Frances, just like Gia.

Did you read the Frances books when you were little? You know, the ones about the little creature (I think porcupine- I googled it to no avail) that was so sweet and only wanted to eat bread and jam.

Until that was all she had eaten for nearly a week!!?! Suddenly, left out and sad she wanted to eat other things. And her family ate soft boiled eggs from egg cups?
Well, Mimi brought us egg cups. Growing up, I was enamored (primarily because of my mother) by the details of illustrations in children's books. What the house looked like, the coat Madeline wore, the tree house Miss Suzy ate her nuts in, the egg cups France's family at from, and always pined to do things just like my favorite characters out of books. Fortunately for me (and now Gia) my mom (the beloved Mimi) always tried her darndest to make those pictures in books come to life for me. She continues to do the same for Miss G. What fun.

And in case you were wondering, it is true. Soft boiled eggs from egg cups...really are that much better than just a plain soft boiled egg.

Picnic by the lake.

One thing I have resolved to do is take advantage of our surroundings. Everything from the wonderful "tourist attractions" that Northern California has to offer, but just the simple things that are literally in our back yard. So last night Gia and I packed a picnic dinner (out of this world chicken salad sandwiches and yogurt parfaits) packed up the wagon and headed to the creek (Gia calls it the river) that runs behind our house.
Gia could not stop playing. She was in heaven. There was another family there and she was able to play with her kids. It is about a two mile walk to the portion of the creek that has a beach area to sit. Gia walked about half way there. And then played for an hour.

It really is remarkable how when you encourage a kid to be a kid and allow them the activity that they need how well they behave. I am just thrilled by how much fun we had last night and can not wait for more and more river dinners to come this summer and fall.

Elsewhere.

For the past two weeks, I have been elsewhere. Not really. Just elsewhere in the sense that I have been somewhat checked out of the blogging, facebook, social media world. My parents were here for a week and we had a blast doing all of the "things you can't do in Texas" things....Trader Joe's, In-n-Out, sitting on the back patio. You know, the usual.

I think it is funny how we have all of these tools to keep us connected, but somehow they seem to disconnect us. I love blogging. I love the Internet. I love, love, love social media in general. But sometimes I think all of that connectivity leaves me disconnected from my real life. Which really is beside the point.

So, I think I am back. But I am really not so sure. We have planted our garden and given our back yard some upgrades. The weather finally feels like it is going to warm up and stay warm. So if I am being honest I may be just too busy enjoying my husband and little girl in real life to blog. But I want to blog. So we will see how it goes.

What have you been up to this spring?

Mimi and Popa are coming!

Total dorks.

but it was good times. Really, really good times.

Growing, growing, growing.

"Mommy, we have matching seat belts."

I told her that if she claimed it was TOO TIGHT. Just once...it was gone and the old one was back. She looks so big here. Sigh. Sad and proud and happy. All in one breath.

Giant trains.

A couple of weeks ago, Gia and I met Ralph in San Francisco after he had a guys night in Fresno. In order to not have two cars, be a little green and add to the list of unique things that Miss G has done, we decided to take the train to the city by the bay.

There was a little girl on the train in front of us. She was five. Gia thought she hung the moon and even shared her stickers. Then she cried when we did not get off at the same stop. Such is life.

Ralph picked us up and we ate at Taylor's Refresher(which now has a new name...Gott's...I think), meandered around the Farmer's Market at the Ferry building and had dinner that night with Billy and Erica...none of which I have pictures of.

The following day was the annual St. Louis day at the Giants. Read: AB boys come to have fun at Pac Bell park. It was loads of fun. Julie (one of RT's buyers) was there with her daughter and again, G was in heaven. They both got new hats (RT is a sucker for little girls) and ate cotton candy, snow cones, peanuts, hot dogs, and I don't know what else before I cut her off. I was not looking forward to seeing that come back to haunt me.

...and this is what happens to a sweet three year old after a very fun filled weekend.