The day before Thanksgiving, I thought it might be fun to take Emi-chan to Happy Hollow Park and Zoo at Kelley Park. When we pulled into the parking lot, I thought, "Score!" Free parking. Little did I know that the reason why parking was free is because Happy Hollow was closed!!! Closed, darn you!!! But, we weren't the only ones that tried to visit the zoo. Tons of people were pulling into the parking lot, and then immediately leaving. I decided that we would explore the park a little bit.
Emi-chan and I walked down a path which lead to the Japanese Friendship Garden. It was built to commemorate the sister-city relationship San Jose has with Okayama. Emi-chan and I explored the different levels of the garden. There were pretty ponds, noisy brooks, cute ducks, lovely waterfalls, beautiful trees.
We had a full day today. There was a little parade at school. Most of the kids didn't come in costume and their parents dressed them in class...or at least tried to. A couple of kids refused to wear their costumes and cried. We had to coerce Emi-chan to wear her Angry Bird costume I made.
I'm not so sure about this...
She wore it for the parade and it came off as soon as it was over. Then, we went inside and played games and made crafts.
March, march, march!
Rick drawing a crowd
In the evening, we took Emi-chan out to do some trick-or-treating. The kids at school practiced trick-or-treating at school all last week and I tried to remind her how to go up to a house, knock or ring the doorbell, then say, "Trick-or-treat!" In real time, she did fine ringing the doorbell and when it was time to say, "trick-or-treat," she would say something like, "doggie!" or "aaaah!" But that's okay. She made out like a bandit and brought home tons of candy for mama herself.
Today, when I dropped Emi-chan off at school, her teacher, Miss B, and her assistants were so excited to see me. Miss B said that they forgot to show me something Emi-chan had done a couple of days ago. Miss B brought out an alphabet puzzle and a toy mushroom. She said, "Emi-chan can spell a word!" We watched Emi-chan pop out some letters and this is what she spelled:
Yup! The first word Emi-chan spelled on her own (other than her name) is "Pixar." She used the mushroom like the lamp on the Pixar logo and stomped on the "I" so it would fall over. So proud of her! I think I need to cut back on how many DVD's she watches a week.
On one of the last days of Rick and Emi-chan's vacation we decided to make a little trip down to Half Moon Bay. It was a pretty typical day in HMB: cloudy, cold and foggy. There was barely a hint of the sun all day.
We first stopped off at the Lemos Farm on 92. It was a cute little farm/play area. There was pony rides, a little play area, petting zoo, and picnic tables. Emi-chan loved the pony rides. We went on twice. The odd thing was that rather than one of the workers leading the pony, the parents had to lead the pony. The ponies know that they're being led by nervous amateurs so the one I was leading with Emi-chan got a little fiesty with me. I was a little scared.
Little pony can smell fear
Later, we made our way down to a beach (don't remember the name) and hung out for a little bit. The waves were a little scary (so were the outhouses) but we had fun digging in the sand and watching Emi-chan having fun.
We took a short trip down to Pismo Beach a few days ago. Uncle Ted and Uncle Vince joined us for a day. We spent most of our time on the beach, despite the weather being a little dreary and the waters freaking cold. Emi-chan loved being on the beach and we had a hard time going back to the hotel when it was time to go back. She kept running into the waters and Mama followed her in. My toes ached from the freezing cold! But it was still worth it to see Emi-chan loving the freedom of being on the beach and in the waters. She also had fun burying her toy flamingo and toy penguin in the sand and recreating this video:
We also visited a couple of farms. One was a much more traditional farm, with corn growing, food stand, animals you could feed, picking fruit, etc. The second farm was called Ostrich Land and it was a real freaky trip! You pay to visit ostriches and emus and you could feed them. It was exhilarating and frightening in a Jurassic Park kind of way.
