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Az had her two year well check visit with the doctor today. Everything looks good, though she wouldn't let the doctor check her out as thoroughly as she might have. According to the doctor Az is greatly surpassing her milestones. I'm so very rarely around kids Az's age these days, I start to forget what typical skills are for a child her age. Az measures in the seventy-something percentile in height and the twentieth percentile in weight. I think Z is exactly the same for his age range so I'm not terribly concerned. Az doesn't look underweight, and judging by how short her pants suddenly are and how much she's been eating I suspect she's in the middle of a growth spurt and that she'll fill out soon.

I finally decided it was time for Az to get her MMR shot. Even on the delayed vaccine schedule I created when she was born we were still super late on getting the shot. This is the shot that scares me though, the one that contains all of the things I don't want in my daughter's little body. I don't really want measles, mumps, or rubella in her body either though. This seemed like the time to do it; she didn't have any other vaccines scheduled for the day and I wanted to get it before heading into winter, when she was both more likely to have a stressed immune system and to contract one of the illnesses I was trying to guard her against.

In addition to the vaccine Az ended up getting flouride on her teeth and needing a pin-prick blood draw. She was not happy with me at all. In order to buy her forgiveness I offered to get her an ice cream cone. It worked like a charm, I'm her favorite mom once again. Z was being mouthy so I downgraded him to getting some crackers. When it came time to pay he refused to come up to the check out in a timely manner or hand me the crackers so he ended up walking out of the store empty handed. I was not Z's favorite mom at that point.

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Holding up the lens cap. Apparently she felt I was done taking photos. After a weekend of feeling pretty rotten I was finally on the mend so we arranged to meet my friend N at the beach for dinner. While we were at the beach Z was complaining about his stomach hurting but I didn't pay a lot of attention to him because every day he has one ailment or another. I told him to sit down and he seemed fine. Just as we were about to get into the van to go home he threw up. At first I was worried that he was coming down with something too but driving out I remembered seeing him in the water earlier with water streaming out of his nose and I concluded that he must have swallowed some river water. Unfortunately our part of the river isn't the cleanest. Sure enough he seemed fine for the rest of the night. Hopefully he learned a lesson about keeping his mouth closed when swimming, but since he never accepted that swallowing river water was the likely culprit it might be a lesson he has to learn again.

The monthly photo and summary is over a month late. At the time that I'm writing this Az is actually 26 months. My printer has a fun new quirk where it eats about 49 out of every 50 pages that I try to print. I haven't felt like trying to coax the month sign out of it so every day I just put the picture off. I have a feeling this one will be brief, since I actually still have to catch up on writing the 26 month summary.

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At at 25 months:

• This is the month where she pulled out the ability to form original sentences. One day she was nursing and being too handsy. When I pulled her hand away she said, "I see, it's good to touch it." Since then she has been pulling out all sorts of sentences. I love this able-to-express-herself clearly stage.
• On a related note, when Az wants to express her thoughts she says, "I see..." for "I think."
• Az LOVES Spider Man all of a sudden. Z doesn't have any Spider Man toys and as far as Miguel and I can figure out she's never seen him on TV, but Spider Man is actually starting to surpass Barbie in her eyes. When we go to Target it is no longer Barbie she requests to go see but Spider Man.
• She's still going strong on the nursing. I had thought we would wean at two years but this girl is nowhere close to starting self-wean. She still nurses constantly throughout the day. Honestly I'm ready to be done with the whole thing but it feels selfish to wean her before she's ready when she still benefits so much from it. Besides, I know that once she does stop I'll miss those excuses to snuggle up and have Us time terribly. I think if she hits 2.5 years and is still nursing I'm going to have to force the issue though. I'm ready to start being able to sleep through the night again.
• Oh my gosh this girl loves pistachios. LOVES them. They're her very favorite snack. I can't afford to supply her with as many pistachios as she would want to eat though so I'm trying to sell her on a cheaper nut, like peanuts. It's sort of worked, she likes peanuts as well, but nothing compares to pistachios.
• Az loves balancing. If I need her to walk any distance on her own I'm much more successful if I can find places for her to try to balance as she walks. 
• She has recently discovered a love of having her photo taken, most of the time. Occasionally she will come up and request I get my camera to take pictures of her, at which point she'll pose for me. She then reviews the photos and continues posing until she is satisfied we got a good one.
• Az's first joke: We were driving in the car and she randomly asked, "Where you going?" She then exclaimed, "Burrito!" and began heartily laughing. The joke was repeated a few times after that, though sadly she did eventually forget it.

