Playdate!

Some of Cyanne's favorite people are her friends from preschool. Today, we had 3 little girls over for a playdate. She was so, so excited to see Cami, Cali and Rafaela.
They had a fantastic time exploring the deck, garden, avocado and orange trees, Cyanne's room (toys are always way more fun when they aren't yours...), eating snacks and drinking apple juice on the kitchen floor, "gently rocking" Maritt in her swing, wandering down the road, and petting Lucky, Max & Sonsie.

Babies are fascinating:



And so are "big kids":





Cyanne had an absolutely fantastic time with her girlfriends =)



Exploring the garden & eating tangerines or, as Cyanne calls them currently, "baby oranges or tan-ger-eenes."



Exploring the road:





Maritt joined the "big girl" playdate for a little while:



Alas, the group shot is always a challenge:

"My tummy doesn't feel good..."

Cyanne was feeling really badly this morning.

Proof is that she took a nap - on the couch - mid-morning - with all of the usual chaos going on around here.
And, slept for an hour or more...

Poor baby:

You have WHAT in your eye?!

I'll start this post by saying that Cyanne is such a trooper a lot of the time. She really is. She's a very good girl. And honestly, she does it at times when you'd think she or any normal toddler would get scared or freak out.

We'd noticed this black speck - it looked like a piece of pepper - in her left eye - for about a week. It never moved. It didn't float. It just stayed, stuck, to her eye right below her iris. I noticed it because I spend a lot of time looking at her and into her eyes. Yes, I gaze into her eyes often =).

I kept waiting for it to move or float away but it didn't. Tom held her one night while I put saline on my finger and tried to get it out. No luck. So, off Cyanne went to Dr. Brennan who, after looking at it w/a light, decided she needed to go to the ophthalmologist. Off to the specialist!

While with Dr. Brennan, Cyanne was amazing!!! She just sat there on my lap and let him shine this bright light into her eye. I was so, so impressed.

(BTW, she's now 23 pounds!)... She had no problem standing on the big girl scale. Helps that she gets to stand on a Nemo fish sticker...

The next morning, Tom took her to see the eye doctor. We'd told her before both appointments that she was seeing the doctor to look at her eye so she wasn't surprised or concerned. Again, she was amazing!!! Even the doctor said he couldn't believe she was acting so well.
First, he tried getting it out with a swab. And then, he had to use small, metal forceps because it was a PIECE OF METAL that was attached to her eyeball.
Poor Cyanne!
She'd had a piece of metal on her eyeball for at least a week. It had some redness around it but thankfully, hadn't fully embedded itself in there.
But though all of that - no tears! Even when he used the forceps to grab the piece of metal...

She only started to cry when he put dilation drops in her other eye...
But then, she had dilated eyes all day and of course, it was a very sunny SB day. So, she kept saying "no sun! no sun!"...

Another experience. Another time when Cyanne has proved to us, yet again, that she is capable of some pretty amazing behavior. Good job Cyanne!!!!!

Rolling Over!

Maritt is doing a good job of rolling herself around! She moves quite a bit and is often 90-180 degrees rotated after a minute or two of being down on the mat.

She has been able to roll from her tummy to her back for a while now but just this week, started rolling from her back to her front.

We've seen her do this a few times now - I'm sure she'll start doing it more and more which means change is afoot...

Jumping!!!

Oh, how Cyanne loves to jump.


She jumps everywhere.
From chairs to the floor. From sofa to sofa. From rug to rug. From step to step. From the car to the road. Over things. Quickly, and without any sign of fear. She says "look Daddy! I'm jumping!" all of the time.
Also, at school she says "bringa!" which, apparently, means jump in spanish. "Look, Olivia, bringa, bringa!!" followed by a big jump... =)

We were outside on a beautiful evening and Cyanne started jumping from the top step on the deck down to the lower level!
She jumped the full 2 steps without hesitation.









This made for much, much fun for her and Tom for the next 30 minutes at least:

Jumping Videos

Another Jumping Video

(those should be 2 links to YouTube videos!)

Easter Weekend - Part II

Sunday, we started off the day with some Easter chocolate. I'd ordered Tom some chocolate from Burdick's in Cambridge where we loved to go when we lived there. He was quite excited to get his big chocolate truffle egg!



He and Cyanne dove in... she has developed quite a love of (very dark) chocolate like her father, thanks to my parents...



Next, we went to the Easter service at First Presbyterian Church.



It was a very nice service. We had reserved 3 Easter lilies in honor of Nanny so it was nice to see those all around the church and be reminded of her. I sat there thinking of the many times I had accompanied her on Easter mornings in years past. I remember her getting all dressed up for it in her pink suit and pearl earrings and necklace. And, as I said to Tom, I know she'd have been so happy and pleased knowing that we were there, in her church, listening to the Easter service with our two little girls, thinking of her, and saying a prayer. If she's watching from up above, I know she had a smile on her face watching us there, carrying on a tradition that meant so much to her. I only wish she'd been able to meet Maritt. I know she would have been so touched and pleased knowing we named Maritt after her grandmother from Norway.

The church events start with... guesses???.... another Easter Egg hunt! So, all of the kids ran off and searched the grassy area. Cyanne was getting a bit more adventerous at this point and managed to find a few more eggs - again with Tom's help.





We then went to the service and she did well - up until the point where she slipped on the pew and hit her chin/face into the wooden back of the pew in front of us. I'd like to say this happened during a hymn so her wails blended in but, alas, it did not.
Tom and Cyanne left and I stayed in the sanctuary with Maritt.
We then moved to the back so I could feed her while T and C were doing crafts and exploring the church.







Apparently though, going to church made quite an impression on Cyanne because she has since mentioned it quite a few times to Olivia, her teacher, and she sings this little song and says "Mommy, Daddy, Minute! - church! Ladies sing songs. Music!" So, she must've really enjoyed the organ and the choir... We will try and take her again.

After church, we ended up at my parent's house Sunday evening for another... easter egg hunt!!.... and dinner. Maritt finally go to wear the 'fancy' dress my Mom got her for Easter (navy velvet with pink and white embroidered flowers).





Cyanne had fun - she'd gotten the hang of this whole easter egg business by this point. This time, she had the lawn all to herself and went briskly from egg to egg.

Please note the Blabey tongue-out look of concentration:







Feeding the fish in the fish pond. Apparently, there is a fish in there that Cyanne helped pick out at Petco with my Mom... She really likes feeding the fish both at my parent's house and at Nanna & Grandpa's house in Cooperstown. Lucky, well-fed fish!







My mom and Cyanne like to dangle their feet in the pool. Cyanne says it's "really cold! really cold!" =)







We also walked down the street from their house to visit a horse named Samson. She LOVES visiting him... she feeds him apples. So, we paid him an easter visit and gave him some fresh apples as a treat. She couldn't understand why he was more into his fresh hay and alfalfa he'd just received... =)



It was a very nice dinner and a nice way to end the weekend.

Easter Weekend - Part I

We had a very nice Easter weekend.

Saturday the 3rd, we started out bright and early and headed to La Cumbre to do their annual Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch.



Maritt surveying the scene:



Let's just say that this is a no-holds-barred event. It is a free for all for people under 3 1/2 feet tall. They divide the driving range into two areas. One for the 0-4 age group and one for the 4-8 age group. Thank goodness Cyanne is still on the side with the small kids though even some of those were pretty damn impressive when it came time to go.



The bell sounded and they were off. And... what do you think Cyanne did?
She stood, frozen in fear, and Velcro-ed herself to Tom's leg. I stood there, camera in hand, foot rocking Maritt in the car seat on the grass, waiting for Cyanne to run off, frolic and search with the other kids but no... Tom took her by the hand and slowly helped her make her way to the eggs.



She did find a few but many fewer than other little kids - to such an extent that one little girl seemed to take pity on her and came over to her, said "here, you can have this one" and dropped an egg in her basket =). Good sharing little girl!



It was funny though because there were a few "golden" eggs hidden below the hay and I think the parents were more excited than then kids as they held gift certificates for the Club... I think parents were thinking free drinks by the pool or sandwiches at the snack bar. Either way - there was a lot of "Go, go, go! Get the golden egg!"...

After the hunt, we made our way over to the Clubhouse where we had a nice brunch.

Dad/Bubba, Maritt & Tom:





Cyanne did fairly well. Luckily for her, she'd say, they ran out of high chairs so she got to sit in a "big" chair which was exciting for her but it also meant she could get out of it at any time. So, she did. Of course...

She also had fun playing in the curtains and looking at these two little boys playing with a toy snake at the table next to us.





All in all - a fun morning!