We have had a fairly dry winter this year, and although we could use the rain it sure has been nice without it. Since the typically drab, wet winter months have been robbed of their moisture, we have been left with frequent mid-60's temperatures and clear blue skies.
So we (as in mostly just Denise) have been taking Liam to some really great little farms. It turns out there is a free one just up the road from us in Tilden park. Liam's favorite part is throwing food to the ducks, but he also enjoys just pointing at the animals....assuming they don't get too big.
As I said, the farm was a butterfly nesting ground, and that was the primary reason we went down. It was pretty cool to see hundreds and hundreds of butterfly's all clumped together on the eucalyptus trees but in all honesty we were a little underwhelmed. Mostly we blame hearsay for this. We were led to believe that we would see thousands and thousands of butterflies, and when we realized they just sat around and mated, we got a little bored. Denise had this picture in her head that we would go running into some meadow, pause on top of a knoll covered in purple wildflowers, stretch our arms to the sky and then be literally covered head to toe by a swarm of butterflies who would then carry us away to a magical grove where we would sleep on clouds made out of flapping butterfly wings. Sadly, the picture below is what we got...although it was actually pretty cool and worth the trip.
Oh, Liam is obsessed with trucks...dump trucks, fire trucks, garbage trucks, bucket trucks, trucks trucks...you name it, if it has wheels he loves it. He even asks us if he can drive the car every time we use it to go anywhere these days. And just like the enabling parents we are, he has gotten to sit in the drivers seat and play with all the controls multiple times (don't worry, the car was not on...or moving). He has also mastered going down slides all by himself!
When we first got back from Utah, we decided to head down the the south bay area and check out a farm that is a monarch butterfly nesting ground. In addition to the butterflies, they had a lot of normal farm animals; cows, sheep, goats, chickens, etc. But the horses were not the nice elegant show horses that Liam is familiar with from his books and youtube videos. We walked up to one, and you can just tell it is a work horse...turns out Liam is a little more than afraid of horses now that he realizes how big they are. Whenever we would try to get close Liam would start to squirm and would refuse to look at him; he only cried a little during the experience, mostly he just made this face.
As I said, the farm was a butterfly nesting ground, and that was the primary reason we went down. It was pretty cool to see hundreds and hundreds of butterfly's all clumped together on the eucalyptus trees but in all honesty we were a little underwhelmed. Mostly we blame hearsay for this. We were led to believe that we would see thousands and thousands of butterflies, and when we realized they just sat around and mated, we got a little bored. Denise had this picture in her head that we would go running into some meadow, pause on top of a knoll covered in purple wildflowers, stretch our arms to the sky and then be literally covered head to toe by a swarm of butterflies who would then carry us away to a magical grove where we would sleep on clouds made out of flapping butterfly wings. Sadly, the picture below is what we got...although it was actually pretty cool and worth the trip.
Denise has been painting a lot recently, and for those of you who have facebook you can see the progress she has been making on her most recent work. In addition, Denise has been exercising every day and doing her knee stretches. Liam, being the perfect little copy cat that he is, has thus learned how long it takes for paint to dry (he took a little stroll on her painting while we weren't looking), and also how to keep his knee caps properly aligned.
This year for Valentines day, Denise and I kept our tradition going where we got take-out and brought it home to eat after Liam was in bed. The tradition started as a way to avoid the ridiculous restaurant fiasco...and now we do it so we don't have to pay for a babysitter. Denise and Liam got pretty crafty this year and surprised me with a homemadeValentine. And of course, we made our traditional Valentine cookies...although the frosting took a big step up this year from canned frosting to homemade frosting made with fresh strawberries...SO good!
And finally, here are just a few more photos of us enjoying the weather. They also double as teasers for those of you who will be coming out and visiting us before we move out of our wonderful house and into a tiny studio apartment that may or may not be in this same area. The first two are at the childrens museum in Sausalito. I don't know why we never went there earlier, the views of the bridge are fantastic and there are some great restaurants close by.
Oh, Liam is obsessed with trucks...dump trucks, fire trucks, garbage trucks, bucket trucks, trucks trucks...you name it, if it has wheels he loves it. He even asks us if he can drive the car every time we use it to go anywhere these days. And just like the enabling parents we are, he has gotten to sit in the drivers seat and play with all the controls multiple times (don't worry, the car was not on...or moving). He has also mastered going down slides all by himself!
And we end this post with this wonderful shot. Denise was combing Liam's hair for the day, and Liam took the brush out of her hand and began to comb his hair all by himself. After playing around a little while, he finally made a few very deliberate brushes straight forward, looked himself in the mirror, approved of what he saw, and put the brush away in the drawer. Apparently Liam somehow has decided he wants to join an 80's new wave band so he's decided to start working on the hair now.
1 comment:
I think that picture with the bridge in the background is my favorite ever. What a little man!!
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