made our first big airplane trip as a family of four. We went to Ohio for Eliza's baptism.

Eliza with her godparents - Auntie Aly and Uncle Dan.

Some pictures just tug at your heartstrings!

It was wonderful to see everyone from both sides of the family despite some pretty rough Ohio winter weather. The kids enjoyed it though!

Grandma Judy holding the sleeping babe.
Eliza gets passed to Papa Chuck!
Nana Anita and Papa Frank
The Pilats
The Clines
Uncle Greg reading to his god-daughter
Everyone in the snow
They built a snowman - Rosa told us she made the ears!

Little angels making snow angels!

So many cousins! I think they're all being monsters in this picture.

Music time with Tanti Kira

Back at home (a month later), here's a great Eliza smile - good job catching it on the camera Daddy!

Here are the girls in their Valentine's Day dresses. Thanks Nana Anita and Papa Frank!

In the last week or two, I really feel like life has gotten a bit lighter and easier. We've all grown more accustomed to the new ways things work and are finally developing some routines. But also, Rosa and Eliza have really been interacting more and more. Eliza's eyes just light up and follow Rosa around the room, and in addition to entertaining Eliza, Rosa has finally started understanding that it's good to be quiet when Eliza is sleeping, and that she can entertain herself for a little while when Eliza needs to nurse, etc. I know there are many more stages of growing up with a sibling to tackle (Mom! Eliza took my dolly!), but it felt good to notice that things are feeling easier. One night at dinner when the two of them were making each other giggle and giggle, I saw my first little glimpse into a lifetime of sisterly shenanigans!

August 2010

2011-03-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

I know I just said I wasn't going to go back in time and try to cover all the months between July 2010 and March 2011. But I already had these pictures and videos picked out, which is the hardest part, so I'm going to do another retro-post here of August 2010 - covering our trip to Ohio and Rhode Island, then jump to March 2011.

Here's our daredevil on the rocking horse Papa Misha bought at the church rummage sale.

Rosa and Papa Misha in the Miata ("car with no roof" to Rosa) during trip to Ohio. Too bad I don't have any more pictures from this part of the trip!

The cool lifeguards on the beach in Rhode Island.

Three Luszcz men.

Nana Anita got Rosa a lobster cupcake! (just frosting!)

Rosa and Daddy on Papa Frank's boat

Rosa got to drive!

Rosa's first experience in the ball maze at the neighboring town's seafood festival.

Rosa's first time watching fireworks!

Rosa and Papa Frank at lunch. She now knows how to keep her feet off the table!

The mosquitos were wicked to Rosa. And she reacts so strongly to them - she had like 20 of these welts by the time we got home - yikes! Had to put cortizone cream on them to make the swelling go down.

Polka is in Rosa's genes.

2 years old! (June - July 2010)

2010-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

It's now March 2011. I started this post a long time ago (apparently September 2010 according to the date it's posted as), covering the months of June and July 2010 - including Rosa's second birthday. Since this is ready to go, I'll post it. But after this I think I need to just jump to the present. If I try to go back and cover all that time, I'll never get back on this horse!

June and July were pretty cold months... sure, we had a few days warm enough for beach trips, as you'll see below, but I love that our June 25 birthday girl is wearing long-john jammies and a sweater while playingwith her new choo choo trains on her birthday morning... looks like Christmas!

For birthday dinner, we got Rosa her long-time favorite - burrito (of course)! Can't go wrong!

And here's her happy birthday cake! Although she was a little tentative here, Rosa has been singing happy birthday to herself ever since. Sorry about the crazy videography.

Here's a silly picture of opening presesnts after dinner.

Rosa on the drums at Erika's Tech-Free Day (and freezing cold!) picnic. This is the day after Rosa's bday - June 26 and I mean FREEZING cold.

Just before her birthday party.

On one of the huge slides at Pump It Up!

Pizza after all the sliding and jumping. They were all so tired that they looked like well-behaved kids!

Making pizza with Daddy.

Rosa and Daddy on the beach

May 2010

2010-08-26T21:06:00.001-07:00

May was a busy month, with a visit from Grandma Lois and Papa Misha, a tour of our local fire station, and our first family camping trip!

Here's a neat shot of Rosa in her Ikea tunnel (one of best purchases ever!), taken by Papa Misha.

Grandma Lois got to pick Rosa up after naptime and get some cuddles while Rosa was still drowsy.

Rosa has loved building towers for a long time now. She had Papa Misha working hard too - here's one of his creations.

Grandma Lois spent some quality time at the playground with Rosa

We took Grandma and Papa to an art class. Rosa's favorite thing to paint was always her hands!

But she did some painting on the paper too.

Here is the final product of that class - what a cool hat! Mommy glued the flower and ribbon on.

Rosa loved brushing the goats at the zoo.

A little music session with Grandma and Papa!

One of the neighborhood moms organized a tour of the local fire station - what a treat! All 2-year-olds, whether boy or girl, are obsessed with fire trucks it seems!

Rosa got to sit in the fire truck and ring the bell!

She and daddy are the new fire truck mascots.

Rosa got to slide down the pole. She talked about the man sliding down the pole literally for months (she still asks for songs about this).

The same neighborhood mom who organized the fire station tour organized a 4-family camping trip (she's organized!). What a blast! It was so nice to be there with 3 other families - it was actually relaxing! And the kids loved having their buddies there.

Rosa liked climbing on the logs and is totally fearless about bugs (wants to pick them all up). Paxton takes a more scientific approach with his magnifying glass.

The kids mostly played nicely!

This was Rosa's first experience with tents. When we arrived at the campground she looked around her with wonder and pointed out all the umbrellas in the trees. We told her those were called "tents." When we set up our tent, she was so excited to get in it with us, but got all freaked out whenever I tried to zip up the door. This could be a problem! But eventually I just held her back from scrambling out and zipped it quick, and after that, she magically got over it. Phew! The first night she didn't sleep so well (lots of squirming and early waking), but the second night she slept until something like 7:30 the next morning!

Paxton's mom and dad brought a little inflatable boat, which was super relaxing and fun to take out for spins on the lake.
One of the other families brought their two doggies (and you think your car is crowded going camping, you should have seen theirs with a car seat and two decent-sized dogs in the back seat!). Rosa loved hugging them!

More cute videos - Daddy introduced Rosa to the joys of building forts and tents out the couch pillows and blankets.

April 2010

2010-08-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

And now for some long overdue (yet again) catch-up work. I've been so remiss in my blogging because I've been completely exhausted since about March. In the beginning, I wondered what the heck was wrong with me, but then eventually when smells started to bother me and I started gagging at weird times, I took a test and learned that Rosa's little brother or sister had started growing in mommy's belly. Like I said, I've been exhausted ever since, but generally am doing just fine. The baby is due in November, and we are keeping the gender a surprise. Rosa is pretty sure it's a baby boy. So this blog will be incorrectly titled in a few months since someone else will be keeping Rosa company on her adventures soon!

But for now, back to Rosa. Since I didn't do any blogging for several months, I've missed capturing all the day-to-day changes she's had, especially in language ability, which has been growing like crazy over the past few months. But by going back through all the videos in the last few days, it's just amazing how her abilities have exploded in that time. In the videos from April, she's saying a couple words together. I kind of remember when she would say, "I mommy" to mean something like "I want mommy to come here." Now she orders me around with perfect grammar!

