Friday, September 26, 2008

channeling brenda vaccaro

well it's been an interesting week. last friday night evie woke up around midnight and had a fever. i dosed her with tylenol, held her for a while and put her back to bed. over the weekend it was a pretty low-grade fever, except for one night at 103.5. on monday, it all seemed to be over. never any real signs as to what the problem was.

flash forward two days.

i get home from work on wednesday and the low fever is back, and she's got a cough like i've never heard come out of someone so small before. sounds like a three pack a day habit. throw on top of that a very raspy voice. think brenda vaccaro. if you're too young to know who that is, think kathleen turner. if you're too young to know who that is, i have no other references, just think awfully deep for an 18 month old (btw, she turned 1.5 on tuesday!).

the terrible cough, the low fever, the no appetite (!) all got me quite concerned, so we went into the doc yesterday, just to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. thankfully, it's not. not an ear infection either. just a really lousy cold. and a cough that breaks my heart every time i hear it.

it's friday today, but we're going to skip our usual group activities and just hang out together. lots of cuddling, and maybe a trip to the zoo. when she's better, i'm going to need a very large drink!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

not quite what i'd had in mind


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Originally uploaded by jcampioni
we had our normal friday outing last week, and decided to try out a new mom-owned business in the city. mani & nanny - you get a manicure/pedicure, they watch your kid.

brilliant.

we walked up to the saloon from our normal meeting place, which meant a good two mile walk. felt good to get the ol' legs moving. evie fell asleep on the walk, so she was sleeping when we arrived. i had visions of her sleeping thru my pedicure.

it was not to be.

she woke up by the time the lady got to my second foot. and she was not so keen on hanging out in the playroom with the nanny and the other kids.

actually, none of them were all that keen on staying in the playroom. they found running around the main saloon a whole lot more fun. being a mom-owned business, they were pretty cool with our monsters running wild. evie spent a lot of the pedicure in my lap. the manicurist even buffed her nails, much to her delight.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

daddy teaches evie about oral hygeine

in one of our many constant battles over constant battles, we've been working on making tooth brushing less of a struggle. this morning evie expressed an interest in brushing with mike, so he was kind enough to oblige.

it's quite nice to not have to fuss and scream over this.

brush brush brush

Sunday, September 14, 2008

a day at the ballpark


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Originally uploaded by jcampioni
we helped charli celebrate her second birthday with a tour of giants' stadium (at&t park), followed by playtime in the "fan lot".

it's hard to say who enjoyed it more, evie or daddy.

who am i kidding. it was mike. it was his first time on a major league ballfield. he even got to walk around the bases.

this could be the only two-year old's birthday party that he might ever enjoy. well, other than evie's of course.

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Friday, September 12, 2008

pondering the deeper meaning of art

evie and i spent today at the bay area discovery museum with some of her friday friends. it's our second time going, and there's much more for her to do now, than the last time we went.

last time she wasn't quite one, so things were more for looking at. this time, she was all in. there was painting, and fishing, and blocks for stacking, and cave dwelling, and food. yes, some of her very favorite things.

training for her career as a fish monger

Monday, September 8, 2008

canning tomatoes


canning tomatoes
Originally uploaded by jcampioni
my laura ingalls wilder phase lives on. saturday i went to the farmer's market and picked up 60 lbs of tomatoes for canning. i'd never actually done this before, but my friend celeste was our guide. she, juniper, siobhann and i spent the afternoon blanching peeling and canning 30 lbs.

for the other 30 lbs we cleaned, cored and quartered them to make sauce. that's a lot of tomatoes. strangely it only makes about 12 pints of sauce! poor celeste and juniper ended up working until after midnight to finish the sauce, as i bailed after we filled the stockpot, so that i could spend a little time with my girl.

i'm looking forward to opening these cans in winter when all of the tomatoes in the grocery store are pink instead of red. a little taste of summer.

canning tomatoes

a new favorite place


pier 14
Originally uploaded by jcampioni
evie's found a new favorite place, and, no, it's not urgent care. thank god.

we went down to the ferry building yesterday to pick something up at sur la table - not too exciting for ms. evie. so afterwards we went for a walk on the embarcadero.

as we were walking i noticed something i hadn't before - pier 14. it's a great long pier that got this fence that makes it safe for evie to walk on her own. there were birds, and boats, and agua, and the bridge and people. there were also there great metal chairs that spin around. we pretty much had to drag her away from the place.

Friday, September 5, 2008

"the incident"


"the incident"
Originally uploaded by jcampioni
well it finally happened. our first trip to urgent care. and it was on my watch.

evie and i had a nice friday morning together. breakfast, talk to grandpa, shopping, play, bottle, nap, lunch.

all the usual friday stuff. well except for lunch. see at lunch evie got up into her high chair and didn't want to clip the straps. lately she likes to clip them herself. but today, did not want them clipped. i thought, what can it hurt, she climbs up into the chair by herself now?

i think you know where this is going.

lunch was good. took the tray off her chair and was putting it in the sink when i heard the crash. heart sinks. turn. heart races. evie lying on the floor face down, screaming. the chair i had been sitting moved from the fall, pick her up. blood everywhere. screaming. crying. no interest in pressure or ice. call to tony. no answer. call to daddy, can you come home? a minute later, bleeding stops. crying stops soon after. lip swelling sets in. clean up blood. man face wounds bleed a lot. sit down and watch tv, eat some grapes. life is good. life is calm. do we need to go to the doctor? hmm. seems ok, but what if it isn't. call the doc. nurse says come in. go in. check her out. she's ok. go to golden gate park to play. life is ok. mom needs a drink...

my political barometer

so we normally don't turn the tv on at night until after goes to bed, but with the olympics and two political conventions, evie's gotten a little viewing time in.

during the dem's convention, it was interesting to see evie completely mesmerized during hillary's speech. she sat and watched wordlessly, occasionally clapping and smiling. she didn't pay much attention to the other speakers, then obama spoke. not quite the same response as with hillary, but she kept smiling, clapping and asking "who's that?". this week for the republicans, she barely even looked at the screen.

interesting.

hey, mom and dad, this video's for you. dad, this is from the daily show (where i said i get most of news). please watch and enjoy, and we can talk about it next week!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

mmm. minty


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Originally uploaded by jcampioni
evie got in a little spatula licking this weekend, as i made what i'm going to say is my best ice cream yet - mint chip, with fresh mint from the farmer's market.

as usual she expressed the proper enthusiasm to ensure that there will be more spatulas in her future.

mint chip

best friends


best friends
Originally uploaded by jcampioni
we spent sunday up in marin at the home of paloma and her parents (david and dana). it will never stop warming my heart to see how much these two girls love each other. it's nothing but smiles and squeals when they see each other, and they play together so nicely.

here they are hanging out watching a little baby signing time together after a bath.