Ava and Anja's Baby Blog

Mommy Weekend Off

2012-02-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

Daycare is closed on Monday for President's day, but DeDe has a class then, so I decided to take both girls up to Lake Tahoe this weekend to let DeDe sleep in for once and give the girls a chance to play in the snow. We left Saturday afternoon to give them time to go to art and music class in the morning, and give Ava time to personally deliver invitations for her upcoming birthday party to some of the neighborhood girls. Luckily, grandmom came with us to help out. The girls were glued to the tablets on the drive up, but have hardly touched them since we've been here. Ava has now decided she likes the Kindle Fire better because it fits in her hands and we've now downloaded some suitable Dora the Explorer content on it. That means Anja is finally able to get some time on the iPad without Ava taking it from her. There is more snow on the ground than there was when we were last here at Christmas, but still it is dry compared to previous winters. The girls had fun running around on the frozen lake that we found last year and riding in the sled at Kahle Park.

Anja 18 Month Checkup

2012-01-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

Last week, DeDe took Anja to her 18-month checkup. Anja received an injection from the Hepatitis vaccine sequence and received a clear bill of health. She has begun to understand a lot more and will gather her coat and other belongings when we talk about going somewhere, and can be directed at different objects around the house. Pretty similar to where Ava was at this age as we described back in August 2010.

She is starting to say more words, including Ava, Dad, Mom, more, no, and the animal noises associated with various animals. She is so close to being able to express herself more than she will often get pretty frustrated when she does not have the words to be understood, which is most of the time. She pronounces Ava's name "Ah-va" and Ava will sometimes object that she is not saying her name properly as "Ay-va". Her measurements from the checkup are included below as always:

Head circumference:	49 centimeters	96 percentile
Height:	32.75 inches	71 percentile
Weight:	25 pounds 12.5 ounces	66 percentile

After her shot Anja got to play at the playground at the children's hospital for a while.

"Slippin' and Slidin'" on Frozen Lakes with Ava

2011-12-28T18:14:00.000-08:00

Ava and I are all alone up in Tahoe for a few days after DeDe, Anja, and Linda returned to the bay area after Christmas. Anja is still a bit young to spend too much time in the dry higher altitude air, so she's going back home to warmer climes while Ava and I spend more time in the snow. We started our activities by hiking the Lam Watah Historic Trail through Rabe Meadows and down to Nevada Beach, where Ava has been many times. We've almost always cycled there in the past, and it was nice to try a new route through the meadow and light forest. At one point Ava started talking about the "Dancing Trees" ahead and I wasn't sure what she meant and thought she was getting a bit delirious due to lack of a nap. Later that night when she pulled out the iPad I saw the dancing trees she was talking about in an episode of Dora the Explorer. Early in the hike there was a frozen lake. Ava was timid at first but eventually took a few steps out with me onto the lake, which I caught on the video linked below.

Our next day together was spent at the Carson City Children's Museum. On the way back to the cabin, Ava and I parked at Spooner Summit to make a quick loop around Spooner Lake. Last year, I did the loop around Spooner Lake with cross country skis dragging Ava behind me in a sled. This year, there was not enough snow for that so we walked around the lake in our normal shoes. On a few occasions Ava would slip and slide on the ice while I held her hand so she never actually fell but got to slide quite a bit.

By the way, Ava's general idea of a hike when we don't have the hiking backpack is for me carry her around and actually run or skip down the trail. Or, in her words : "No, only I want you to pick me up. Now run, daddy, run." Unfortunately for my back, it was starting to get dark fast when we were still a mile out from the trailhead, so I had to indulge her a bit in that.

More pictures, videos, and GPS tracks linked below..

Spooner Lake Loop

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in Nevada

Lam Watah Historic Trail to Nevada Beach

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking near Lake Tahoe, California

Christmas in Lake Tahoe!

2011-12-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

For the third consecutive year we spent the Christmas holiday in South Lake Tahoe. By this time last year, there was a deep base layer of snow all around the lake and some of the Tahoe ski resorts had received more snow than any other place in the country, but this year there is no snow at all at lake-level.

