Picnicking and Paddling

This Fridays 'Adventure with Leah and Ruby' took place at Aquatic Park in the city. Mum packed my lunch into the stroller then picked up some goodies in the Ferry Building for her and Erika and we headed up to Aquatic Park to meet Ruby and Erika. Ruby was still conducting her random nap strike so we met her and Erika half way down the Embarcadero as Erika hoped to lull Ruby to sleep in her stroller which actually worked by the time we met them. Ruby is trying to keep her mum guessing by not providing any clues when she's tired or by throwing false clues at Erika and then not napping for more than an hour later. I'm napping like clockwork at the moment but I'm only giving mum 30 minutes at any one time so that she can't get too settled. I'm also considering dropping one of those naps soon but I'm not going to tell her which one.

Anyway luckily for me Ruby woke up by the time we got the beach so that we could all have our picnic at the same time. I had sweet potato and cereal and I heard mum say she'd sneaked some beans in there somewhere. Ruby had carrots. Ruby has only just started eating her solids but she's doing ever so well and ate lots of carrots up. I had my eye on what mum was eating and although she kept that doughnut thing to herself she did share her cheese wheel with me which I chewed on for ages.

Once we'd eaten our food and played with the blocks for a while mum and Erika decided it was time for us to experience all that weird looking yellowy/brown stuff that was all around us. Me and Rubes dug our hands in really deep and it felt really really funny, so weird in fact we both decided we needed to investigate this new stuff in the only way we know how. It tasted disgusting!!!! I'm not sure what our mums were thinking of to be honest and as soon as I had a taste I had to put up with mums fingers shoved in my mouth to try and get rid of it. YUCKKK!

I'm not sure whether Erika and mum then decided to punish us for trying to eat the sand but they then took us down to look at the sea which was very pretty and it kept coming in and out, in and out. Ruby and me looked at it for ages but then it came in too far and I got my feet wet. It was absolutely freezing!!! Mum thought it was very funny. Obviously Erika thought my reaction was funny too because she made Ruby touch the water too.

When they put us both on our mat to play afterwards me and Ruby had a bit of a chat and we decided that since our mums think this kind of 'play' is funny, that we'd show them what we find funny several times that night. We both decided that once we were put down to sleep that we'd try and stage a breakout. Ruby managed to break out of her crib very quickly that night, I got as far as rotating 90 degrees and getting my foot stuck but mum quickly put me round the right way again so I settled for shouting every 45 minutes or so instead until I got a bit too tired and slipped up by sleeping for 4 hours. I think I'll have a go and grabbing mums coffee next time and see if I can do better.

Later peeps!

Leah's Second Demonstration

On Saturday I met my best friend Ruby and her mums Erika & Natalie for breakfast at my usual haunt - Rose Pistola's at the Saturday Farmer's Market. As usual I used my non-verbal powers of persuasion to get Mum to give me some of her breakfast, she let me try a little bit of egg which I spat back out (yeeuucch, it tasted of those slimy mushroom things she likes) but I enjoyed chewing on the toasted bread a lot! I even managed to use my little tooth to get a bit loose and make it soggy enough so that I could swallow it - yummy!

After breakfast our mums took us across the road to Justin Herman plaza to look at the very noisy people that had gathered there. They were split into two sections – one lot all held signs saying ‘Pro-Choice’, the other, much bigger group had signs saying ‘Pro-Life’. Apparently this lot gather here every year and shout at one another. Our mums thought it was important that Ruby and I saw both groups, the ‘Pro-Choice’ group was definitely more colourful with lots of people dressed up in costumes and singing songs but Ruby’s mums were much more interested to take a look at the ‘Pro-Life’ groups who had arrived on lots of buses from around the state. Here’s a picture of me and my mum and Ruby and her mum Natalie with this crowd:
Mum says it's interesting to see how many people in this crowd are men given the issue is primarily one that affects women. I think they misunderstood our intentions of standing next to them but we didn’t mind. As we were watching them all march off down the Embarcadero my mum spotted some grannies coming towards us. She thought they were very funny and wanted to have her picture taken with them – here they are:
So I’ve now been to two demonstrations in San Francisco, it’s great to live in a place where people feel they can get together and shout about something they believe in. I had a chat with Ruby afterwards and she told me that she’d learned about other forms of peaceful protesting and has been practising at home whenever her mums try and feed her vegetables. I told her that if she holds out for long enough they’re bound to give in and give her the good stuff – pears and apples. I did this with my mum and I haven’t looked back since, now I get pears all the time! We both agreed that that white, gloopy, sour stuff that comes in mini-tubs simply must not be tolerated so we’re going to join forces on that one.
Peace!

Sunday afternoon in Marin

Mum and Dad took me out to Marin today to get me some fresh air and to have a picnic. As usual they bickered like crazy before we got out, Dad was taking a very long time to get ready and Mum doesn't have any patience. I put up with it for a few minutes and then shouted at them to stop which they did. We drove over that lovely big red bridge, through an exciting tunnel with Mum making animal noises at me the whole way so that I didn't have time to think about being in my car seat. I was very good and didn't cry at all - I'm getting much better at riding in cars but every now and then I get a bit annoyed and have a bit of a shout just to keep them on their toes.

We parked up in Marin and Mum put me in the Bjorn so that I could have a good old look around but also so that Dad had to carry the heavy rucksack. Mum took this photo to show just how far we got before Dad had to stop and do something:
That's our car just behind him there!

