The Easter Bunny

Just like Christmas, Annabelle was up at the crack of dawn to go hunting. Dave's mom had the excellent idea of hiding several dozen jellybeans throughout the house. That kept her busy until the grown ups could get dressed to go outside. I kept hiding more and more jelly beans throughout the morning and it seemed every ten minutes or so we'd hear Annabelle scream because she had found ANOTHER one!

We discovered that the Easter Bunny did not leave any eggs at Oma and Papa's house. But maybe there was another treat to find? Let's keep looking... (I did actually boil eggs when we were at Stinson, to paint for a hunt. I put them aside to cool and when I came back an hour later they were all eaten!)

An Easter Basket! (It was raining and tough to convince her to keep looking even though we were all chilly and getting wet.)

Oooh, this is fun!

Could it be? The Easter Bunny brought another doll? That bunny is out of his mind.

Annabelle got her own sketch pad. When she opened it she said, "Oh. Mom, the Easter Bunny gave you something too." I was quick to explain that I thought the Easter Bunny wanted her to have her OWN sketch pad. She liked that idea.

Easter lunch.

It was a very nice morning! The perfect end to a Spring break.

Prime rib, yum.

Stinson Beach

We were invited to a friend's house for a couple nights. Little did we know, it's right on the beach.

Four children, six adults, and plenty of sunshine made for a great time.

Annabelle's doll, Flower, secretly found her way into some grass. Flower has been gone for a few months.

Seems that her hair grew about eight inches. That can happen when dolls take trips back to fairy land.

Annabelle was elated. She and Flower shared many conversations about what she had been up to.

Really, she couldn't believe it.

Off she goes to tell everyone on the beach about Flower's magical return.

Summer Squash

Almost two whole weeks of Easter Break has gone by and I realize I hadn't posted a single picture from my kitchen. Tsk, tsk. 


Just wait till summer... our new upstairs neighbors are great people. He is an engineer and she is a freelance food writer. Of course that's all I had to hear. I cooked up something to share the very next day. We have already agreed to share unusual recipes and bites on a regular basis. She asked if it would be okay if she gave Annabelle some marshmallows for her birthday next week, using her own homemade corn syrup. (I didn't even know you could make corn syrup!)


I can't wait to share my newest favorite savory recipe. So far I've made it three times and it's been gone before I remembered to take a picture. So you'll just have to wait!

Pattypan is one of my favorite foods.

Yum. Even Annabelle asked for seconds.

A day to paint

Though Annabelle and I have painted together quite a lot, I have usually prepared her paper for her. As we were getting ready to paint on this day I decided she could probably handle doing it on her own. When I started to show her what to do she said, "I KNOW." 

And to my surprise, she did actually know! I can only guess that she has seen me do it enough that she learned...

She let her paper drip dry in the bathroom, then carried it to her hardboard.

Then she took my flannel and dried it by rubbing from the inside out.

Then she talked nonstop and sang while she painted. (Definitely didn't learn that from me.)

She painted three paintings. 

There in the corner she used a blue shop towel to lift out a shadow of a small teepee.

(Notice the bones on the table there? They are my recent favorite find from a shop in Berkeley: a scapula and jawbone, both from a buffalo. I hope to collect more.)

Something dawned on me today that was so obvious: I have to be what I want her to be. I know this in many ways: from my studies of child development, from my Waldorf background and from basic experience as a mother. But I had not truly brought it forward into full consciousness until this day, not in a way that forced me to look at myself more closely.

There are things I know she will "get" from me. And from Dave. She will be musical, there is no doubt. She will have certain capacities in the visual arts. She will love to read. But there are qualities I would love to encourage as she grows and I see that perhaps I could stand to work on encouraging some self-growth too. Because there is a side to Annabelle that is impatient, driven, bossy, and overly sensitive and, gosh, what a mirror I look into every day!

From a simple afternoon of painting I began to realize how much friendlier I need to be. And that I could be more enthusiastic and happier. More loving. Though it is not that I am not friendly or loving or happy, I think I could just bring a little bit more childlike wonder into my everyday practical get-it-done working-mom life.

And I want to have more fun! This is probably the biggest realization I have had this past week during Spring Break. I don't want to live a life that doesn't have enough time to take walks or daydream... Annabelle turns six in less than two weeks. It is a powerful thing to realize that your child will never be small again. Sentimental clichés begin to spill out from my heart: Enjoy her while it lasts! Appreciate her while she's young! They grow up so fast!

Somehow the sentiment is mixed up in the practical and it has become a week of inner discoveries and growth. Nothing is sorted out, the inner does not match the outer, questions beget more questions and the answers are elusive. Maybe this is the perfect place to be for Easter. 

After a while she moved on to tissue paper painting.

"See? A hummingbird!"

Dentist

A recent visit to the dentist was remarkable. The doctor and hygienist were so friendly and reassuring. There was no pressure for fluoride treatments, no guilt for the length of time since our last dental visit, no tears. It could not have gone more smoothly. Nothing like Annabelle's last visit where the doctor required me to restrain her and I yelled at him.


We left the office and Annabelle said, "I think she was a princess doctor." Thank God she liked her, because we have three scheduled visits for some work that has to get done! And there can be no bigger compliment than hearing Annabelle ask me every day, "When do I get to go back?"

Friday night girl's night out

We watched the fog roll in over the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, before heading out for a night on the town. It was a spectacular night!

At the Mayfield Slough

Family Day at Gilroy Gardens

We all needed a day off... these videos say it all.

Field Trip

This past Friday I took my class on a field trip to a local lake for some paddle boating, playground fun, and sunshine. A quick video shares how beautiful it really was...

Growing up

A couple weeks ago Annabelle lost her first tooth. Actually, "lost" is a misnomer simply because she ran into my bedroom with the tooth flopping around, opened her mouth and said, "Pull it out!" So I gingerly took her tooth between my finger and thumb and it practically fell out into my hand. It was much easier than I had expected it to be.

I stood there surprised with her tooth in my hand. Annabelle looked at me with a look that said I had betrayed her. She rolled over on my bed and whispered, "Please don't talk to me."

What a horrible feeling, no matter how unintentional, to rush a child into doing something they simply are not ready to do. It goes against so much of how we have raised Annabelle, that I understood immediately that she felt violated. I promised I would never, ever pull out another tooth in all my life.

Thankfully, once she was at school the attention and congratulations helped her recover quickly. The day was saved. Nobody asked how she lost her tooth, they only smiled and laughed with her and talked about how big she was growing!

On Friday Annabelle came running out of aftercare smiling ecstatically. Blood was dripping down her lip and she thrust her hand into my face to proudly show me the tooth she had pulled from her own mouth! "It doesn't even hurt!" she exclaimed and then proudly dashed off to show someone else.