So her language definitely continues to be so fascinating to watch develop. And now, without further ado, on to cute toddler pictures!

One of many merry-go-round pictures. Giraffes are unquestionably Rosa's favorite animal, so here's a shot of her riding one.

A late afternoon in Dolores Park, having a picnic with our friends Bill and Angela.

In March of this year, we started doing a share-care (one nanny watches two kids) with another girl in our neighborhood - it has been so great for Rosa to have a buddy to share days with when I'm at work! Rosa and Lina do all sorts of fun things together, but really love pretending to go night-night together in the pack-n-play.

In early April, Papa Frank and Nana Anita came to visit!

We had all sorts of adventures, including going to the zoo, doing the parachute (Rosa's favorite!) at the Rec Center,

doing many visits to playgrounds,

getting together with cousins Loretta and Norman,

and going to the beach, among other things!

Here's a picture of Rosa and some of her buddies, taking a popsicle break at the playground! Lucky kids!

Rosa and Mommy taking a rest break at a hike in Glen Canyon

All sorts of cuteness in this video - I won't even bother with any explanation.

Cousin Norman's excellent rendition of the classic, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear."

Rosa hugging Mr. Judd.

One of Rosa's friends had his 2nd birthday party at a place called Pump It Up, which is big party rooms filled with inflatable jumpy castles and 3-story giant slides. I had a conflict and couldn't go, but Jeff took Rosa to the party. He came home filled with stories of how she loved it so much that she was dripping with sweat by the end. Here's a video of fearless Rosa, 2 months shy of 2 years old, shoving the other kids out of the way to throw herself down the slide!

Finally!

2010-08-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Finally, this morning for the first time, Rosa made a poopoo in the potty! There were many congratulations and big smiles. This has been an elusive accomplishment for Rosa, since she really likes her privacy when making poopoo; usually she goes behind a chair or into the laundry room with the door shut and loudly says "bye bye mommy" or "bye bye daddy" if one of us comes too close. So today, when she headed for the laundry room at her usual time, I finally managed to get her potty to her and take her diaper off in time, then let her shut the door and have her privacy. I was so good - I didn't even peek while she was in there working. And after a few minutes she came to the door and I heard her little voice say, "I made poopoo in the potty!" We called daddy in to look and there were lots of high fives. Potty training ain't over yet (by a long shot from what I've heard!), but this was a great breakthrough!

2 quotes

2010-07-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Oh dear - once again it's been months since I've written anything in this blog. I guess this is an attempt to get started again.

Today, Rosa said two things that made me say to myself - if I was still blogging, this would go in the blog. So I'm at least going to record them both here and now, albeit without any cute accompanying photos.

Normally I wake up to Rosa either calling "Mama!", chattering about firemen going down poles or other thoughts running through her mind, or occasionally just crying. Today, despite it being too early (6:10 instead of at least 6:30), I got up right on the spot because she made me laugh out loud. I think I was already a little bit awake and either Jeff or I must hvae made some noise rolling over or something and Rosa says in a singsong voice: "I hear you Mama! Mama, where are you???"

Then later in the day when Jeff got home from work and was headed toward then den with his laptop, Rosa chased after him saying, "I check my email!" I'd never heard her say that before, but apparently Jeff had, since she learned it from him!

Hopefully more blogging will follow after this tiny attempt to get started again!

Zoo, beach, and more

2010-04-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Two Saturdays ago, we went to the much-hyped Golden Gate Mothers Group East Egg Hunt. It was at the zoo, which is always a favorite, so I knew it would be fun no matter what. As always, we started with the giraffes, then headed over to the children's zoo/farm area. Rosa had a ball working as a farm-hand!

She also really liked talking to the sheep! (Most of the sheep were out in the yard, but these few were in the barn. I'm pretty sure they all get to go out and wander around most of the time.)

Then, at the appointed hour, we went to the Easter Egg Hunt. Somewhat strange event. They were blasting old pop music, which was sort of odd. But they did have age-specific jumpy castles, which was great, and also a marionnette show that absolutely captivated Rosa... for a few minutes anyway. They announced that the Easter Egg Hunt would be starting shortly, then did a countdown. 10 - 9 - 8... 3 - 2 - 1! About a million kids descended on a what looked like a decent-sized bit of lawn covered in plastic eggs. But whoosh! All the eggs were gone in literally about 45 seconds. I jumped in a grabbed one (from a kid with about 10 who was going for #11) and put it in front of Rosa. She enjoyed picking it up and opening it. But what an anti-climax. Good thing the giraffes and the sheep were so cool.

Well, the zoo wore Rosa out. I drove home, and I saw Jeff turn around and start snapping pictures. He actually caught Rosa in the act of falling asleep!
The next day was a lovely sunny day, so we headed out to Ocean Beach.

We put our toes in!

Rosa spent about 15 minutes pouring sand back and forth from one hand to the other. It was the longest we had seen her sit still and focus on something pretty much ever!

Beach walking with Mama.

Beach walking with Daddy. Daddy is so silly. Who else in the world walks in the ocean in their business shoes and socks. At least Rosa helped him roll his pants up!

This past Saturday was Rosa's buddy Lina's 2nd birthday party. Here's a very short video of everybody dancing.

The party was in Lina's dad's warehouse / workshop. He had built a swing for Lina that hung from the rafters, probably at least two stories high. Rosa LOVED the swing.

And finally, a self-portrait early one morning, not long after waking up.

21 months

2010-03-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

First of all, "umm" is done. Hooray! That went quick. It was cute, but glad it's over.

It's been a long time since I wrote - yikes! As I think I said in a previous post, I threw my back out for about a week, but thankfully feel completely better now. And I've just been too exhausted at the end of every night to even consider sitting down with the laptop. But I got the dishes done quickly tonight and it's still early so here we are. Rosa is 21 months old today, and I felt like this was an auspicious occasion to get caught up (with a long post and lots of pix and videos)!

We've been doing a LOT of fun stuff since I last wrote. Here comes quick descriptions for all the outings where I managed to take pictures. By the way, at least on my computer, the videos DO work, even though they all look black until you hit the play button (and wait a little bit for it to buffer).

We went to the "Little Farm" in Berkeley with a neighborhood playgroup. Rosa's first experience with live farm animals! Cows, ducks, goats, piggies! Unfortunately I was so taken with the experience that I didn't pull out my camera until the ride home. Rosa and Mateus both had a great time and passed out instantly in the car.

After the Little Farm trip, we went to a storytime about farms.

We've been trying to do a big nature trip at least once a weekend for the last 3 weekends and it has been great! By nature I mean a place where we can be away from cars, off of pavement, and not at a playground (we get plenty of that during the week). We went to the arboretum in Golden Gate Park last Saturday. The highlight for Rosa (based on what she continues to talk about) were the 3 squirrels that we stopped and watched (and who stopped and watched us) for probably 15 minutes. I'm pretty sure they wanted Rosa's apple. I'm not sure what Rosa wanted from them...

Soon-to-be-Mama Eva came along on this trip.

Daddy found Rosa a beautiful, huge pink flower... that had fallen on the ground - for real!

Daddy does take a lot of the pictures, so here's one documenting that he was on the trip too!

