tears in my eyes

Chippy and Vinnie's wedding song...



I shot this little video with tears in my eyes, a huge smile on my face and my sweet baby in my arms. This was my favorite moment of Chippy and Vinnie's beautiful wedding day.

Weeks later I heard Luci singing this song to herself. I couldn't believe she remembered it after only hearing it once. Well, it was very memorable.

More to come, I promise.

summer is delicious

Popsicle or thumb? It's all so good.

We're back from our trip and settling in. Pete picked us up at the airport on Tuesday and took us out for mexican food at a car wash. Really. And speaking of delicious, it was. Then he took us for a hike up Mt. Davidson, where we were treated to a perfect San Francisco summer afternoon of wind and fog. It was really pretty.

We're having some technical difficulties here and I've got over a thousand pictures to wade through, but sooner or later, I will chronicle the last two wonderful weeks of family and festivities.

Also, Alma-Luisa had her 5 month birthday yesterday and she's just started talking for real. She says, "mum mum mum mum mum." Amazing. It's so clear why mama's are called mama in pretty much every language. We've engineered it perfectly so that our name is the first word that babies say. Right now, Alma-Lu only says it when she's crying or fussing. It's so cute. I still puff up with pride and joy when I hear it, even though I know she doesn't know what she's saying. I can't help it. Luci's been mimicking her and whining too "mum mum mum mum mum." Not quite as cute. :)

the road

My beautiful girls and sweet Pete and I are hitting the road, heading for the much anticipated event of the summer: Chippy and Vinnie's wedding. Hooray! Hooray! We are so excited. Then after the festivities, the girls and l will be heading to Colorado for another week of family reunioning. Woo hoo.

See you later, Alligator.

:(

I'm sad about Jon and Kate, and for their eight.
Let's all send them lots of love, ok?

little kookies

Now that Luci's not napping anymore, things can get pretty manic in the afternoon leading up to the big bedtime crash. This is a little taste of dinnertime chez Ferris on the days when it's just me and the girls.



Alma-Luisa thinks her sister is downright hilarious. Can't you just see the years and years worth of antics I have to look forward to with these girls? I'm so glad they get a kick out of each other.

knit and purl

I can't believe I haven't shown this to you yet!...This lovely little cardigan that Rebecca knit for Alma-Luisa. How did Rebecca know, before ever meeting her, that this would be the perfect color for my little blue-eyed redhead? She must be a little bit psychic. I am so in awe of Rebecca's knitting, and so thrilled that she would honor Alma-Lu (and me) with this gorgeous creation. She is such a generous friend. Thank you so much Rebecca! (Ravelry users check out more pics here.)

p.s. photo credit goes to Rebecca too. :)

papa's day

We celebrated on Saturday since Pete had to work today. We had pancakes and went and did yoga in the Botanical Gardens. I think that's the first time I've ever done yoga outside and it was awesome. It felt like the way you're supposed to do yoga; downward dog looking at the grass between your feet, tree pose while gazing at an actual tree, breeze and dappled clouds. There was a separate class for kiddos and I think Lucia really enjoyed it until the very end when she stepped on a bee. What's with this poor girl and the bees and the wasps? For those of you keeping score at home: that's three stings in less than three weeks. Thank god she's not allergic. I hope she won't be phobic about walking in the grass now. She's already afraid of flies and flying bugs. She screams at them to scare them away, which is really lovely when the baby is napping. Not.

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful papas out there, especially our dear Papa Peter who we love so so so much and to my own sweet papa. I love you Daddy! (This is a picture of us from sometime in the very early 80's.)

what's in your beach bag?

Then on Sunday, we were at Crissy Field and I pointed across the bay and under the bridge and showed Luci where we'd been hiking just the day before. We met Kiva, Michael, Jill and Lily the dog for a fun afternoon at the beach. (Not Peter, though. He was working.)

Here's a nice way I found to protect Alma-Luisa from the sun and the blowing sand. How sweet is my little bimba?

Thanks Kiva, Michael, Jill and Lily. Let's do it again!

last saturday

We went across the bridge to see Ginger in a ballet recital. Lucia was spellbound! We have been practicing all the new moves we learned.

On the way, we stopped for a quickie hike down to Kirby Cove. Pete carried Luci on his shoulders almost the whole way down and all the way back up. It was a gorgeous hike. I'd love to do it again some time when we can linger. Even better would be to camp down there.

buckle shoes

On the bus Friday: Mama's buckle shoes and Luci's buckle shoes. I find that we often dress alike and it is completely unconscious on my part. I honestly didn't get it, when I zappos'd these shoes, that they are ridiculously similar to Luci's but with a platform heel. Scary. Someone please stop me if I start wearing pink tutus.

