Ring Around the Rosie...

Barefoot in Spring

 It's funny being a parent--we think Elena is not just an awesome kid but also brilliant.  She is such a joy to be around and has been talking up a storm.  Her annunciation is getting better every day.  Then in my email inbox I had an update for what to expect of your child at this age--according to the email she is not brilliant as we believe but falls average, right on track with developmental milestones.  It is amazing how smart these little people are!

 Enough with my side bar...down to Elena.  She prefers to be barefoot--and is able to put socks and shoes and take them off.  When she takes off her socks, she stuffs them in her shoes--so cute!  Well today she took of her shoes and wanted to walk on the grass.  This is HUGE for her--she doesn't really like the feeling of grass.  Until today, she strongly disliked the feel of grass so much that if she fell down she would not get herself back up because her hands had to touch the grass.

 But she was quite excited to tromp through the yard barefoot looking for flowers.

And flowers she found.

Outdoor Toy, Finally!

Today is just one of those "feel productive days".  I've been checking Craigslist (an electronic place you can buy/sell used items) for some outdoor play equipment for Elena.  I've been looking since before Christmas.  There was a lot of cute stuff around Christmas but priced way too high.  Finally today I scored a little play climber for Elena.

 Elena's first reaction "Nice!" 

 She loves climbing up to the slide, through the "windows", jumping through the door and hanging from the big purple window...

 And then she decided she would try to walk up the slide.  Ah, my little climber...

Lemons

 After breakfast, Carl and Elena picked a few lemons off our tree.  Elena loves picking the fruit off the trees.  A couple weeks ago, she picked mandarins off our tree with Grandma, Grandpa Pat and Carl.  They also ate a few while picking...so naturally Elena figured it was okay to bite into the lemon:

 She really loves her citrus!

In the next picture she is checking out the "baby lemons".  We have new blooms and a few itty bitty lemon buds beginning to grow.  It's very intriguing.

 Of course when we came in she demanded lemon!  Here she is eating fresh lemon from the tree:

 Trying to get every last drop!!  Silly girl!

 Yummy!!

Breakfast with Pop and Lorraine

This morning we met Pop and Lorraine for a yummy breakfast at a place near our house.  Elena did much better during this meal than she has during the past few.  She was interested in coloring with Lorraine and Daddy and ate some of every one's breakfast. 

 Elena is starting to voice her preference.  She mostly picks out her outfits including socks and in the picture below she is picking out the crayon color she wants to use.  She isn't into tantrums (generally) but has an easy going yet persistent personality right now.

 Breakfast was the start of a wonderful morning--we had perfect weather today!

LA Galaxy in San Diego

The LA Galaxy played a Mexico team right here in San Diego.  Due to an unfortunate injury, Carl's "date" was unable to go to the 7pm game.  Elena and I substituted in, though 7 is her bed time so she was a little sleepy but she went along with the plan and fell asleep on our way home.

We had extremely close seats, 2nd row from the field on David Beckham's side of the field.  Every time he would kick from the corner, the people in the stands would swoon and scurry down to our seats to get the best picture they could--which translates to: it was difficult for us to get a picture.  I'm okay with that, I'm more of a Landon Donovan fan.  It was a good game, we left a little early and it ended in a 2-2 tie.