I love this train!

There is a steam train in Tilden Park in Berkeley. It is a real, live, working steam train – albeit a bit smaller. We took the little Bean to take a ride. Stopped off for some Ethiopian food for lunch – Emma was not the biggest fan, although she ate enough. I loved it!!! I kinda love food in every language though…

Anyway, we ate our fill of chicken tibs and we were off to Tilden. We followed the signs off the 24 just east of the tunnel, headed up the hills, and turned into the steam train area. Wow. A parking lot full of SUV’s and minivans with loads of families…umm…so we are officially “those” people. Whatever, we parked, lathered up Bean in sunblock and we were ready to go.

Bean had other ideas. She decided it was time to take a deuce. Awesome. Nothing more fun than changing a loaded diaper on the road. While cleaning up her little behind, we heard the train blowing its horn – the last time I was that excited was when my copy of Ace of Base’s “Da Capo” cd arrived from Bulgaria – had to buy it bootleg from some guy over ebay because they didn’t release it in the US, but I digress.

I quickly tidied things up with Bean’s tush and we tried again. We walk over to the ticket booth ready to buy our tickets and they only take cash. $2 per adult. Cheryl’s got a dollar bill, I’ve got a dollar bill and a Benny (whole other story about why I have the $100 bill in my wallet at all times) so we are out of luck. We bought one ticket, argued a bit about who would go, and then wifey went and scraped through the glove box and change container in the car. Scraping together nickels and pennies, we got the other $2 – woo-hoo!

Train pulled in, we got on and we were off. It was a nice ride through the surrounding area. The smell of the train, the burning sun (it was well into the 90s) and Bean mimicking the train horn made for a fun ride.

Now, the little monster goes up to the computer, points, says something close to “train,” makes the sign for train, and we have to pull up videos of steam trains for her. Thank you Youtube!!!

Setting the Record Straight

So, I'm in the bathroom shaving the other day. The Bean walks in, points at me, and says, "Dada." She points at herself and says, "Emma." Turns around and walks out. Glad we cleared that up.

Expressive Eyes

This kid has some eyes. She give us some looks that just kill me. Somehow, she manages to mix curiosity and concern with being utterly aloof, and it is as cute as can be. See examples below. Also of interest is the bottom picture, which is proof positive of where she gets her kooky tendencies from...

Prunes do what???

A new found joy is feeding little Bean. We strap her into her baby seat, put on a bib (oh, does she hate the bib!!!) and get to work shoveling mushed stuff into her. She loves vegetables. She loves cottage cheese. She hates fruit! Gets this look of disgust on her face and cringes and one time puked after tasting kiwi. One exception is prunes. She loves - LOVES!!! - prunes. At least she did until she found out what happens when you eat too much mushed prunes...see her facial reaction below...

If Robert Blake and Grandpa Munster had a child...

...she'd probably look like this

Funny, huh?

My kid has a proximity sensor

Cheryl had to go to do food tasting tonight. Okay, so that probably needs some explaining. Some years back, while strolling through the row of tents down the middle of the street during Dublin's St. Patty's day festival, we happened upon an opportunity to sign up to be food testers. The National Food Lab was in Dublin (moved to Livermore a couple months back, but we still go) and they needed tester. We show up, go in a room with people in lab coats, eat something, answer questions, get $25, leave. Awesome!

Anyway, so Cheryl was out in Livermore testing toffee popcorn. I went last night to test granola bars. The kid was asleep and for the hour or so we were home, not a peep on the monitor. Cars were blowing horns in the parking lot, alarms were going off, I banged a few things around in the kitchen - nothing. As soon as Cheryl walked in, though, the kid started crying. Crazy.

Couple of weeks back, I took her for a walk. We got a couple blocks from home, and she started to cry. We walked back. As we close to home, she stopped. We kept walking and as soon as we were as far from home - in the other direction this time - she started crying again. We turned around and as soon as we got close to home, she stopped. I think she has a proximity sensor connected to her mom...?

Emma Meets Santa

Emma handled her first encounter with old St. Nick pretty well. She smiled a couple of times (lousy camera guy missed the smiles) and tugged on his beard, which we think was real...oh Emma!