The next Friday, a bunch of kids from the neighborhood went to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito. We had never been, so we tagged along. It was fantastic! Our first stop was the stream, with fishies, froggies, and sticks!
Then the kids climbed this cool hill that had a tunnel through it (Rosa is super into tunnels right now) and stopped to ride the giant lizard. Don't know the girl in the middle, but that's our friend Paxton at the end.

Then there was this cool maze of woven sticks... as you'll see, Rosa has entered a new phase where if something seems cool and forbidden, she tells me to go away when she thinks I'm going to spoil her fun.

It was a hot day, and I was more than happy to keep feeding Rosa "beeps."

And the following Friday afternoon, Rosa was in heaven - she got to hang out with her two best buddies that she talks about constantly - Peter and Ember (who didn't want to ride on the tire swing).

This was another Saturday "nature" trip, this time to Stern Grove. Rosa found a tap-dancing stage (I think it was a covered fire pit).

About a month ago, Jeff started building towers with Rosa, usually after dinner. In the beginning, it was Jeff building and Rosa knocking down. I knew that Rosa was doing more building lately, but one morning, I was cleaning up after breakfast and came out to find this tower that Rosa had built! I know there was no tower at all before breakfast, so Rosa did it all herself. Pretty good!

I posted this video because I was thrilled to have captured Rosa's version of counting 1-10 on video. She's only missing a few numbers!

Ummm

2010-03-08T20:32:00.000-08:00

Rosa has her first bad speaking habit. She now begins every utterance with "Um." As in "Ummm... big truck!" "Ummm... straw straw (strawberry)!" "Ummm... siren!"

Jeff finds it cute. I find it cute too, but I really want us to not encourage this. I've been trying to pay attention to how I talk and have found a few "um"s in my speech, but nothing too egregious. I've heard a few as Jeff talks too. Hopefully it will pass quickly!

Two

2010-03-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

Two. Two babies. Two girls. (Rosa's exclamations upon seeing the double stroller I bought for the new share care.) We finally took the plunge and started Rosa in a share care (one nanny takes care of two kids). I had been wanting to do that for a while, but had been hesitating just out of inertia, and also a little worry that Rosa wouldn't nap well, or wouldn't eat well, or something wouldn't go well with one babysitter looking after two kids. But after having some playdates recently where Rosa got one-on-one time with another kid, and then couldn't talk about anything else for weeks (Max. Boy! Max! Chair. Boy. Max!), I realized she is just craving a little buddy to play with during the days while I am gone (and probably the days while I'm here too!). So after a little bit of effort, we have hooked up with another family, and today was the first day of the share care. Needless to say, Rosa was in 7th heaven when I got home. It took her a little while to warm up to everything this morning, but by the time I left, she barely noticed. And when I got home, the two of them were romping up and down the hallway screeching with delight! I don't have pictures of them together (not sure what the etiquette on this is, and haven't asked the other mom permission yet), but hopefully I'll have some soon. They are just too cute.

The sad part is that we said bye bye to our previous nanny who had been taking care of Rosa for the past 15 months. But we will have her come watch Rosa periodically on nights and weekends to keep her in Rosa's life.

The other big deal that's gone on lately is that I threw my back out (as in couldn't stand up or walk!) last Saturday. It was so painful and so strange to be instantly debilitated. But by now (4 days later) I can at least walk, albeit slowly, but relatively painlessly. Can't say the same for sitting yet.

It happened as we were getting into the car after a really fun rainy morning out at some dunes by the beach at Fort Funston. Here's Rosa in her new alligator rain boots and ladybug rain jacket.

Fort Funston is a big dog park. LOTS of doggies...

Rosa saw this branch from afar and announced "Neigh Neigh!" I looked around for a horse, and eventually saw what she was looking at. I put her on it to ride it.

Shoulder ride! Hopefully this is not what caused the back pain, because we do this all the time.

Last time I posted, I said my camera battery was mysteriously running low more than I expected. Recently I took some videos of Rosa on the merry-go-round at the playground. When I got home and downloaded them, I was disappointed to find that they were time-lapse shots (taken 1 frame every 20 seconds) instead of continuous video. Turns out Jeff has been doing some long-duration time-lapse experiments of clouds lately and didn't put the camera back on standard video... explains the low battery!

So here's some more merry-go-round video. Not as cute (in my memory anyway) as the first one, but pretty cute still. Rosa see what the boy is doing...

And guess what Rosa wants to do!

Shoes

2010-02-21T22:34:00.000-08:00

I have found that I haven't been taking many pictures lately, which means I haven't been doing much blogging lately. I think the problem has been that I my camera battery always seem s to be running out of charge lately, so I've gotten out of the habit of having my camera with me. Must change that! Because who wants to read a bunch of words without the cute pictures of 20-month old?

We've had a good last couple of weeks, despite Rosa having a cold (new ones every week!) for the last 6 weeks! We went to the zoo with Rosa's friend Ember and her mom back in January, and Rosa still says "Ember, choo choo, douaaache (giraffe)!!!" every single time she sees a giraffe or a choo choo train. She's got a long memory! The zoo was pretty magical to her, especially the giraffes, which were the first thing we saw, and which came up fairly close to us.

We also made it to the California Academy of Sciences, finally(!), after missing the group trip due to a really bad cough and cold. Rosa loved the African savanah (taxidermy) scenes, and spotted a leopard up in a tree that we had to keep coming back to. And in the aquarium section she was literally darting from tank to tank... I wondered if she might be getting overstimulated to the point of being hyper, but she calmed down fine for lunch. Then we took a quick trip through the rain forest before heading out to the parking garage, where I was afraid I had lost the car for several minutes before realizing I was on the wrong floor.

And this past weekend, the definite highlight was a toddler bluegrass concert. We had to wake her up early from her nap (which I am LOATHE to do!), but it was so worth it. When we got there, it took her a little while to warm up and she just wanted to stay in my lap, but by the 3rd or 4th song she jumped up and started jumping around with the other kids. And then she started hugging them! And then she started pulling their blankies away from them (ah hah - now I see what all the hugging was about). Seriously though, she loved it! (what toddler wouldn't?!?) It was one of those sort of magical scenes that you just want to capture and bottle.

And last but not least, Rosa is now finally sleeping in a full size crib! And she loves it. And she slept great her first night and nap in it. She had been in the mini crib that we had back from when we were all sleeping (or not) in the same room at the old place. This crib converts to a toddler bed when she is ready. But ever since that night few days before Christmas when she scared the pants off of us by thumping to the ground in the middle of the night, she hasn't tried climbing out again (knock knock knock).

My last post was about broccoli. Which Rosa hasn't eaten again since my last posting. But I did discover that she loves asparagus! She has eaten that multiple times now (also dripping with butter!). And speaking of which, she loves eating straight butter any time she can talk me into it.

Rosa is also definitely recognizing that writing is something special now. She loves making lines with her "pens" (crayons), and announces "Pens!" whenever she sees handwriting. She learned the number 8 recently, and then at first all writing was "8! 8!" I just got her a placemat with the numbers 1-12 illustrated with animals so she can practice during our (sometimes long) meals. She loves pointing at 8 and saying "8!" but also seems to like 2, 9, and 10 a lot. We'll start working on recognizing letters one of these days. She's also got a few colors down now, and her favorites are blue and orange. Well, now that I think about it, everything is a shade of either blue or orange. Occasionally yellow with help. But since blue and orange are on opposite sides of the color wheel, she's got everything pretty well covered!