Still, the locals know how to adapt. The Borges Family Slegh Rides used their huge Belgian Draft Horses to pull carriages on the roads past the Casinos of Stateline, Nevada down to the lake and back. Last year Ava was too scared to pet the horses. This year, she did so, but Anja was even more eager as is generally her temperament.

On Christmas day we had 6 females and me in the house as both grandmothers and Aunt Lacey were able to join us in Tahoe. I spent most of the time decorating the christmas tree, cooking, and other manly activities. Ava and Anja came down Christmas morning and rushed over to their stockings. They made out like bandits with Toy Story, Dora the Explorer, and Mickey Mouse themed toys. They also had a large pedal car to share and have done surprisingly well at taking turns riding it around the house. Ava told santa (at the Stanford Shopping Center) that she wanted a kitty for Christmas, and has been extremely pleased with her very life-like toy cat that purrs, licks itself, blinks its eyes, and rolls over. I try to sneak over and turn the cat off when we leave but she caught me once and said "Don't hurt my kitty, daddy!". She also took issue and corrected me by saying "he IS a real kitty" when we told a waitress about what Ava got for Christmas. Both girls continue to enjoy lots of new foods with roast duck on Christmas and bison burgers on Boxing Day.

On Boxing Day, we took the Gondola at Heavenly Ski Resort up the mountain to get to an elevation where there is sufficient snow to let the girls run around a bit and play. Grams called Ava a little snowbunny after she demonstrated her enthusiasm for snowplay to which she replied "But I'm not a bunny!". Ava is not yet tall enough for tubing, and not yet old enough for downhill ski lessons, but I'll take her up sledding and cross-country skiing later this winter.

Fall Photos from Daycare: Anja

2011-12-23T23:35:00.001-08:00

Anja joined her older sister full-time at daycare earlier this fall and the transition has been great for all involved. For a while we were taking her to two separate daycares on different days while we waited for a full-time space to open up, and one positive outcome from that experience is the useful basis of comparison it provided. The low teacher/student ratios at her current day care are really great for providing more direct interaction. The teachers are great at vocalizing everything they do throughout the day and her vocabulary has markedly started to develop this fall. They also take the kids to the dance and art studios several times a week, and occasionally during fire drills or other events Anja has the chance to run into her big sister and her friends from the young preschool classes.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii (Part 3)

2011-11-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

Ava and I went on a couple of other hikes while we were in Hawaii. One of the better ones was the trip to Kekaha Kai State Park. This is accessible via an unpaved path over a lava flow for 1.5 miles that is only advisable for 4wd vehicles. Luckily, Ava didn't rat me out when I returned our small 2 wheel-drive economy car at the airport.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii, Part 2 (Dolphins and Hiking!)

2011-11-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

The morning after our Thanksgiving dinner, we took Ava for a Dolphin Experience. She may look completely terrified throughout the ordeal, but those cries of "no, no" are just her way of expressing how excited she is. At least now that it is over she likes to watch this video and talk about the dolphin.

After the traumatic dolphin experience, we went hiking in Pololu Valley with grams. We saw some wild donkeys in the distance, and avoided a number of washed up Portuguese Man o' Wars on the beach.

Ava is getting a bit heavy for the hiking backpack, but some things haven't changed. Her favorite game in the water is little changed since her first trip to the islands.

After the valley we had a nice late lunch and then visited a few more state beaches before ending the day at a Macadamia Nut factory where Ava discovered peanut brittle for the first time.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii, Part 1

2011-11-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

We're a bit spoiled about the weather in California. As soon as it starts to rain and the temperatures start to get below 70 F (20 C) for long, we seek an escape to warmer climes. Given the difficulties of layovers with young children this means we seek out destinations we can fly to directly from the bay area, which usually means Hawaii. This year we decided to try the Big Island to meet up with our friends Gerry and Andreea.

