With a dog and a s'more, look who turned 4!

To celebrate Claudia's 4th birthday, we went camping for the weekend at Big Sur. To my surprise, Claudia chose camping over Disneyland (even after enjoying a trip to DL over Christmastime). Juliet was with us Friday night, but Peter's folks were visiting and they came down Saturday and then took Juliet back with them Saturday night. She had done pretty well on Friday night, but I didn't sleep so well worried that she might break out into crying in the middle of the night.
Our first night we had dogs and s'mores and both mornings Peter cooked sausage and eggs for breakfast, though Claudia chose to have leftover baked beans for breakfast (ewww!). Peter's mom brought us stew for lunch. We enjoyed the views of the coast from Hwy 1, the weather was nice; no fog. And then the 3 of us had dinner out not far from the campground.
There was a play structure nearby which was nice so that Claudia could burn off some energy. I had bought her some kids garden tools at the One Spot (love the One Spot!) and that kept her entertained for some time. She helped water some of the surrounding trees with her new watering pail. And then there was this big log on one side of our campsite that she loved to walk along. She could do that for hours if we let her. Funny the things that keep kids entertained.

The lows were in the 40s so we bundled up for the night. Here's Juliet all bundled up. Snug as a bug!

I pulled together a low-budget Backyardigans decor the week before but we still had some decorating and wrapping to do. By the time we got to the gifts it was almost 9pm! And I totally forgot to light the candles so once the gifts were open we lit the candles and sang again. It's gotta be the lack of sleep.

"Can you sing a little louder, please?"

Photo shoot!

I've been wanting to get more pictures of Claudia & Juliet together but timing was not on my side. That, and trying to get a three year old to agree to sit still for pictures isn't easy. So over the weekend when Claudia asked if she could hold Juliet, I took the opportunity to snap a bunch of pictures. Here are just a couple of the 20 or so that I took. It's also not easy trying to get a good picture of both of them.


This is one of my favorites, as I hadn't noticed right away that Claudia was holding onto Juliet's foot. :-)

This was totally voluntary. Claudia loves to give Juliet kisses. We'll see how long that lasts!








My parents got in on the photo shoot too. They've been visiting since before Christmas and are heading back to Kansas in a week. It's been great having them here.

Go fly a kite!

My Dad took Claudia to the park around the corner to fly the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger kite she picked out. She liked to hold the kite but she also liked to be out trying to catch the tail.

Hey Sistah!

It's certainly tough to get a good picture of both Claudia and Juliet - what with one not always smiling for the camera and the other one having limited neck control. I'll have to keep working on them... This was taken when Juliet was 1 day shy of being 3 weeks old.

Claudia says some funny things about what Juliet does. Last night when she was holding Juliet and Juliet was nearly asleep, she said "When she has one eye open and one eye closed it means she's a pirate."

In the kitchen

Claudia and Peter were trying out some of the new cooking attire that Claudia got for Christmas. At one point they were talking like the Swedish Chef... bork bork bork!

It's not always easy to get Claudia to look right at the camera and smile, so this is now one of my favorite pictures of the two of them.






Then it was time to decorate Valentine's cookies. Yum Yum!

Claudia has a little sister!

Juliet Elizabeth Nelson was born on January 26, at 11:59am; 7 lbs even; 19.5 inches long. Lots of dark hair. Year of the ox.





















We're all doing well, if not a little tired. My parents are staying with us to help out, so Claudia has the run of the house while we're in the hospital. I'll be updating with more pictures. Right now I should really be sleeping while the baby sleeps!


Claudia seems to be pretty cool with the new baby in the house, though she doesn't like to hear her cry. When Juliet cries Claudia covers her ears and tells us she doesn't like her crying and has a look that seems like she's about ready to join in the tears.

Trick or Treat!!

Another fun outing for Halloween. Here's Minnie Mouse. We just went to a handful of houses on our street. At our 2nd stop, our neighbor ran back into the house and brought out a bright shiny new adult-sized harmonica. A couple years ago, they gave Claudia a little stuffed sloth. She seems to be enjoying playing her "monica". Maybe we'll look for some lessons.... :-) And btw, she is practicing in her room right now. Not too bad, but I wish it had a volume button.