So that's the wordy posting. And my renewed intention to take more pictures again. But here is at least something cute to look at that I managed to capture one morning just after we got up. My little mama... pretty good on her feet, considering... (p.s. the video should work even though it shows up as a black screen)

My child ate broccoli !!!!!

2010-02-10T21:59:00.001-08:00

And then she asked for "moi" (more)! I was in 7th heaven. I said, "Jeff, quick, get the camera!" It was steamed so it was nice and soft, and I showed her how to dip the pieces in parmesan cheese ("sheeeez!"). What a happy happy night! No broccoli - and practically no vegetables period - has ever been swallowed by Miss Rosa previously.

Here's the Rosa with the newest electronic singing stuffed animal - a Valentine's Day puppy from Granddad Frank and Nana Anita. She knows exactly how to make it sing, but just chose not to while we were trying to capture it on video. It sings "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" while its ears flap up and down. Thanks Frank and Anita - she loves it!

Here are a few pictures of Rosa wearing a poncho from Grandma Judy. It started normally enough (well, except for the socks on her hands!), and then...

... after the poncho slid down to skirt level and Rosa found a pair of panties for her head, my daughter became a gypsy!

1-yr pix

2010-01-29T20:48:00.000-08:00

This is a special message to all the relatives: When we moved, I lost the list I had made of who wanted what studio pictures we had taken when Rosa was one year old. I know these are woefully old now, but I think it is still worth sending them to you. So I am posting the pictures here - please take a look and email me a list of the numbers for which ones you want and what size (4x6 or 5x7 for the rectangles, the squares are currently 6x6). Please feel free to ask for as many as you want - they are cheap to print.

And by the way, if you are a friend and are actually reading this blog and want copies of any pictures, I'll be happy to print them for you too! Just send me an email.

Here they are:

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12.13.
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Playdates

2010-01-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

We are finally relatively back on track after some pretty major sleeping disruptions following our holiday travels. Thank goodness! Now we can focus on the good stuff, which for a 19-month old is playing with other toddlers. I don't think there's anything else more captivating to Rosa right now than being with other little people. We had a playdate at our house 2 Fridays ago, which was loads of fun. There were 5 toddlers and a 10-mo old baby, who was fascinated by all the kids romping around. Amazingly, they all held perfectly still while we put them on the couch for this picture!

This is Peter, of kissing video fame, and Ember in the background. Rosa remembers both of their names and calls them out a lot.

Here's a little video, just to give a taste of the level of distraction in a small room with a bunch of toddlers.

This week is the California Academy of Sciences playdate - should be fun!

In addition to playdates, we've been trying to get out to do interesting different stuff. One morning we went to a wonderful, free children's museum that has live animals, all of which had been injured and couldn't survive on their own in the wild anymore. Rosa especially loved a cage with 2 giant crows or ravens. I had to watch that they didn't take any nibbles of her finders which she wanted so badly to stick in their cage. Here's Rosa learning what sound raccoons make.

We also have been going to rec centers to meet other new kids and play with new toys. Crazy driver on the loose!

And back at home, Jeff and I finally managed to get Rosa a Christmas present, which was a tricycle. Many "oooooohs!" were heard after she came out of her room after her nap and found it in the living room.

Here she is on her maiden voyage. She can reach the pedals, but is still not quite sure what to do with them. Luckily there's a handle!

And finally, here's a few more cute pictures, just because they're cute.

Rosa clomping through the house in Mama's shoes.

Another picture from the same day of the Peter and Rosa kissing video. Peter pulled Rosa around in his wagon so nicely. When he was done, he climbed in the wagon, but Rosa had moved on to other things. So I gave Peter a ride in his wagon.
Rosa still LOVES buckles and can pretty much always get them snapped now. She got herself snapped into Daddy's backpack, but it was too heavy for her to go anywhere.

Christmas Part 2 - Ohio

2010-01-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

The second part of our Christmas travels was to Ohio to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Tanti Kira. Highlights of this visit included Rosa deciding to call Grandpa "Papa," going sledding in the snow, more wonderful Christmas presents ("Oooooohh!"), and Papa's 70th birthday party. As she had done at Grandma Judy's house, Rosa definitely understood everyone's name and could point to each person by name, even if her pronunciation needed a little translation.

Rosa got Tanti Kira to play "UFO" with her, zooming around in the kitty bed. This is Rosa's favorite game at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Every time the game stops, Rosa cries out "Moi!" (More!)

Tanti Kira got this jingly hip scarf for Mama, but Rosa sure liked wearing it!

I remember a picture of me standing in my high chair at my Grandma and Grandpa's house when I was about the same age. The high chairs change, the kids don't!

Rosa, Monkey, and Papa!

Grandma and Grandpa's crazy kitty Smoky Joe watches out the window while the neighbors across the street set off firecrackers on New Years Eve. Thankfully Rosa didn't wake up!

One night after dinner, Rosa was joined under the dining room table by Mama (left) and Grandma (right).

Rosa loved getting sled rides! This was my mom's sled when she was a little girl.

Run faster Daddy!

Back inside after sledding.

We had a nice visit with Alison and Angelo. They shared goldfish and germs!

Grandma and Rosa!

Uh oh... Rosa got the crazy smile gene from Mama.

Rosa was a big girl at Papa's birthday party and spent most of the time at the table in a big girl chair (too much excitement to sit in a high chair!).

Papa - the birthday boy!

At Papa's party - our dancing, whirling princess...

On the day we left, I couldn't get Rosa to nap, even though she was sick and cranky. Tanti Kira took over, singing and swaying with Rosa, and eventually, Rosa calmed down enough to give in to sleep. She napped on Tanti Kira's chest for almost 2 hours. Thank you Kira!

Christmas Part 1 - Long Island

2010-01-19T22:38:00.001-08:00

Going backwards in time again, to get caught up to the present.

We spent the first part of our Christmas travels with Jeff's mom in Long Island. They had some crazy snow - very unusual!!! - just before we got there, so the first few days were a winter wonderland. By the time we left, it had all melted. We had a lovely time with Judy, Aly, and Ish. Even tonight (3 weeks later), Rosa was still saying all of their names (especially Ish!).

Jeff always takes a picture in front of the Sag Harbor movie theater. This is the first one where he has a buddy with him!

Family picture - everyone is looking at the camera!

Christmas card pictures - handmade by the little artist herself.

Glad I got Rosa a snow suit for the trip. It was cold!

Aunt Aly and Uncle Ish

We made a snow man. It was PERFECT packing snow. Rosa called the snowman "baby." Of course!

The mittens I got Rosa didn't stay on, but somehow my gloves did.

Ish's daughter Brooke and Rosa had a wonderful time together.

A few days later it was still chilly, but not wintery anymore. Judy and Rosa match!

Our little family.

Rosa and Daddy are cut from the same cloth.

Beautiful Long Beach.

Jeff's cousin Sarah came to visit one night. I think I'm trying to get Rosa to look at the camera... or else I'm saying "Heal!"

Christmas dinner was yummy!

Grandma Judy reading a book to Rosa on Rosa's favorite subject!

Dollhouse

2010-01-19T21:54:00.000-08:00

After telling my mom how cute Rosa was when she played with the dollhouse at Peter and Terri's house at Thanksgiving, my mom and dad got her a dollhouse for Christmas. It arrived before we left on our big trip. There were lots of ooos and ahhhhs from the little girl as we opened up the dolls, then brought out the house and the furniture. She loves the dollies, especially "baby," and now frequently demands baby's presence in the dollhouse highchair while she eats her meals.