We flew into Kona and stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. The girls loved the resort, and Ava liked getting out and going on several hikes with me, but unfortunately Anja and DeDe were fighting a cold for part of our stay. Grandmom flew out later and joined us for Thanksgiving dinner with Andreea and Gerry at the Hilton.

Ava is quite the seasoned traveller at this point as she knows all the drills of modern air travel:

She asks if she can take her shoes off when we get near the front of the security screening line as she knows they require this for x-ray screening (even though at some airports they let kids keep their shoes on).

She knows that she needs to have her seatbelt on for takeoff and landing, and does not protest much when we explain that she needs to turn off the iPad and other portable electronic devices during this time.

She expects apple juice and a snack.

She understands that "we going fast" on take-off, and can point out cars and houses as we start to descend for landing.

She stays pretty occupied in her own seat by eating, sleeping, drawing, playing with her "magna-tiles", and mostly playing with her tablet computer to watch animated films such as Toy Story, and animated cartoons such as Diego and Dora the Explorer.

Anja doesn't quite have the same grasp of what is going on, and is getting to be too old for travel as a lap child, but still she handles the flights remarkably well.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

We had a great time last month trick-or-treating with the girls around the neighborhood again. As with last year we also visited the Googleween festivities at my work with the girls in costume. It's been a month so I'm having trouble remembering what all we did that night. Luckily, Ava is sitting here with me way past her bedtime as I type this.

She says "we got candies", "we did get to go get some more candies", "only I got three", "and they were yummy". Couldn't have said it better myself. Pictures below.

Weekend Trip to Tahoe

2011-11-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

Ava has been asking about Tahoe a lot recently, so "Grams" and I took her up for a weekend last month. Like our last daddy/daughter Tahoe trip, we went on a nature walk, cycled to the park, grilled some burgers, cycled to the beach, then drove home again with a stop by the California State Railroad Museum. The weather has been great and despite an early light snow a few weeks ago, it was quite warm and sunny.

Ava was quite content to stay at the beach after sunset and wanted to go anywhere except back to the cabin. As we were cycling back through the national forest she needed a better explanation for why we had to go home. I had the unfortunate idea to tell her that we needed to get out of the woods so that the big bad wolf wouldn't get us. She was oddly quiet the rest of the ride back to the cabin and when we got there and I picked her up out of the bike trailer she said, "I do not want the big bad wolf to come" with a frightened expression on her face. Pasta, chocolate milk, and bath time seemed to comfort her enough not to worry for long, though. I'll have to think more carefully about what I say next time.

Third Year at the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

As with last year and the year before, we started the Halloween season off with a trip to Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch.

The girls once again had the chance to see the animals in the petting zoo, jump around in a bouncy castle, go for a hay ride in a tractor trailer, walk through a haunted tunnel, and play with other children. Anja has proved to be more adventurous than Ava was at this age as she was eager to go into the bouncy castle and do all the things Ava currently does but was more timid about when she was younger.

Anja was particularly entralled with the rabbit at the petting zoo, and Ava enjoyed running screaming through the haunted tunnel with another similarly enthusiastic kid. In the coming weeks we've got the annual Googleween celebration and then trick or treating to look forward to.

Toddlers Love Fish

2011-10-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the girls on there first trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This was their second trip to an aquarium after the Brighton Sea Life Aquarium we visited during our trip to England this summer. The Monterey Bay Aquarium is really wonderful and in many ways better than some of the largest aquariums in the world in Atlanta and Osaka that we've visited and hope to take the girls to some day. We've been to this aquarium over half a dozen times as tourists, for work off-sites, and for special after-hours tours and events after conferences, but this was our first time with the girls. We had never noticed the two large children play areas where Ava and Anja were able to run around, interact with marine exhibits, and play with other kids. We had a nice lunch overlooking the bay and then made the 1.5 hour drive back home. Blazing Saddles was setup with bike and trailer rentals, so next summer we'll maybe come back for a bike tour along Carmel's 7-mile drive.