We didn't dress up tonight...I had just returned from a week long conference in Vegas so we just had enough time to get her dressed and put our own ears on.

We all dressed up for our halloween party a couple weekends ago. Here's the whole "goofy" family. The wand wasn't part of the costume, but she was borrowing it from "Princess" Alexandra.

Bustin' our chops ;-)

Last night while we were eating dinner, Claudia decided to grab some chop sticks. Up to now she would poke around with them, or we would make kid's chops with a rubber band and folded up paper to help her pinch with them. Peter and I eat with chops probably at least 3 times a week, but we aren't consistent about giving them to Claudia. So last night it was amazing to see her grab a pair from the drawer, then start to grab pieces of chicken with them. One right after the other. It was pretty cute. And we thought it was pretty amazing how well she handled them and figured out the right leverage by how she held them.

So I'm back from my blogging hiatus. I can't believe it's been 3 months since the last posting. I'm finally over the morning sickness now that I'm nearly 6 months pregs. We're all quite excited. Claudia says funny things and has asked funny questions about it. Shortly after we seriously started talking to her about it, about 5 or 6 weeks ago, she pointed at my belly and asked if it was balanced. I paused and said, um ya. She then asked if it had air. I said not yet. She asked if it had helium. I cracked up. Then a couple weeks ago she told me my belly was going to get smaller when Peanut #2 comes out. While I thought that was an astute observation, I told her it was going to get bigger still. She asked how Peanut #2 was going to get out. I said oh you don't wanna know Sistah. She said "I'm not Sistah". Averted for the time being...!

Batter up!

Claudia may not have kept her eye on the ball, but look at that follow through! (I wouldn't have been able to snap a picture with the ball in mid-air if I had actually been trying.)Today was a field trip to a park in Willow Glen. 38 kids all wearing the same shirt - made it kinda hard to pick out your own, but I realized that in that situation, every kid becomes yours. The preschool has a bunch of field trips scheduled this summer. We already took a practice ride on the light rail; the one I'm especially looking forward to is the trip to Safeway. As I understand it, the kids get to roam the aisles trying free samples and then they get a tour of the back. I plan to volunteer or send a grocery list.

Wow... I completely missed the month of June for posting. The reason will become apparent soon... So here are some updates... Mickey Mouse has infiltrated our house. That's the TV show (it's a cartoon - not the live Mousketeers) that she watches everyday. It's pretty cute what she learns from them. On Father's Day we went to Big Basin and as we were walking around the giant Redwoods, Claudia would stop at the base and say "How are we going to get to the top of the tree? I have an idea! Let's use suction cups". Once she said we needed a tool to cut it into pieces and I asked her what tool and she replied with some really really big scissors. Here is a doodle of Mickey Mouse (by Claudia):
She likes all of the characters, but we like to hear her say the Professor's name (Professor Von Drake is a duck). Until just tonight she would call him Papessa on drake. But tonight she said Professa. Peter and I both looked at each other a little sad, because it was so cute to hear her say it her original way. Oh sigh, she's really growing up... About a month ago she started talking about her "new house" and all these things she had at her new house and her friends and family (including the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang) that would come visit her. I realized last week that her new house is the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Boy has it got some cool stuff!... We start our vacation on Friday morning (the 4th). We're driving (gulp!) to Yellowstone for 4 days to see "big bison (what she also calls Big Basin, incidentally), geysers, and lizards". I'm not entirely certain where the lizards come from, but that's what she tells us. We're lodging it at Yellowstone and are very thrilled that we're staying at the Old Faithful Inn. From there, we drive to the lake in MN to spend 8 or so days with the Nelson fam. All 7 siblings and their families will be there, plus Peter's folks and extended family. We're looking forward to seeing everyone and Claudia and I especially are looking forward to the fishing. After that we head back west making stops at Theodore Roosevelt NP in ND and Grand Tetons in WY. We'll be camping then, so that will be an adventure for sure. I'll try to post pictures along the way. We'll see.