Here's a few pictures and a video:

Daddy-da finishing up construction

Rosa puts puppy and high chair in the house.

Oooooh!

The unveiling of the dollhouse to Rosa...

4:15am (ugh) and a sweet video

2010-01-13T22:31:00.000-08:00

Since we've come back from our holiday travels, Rosa has been waking up at 4:15am every morning. Still. A week and a half later. Ugh. I'm exhausted. This is why there is no blog post with all the wonderful pictures of our travels, which were fantastic. I'm too tired at night. One of these days soon, though, I'll get this post up.

But in the meantime, here's a sweet video from a visit to our friends Erika and Peter's house last Friday. I won't give any secrets away by saying anything more, but it's worth watching.

When it rains

2009-12-23T20:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a heck of a last couple days. Despite my attempts to steer Rosa away from kids with colds in the last few weeks, Rosa got the sniffles, and then a full-blown super-snotty hacking cold last Friday. She slept fine the first night, but then the next two night woke up periodically with coughs and cries. Then in the wee hours of Monday morning, before her usual wake-up time, Jeff and I awoke to a terrifying thud, then screams. Rosa climbed out of her crib for the first time in the pitch dark, and landed on her cheek (as evidenced by the rug burn). She is tall for her age, and apparently, once they reach a certain height, they can get themselves out.

She was absolutely terrified and cried and screamed for a little while until she calmed down against my chest, and we both eventually fell back asleep. I asked friends what they've done to prevent their kids from climbing out of their cribs (I've read that this usually happens closer to age 2, and you transition them to a bed at that point, but I don't think Rosa is ready for a bed). Several said they put their kids in sleepsacks (like a long nightgown sewn shut at the bottom) and they can't hoist their leg up over the rail to get out. So we'll try this, but for now we just have pillows around the bottom of the crib. And every morning I wake up really early, anxiously listening to hear if Rosa is creaking around in her crib. So far, no repeat performances.

Yesterday we went to Rosa's 18-month check up. She's always been a tall thin girl. For the past few check-ups she's been about 40th percentile for weight and 85th or so for height. This time, the weight was about the same, but she's up to 95th for height. I keep telling her she'll have an awkward phase in middle school, but will love being tall once she's an adult!

Anyway, the doctor used to be fine with her weight, but the last two appointments he's been telling me I need to fatten her up. I try SO hard to get her to eat, while trying to keep eating fun and not a power struggle. Sigh. Keep trying I guess. Anyway, he says to try pudding and hummus (both are high calorie foods that kids usually like). Last time she ate a tiny bit of hummus, she had big pukes. I wasn't sure if the hummus was to blame. Today, influenced by the doc who didn't think there was anything in hummus that kids are commonly allergic to, I tried again. She had the tiniest bite (didn't like it), and a couple hours later the puking started. Poor babe - it was bad this time.

By dinner she managed to keep down some saltines. It's been a rough couple days. I think what I want for Christmas is just some regular days with no sickies and no surprises!

Tick tock! tick tock!

2009-12-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

Rosa has learned her first song! (In English that is - she's been singing songs in Rosa for a little while.) It goes "Tick tock, tick tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock. Tick tock, tick tock, now I'm striking one o'clock. Bong" and then two o'clock, three, etc. And on the tick tocks, you tilt your head from side to side. I was singing it over and over at lunch today (it seemed to help!) and every time I would stop for a little bit, she would start singing "Tick tock tick tock" so I would start up again. We must have sang it close to 100 times. After lunch then, I would hear her singing "tick tock" to herself as she played before nap. And she even added "I'm a" after the tick tocks, but she couldn't quite get out "little cuckoo clock." I'm sure she will soon though. It totally gave me a little window into the future of Rosa singing songs!

And finally, here are a few pictures to go with the last few posts:

Us in front of the Christmas tree (the picture with Daddy in it will be on your Christmas cards, and I didn't want to give it away!)

Rosa's potty that she now refuses to sit on. Oh well - I had heard this would likely happen. Just need to give it time.

We go to story hour at a local bookstore. Rosa does pretty well paying attention to the songs and stories, but occasionally has to wander off into the wonderland of books.

Rosa and a little boy, enjoying their cheese. It was really cold for a couple weeks there (even had frost several mornings in a row), but now has warmed up a lot.

Rosa and her friend Ember. We had Ember and her mom over for dinner. Ember is also a picky eater. We joked that we could have dinner so our kids could not eat together. It went ok, but I think Ember ate better than Rosa.

We took an adventure this morning to go downtown and see the big Christmas tree in Union Square. Here's descending into the depths of the BART station.

On an empty cable car

The tree!

Rosa enjoyed the cone most of all.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

We put up a Christmas tree on Sunday. Seeing the pure wonder on Rosa's face when I plugged in the lights was (as Jeff always says) something I wish I could bottle and keep. We didn't get it on camera, but if we had, I think in some ways we would have missed some of the real experience, since one of us would have been seeing it from behind a camera. Or at least that's my excuse. I think I'm in a mode right now where I just want to experience and not always be trying to catch things on film (so to speak). Back to the tree - there was more wonder as Jeff or I slowly and suspensefully unwrapped each ornament. The little mouth was wide open and the eyes were glued on whatever beautiful sparkly treasure was about to be revealed. And she's doing great with the tree. She takes off and examines all the ornaments she can reach (unbreakable ones), but hasn't ever tried to pull on the lights or branches - much better than I expected.

We're also really beginning to enjoy and feel comfortable in our house and neighborhood. We're going to lots of activities (storytimes, etc.) and playgroups. There is a well-established play group
here that we've joined that actually gets together a lot (unlike other's I've joined) because it's neighborhood-based, so it's easy to meet up. I love having it be so much easier for Rosa to get to play with other little kids. Of course, she's now seen kids biting and saying "mine!" but so far doesn't seem to have picked up these new tricks!

And she's very at home here in the house too. I tell her it's time for bath, and she runs to the bathroom. I even tell her we're going to change her diaper (she's still fascinated with saying poo poo, whether there's poo poo there or not), and she runs to her bedroom. It's really cool to see her awareness growing each day!

A couple little Rosa stories:

Rosa is still a pretty fussy and messy eater. Lots of playing, dumping, buckling, getting mad, etc... occasionally some eating. And she still doesn't particularly like to drink milk either. And she really wants to do EVERYTHING herself. In an effort to make drinking milk more novel and agreeable, I've been putting a little bit in a plastic cup and letting her just go for it. She drinks a little, but usually ends up dumping some on herself. Then she whines and points at the wipey cloth, wanting to be cleaned up. Tonight at dinner, she wanted the wipey cloth for every tiny spill or crumb ... which as you can imagine, given her eating skills, was pretty much constantly. It cracked me up that my messy eater was suddenly so disturbed by spills.

Another cool thing I've discovered this week - we have an "I Spy" book, where there are 2 pictures on white background on the left side of each page (say a rabbit and a spoon) and then these objects are set in a scene on the right and the kid is supposed to find them. To my surprise, Rosa started pointing at the object on the left, followed by the one in the scene on the right, without me even asking her. And she's a pro! Pretty cool, especially since she started doing this on her own.