Anja's 15 Month Checkup

2011-10-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

Last week Anja had her fifteen month checkup. It seems like we just had her 12-month checkup since we were a bit late in scheduling that and took the month of September off from posting here. Anja is starting to say a few words, points to things she wants, points out body parts, and is getting better at using a spoon. We took her to Ava's art class this weekend and got into the pool for a bit. We're taking a lot less photos these days, but still several a week at least, and will try to post some more soon. Any suggestions for what the girl's should be for Halloween?

Head circumference:	49.4 centimeters	99.6 percentile
Height:	31.5 inches	81.3 percentile
Weight:	22 pounds 15.5 ounces	52.3 percentile

Anja 12 Month Checkup

2011-08-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month DeDe took Anja to her 12-month checkup. Due to our travels it was more like a 13-month checkup, but Anja continues to grow and develop into a happy toddler. She is taking a few steps at a time now, and really enjoys climbing up onto things. She's also started to take bovine milk, and wants, of course, to do everything that Ava does. She gets very excited whenever Ava is around and tries to use the tablet computer with her or join in other activities with her, despite Ava's incorrigible tendency to physically rebuke her at times.

Head circumference:	48.8 centimeters
Height:	30.5 inches
Weight:	22 pounds 6.5 ounces (10.16kg)

Ava's First Bike!

2011-08-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

This morning after dropping Anja off at daycare, we took Ava on a couple of errands that ended with a visit to Cognition Cyclery to pick up my road bike. While there, Ava immediately noticed the smallest bike in the shop with training wheels and proceeded to take it for a spin with mom. She was so excited and proud and has been in a great mood all day. Her daycare is closed for teacher development so DeDe took her to Shoreline park to practice riding it. She has been much more social today, waving at strangers, telling them that she is riding her bike. She waved at another boy that was riding his bike then looked up and told mom, "He's riding his bike too." She took a couple of breaks from riding, including a visit to the park sandbox, but even there she kept looking at her bike saying, "That's my bike" and "like daddy's." We have cycled hundreds of miles together over the past year with her in a co-pilot baby seat or in a Burley bike trailer, and I'm looking forward to seeing her contribute to some of that pedaling now.

Ava's First Two Years at Daycare

2011-08-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ava has graduated from her toddler daycare room and will be starting in the young preschool room next week. Two of her teachers, Phyllis and Swaran, will be going back to the infant room to start with a new group of babies while Ava and her classmates move to the young preschool room with one of their existing teachers and two new ones. We had a nice home visit with her new primary teacher, Caitlin, yesterday, and Ava was very excited to show off for her by jumping off the ottoman and hitting her baby sister. Her teachers put together a 30-minute video montage of the last two years that I've further edited down to just the 7 minutes containing Ava, below:

Ava is Officially a Big Girl

2011-08-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

What a difference a week makes. It was only last week that Ava cried out "I not a big girl, I a baby, want my paci" when I was getting her ready for bed as we had to wean her off the pacifier for the second time over the course of a few days following our trip to Orlando, Miami, and Arkansas. Given the long flights we had decided to reintroduce the paci for the duration of our trip to comfort her.

Now this week, out of nowhere, she has stopped needing a diaper during the day. She just all of the sudden with very little effort on our part magically became potty trained (Thanks Phyllis, Erica, and Swaran). Whether we're home, at school, at a restaurant, or even at the pool, she will just tell us when she has to go with enough notice that we can easily make it to the bathroom without accident. She still needs the diaper at night, in part because she expects a large glass of milk before bed. Usually she insists on chocolate milk, but is none the wiser if only the tiniest speck of chocolate or none at all is added.

When she's on the potty and starts saying, "I so proud of you," or "Mommy so proud of me," or "Katie so proud of me," you know she has been successful. She rattled off the names of most of the teachers and kids in her daycare class this evening in the bathroom, which provides some indication of how social this activity must be for two-and-a-half-year-olds at daycare.

