Same park, five months later. My friend Cori took this little video yesterday while I introduced Mila to the joys of concrete slides. Because it's the little things in life.

Me and my sidekick

I've been itching to go on bike rides with my chugalug since she could hold her head up. But I waited--patiently at times and not so during others--until she got a little bigger. Here we are! Three days a week we're car-less so this opens up a whole world of possibilities; on Monday we hoofed it over to the nearest branch library for storytime. Last weekend we found a new park (it was a dog park, does that count?).

Mila's snug as a bug up in front. My favorite part is when she leans her head back (poor heavy head with that ginormous helmet) and gazes up at me with her gold-flecked eyes and sleepy smile.
 I've said this before but this mama gig just keeps getting better and better.

Hello!

I'm learning to feed myself ova here! 



And my favorite thing to do is put washcloths on my head, especially while wearing Mama's apron. It makes Mama and Papa laugh so hard-- so why shouldn't I do it all day long?

The last of the summer food pictures

first a gratuitous straw-drinking shot.

fry bread! from here.

Wugs' first taste of ice cream - from Ici

kale chips--Wugs went apey over these

red velvet strawberry shortcake

Also worth mentioning:
this shrimp, bacon and avocado salad
this chocolate pretzel tart. I was CRAZY about the crust, not so much about the filling for some reason. But the crust was amazing. So much so that I scooped out the filling and ate just the crust in its entirety one day while Steve was at work. When he inevitably asked me for a piece I told him I had spotted a bug on it so threw it all away. Despicable!  (He doesn't read this blog very often so I think my secret will be safe.)

 -Um, I can't really remember anything else. It's all a blur and now my food brain is going nuts over butternut squash recipes and homemade cider and roast chicken. You know, fall stuff.

We came, we saw, we camped.

Kirby Cove, we liked you. I had always wanted to camp beneath the Golden Gate Bridge although blaring foghorns every 6-15 seconds certainly wasn't part of the fantasy. Yikes.

• We need a bigger tent. Duh. This little person surprisingly takes up a lot of room (especially when sleeping).
• If the boys' cold-weather pajamas at REI are $25 cheaper than the girls' version than good golly dress your little lady in blue stripes! Have faith, she can pull it off. Even while wearing a lumberjack pullover on top. And even if she's still as bald as the day she was born ;)
• I've said this before but Thank you, Thank you God for breastfeeding! I don't know how people get through those incoming molars without it. Not directly related to camping but oh. it. was.
• It just isn't the same without the blazing fire and s'mores (refer to the pic above. Just our luck!). But on the flip side, going out to eat in Sausalito meant me eating my first caramel apple of the season. I will be trying to recreate it over and over again as a result.

Aside from the obvious camping stint, a few other firsts for Wugs happened:
1st taste of chocolate ice cream (pit stop through the city). 1st deer sighting. 1st wheelbarrow ride.

Oh and check out her headlamp. Coolest camper award, no?

Indian Summer

Indian summer! Indian summer! Indian summer has descended upon us! I didn't believe in it, all you Californians, I thought it was something you were making up just to defend all my whining about how miserably cold I was and how wrong it feels to put a wool hat on my daughter in July. Just plain wrong. But no, I apologize, I should have had more faith in you. Today they opened the doors wide open during music group! I am sweating! Are you really going to last through October, Indian summer? Oh pretty please?

Woohoo! It is so hot we are topless up in here!

Well, alrighty then, here we go. We'll make the most of you, Indian Summer. We're heading on our FIRST WUGS CAMPING TRIP! It's a local one, we're just testing the waters really, but I am still so excited. Husband is outside packing up the car as I type. I still have so much to pack and prepare tonight--cornbread to bake, s'mores essentials too!--I love the night-before frenzies. And OH, Indian Summer, do you think we could even get a little swimming in? The kind with just the right balance of toasty air outside and cool-but-not-freezing water inside. And just a few more weeks for open-toed sandals? Wugs and I got matchy-matchy ones and we look pretty awesome in them if I do say so m'self. Am I asking too much now, Indian Summer? Fine. I will take what you give me. Your nonbeliever no more.

I'm rusty at blogging but come bearing a slideshow.

I don't even know where to start. Lots of big happenings happened around here. Most importantly, our Wugs turned one. I really don't even know how to wrap my head around that. I am still writing her one-year love letter. Steve wrote his in five minutes one evening--what can I say, the man doesn't mince words. Me, I'm overthinking it as I overthink everything. At any rate, posts may be sporadic around here as I work on her baby book, daily journaling that I did all throughout her first year, and a photo book chronicling this big adventure that I aim to have finished by the end of 2011.

Secondly, last Tuesday, September 6th I worked (like for pay) for the first time since Mila was born. Not by choice; I don't love what I do but I try to do it with love. I'm working because it's the right thing for our family. Thankfully it is only two days a week and Steve takes care of Mila when I'm at work. I am with her when he is working and thus we still have a couple days off all together. I have been very blessed to have had this time with my baby girl-- and even though we had to do without in many areas and make huge life changes to make it happen (hellooooo, California!), we have no regrets.

For the last two weeks I've been working on a slideshow trying to convey how thrilling it's been being this girl's Mama. I have skydived, I have bungee-jumped; I've climbed glaciers, white-water rafted, traipsed through Asia with nothing but a backpack, parasailed, paraglided--basically if there was a 'hold-harmless' form to sign then I was ready and willing. And none of that held a candle to the joy I feel when I think about Mila. You've come a long way, Wugs. What a year.

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