Visiting Davis

Last weekend Eddie and I went to Davis for Leila's birthday party.  Cassie had invited us juuuuuuuuuuuuust in case we wanted to come...and of course we did!  We were lucky that Dave needed some alone time to get the newly textured sheet rock primed in the downstairs bedrooms.  So off we went on Saturday morning after waking up late, having breakfast, and packing up the van.  It was so refreshing to not worry about packing up the dogs and tons of stuff--just the toiletry kit and a change of clothes.

We made on pit stop in Petaluma for snacks and then went straight to the party.  It was at a gymnastics place we'd never been to before, which was fun.  Cassie was the only one who knew we were coming so it was really fun when all the other parents got excited to see us walk in.  Ahhhhh, I really felt loved.  Eddie took off immediately toward the trampoline with his Davis bffs, Leila and Isaac.  I didn't see him for the rest of the party except for a lemonade request and then cupcakes/candy at the end.

A kid and his croissant and juice.

The party was a circus theme, complete with buckets of peanuts and popcorn and TONS of candy.  Each kiddo got an empty paper sack to fill with candy as their goodie bag.  Eddie did the reasonable thing: he tasted each thing and kept what he liked and handed me what he didn't.

All the kiddos enjoying their cupcakes.

Eddie's cheeks are rosy red from intense tumbling. 

Before we moved away from Davis, I decided that we should play at every single park in town. I found a list/map online and began checking them off. In July we left with two remaining on the list.  So after the party ended and Cassie went out with her family, Eddie and I headed off to those parks.  The first one was disappointing, having only two baby swings.  Seriously, nothing else, not even a bench to climb on.  However, the last park did not disappoint.  Eddie proclaimed it as his favorite park in town, but I think his memory isn't very good.  Rainbow City definitely wins the prize for best park, not this one on Redbud.  It was small but we had a good time together.

I love these rotating seats--and especially that green metal umbrella thing in the background--it spins and spins you around when you hold onto the bars with your hands.

We headed back to Cassie's to spend the night. The kids ate pizza on the couch with Leila's dad and uncle while Cassie and I chatted at the table. Everyone crashed around 9 pm.  I usually hate sleeping with Eddie because he's a thrasher but this night wasn't too bad. The worst part of the night was all the noise from outside. Cassie lives a block from campus and it happened to be the Saturday night before school started for the year.  We were serenaded until midnight with shrieking girls, bike bells, and chanting frat guys.

We slept in the 'infant room' of Cassie's house, a room she uses for her daycare.

That morning I was in serious need of coffee so we all walked downtown to Pete's.  We let the kids play at the park for a bit before heading back to the house to pack up.

They were playing pirates, I think.

It was hard to leave because we love Cassie so much...but it was also fun to run errands with Eddie after we departed.  He got to pick out two new fish and an aquatic snail at the pet shop, plus 20 crickets for his classroom lizard.  Then we headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up a few odds and ends, including whichever <$20 toy Eddie wanted.  He'd been so good with all the driving and change in schedule and he hadn't gotten a new toy in a while so Dave and I agreed to let him pick something out.  I steered him away from certain things and he settled on an Iron Man action figure.  It has recorded sayings on it and he thought of them said, "Popsicle bread."  I finally realized it actually said, "Possible threat" and tried to correct him, but he's sure he's right.

Cassie gave Eddie a huge sack of old princess/fairy dress up gear before we left. Here you can see Kiki, who got to eat her very first food while we were there.  She's a chow-down champ!

Eddie was asking all sorts of questions while the gal scooped out his fish.

Lab meetings and school have started up again but I'm on leave for the quarter. I'm planning on going to campus for the meetings and some lab work/focused writing time/professor meetings once or twice a month. So...until next time, Davis!

Breakfast Picnic at Northstar Park

This morning we decided to have breakfast in the park--with donuts!  Yum!  Dave picked up donuts while I packed up some huge Thermoses with coffee and milk and got Eddie and myself ready.  Then we loaded the dogs up into the van and took off to Northstar Park.

Here you can see the pond and the playground behind as we approached the park from the north end.