And finally, new words (that I can remember): book, potty, straw straw (strawberry), orange, grapes, eggie (egg), tree (Christmas tree!), and last but not least, please! When she would whine and point at what she wanted, I first tried teaching her "help," but it didn't really catch on. So then I tried "please," and she got it the first time.

Potty time

2009-12-11T20:08:00.001-08:00

I ordered a little potty for Rosa and it came Wednesday night. I put it out in the bathroom this morning. Rosa has taken a huge interest in Jeff and my potty time in the last week or two (supposedly one of the signs that they might be receptive to potty training), so sure enough when I had to go before her nap, she was in there with me and very eager to see what was going on. After I went, I took her to her potty, took her pants down and diaper off, and waited to see what she would do. (Apparently I forgot that I promised Jeff I would wait until he was home for the first time on the potty - oops! It was just such a perfect opportunity!)

She sat right down and kept shifting around to look in every couple seconds. I looked too, and there was nothing in there. After a couple minutes of this, I told her that potty was all done and say bye bye to the potty, and picked her up to go into her bedroom for nap. She cried and screamed and struggled. She didn't calm down after a few seconds in her room, so I asked her if she wanted to go back to the potty. She nodded and immediately calmed down.

I took her back to the potty, and she sat down. I could see her tensing up her stomach muscles. After a little while, we looked in, and there was a little puddle of pee-pee! I was so excited that I kind of startled her with my praise. Then we both clapped, and she happily went into her room for nap! She was mad at me before because I didn't let her accomplish her pottying when I took her away too early, and then was happy after she got to "finish."

So Rosa's new words in the last couple days, perhaps obviously, are poo poo (which she says ALL the time now!) and pee pee. She also now says "straw straw" for strawberry, and soucio (dirty in spanish).

Until next time! (I'll try to take a tasteful potty picture too!)

what does the piggy say?

2009-12-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

Rosa's new words in the past 2 or 3 days: Eink eink (for oink oink), toes, and two. She even said (with some prompting from me) "two shoes." I think this is her first phrase. Language is so exciting for all involved!

Another new little dinner time game: Yesterday at dinner somehow Jeff interpreted some of her gestures to mean she wanted him to take his shirt off. It was a little cold, but Jeff did it to make her happy and hope to get another couple bites in. Rosa thought this was a riot and squealed with delight. Then Jeff started pantomiming a bodybuilder and making muscles. More delight. I told Jeff I didn't think this was the greatest idea unless he wanted to do it every night, but she was enjoying it so much he went ahead anyway. Guess what Rosa wanted tonight - yes more shirtless muscle-making. I can just see us being out to lunch or dinner somewhere and her throwing a fit waiting for Daddy to take his shirt off. How do we get ourselves into these situations?!?

Today's new words

2009-12-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

Neeeeee (neigh, for horse - by the way, thanks Grandma Lois for the little purse with the horsey in it!), feet, eentny (Rosa's pronounciaton of eentsy, for Eentsy Weentsy Spider), done (as in "I'm done with dinner")

29 words and counting (and much more!)

2009-11-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

Just like everyone says, things sneak up on you with a baby/toddler. Rosa is talking a lot now, and I wish I had kept better track of how her language skills developed. I remember a while ago she could only say Dow (meow) and Oof Oof (woof woof). Now her words are spilling out. Not always repeatable or on command, but spilling out in little bursts of repetition. And this week has been the week that it has really turned on.

I decided I would try to make a list of all the words says (to some extent in order of frequency):
Mama, Dada, No (usually nononononono), eye (look out for the the finger poking you in the eye!), nuuu (nose), maaaa (mouth), shoes, hat, tsocks, daw (dog), bow (bow-wow), dow (meow, for kitty), keys, BABY (she says this so clearly), ball, jusss (juice), cheese (can be sliced, cream, cottage, etc.), nyeeens (beans), esshhh (fish), apple (again, perfect enunciation), ava (avacado), baaa (bath), cheeef (teeth), agua, moo (cow), moon, up, turtle, outside

The other thing she's been doing lately is requesting (demanding!) the Eency-Weency Spider song. She'll be eating lunch, and all of a sudden she refuses to eat for some reason and starts grabbing my hands. I've gotten to know what she wants now, but at first I couldn't figure it out right away, and she would put my index fingers together over and over until I would finally figure it out. Then I sing the song and we do all the motions together. We do this a couple times, then she can continue eating.

Ok - enough talk talk talk - now time for cute Rosa pictures.

Big girl with her own seat riding the Muni bus (24-Divisadero!)

The above picture on the bus was on the way to the Eureka Valley Rec Center. We played in the gym with the balls. At this age, they are easily distracted!

At Golden Gate Bridge with Dada and Mama

Cousin Steve came down from Portland for the weekend.

Looking cool in Dada's engineer hat

After Golden Gate Bridge, we went to the Exploratorium. Outside, they had a bubble exhibit!

There is nothing cuter than kids chasing bubbles!

That evening, we went up to the top of Twin Peaks

Rosa liked hanging out with Uncle Steve!

My old roommate Maddy and her daughter Caroline were in town, visiting Maddy's mom. Caroline is 3 months older than Rosa and actually first met Rosa when she was 4 days old! She was SO much bigger than Rosa then. Now 3 months isn't much difference. They were too cute together.

Big girls sitting on the couch

Not sure what's happening in this picture, but it kind of typifies the toddler energy!

We just got back from a whirlwing 3-day trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Thanks to Peter and Terri for hosting us all again!

Rosa got to meet the family dog River!

Frank and Vicki gave this little Reindeer to Rosa that plays the Benny Hill song - I think I STILL have it stuck in my head.

Cara and Amanda were so wonderful to have around to watch / play with Rosa - I think I am going to adopt them so they can come live with us!

Back at home in SF - here's that kitchen table I wrote about last time.

Here's the view from our living room. The cool thing is that the tall building on the right is St. Luke's Hospital where Rosa was born.

Our own personal Sears photo background! (Yes, we're lying down in this picture)

Rosa in the cool vest from Grandma Judy

Back to the present

2009-11-20T13:46:00.001-08:00

So I think I'm caught up. The next main topic will be to post pictures of our new apartment, but even though it finally feels like we're making progress, I think I'll wait until we get a few more boxes put away, and maybe get a little more of the furniture that we are planning to get. We did make a trip to Ikea last weekend and after eating meals on our chopping block (too small and too high!) for 2 days short of a month, we are now eating at our new kitchen table! It feels so civilized! And I think Rosa really enjoys being at the table with us instead of marooned on her little high chair island. I'll get some family meal pictures soon.

Rosa has been doing so much imitating lately, both in actions and verbally - it's super fun to see what she'll come up with next! She has been feeding baby, giving baby a bottle of milk, changing baby's diaper, washing baby's face, and of course she's been pushing baby in the stroller for months. It's all so sweet to watch. Jeff took this video of Rosa just before we got the new table, on one of her last nights in the high chair with the tray.

And finally, I shouldn't post this picture, but it was just so funny and cute that I can't help myself. Whenever I do laundry, Rosa loves to get in there while I'm folding and steal my underwear and her bibs. She had at least 5 pairs of my underwear and probably 3 or 4 bibs around her neck in this picture! I think it's her way of accessorizing. She seems to be turning out to be a bit of a girly-girl... loves carrying a purse and wearing any sort of jewelery or scarf-like thing (as you can see!) around her neck. My girl's got style!

