Weekend Recap

First, I’ve decided to stop adding words to Fiona’s word list because I lost track of what new words she is saying. She repeats a lot and says new words every day or every other day, and I am not blogging enough to keep up with it. So, even though I have not added any new words to the list, she is saying new words all the time.

So what did we do this weekend? Friday was a non-work day for me (thank you furloughs and pay cuts!), so John took the day off as well, and we went to the zoo with my friend Nicole and her adorable son Caz. Fiona and Caz are used to each other and they played well together. At one point, Fiona sort of fell down and Caz helped her stand up. Then it happened again, and by the third time, we figured out that Fiona was falling on purpose so that Caz would help her out. She flashed us a huge grin after, as if to say, “Look what a fun game I just invented!”

The animals were out and we actually saw the Capybaras moving and swimming. Usually, they just sit like rocks and don’t do anything. The alligator was also moving, and we watched the penguins eat and the elephants get their feet cleaned. Even the lioness nuzzled the lion Friday. The leopards were hiding, but that’s ok. We took the train around the park and that was fun because last time the intercom system was out and we didn’t get commentary. Caz and Fiona had a blast playing in the children’s play area and sliding down a hill on cardboard and inside a cardboard box, and running through a tunnel. I took video, but my camera was turned, so it was all sideways. I won’t post because I don’t ave software necessary to rotate it so that it is right side up.

Here are some photos from Friday:

Fiona feeding the swans:

 

Some animals:

Running through the tunnel:

We put Caz and Fiona in a box together, and she held on as though on a motorcycle, even leaning her head on him:

Here they are coming down the hill:

Fiona on her own:

She was pretty silent until we got to the play area. Nicole watches Fiona when I go to class and I think Fiona thought I was going to leave her when she saw Nicole and Caz. After the play area, she realized I wasn’t going anywhere without her, and loosened up a lot.

On the train:

The infamous “game”:

Watching the elephants eat hay:

The zoo has lots of stairs and at one point John and Fiona disappeared. They later returned, but only after Fiona walked up and down several sets of stairs. She is an addict, I tell you!

The zoo trip was a lot of fun and as usual, I can’t wait to go back. It’s neat to see Fiona grow and appreciate it more and more, considering she slept during most of the first time I took her.

Saturday was a funny day. It began with walking around the neighborhood and then fighting the nap (she is still having napping issues, they are short during the week and sometimes non-existent on the weekends), then we decided to go on a hike. We picked one that is relatively close, short, and flat: Carpinteria Bluffs and Seal Refuge. What can be more fun than walking along the ocean and then watching seals basking in the sun? We loaded up the car and off we went. Here are some photos.

The views:

The cutest little hiker ever:

 

Mysterious arrows:

They point to Fiona! She liked playing with the powder and messing them up so they no longer looked like arrows when she was finished. I hope no one needed them for anything important.

The cutest hiker having a little tantrum because, you guessed it, we wouldn’t let her climb more stairs! Three times were enough in my book.

What these photos don’t show is that to our right was a business park and there were lots of picnic tables overlooking the ocean along the way with signs telling that the benches and tables were for employee use only. I wondered if the people who work in those buildings have higher morale than other people, people their views are so nice and they can have ocean side lunch every day. Also, my photos don’t reveal that we parked in the wrong parking lot and our entire hike was to the trailhead of the hike we thought we were on. So we didn’t see any seals, but did see future perfect tide pooling locations. Eventually, we decided to turn around so we put Fiona on my back in the Ergo, where she had a blast riding back to the car. We pretended I was an elephant and she pretended to feed me bananas. She patted my back and tickled herself by sticking her leg out at passing bushes.

All in all, it was a nice day, even if I stupidly misread the directions to the trailhead.

Today was a mellow day, with another short nap. Fiona spent a lot of time running around naked in the backyard and playing with water:

Inspecting the finer details of the chair:

 

 

 

She was a voracious reader today, insisting on being read to constantly. At one point she had a mini tantrum because I wanted to get more books. In fact, I think she hardly played with any of her toys this weekend, preferring reading instead. And also hat wearing:

Here she is earlier in the week, also playing with a hat:

And being read to by my dad:

Ok, she played the keyboard for five seconds, played in her play kitchen for a few minutes, and kicked a ball around. I think she colored for a minute too.

Here are some videos of Fiona kicking a ball, playing peek-a-boo, and making animal sounds while reading:

She is such a delight and sometimes (ok most of the time) I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful little girl, who cleans up after herself, loves to help me put away my clothes, helps with the shopping, who smiles and laughs with me and entertains both of us, and who is such a little love. She gives me kisses and lets me kiss her booboos.

Deep sigh.