In addition to greatly reducing the amount of liquids immediately before bedtime, we're also going to switch her from a crib to a toddler bed this week. We've got stairs and another sleeping baby in the house, so having her in the crib has been nice, but a real bed will make it easier for her to gain more independence and will also make reading to her at night more comfortable for us.

Last week, in an earlier indication perhaps that she was nearly ready for this, she decided she wanted to wear underpants over her diaper before naptime. When we came back in to check on her, she had taken off both the diaper and the underpants then put just the underpants back on backwards and was cuddling up to her diaper as she slept. Yea, we're going to save this one for prom night.

Ava and Anja at Summer Picnic

2011-08-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

Last week DeDe brought Ava and Anja to my work for a team summer picnic. We had a nice picnic on the grass and then Ava played in a bouncy castle and tried to win stuffed animals from various carnival games. Ava can throw a ball a few feet forward on a good day, but sadly this was not enough to win anything, at least not until Irina dropped off some stuffed animals at my desk afterwards. Anja really liked the pork buns, ice cream, and the balloon that the balloon artist made for her. She really wanted to join Ava in the bouncy castle, but that will have to wait until next year when she is a little bigger. Ava also got to see "nice man Farzan" again, whom she hadn't seen since our last dinner in Miami. As with last year, I cycled Ava back to daycare afterwards. Sadly, we just missed Zadie and Sawyer, but I got to meet them for the first time after I returned to work.

More Pics from Miami

2011-08-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Last week DeDe entertained Ava and Anja in Miami Beach during the days while I was at a conference. She took the girls out to the pool, the beach, and built forts and played other games up in the room. Ava was more helpful in minding DeDe and assisting her with Anja while I was away. We got to have dinner with my coworker Farzan several times at our hotel. Ava started calling Farzan "nice man" when he wasn't around, and asked about him, but was still too shy to talk to him much directly. Anja, on the other hand, was happy to have a new person to hold her. On a few occasions Anja took a step during this trip, so walking will not be long.

Ava and I also got to meet up with one of my childhood friends, Andreea, who drove down to meet us in Miami for a nice dinner in South Beach. We also got to go on another bike ride, this time with Farzan, to the Bayside Marketplace in Miami. We had a nice 15 mile across the Venetian Causeway and back again, as with our first ride over to the children's museum, although I got a flat on one of the last bridges back over and we had to walk a bit. Heat stroke was avoided by all involved.

On the beach, Ava asked "What can my do", so DeDe showed her how to bury toys and her feet in the sand. She continues to ask for "more fast boats", "more trucks", or other objects she wants to see and expects us to make them appear.

Next stop: Arkansas

First Day in Miami Beach

2011-07-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

After spending last week in Disney World, we flew to Miami this week for a few days of vacation before the Joint Statistical Meetings.

The flight over was short and pretty easy, as we've got flying with toddlers pretty well figured out by this point (thank you, iPad!). Conversation with Ava on the flight continued to show her emphasis on object ownership, as she corrected my use of the word "Miami" with "No, My-ami." She also made a comment that she wanted to see "Grams" in Miami, but when I told her she wouldn't be there, she replied "She's in Oakland". Being able to reason about where people are is definitely a more recent development for Ava.

Our first evening in Miami was spent getting dinner and then playing on the beach. Anja and Ava were both able to play the "wait for waves to come towards us and then have a parent pick us up at the last minute" game, which unfortunately doesn't get boring for them until way after our backs start to give out. The next day, we all had lunch together and then Ava and I split off so that Anja could get a good nap and thus be more likely to sleep through the night (Update: that was the plan, anyway). Ava and I walked down through South Beach and then rented a bike and baby seat from Bike and Roll. I took Ava on a ~15 mile round-trip to the Miami Children's Museum and back. On the way there we stopped at a park to play tag with some slightly older girls. Apparently, five-year-olds have all kinds of complicated rules about bases, timeouts, and other nonsense that two year olds are less interested in than just running around. Still, Ava really liked interacting with the older kids as she rarely gets that opportunity.