I do love my new Danskos though. And Luci's Saltwaters too for that matter. :)

graduation day

Yesterday was Luci's last day of school before summer break and the big kids, going off to kindergarten next year, were celebrated with a lovely ceremony in the garden.

We sang this song...

We are here to tell you that you're wonderful and beautiful
We are here to tell you, that you are always whole
We are here to notice that your loving is a miracle
How deeply you're connected to our soul

...and Somewhere Over the Rainbow and some other songs. It was very sweet. Luci will miss her friends. Hard to believe that she will be one of the big kids next year.

four months

Hi sweet girl 'o mine,

You are four months old and a few days. How did that happen? You are the chubbiest, yummiest, loveliest baby ever. You've come a long way in the past month. A real Buddha baby: fat and happy! You haven't rolled over again since the last time, over a month ago, but you do manage to move around quite a bit by wiggling and kicking your legs. Lucia was so excited yesterday because you were kicking the rainbow on your little activity mat. She kept saying, "Look at the baby, Mama! She's kicking!" Eventually you wiggled yourself right off the mat. Your newest love is playing with your feet.

You adore your sister. You follow her around with your eyes and she can make you laugh without doing a thing. She's much more interested in you these days, now that she gets such positive reinforcement from you and she gives you a lot of attention. I'm so happy that, after all my pregnancy worrying, your sister adores you too. She loves to make you laugh. Sometimes, she's a little rough with you but you actually don't seem to mind it very much. In the picture below, you and Lucia are on "a boat" (your activity mat) sailing to Zanzibar.


Sleep: Naps are tough. Lucia gave up her naps for good a few weeks ago and that has made getting you down for long naps really challenging, if not impossible. I really worry that you're not getting enough sleep during the day and it stresses me out a lot. Pete has really encouraged me to relax about it and go with the flow, and I'm trying. Lucia and I have hit some very rough patches in the last few weeks as we both adjust to her new hours, and I'm sorry that you've had to experience that. It's been loud and stressful. For the most part, you take your naps, two or three a day, on me in the moby wrap, while we're on the go. (Unless, Pete has the day off and has Luci out of the house.) People often think I'm still pregnant, when they see your big sleeping lump all covered up in the moby. I love having you so close to me. They are not very long naps, typically about a half hour. You are a very light sleeper. Even at night, you stir with our sounds when we come to bed but usually you don't wake up. If you do wake in the middle of the night, you suck your thumb until you go back to sleep. I put you to bed at 7ish and you take a little nap and wake up for more milk and finally go down for good close to 9. You sleep through the night until about 7:15 AM or often earlier if Lucia comes to wake us up. You've pretty much outgrown your snuggle-nest but you're still sleeping in it until we figure out the next step.

Little Bit, you love baths. You kick and swing your arms around and just thrash your whole little body around with joy. It is a sight to see. I'm so sad to say that your baths are few and far between. I just haven't been able to figure out how to juggle life well enough to get you into the tub as often as I should. We don't have a baby bathtub, so I need to get in there with you and then of course, Luci wants to join in too. Rub-a-dub-dub, three girls in the tub. You're a stinky little baby, sweetheart, but it's not your fault! It's my fault that you smell like spit-up once in a while, and this morning I was horrified to find what I think was a smear of yellow on your forehead. "Yellow" is our euphamism for your poop, as in I think the baby's diaper is smelling a bit yellow. Needless to say, we took a bath this afternoon. Sorry, Stinky. I will do better, I promise.

Hmmm, what else? You're a little chatty patty. You say, Ahhhh-oooooo-ah and Ah-guh. We love to hear you talk, and when you do, Lucia just laughs and laughs. It's so cute. You suck your thumb, which is wonderful because you can soothe yourself. I was a thumb-sucker too, so I can relate. Sometimes, if you're very tired or distracted, you try to nurse and suck your thumb at the same time; funny girl.

I want to go on and on about you. I want to try to capture every little thing about you because I feel that the time is passing by so fast and there's so much going on that, even though we're together almost every moment, some nights I go to sleep feeling sad and guilty that I'm not giving you enough attention and that I'm missing out on this precious time. I mean, really, how did you get to be this big already? You're huge! I wish I had time for those all-day-nursing marathons that Luci used to get. Even though, I was probably going stir-crazy at the time, now I wish for those days of being in bed all day in a milky, new-baby haze. Ah well, baby love, I shouldn't complain or wish for was isn't. I am so lucky to have you, just as you are: perfect. Alma-Luisa, I couldn't love you more. My heart is bursting with love for you. I'm always saying to Pete, Isn't she the BEST baby? You're the best! You really are absolutely wonderful. Thank you for being my baby. Thank you for your smiles.