Northstar Park has retention ponds and wetlands that help mitigate flooding in Davis, as well as provide habitat for a variety of birds.  Of course, Eddie didn't care about all that, he was just interested in the playgrounds. We played hide and seek and dug a hole in the sand looking for treasure after we ate our breakfast.

Bowers enjoying our coffee and sweet breakfast treats!

I love this Thermos set--isn't it awesome?  It probably dates from the 1970s or 1980s. I helped a family friend clean out her parents' house in SF after they passed away and we found this.  Along with many other household items, she let me have this since she didn't have a use for it.  (Our rotary phone, double boiler, and parfait glasses came from there, too. All vintage, all awesome.)

So now we have only 15 new Davis parks to visit before the end of June, to complete our mission of visiting all the parks before we move.  I'm not sure we'll make it to all the Yolo County parks, but we'll try.

Labor Day Weekend 2012

This weekend was fantastic: full of new friends, family, and fun.  

Jennifer's parents came out for a visit around the Bay and Sacramento areas.  We met up with them in Old Sac for the Underground Tour on Saturday morning.  Afterward we wandered around the Gold Rush Days festival until our lunch reservation at Joe's Crab Shack.  I haven't been to that restaurant much, but it was craaaaaaaazy loud, with random bouts of the wait staff doing choreographed dancing.  It was great fun for Eddie since the "cowboy" waiters would shoot all the "Indian" waiters at the end of the songs.  And since I'd just purchased him two water guns at the military history museum, he would also shoot the waiters (they shot him back).  It was weird and loud, but Eddie had fun and us adults got to eat our buckets of seafood in relative peace.

Eddie found the best (and I mean loudest) part of the military history museum gift shop. "Mama, you need by me a gum, a pewpew."  Sorry little man, you're still too young for a battery powered, light up pretend machine gun.  

Dave made a run to Starbucks for everyone on our way to the Capital building, where we went on a leisurely walk, sipped iced coffees, and chatted with Jennifer's parents, Bob and Barb.  It was a nice, cool time to wind down.

Since we were all still pretty full from our late lunch, we all went back to our house for wine, Bower hard cider, cheese, fruits, gluten free crackers, pesto, jam, chocolate, and more conversation.  It was really nice.  Eddie loved having "snacks" for dinner around the living room coffee table, too.

Dave, Eddie, Edward, Jennifer, Bob, and Barb

That night the Whitney parents went to their hotel and we put Eddie down for bed.  Edward offered to stay at the house with sleeping Eddie so Jennifer, Dave, and I could go downtown to see The Campaign.  We all used our half priced Fandango movie ticket vouchers and a free popcorn coupon I had from my Regal Rewards Card.  Woo!

Sunday morning the Whitneys came back to our house and we all headed downtown for a gluten free breakfast at Cafe Bernardos (huevos rancheros, yum!).  Then we walked (veeeeeeeeeery slowly since we had Eddie walking with us...) to campus and I showed them around my building and labs.  I'd forgotten my key but a nice professor who I sort-of-know let me inside when she arrived.  And of course I ran a sample since I was there anyway!

After that it was getting hot and the Whitney-Levie's wanted to take off for Napa for wine tasting.  So we said goodbye and wished them a fun rest of their trip.

I did a bunch of yard work in the front while Eddie and the neighbor kids kept me company.  Our yard looks so much better with all the dead flower stems removed from the spring's bounty.  Plus I hacked back a rosemary and potato shrubs so the walkway to the driveway is much more open now.  It was super hot while I worked but at least it got done.

Until Friday, I'd forgotten that it was a holiday today so we didn't have anything planned.  We decided to go to Lake Berryessa for a picnic and some swimming.  First we picked up some sandwiches, crackers, and cookies at Nugget Market.  While I ordered the food, Eddie and Dave went to look at the fire trucks responding to an ill lady at CVS next door.  The firemen gave Eddie a cool plastic hat, which I thought was awesome considering they were there for an emergency.

The lake was great--just hot enough that you wanted to be in the water some of the time and it wasn't windy at all (great since our umbrella wouldn't anchor very well in the soil).  

Our picnic site.

We ate lunch, played with the dogs, and I read and took a quick nap.