Gone Fishin'

We were back in Kansas last weekend for Erin's graduation. Claudia took her first crack at fishing at the lake behind Gina's house. Gong Gong helped her cast and shortly after that he and Chandler helped reel in a little perch. Many pictures were taken and Dad said there was too much posing, because the fish eventually jumped off the hook and back into the lake before Claudia had a chance to hold the fish. We're heading up to Minnesota this summer to see all of Peter's family, so this was good practice for those fishing outings with Grandpa.

Yippee!! Look who's 3!!!

Here's Claudia on her new bike. Since we didn't get to the gifts until late tonight, we let her ride her new bike with clean tires in the house. THIS ONE TIME ONLY! ;-)
UPDATE on the bike: Claudia told me the other day that her bike had 2 big wheels and 2 little wheels and the 2 little wheels are called training wheels. What a sponge!

We went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo to celebrate. They have Sea World-like shows. Here's an expression while watching Shouka the Orca.
We also saw the dolphin show and the sea lion show which also featured an otter. We were all amazed at how well one of the sea lions balanced a ball on his nose while he swam in the pool, got up on the platform and completely flipped his body. It was crazy!
The birthday tradition of chiffon cake lives on. Peter makes sure of that. Would you believe we didn't even get to the cake? We sang, she blew out the candles and then it was time for gifts. I'm sure we'll get to it tomorrow.

Happy Easter!

Claudia hunted for eggs today around the house and in the backyard. It was another beautiful day in sunny California. While she was looking for the eggs she kept stopping to say "Cheese Easter Bunny" so that Mom and I could take her picture. Later Peter and Claudia played croquet and we had a chance to dine outside. And we enjoyed looking at the veggie and herb gardens that we recently planted. Mom & Dad are leaving tomorrow, so we just hung around the house and they packed up their car. We're all certainly sad to see Mom & Dad go. When I told Claudia that they were leaving to go back to Kansas, she said "and me too?" We'll be heading back to Kansas in May to see my niece, Erin, graduate from high school.

Pajama Day

Friday was pajama day at preschool as the letter of the week was "P". Miss Bean went in her froggy pajamas. The teachers at school said all the kids napped longer than usual and even the kids who don't normally nap took naps. Every day should be pajama day!

Claudia has started giving us choices. The other day she wanted me to play with her in the dining room and I asked her if I could take a little break. She said "you can play with me in the dining room or take a break. Those are your choices." Of course, she didnt' accept my answer to take a break! We'll keep working on that.

Happy Birthday Poh Poh!

Mom & Dad have been here since early February. We got to celebrate Mom's birthday with her this year. Growing up Mom always made us chiffon cakes for our birthdays. Peter is getting pretty good at it and made one for Mom this year. I iced it, Claudia helped put sprinkles on.

Happy Valentine's Day!

How to make Valentine's cookies, according to Claudia Nelson.

Steps 1 - 4: Someone else rolls out the dough, cuts out the shapes, bakes 'em and ices them.

Step 5: Pour some sprinkles into a bowl.
Step 6: Put sprinkles on your cookie. Step 7: Dump extra sprinkles back into the bowl.Step 8: Show how the sprinkles stain your hands.
Step 9. Take a bite!

"Mommy, can you do me a favorite?"

That's a question Claudia asked me the other night during her tubby. She wanted me to sing a song. That was the "favorite".

She & I played hooky a couple Fridays ago. One of our crafts was fingerpainting. Claudia was able to soak up a ton of paint in that one little sponge. That was an interesting mess.



More funny things she's saying:
After I caught her filling her entire palm with liquid soap (because I turned away for a second) I asked her how many squirts was she allowed. She said "just 1" and I asked how many she had and she replied "A whole bunch. Isn't that crazy?" ... There's a long story about the man w/ the googly eyes that I'll try to save for another blog. I'll have to snap a picture of him when it's warmer. On our way home from school one day she was talking about how the man w/ the googly eyes was going to come to her house on Saturday (it's not as creepy as it sounds). Then said "Wouldn't that be amazing?" ... On their way home from school earlier this week, Peter can't remember what they were talking about but she had replied "That's fabulous." ... She and I were looking at a book and I was pointing around the page asking her what things were. I pointed at a bunch of balloons and she told me they were "balloons with helium." ... Tonight on our way home from school I was running a yellow light and as I was going through I kinda groaned and Claudia asked why I made that noise. I told her I just ran the light. Claudia said "You ran the light?" I said "Yes." She said "on purpose?" I said "What?!" She said "Did you run the light on purpose?" I said "Now that is certainly one for the blog!"

Uncle David's visit

Claudia's Uncle David (one of Peter's brothers) came into town from Macon, GA. He was stopping by before heading to San Diego for a conference. The weather was really crummy here, lots and lots of rain and temperatures much colder than usual. But that didn't stop us from getting out to eat Singaporean, Indian, Mexican and Dim Sum in the roughly 48 hours that David was here. It was a treat for all.
Claudia enjoyed having Uncle David stay w/ us. She especially liked when Uncle David held her up to the ceiling.

And she enjoyed playing "volleyball" which is rolling a ball back and forth on the floor.



Some other interesting notes...When we returned to San Jose from our trip to the Midwest, Claudia played w/ nearly every one of her toys/games/animals in about a 2 hour span. The house was a mess. I likened it to a dog marking his territory...Claudia and I were looking at a picture that I had just printed and she took it from me, when I asked for it back she said "hold your horses". She definitely didn't get that from ME!... The other day I was asking what she wanted to do (for crafts) and when I said "let's fingerpaint" she replied "excellent idea!" As an aside, I don't remember fingerpaints being so messy...Last night we were eating salads and she was asking me what this middle part was (the big veiny thing on the middle of a leaf of romaine lettuce). I told her it was the stalk and she said "no, it's a combination". "A combination of what" I had to ask in disbelief that she even used that word, and she replied "A combination of this leaf and that leaf" pointing to the greens on either side of the stalk.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Snow certainly is nice to look at and play in, though not so nice to drive in! We had a white Christmas in Lawrence and Claudia got to do a little sledding.

Ho Ho Ho!

We've spent the last couple of weeks visiting friends and family in the midwest. More of those pictures to come. Here's one for Christmas. Have a safe and happy new year!!

Hey Bert!

Actually, it's the iBert. Peter recently bought a bike to ride to work and this weekend he fixed up my bike and then bought a seat for Claudia. As you can imagine, she loves it. We get a commentary of the ride - the dogs in the parks, the green lights, the water in the river. Believe it or not, it doesn't get in the way of Peter pedaling or steering.

Note the driveway - it's finally complete!

btw - clicking on most of these pictures opens a larger view of the picture...

Claudia's vocabulary is growing daily. I'm more amazed at the concepts she understands. The other day she wanted to do some painting and I asked her if she wanted me or daddy to supervise her. She said daddy, so then she went to Peter and asked "Daddy will you supervise me?"; Peter asked her what she meant by supervise and she said "Will you watch me paint?"
Her latest non-toy toy is a digital thermometer. She places it on different things (including us) and then looks at the numbers and says something like 45-6 or 55-8. It's funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a small gathering of just the three of us for Thanksgiving. We had the staples: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberries and rolls. Oh, and wine. The weather was pretty nice for late November - in the low 60s. We went to the Japanese Friendship garden earlier in the afternoon to feed the koi fish and ducks. Then a nice walk around the neighborhood after dinner. Only a little bit of football. I think I'm saving my annual football viewing hours for Saturday's KU/MU game. I figure I ought to watch at least one KU football game during this odd so far undefeated season. That's assuming of course, that they show it on the west coast. Most people out here haven't heard of Kansas or Missouri.

Another nice visit from the Nelsons

The Nelsons came to visit for a couple weeks. Claudia had a great time with her Gralu and Grandpa (and likewise). They (w/ Peter) went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and to Santa Cruz to see the Monarch butterflies; and we all made a trip to the SF zoo.

Claudia really enjoyed helping Gralu make goopy rolls. The rest of us really enjoyed eating the goopy rolls.

Happy Halloween (finally!)

We only trick-or-treated up and down Cleaves but Claudia still managed to bring home lots of treats. Here she is trying out a reese's peanut butter cup. Later she ran around the house until she finally dropped.

She's a monkey...Peter pointed out later that the ears should have been more on the side of her head. She was often confused for a bear until people saw her tail. The banana she was carrying didn't last long.

