Ready to Go

Tonight Damie and I went walking (we're going to do that three nights a week now, while Jason is in wind symphony) and while Kayla and I waited for Damie and Ryann to come outside, we played a little game where Kayla was cute and I took pictures with my phone. It was an easy game. I sent this one to Daddy who was in rehearsal. I walked just over two miles; Damie walked to Wal-Mart, making her walk just under 1 3/4 miles, unless she also walked back, which I don't know. In which case she walked quite a bit more. I'm excited about walking in College Place again. I've missed it.

Across the Miles

As I was walking through the administration building for a meeting I glanced out one of the stairwell windows and loved the view. The glass building with the dome on top is Chan Shun Pavilion/Kretschmar Hall (they're supposedly two separate buildings but from inside it's all one), and the roof right outside the window is the top of the Fine Arts Center, home to the music and art departments. CSP/KH house Engineering (CSP) and Math, Physics, Computer Science and Astronomy (KH). It's definitely spring out there! (This view is facing south.)

Finger Food

Kayla has started the process of feeding herself. Last week we determined she could eat Cheerios, so we've been letting her enjoy that every evening. It's fun to watch her; she has pretty good pincer grasp technique, but often the Cheerios get pushed to the inner part of the space between her index finger and thumb and then get all slobbery and soggy and squished into the palm of her hand. Watching her try to extract the Os and put them in her mouth in that fashion is pretty entertaining. She really enjoys feeding herself. And she actually gets almost all of them in her mouth; I've never found more than one Cheerio on the floor and one in her high chair.

Payback

Chloe and Kayla are getting more and more used to each other...well, actually I guess I should say that Kayla is getting more tolerant of Chloe's presence. For some reason Kayla has a very large personal space bubble and Chloe has none, so Kayla is constantly crying when Chloe gets too close. If you recall the pictures of them in their matching winter dresses, Chloe made good on her reputation of being super friendly and unaware of personal boundaries and stuck her fingers in Kayla's eyes, nose and mouth (all at the same time). Kayla of course cried, and the resulting photos were hilarious. Tonight, Kayla attempted to return the favour.

Sabbath Walk

This afternoon Jason wanted to do something outside, so he suggested walking up the hill at Yantis Park. That is quite a walk...especially when you're pushing a stroller up that steep hill. Jason had Raina for the steepest part, so she basically pulled him up. At one point we saw a snake curled up on the path, but when we got up to it, it wasn't quite what you'd call "alive" anymore. Jason kicked it off the path and we continued on our way. It was a small snake (not a rattler), but we couldn't identify it, as it wasn't a simple garter snake, either. Once we got to the top, we stopped to rest where there used to be a covered bench (now there's just a covered slab of cement), and Jason walked down a narrow trail to take a picture of what was at the end of it. What IS at the end of it? Not much. About where that tree is (the yellowish shrub at the bottom of the tennis courts) it drops straight down. Raina was quite concerned that Jason hadn't taken her along. The view from the top is quite lovely, actually, especially in spring. It was windy, but not cold.

Watercress Soup

Tonight we made watercress soup. It was something we hadn't tried before but boy was it delicious! It was easy soup to make; you pretty much just cook some potato and onion for a bit, then add broth and watercress, cook that for a while, blend it up, add a few more watercress leaves for texture and then serve it with a dollop of sour cream (or not, Dad!) in each bowl. Absolutely delicious! We enjoyed it with whole wheat sourdough bread. This is Jason stripping the leaves off the stems of the watercress.

Nom Nom!

Yes indeed...she has found her toes. If only we stayed this flexible...