Eddie woke me up from my nap for a cookie...so I had one, too.

Dave and I took turns playing with/keeping an eye on Eddie.

At about 4pm we decided to pack up and go home.  I never got around to changing Eddie into his swim suit and rash guard shirt so he just played in his normal clothes.  As you can tell from the pictures they were FILTHY with stinky mud and soaked through.  So I stripped him down so I could rinse him off in the deeper water.  He took the opportunity to run around like a crazy man.  In fact, he ran after Taters who had gone over the rocks to investigate another family's delicious BBQ smells.  Since I didn't have shoes on to run on the rocks, Dave jogged up and over the hill to get the boys.  The family over there was cracking up as they watched naked Eddie run around after the dog, with no parent in sight.  

There he goes!

At one point in the afternoon while eating cookies, we spent a good deal of time and camera memory trying to get Eddie to pose for a family picture.  He was acting silly and didn't want to cooperate.  We used "burst mode" on the camera and got some funny shots.  It'd be fun to have them in a slideshow or a flip book.

This was one of the first ones and he wouldn't smile.

So instead we attacked him with kisses.

Crazy Wind Felled a Tree

Last night at about 11:30pm a huge pine tree fell down at the park behind our house.  We had just returned from Livermore and were in bed with the windows open, reading.  It was insanely windy (gusts reportedly up to 45 MPH).  We heard this loud cracking sound and then the power went out.  My first thought was that it was some sort of pyrotechnics, but obviously the power outage didn't make sense.  We grabbed the Maglight from my bedside table and headed into the backyard to investigate.  I told Dave I hoped the chickens were okay and he looked at me like I was crazy and then said, "Aren't you more worried about the HOUSE?"  


We didn't see any tree material in our yard so we scanned the back of the house where the electrical panel is located.  We heard more popping sounds.  The only thing we noticed was the bamboo shade over Eddie's window had fallen down on one side so we took the whole thing down.  But all the electrical lines from the pole to the house seemed intact.  We spent a long time looking at the trees around the power pole nearest the yard but again, didn't see anything out of place.  Later I'd realize that I should have noticed what I didn't see: the giant pine tree I can normally see in the park wasn't in view anymore.  Duh.  


I headed out the front door to see which, if any, of the neighbors had also lost power.  As I was walking around the back side of our cul-de-sac, I could see flashing lights and other people wandering around.  Fire trucks pulled into the neighborhood, san sirens.  I talked to a fellow neighbor from a block away, who told me that a tree in the park had fallen down onto his house and the popping we heard was electrical lines breaking or arcing.  


The tree fell mostly on the park property, but a few of the top branches did hit this man's house.  The resident was home at the time but said he was not hurt and his house didn't seem to be seriously damaged.  


The firemen (or PG & E) came with chain saws a few hours later to remove the branches from the private property, leaving the rest of the tree as you can see it in the pictures below.  I didn't sleep very well at all: the house was too warm, the fans weren't working without electricity (too bad given the heat and that I prefer to have the fan sound on while I sleep), firemen and power company workers were talking/yelling quite loudly at the park while they worked, the chain saws, and then early morning park-goers gathering around the tree talking about what happened.  


According to all the flashing digital clocks in the house this morning, the power was out until about 6:50am.  I eventually got up and went to work since I couldn't sleep anyway.  

It's interesting that this tree snapped at the base of the trunk, rather than the roots uplifting.  You can see in some of the pictures that the asphalt path is perhaps raised a little, but not enough to cause any cracking or anything.  

The first thought that came to my mind when this happened was that story about how the city of Davis laid off the entire tree maintenance crew.  Ironic, eh?

Here is some news coverage of the City of Davis and the tree crew: Davis.patch.com and CBS 13.

I was just thinking about this tree when I took the dogs on a walk on Friday.  T
his guy used to hang out at the picnic table  a lot, and show off that his
dog could run up the steep branch that you see smooshed into the ground in this
picture.  I was wondering why I don't see that man and  his dog at the park anymore.

This tree had an owl nesting box in it...I hope the birds were okay.
But I have to say, I won't miss hearing those screech owls in the
middle of the night (hopefully they'll relocate somewhere further
away from our bedroom window!).

