Madame also enjoyed playing with the birthday girl’s toys….

But kept going back to the bouncy house….she even convinced her daddy to bounce!

They were crafts…a pinata…loads of balloons…cupcakes…phew!

It was a great party, and we stayed til the very end. Just as we were about to leave, she got in one last bounce!

Our little girl went to her first ballet this weekend. I loved ballet when I was a kid, so this was a special moment for me. I was a bit teary-eyed when it started. It just hit me…I am with my baby…at her first ballet!

Lucy has recently started liking ballet, dancing around wearing her tutu, pretending she is Angelina Ballerina. So when the chance came to see a kid-centered ballet we took it.

The ballet we saw was the Ugly Duckling, featuring as many students as possible from the local ballet school, costumed as ducks, swans, flowers, cats, dogs, and chickens. The baby swan stole the show.

Madame behaved very well, applauding in all the right places, staying in her seat the whole time, and watching enraptured for much of it. Not bad for a 3 year old.

When I was a little girl I was obsessed with ballet, and remember asking my mom for ballet lessons…and her saying, ‘not ’til you’re 5′ (or was it 7? either way it seemed a long ways away.) And boy I held her to it!

I remember changing into my ballet clothes in the station wagon as my mom drove me to ballet from school. I remember watching the older girls in the advanced class taking pointe lessons, and dreaming of the day that would be me. I remember the wonder of seeing some of those same girls performing in the LA Ballet’s Nutcracker.

I don’t want or hope for madame to become a professional ballerina, that would be a hard life (low pay, constant aches and bruises and little time for anything else).

But I am happy that she likes ballet, and will be happy to see her studying it, and to take her to many more performances. And I can’t wait for the day when she will be the student up on stage for the first time taking her bows.

Another thing we like to do is illustrate Lucy’s ideas. We’ll gather in front of Lucy’s easel and she’ll start shouting out ideas like “We’re at the beach!” or “Wubert is in trouble with bumblebees!” As she does this, we’ll scribble frantically with crayons, hopelessly trying to keep up with our little girl’s imagination. Almost all of Lucy’s stories star Wubert, who usually plays multiple roles in each story. He’s also usually in some type of trouble.

Here’s one of Lucy’s stories…

“Doo is having a picnic at the beach with Wubert. They have a bucket and a shovel. They have cake. Wubert goes in the water (there are fish!) and Doo has to save him. Wubert’s sleeping. I’m tickling Wubert. I am walking with Wubert on a hill. I’m first. It’s really sunny, and there’s cake.”

First, we stopped for some refreshment…

Lucy leads Daddy to the beach…

building sand castles…

it was a lovely day.

Here’s some video we took during our time in Oahu earlier this month. The beach shots are from the coast of Lanikai in Kailua. For more info, check out this post.

• Music: “Jessica” from Brothers and Sisters by The Allman Brothers Band

The kid is learning new words every day. During our time in Hawaii, she started using words like “Uh-Oh!”, “Wow!”, “Shoes”, and “Hi!” on a regular basis. However, by far her new favorite word has got to be “two”. She’s pretty creative in her usage, frequently using “two” in place of “yes”. Example:

Mom: “Would you like a cookie, Lucy?”
Lucy: “Two!”

Anyway, Lucy’s favorite beach by far was in Kailua, most notably because it was very hilly in parts. She loved crawling up the hills, very much surprising her mom and dad with her climbing prowess.

Once she scrambled to the top of each vanquished hill, Lucy would motion for a parent to come visit her lofty perch. Inexplicably, mom would usually be very busy feigning interest in something else whenever the little hill-dictator demanded a visit. This was usually my cue to start climbing.

As soon as I’d huffed and puffed myself to the top of her hill, she’d let out a high-pitched shriek (the kind that frequently scares Wubert) and propel herself down the hill, fully confident in her ol’ dad’s back-pedaling and toddler-catching abilities.

What I found truly funny about all of this was how the kid paced herself during each of her climbs. In the way a squad of soldiers might yell “hup, two, three, four” to help keep themselves in time and on point, the kid would say “two!” for each and every foot or hand movement that helped her scale each of her hills.

Thus, as she crawled up each hill, in a very determined tone she would say, “two, two, two, two!” The cadence would help push her along until she’d reached her hilltop. Once at the top of each hill she’d give a final, triumphant, “TWO!”

Then, she’d beckon her dad to help with that pesky “getting down the hill” part and do it all over again. One of my fondest memories of our trip to the islands.

I was looking forward to checking out BJ Penn’s gym in Hilo. Alas, the place was closed, so we had to make do with peering through the windows. Lucy would have to show off her BJJ moves next time, I guess.

The actual drive was pretty cool. We saw all sorts of weather, from pristine blue skies to fog-shrouded mountain tops (the kinda stuff that would look at home on a Led Zeppelin album cover) to heavy, “why can’t these windshield wipers go faster?!” rain storms.

The kid showed no fear during our trip, even while spelunking through lava tubes.

Some of the lava formations were especially intriguing. Away from the ocean and people, their dead silent surroundings gave them an otherworld quality that was way cool. I felt like I was in an old Star Trek episode and that a Gorn could pop out at any moment!

Here are another couple of pics that show how fast the kid has changed in the short time we’ve had her. The top pic is from the same time period as a post that went up last year. You can check it out here.

While digging through the closet we found one of Lucy’s old boppies. How time flies! In early 2007 the boppy was king; we used it everywhere. Jill used it so much that it seemed like part of her (two arms, two legs, 1 boppy—check!)

But times change. Sometime in 2007 Lucy reached a certain size and the loyal boppies were discarded and forgotten, much like Jessie the cowgirl in Toy Story 2. Well, we revisited that earlier time for a few minutes today. Lucy seemed to recognize her old, ultra-soft friend, and though they were both very different from their first meeting, (one a little more worn around the edges, the other a lot bigger!) they got together just like old times (for a bit).

Lucy visited her Gma Vita this weekend, and was thrilled to be back in the garden again! Here are some pics of Gma’s garden in the summertime. More pics here.

She has some new vegetables blooming, the walnut tree is in full leaf, and there were even a few birds who stopped by to say hello.

No squirrels sighted, but we did get a good look inside the hole in the walnut tree. It looks a lot like somewhere a totoro might live…

You may remember our last post about Gma’s garden from the early spring, pics here.