Lemos Farm with Bubby

A few weeks ago Bubby bought a last minute plane ticket to come see Norah for Halloween. She did the same thing last year and although she doesn't approve of Scary Lady In The Tree, we are hoping this becomes an annual tradition.

Bubby flew in on Saturday morning and we picked her up at the airport and immediately drove to Bubby's favorite place-Half Moon Bay. It was raining and very muddy, and so a perfect time to go to Lemos Farm, for the sole reason that I figured it would be the one time it wasn't packed with people. Thankfully, I was right.

BVZ and Norah in the parking lot. We have a rule that she has to be carried in parking lots and it is something she has just accepted. She gets out of the carseat and car herself and then announces, 'someone come pick me up-there are cars EVERYWHERE!'

She was more than happy to be carried by Bubby through the mud.


We had never been to Lemos Farm before although I had always wanted to go. I just wasn't willing to deal with the crowd. I was pleasantly surprised by how big and extensive the whole place was. There was a petting zoo, pony rides, pumpkin picking, hot chocolate drinking, and a train ride.


The place was wall to wall Halloween decorations. I was impressed.

I feel a little bad about posting this (but not bad enough not to do it)--this is Bubby trying to take a picture of me, BVZ, and Norah with my iphone. Clearly she doesn't understand the concept of which way the phone should be turned. She kept trying to look into the little camera lens and said repeatedly, 'but I can't SEE you!' It makes me laugh because it reminds me of Stephanie's wedding where Bubby had a wee bit too much champagne and managed to get a hold of someone's hand held video camera. Again, she couldn't figure out which way to actually hold it and managed to shoot about 10 minutes of video of her right eye. All you hear in the background is, 'but I can't SEE you!' She then puts the camera down on its side and the next 2 hours of tape (until the battery runs out) is basically a shot of her dancing by herself.

Thankfully, she finally figured it out.

Fun decor, right?

The duck pond was one of Norah's favorite parts.

Yellow caution tape be damned (she wanted to pet the ducks).


Now, one of the main attractions at the farm are the pony rides. It actually bummed me out a little to see, but it is basically 4 or 5 tired old ponies strapped into harnesses. They walk in a circle with kid after kid after kid on top of them (think a living carousel). Anyway, Norah REALLY wanted to ride one of them but I wasn't so sure because parents weren't allowed in the corral. I had a sneaking suspicion that she would be stoked to get on a pony and then lose her mind when she realized she had to do it herself. I don't know, she might have been fine, but I wasn't really in the mood to take the chance. Besides, the pony corral smelled really, really bad and I wanted no part in that.

So, we placated her with the next best thing....the wooden rocking horses.

Now, Norah has been mildly obsessed with Toy Story lately, to the point where she insists on being called Jessie (I am Woody and BVZ is Buzz. Nothing says 2 year old like announcing to the entire grocery store, 'Woody, Woody, where are you? WOODY GET BACK HERE,' when I left her in the cart under Buzz's supervision to grab some milk). So, needless to say she was more than happy to ride 'Bullseye' over and over and over again.



There were like 6 rocking horses and she had to ride every one of them. In the rain. Multiple times. I took probably 97 pictures. You're welcome.


After Bullseye was retired Bubby bought tickets for the Spooky Train ride.


Clearly, Norah loves trains.

The train circles around the farm and then goes up a hill where they have a haunted town set up. It is pretty cute. Norah wasn't scared of any of the characters, rather was excited to shout, 'hi guys!' over and over again.




I really like this picture of Bubby. I plan to crop out Norah's head and use it for her online dating profile that I want to secretly set up (she won't do it herself).

Petting the big spider.

Visiting the ducks one last time.

Making sure all the seats in the house work.


Dancing.

Obligatory American Gothic shot.

The rain was really coming down by that point, so we headed to Sam's Chowder House for lunch. Norah kept asking when we could see and talk to Sam. BVZ and I were a bit confused as to why she thought someone named Sam was there, but we just told her that Sam was busy in the kitchen and we wouldn't get to see him. Well, turns out that on a previous visit, Bubby told Norah that a 3 foot tall wooden statute of a sea captain in the front lobby was 'Sam.' I couldn't believe she remembered that, and so she and Bubby visited Sam several times throughout lunch. She pounded half an adult sized portion of mac and cheese. I wondered aloud what their secret was. BVZ suggested (very kindly) that she preferred it to my mac and cheese because it was made with butter. Not butternut squash.