We walked along a path next to the blue lagoon, here's me learning a bit about natural habitats:
At the end of the trail you get to the sea. It was very very very windy:
I liked it at first and laughed and stuck my tongue out but I think Mum got a bit worried that it was too windy because she kept shouting at Dad 'It's too bloody windy' and some other words that I didn't understand. I think she thought that my ears might start to hurt or I'd get sand in my eye but actually I was fine, I was just really tired and couldn't sleep because it was all too exciting. I started shouting 'It's too bloody windy' too and eventually she got the hint and turned me around in the Bjorn, put my hat on and walked back down the trail out of the wind. Luckily that was what I needed so that I could get some rest:
When I woke up we were at a much quieter place and we sat down on a blanket to have our picnic. They had their sandwiches and I had mine:
I also had some of their soup, and some of my food, I tried to have some of their biscuits but they wouldn't give me any. I saw Mum drinking out of a red bottle so I decided that I needed to have some of that too, luckily she got the hint and gave me a little bit. There was only water in there but it was lots of fun trying to drink out of the bottle:
It was a very lovely afternoon. I'll leave you with a photo of the three of us:

Leah and Ruby's day out at Fairyland

Mum was a little nervous of me going to Fairyland, she was scared I was going to start demanding fairy wings and tutus once I'd been there but it was more like Nursery Rhyme land. Today my friend Ruby and I went to a little park in Oakland especially for little ones, the whole place is themed around various nursery rhymes and stories with lots of animals and wooden sculptures. We had an absolutely smashing day in the sunshine talking to all the animals, eating ice-cream and playing WWF smackdown on our play-mat.

Mum and me have been practising our animal noises ever since Xmas so it was great to finally be able to see all those animals with all the great noises in person. However, for some reason Mum and Erika decided to start with these fellas:
As you can see, I wasn't too impressed. They then tried to fool me with this one:
but I humoured them because it gave me the opportunity to show off how well I can stand these days. Here's one who had a proper noise to make:
We also saw a sheep, roosters, guinea-pigs, a duck and a goose and these two:
Once we'd seen everything me and my mate Ruby had a roll around on our mat and got the rare chance to compare feet
as well as skydiving techniques:
We ended the day with a bit of wrestling, I think Ruby had me beat, I may be heavier but I think her longer reach gives her the advantage!

We have a tooth!!!

Leah's asleep so this is her mum posting on her behalf. Leah was obviously desperate to tell us something last night, she woke us up every couple of hours and we just thought it was her usual poor sleep habits but this morning I felt the very top ridges of a tiny tiny little tooth. I've tried repeatedly to prise open her little mouth to see if I can catch a glimpse of it but she sticks her tongue out and cover it up. After several attempts I finally saw the tiniest little silvery ridge...it's a tooth!!!!

As soon as it's possible to do so we will get a photo up here.

Elevensees with the Linden-Naylors

Today was my friend Ruby's mum Erika's birthday. My mum had organised a little surprised for Erika and I kept our little secret very well, I didn't even tell Ruby just in case she let it slip. We met Ruby & Erika at Fisherman's Wharf and Mum pretended she needed to buy something up in Ghiradelli Square so we walked up there, well me and Ruby were in our strollers, but Mum and Erika walked there pushing us up that really steep hill just before the square. We were a little early when we got there and unfortunately Erika spotted part of her surprise a bit too early - Natalie was making her way towards our meeting point at the same time as we were crossing the square but it didn't really matter because Erika was so happy to see her it was definitely worth it.

We pootled about a bit in Lola and then we took Erika to her surprise which was Elevensees at the Crown and Crumpet, a very girly, very pink tea-place in Ghiradelli Square - as Erika would say we were there to conduct a social-anthropological experiment, we were absolutely not there to be girly. The grown-ups ordered food and I got my own chair to sit in see:
and yes that is Elmer with me, he comes everywhere now you know.

They had lots of tea, cucumber sandwiches, crumpets, scones and little cakes. I got carrot and apple mush - doesn't really seem fair does it? Here's the birthday girl Erika and Natalie enjoying some fine English tea:
Notice they're not sharing that tea with Ruby either!

Here's me having a chat with Natalie:
After our tea me and Ruby settled down by the fire for a chat:
We couldn't hear each other very well across that roaring fire so we moved over to the sofa:
Finally I spotted my favourite footballer on the cover of Hello magazine so I took some time out to see what the lovely Mr Redknapp has been up to:
We all had a smashing time

Happy Birthday Erika!!
xxx

First....an apology

It's been way too long since I last blogged. I had quite a busy Xmas with my Mamgu and Grandad Greg coming to visit me, every day we were busy doing something and in between our outings I spent all my time playing with Mamgu so didn't get any chance at all to update this blog. As I was so busy during the day I did try several times to persuade my Mum to let me get up in the middle of the night so that I could blog but I don't think she understood what I was asking her and she kept trying to get me back to sleep.

Here are some of my favourite photos from Xmas anyway....

Here's me and my Dad doing some press-ups on Christmas Day, he's going to try and do a triathlon later this year, I think he said he's going to carry me the whole way so I figured I needed to get fit too:
My Mamgu bought me this smashing Arsenal football strip, she knows I love to watch football with my Dad on the weekend so now I can look the part too, look here's me practicing taking a throw-in along with Sagna:
We all went to the Academy of Sciences, it was very very busy but I managed to squeeze in amongst the crowds and have a chat with this lovely little fella:
Ohh here's me and my Mamgu on the swings, I love the swings and it was great to have my Mamgu pushing me for a change.
Ahhh here's my favourite picture of me and my Mamgu, we've walked to the top of this big hill in Tiburon and managed to find a good spot for a sit down and a play with Elmer.
And here's the whole gang together, for some reason Grandad Greg kept jumping up, running over to the camera and then running back to sit down, as you can see I'm trying to ask him what on earth he was doing: