Fall & Animal Festivities

We begin our post at Joan's Farm in Livermore. It is the perfect place to take your little ones to.

I want a llama so bad! These things were awesome.

According to Madie, this was Eeyore.

Madie and I on the Hay-ride.

Onto the next event...

Yesterday, we decided it would be a good time to shampoo the carpets...which meant we had to leave home for a few hours while everything dried. So we headed down to Berkeley to eat at The Cheeseboard. I'm proud to say I polished off 3/4's of the 18 inch pizza. No regrets! Easily the best pizza I've ever had.

Afterwards, we headed to Tilden Regional Park. This park had a playground, picnic area, camping, hiking...pretty much anything you could imagine. Madie loved feeding the animals. Bring your own celery/lettuce.

This sheep was particularly aggressive, but Madie held her own! She didn't let go of the celery too soon.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I must be getting weaker, or Madie's getting heavier--I'll let you decide which is which but don't be stupid--because every time Madie lifts her baby doll now, which maybe weighs all of six ounces, she makes a deep grunting noise followed by a tired sigh.

Sometimes I'm a little worried about the things Madie does because there aren't many places she could be picking them up from. She doesn't go to preschool or daycare, she doesn't have any older siblings, and her  father is gone for eight hours a day at least. Which leaves me thinking, "Do I grunt like that when I pick her up?" or whatever else she may be doing at any given moment.

I've decided though that I do not. Grunt, that is. There are definitely things she mimics and comes by them honestly, but this grunting isn't one of them. Am I alone here?

Fall Family Photos

For the record, Madie prefers Mallory's shoulders because she has hair to play with. Thank you Atheys for the great pictures!

Painted Faces on Parade

If I had the money and the space I would host a Halloween masquerade. It would be in the spirit of the one hosted by Leonardo in Much Ado about Nothing. I would have masks at the front for people who think they can get in without dressing up. I would love to have fun, fanciful masks like these from a masquerade wedding reception:

Source

There would be awesome traditional masks from different countries:

My dad had a mask just like this one from Hawai'i.

These are for Dio de los Muertos and they are awesome.
Source

Traditional Venetian masks. Also very cool. Source

And there would just be cool masks I saw and liked. Like these leather ones from last year's Charles Dickons' Fair:

There would be great music and lots of space in my house for dancing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a dance where people actually danced. Novel, isn't it? Ahhh...it would be a yearly event to really look forward to.

How would you celebrate if you had the space and money?

Lunch-time Miscommunications

My idea was to use the fork to spear the bananas to dip in the almond butter.

Obviously, I didn't make that clear enough.

And no, she didn't eat anything else. Thank heavens almond butter is relatively healthy.

Karma Chameleon

Exciting news! It's my birthday! It's so exciting that my brain blocked it until 6 days ago! (Seriously, is it just me or has September flown by faster than a goose outflying a blizzard?) Anyway, I got my first package in the mail yesterday and I can't even express to you how excited I was so I'll let this picture do it for me.

A dress-the-doll puzzle?!?! SCORE!

 I almost wet myself with excitement! Alas, it was short-lived. I found a note that said it wasn't for me. Lame. All I got was a book and money. The puzzle went to someone else...

Pouty face.

But since I handed the puzzle over to the Leach without too much of a complaint, Karma decided to make up for it. Guess what I found lying on the top of the $5 movie bin at WalMart?

Childhood favorite.

We came home and watched it straightway and I've got to say, it was just as good as I ever remember it being. I think Madie liked it too. Her favorite part was the train. She spent every moment between the song "Casey Junior" and the closing scene saying, "Train?! Train?!" and crying. (I need to teach her not to cry through Dumbo. Karma doesn't take kindly to things like that.)

Lunar Cycles? ... Maybe?

Right now I have a headache who's splitting-effects could compete with the San Andreas Fault. (You can add that to the list of "You know you're from California when...") and I really should be going to bed to take care of said headache. Not that it's wicked late, but I can hardly see straight...I blame it on the three-hour meeting I had. I know what you're thinking: Yikes.


But I feel like I want to write. I know, I know...how could I write if I can't even think straight. But it's true. I just feel it sometimes--I'm sure you all know what I mean. Not necessarily with writing, but with something.

Do any of you have a certain night of each week where it is noticeably more difficult to fall asleep at night? (Yep, we're taking a totally different turn here.) Mine is Wednesday. I used to think it was because I often went to play basketball on Wednesday night, and when I got home it would take an hour or so for the adrenaline to wear off enough for me to pass out. Now I'm not so sure, though I doubt the ball-playing helps. (Not that I'm willing to give it up entirely.)

I stopped playing ball every week because I've got some equipment issues right now. Yet, I find myself still lying awake long after Mike has returned from playing and has fallen peacefully to sleep. Not every week, but more often than the rest of the nights in a week, that's for sure. I seem to have more ideas on Wednesday nights. They just roll around in my head and bounce off each other until I've written them down. If I don't write them down, two things will happen: (1) I will be up even later, and (2) I will kick myself later when I'm trying to think of the "really cool idea" I had. So I jot them down on a pad of paper in the kitchen, then climb back in bed. This will happen two or three times before I'm actually asleep. Then in the morning, or a day or two later, I will go through them and see if anything still sounds interesting. Then, theoretically, I'll write one of them. (At the very least I'll start it.)

I don't know what it is about Wednesday. It just gets the juices flowing. If I didn't have day-time responsibilities I would probably stay up all Wednesday night typing up ideas and outlines and intros. Which means, I guess, it's a good thing I do have responsibilities--otherwise I'd be sleep-deprived and my ideas would probably not be as good.

Huh...look at that. My headache's gone.