On the way out we stopped at another farm to pick out pumpkins for carving. Guess who insisted on pushing the wheelbarrow?

All by herself.

She then proceeded to run around the entire patch and attempted to pick up the biggest pumpkins she could find.


When she figured out that was futile, she started pointing and ordering BVZ to pick up the ones she wanted. I think all in all she tried to get us to buy her 17 pumpkins (we got 3).








There was a corn maze that BVZ decided he and I needed to go in. It was less of a maze and more of a black mud mess. The things we do for love.

World Series 2010

So, the San Francisco Giants just won the World Series. This is a particularly big deal because the last time they won was 1954 (which of course means my least favorite professional athlete of all times-Barry Bonds-never won a national title). Anyway, as has been previously reported, BVZ is a life long Giants fan and routinely forces me to watch game after game after game. This season has been excruciatingly long because they just kept winning.

I have to admit, though, it was SO FREAKING CUTE how into the whole thing Norah was and how excited she was to be watching games with her dad. She would immediately perk up when either Tim Lincecum or Buster Posey was on the screen and cheer right along with BVZ.

The first two games were here in SF. Right after their first win we realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that BVZ simply couldn't miss (plus, a friend of his at work peer pressured him into it). So, he cashed in on every Christmas, birthday, and anniversary present for the next 5 years and bought a ticket to Game 2.

I told him he had to do several things: 1) drink as much beer as he wanted, 2) stay out as late as he could, and 3) take pictures for Norah. I was a little disappointed at the amount of beer he drank and the time he got home (like 10:00 pm-granted it was a work night), but he did manage to take a handful of pictures and sent them to us throughout the evening.

On the train on the way up:

Out in front of the ballpark:

In their seats:

Fireworks:

During the game:

As much as I complain about it, there is literally no better place than Giants stadium to watch a game. SF is awesome for a whole lot of reasons, but this place definitely ranks somewhere near the top.

So, congrats Giants and hooray for Norah and BVZ. Now can we please concentrate on more important things? Like the Real Housewives of Orange County, please?

Halloween

Halloween was both awesome and exhausting. I managed to take 203 pictures over the course of two days. I plan to make everyone look at each and every one.

Cooking

Norah has been really into helping me cook lately, which I dig. Tonight she asked for a scrambled egg and not only did she help break the shell but she helped to cook it and added the cheese. I took the pan off the heat and turned my back for less than a split second to spoon it on her plate and when I turned back I discovered that she had dumped the rest of the cheese on the stove (thankfully not on the heat) and was shoveling handfuls of it into her mouth. I am always encouraging her to stuff food into her face, so I couldn't even be mad.

(There was way more on the floor). I helped her clean it up. When we were done she patted me on the shoulder and said, "thanks for the help, Hon." Hon is her new term of endearment. I am not sure where she got it from. I call BVZ Honey sometimes, but never Hon. Perhaps she was an old southern woman in a former life.

Halloween Spider

We are awfully excited for Halloween around here. It is supposed to rain all weekend (boo!) so we are waiting until the last minute to put up the outside decorations. Every year we try to pick up a few new things for the scary front yard and this year we let Norah pick them out. She LOVED the scary Halloween store and wanted the $400 skeleton that rose out of a barrel and glowed green. She didn't get it. Instead, she got a $9.99 pirate torso for the lawn and her new best friend, the $12 spider she has affectionately named, "Halloween Spider" or alternatively "Nemo Spider."

She carries it around everywhere, hugs and kisses it, and wants it to sit with her when she watches tv. She has repeatedly asked that it be allowed to take a bath with her and sleep in her bed, but we have limits, people!


I really love that she isn't freaked out by the Halloween stuff, but considers it to be a whole lot of fun. It must be the de-sensitization she got from Scary Lady last year!

