The next day, she was noticeably better and by Friday, when we stopped by Heather’s house, she was out the door exploring every closet and room she could get to. We’re calling it official: she’s a walker!

Getting ready to ride
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

To add to this weekend’s excitement, on Saturday we finally picked up the Yuba Mundo from our local bike shop. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of our’s showed us their whopper of a bike that could transport TWO kids in child seats right on the back. That bike is the Yuba Mundo, a 60-pound steel frame, long-tail cargo bike with a 440-pound carrying capacity! And let me tell you, it rocks!

The idea of riding with both kids on one bike seemed appealing, though challenging. But after reading recommendations by TreeHugger and EcoVelo as well as various other reviews raving about how smoothly it rides and proclaiming how easy it was to tote kids, your spouse, groceries and, heck even other bikes, the idea of trading in some car time for a more environmentally-friendly transpo option just grew and grew on me (and Tom). So, we finally bit the bullet and got it!

Tom rode it home from the store on Saturday afternoon and made it up every hill he encountered, including our very steep driveway! Then, once I refueled from my 14-mile morning run, I took it to the grocery store for my own test drive–even I made it up our driveway, groceries in tow (and tapped out legs)! I was stoked!

Today, we rode it downtown for haircuts (but Dylan refused to get his cut today, so it was just me), checked out the distance to the Boardwalk and explored the feasibility of riding home (an all uphill ride). Everything was awesome (though we were only towing Dylan around and back home from downtown since Cameron refused to wear her helmet). Dylan didn’t even want to get off the bike!

After a successful afternoon of “test riding”, we headed out to catch Circo Brazil, a free circus performance, over at the Boardwalk.

We picked up falafels from Falafel Hut (decidedly mediocre food and service!) and ate them on the beach while we waited for the show to start and for Heather and Taliana to arrive. After the circus (the kids were most impressed by the cartwheels and trampoline acts!), the kids rode a few rides, including the new Haunted Castle ride!

The approach we took on the ride was that it was silly (“did you see those rats in the kitchen?? we wouldn’t want to eat there! Noooo thanks!) so he wasn’t terribly scared. He even successfully persuaded Taliana to ride it with him!

We didn’t have time to bathe the kids tonight so they are super grubby, but we’ll get to that tomorrow!

Last Monday night, we went to the Boardwalk at Dylan’s request (met Taliana and Auntie Heather there) and we were shocked to find that it was so crowded (it being Monday and all). But, it turns out that we’d forgotten about 1907 nights. This is when all rides, cotton candy, sodas and hot dogs are a dollar! So it turned out to be pretty crowded! I sort of vowed never to do that again, but then just last night, Auntie Cindy and Jason and Tyler came down after their summer camp day was done, so we headed on over for another very crowded Boardwalk experience!

Despite the long lines (the longest I’ve experienced with Dylan in tow), it was fun! I’m glad we went. Tyler is still too little for the rides that Jason wanted to take, so we took him with us and he and Dylan rode Ghost Blasters, the Cave Train and the Sea Serpent rollercoaster.

Dylan is still in awe of his cousins. He was so excited to talk about his favorite rides with Tyler!!

Little gal just makes a splash wherever she goes these days — literally and figuratively! Just in the past couple of days, she’s progressed with her walking skills. Two days ago, she took a whopping eight steps and today, after school (when we got the report that she’d surprised a teacher by taking five steps), she just kept at practicing. We applaud her diligence!

swingin’
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron looks totally mellow in this picture but, for sure, we haven’t been sitting around! This past weekend, we celebrated Ellie’s 4th birthday and Uncle Assaf’s 40th (whew!).

Assaf’s birthday celebration was at HAT’s house (Heather, Assaf and Taliana). The kids splashed around in a kiddie pool and played ladder golf, an interesting game that Dennis (Heather’s dad) made for Assaf.

playing ladder golf
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here’s a shot of Dylan tossing the golf balls towards the ladder! Pretty good form, huh??

cold and wet but still having fun!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And here he is dripping cold water and shivering, but having fun nonetheless!

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Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

So, that was Sunday! On Saturday, we went to Pump It Up in Sunnyvale to celebrate Ellie’s 4th. Both kids enjoyed pushing each other in these cars. Dylan loved the obstacle course (and made me do it over and over and over and over again with him!) and Cameron enjoyed the bouncy play area for smaller kids!

slide!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Tom got in on the fun, too…!

But that was not all we did, no, that was not all!

A new vegan cinnamon shop opened up in Berkeley, so after Ellie’s bday celebration, we decided to head over there for the afternoon for the grand opening….They were delicious!

Tom also wanted to eat at Cha-Ya, a vegan Japanese restaurant (highly recommended), so while we waited for dinner hour to roll around, Tom took Dylan on the BART for a short ride (Cameron and I went window shopping at the games store).

All in all it was another tiring weekend, but also lots of fun all around!

The only prob with fun weekends is that Mondays are especially hard. =T

Lola bought her yet another cute dress and pair of flip flops (she likes gnawing on her flip flops…and on her toes, for that matter!), and they all came to my side of town to have lunch with me during the work day. We all had Thai food — I shared my rice, tofu and broccoli with her! And, towards the end of the meal, all the little girl wanted to do was cruise around the restaurant! We are in for trouble when she’s independently mobile!! She definitely likes to explore!

Lola took 45 pictures (whew!). When I get a few free moments, I’ll try to post some!

