Ursula, our "Little she-bear" was born on September 25th, 2005
This site is for family and friends to follow the progress of our little bear
as she finds her way through the world.
Sept 18 No new news...waiting.
Sept 15 Eric feels it is his duty to teach Ursa a range of dance moves. His latest inspiration comes from the movie Blades of Glory. He is teaching her Will Farrell dance moves.
I have gotten to the point in the pregnancy where I'm feeling really awkward and uncomfortable. And since Ursula is at the parrot-stage we had a moment yesterday where after loading her into the car *grunt* *grunt* and *pant* *grunt* closing my own door I could hear a convincing grunting and panting coming from the backseat. [s]
Sitting on the same chair during playdates is really fun, for about 3 minutes. Here, Ursula is giving one of her 5 second back rubs to Shelby.
Ursula and Shelby practice syncronized "monkey."
Navigating a toddler hug can be dangerous (bumped noses, etc.). They cautiously approach ...
A successful hug (with no bumped noses).
Sept 13 For two weeks now the doctor has warned I "could go at any time" ... at each appointment. So I have frantically packed my suitcase, knitted an ill-fitting pair of booties and out-of-season Christmas hat (that also probably won't fit until Easter), gotten 6 pages written so far on instructions for caring for Ursula while I'm in labor, and attempted to clean the house Sisyphus-style (with Ursula following behind me excavating drawers, bookshelves, and toybins). It's a good thing Ursula really likes penguins right now, because that's exactly how I walk.
While out in public a few people have noticed I'm pregnant and get terribly alarmed when I answer with my due date, like I'm going to shoot the baby out right then and there ... instead of the 6 hour labor I'm hoping and praying for. With Ursula I had 27 hours of fair warning before she appeared - so really I doubt there is cause for worry. [s]
Saturday painter beginning a self-portrait
She titled this 'circle' and proceeded to get paint in her hair, face and eyes...bath time
Sept 6 We are getting ready for the plunge...we can't even remember what it's like to have a newborn around the house. Feedings every 2 hours? OMG! Sleepless nights...oh, no. We'd love to go see a movie in the theater with air conditioning, popcorn and soda...the last time we experienced that senseless joy was before Ursula was born...March of the Penguins!
Ursula has no grasp on the changes that are coming. She still thinks anyone with a spare tire as their tummy is having a baby. She's learned to jump on daddy's tummy and he chants 'ohio, idaho, iowa' in a musical fashion. And tonight she tried to stand on his chest and JUMP. Ouch.
Great Aunt Nancy describes to a patient young flower child how the San Francisco - Beijing airplane route works (must be how she got all the new cool booty)
Holding court on the popular sea turtle at the Golden Gate Park
Carrousel rides never get boring, especially since there are 15 different animals to choose from
August 30 Congratulations to Auntie Rachel and Uncle Leigh! Spencer Paul Hickman weighs in over the 8 pound mark and was born with a full head of black hair... We heard Rachel had just 5 hours of labor...pretty darn quick for her first baby.
Auntie Rachel and Spencer Paul Hickman enjoying their first moments together
August 26 School starts tomorrow. We're swamped ... updates coming later.
A very sleepy Ursula tries to stay awake at dinner amid offerings of iPod, Blackberry, and crayons. We were soon to discover she was in need of a quiet corner and a new diaper.
Oh wait. Hold it. I see ice cream ...
Nap buddy, "Bob the Monkey," at work.
Half naked container gardening.
Ursa was quite taken with this "bear!" by Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor on display at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.
August 17 We did it - we finally spent the night in a tent as a family, in the woods. Although we first had to drive around for an hour, in the woods, to quiet all the talk of the "acorns!" and "pine cones!" and "ants!" and the 2-year-old camper next door "Devin!" before she actually fell asleep.
I'm pretty sure Ursula was in heaven what with the giant redwood logs to balance on, the ants (maybe even the one's that drink daddy's coffee! see Two Bad Ants
I don't know if Eric will let me live down my over-protective reaction to a cricket (I thought it was a rattlesnake ... it did only sound-off as we approached ...). [s]
Acorn! Acorn! What's that?! Acorn! (the acorn dance)
Two campers take a morning constitutional with their mugs of milk (U) and tea (S).
Camping = trees, acorns, pine cones, acorns, ants, acorns, and running running running.
Books were one of the very few things that we could use to slow her down.
Excercise class with daddy.
Every now and then I have the urge to have a clean apartment - or even just be able to walk through a room without stepping on toys, hats, and shorts-that-are-pretending-to-be-hats. It is, however, impossible to clean Ursula's room in her presence. She'll follow along right behind, un-cleaning. If you try guerilla cleaning while she's in the other room you at least gain a half hour of "me time" during her subsequent gleeful chaos campaign. Yeah, yeah, we are trying to teach her that cleaniing along with mom and dad is "fun"! But the results are, so far, spotty. Maybe by 2 1/2 we can warp her into some sort of obsessive neat freak. Oh yeah, and my iPod? It was in the fireplace with a stash of crayons. She can't really fit through our barricade to the fireplace, but can apparently shove things in there with ease.