Avila Valley Farm
A normal farm stand
Ostrich Land
A not so normal farm
Rick and Ted using Emi-chan
as a human shield as they feed an ostrich
A few random shots of the trip:
On the pier
A man feeding a pelican on the pier
Trying to keep Emi-chan from jumping from the pier
The Little Mermaid in Solvang
after we fed the ostriches
It was a fun and different trip. Maybe we won't go to see the ostriches next time.
Guess what happened one day? While I was busy (probably either folding laundry or surfing the web), Emi-chan got into the eggs and decided to "experiment."
At first I didn't understand her question when she came up to me and asked "What happened to the eggs?" I said, "I dunno."After she asked the question a couple more times, it finally dawned on me that she did something to the eggs. First I looked around the living room, then the spare bedroom and behind the TV, and on the couch. Nothing. Then I looked in the refrigerator, and this is what I found:
Apparently, she was recreating the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, at least that's what I kind of pieced together. It was not a happy night for mama.
Emi-chan wanted an ice cream bar from the ice cream man one hot day at the park, despite the fact that she doesn't like ice cream (too cold). She chose one based solely on the cartoon character on the packaging. As soon as we opened it, I knew we were in trouble. First it tasted awful.
"Yucky!" said Emi-chan
And, it looked awful.
It looks like a skull, right?
Guess again! Aaagh!
This is actually Tweety Bird. Can you see the resemblance?
Oops! I forgot about Easter! We went down to visit Grandma and Grandpa to spend Easter weekend with them and go to their church. We had a nice, relaxing visit.
Emi-chan really liked the Easter egg hunt. This year, I think she finally understood what she's was supposed to do and that she really had fun (she really enjoyed stealing an egg from a toddler).
For a change of pace, an because Emi-chan kept clamoring to see fishies, Rick and I decided to take her to the Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39. We hate driving in the City, but for our cutie pie, we did it (or at least Rick did. I just navigated).
The aquarium was much smaller than we expected. We're spoiled by Monterey Bay Aquarium and by the Steinhart Aquariums, but this aquarium had glass tunnels under (in?) the tanks so up were surrounded by sea water and all kinds of sea creatures. We stayed in the tunnels for awhile.
You ride a conveyor belt through the tunnels
Emi-chan was scared but fascinated by all the creatures swimming around her. Eventually, we went back upstairs and looked at other exhibits. She loved the ray tank where you could touch the rays. Emi-chan played in the water most of the time. I touched one the rays. It felt weird.
Come here, fishy fishy fishy!
Rick wanted to get some crab, so we walked over Fisherman's Wharf and bought a crab. It was interesting to watch the guy crack and clean the crab for us.
Then we went back to Pier 39 and visited the sea lions...
Recently, Emi-chan and I went on a play date with one of her classmates, Little Boy M, and his Mom, M. Another family was supposed to join us, but couldn't make it. Emi-chan was excited to see the animals, but both she and Little Boy M spent most of their time on the rides and on the play structures. We all had a good time and I got to chat with M and learn more about her and her family. But, boy! It was exhausting chasing after 2 energetic kids!
Emi-chan and I had a play date at The Jungle with a friend from her old co-op preschool days. I haven't seen E-san, I-chan, and Little I-kun in months so it was fun to hang out with them.
There were a couple of firsts for Emi-chan. One major one is that she actually spent time playing with I-chan! It was neat to see them running around together, giggling and taking turns with the games. Another is that Emi-chan acutally climbed into part of the maze. Usually, she would freak out when she tried to venture into the nets and tunnels, but she braved it to keep up with I-chan. I was very proud of her.
It's been a L-O-N-G time since I last posted. I was lazy (like usual) and we all were fighting one cold after another. We're finally healthy (knock on wood). Hopefully, we'll stay healthy for awhile.
Emi-chan's has done a lot since the last time. She's doing very well at school and on the most part, can handle herself fine during outings (except for maybe today...).
I'll be posting again soon. Here are some teasers for upcoming posts:
