Stepping Stones

While I am always entranced with our in-house, real-time, living biology experiment, I have been particularly enamored with her language acquisition, increasing attention span and her mobility of late. I am astounded by her auditory processing speed and her ability to learn something almost immediately after she sees it or is taught to do something. From her signing to her animals sounds to her increasing length of words, our little Peanut Butter astounds me every day. In the past two weeks she has shown incredible growth where walking is concerned. We are learning that she will not do something independently until she feels like she has reached some level of mastery. This has been particularly true of walking.

First, she insisted on mastering standing up independently while holding onto something. Next, she starting letting go and hovering in space. On January 23 we were playing in the yoga room at the climbing gym while we traded belays and all of sudden she stood up in the middle of the room unassisted with a truck in her hand. I almost passed out with amazement. She herself seemed a bit surprised at her courage and tried it out one more time to prove that it really did happen. The very next day Joanna was visiting to introduce her sister to our family and Lulabee walked four steps between me and Joanna. To my surprise, I was overcome with joy and elation. As I have said, the longer it takes her to walk, the less head injuries she/we will have to endure. But I was as proud as a peacock. 

Since then she has figured out how to maneuver her little cart around objects and can do a complete 180 to get out of a space (like the bathroom). She climbs in and out of the plastic car in the courtyard and can walk around to the back to push it down the sidewalk. She is a walking machine when we take her out with her walking contraption that Jim made. She is a fast as can be and often takes her weight off of the contraption and walks on her own accord, although she doesn't know this yet. Friday night we were all playing in the living room and suddenly she stood up, steadied herself and walked eight controlled, balanced steps to Daga. Lucy is working so hard on this difficult task and it tickles me to no end to have the privilege to see her develop through this next stepping stone.

The semester is in full-swing and I have no idea how I will ever get all of my work done, but I am thankful every day that I am able to be a student for now and have such a flexible schedule. I was there when she clapped for the first time, said MumMum for this first time, stood on her own and took her first steps. I know I will miss things over time, but this past (almost) 14 months has been the most incredible of my life. I will never know why this darling girl picked us to be her parents, but I am grateful to her every day.

Staying & Playing

Every now and again I have a twinge of sadness that we are so far from so many people that I always pictured being an active part of our child's life. Even though they are now scattered up and down the the East Coast, it is sometimes to peculiar to be so far away from the life I have always known near the Appalachian Mountains. There are many frustrating things about living in Berkeley. We have to wait in line to get a parking spot at Costco. We live in a small space for an unreasonably large amount of money. Traffic. Traffic. Traffic. I have tons of anxiety about earthquakes and petty crimes, like theft.

Usually the weather forecast cures me of my woes, but beyond the weather are the opportunities that exist here for our family. After having such a wonderful time with Novalynn for her birthday sleepover, we got to have Alorah to ourselves for an overnight and a weekend in the city. We drove a whole 20 minutes to Golden Gate Park to visit the California Academy of Sciences. This is the most amazing museum I have ever been in. Lucy, at the age of 13.5 months, has been to more museums than I had by the time I was 12. It was so fun to see Alorah interact with Lucy and to see her take in all the sights, including the four story, indoor rainforest, at the museum. Her and I even roller skated at the outdoor skate park in Golden Gate Park.

This past weekend we took a long bike ride along the bay on the San Francisco Bay Trail. We watched pelicans dive thirty feet straight down into the water to scoop up their lunch. There must have been 15 other varieties of birds and there isn't much Lucy enjoys more than bird watching. Further down the path at the Richmond Marina we saw a whole family of sea lions, at least 15 of them. I was as excited as a little kid. Today we rode our bike to Costco to grocery shop. Tomorrow I will ride bike to work-out and study at the climbing gym and Lucy will have swim lessons with Joanna where she will get her instruction in Spanish and English. Before I come home I am going to stop to sign a contract for Lucy's new school, Nia House, to start in August. It is an incredible and truely Montessori, the stuff parents dreams are made of (and we will be paying for it, no doubt, but this opportunity does not exist any where else we have ever lived).  We have two months of cool, rainy days and now that it is the beginning of February, spring has sprung. Flowers are in full bloom, the grass is gorgeously green and the parks are filled with children. 

My schedule as a student is pretty cushy, all things considered. I hate commuting to the city on Wednesdays. I am away from Lucy for 9 hours. This would be the norm for every day if I was working a 9-5, though. Thank you the stars and moon for Joanna, who is here for her until Jim gets home from work, tirelessly carrying out the crazy science, art and music projects I leave from them. I dearly miss so many East Coasters, but life without Joanna and my sister's family seems impossible. I am forever on a roller coaster of over/underwhelmed by my school expectations. Last semester I was ready to quit about once a day. This semester I am pretty sure I will stick it out until graduation. What the hell, right?! I'll never have this chance again. My mom guilt lessens a bit each week when I see how much fun Joanna and Lucy have together. I even tune it to what is going to class most of the time this semester. And I know what linear regression is. Amen. Having this year finished will feel like a major accomplishment and after this year the course load lightens significantly. I get to start choosing classes that see exciting and interesting. UC Berkeley is a candy shop of intellect and I am looking forward to indulging in all the
chocolate I can eat.