July Playgroup

We finally made it to another GGMG playgroup. We've missed the last two because we were busy with other gatherings. It was nice to see everyone again and there was certainly a lot more playing this time around...


The biggest hit amongst all the babies was the LeapFrog Learning Table. We tend to steer away from the giant plastic toys (we don't have room for monstrous baby contraptions and besides, wooden toys are so much cooler) but it's times like this where you realize that babies enjoy blinking lights and tooting horns.

Wow... this thing is so cool!

Yes, that's Mather STANDING. Well, leaning actually.

Here's a cool wooden toy.

The hot topics were mobility (crawling and standing are in the works), solid foods, nursing, and teething...

If you look closely, there are two little specks of white.

Happy Birthday Grandmather!

Grandmather and Faux-GreatAunt Celeste made the trek from SoCal to visit us this past weekend.

Goobie loves her Grandmather!

Celeste keeps the squirmy-wormy under control.

Mather is admiring the starfish necklace, a birthday gift from Momily.

On Saturday, we celebrated Grandmather's birthday. A wonderful time was had by all. We took a walk to Children's Playground and drove up the coast to Bolinas for a lovely lunch and a stroll around town. Grandmather and Celeste got to witness Mather's developing mobility... she perfected her crawling-to-sitting transition. They also helped us celebrate the eruption of Mather's first tooth (we tried to take a picture but there's not much to see yet).

Happy Birthday Grandmather!

Jackpot!

So we've been keeping Mather's toys in what was once her sleeping basket. Yesterday, she figured that out...

The New Children's Playground

I hear from folks all the time about how San Francisco doesn't have any backyards. Nonsense. I spent a significant chunk of my childhood exploring one end of Golden Gate Park to the other, and now as an adult I find myself living only a few blocks from this urban treasure. One of my favorite childhood destinations in the Park was the Children's Playground, one of the oldest public playgrounds in the country (dating back to 1887), with its mix of archaic wooden play structures, a bizarre and recently rusty metal climbing structure, and its iconic concrete slides.

The playground was closed a year ago for a major renovation, its first since 1977. It officially reopened (as the "Koret's Children's Quarter") yesterday. The three of us took a picnic to enjoy our the new setting. The playground is completely new -- the only holdovers are the historic carousel, the Sharon Arts building (both visible in this old-timey photo) and the concrete slides! I'm very happy the slides remain. It'll be a few years before Mather is ready to hurtle down on a piece of cardboard, but I know she'll have a great time once she's ready.

A variety of new attractions join the concrete slides. There are a pair of climbing walls crafted to resemble waves. The back of the wave has all sorts of handholds and toeholds to help kids climb to the top. I presume they are then supposed to fall from the top to the ground below. Well, kids have to learn about gravity sometime. Mather is unsure what to think. For now, she seems to prefer pelican rides.

Speaking of gravity, the central attraction of the newest iteration of the playground is the giant green rope climbing tower. This is something that makes me wish I was ten again.



It's true most of the playground is suited for Mather's future, not her present. But she did give the toddler swings a try, and loved it! I pushed her higher and faster than I ever had before, and she had a giant grin on her face the whole time.

The tactile, rubberized ground of the playground also made for great crawling practice. I think we're going to go back today!

4th of July Peach

We upheld our 4th of July tradition of attending the San Francisco Mime Troupe's season opening performance at Dolores Park. We spread out a picnic blanket with Daniel's parents and let Mather crawl around during the show. We bopped her along to the musical numbers and that kept her in good spirits. She was feeling the heat of the day towards the end of the show, so I watched the last scenes while pushing her stroller around the park. Not too bad for a baby!

The biggest highlight of the day was Mather's first experience with the fresh food mesh feeder. She had her first juicy summer peach, and she loved it...


I made a list yesterday of all the foods that Mather is "eligible" to eat. We'd like to broaden her food horizons. Today we gave Mather a couple of Cheerios, but she played with more than she ate. Next up are butternut squash and ricotta cheese.

Camping for the Eighth Lunaversary

Today our little goobster is a whole eight months old. She's gotten bigger and more and more interesting each day. She moves herself around, she sits up, plays in the grass, and chatters away. She even had a new first today to celebrate her lunaversary. She moved from her belly to sitting up by herself!

We spent the weekend camping with a big group of our friends up at the New Hogan Reservoir in Calaveras County. We've been camping together as a group for years, but a little detail made it a bit more complicated this year.


Mather loved camping! She had a good time hanging out with everyone, being passed from hand to hand, rolling around in her big, open-air screen tent, and heading down to the lakeshore. She slept well in our tent and got along with everyone. She was even willing to get her hands a bit dirty helping out around camp!


All in all, we had a great time, even if the days were hot and naps were a bit tricky. Camping with a baby is great fun! It helped that we had beautiful sunsets.