Snakes and spiders and it's not even Halloween!

Earlier this month we made it up to Henry Coe for their annual tarantula festival. There were lots of spiders for us to see (most of them in cages) and crafty kid projects. One of the rangers brought his komodo dragon so we watched him crawl around.

The big draw for Claudia was the snake. She was less brave with the tarantula, but was intrigued enough to watch it crawl up my arm. She held it for about a second. The ranger acted quickly cuz it looked like Claudia was about to fling it!

There's a monkey on my back...

Here's the monkey backpack. It was pretty effective in the airport. Claudia didn't seem to mind. There was one point when I felt like I was walking a dog when she tried to go the opposite direction from where I wanted to go. But all in all, the monkey was a good purchase.

Look at the monkey swinging!

A typical Sunday includes a trip to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. We were on the park side and Claudia discovered that she could swing at this slide.

While I was ironing this morning Claudia was flipping through an animal book and came across an elephant. She started talking about what the elephant does with his trunk; he picks up leaves, he drinks water, he drinks juice, he drinks Jamba Juice. Then she moved on to the octopus and told me "Elephants and octopuses drink Jamba Juice!"...When we're stopped at a red light she says "Gotta take turns" and then when it turns green she says "it's green. now we can go!"... We've been talking about our trip to Kansas a lot. We leave tomorrow. When I ask her who's going on the airplane to Kansas she says "Claudia and Mommy and the monkey". The monkey is a backpack/harness that she'll wear in the airport to keep my sanity... I'll try to remember to get a photo of that.

No picture, just words...

The camera battery is dead, so instead of waiting to upload the next batch of pix I thought I'd write a few of the funny/clever/ornery things Claudia is saying these days.

Tonight during dinner Claudia decided she wanted to go color, a few minutes later she said, "I'm drawing a cat, guys." That's the first time she ever referred to us as "guys". She's really good at making happy faces too ;-) ...She says that the zoo is "behind" the school, because the zoo is a couple exits passed her school...When she was jumping on the couch I told her she had to stop jumping or I was going to shut off Elmo and she said, "Mommy turn off Elmo." I asked why and she said, "because I'm jumping."...When she hears familiar words on the radio she will say, "The people said 'California' on the music." or "The people said 'preschool' on the car." Last night Peter told Claudia to go tell me that it was time for dinner. She shouted from where she was "Mommy, it's time for dinner!"...

Claudia and I are taking a trip to Kansas (Peter can't get away) in a couple weeks and tonight she said "fly on the air plane to see Poh Poh and Gong Gong in Kansas". I asked who else and she Auntie Gina. I told her Uncle John and she said "and Chandler and Erin". And when I said Uncle Darren, she said and the puppies. Darren doesn't have any dogs (that I know of) but Gina does. And she remembered one was named Bogey. She also asked if we will get to see Gralu and Grandpa. Hopefully they'll be making a stop on their way from the lake to Arkansas.

"It's a whale."

We recently acquired some new wall art, complements of Claudia. When I saw it I said "Who did that?" Claudia promplty responded "Claudia did it!" And as I walked out of the room she told me, "It's a whale!" She is quite proud.

Tonight, after Peter told Claudia it was time to brush her teeth she said "Claudia not listening to Daddy." Uh oh...

Happy 4th!

Our 4th of July was spent in town, and at a bbq next door. Here's Claudia and Blythe (neighbor across the street). We all comment (as do others) that they could be sisters.

Claudia's favorite question to ask is "Whatcha doin'?" And she'll continue to ask until she gets an answer she understands...Recently while up late one night, Claudia said "I want some cereal." And I said "How 'bout some fruit?" and she said "How 'bout a cookie?"... Her song repertoire is expanding. She likes to sing in the car and in the tub, especially. It's fun to try to figure out what she's singing since she learns different songs at school than what we sing...She's just started watching tv and has an Elmo DVD that she likes to watch. At different times in the video Elmo kisses a little baby. Soon after that happens she's telling us, "Elmo kiss a baby!"...We've been talking about getting her a fishy (Elmo has a fish "Dorothy" in his video). The other night when I asked her what she was going to name her fishy she said "Peter".