I love you,
Mama

puhcoohoo haha

Did you notice the calamine lotion on Luci's face in the last post? She was stung by a wasp, twice, last wednesday during hiking day with her school. Once by her eye and once on her wrist. I wasn't there when it happened but I was told that she was very brave about it. She cried, of course - I probably would too - but she was very brave. For the rest of the day, the pain would come and go. Poor baby. Calamine and band-aids helped a lot. Funny how band-aids seem to make everything so much better.

On the way out of the house that morning, Luci told me that a little friendly ghostie was going to school with her. She held his hand as she walked down the stairs and as we crossed the street. She made sure that I buckled him before we drove off. I asked her his name and she said, "His name is Puhcoohoo." A bit later she added, "His last name is Haha." Puhcoohoo Haha! What a fantastic name. Go ahead and say it out loud; it's so much fun! I talk with him a lot these days, telling him how important it is to be gentle with the baby, that we wash our hands when we come home and we put our shoes in the shoebox. He is a very agreeable little ghostie and seems to be having a positive effect on Lu. Sometimes we call him Puhcoohoo. Sometimes we call him Puhcoohoo Haha. And sometimes we like to call him Mr. Haha. I like having him around.

speaking of twilight

Don't you love the word twilight? Plus, it's my absolute favorite time of day; just magical. Except for during winter when it's way too fast and kind of depressing.

A while ago I found a piece of paper on which I had begun scribbling a sort of personal manifesto. It didn't get very far. It said:

I believe in skylights and visits from friends that you don't have to clean the house for.
...sharp pencils and rubber cement.
...dusk that lasts for hours.

Totally random, but now that we are speaking of skylights, I want to tell you about Lucia's tiger that she got as a gift from her friend Mary a few weeks ago. Lucia has given him about a half a dozen names since she got him. I wish I could remember them all; I should have written them down. The first was Grass, and then for a long time his name was Shirt, and I think Window for a while too. His name now, and I think this one's a keeper, is Skylight. He's a beautiful tiger with very deep, compassionate, intelligent eyes. I believe ol' Skylight may be an incarnation of dear Johnson's spirit, may he rest in peace.

Here are the girls this evening as I was putting Luci to bed at 6:30. Luci's tucked in with Moosie, Skylight, Goat and Bunny; and her sister, briefly, while I sang her some songs.

twilight hike

Okay, here we go, as promised...a post. These are pictures from last Saturday's twilight hike with Luci's fellow Hummingbirds, followed by a campfire, the requisite hotdogs and s'mores, and singing around the fire.

Luci and her teacher, Marlis
Alma-Luisa's belly buddy, Birch
Mama Laura and her boys
Sweet Alma-Lu in a hat we borrowed from Birch and the ever-present drool
Singing around the campfire
"Mama, I want another sandwich"
Oh me too, Lu. I could live on s'mores. Don't they contain all the necessary food groups? Carbs, sugar and chocolate? Check, check, check. Crunchy, chewy, melty? Check, check, check. But they sure are hard to eat when you're also juggling a camera and a baby and a glass of wine plus trying to keep an eye on a sugar-driven 3 year old running around with a stick. Guess that explains why my camera is all sticky, and you should have seen how much wine Laura and I spilled. It was comical.

Luci stayed up two hours past her new (napless) bedtime and was sooty and sticky and completely melted down by the time we got home, but it was totally worth it. A really fun evening.

coming soon...

This is a preview of coming attractions, i.e. an actual post! It's been so long.

i ♥ saturdays

Papa Peter's day off. (Thursday are fun too, but they are typically spent with one of us taking care of the kids while the other runs of to do his or her own thing - acupuncture for him, Luci calls it "the acupunksh", pilates or sometimes shopping for me). This past Saturday was Ale's birthday party in the park, walking home along the panhandle, stopping for lunch at a new restaurant in our neighborhood, (Nopalito: not cheap, but crazy good), naps for the girls, a netflick for us, and then some family snuggling on the couch.

Life is more fun when Papa's with us. I love you Peter Diddy.

ale

We went to a fun, wintery birthday party in the park on Saturday. I made this juju for the birthday girl; Ale, short for Alessandra. I think it turned out so cute, if I may say so myself.
:)