August 10 My slippers are missing, my iPod is MIA, and we regularly find Eric's cell phone squirreled away in random drawers and seat cushion crevices. Luckily that last item rings when you call it. But I'm getting desparate to find my slippers. I told Eric I am not going to the hospital to give birth without my slippers. We are pretty sure it's not gremlins rearranging these things - and pretty suspicious of a toddler we know ...
Ursula is enjoying the California fruit season immensely and decided the following edibles are a special kind of "yucky" (special, meaning "yucky" but then maybe I could have another? and another? ...): sliced limes, seltzer, and pickles.
She has also discovered that using language and mobility she can demand her way. On a typical day I'll be doing dishes and hear "momma! ... mommmmma!" from across the apartment. Soon she'll appear in the kitchen and demand "apron off!" while tugging. Then point out of the kitchen to her bedroom, "room, play, momma. apron off!" If I take too long getting that last dish done she may punctuate her demands with an "Uhhnh! Apron off!" Later on she was seen cavorting with her own apron on and patting her belly, sing-songy whispering "baaaaybeeee." [s]
snack time is better when she can feed the animals too
August 8 Nothing to report...not a thing has happened in Ursula's life...darn, can you imagine being that borish on a baby blog?! Every hour has something newsworthy; highlights (at least the information that the public can hear) from the last week:
-jumped willingly off a sidewalk with both feet aligned
-was allowed to play in the water/pond section at the Park
-can happily lie backwards (supported by parent) in the tub exploring all the cool sounds underwater
-found out that popsicles exist
-can blow a whistle
-can play the harmonica
-likes to eat blueberry pie [e]
July 30 Ursula discovered how to play the harmonica ("Rmukka") last week and for a while there I was serenaded by a spritely version of the theme to Jaws. When music starts up on the radio, when someone is singing, or she sees someone playing an instrument on the street she will ask breathlessly, "Whhass that?!" I can't say she's always discriminating in her tastes, though, dancing earnestly to the Marketplace song or singing along with Beaker in a Sesame Street version of Feelings.
I'm afraid of heights, I think Eric is afraid of heights, and we're both afraid of Ursula being up high, but Ursula has been climbing every chance she gets. Yeah sure, Eric and I had climbing gym memberships before parenthood, but that was all sublimation of base fear, mid-life crisissy kind-of-stuff. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about this kind up thing until our daughter turned 30. It may be just be some kind of normal developmental phase? Today when I checked on her in her room (suddenly quiet) she was scaling the crib. Sternly, I said, "What. Are. You. Doing." And she replied, "I['m] c[l]imbing [unintelligable ... unintelligable ...] get monkey." So matter of fact. She uses piled books to get to her shoes, stalks the kitchen step stool (now sequestered above the fridge), will even climb up a standing adult (while holding onto your fingers) till she has her feet planted on your chest (I'm thinking, not good for pregnant ladies). The climbing stumps at our local park have become a favorite.
But my mom says, oh no, I wasn't a climber. I was a jumper. That sounds even worse. [s]
Ursula lives up to the Twain's supposed quote..."The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
July 28 She is having a wonder week with her speech and/or her short term memory. Every phrase is repeated back to us. Minty chocolate = 'mitty chokk', Going to the park = 'goan ta da pahk'. We kinda wish her memory could find us the lost Ipod that we can't seem to find around the house...did Ursula decide to place this in the trash after she couldn't get the music to start??
[e]
Loverboy steals a pawn
Riding on a reindeer (with real antler) at the Carousel in Golden Gate Park
July 23rd Ursula has long verbal sentences. These are mostly non-sensical that sound a little like this:
"shoobalova toodo gorolorg rhtof shvisatoo tstetse argh uh PARK".
We are about to switch Web Hosts. If for some reason the site is down for a while, we appologize in advance. [e]
Enjoying the morning heat in her little sister's new bath tub
black, white and red all over (note the tear when daddy reloaded the paintbrush)
Apparently her baby needed a makeover
July 16th One of our favorite radio programs, Radiolab, aired an investigation on morality this week. We found out that our new baby will be arriving while Ursula is yet a "Happy Victimizer," before exploring Empathy around 3 years of age. That's a little scary. Although everything is a little scary now that we have kids. Yesterday we took her to the rehabilitated Children's Playground in Golden Gate (now called the Koret Children's Quarter) which features some pretty terrifying playground equipment, from a parent's point of view - although admittedly very cool from a kid's perspective. We saw toddlers on scraps of cardboard lunging down a two story concrete slide and a teenage girl fall through the largest rope jungle gym I've ever seen (is there an endowment just for the liability insurance?). Not to mention the horrifying story my mother warned me about wading pool drains at country clubs. I'm not going to link to it because, trust me, you'd hate me for it. Just keep your baby away from those country club pool drains. [s]
Ursa wants to know when will she get her first pair of rock climbing shoes, looking up at the new Wave Wall at the Koret Children's Quarter.
... won't be climbing this unattended anytime soon ...
Training for the circus on a monster rope structure.
Two parents + really exciting spiral slide = a few tears. She'll have to wait a few years before she is allowed on the concrete slide.