All told, we crossed more than 7 bridges (one-way) over the Venetian Causeway to downtown Miami and then back over A1A to Watson Island. The museum is one of the better ones we've visited, though not quite as fun as the one in Greenville. It was great for Ava, but would have been a little less suitable for crawling babies like Anja.

Nearly every children's museum we've ever been to includes a supermarket area with fake groceries and shopping carts so that children can pretend to pick out and pay for groceries. Three videos of Ava at various exhibits at the museum are posted below, followed by a partial GPS track of our journey.

Visit to Disney World

2011-07-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

This week I spoke at a workshop at the Green Computing Conference in Orlando, Florida. Given that the conference hotel is actually inside Disney World, it would have just seemed mean not to take the whole family. The hotel is a short walk from Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island, so DeDe was able to walk both girls there during the conference days and I joined them in the evening. Highlights of downtown disney for the girls included the carousels, lego superstore, water play areas, water taxis, miniature train rides, the harley store, and shops full of plush mickey mouse gear. Anja also got to meet her granddad for the first time as he traveled down from Jacksonville for two days to visit.

On Wednesday, I took a day off and we visited the Magic Kingdom. This was a hit before we even got into the gates as it involved rides on busses and the monorail "choo-choo" just to get there. On the monorail someone asked if Ava was on her way to see Mickey Mouse, and Ava started repeating that she wanted to see the mouse as we entered the park. When we finally walked up Disney Main Street to a show in front of Cinderella Castle, Ava was able to see Mickey and Minnie briefly but then asked where they went when they exited the stage. She answered her own question noting that they went "nigh'-nigh'", which is her usual understanding of what people do when they leave her presence.

At one point Ava and I decided to ride the Magic Carpets of Alladin just as the clouds were starting to get thicker. When we were the next ones up it started to sprinkle on the people enjoying the ride in front of us, but the attendants let them finish and then let us into the ride as well. A nice family offered to lend us a poncho for Ava just as we boarded and it really started to pour. The attendants seemed unsure whether or not they were allowed to let us ride in the rain and thunder so we just sat there getting drenched on the ride for 5 minutes before half the people got off but they finally let us ride as the last group before shutting down the ride for the day. Needless to say, Ava had a blast despite being rained on the entire time.

After returning the poncho to the helpful family and buying some of our own, we decided to try the nearby Pirates of the Carribean since this is an indoor ride. Anja was a little scared of some of the ghost images early on, and held on tight to DeDe for the rest of the ride. It was a great first trip to Disney World and surprisingly mostly stress-free. One of the great things about taking children this young is that they're totally mesmerized just walking around and so don't need to stand in lines for many rides. The lines are also typically much shorter for rides geared towards younger children.

Next stop, Miami South Beach and the Joint Statistical Meetings, also with family.

Fourth of July

2011-07-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

We had our first Fourth of July weekend at the Tahoe cabin earlier this month. Cars apparently started lining up at 5:30am for a prime spot on Lake Tahoe for Independence Day, so we opted instead to take the bikes and head to nearby Kahle Park. There we gave Anja and Ava their first taste of carbon flavored beef, which they enjoyed immensely. We then returned home for naptime and loaded up the Burley bike trailer with food, water, toys, beach umbrellas, and a 2-person inflatable boat for the downhill journey to Nevada Beach for an early evening swim. Ava and I had a great time paddling along the lake shore watching the "fast boats" (jet skis) and geese while Anja and DeDe played in the sand and watched all the other people.

Cycling to the park and then down to the beach seemed like a great idea until we had to cycle back uphill 2 miles after dark through a deserted national forest to the sound of coyotes howling. When we finally arrived home we saw the fireworks out of our bedroom window. Ava was very interested in the fireworks but covered her ears through the entire show.

Back To "School"..

2011-07-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

After more than three weeks away, Ava and Anja returned to day care this month. We bought bobby helmets for every child in Ava's class from a souvenir shop in London and they proved to be a big hit with the kids.