Az doing two of the things she loves best: posing for photos and being Spider Man,

While she was sitting on the potty she asked me to paint her nails, and for the first time she let me paint all of them. When we were done she asked me to take pictures of her "makeup." I gladly obliged, but she wouldn't let me take any photos of her silver nails. Instead she declared herself to be Spider Man and began posing. At first she posed in front of the dishwasher, but after a few shots she decided to stand in front of the bag of cat litter. After I'd taken a few shots of that she told me to stop, then closed the bathroom door and resumed posing. I honestly don't even know where she's even seen Spider Man.

And, just because it's cute:

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I woke up at three this morning with horrible stomach pains and spent much of the day hovering near the bathroom, so it was not my most productive day. Miguel was gone all day so I relied heavily on Z to take care of his sister. Az is getting better and better at expressing her needs and desires so the day actually went well. When Z has to try to draw conclusions about what his sister might want he comes to decisions that baffle me a bit, but he really wants to be able to help her and keep her happy. As long as she can clearly express what she needs Z is able to keep her pretty content.

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Today was another dentist appointment in San Francisco for Z, though thankfully this one was only an hour long. This time we saw an official hygienist (as opposed to a student) and she felt much more optimistic about the future of Z's mouth. He had been using disclosing tablets to help with his hygiene and apparently they had worked great. I need to pick up some for myself I think. The hygienist (whom may have been a dentist actually, I'm a little confused about the program) did say that one of Z's bottom teeth is growing in crooked and will definitely continue to do so but we'll cross that bridge later. I expected that Z would need orthodontia when he was born with a cleft palette. Though I had hoped to have socked away a little more (or anything at all) for his teeth by now.

After the appointment we walked around the area a little, though at $6 an hour for the parking garage I was feeling motivated to move on. I had thought we would go walk around Golden Gate Park but it had completely slipped my mind that there was a big music festival going on there that day. I couldn't think of anything else to do that didn't involve the nightmare of trying to find a parking spot in the city so we ended up at Ocean Beach. It wasn't actually the destination I was looking for; I was actually looking to walk around the windmills and take photos of the kids but Miguel wasn't up for it so I parked nearby and while Miguel and Az napped Z and I sat on the wall at Ocean Beach and talked. Eventually Az woke up and we migrated down to the beach proper. Miguel opted to stay on the wall and read because he didn't want to get sandy. And because he's a party pooper.

After the beach we decided to go to Sausalito where it would be warmer. While driving there I spontaneously decided to stop at Clement Street to get dim sum at the same place my family has frequented for at least all of my life. The street is full of dim sum shops so I'm not sure why we only patronize this one, but if it's the one my grandmother liked then that is good enough for me. I always feel awkward ordering things at the shop though, the big white woman who orders in Mandarin with a horrible accent. Some of the time I think I might be using nicknames for the food that my family made up, but the woman easily understood me and I walked away with two full pink boxes.

Once we had our dim sum and full bellies we were no longer gung ho about Sausalito. I drove into the town just to look but it appeared that my favorite funky tchotchke shop had been turned into a smarmy wine bar (there may be some bias in that statement.) While searching for a way out of town and a bathroom for Miguel we wound up at Fort Baker. I've been wondering where the Discovery Museum is, it turns out it's there at Fort Baker. It looked like a really cute day trip destination for Az. The sign said it was for kids ages 1-8 so I might have to smuggle Z in, but I definitely plan on coming back soon.

There actually weren't any public restrooms at Fort Baker so I was forced to stop at my very favorite shopping center in Corte Madera. And, you know, while I was there I checked out the shopping center across the freeway as well. Az is always excitedly asking to go shopping, but once we're there she always wants to be doing something else. Soon enough she'll learn to just ask for a new toy or dress and skip the shopping trip altogether.

