Blue Dress:White Peach

One of the main activities these days is walking down our road to the peach trees, grabbing a ripe peach off the tree, dusting it off, and taking a bite. Cyanne (and Maritt) does this every day. "Let's go eat a peach!" is a familiar refrain.

Cyanne with her peach, one bite in:



"They're SOOOO juicy!" she'll say.



"And sweet!"



She's also looking so big these days... She's growing so fast!
Slow down, Cyanne!





It's pretty incredible to have your own produce section on your property. We've been very lucky this year with incredible fruit on the trees.

Rosemary blooming along the driveway:

Memory & Directions

I know parents often talk about how smart, cute, adorable, smiley their kids are. And, I'm sure it's all true. It must be because I do it too.
And, here I go again:
I am constantly amazed at both Cyanne's memory and her intuitive sense of direction (Daddy gets all of the credit for that one).

For example:

This morning, we passed a truck carrying a large load of lumber.
Mommy: "Cyanne, look at all of that wood!"
Cyanne: "Mommy, it's lumber. I saw lumber with Nanna in Cooperstown!"
Now - not only did she use the correct word but she recalled seeing a truck with lumber on it which she saw only once while driving with Anne in Cooperstown in the beginning of June. I haven't used that word since nor reminded her of seeing it.
I was impressed.

Same car ride in to school:
Cyanne: "Look! The train tracks are empty. No train on the tracks. Must be someplace else. At another station picking up people. But, Grandpa says rail. Grandpa no call them train tracks. Rails. But, I like train tracks better. Train tracks better, Mommy?"
Richard/Grandpa had had a conversation with her about train tracks one morning we were visiting... she was listening.

This past Sunday, Cyanne and I went on a playdate at her friend Rafaela's house (with Cami and Cali, too). She had never been there before. On the way there, she kept saying "No Mommy, the other way, don't go this way" until I told her it was a new place and we had to go a new direction as we'd never been which elicited an "oh... okay."
So today, as we were whizzing past the Patterson off-ramp off 101 at about 75 mph, she points to it and says "Mommy, that's the road we use to go to 'Falella's house!"
Again, impressed.
How does she remember a random, concrete off-ramp that she's taken only once before? And, where it goes to?

Each time we pass the exit for My Gym, Cyanne says " My Gym. Up there. To the left. Pool to the right" as the Club and pool are up on the hill to the right. She also sometimes mentions "Gammie's house" which is also off to the right.

There were a few other things she's said recently that have just blown me away.
She has an incredible memory and a memory for the smallest details.

She also always points out the street that her friend Cali lives on which we have only visited once almost every time we drive by it on the way to school in the mornings.

She has a clear, strong sense of direction. I'm glad as I lack this certain trait though Tom has it in spades. He has one of the best if not the best sense of direction I've ever experienced and hopefully, it seems as though Cyanne has inherited some or a lot of it. She is going to give him a run for his money in the direction department!

Fun with the camera/new lens

One of the things I enjoy most is taking photos. I treated myself to a new lens - there was an "occasion" but now I can't recall what it was but in any event - it merited a new lens/present for me =). I recently purchased a 50 mm 1.8f/stop lens that allows me to take better portraits of the kids and anything else. It's a fantastic portrait lens and creates the effect, depending on the settings, of blurring out the background while keeping the subject in very clear focus.

Here are several that we liked - okay, many we liked:

Photos of Maritt in her room:











Such a sweetheart.







In the afternoon, we spent a couple of hours outside on Sunday enjoying the gorgeous weather and I took the opportunity to take some photos of my two best models.
Cyanne, ever the elusive, mostly non-smiling one and Maritt, the smiling, rolling, constantly moving, toys in mouth one =).

Cyanne - We were talking about how, in some of these images, we get glimpses of what she might look like in 10 years...





I love this one:





Playing together outside:



Loved this one, too. I have my camera, she has hers:






Pure joy:





Inspecting knees, legs, and toes with Daddy:













Having two beautiful girls makes the job much easier on the photographer...

Laguna Blanca Shirt - Class of ....?

When Maritt was born, we received a very nice package from Laguna. Martha, Delene, Will, Sherri and others at the school had sent us a very cute, very little LBS shirt with LBS on the front and "someday...!" on the back.
Very cute and very sweet.
We shall see!...

Maritt - wearing the shirt & hanging out in an industrial vacuum we had at the ranch... long story but my mom thought she'd vacuum up the thorns outside. It ended up being a rolling around toy for Maritt. =)

More Maritt & Cyanne - July 2010

Here are some recent shots of Cyanne & Maritt.
They really do seem to love each other and are starting to have fun playing together:



Maritt - loving dinnertime! Fun chew toys:







Sister hugs and squeezes:





Reading National Geographic with Daddy:



Some of the vegetables and fruit we've had recently. Lots of green beans and beautiful peaches, plums, and pluots:





Maritt & Tom -



This was just a funny expression for Maritt. Must've had an itchy nose:

Cyanne's Swim Lessons

Cyanne started taking swim lessons from Bobbi at La Cumbre Country Club this summer. She's been learning quickly and has gotten quite good at the crab-walk along the end of the pool with her hands, kicking with her feet, using her arms to try and swim, and going under the water.
She was very proud of herself for swimming from Bobbi to the steps all by herself.
They spend quite a bit of time working on blowing bubbles and learning how to breathe (or not) while in and under the water.
She's getting better!