Rhode Island and Ohio extras

2009-11-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

We just discovered that we never downloaded pictures from Jeff's camera from the Rhode Island and Ohio trip in September. Here's a few pictures and a video that I would have included in the posting from the trip.

3 generations of beachcombers

Building sand castles
Rosa and Grandpa, holding hands!

Mommy was there too!

Mmm, salty rocks...

Picking wildflowers in Grandpa Misha and Grandma Lois's backyard

Swinging on the swing built by Great-Grandpa!

Devorah and Spencer's wedding

2009-11-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

The day after Halloween, Devorah (one of the ladies of Making Dinner), married her beau, Spencer. This was the second Jewish wedding I have ever been to (the first being Eva and Hudi's wedding in August), and I have to say, based on these two data points, Jewish weddings are a blast! They have a lot of tradition and ritual, but they also have a humorous side. There is a part where the bride and groom read from the Torah and people are supposed to interrupt them and heckle them. Since I did not know this tradition, when Hudi told me to run up to Dev and interrupt her reading by asking her to hold Rosa while I went to the bathroom, I didn't believe him. So I went and asked Dev's mom permission first. She said to go for for it, so I did, and it was a hit! Rosa hammed it up and had a huge smile on her face during the commotion. There is also a portion of the reception where people entertain the bride and groom with everything from juggling to dancing around the bride and groom in chicken suits. And of course there's the part where everyone hoists the bride and groom up into the air on their chairs. Of course both Dev and Eva are exceptional people, so I wouldn't expect their weddings to be anything less than exceptional!

The wedding was at the Fairmont Hotel, one of San Francisco's very classiest and historic hotels. The ceremony was outside and it was a gorgeous day. The chuppah was made from a sail, and there were fall leaves up and down the poles that supported the chuppah.

Jeff caught this video of Rosa dancing to the singing during the ceremony. I think it's the only video we have so far of Rosa's dancing :-)

Weddings are fun for parents of little girls because they are a built-in excuse for dressing them up in dresses of gratuitous cuteness! This dress was given to Rosa when she was less than a week old by Grandma Anita and Grandpa Frank. 16 months later it fits! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

This picture was taken during the part of the reception where everyone entertains the bride and groom. All the ladies from the Fairy bachelorette party donned their fairy wings and danced around the happy couple.

The view from the Crown Room where the reception was held was phenomenal!

A slightly closer shot of Rosa's little dress.

Rosa discovered the joy of swinging on a banister at Dev's wedding. Daddy tries to rein her in, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Of course Making Dinner played a song at the wedding...

Halloween (and Dev's bachelorette)

2009-11-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

We moved to our new apartment in mid-October. I'll post some pix of the new place soon. It was a LOT of work, and still is a lot of work trying to unpack and find places for things. But even though we're still surrounded by boxes, life goes on! We had a very big weekend on Halloween weekend. The Thursday before was my friend Dev's bachelorette party, then Halloween on Saturday, and Devorah and Spencer's wedding on Sunday (see tomorrow's posting for wedding pix).

For the bachelorette party, Eva (lead singer of my band, Making Dinner) had the brilliant idea that we should all be fairies and Devorah would be the fairy queen.

Dev, Fairy Queen

Katie and Eva Fairies

Making Dinner Fairies

Fairy wings, eating burritos in the Mission

On Halloween, we let Rosa decorate her first pumpkin. She got to use a Sharpie - no knives this year!

Since I got to keep the wings from the Fairy Bachelorette party, when I found a little tutu dress at a second hand store, I decided to reuse the wings and that Rosa and I would both be fairies for Halloween. I love dressing up too, and while people still think it's cute, I love dressing Rosa and I in the same costumes, just like we did last year when we were both bunnies!

Here comes a whole bunch of pictures of extreme cuteness - I know there's no need to post all of them, but I can't resist!

I love this one because the little pumpkin from "Great-Grandma" Betty looks like it is glowing! It's Rosa's little fairy orb.

The street just around the corner from our new place has tons of kids on it, and they closed it off during Halloween afternoon for a block party.

Rosa got to experience her first time in the Jumpy Castle, or Jupiter Jump as Jeff calls it. I went in with her to make sure she didn't get crashed into by any bigger kids. She LOVED it!

Rosa loves any and all tricycles, bicycles, big wheels, etc. She gets so excited to try out any of these that she sees. Thankfully everyone is generally good about sharing. I think a tricycle is in our future!
After the block party, we took a quick trip over to a nearby street that is known for its Halloween decorations and trick-or-treating. Rosa didn't really get the trick-or treating idea, and shied away from taking a piece of candy at the one house we went to. Not such a bad thing maybe! But she'll probably love it by next year.

Rosa and Cowboy Daddy

Last days at Lapidge

2009-11-13T20:53:00.001-08:00

After living on Lapidge St for 5 and a half years, and nearly 1 and a half years with Rosa, we finally found our next home. Our new place would give us so much more space (and a separate bedroom for Rosa!), but it was still a little bittersweet leaving the place where one day a lifetime ago we brought home our new baby girl!

Here a couple shots of our little family and our mountain of boxes:

The night before the move.
Shortly before the move, Rosa sent herself flying into the safety gate and scraped up her chin.
We also said bye bye to twins who lived downstairs from us, born about 6 weeks before Rosa (although they had the same due date!)

Mommy's little climber!

Ohio!

2009-11-12T14:39:00.001-08:00

From Rhode Island, Rosa, Jeff, and I went to Ohio to visit Grandma Lois, Grandpa Misha, and Tanti Kira. The first full day we were there, we went outside to the backyard and right away, Rosa found the swing that Grandma and Grandpa had set up for her. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of her in it, but this is the red wooden swing that we used to swing in on the front porch at my grandma and grandpa's house in Willard. I used to LOVE swinging in this swing as a kid. My mom told me that my grandpa had actually built this swing for her and my Uncle Bob.

Through the course of the whole trip (NYC-Rhode Island-Ohio), Rosa really turned a corner with her eating. Before we left, Rosa was really starting to resist baby food (and who could blame her?), but was still struggling with being able to eat table food. Once we got started on the trip she refused baby food entirely. But being in a new setting (first watching 20-mo old Angelo eat, then being in family settings where all the focus was not on just her at meal times) helped her take the plunge into table food! Here's a few meal time pix from the Ohio part of the trip:

Tanti Kira says "Open wide!"

Gotta get wiped down after a good meal

The closest playground was at Smith School, where I went for elementary school, so one day we took a walk there. We arrived just before noon, and didn't even think about the fact that all the kids would be out for recess! The playground monitor looked dubious but said that we could stay and play if I stayed right with Rosa. (She said the kids might knock her down.) But on the contrary, there was a group of about 5 first grade girls who took very good care of Rosa the whole time we were there. They all wanted to pick her up, and Rosa, who loves big kids, was in heaven!

One afternoon, we also got a visit from some of Rosa's friends from church. "Great-Grandma" Betty (third from right) gave Rosa the little Halloween pumpkin that you'll see in the Halloween pictures. Thanks Betty!

Rosa loved to crawl into the cat bed, and I discovered that it makes for a very fun flying saucer!

