Painted Nails!

Cyanne requsted I paint her fingernails and toenails for the first time.
Man, I love having a girl =)...

She was beyond excited.




Tom went to his "church meeting" and, after we put Maritt down for the night, Cyanne and I sat together on the couch in the living room and had a fantastic time.

She was super serious and listened to me very intently about not moving, not touching anything while the polish was still wet, and learned how to blow on her hands and nails to make it dry faster.

She was fantastic!

She ended up with very sparkly, pink nails!

She talked about them the rest of the evening: "Mommy, you like my nails?" "Mommy, you paint my nails!"
"Mommy, look, my nails so sparkly!"
"Careful Mommy, don't touch. It's wet."
"Is okay to touch now? Is it dry yet?"
And more...

(Showing off her finger and toenails the next day as we got to school):





Such cute little fingers & toes:



It was one of the most fun evenings we've had hanging out together.
She said she couldn't wait to show Tom when he got home =).
The first thing she said the next morning was: "I show Daddy my nails. Daddy, look! My nails!"
(as well as all of her classmates)...

3 tomatoes

We were walking out to the car this morning to go to school. Cyanne runs off to the garden and says "Wait, one minute. I coming back!"
So, I'm waiting by the car. Tom and Maritt are over near the garden and I hear her talking about which tomatoes to pick.

She comes back to the car and says:
"I'm ready! Let's go to school! I pick 3 tomatoes! One for Olivia, Nico, and Irene. They're ready and are soooo juicy!"

It was so sweet and thoughtful.
She had picked one tomato for each of her main caregivers/teachers at daycare. I asked if she wanted me to hold them for her and she said: "No, Cyanne do it. I hold them for Olivia, Nico and Irene." =)

When we got to school, she walked into the room and handed Olivia the tomato - and put the other 2 aside for Irene and Nico for when they came back into the room.

I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. Also, I was amazed that she didn't pick one for herself or eat one of the ones she'd picked. She held them in her little hand the whole drive in. One of her favorite activities is going to the garden and eating little tomatoes right off the vine. Not only did she not pick any for herself but picked one for each of the people who take care of her every day.
It was so sweet. Cyanne is such a sweet, thoughtful, caring little girl.
I love that girl.

Lego Towers aka "Castles"

Legos are big around the Blabey household these days. I often find Tom, Cyanne and Maritt sitting together on the floor putting the blocks together and frankly, it is hard to tell who is happier.
Maritt is either sitting there, chewing on one or two or is crawling towards Tom and Cyanne to check out what they are building.
Tom and Cyanne are working together to building tall, colorful towers, arches, or, as Cyanne calls them, "castles."

"Look at my castle! It's soooo tall!"

Cyanne concentrating, Maritt "helping...":



The way Cyanne shows how much she loves Maritt: the tap-tap on the head:



Here are some very cute photos of the proud builders together and note how much taller than Cyanne the "castle" is!:





Maritt - making sure the legos taste okay:



"What, don't you eat them too?"





Just a few funny random shots:
Tom & Maritt



Cyanne loving her summer watermelon:

Guy's Visit to SB

We had a very nice, surprise visit from Guy, Tom's cousin! He drove up from Manhattan beach to spend the afternoon and evening with us. I think Cyanne and Maritt had a great time hanging out with him and checking out another great relative!

Here are some photos of the visit:











Thanks for visiting Guy, it was wonderful to see you!

Picking Blueberries

We ventured up past Gaviota just before Buellton to pick blueberries this afternoon. Pick blueberries in Southern California? you say... Indeed!

It was a beautiful drive up there and Cyanne enjoyed the incredible views of the ocean, birds flying, cows, horses, and most exciting - driving through the tunnel or as she saw it, "going through the mountain!"

It was a neat little spot. They have over 14 different varieties of blueberries. There were a lot of blueberries on the bushes we found.





She loved carrying the buckets from bush to bush:





Cyanne had a fantastic time running up and down the rows. And she ran far! Tom (with Maritt on his back - she took less keenly to the blueberry picking adventure as 1) she's not allowed to have berries yet, and 2) every time Tom bent over to pick, she'd be turned slightly upside down...) would be quite far away down the row and she'd run all the way to him "Here I come, Daddy!!!!" and then, after picking a few with him, would turn around and run the 100+ yards to me, barely out of breath and ready to do it again. And again. My money is totally on her doing a sport that involves running or being a runner someday...



I love this series of photos - she started off way down the row with Tom and ran all of the way to me - it was a long way!:





Getting closer - and going very, very quickly!



"Hi, Mommy!!"



She ate her share of blueberries: "so juicy! so sweet!" "Mommy, look! Look! Look at all the blue-babies in my bucket!"

I think Tom and I had a secret desire to take her just so we could hear her say "blue-baby" over and over again while she was there =)... This is one of those fantastic mispronunciations I am in no hurry to correct.

After about an hour and a full bucket of blueberries later, we were ready to head for home.

We will be back and next time, hopefully, Maritt will be able to eat and pick her way through the rows too!

9 Month Check-up - Maritt

We had a great 9 month check-up with Dr. Brennan.
He said Maritt looks great though she's a wee bit orange. Apparently, all of the veggies and other things she's eating these days are loaded with betacarotene. So... our 'lil carrot is rather orange =). I think Tom thought I was seeing things because I kept saying, "um, don't you think she looks, well, just a little bit orange or yellow? We're both such fair, pale people... she should be too!" He finally believed me after Dr. B came in and said that was the first thing he noticed about Maritt. =)






Here are her stats:
Weight: 19 lbs, 2 oz (50-75%) (up from 16 lbs 3 months ago)
Height: 28" (70-75%) (up from 26 3/4)
Head Circumference: 44 1/2 cm (50-75%) (up from 43 cm)

All in all, he said she's growing beautifully and seems to be a very healthy, happy baby.



She then got 2 shots. And amazingly, she cried for fewer than 5 seconds after the second shot. Seriously. She then started smiling through her tears. Even the nurse said "Wow, well this never happens to me! I never get smiles afterwards like this!"
As always... Maritt is one of the smiliest, happiest babies.

Things Maritt is doing now:
Maritt is crawling. She's got a good inchworm-type movement going and a rough crawl down.
She gets beyond excited when we pull her up to standing which she can almost, almost do herself. She now loves to hold onto chairs and the bathtub as we get it ready for their bath.

She's using the big carseat and facing forward in the stroller - her first time face-forward was August 1st at the zoo).

She's loving her puffs, bigger pieces of fruit, pieces of bread, cheese, and even turkey. I was eating a turkey sandwich the other day while feeding her some puree and puffs. She wanted nothing to do with the puree and would just stare at me as I took a bite and open her mouth at the same time. So, I gave her some of the bread, cheese and turkey and she could not have been happier. She's clearly a fan of "real" food - not this puree business.

She's growing too quickly - slow down wee one!
Next thing I know, we'll be taking "Mini" for her drivers license test.

Crawling!

Maritt is now officially crawling!
Yay Maritt!!!!

And now... off to baby-proof the entire house!!!

Fiesta 2010!!

We had a great time enjoying Fiesta this year. While we did not venture downtown, we made it to the Mercado del Norte (Mackenzie Park) twice, ate our share of mexican food, and cracked several cascarones or confetti stuffed eggs!

On Wednesday (8/4), I picked Cyanne up a little early from school. We'd been talking about Fiesta and the "fair" at Mackenzie all week as we pass driving to and from her school each day. And boy oh boy, was she excited to go. So, when I walked in and said "Cyanne, do you want to go to the fair with Mommy?" she jumped up, ran and got her lunchbox out of the refrigerator, grabbed my hand and said "Let's go, Mommy! I ready for the fair!"

So, we went and had a fantastic time together. We went on the carousel a couple of times, walked all around, smashed confetti eggs on each other's heads ("I crack on Mommy's head! Now, Mommy, do it to Cyanne!"), shared a churro ("yyuummm.... this is good, Mommy!" "I share with you, Mommy.") and then... Cyanne went down a HUGE slide.

It was this inflated shark. We'd walked by it when we first got there and I asked if she wanted to go and she said no. We came back later on and watched the kids - mostly 8-12 year olds - go down it and finally, she seemed like she wanted to do it.
I told her I'd wait for her at the bottom "on the grass part, Mommy" and that convinced her.


She took off her shoes and began the climb up. Now, I'm not sure what affected me the most. All of a sudden, my little girl was climbing up this big, inflated "ladder" - and it was big! She did such an awesome job. She looked so little doing it though. She kept turning around and looking at me and saying, "Mommy? You there Mommy?" And I'd say "I'm here, Cyanne! Good job!"

She finally got to the top and it was so high I couldn't even see her - all I could see were her little ankles when I put my head way up and into the slide.

