M(oat)HAWK

This is why Juliet is served breakfast before getting dressed for the day...

New Family Member, Pearl

My Dad and Mary have a new kitty, Pearl. errr, I mean Rory.

The Shannon family has a bad habit of giving pets more than one name. It started with Patches who was known only to my father as Magee. Dad apparently thought it would honor his mother to name the family pet by her maiden name. Hmmm.

Pearl/Rory ended up with two names because he was originally thought to be a girl, but turned out to be a boy (hence my father's insistence that the name be changed to a more masculine "Rory"). Mary isn't budging on the name, so now the cat has an alias.

Juliet is anxious to befriend the kitty.

Children's Playground with Riley

Well, Nikki has called me out on not keeping up with my blog, so I will attempt to catch everyone up... :)

We had a playdate with Riley and Nikki at Golden Gate Park. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the Castro, but FREEZING in the Sunset so we were dressed totally inappropriately. When will I learn? Thankfully, the playground is in a little gulch that stays sunny and warmer than the surrounding neighborhoods.
Lemme OUT!

Big Kisses

Mike and I have been talking about getting Juliet a tricycle like the very one that she spotted at the park. We have been taking an informal poll of parents with these trikes to find out at what age she will be ready for it. It seems that she has been listening and took the opportunity to lobby for getting one sooner rather than later. She saw this trike at the playground and made her way over to it and hopped right on. Daddy is going to get one for her for Christmas (hopefully Juliet won't read this; I would hate to spoil the surprise).

The girls had a great time climbing and running around. Juliet was asleep in her carseat before we even made it out of the park.

Gabriella's Party

We were invited to Gabriella's 4th birthday party. Juliet had a ball playing with all of her toys and helping to destroy her room. The intended party venue, Lemos Farm, got rained out so we crashed their house for the festivities. I somehow didn't get any photos of the birthday girl, but here is Juliet with Viviana. I am told that Gabriella insisted on wearing her Cinderella nightie to bed that night, so it seems that our gift was a hit!

Playdate with Chloe

Here is Juliet with her best bud, Chloe.

Sidewalk - 1; Juliet - 0

We went to a block party to celebrate Jen's birthday and had spent the better part of the day outside when "somebody" started getting tired and a bit cranky (and, dare I say, clumsy). We were just about to head home when Juliet got a little too much momentum going down the slight hill and did a nose dive on the pavement. Her little nose is all scraped up and she got a fat lip.
She sucked on some ice and got special pacifier treatment and lots of snuggling with Mommy and now she feels as good as new, but her dad and I are continually reminded of the incident when we see her poor little face. I have to say, it made me feel a little better that our friends' boy, Noah, had a black eye... There goes her modeling career.

Beginner's Luck?

We went to dinner at Warakabune (AKA Sushi Boats) tonight. Juliet, like usual, wanted to play with the chopsticks. This time, though, she was actually touching them to her food then putting them to her mouth, rather than just banging them on the table (see August 19 post).

She likes these little rice packages that are made there (I have no idea what they are called or even what they are made of). She makes quite a mess with the rice so there was a nice pile for her to play with on the bar. She had the chopsticks in her hand in a little "X" and was trying to pick up the salmon roll pieces off of a nearby plate. She actually was getting pretty close to being able to pick it up, so we were both watching her with interest.

THEN (and I know no one is going to believe this), she picked up a big ball of rice from the bar with the chopsticks and used them to put it in her mouth. She sat there, all nonchalant, chewing her rice while Mike and I looked at each other in shock. Even the guy next to Mike was watching. I looked at him and said, "did you see that?!" and he affirmed. I joked that she is better with chopsticks than her Nana (sorry, Mom!). Maybe it has something to do with the somewhat Asian inspired dress she was wearing... It's so fun to watch her absorbing everything around her and figuring out stuff like, "oh, right, we use these little wooden sticks to eat with."

To celebrate, we walked to Bi-Rite Creamery and had ice cream before heading home.

Sausalito

We dragged Britt to the Sausalito Art Festival on Labor Day. I took the ferry over with Juliet. They had a shuttle between the ferry and the festival, which should have been the first hint that it was a bit of a hike. When you have a stroller, it is easier to hike it than to deal with trying to get a stroller onto the shuttle (especially a bugaboo!). So, we had a nice walk in the sunshine.

When it was time to go home there was a LONG line for the ferry. I was afraid that we weren't going to be able to get on, but thankfully we made it and some kind gentleman helped me get her stroller up the stairs. I can't remember ever being on a ferry in the bay before, so it could be that Juliet and I both had our first ferry ride today. Not a bad way to commute!

Labor Day Weekend in the City

We took a little Tour de San Francisco backroads to get Juliet to take a nap before we headed to Golden Gate park for the day. We made a pit stop at Twin Peaks, then cruised around for a bit before heading to Children's Playground. It was a gorgeous day.
I've been bugging Mike for a while to go to the Japanese Tea Garden and we finally made it. It was crawling with people, so I look forward to returning sometime when there is a more tranquil atmosphere.

Then we walked through the Botanic Gardens on our way to Irving Street. I can't believe I have never been in that part of the park. It is so peaceful and beautiful. I really need to get out more! Juliet loved the geese.

Crack for Kids

Juliet is crazy about Gerber puffs. We bought them a couple of times when she was first starting on solids, but then felt guilty about them not being organic and probably not all that good for her and stopped buying them. Since she hasn't been at Nana's much, there is still a canister of them in the cabinet at her house. She found them (she always goes straight to the pantry to "her shelf" when she arrives) and was gobbling them up like I couldn't believe. I should have checked for shakes and other signs of withdrawal in the days after...We spent the day at the pool and then had dinner with my mom to further celebrate my birthday. It was a beautiful, hot day (and when I say "hot" I mean Foster City hot, not central valley hot!). Yum, coconut cake!