Last weekend, Stepan surprised both me and Magda by turning her carseat around so she is now facing the front. I had mentioned to him earlier that we may want to check her weight (we wanted to wait until she was closer to 30lbs) and consider turning her around because her legs were running out of room. She seems to enjoy facing the front. She really enjoys it when I turn around and talk to her at red lights. I'm looking forward to our next long trip out-of-town or late night visit with friends...I'm hoping she is a happier traveler with her new view.
Other milestones of note:
Zuberts - She enjoys giving us zuberts. Whenever she catches a glimps of our bellies, she quickly crawls over, puts her lips on our skin, and blows. The best part is she occassionally get a great zubert noise for her efforts.
Reading and Signing - She continues to enjoy books and being read to, but she really enjoys reading her baby sign books. She does all the signs in both books and also uses the signs appropriately when reading other books and throughout the day. My favorite signs as done by my darling girl are "fish" and "baby".
Almost Standing - She is enjoying pulling up more and more though she still needs my help to fully make it up to her feet. One of the cutest things she's doing right now is going into a yoga pose called downward dog when she's crawling along and I ask her if she wants to stand up.
Interaction with Peers - She is starting to enjoy more and more the opportunities to interact with other children. Today, while my running partner and I were doing our warmup walk, her 2.5yo and Magda were laughing at each other and holding hands between the strollers - you really can't get much more adorable than that!
My sister called my cell phone while we were at lunch today wondering where Stepan was. Apparently someone had called her from his cell phone after finding the cell phone in the middle of the street. Turns out the clip on the cell phone carrier broke recently so it wasn't attached to Step's belt as it normally is. When Step was putting Magda into her car seat, he set his phone on top of the car and left it there. From what I gather, it was just in the middle of Bittern Hollow right outside our house.
Anyway, I immediately hung up with her and called Step's cell phone. We spoke briefly about where we lived and the guy said he would leave the phone on our porch then asked if there was a reward. That's what pissed me off - the asking for compensation for a good deed. What about knowing you've done a good thing for a neighbor? Shouldn't that be reward enough? We didn't even know the phone was missing and we were being asked for money to ensure it's safe return. Now, in truth, he didn't actually demand a ransome, but that's kind of what it felt like.
What really blows is that we would probably have offered the guy a reward without his asking. Now, instead of feeling expansive, generous, and lucky to live in a neighborhood with such great people, I mainly feel extorted.
A couple of months ago, I told my running partner, Adriane, about the Gourmet Club that Stepan and I used to participate in. She was intrigued by the idea and tonight we were finally able to get together with her family and 2 other families from the neighborhood.
This "Family Version" of the gourmet club is quite different from out other club - more informal and less authentic, but very fun and delicious nontheless. It was really nice getting together with families with young children from the neighborhood. Magda enjoyed crawling around in a less familiar space with different toys and books to toss around. And though she doesn't interact much with other kids, she does enjoy having them around.
The cuisine was Chinese and we were in charge of the main dish. We did a simple stir fry using Central Market's Asian marianated chicken breasts and their asian stir fry veggie kit (all the appropriate veggies, rinsed, chopped, and ready to go) and a Chinese Roast Pork (I got the recipe from Chinese Food Recipes. I'm quite pleased with how everything turned out and am now seriously contemplating buying a wok.
In any event, we all had a very nice time. And I'm pleased to have recaptured my feeling of enjoying the people we live amongst.
Happy Birthday to me! It's been a wonderfully full weekend and a respectably decent birthday.
On Thursday, my dad came into town to spend some time with me, Magda, and Stepan, and to putter around the house. Unfortunately, circumstances conspired and puttering didn't actually happen until midday on Friday. We've had a contractor replacing trim and repainting our exterior for over a week which means extra time and thought need to go into dealing with the dogs. To complicate matters further, Dad brought down Grandma Karl as a favor to Mom and that further limited what we could do with the dogs. But it all worked out well and we all enjoyed the extra time with Grandma.
Magda was sleeping when Dad and Grandma got here. The dogs woke her up when greeting the new arrivals - Magda was so cute - she woke up barking! At first she was very shy with 'Buelito, but he quickly helped her overcome that. By the time he left, she was laughing with him, asking him to read to her, and growling like a bear at his prompting. Dad is also the one who taught her how to say "Ahhh" after drinking water a couple of months ago.
This weekend had me cooking two very successful meals. On Thursday, I fixed pot roast in the slow cooker for Dad. On Friday, I fixed lasagna for Mom and Grandma and the Churchetts. Both were very delicious and done on time and provided fabulous leftovers.
On Saturday, Step and I took Magda, Mom, and the dogs to Walnut Creek park. It was a wonderful day for a walk. We were probably only gone for a little over 2 hours, but we were famished by the end and it felt more like a 4 hour walk. Partly because I took the lead on the return trip and got a little bit...well...okay, a lot lost. It was fun though and I look forward to getting lost again sometime soon. After cleaning up and putting on our dancing togs, we took Grandma to church and then spent some time at Elizabeth's before meeting the McHargs at ABD.
Oh to Dance! I had misgivings about taking Magda dancing that late at night. She had already had a full day and didn't get a great nap. But she truly loves dancing - doing it, watching it, listening to the music. She had a blast especially with my mom there to entertain her when me and Stepan were on the floor. She also greatly enjoyed having the McHarg's show up. Their little boy came prepared with a backpack of toys that he very sweetly shared with Magda. We definitely need to go dancing on a fairly regular basis.
Sunday (My Birthday) didn't go quite how we had planned. We wanted to go to Wurstfest in New Braunfels, but the painters needed to paint the front door which needed to be left open as it dried between coats. We ended up just kicking around the house and relaxing until the Churchett's came over at 5pm to share in the awesome birthday cake that Stepan made for me.
Final thoughts on the weekend - Mom should blog about showering for the painters. The house painting is complete and it looks phenominal. I got everything I wanted for my birthday including a Window Art kit from Stepan, an iPod Shuffle from Mom, and freshly caulked tubs and a new soap dish in the guest bath from Dad. I also got some things I didn't know I needed/wanted including a squishy, warty squeeze ball thingy from Stepan and a deliscious smelling soap, candle, and lotion set from the Churchetts.