Everyone with a child was in this artist's studio (Misako Inaoka) at the Headlands Center for the Arts studio tour. The hybridized bird-animal-plant creatures were mechanized and had motion sensors.
Even more exciting than seeing great art ... a ride on the school bus studio shuttle! (with a full diaper)
July 11 That awful, pitiful sob you hear coming from Ursa these days is likely to be due to an obstinate shoe - maybe hard to put on, pull off, or just the intractable problem that she's already got two shoes on and desparately want to put on a third.
We are practicing the Cesar Millan method of parenting. Timely bedtimes, hearty naps, and over-all toddler-docility (oxymoron?) are achieved with daily trips to the park or beach (see the latest video: Slide) - anything to burn off all that energy she mysteriously extracts from grapes, bananas, and Cheerios. Why don't they make toddler treadmills? Forget about switchgrass, toddlers could be the key to solving our energy crisis.
We went on our first family-camping trip on Sunday and stuck it out valiantly for two hours before slinking back home. I'd given in to the switch from ultra-light hiking gear to family-friendly car camping equipment - exquisitely prepared with a brand-new top-of-the-line family-sized tent, fancy combination camp stove/grill/griddle, reclining camp chair, non-DEET plant-based bug repellent... absolutely nothing new made of titanium, high-loft polyfill, etc. The campsite was booked on a promisingly vacant day. Meals were planned to awe the standard toddler: her first hotdog, her first ketchup, her first s'more ... (which, it turns out, she loves ... at home). However the scene deteriorated the moment we stepped out of the car. Spoiled by SF temperatures we were blasted by normal summer 90-degree temperatures. Our panting and sweating soon attracted hoards of famished black flies. The now-vacant campground only hours before had experienced peak occupancy and showed the signs: toilet paper with associated debris decorated nooks in the bushes, all of the permanent out-houses were closed for maintenance, but the supplemental port-o-potties were as full as ones you'd find at an outdoor concert, additional trash was hastily stowed in the fire-pit. While I wrestled the tent, Eric chased after Ursula intent on that stuff left in the bushes. She was soon over-heated and wretchedly crying — from the heat, hunger, 4 new canines, a burgeoning cold, and most of all the flies. She was terrified of the flies. [s]
So clean and content, just before leaving for our camping trip. Currently obsessed with hats — especially homemade ones (she loves to wear the pink hat Mimi made her) — so I made her this "acorn" but it turned out to be too small.
Wearing one of moma's "hats."
July 4 We took advantage of the free day at the Steinhart Aquarium to show Ursa a coral reef up close. Afterwards we took our picnic to Dolores Park (an excuse to make a pilgrimage to the latest ice creamery). But as soon as we overheard park personnel warning people to watch out for the heroin needles stashed in the tree trunks (like some sort of urban easter egg hunt) Eric made us turn around. He said he saw a smashed crack vial. So anyway we wound up picnicking at home, at the dining room table, with no ice cream. [s]
Coral reef tank at the Steinhart Aquarium.
Mom knit new sweaters for Ursa and the fetus. So far no crayon marks ...
Finally. She's interested in her blocks. Especially if the animals are involved.
Future parking lot designer.
Babies do grow on trees. Here's Eric catching a ripe one
after a naked run across Tilden Park...an apple in the shade
she remembers exactly where the waterfountain was
June 30 Ursula went to her first SF gallery opening last night. Thanks to friends and family who supported us...she had a great time running around (with the help of her babysitter Therese) greeting the guests and seeing all the art couples with young babies.
here are a slew of videos (cathing up on a few weeks) [e]
Book (she refuses to have her diaper changed...so we bribe her with book reading)
Shoes (she dances to the NPR weekend edition music...)
Shoes2 (all I need is this sippy cup, this mardi gras necklace and this monkey...oh, and these shoes)
June 22 When I'm not in the room I swear that Ursula has the ability to disjoint her shoulder in order to reach lunch preparations on the dining room table. Today she she got to the grapes. When we are grape-toting and out-and-about we (parents) tend to bite off half the grape and hand the other half to her, so as to reduce the choking hazard. But as I picked them up off the floor today she carefully bit each grape in half and handed me the remainder. It's so sweet that she doesn't want me to choke either. [s]
"Dad, will you buy me a personal princess cake?" (not for 30 dollars...)
"tis ok Mr. Crab..."
trying to take the ferry across the bay to warmer weather
big girl takes her first 'steps' (dad used to dream of skateboarding on this site when he was a teenager)
Ursula wasn't allowed to see the dump...we enjoyed seeing all the trash from SF as it goes through this transfer station. (an incredible artist in residency program is part of this facility)
Patron Saint Ursula
"Legendary princess, the daughter of a Christian British king. She travelled Europe in company of either 11 or 11,000 fellow maidens; it is believed that the 11,000 number resulted from a misreading of the term "11M" which indicated 11 Martyrs, but which a copyist took for a Roman numeral. Ursula and her company were tortured to death to get them to renounce their faith, and old paintings of them show many of the women being killed in various painful ways. Namesake for the Ursuline Order, founded for the education of young Catholic girls and women. " from catholic-forum.com