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I know the photo below is blurry and dark but I had to post it. Yesterday Az wouldn't let me take any photos of her. Today she actually requested I go get my camera to take pictures of her and Minchi. When I aimed the camera at her she smooshed her face into the cat and threw her leg up behind her like so. I don't know where she comes up with half this stuff. From there it just sort of went downhill, as evidenced by the above photo.

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Just not in the mood for pictures today.

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Ever since it was actually her birthday Az has been adamant that it was still her birthday. Some days she would concede that it was Grandma's birthday, but most days were a reason to celebrate Az in her book. I had finally convinced her that it was no longer her birthday when we got together with her great aunt D for a belated birthday exchange. Now there's no convincing her that she hasn't been correct about it being her birthday all along. After all, people are giving her presents still so it must be. Oh well, if I could pretend every day were my birthday I would too. I'd be getting a lot more breakfast in bed. I don't think I've ever been served breakfast in bed come to think of it. I'm going to have to rectify that, birthday or not.

We met up with Aunt D in Cloverdale for pizza and a movie, except the movie was extra special because we got to watch it in the street! I don't know what I was expecting but the giant inflatable screen surpassed any expectations I might have had. The movie was We Bought a Zoo, which we had all seen but it was still fun. Az didn't quite have the attention span to watch the entire film, especially when we were outside where there were tons of things to explore, so Miguel got the honor of walking around with her. She watched more of the movie than I had expected (much more than she did when we watched it at home previously) and she wasn't the loudest or most disruptive kid there so I'm calling the night a success. I don't know if we'll get the chance to do something like this again this summer but now I just have something to add to my To Do list for next summer.

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I bought it to be the cat's bed but Az spends more time in it. Ignore the laundry all over the place in the background. I put a basket in the corner so Miguel would throw Az's dirty clothes into it rather than all over the living room but it seems his aim needs a little work.

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Kitty pile. I don't have much need for blankets these days.

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Watching TV while Daddy takes a nap. Tonight I left Miguel with both of the kids for the first night ever. I wanted to go to the 60th birthday party of my parents' high school friend and since no kids were allowed Miguel, Z, and Az had an excuse to hang out around the house without me. I stopped at a couple of friends' house on the way home so by the time I got back it was around two in the morning. Both kids were safe in bed and Miguel was happily playing his XBox without anyone there to nag or distract him. I think he might just agree to watch the little monsters again.

Ack, it's been 23 days since I last posted. Life has a way of moving forward. But don't worry, I've been taking my daily photos! A couple of housekeeping issues before I post today's photos: I've heard from a number of people that they aren't able to comment. I have no idea why that would be, it would be nice to get some sort of feedback because sometimes I feel like I'm throwing my thoughts off into the wind. I have no idea why people aren't able to comment, I have comments enabled. If I ever catch up on uploading photos I'll look into it, though I'm not sure I'd really know what to look at exactly.

My second order of business is that some time ago I decided to stop doing Z's weekly photo. I was finding myself not looking forward to those posts and not putting my all into them. I was writing about Z so much in the other entries that I felt like at least 90% of what I was writing was a repeat. I'll still post photos of him along with Az's photos and write about him much as I already have been. The main difference will be that there will be less repetitive content on the blog. I'm not sure what to do about the book I was creating for him through these entries, I suppose it will all go into one book now. By the time the kids are likely to want their own copies I'm sure making a duplicate will be as simple as the push of a button. Or three at the very least.

So, on to the business of catching up...

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After the stress of the previous two days of trying to, and not succeeding at, communicating with Safeway I decided a day trip away was called for. I had been wanting to take the kids to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk but because the place is so connected to memories of my dad I had stayed away. The last time we had been to Santa Cruz there was no Az yet; Miguel, Z, my dad, and I had gotten a hotel and spent the night across the street. It was my last trip with my dad, just before he went south to start radiation. I was a little worried about how I would feel to be back without my dad but happily when we arrived only the good memories and feelings were there to greet me. When my dad lived nearby in San Jose we would often spend the weekends we had together sleeping in his van on the nearby pier. I don't know if parking is even still allowed on the pier, but I have fond memories of falling asleep watching the men crabbing along the pier and waking up to see the next shift already with their nets in the water.

