Mika & Camila's Picture Diary

Road Trip North

At a restaurant for dinner

Pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast

Pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast for Camila as well

Mika was a little lamb, little lamb...

Camila was a little lamb too

A bear hug

Camila with the bear

A rhinoceros at Wildlife Safari made Mika and Mom nervous

An impressive elk

The kids on the lookout for animals

This curious rhea pecked at Dad's shirt

Riding, digging, and hanging out

At the carousel in San Francisco

Exploring a possible career in archaeology

Hanging out with public art

Hanging out near one of her favorite treats

Mika can be quite helpful

Mika is quite thoughtful and often thinks of ways to help out. Yesterday, for example, she saw that my toothbrush was dirty and took it upon herself to clean it. I found out when I started to brush my teeth because the toothbrush tasted like soap! We've been encouraging her to tell the truth and I guess it's working because she told me that she washed my toothbrush when I asked her about it.

I'll file this under the category of "Things You Never Expected When You Decided to Have Kids."

Camila in costume and following her big sister

Trying out Mika's Wonder Woman costume

What is going on?

I'm pushing my baby

Throwing rocks at Oyster Bay

Now it's my turn to drive.

I'm almost all the way to the top.

Camila in her Halloween costume

Using wet-wipes as blankets for all the babies

Halloween Before and After

One of many options for Halloween.

Coloring at the Oakland Museum.

These flowers make great face paint!

Rockin' out to Cowboy Jared at Cherrytown Kids

Trash discovery at Oyster Bay

Hugging a friend at the Kids Save the Planet Festival

Friends at Ardenwood

Modeling the Xmas dress

Gratuitous fall picture

Getting the guts out of the pumpkin

The end result of gut removal

Milk makes great bubbles

Mika is in the yellow dress

I haven't put up pictures forever

Or rather, Mike hasn't, as he downloaded them to his camera.

The girls are doing well. Mika finds kindergarten a little bit slow, though they are finally ready to start working on words. The teacher gave us a long list and instructions to help our kids with them - fortunately my sister kathy is a teacher and she could give me some ideas of how to help her.

Mika has a new boyfriend named Angel, she's very much in love with him. They play at recess and have weekly playdates (we alternate houses). She's also made friends with the other kids, everyone seems to say goodbye when she leaves, which indicates to me that they like her. What's not to like? She's always been very socially intelligent.

Camila is doing better and becoming more independent without her sister around, though I realize I treat her much more like a baby that I ever did Mika. It's the curse of being the baby of the family. She's speaking much more clearly, and I'm hoping that by 3 she'll be speaking well.
She's very rambunctious but also very whiny. She has this weird condition now that her skin is peeling on her hands and feet - I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow and have her seen.

The two of them, as I've mentioned over and over, play very well together. They love dolls, babies and Mika is lately into puzzles (what she wants for Xmas are pluzzles and Bratz). Camila is into whatever her sister likes.