Though the tough part for us (and the reason we really want her to learn how to swim) is she shows very little fear and will just jump in... That is why she needs to learn how to swim!

We meet my parents up at the club every Thursday evening for the family swim/BBQ nights.
Cyanne has her lesson at 4 PM and then we have dinner.

Here are a few photos -post-swim and during dinner.

Our little sunflower - (I love this swim cover-up):


Maritt checking out the baby pool:



Cyanne's standard dinner of fruit, french fries, salad, and, as she says, her "hang-a-burr"...


Oh yeah, and my parents insist on getting her chocolate milk so now we "joke" she has an association with swimming and chocolate milk... I know, grandparents will do what they will.

Feist's 1234 Song

Cyanne currently loves Feist's "1234" song.
Each time we get in the car she says, "Mommy, the 123 song! I LIKE that song! Mommy likes it too! Mommy, I want 123 song!" until I put it on.

It's very cute - she sings along with the tune and some of the words and obviously, the counting.
Though it distresses her because in the song, she sings "1,2,3,4,5,6,9 and 10" and skips 7 and 8. Each time, Cyanne starts to say "7" and then stops and skips to 9 and 10.
Part of me thinks this is bad as it'll mess up her pretty darn good counting skills but then I think, she won't forget about 7 and 8. You can't really forget 2 numbers...

Sesame Street had the 1234 song on and used 4 penguins by the door, 4 chickens just back from the shore, 4 monsters walking 'cross the floor. And from there, Cyanne has loved it.

She's clearly inherited my tendencies to listen to songs over and over and over. Tom does not do this really and he makes faces when I want to listen to songs over and over. I occasionally tell her the Ipod is "not working right now" (to which she says very clearly, "is not working Mommy? Why not working? need new batteries, Mommy? Mommy fix the ipod.") if I need a break but, we eventually I put it on. Now, it's Cyanne who is relishing listening to the song over and over and with each listen, she sings along a little bit more, sings the lyrics a little bit more, and dances around in her car seat a little more.

I think we'll keep playing it on our drives in the car. =)

Maritt - Happy 8 Months & An Update

Happy 8 months, Maritt!
Amazing how quickly the time is passing around here.



You had quite a day today being baptized this morning and spending the afternoon and early evening "walking" on the beach with Mommy, Daddy, Cyanne & Lucky.

A few things about Maritt these days:
Food:

She's eating up a storm. She loves her solid food and, unlike Cyanne, loves her pureed vegetables. Even more so than the fruit ones. The first couple tastes of any food whether she's had it before or not elicit hilarious, scrunched up faces like she just sucked on a lemon. Then... she decides (usually) it takes good and she wants MORE. She loves mixed veggie, green beans/peas, carrots, squash, pear, sweet potato, applesauce... funny though, the one she really doesn't seem to like is the pureed banana and really, I don't blame her. It smells rather funky and not like a real banana. Real banana however, she loves. Can't get enough of the bananas.

We've given her fresh peaches, plums and apricots off of our trees which are very full right now.
We'll pick a fruit, be holding her on our hip and she'll lunge forward to grab it with her hand and pull it back towards her mouth.
We have to watch her because she's quick! She'll take big slurp-y "bites" and have a big smile - followed by juice all down her chin.



She also likes to "talk." She makes all sorts of sounds and in varying decibels... She grunts when she gets excited, cries when she's tired or upset, chirps, blows raspberries, and generally enjoys making noises and sounds almost all of the time. We are working on the sign language with her as it was extremely helpful with Cyanne. And, given how she's been so far, I'm sure she's going to love and want to communicate with us what she wants before she can actually verbalize it.

She loves:
watching all of us, sitting up and playing with toys, putting just about anything in her mouth, eating, drinking milk, going outside, playing peek-a-boo, being tickled, the anticipation of being tickled, banging the pots with spoons, reading books/chewing books, her soft, crinkly books that she chews on and sucks the labels on, and being held or snuggled.

She adores:
the cats. Max and Sonsie - when they walk into the room - make her squeal with glee and she starts to rock back and forth and her hands open and close rapidly. Oh, to grab a tuft of cat fur... We'll bring her right over to them and she is one happy little girl manhandling those kitties.... And she loves Cyanne - when Cyanne isn't "bonking" her on the head, that is.

She doesn't much care for:
sleeping, sleep training, being left alone in a room, banana puree, having her face wiped off, Cyanne's shrieking noises, Lucky barking when she's right next to him, or firetrucks going by with their sirens on. Other than that... she seems to like pretty much anything. =) She's one happy, pretty easy-going baby!



This is mostly so we remember but, at 8 months, she's eating about 4-5 servings of solid food and drinking about 15 ounces in a bottle and breastfeeds in the morning and in the evenings when I come home from work. She sees me and boy does she get excited to have some food...
She sleeps from about 7:30/8 PM to 6-7 AM - this varies wildly depending on her inclination to 1) go to sleep and 2) to stay asleep. Fingers crossed though, she seems to be getting the hang of it.

She greets us with BIG smiles and bright, happy blue eyes in the morning.



We can't wait to see what this next month has in store.
We love you, Maritt!