Picnic in the Park

Sunday was a long day for us.  We spent the morning weeding the strawberry field at our CSA farm.  They needed volunteers and we thought it would be nice to help out.  We forgot Eddie's shoes, but he didn't mind.  In fact, his friend was there and she didn't have shoes on either.  (We were definitely in good company!)

After picnicking in our van to escape the hot sun, we headed to campus where Dave tried to fix my broken instrument.  He had to unsolder and resolder a part onto a control board.  It didn't work.  Phooey.  Eddie was a champ and stayed awake and relatively contented for the hour Dave spent working.  I was also able to pop my samples into the freeze dryer and oven, marking the LAST sampling event of my 5 month long compost incubation (this is seriously a huge victory for me, research-wise).

Then it was nap time, for all of us.  Eddie, of course, didn't want to nap so we didn't get to nap.  Phooey again.  We decided to have a picnic dinner in the park so we took much-needed showers and headed off.  Of course, Eddie fell asleep after 2 seconds in the car.  He was NOT a happy kid when we arrived at a "new park" for our dinner.  After about 15 minutes and some yummy orange chicken in his tummy he was good to go.

We went to Northstar Pocket Park.  Pocket, indeed!  The map icon indicated it'd have a "tot lot" only...but it looked more like the residents in that neighborhood set out some play structures and paid someone to install a rubber mat beneath.  It was weird.  But the only thing that mattered was the we all had a good time: the temperature was perfect, our dinner was yummy, and Eddie enjoyed the playthings.

That's the park.  The WHOLE park. At least the play area.

Aaaaaaaaadorable fellas.

Eddie is My Battery

Last week was rough since my mom was in the hospital and I was worried about her.  All I wanted to do on my Tuesday afternoon off with Eddie was go home and dig in the dirt.  Gardening calms me and I needed to reconnect.  But of course, kids have their own agendas and it's unfair to spend our time doing only stuff I wanted to do.

So I packed up a snack and we went to a new park that afternoon, just like Eddie wanted (always wants) to do.  This time we went to Sandy Motley Park, which was fun because it had a backhoe digging toy and a seesaw.

I brought his little red potty and I'm glad I did...he needed to use it.

Tucked behind a rock doing his thing.

After this particular pottying at the park experience, I asked my Facebook friends about what happened there:

Question for parents: what's the etiquette for kids to go potty at the park? We've nixed daytime diapers and not all parks have restrooms. So we just take a little Ikea potty and Lysol wipes wherever we go (restaurants, too, since Eddie hates "loud potties").

Yesterday we were at a park and a little girl watched me take Eddie's potty out of my bike basket and remind Eddie to use it when he needed to go. She immediately told her mom she needed to pee...the mom looked at me and laughed, saying, "Oh...we don't bring a potty...she just pees near a tree," and then helped her daughter squat to pee.

I'm not necessarily against public urination for little tots--but I couldn't figure out if this woman was laughing AT me bringing a potty or if she was defending herself for not bringing one. Thoughts? I don't have much sans-diaper experience with kids Eddie's age...is tree peeing the norm?

• • Daniel Ayer Yeah, tree it up! For other concerns use the comode.
    

    April 18 at 11:09am · 
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    Mike Halliday C is a tree-peeing pro. It's pretty much a right of passage for all little boys.
    

    April 18 at 11:11am via mobile · 
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    Dianne Toy Louie My kids done many a behind the bush peeing, especially on those trips down I-5 to LA. But, I normally try to find a discrete spot for them, and never in front of an audience. That would be too wierd.
    

    April 18 at 11:12am · 
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    Julie Levie Bower So what do folks do for kids who aren't "fully" trained to hold their poop until a parent can locate and transport them to a toilet? Eddie needed to go yesterday and I'm glad I had the potty because otherwise he'd have had to poop his pants.
    

    April 18 at 11:13am · 
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    Colleen Hiner For boys, tree-peeing is pretty normal. I have struggled to get Eleanor into the concept. Maybe other girls are into it, though!
    

    April 18 at 11:13am via mobile · 
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    Julie Levie Bower ‎(He likes privacy so I put it behind a giant rock for him.)
    

