Good times

Our last couple of weekends have been quite enjoyable. The Friday after AC’s birthday, we hired the babysitter for Sam and went out for dinner just the two of us at our new favorite date night locale: Six Degrees on Solano.

The next day, AC and Sam went for a bike ride up to Arlington Park.

And I mean “up” as emphatically as possible. Apparently they were passed by a jogger! After some time on the “baby weesh” and the climbing structure, they rode back down the hill to Giovanni’s grocery store to pick up some bread. AC thinks he heard Sammy yelling “whee!” all the way down. She seems to be much more interested in cycling lately, as one of her frequent little conversations is: “Bi rah. Helm. Heh.” (“Bike ride. Helmet. Head,” the last word pronounced while tapping her head.)

While they were out punishing AC’s legs, I stayed home and prepared dinner for our first local guests: Sammy’s weekly playmate and her parents. The girls had fun climbing on things in Sam’s room, and the parents got to swap toddler stories.

Sunday, we continued our new tradition: jazz and pancakes. AC makes a pancake breakfast and we listen to jazz (dazz in Sammy speak) and laze about some. We then drove down to Berkeley to check out Fourth Street. Back home for lunch and naps all around. Then in the afternoon, we went to Alvarado Park, which is on the northern end of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, a 2000-some acre wilderness area. Alvarado has picnic areas, some easy wide trails, and a sandy playground. Unfortunately there were no “baby weesh” BUT there were big kid swings, so AC and I decided to see if Sam could handle those. And she could. We had to remind her to keep both hands on the swing (this is a problem with a toddler who signs and points to everything that catches her interest), but she kept her balance remarkably well.

Afterwards we went to our neighborhood Thai restaurant and feasted on stir fries and sticky rice. Sammy loves sticky rice, and enjoys playing peekaboo with the wait staff. It was still early, and light out, when we left the restaurant, so AC and Sam went for a walk and I took the car home. I joined them at the park around the corner and we introduced Sam to kickball.

What a blast. Sam was the “pitcher”: we would tell her to roll or throw the ball to whomever was “at bat.” Usually this took a couple of times and rarely would she get the ball over the plate, but the kicker would then kick the ball and run to first base while the outfielder tried to get him or her out. Example: Mom kicks the ball and sprints to first base. Dad catches the ball and throws it at Mom. Sam runs around in circles laughing and screaming. It was good exercise for all.

Walk back home. Milk, lullabies, bath, bed.

I think this is what they mean about the best time of your life. ``