With Grandpa at the Loma Linda VA Hospital

Today Astrid and I took my dad to his doctor's appointment at the Loma Linda VA Hospital. My dad's memory has been failing him, which is one of the reasons Astrid and I now go and see him every week to spend the entire day with him. You can read more about that here. Astrid wanted to push my dad around in this wheelchair.

(Recently at a restaurant, my dad fell when his bad knee gave out. Astrid still talks about it. "Grandpa fell. Arm hurt." Since then he always uses his cane, but for long distances it's safer and easier for him to get around with a wheelchair.)Everyone commented that I had a "little helper".There's a large pond on the grounds of the hospital.

Astrid's 1st Ice Cream - at the Gelato Bar

This afternoon, after the baby's nap, we went and checked out the Gelato Bar, on Tujunga Avenue in Studio City . It was on some list of the top 25 ice cream parlors in LA.

(On a side note, it's located across the street from Vitello's Restaurant - made infamous by the Robert Blake incident.)

U. and I have been discussing the topic of "ice cream" for awhile now. Should we let Astrid eat some? Is she old enough to have some sweets? Is it inevitable that she will want to try some if she sees us eating some?

So on this hot summer day we decided today's the day - after almost 2 years and 3 months - Astrid had her first ice cream. Yes, tiny it was, but she enjoyed her kid sized mini gelato very much.

We got her the Yogurt gelato in a mini cone.

"Mmmm...yummy."

She didn't quite get the cone part. After she ate the the ice cream scoop on top, she thought she was done and didn't realize she could eat the cone too.

U. hiding behind his LA Weekly.

Cool place with nice decor and ambiance. Cost for enjoying the decor and ambiance (and ice cream of course) - $12. I had the Ricotta (Cheesecake) gelato, and U. had the Pomegranate sorbetto - both in waffle cones. Astrid pointing to the lion fountain.It's a place you feel comfortable hanging out in with your gelato or coffee.There's a big ice cream cone display outside, and the outdoor trashcan is also an ice cream cone. Very cute.Walking back to our car.Holding Papa's hand while crossing the street.She's growing so tall. (Although sometimes U. and I look at her and she looks so small. She's still just a baby but she's growing up so fast!)Astrid has the exact same expressions of her father. "No more pictures mom."

Reading while on the potty

I had to post about this little morsel of toddler-parentdom before it's forgotten.


Tonight as usual, to get Astrid ready for bed, she sat on her potty before her bath. I used to sit and wait (I still do if it's just pee pee), but #2 takes awhile, and I've taught her to let me know when she's done so I can get other things done while checking in on her. While she was going potty, I was putting a stack of books together for her bedtime reading. Astrid came in and saw the books on the table.


Me: "Are you done?"
Astrid: (Silence. Focused on the stack of books.)
Me: "Astrid, did you go potty?"
Astrid: "Books."
Me: "Did you go poo poo?"
Astrid: "Uh...no." (pause) "Book?"


I tried to explain to her that the books were for after her bath and that I would read them all to her. So she knew that she wasn't supposed to take a book, but she hadn't seen some of these books in awhile and I could see she wanted to. So like a little ferret, she snatched 2 books and ran with them to the bathroom. I had to laugh out loud. She was laughing too. I guess if you have a vice - that's not such a bad one to have.


I followed her to the bathroom and found her sitting on the potty with the books opened in front of her along with an old magazine, looking guilty. We've been away from the house this week, and haven't replaced the magazines in the bathroom.


Me: "Do you want me to get you a new magazine?"
Astrid: (big eyes of surprise) "Yeah!"


I brought her another magazine that she hasn't flipped through yet (The New Yorker) and was met with a heartfelt "Thank you!"


A couple of minutes later she came back and said, "All done. Astrid go poo poo."


While I was cleaning up Astrid was clapping and saying, "Good job."


This potty-training thing isn't so tough after all. I no longer have to change poopy diapers since Astrid always uses the potty for that. Except for the time we were at the mall, and she wasn't able to go #2 in the restroom and went in her diaper 10 minutes later, (which was partly my fault b/c I got tired of crouching down in the stall holding her and making sure she didn't touch anything), I can't remember the last time I changed a poopy diaper. She will sit on the potty on her own a few times everyday and do her business. Just like that it happened. It's really true what they say - when a kid is ready to be potty trained you'll know. But no one mentioned the part about having new reading materials available for potty time. I guess that's just Astrid. =)

Astrid walking the dog on a leash

I had Astrid hold onto our dog's leash so I could move some trash cans off our property. When I looked up, they were already down the street. Quite an accomplishment for a 2 year old. It scared the bejesus out of me, but was very sweet to see that Astrid loved walking the dog. She held onto the leash like a pro. She did fall once when our dog lurched forward at some poodles who were barking/snarling at us, (to protect Astrid), but Astrid picked herself right up, brushed herself off and continued walking the dog. We walked quite a bit in the heat and Astrid was so excited that she never even asked to take a break and sit down, and I could see her cheeks were flushed pink.

Swim Mummy

Astrid wrapped up in a towel after her swim in the baby pool.

Walking in Santa Monica

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk in Santa Monica, and head down to the boardwalk. Astrid was asking us all morning when we were going to the "beach". (Note: This was the second time today she went to the beach.) Walking out of the restaurant. Astrid always wants to push the stroller herself.She's pretty adamant about pushing it herself, so to guide the stroller we have to hold onto the front or side. For some reason she doesn't mind us doing that, but if we put our hands on the handle bars, where you normally push the stroller, she will get pretty upset and lets us know that she wants to do it herself.Sitting pretty on a short wall.Astrid & Papa.Having fun with Papa.It's hard for her to reach the handle bars to push, and awkward for us to navigate the stroller while she's pushing, so I try to get Astrid to hold onto the side while I push, or onto the front like she's doing here. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I'm not.We hardly use the stroller anymore, but it does come in handy for longs walk and when we have our hands full (like at the airport).She's pretty good about holding our hand while crossing the street. It's not up for debate and she knows it. Here she's putting up a little bit of a fuss, but quickly takes her Papa's hand when we explain there are cars and it's dangerous.We laid down the law about that one pretty early on, and I'm glad to see that she takes my hand most of the time before even being asked to, when she sees a car or we are crossing the street.Astrid wanted us to strap her doll into her stroller - so here we are.When she's holding onto the front like this, we just have to make sure we don't run over her feet. I much prefer her to hold onto the side, but c'est la vie- this works too.Wearing her pink flowered sun hat, and her new ducky shirt.Who is that man standing in the background?

(If you haven't noticed yet, I'm not typing my husband's name anymore in my posts. It was brought to my attention that it's just too easy to find my blog using our names in a simple search. So now I'm refraining. It's public domain, but I'd still like to think that it's under the radar and you can access it only by invitation, referral, or if you accidentally stumble onto it - vs. we meet someone and then that person googles us to find out what we're doing as a way to keep tabs on us.)

There were lots of families at the beach today. Some with huge setups with canopies, umbrellas, and mosquito netting, and pack n' plays. Big productions.

We'll be back another day.

4th of July Breakfast at Urth Caffe

We watched some of the parade and then remembered our original reason for being on Main Street, was to have breakfast at Urth Caffe. We would have watched more of the parade but we were really hungry.