Great Day for a Bike Ride

I love the weather we are having. Upper 50s in late November, awesome.

Greta is really starting to get the hang of the Strider... hopefully the winter won't cause her to forget her skills.

The video doesn't fully capture it, but she's starting to get going at a pretty good pace and then lift her legs off the ground and 'ride'/'glide' for a little bit. It's pretty unstable and only lasts a second or so, but pretty cool to see her progress on the bike.

What a Day - Haircuts, Christkindl Markt, Santa, Pony Rides and Balloons

Otto's first haircut kicked it off, and boy did he did it. He rocked it, didn't cry... I don't even think he really even knew what was going on...

Then we went to the Christkindl Markt at Germania Park. It's a German Christmas fair that combines Santa, Pretzels, Jugglers and a petting zoo... sounds odd, but it works...maybe because they have beer (it is German after all). We had absolutely no intention of going to see Santa, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and we didn't even take Greta to see Santa at all last year... but then we were there, and Greta decided she was going to see the big guy... She just took off, climbed up the stairs and walked right up to him... so we went with it... and now we've got that checked off the list for the year...

And what trip to a Christmas fair wouldn't be complete without a ride on a pony?

We capped off the day with Balluminaria at Eden Park

First time I've ever been. Greta enjoyed it, though we didn't stick around to the very end. Probably best though, as I think trying to get out of there after would have been a challenge.

Greta Loves Taking Care of Otto

bubbles

tonight after dinner, there was a skillet filled with hot, soapy water in our sink. greta was DYING to play in the bubbles.....
so while i washed out the skillet and did the rest of the dishes, i filled a small tupperware container with soapy water, she got some cups to play with, and voila. she was so focused and content, and she played with this until bedtime. once i got the dishes finished, i started to feel kinda bad for her that it was such a SMALL thing of water. but i don't think she minded.

rice cereal mess

i remember reading in some parenting book to let your baby "explore" with their food, getting familiar with the texture by putting some on the tray, in their hand, etc. with greta, i thought this sounded not only ridiculous, but also like a huge mess. with otto....oh well, what's the big deal about a mess? i guess we'll see how i feel when the mess is carrots or peas.....

toys

again....why buy toys when a recent trip to the grocery provides plenty of new things to play with??

do you like my varsity sweater?