End of September Photos - Auggie

 While Agnieszka was at work, Auggie and Daniel had a great weekend exploring local parks and making a trip to SF with Auggie's friends Maya and Colin.

More art!

Auggie continues to make his symmetric art projects!

Evening trip to the park swings!

End of September Photos - Ella

Some cute photos of Ella this month.

Ella is now old enough to sit in the shopping cart without falling over (most of the time)!

Sleepy girl

'I love water like my Papa!"

Bananas! 

Dziadek's Birthday Weekend

We had a quiet family weekend which included a trip to the local park and a birthday celebration for Dziadek in Walnut Creek.  Alex, Evan and Auggie all spent a good part of the visit building legos together and put together two quite elaborate pieces. Evan's even had a trap door (of course!)  Ella meanwhile proved that she is actually very interested in eating, as long as the food in front of her is not pureed. She expressed her deep love of cucumber and corn this weekend (at some point, both at the same time).

Ella is 8 months old!

Another month has passed all too quickly and with many changes.  Our joyful little girl started "army crawling" early into her 7th month and a week later was up on her knees and rocking, trying hard to skip forward to true crawling.  She has finally agreed to taking some occasional cereal, but continues to refuse most purees. Just as Auggie did, she has become addicted to baby "Puffs" snacks and will let everyone know quite clearly how much she likes them if she happens to see the container around.  She enjoys going on walks in the stroller, but it's hard to trick her to fall asleep in one (or in a car, for that matter).  She adores her big brother and he can always make her laugh and smile (his help was enlisted for the photo session below).  She still loves sucking her thumb and trying to eat Agnieszka's hair whenever she needs to self-soothe.  Just like her brother was at this age (and still is!), she is a flirt in public, beaming at everyone who passes and then smiling shyly if they smile back at her. It makes running errands (almost) fun!

Auggie and Daniel trip to Tilden and Albany Stroll

On Saturday, September 8, Auggie and Daniel spent a good part of the day enjoying all the fun parts of Tilden.  They started with the carousel and then rode steam train.  In the early afternoon, they went to Little Farm to look for treasures and walk to Jewel Lake.  Instead, they bumped into a free scheduled tour of the whole area. Auggie was far more interested in his tour guide than the tour itself, so he followed her around like the big fan he was.  The crowd of kids was a little intimidating, so he would often talk to the tour guide, fall back and let the big group pass him and then run back to the tour guide again so he could talk to her more.  All in all, Daniel feels Auggie may have run a few miles that day and walked another 3-4!

The next day was the Albany Stroll. Auggie and Daniel met up with the Parkers and friends and enjoyed this annual tradition together. (It has been Agnieszka's tradition to be scheduled to work during the stroll - 4 years in a row and counting!)  There were fun rides, games and prizes, and - most importantly to Auggie - very syrupy shaved ice!

Ella giggles

Only Auggie can make Ella laugh like this.

Labor Day Weekend

Agnieszka did not have to work Labor Day Weekend and we choose to do a Family "Staycation".

On Saturday, we went down to Alvarado Park, looking - prematurely it turns out - for acorns and chestnuts. Fortunately, we found many other treasures, which Auggie carried in his bucket and then got to throw into creek.  We've spent many days at this little spot by the creek with Auggie and it's been fun to watch how Auggie's play in this spot has changed over time.

The next day we went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, which continues to an incredible place for kid fun, creativity and learning.  We've been coming since Auggie was a toddler.  We realized that Ella has just almost old enough to start crawling around the Tot spot, just as Auggie has grown within an inch of no longer being allowed in that part of the Museum.  

While Ella napped, Auggie played in the fish run (sorry no pics) as if he was 2 again.  Afterwards, we went to the indoor water room, where Ella got to crawl around and lay on a waterbed while looking up at real fish swimming above her.  We spent a very activity full day at the museum and even got to have our pictures taken (into direct sunlight, hence the squinting) with Llama Llama. 

After our busy day at the museum, we stopped for an early dinner at a local Rugby Pub (and hidden Point Richmond gem).  Ella - true to form- had one of her rare poops just as we arrived. This little girl has an uncanny ability to ONLY poop when out an about, usually at a restaurant, store or long trip!

End of August catch up

On the Sunday after the big party at Babcia and Dziadek's house, Daniel and Auggie spent a fun day at the Lawrence Hall of Science.  Auggie is just getting to the age where he can participate in the exhibits there and they had a great time learning about mirrors and constructing vehicles.

A few days later, Agnieszka got to take some time off of work and keep both kids at home. We had a playdate with our friends Parisa, Kaiden and Kasra at Kid's Gym, followed by a yummy lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. (Sorry, no pics).   The next day, we took a fun walk to Arlington Park, where both kids loved swinging on the swings at the same time.  Afterwards, we went to Splash Park to let Auggie run around the fun fountains there.  The outside temperature was a cool 70 degrees and the water was a little chilly, so Auggie would run through the fountains and then roll himself up in a towel in the sun until he was warm and dry. Then he would go out and repeat the process.  Ella was sweet enough to watch her brother and giggle, before she passed out in Agnieszka's lap.  By the end, everyone was tired and Daniel met us at Splash park so we could gather everyone together and grab some yummy food at Farm Burger.

Auggie continues to show us his creativity.  Recently, putting together designs with his geometric shape toys has been a fun activity.  This is one of the designs he made (with a little help from Mama).