Given how much Rosa loves seeing animals and making their noises, when Grandma and Grandpa gave her a book called "The Noisy Zoo" that makes animal noises, she got really excited about it! Here's Grandpa and Rosa doing their best monkey impressions:

After a really wonderful trip, it was time to go home. We tried to tire Rosa out in the airport before we got on the plane. She moves so fast the camera couldn't catch her!

Although she didn't nap as early as I was hoping she would, she did eventually fall asleep, which allowed me to do the same.

No no no no no no no...

2009-11-09T23:08:00.000-08:00

Jumping out of order for a moment, today is the day that the "no no no's" began. I've heard that this stage happens, but I hope it doesn't last too long! Rosa had been shaking or nodding her head for no or yes for a while, but today, she added "no no no no no" to the shaking, and seemed to really enjoy the effect. I told her some pretty strong "No's" to tell her to stay away from the kitty food, and this time she just said "no no no no no" and kept right on picking it up and almost getting it to her mouth.

This month also seems to be "Mama" month. Although she said Mama before Dada (way back in January!), she has been saying Dada a LOT more until just recently. And now she is seeming to enjoy saying Mama. ...and sometimes even pointing at me while she says it, over and over. I saw my friend Alison's son Angelo (who's a few months older than Rosa) in this repeating phase, and I think Rosa is just starting into it. It is pretty cute, although can definitely grow repetitive. And don't worry, Rosa is still saying Dada a lot too. It is such a relief when Jeff finally gets home from work. Until then, from late afternoon on, every noise Rosa hears that sounds like it might be a new presence in the house (outside noise or noise from the downstairs neighbors), Rosa stops what she's doing (eating, etc.), bolts upright and sings out "Dada!"

Rhode Island part 2

2009-11-07T13:53:00.000-08:00

I forgot these adorable pictures of Rosa (from Rhode Island trip) practicing smiling for the camera! I'm pretty sure she was doing this intentionally... too cute!

Rosa really put a cuteness show for everyone in Rhode Island, including doing her trademark "oof oof oof" at pictures of doggies, and "What does the monkey say, Rosa?" "Oo oo oo!" She was impressing everyone with being able to point on pictures of babies, doggies, and kitties. This trip is also right about when she started doing a lot of mimicking. She kept putting the handles of any bag she could find around her neck, putting baby in the stroller, holding her cell phone, and pushing the stroller... she's a little Mama!

We were all sad to leave, but from here we headed to Ohio to see Grandpa Misha and Grandma Lois... (next posting coming soon!)

Rhode Island

2009-11-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

In September, we took a big almost 3-week trip to New York City (to see Laura, Alison, and Angelo), Rhode Island (to see Frank, Anita, Aly, and Ish), and Ohio (to see my mom and dad and Kira). Unfortunately I don't have a single picture of our 2 days in NYC! We had a great time though... stayed with Alison and Angelo, who is 5 months older than Rosa. Laura also came from Brooklyn over to Manhattan every day to hang out with us. It was great to be able to see her pregnant... Little Sinton is due any day now!

From NYC, Rosa and I took the train to Kingston, RI, where Jeff, Frank, and Anita met us. Rosa had a ball on the train, running up and down the aisle over and over and over and... There was no hope of getting her to take a nap at her usual time, but a couple hours later, just as the train was pulling into the station, she sacked out in the Ergo. She was so solidly asleep that I put her in her car seat and we drove back to Frank's house without her waking up.

We had a fantastic week at the beach - it was the last week of summer weather I think. We even went swimming one day. We went out to eat three times (Rosa got two A's and one C-), went to a playground right on the beach, and took lots of nice walks down to the breachway. Here are some pix from the week:

Grandma and Grandpa bought Rosa a dolly stroller (Rosa's favorite!) for her stay with them. She put it to good use!

Rosa with the Polish flag... a requisite item for any Frank Luszcz abode.

Collander hat night with the Luszcz's... this was Rosa's idea!

Rosa and Grandpa on the deck

The 3 of us with the pond behind us

Uncle Ish - the fisherman!

Lunch time with Aly and Ish

Rosa, Jeff, and Ish

My girl knows how to relax at the beach!

Greg and Marilyn came down from the Cape to spend the day with us

Big girl swing

2009-11-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

There was a HUGE blogging hiatus - I admit it. But now there's going to be a flurry of blog postings that take a short walk back through time from mid-August to the present, probably one-a-day for the next couple days, so stay tuned and don't miss one!

Back in August still - this was a momentous day because it was the first day we tried the big girl swing! Rosa loves to swing, it's her favorite playground activity. The baby (bucket) swings are so much easier, but it was pretty cool seeing her balance in the big girl swing! What a long way we've come since the first ride in the swing...

Jeff wanted to get a picture of us in some beautiful evening sunlight that was pouring into our apartment. The great light our place got was one of the things that made it so hard to find a new place that we liked as much as the old place (although it was just too small!).

Lenny and Lin's twins (Lyla and Lander) were almost 3 months old in this picture. Lyla is in Lenny's arms, Lander is still in the stroller. We all went out for lunch.

The virtuoso, about to take a bow, after a concert to a packed house!

Ice cream

2009-11-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

You know the rhyme - I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Well, Rosa was pretty calm about it, but she really seemed to enjoy it.

This video is from way back in August (coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco), before all sorts of adventures occurred that I will write about in upcoming (soon!) blog posts. The short story is that we went on a 3-week trip, then I have been consumed with moving, then unpacking and settling into the new place. For a while I couldn't even find the card reader for the camera. But now at least I can download pictures, so let the blogging re-begin!

Eva and Hudi's wedding

2009-08-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Again, it's been a long time since I've made a post. We've been consumed with both apartment hunting and rearranging our current place... you'll see in one of the pictures that the bed is now in the dining room. :-( But we're getting used to it and at least we're sleeping on a bed (instead of the futon) again! :-)

A couple Rosa developments, and then on to pictures: (1) she seems to be saying her first repeatable word, which we think is her version of "meow." Mommy: "Rosa, what does the kitty say? ... What does the kitty say?" Rosa: "Dooow! Dooow!" (2) Rosa can't get enough of helping to put on her pants and socks and shoes. Changing her diaper has gotten significantly easier because of this!

Now on to the wedding...
A couple weekends ago, the leader of my band, Eva, got married. It was a wonderful wedding - outside in the redwoods on a gorgeous warm Sunday afternoon. My first Jewish wedding I think. And the best part was that Rosa got to wear one of her beautiful fancy dresses from Tanti Kira. She looked like a little angel in it!

Here's Daddy with proper sun protection.

The wedding had many parts - it started with men and women separate, each group celebrating the bride or the groom with singing, stories, etc. Then everyone got together and they did the marriage contract. Then was the formal ceremony under the chuppah. Each of these parts of the wedding was in a different clearing under the peaceful majestic redwoods. It was a hot day, but comfortable in the shade of the trees.

After everyone ate, Making Dinner played a short selection of songs, all of which Eva wrote, inspired by Hudi. It was great to all be together to celebrate with Eva!

Here's Rosa helping Mommy set up the sound system.

Changing venues, here's Rosa back at home wearing her daisy hat that Grandpa Misha picked out for her. (And in the background, there's the bed, now in the dining room.)

And finally, at the playground. Rosa loves the swings best of all. When we get there, she runs over to them and holds her hands up to them. We usually still do the baby swings, but for some reason I decided to try the big girl swings the other day. We had to be very careful, but she did great!