Firegirls

I live for updates about what the girls are doing while I am at work and this was the email (and pictures) that came through yesterday:

We set out for our walk today being astronauts looking for dinosaurs (yes we watched that episode of Caillou again!) since we looked for Halloween decorations on yesterday's walk. As we arrived at Cafe Zoe for our bagel, so did two fire trucks filled with firemen to get some coffee. After striking up a conversation with Ruby and Norah, they invited the girls to sit in the truck and gave them fire hats to keep! A great morning for sure.

PS Since Norah had a dress on today, Ruby wanted her ballerina skirt on over her jeans. One of the firemen said he had a young daughter and recognized the look!

I was really excited to hear that Norah loved climbing up in the truck since she tends to be shy around strangers sometimes (I am sure that having the brave and ballsy Ruby around didn't hurt!), and I don't think she took her new hat off for more than a minute the rest of the evening.

Funkhouser Update: Week 21

Funkhouser continues to do swimmingly. We have had a total of 3 fetal echocardiograms thus far and will continue to do them every other week (on the even weeks) until further notice. The cardiologist suspected we would go to once a week at some point, but as long as things continue to look as good as they have been that might not be necessary. The echos are very time consuming, but I totally like getting to see Funkhouser so often because I am paranoid (shocking, I know). I stole this little meme from a friend's blog and thought it would be a cute and useful way to relate some mundane info. Don't worry, I won't do it too often....

How far along?: 21 weeks.

Weight: No way I am revealing numbers, but I am up only 8 lbs. Which is pretty good considering I am still hanging on to 20+ lbs of Norah. This may change after I eat all of her Halloween candy on Sunday.

Sleep: Shockingly, it is pretty good. I am a life long insomniac and I had major sleep issues during the pregnancy with Norah, so maybe it is all just 34 years finally catching up with me. I have tried to cut down on my water intake close to bed time so I am only getting up a few times to pee, but thankfully am able to go right back to sleep. I busted out the Snoogle pillow the other night and that's making a difference for my back. I have started having weird baby dreams. Now, every time I had a baby related dream when pregnant with Norah, the baby always had a baby body but an adult head and could talk in full sentences, etc. I am sure some dream interpretation book would tell me this means I need to be heavily medicated, but that's how it goes in my head. The other night I had a dream that I was driving Funkhouser around and I looked in the rear view mirror to check on him. He was a cute little baby with the head of John C. Reilly.

Gender: Still a boy. At last week's echo I asked the tech to check. At first he said, "if I had to make a guess I would go with girl" and I thought %^&gffi$%^! But then Funkhouser moved and he said, "oops, nope. All boy." Geesh.

Movement: He's moving a LOT. And I am surprised I can feel it as much as I do because the placenta is anterior (meaning it is at the front of the uterus instead of at the back like it is supposed to be), so he really must be kicking the crap out of me. He is currently breech, so all of the movement from the feet is directly on my bladder.

Feeling: Okay, I guess. As I recently described it to someone, "I feel like crap every other day now instead of every day." I have some bad sciatica on the right side (sharp shooting back pain) that flares up every once in a while. The weather has really gotten cold (which I like), but it aggravates all of my connective tissue issues and my skin has been really angry and irritated. One of the freaky things that happens is Secondary Raynaud's Phenomenon, which every once in a while causes some of my fingertips, and less often the tips of my toes, to lose color. It isn't a big deal, but is kind of a pain (if you click on the link, don't panic. What happens to me is NOWHERE as near as severe as those pictures).

Food Cravings: Nothing really, just lots of aversions. Specifically to any and all kinds of meats (including fish). I can't cook it and can barely eat it. I do okay if it is in a casserole, soup, covered in sauce, etc. but sometimes even that is pushing it. Not much sounds good, other than my nightly bowl of ice cream.

Fetal fruit (There is a website that compares the size of the fetus every week to a different fruit): Banana.

Rainy Sunday

It finally feels like fall around here, and nothing could make me happier. It poured all day long today and even though it ruined our plans to go to Happy Hollow with T & S, it meant we could take it easy and play inside all day. This morning we watched The Princess and the Frog, which as far as princess movies go wasn't so bad. On a scale of offending my delicate feminist sensibilities it was only about a 3. Of course Norah loved it.

