Mama

Today Aoife said mama repeatedly for the first time. She's been saying it now and then, but now she can cry "mama mama" many times. Tim's jealous! Yesterday, she very clearly said "dada" once. I'm so impressed with her. She's saying a lot of consonant sounds this week and is having fun practicing them. She's also trying to sit by herself. Look at her above wearing G-nanny's shirt "lucky charm".



Aoife puts up a fuss every evening if I don't take her for a walk. As I put on her green moby, she pouts her lips and flails her arms vigorously while making excited noises. She loves her evening walk. She especially loves to look at the trees blowing in the wind. One day, she was captivated by the telephone lines. Whenever she hears a bird, she turns her head to find it, but she never does. Above are pictures of Aoife underneath my favorite flower in Berkeley. These are huge yellow bells which have the most beautiful aroma which you can smell from quite far away. There's Aoife pulling one towards her face; it was a struggle to make her let go.

A couple of weeks ago Dorrie had mentioned that Aoife was fascinated with the pocket on her shirt, so I decided to cut out pockets from old clothes and I placed them in places around our house. I stuffed each one with an animal for her to pull out and play with. She's a little young to enjoy it now, but you never know when she might catch on to it.

Even though it was Dorrie's birthday on Wednesday, she still came over to look after Aoife, so I baked a blueberry cake for her. Dorrie decided to share her chocolate cake with Tim and I which we consumed with rolled eyes and "mmmmm's". Aoife and Dorrie had a great time together. Dorrie's mother used to sing a hat song, and she introduced it to Aoife. Dorrie took her over to our hat rack, and put the hats on. To celebrate Dorrie's birthday, her and Dave are going to the green gulch farm Zen center. I had never heard of it before, but I really want to go. It's a Buddhist practice center in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition offering training in Zen meditation and ordinary work. Its mission is to awaken in ourselves and the many people who go there the bodhisattva spirit, the spirit of kindness and realistic helpfulness. It's buffered up between a mountain and the ocean in the most beautiful area close to where we live. I love Marin county.

Tim and I had a pretty quiet weekend. We decided to stay home and relax! We went to a few garage sales and picked up some handy things. Tim and I are trying to eat more healthy these day, so we bought a juicer for .50cent; what a deal. It works great and we've already made a couple litres of juice. Tim baked some zucchini bread while I made our favorite trail mix.
1 part roasted pumpkin seeds
1 part roasted sunflower seeds
1 part roasted salted soybeans
1.5 parts dried cranberry
1 part crushed crystallized ginger
1 part chocolate chips.
6.5 parts deliciousness!!!