In sadder news, one of Ava's best friends from daycare, Aarav, is moving away with his parents who've taken a new job on a new continent. Aarav made his first appearance here back in a post from November 2009 and won the honor of first kiss by a boy captured in a photo. As you can see from the two photos, some things haven't changed much in 20 months.

Anja is on a wait list for a full-time place at daycare and we may start sending her to a separate daycare on the off-days. We've visited half-dozen daycares in the last few weeks to find a good fit. Both girls get a lot more stimulus at daycare. Anja seems to get a bit bored after a day at home and Ava will just ask us "What should I do" if she's home too long.

Greenwich with Grandmom

2011-07-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

One of the kids' favorite activities on our trip to England last month was simply riding the "choo-choo train". This mostly referred to the Tube, but also the regional trains we took to Kent, South London, and Cambridge. Ava would always request that we get on a yellow and red train. It's not clear if this was her preference because those are her favorite colors or if it was the color of the train for one of her first particularly enjoyable rides where she walked up and down the aisle smiling at passengers until she would get up the courage to sit next to particularly friendly people.

The only thing better than a train journey for these two was a journey that also included a boat ride. Our day trip to Greenwich Observatory and the Prime Meridian offered the chance to take the Tube and then an hour long ride from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. Ava particularly liked to point out the other "fast boats" on the Thames, and Anja just enjoyed looking out over the water.

When we arrived in Greenwich we ate a nice pub lunch in an outdoor garden area. Ava was particularly comfortable eating the English smashed peas with her fish and chips. We then walked up hill to the observatory and took a number of pictures of the girls on the Prime Meridian. This wasn't quite enough for Ava, who kept running into the background of other people's pictures to climb on the meridian marker. After chasing Ava around the grounds for a while and helping Anja see through a telescope we were able to walk through the museum to take a look at Harrison's famous clocks and other interesting maritime and astronomical instruments. It was a great day trip that was highly recommended to us by multiple people with kids, and we'd recommend it as well.

Cycling Through Central London with Ava

2011-07-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

Last month during our three week trip to England, Ava and I snuck off twice for bike rides to give DeDe and Anja a chance to catch up on naps and enjoy a more relaxed pace for the day. I've already written about our trip to the Viking Coastal Trail in Kent, but we were also able to cycle around central London. I saw a group of blue bikes from Fat Tire Bike Tours cycling through Kensington Park on our first day in London, and so I called them up and they were able to provide a bike with a toddler seat for the ~4 hour tour through the city. We started from Queensway by Kensington Palace, and rode through the various parks and landmarks down to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and back. The bike seat was very similar to the one we use at home so Ava was quite comfortable and thoroughly enjoyed the excursion. She only cried once when she dropped her paci but was relieved when I circled around and found it. (She had long since given up the paci back home, but we re-introduced it on the plane flight over).

DeDe and I have done nearly a half-dozen London walking tours with London Walks over the last 11 years, but this was the first time I'd seen the city by bike. Cycling is a much better option for young children, where as any organized walk would be quite frustrating as toddlers would be prone to run off on their own, demand to be picked up and carried, etc. In many ways I think the cycling tour route is better for adults as well in that you can cover ground much more quickly than walking, but still be so much closer to it all than is possible from a bus.

There were no other children at all in our group, much less toddlers, but Ava made friends with several of the women riders. Ava is noticeably more comfortable with unknown women than unknown men, and it's yet to be seen if this is radical feminism taking shape at such a young age or just a reflection of the fact that all of her daycare teachers and 90% of her daycare classmates are female. We had a nice pub lunch with some of the other riders and then returned through Hyde Park to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Ava really enjoyed playing in the water there after our long ride together.

On the way back, Ava started saying "go away", but when I protested that I was pedaling her home and I couldn't go away, she started qualifying it "go away, people" and I realized she was directing this at every pedestrian we passed. Cycling through central London had exposed her to more strangers than she had ever seen before in her life, and after 4 hours she decided she had had enough and would demand that everyone we pass "go away!".