After lunch I broke out what I had been saving for just this occasion-finger paints. Beyond a great time, and entertained her for a good 45 minutes. I got Crayola paint, which was non-toxic and wiped off of everything very easily. But the colors were great and Norah's favorite part by far was when I would spread the paint all over her hand and she would slam it down on the paper, creating a perfect hand print.



Her masterpiece. I am totally hanging it up in my office tomorrow.

Later we decided to make Halloween cookies for the neighbors and Norah was legitimately good at rolling out the dough.

She wasn't quite as good at decorating, so once it stopped raining BVZ took her out to splash in puddles while I repaired her handiwork.

During bath time we played her new favorite game-permutations of her as the grown up and me as the baby. Tonight she 'baked' cookies while I cried because I wanted one. Then she took them out of the oven but I still couldn't have one because it was so hot. Then she ate up all the cookies and wouldn't give the baby any. I suspect it was payback for the fact that I wouldn't let her have 1) one with frosting, and 2) 17 more after her allotted cookie.

I will take a rainy Sunday any day of the week.

The Things We Do for Love

I have the world's most sensitive eyes. I literally have to wear sunglasses at all times, even when it is overcast. Norah either inherited my eyes or my giant mouth (okay, I guess it could be both), because anytime the sun is in her eyes she hollers. HOLLERS. Her sunglasses are of no use, she has to have mine. And because I love her (and hate the hollering), I give them to her.

Don't worry, this was not actually taken while driving. We had just pulled into the gas station.

Giants

BVZ really, really, really, really loves the San Francisco Giants. They have been his favorite team since he was a little kid. He has been a loyal supporter through good times and bad and has repeatedly tried to add 'Barry' to the list of potential baby names. We haven't been to the ball park as much since Norah has been born as we have in years past (I think he's been to 5 games a season versus 20), but watching the games at home have taken on a whole new meaning as he teaches Norah the rules, the players, and inundates her with random Giants trivia.

Time is precious around here and there are a LOT of regular season games, so BVZ got in the habit of DVR'ing them so he could fast forward through commercials, time outs, pitching changes, etc. It saved him time, and really, kept my complaining about the fact that there was a game EVERY FREAKING NIGHT to a minimum. Norah can now correctly identify Tim Lincecum (long hair) and Brian Wilson, aka B. Weezy (dark stupid beard). When anyone else in a Giants uniform comes on she hollers, BUSTER POSEY!

BVZ of course was beyond thrilled when the Giant made the first round of the playoffs, but he continued to DVR the games because they were simply too stressful for him to watch live.* As the Giants advanced once and then again, the stress got worse and worse and finally he got to the point where he would pace the floor and watch the text feed on his iphone and then allow himself to watch the action on tv once he already knew what was going to happen.

Last night the Giants won the pennant and advanced to the World Series. When we learned this (from the nice people on the internet), we were watching the bottom of the fifth. There was much celebrating, the tv got turned live, and then BVZ resumed watching the game once the excitement subsided. We considered for about 10 minutes trying to get tickets to one of the first two games, but the cheapest we could find was $500 a ticket. Considering the fact that Norah needs new bedroom furniture and Funkhouser needs a college account, it didn't seem quite so practical.

So even though we won't be there in body we will be in spirit. GO GIANTS!

*It is no great secret that I am not much of a sports fan. It isn't that I don't enjoy the games themselves it is just that I can't stand how seriously the players, commentators and fans take a GAME. There are a lot of politics involved and even more money. I think everyone would be better served if it went back to just being a game, but no one listens to me.

Snug as a Bug

Every morning Norah likes to pick out something special to take to Ruby's. Sometimes it is her doctor's kit, sometimes a stuffed animal, and all last week it was her new set of nesting dolls. Today she insisted on bringing her lady bug pillow and told me she was going to "hold hims in the car and give hims kisses the whole way to Ruby's." BVZ reported that Ruby was just as excited when lady bug pillow got to her house and then Pam later sent this photo.

Any worries I have about Norah not getting a sister are assuaged when I see pictures like this. :)