Around the house

From this blog you might think that Cara leads a charmed life, constantly playing in the great outdoors. While she does enjoy being outside, in reality she spends most of her time at home making do with the toys we give her. And the toys we don't give her...

Kitchen implements are always fun, which we hope will translate to a daughter who enjoys cooking as much as we do. And have all our mountain trips spurned her delight in going up stairs? Only time will tell, but Cara does seem to be training for climbing. In reality, almost anything is fun to explore, including J's purse. Luckily she sometimes plays with her own toys too.

Not a loss but a gain

Sorry for the break in the posts. Another shift in all our lives, as J had to return to work at the end of August. We were a little worried at how Cara would take not being around mom all day. Losses in her life have occurred every three months so far as she shifted from nursery to foster home to our family. Would she see J returning to work as another loss? Well, from all we can tell, she doesn't seem to be grieving at all, but rather she celebrating having a loving nanny, Ms. A, as a notable gain to her circle of doting adults. Ms. A takes her to the park every day, never drags her to Target, and will happily help Cara explore a cardboard box for 20 minutes without running off to do a load of laundry or check her email. Not bad at all.

Although not quite perfect. After two wonderful weeks of having Ms. A's undivided attention, Isabel came on the scene. We're sharing Ms A. with another family whose daughter is just 1 month older than Cara. So Cara is beginning to learn the difficult lessons of sharing toys, people and space with another little girl. And hopefully also learning the joy of her first friend.

Life's a beach

Not all of Cara Hsiu-Wen's outings are to the mountains. While it is a bit of a drive to the ocean, Seattle is bounded by Puget Sound to the west and has several nice parks with beaches. A few weeks ago we took Cara to Discovery Park, along with a visitor from Norway. They were both impressed with trip, although at slightly different scales. Our visitor enjoyed the calm Puget Sound shore and pleasant cobble/sand beach. Cara was more intrigued with the cobbles themselves. They bang together nicely, are a little salty and can also bang on a log. She told us a lot about her opinions on rocks.

We're looking forward to next summer maybe actually getting Cara in the water (but on a warmer day!)

Another day in the mountains

After the success of our first hike the obvious question was where to go next? The Snoqualmie Pass area has lots of nice hikes, but the Mountain Loop highway is only a slightly longer drive. The trail up to the meadows on Forgotten Peak only slightly longer than Melakwa Lake. And maybe her auntie, Auntie D, would be able to carry her for part of the hike? A little more of a push, but Cara Hsiu-Wen keeps proving herself up to new challenges.

The drive up gave Cara the opportunity for a nice nap, again ending just as we turned off the highway for the trail head. A diaper change, some sunscreen and general optimism at the lack of bugs and we were off. When we reached the falls and the creek crossing we discovered that our appraisal of the bug situation was incorrect. A planned stop for Cara to have a bottle and crawl around a bit was cut short by the swarm of deer flies that immediately descended whenever we stopped. Cara was somewhat less than thrilled with the program, but let Auntie D carry her and after some fussing fell asleep for the remainder of the hike up.

The endless switchbacks finally gave way to the open meadows of Forgotten Peak. We saw few people on the trail and almost no one on the meadows, so we hunted around for a prime location, part shade and part sun to stop for lunch, savor the views, and Cara stretch her legs while us sherpas rested ours. There were no bugs and a light breeze made conditions perfect for a leisurely lounge and some photo taking.

But the long trail down awaited us. Reluctantly we packed up our bags and Cara and headed down the buggy trail. We paused only briefly on our descent for some food, swarmed at each stop by biting flies. The lack of crawling time left Cara a little irritable on the drive home, but with the radio to distract her she eventually fell asleep and we enjoyed the satisfaction of having completed a fun day out in the mountains. Somehow Cara remained bite free, although her mother was less fortunate and required liberal amounts of calamine lotion to soothe her itching legs. A worthwhile trade-off as we continue to train our mountain girl.

Food, glorious food

Luckily Cara's diet doesn't consist entirely of wood chips. Dried leaves are another favorite, and proven choking hazard. Wouldn't want Mom to get bored while exploring the great outdoors! But when she is inside, Cara Hsiu-Wen is quite happy to be fed a growing list of yummy foods. She's even happier when she can stuff the foods into her mouth herself. Needless to say, this can get a little messy, as the above photo shows. But who cares when she is having so much fun! More rice and peas, please!

In The Park

Cara is definitely an active baby, and loves getting out and about. Luckily there are several parks within walking distance of our house, and she has explored them all by now. Not that she can do much independently (except eat wood chips), but walking around with someone holding her hands, swinging and going down the slide are all favorite activties. Or just hanging out with Dad, who is always fun!

Bath Time

Okay, I've fallen behind again. No huge changes over the last three weeks, but Cara is definitely growing in all directions. She's crawling just fine and getting faster every day, especially if there is a cat in sight. She has become a pro at pulling herself up to a stand on almost everything, including Mom's legs (doesn't even require long pants to hang on to any more). She has also become very skilled at sitting down from a stand, so we've had very few bonked heads recently. Ironically enough, most of the recent bonks have come from Cara falling backwards while sitting down. She starts waving her arms around and boom, over she goes. Luckily it isn't too far to the ground yet...

Cara is also turning out to be a water girl and loves her baths. The above photo is after a bath, luxuriating in a lovely new towel that a friend gave her. Life isn't so bad!