Santa Barbara Zoo

Wednesday was my "day off" from work, so I only ended up working for an hour or two (from the back of the minivan in Zack's work's parking lot, while he took her with him on a long lunch - I have to figure this out at some point!). Anyway, after that Beatrice and I spent the afternoon at the Santa Barbara Zoo. It was fantastic.

They have a new park within the zoo, which Beatrice semi-enjoyed. She has decided to be skeptical of people these days. Her first reaction is now to scowl at people first, smile later. Except for some random people - for those people she nearly leaps out of my arms to smile and wave at. I'm not sure how she distinguishes these folks from others, but most everyone now gets the scowl captured below.

We missed the train that takes you around the zoo, but luckily there is a 25cent equivalent. Beatrice LOVED it.

After it stopped moving (with music), she gave me this look:

Random Tuesday

Today was a gorgeous, spring-like day. I also spent my lunch hour with Beatrice and Sarah B, so it was a great day too! Sarah B took some fantastic (and fantastically embarrassing) photos of B and me:


And finally...Happy Birthday Ellie!

More pictures from Mammoth

But you have to go to Jasandra's blog (fantastic, by the way) to see them:
http://thirdcontinentshift.blogspot.com

Babies and Booze

Ok, so that's a bit provocative for a title, but ... these things must be done to keep the readership happy, right?


Anyway, since we've returned I'm happy to say Beatrice has reverted back to being a baby who sleeps through the night...ALONE. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, she did her very best to weasel into our bed, but we stood our ground and wouldn't let her leave her room. Lots of new parents (after cursing me profusely) have asked how in the world we got Beatrice to sleep through the night so early.
*Answer 1: We didn't, she really did it on her own; she's a baby that likes to sleep. (We're positive the next one will sleep 5 hours total between ages 0-2.)
*Answer 2: After about 8 weeks, once we put her down for the night, we never let her leave that room. Thus we spent quite a bit of time at midnight/2am in her room, in the dark. Not sure if that is the magic answer, but Friday night, after about a half hour, that's what finally worked.

We had a nice weekend, and we agreed that the best end to a week's vacation is two full days at home relaxing. At least we finally got two full nights of sleep! Beatrice has enjoyed being at home. She first had to play with EVERY SINGLE ONE of her toys on Saturday morning (and combing through all of her books to find pictures of "ba ba ba" balloons). And on Sunday we got her a real chair. Which she loves climbing in and out of. And sitting in with her various stuffed animals.

I've included some other random shots from the weekend. Helping Daddy put on his shoes...sitting with her babies...

...and examples of Beatrice dressing herself. I know no one believes me, but she picked out these shoes (1 inch too long) which she insisted on wearing for an hour, and then these leg warmers on her arms. It's amazing how much you can communicate with pointing and grunting.

So finally...babies and booze...Beatrice was playing with her babies again today (dancing a jig with them actually), when she heard Daddy making martinis. In the end, she got an olive. A pre-gin-soaked one.

...and then we needed chains

The way I like to tell it, it took us 5 hours to travel the first 12 miles off the mountain. Needless to say, we were a bit frustrated. Let me recap, in brief:
* Thursday morning: Zack and I drove to the local gas station to buy chains. The guy there said we definitely wouldn't need them. He didn't want to sell them to us, as he'd be scamming us. Nice guy. So we left.
* Friday morning, 7:30am: We make some phone calls. Chains are required to leave town and on the main highway.
* 8:30am: Zack and I leave to go to the gas station again (this time by gondola/bus/walk combo). Luckily Sarah B is there to stay with Beatrice!
* 9:00am: We buy chains for the van and head back by walk/bus/gondola combo.
* 9:45am: We arrive at the condo and start putting the chains on the van tires.
* 9:55am: We realize the chains ain't workin....
* 10am: I call the guy at the gas station. He thinks we are morons (I had mentioned I was from Georgia where snow like this was uncommon). We recheck the tire sizes and he calls Goodyear to double check.
* 11am: 1 hour and half of "Bull Durham" later...the guy they sent out for $95/hour comes to install the chains.
* 11:02am: The guy says, "No way, these aren't the right size." Duh. Luckily he's brought a spare set just in case...
* 11:04am: The spare doesn't work either.
* 11:55am: Guy returns with a brand new set of chains. They work. He doesn't charge us anything.
* 11:57am: Chains are on, we're all in the van, and off down the mountain.
* 1:30pm: Twelve miles down the mountain...we finally take off the chains and go above 30mph. Zack guesses it would have been faster and cheaper to have been towed.

The rest of the drive was easy by comparison, though the winds kept us on our toes. Beatrice really only started losing it around 7pm, with 1.5 hours left to go. So I got out the camera, and ... smiling, happy, cheesy Baby appeared!

...and kept snowing...

John and Jasandra stopped by on Thursday morning to say goodbye. Luckily they escaped the heavy snow! This is the view from our condo (note the gondola in the upper right corner).

I'm really not a great skier. Passable at best. So when it really, really started snowing on Thursday afternoon, I didn't have to work that hard to convince Zack we should head in early. Plus I was able to use Beatrice as a lure...worked like a charm.

We (brilliantly) decided to take Beatrice out for a walk and gondola ride to town. Bea has been watching the gondolas go by all week, calling them "ba-ba" for balloon, which is her favorite thing in the world. So we treked up to the gondola and toured town.


Bebe did get a bit concerned on the gondola with all of the wind, but we all clapped and sang to make it fun. That worked ok.


When we finally got back home Sarah B was waiting for us and had a good laugh watching us all play in the ever-increasing fresh powder.



Beatrice particularly enjoyed wiping the snow off of the van in preparation for our departure early the next day.


Those of you who have spent any time with Beatrice will know that she loves phones. Sarah B's phone is a particular favorite of hers, because it has PICTURES on it. So cool.

I can hear it now...

B: "But Mommy, I NEED a phone."

Me: "No you don't."

B: "Yes, I do."

Me: "But you're only 3 years old!"