I hear this little voice: "Where are you Mommy?? Where are you? You down there Mommy?"
"I'm waiting right here Cyanne, I'm here!"
And then I see her little body jump out and slide down - she went so fast that when the slide flattened out, she flipped over twice and landed right where I could catch her at the bottom. She was scared - as she herself said - and started to cry. I was alternately so, so proud of her and also somewhat scared that she'd just done it.
I couldn't believe she did it - it was huge.
And also, it just showed how much trust and faith she puts into me and Tom. Or, I guess, I just realized how much she relies on us.
I know, you're thinking - all of this from one 3 second slide? But it really hit me for some reason.

Here's the photos of the inflated shark when we went to show Daddy the next day:

This is where she came out - note the 'ride at your own risk' sign =):



It was really steep!!!



Surveying the other kids who shot out of the slide:







Eating yummy Mexican food in the mercado:



Smashing the requisite egg on his head:






This was the most fun Cyanne had had in long time. She and Tom went down this slide four times. Then, I ran out of tickets... She had a fantastic time. Sheer glee. And the look on her face when she went down with Tom - absolutely priceless. She completely trusted him and wanted to do it with him. Fantastic.



Here they go - getting ready to sit on their 'potato sacks':





"You ready to go, Daddy?"





Confetti in her hair:



Smashing another egg on Daddy's head (he was a good sport):

"Mini"

Cyanne has many names for her little sister.
The current one and seemingly favored at the moment is:
"Mini"

"Here you go, Mini!"
"Don't eat the book, Mini!"
"That's mine, Mini." "Yours, Mini."
"Mommy, give Mini some milk!"
"Mini, let's take a bath."
"Where's Mini?"
"Mini sleeping?"
"Chew, chew, chew, Mini!"
"Lucky, no lick Mini!"
"Mini eat carrots? Oh, Mini too little? Hmmm. Mini like the peaches?"
"Mini is sooooo tired! Look, Mini's rubbing her eyes."
"Only Mini go to sleep? Not Cyanne?"
and on and on... =)

She also calls her what sounds like "Men-at". I then say the same sound back to her and she says "No, Mommy, Men-at." "Maritt?" I say. "Yep, Men-at" she says. =)
Clearly, it's a tough name to pronounce for the younger set.

So, Cyanne has changed from calling Maritt "Minute" to "Mini".

It cracks me up. Perhaps, one of these will stick and she'll keep calling her her own special nickname.

It is known to happen in the Blabey family: Tom couldn't say "Margaret Heath" for his little sister so he eventually ended up with "Mart-ta-teeth" which became "Mart."... So, one never knows...!

Visit to the Zoo

We went to the Zoo this afternoon and everyone had a grand 'ole time.
Cyanne, dismayed by the nasty, barely inching-along traffic on the 101 S on a Sunday afternoon said "Daddy, drive faster! I want to go to the zoo!" and the timeless classic: "Mommy, are we at the Zoo yet?"

To build up her excitement, we asked her what animals she was looking forward to seeing when we got there:
Cyanne: 1) Elephants, 2) Giraffes, 3) Monkeys (followed by the monkey sound), and 4) Birds. I said I wanted to see the meerkats and she said, "okay, we see meerkats for you too, Mommy." =)



She also wanted to ride the train but alas, the last ride of the day was sold out so we watched and waved as it went by.

It was a gorgeous late afternoon. Bright sunshine, cool ocean breeze. The Zoo was a beautiful place to be.

This was Maritt's 1st time sitting in the stroller like a "big girl." She's always sat in her infant carseat but this time, we put her in and she LOVED the view. And, I'm guessing, loved facing and moving forward for a change.

We recently switched her over from the Graco carseat to the regular big carseat in the car... so, it looks like we're done with the infant carseat!



It was Maritt's second trip to the zoo and I think she really enjoyed it. She kept staring at the elephants and seemed intrigued by the flamingos. Though honestly, I think she was more intrigued by all of the kids running around her.

Cyanne's been practicing standing/balancing on one foot these days and so she and Tom studied the flamingos, their one-legged stance, and decided to practice it when they got home...







Tom & Cyanne checking out the meerkats:



View of the bird refuge:



Kisses!





Pointing out the birds and the train as it went by:



On the way home (and they've done this a couple of times before) Cyanne was entertaining Maritt by playing peek-a-boo.
It was the most adorable, smile-inducing sound ever.

Cyanne: "Peek-a-boo, Mini!" and she'd cover her face with her pink blanket and then remove it.
Maritt: squeals of laughter. Over and over.
It made me smile just listening to it.
And also, we were commenting, that it is really one of their first times actually playing with each other as Cyanne knew Maritt was laughing at her, she was entertaining Maritt, and it made her laugh too and continue to do it.
Just absolutely adorable.
I could listen to those sounds forever.

Wonderful afternoon at the zoo...