We got off to a late start and never made it to the pier on this day. In fact, we never even made it as far as the arcade at one end of the boardwalk. I bought Z a wristband for unlimited rides on the condition that he try out the Zipper, a ride that he has always been reluctant to go on. He went on the Zipper without much fuss but in hindsight I wish that I had made him choose a couple rides to go on rather than devoting so much of the day to rides. Az would have had more fun if she hadn't spent so much of the day waiting for Z to either get on or off a ride. She did get to try her first carnival ride on her own; Miguel chose the boats for her. She was finally tall enough for a ride (though she sat in the back because she couldn't reach the wheel in front) but as it turns out she might not have been ready to go by herself. She was very excited to be in the boat until she realized Miguel was leaving her there on her own. Not too long after the ride began she tried to stand up to get to me and the ride had to be stopped so she could get off.

 

After she had watched Z on the rides for a bit and had warmed back up to the idea I decided to see if Az would want to go on a ride with me. Before she had tried the boats I had suggested Miguel go on the dragon ride with her but he hadn't wanted to. Once I took her on and he saw how much she had enjoyed herself he had no choice but to go with her as well. She was free when riding with one of us so it was really the best deal. I asked Z if he wanted to go but he passed.

He found other ways to amuse himself. His fear of heights and fast rides seems to be gone, though I was a little amused that he still wouldn't try the swings. It seemed to me that the rides he chose were much scarier than the swings, but he didn't trust the construction.

We had to stop to take our traditional shots in front of the Giant Dipper sign of course.

 

 As we were leaving the house that morning I discovered that one of my cousins from my dad's side was coincidentally heading to Santa Cruz that day as well. I called him up to see if he wanted to try to meet up. He was going to be there celebrating a friend's birthday but we would try to at least say, "Hi." While driving I received a voice mail that my other cousin was also going, and when I called her back I discovered that our aunt had been talked into coming as well. Despite the fact that my dad was one of six kids, his family has become very small over the years. Besides one of my dad's brothers whom I don't see very often the entire family was there at the Boardwalk that day. We met at the beach to watch a free show by Gregg Rolie (the vocals of Santana.) It was a nice unexpected surprise to the day.

My cousin's daughter, Z, my cousin, and the back of Az

My other paternal cousin.

My aunt and cousin with Z in a choke hold.

All of us. Unfortunately Miguel had to take the photo so he's not in the shot.

After the show my cousin J made us walk across an abandoned track, which didn't seem scary until I was crossing it, thinking about the fact that Miguel was crossing it in front of me with the baby strapped to his back. (When it comes to these things she is categorized as a baby in my mind.) There were a lot of missing boards and the bridge felt rickety. It felt like one of things where you fall in because you aren't worrying about falling in. In any case, I went across very slowly and carefully. I made Miguel cross on the path coming back but that turned out to be even scarier with Az on his back because the walkway was so narrow and Az was higher than the fence that was meant to protect people.

After our adrenaline-filled walk we parted ways with my family and Z resumed with the rides. I had to make sure I got my money's worth from his wrist band. We stayed for another hour or two. Our visit was cut a little short when a woman in her fifties took offense at Z not standing still in line. She went so far as to call Z that despicable "r" word and taunt him with her friend, another middle-aged woman. Security was called. By the time the smoke had cleared she had run off and Miguel and I decided it was time to call it a day. It wasn't exactly the best way to end a day in which I was trying to take a mental break from narrow-minded adults at home but most of the day was lovely and the incident afforded me the opportunity to talk in depth with Z about what he should do when someone is acting crazy or he thinks he's about to get into a confrontation- namely, get me. I want to come back soon, though next time I think we will avoid the rides pass. I think we pushed our luck with waiting in that many lines under such exciting circumstances.

I think a certain little girl was ready to go home anyhow.