Last Sunday, while Tom and I were running the Jungle Run, Auntie Christina watched the kids for us and caught Cameron on video taking her very first step (that we’re aware of)! Then, just last night(Wednesday), she took three steps all on her own! Not only that, she’s so excited about … sumpthin (walkin’? pipsqueak markers? standing up??), she bounces high enough that she occasionally actually lifts herself a few centimeters off the ground!!

loves sitting in the big kids chair!!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

To mark Month 11, she’s started on potatoes, asparagus and barley. She has also watched Taliana and Dylan use the elephant chair (pictured here) and the monkey chair on numerous occasions, and she discovered she really enjoys climbing up and sitting in them herself!!

orange marker-stained tongue!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

One of her favorite activities is playing with Pipsqueak markers and, just within the past couple of days (since discovering she can climb and sit in the “big kids” chair), she’s developed another hobby: sitting in a big kids chair and placing Pipsqueaks into the cup holder. If the monkey and elephant chairs are side by side, she’ll busily transfer the Pipsqueaks from one cup holder to the other!

Our little gal is an adventurer-in-the-making. She rediscovered her baby swing chair (detached from the swing frame to be a standalone rocker), climbs on it and jumps on it to make it rock back and forth. We put pillows behind her to protect her just in case she falls backwards! She’s also discovered that a happy consequence of being up higher means she can reach even more things on the train table.

All this climbing and “jumping” and step-taking is a development explosion that has just occurred over the past couple of days. We are enjoying watching her grow and develop…!

We love us our long weekends! On Monday, Tom did an 8-mile training run which ended at Harbor Beach where the kids and I and Heather’s family (mom, dad, bro, dad’s cousin, and Taliana) were hanging out for the morning-early afternoon.

Cameron was at first a little hesitant to really get into the sand, but after a while….

i think she got tired!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

…she clearly acclimated!

As I’ve probably mentioned before, Cameron is getting pretty vocal when something is taken away from her. At the beach, she took her protests up another notch! Poor girl decided to flee across the sand as fast as her little hands and knees could carry her after Dylan had pried a sand toy out of her hot little hands!

She finally decided to crawl on back to us after we pleaded with her to return!

at the beach with big bro
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Aside from a few “incidents” like that, the kids mostly enjoyed playing together!

DSC_7658
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Of course, Dylan had the most fun playing with Taliana, Auntie Heather, and Uncle David. They built lava-spewing volcanoes and hobbits and goblins and train tracks!

The entire weekend was so much fun, it was tough getting back to the regular work-week routine on Tuesday (yes, we were all late getting up and getting to school/work! And, as per usual at week’s start, I had a tough time saying bye to the kids when we dropped them off at daycare)!

Fourth of July was at Auntie Cindy’s house again — bocas (for us!) and swimming (for all!) and then fireworks at the end of the day! This was Cameron’s first time swimming (and seeing fireworks).

We picked up this cute little swimsuit for her over at Costco just a couple of weeks ago–it looked like it was going to be big enough (read 12 months on the tag), but um, she could barely fit that sweet little piku into that ruffled bikini bottom and, as you can see, her shirt kept on riding up on her belly!

DSC_7600
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

I thought Cameron would be eager to try swimming since she’s been watching Dylan at swimming lessons for a few weeks now! But, the poor thing just initally wailed and wailed. She didn’t like getting splashed by the other kids and I think the water was just too cold! I took her out and nursed her for a little while before Tom took her into the hot tub for Attempt #2. She was definitely far happier with the warmer water and ended up staying in the pool for quite a while….

auntie’s pool
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan also liked the hot tub better (hooray for warm water!)!

Shortly after we finished a post-swimming rinse-off, we headed to the park to wait for fireworks.

Cameron saw the bigger kids (Tyler and Dylan) riding in the wagon, so when they climbed out, she was eager to get in to give it a try! It was adorable. She was just laughing and smiling the whole while!

After doing a couple of rounds around our general picnic area, Tyler hopped aboard and I took the two kids to go get some LED wands and necklaces. Cameron loved waving her wand around and watching the lights!

Then there were fireworks! Cameron and Dylan both stayed awake for the entire show! I covered Cameron’s ears (she wasn’t scared at all!) and Tom covered Dylan’s ears (at his request)! Once it was over, both kids sacked out in their car seats immediately!

And, just like that, another fun family fourth was over and done!

Cameron has had a tough couple of nights. Since Thursday, she’s had lots of snot and congestion with terrible bouts of phlegmy coughing that was keeping her up at night! It was brutal. We’ve been chalking it all up to teething. She’s been understandably fussier than usual what with the fitful sleeping and the teething pain! Finally, though, her tooth broke completely through and you can kind of see it in this picture!

There are many more well-defined bumps in her gums which I’m hoping means that she’ll just get ‘em all in in one fell swoop!

Little girl has also gotten so good at standing up these past couple of days…now she can even do some bouncing while just supporting herself with her cute li’l legs! Still amazed at how progress can jump so quickly with kidlets…and still in suspense as to how long it will actually take before she’s fully mobile. We await that day with excitement and trepidation–our little girl seems to have explorer tendencies! We expect she will be all over the place!

Heather’s brother David came for a visit from Oregon, so we invited the clan over for lunch/dinner and games on Saturday. The kids had an absolute blast chasing and being chased by him and pouring water all over him.

everything goes into the pie hole!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron didn’t get in on the chasing-splashing action despite her desire to join in! But, she did have a mighty fine time playing at the water table. By the end of the day, all kids were totally drenched!

Good times, for sure!

Dylan had his well-child check-up this past Friday (everything is all good, holding steady at around the 10th percentile all around and totally proportionate in terms of BMI) and one of the questions asked was whether or not your child could draw a human figure. Well, we’d never explored that before, so out of curiosity, I asked Dylan if he could draw a picture of himself, and this cute drawing is what came of it!

While he was drawing, I got the play-by-play: “Look mom, I drew my head…” and then, “Oh, I have no face” followed by, “look, mom, I’m smiling!”

It’s so reminiscent of Taliana’s first drawings of people….I love the picture!