    April 18 at 11:13am · 
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    Mike Halliday I try to keep in mind nearby bathrooms. If I know that's unlikely, I would put C in a day diaper.
    

    April 18 at 11:15am via mobile · 
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    Hope Lewis Doesn't sound like either one - sounds like her laughter was probably an acknowledgement of how silly the whole thing is.
    

    April 18 at 11:15am · 
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    Megan Rashe Brennan Tree peeing is fine for boys. But for number 2 not so much. Taking a little potty is a good idea.
    

    April 18 at 11:32am via mobile · 
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    Melissa Vergino White Here kids just learn to pee wherever they are. It's the norm. We have had bbqs where are friends kids just pull down their pants and pee on our lawn. A mom I know says she brings doggy poo bags when out in places with no bathrooms.
    

    April 18 at 11:39am via mobile · 
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    Mariah Shill I'm not big on public urination if its emergency needed fine but we toted a potty too (sometimes in the back of the fan with the hatch closed. I know they are kids but there are some decencies I like to keep
    

    April 18 at 11:58am ·  ·  1
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    Julie Levie Bower I agree Mariah Shill: I seem to be a prude-pottier-but-okay-with-home-nudity mom. I never would have guessed. Ha! I guess I don't want to teach Eddie that peeing anywhere is okay because I don't want him to whip it out at a wedding or the farmers market or something. Maybe I'm just crazy.
    

    April 18 at 12:01pm ·  ·  2
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    Mariah Shill I don't think its crazy. I'm all for all natural not being embarrassed about your body but there is still some modesty to be kept. Like if your in labor yes hang out all naked but don't answer your door.
    

    April 18 at 12:08pm ·  ·  1
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    Jaime Adams I'm terrible cause even my girls will squat & go behind a tree if there isn't a bathroom nearby. But only to pee & they always ask me to help, so I know they won't just go anywhere, anytime. ;)
    

    April 18 at 12:19pm via mobile ·  ·  1
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    Cassie Farinsky We are the same, if we cant find a bathroom (or the one there is really bad, like poop on the seat) then she pops a squat behind something, bush or tree or whatever to give herself some privacy. But I honestly can't ever remember a time when she had to poop and we couldnt find a potty. Here's another option, I've seen people use themhttp://www.amazon.com/Folding-Travel-Potty-BONUS-Sani-Hands/dp/B004EW0TF6
    

    
    

    Easy Folding Travel Potty with BONUS Sani-Hands Wipes

    www.amazon.com
    

    You will receive (1) Cool Gear Travel Potty with (3) BONUS Sani-Hands Wipes. Abo...See More

    April 18 at 12:31pm ·  · 
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    Cassie Farinsky the potty has bags that go in it, like a diaper genie
    

    April 18 at 12:32pm · 
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    Laura Marion I'm no expert, but as a child once myself, I would vastly prefer to have a portable-potty (ha!) than pop a squat in public. I think that lady was defending herself.
    

    April 18 at 12:43pm · 
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    Bill Buchanan Our boys peed against trees. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with your bringing a portable potty either. The lady was just jealous of your foresight. Good job, mother.
    

    April 18 at 1:26pm ·  ·  1
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    Mike Halliday I agree with Bill. Do what you feel is right for you and Eddie. We all know you're a great mom.
    

    April 18 at 2:11pm via mobile · 
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    Amanda Parson I think the mom was laughing because she was uncomfortable with her daughter wanting to use your toilet; like when my girl wants to eat others snacks. No matter what you do, your going to make someone feel uncomfortable so you'll just have to go with your gut.
    

    April 18 at 2:16pm ·  ·  1
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    Lewis Kimble Think Amanda nailed this
    

    April 18 at 8:40pm · 
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    Katherinne Hartwig Is your potty a portable potty? I've been worried about taking my nieces to the park because of no bathrooms. I am NOT a fan of letting them go outdoors in public.
    

    April 19 at 1:54pm · 
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    Julie Levie Bower ‎$4 from Ikea: http://www.babygadget.net/2008/05/ikea_potty.php It fits into a plastic shopping bag.
    

    
    

    Babygadget: Ikea Potty

    www.babygadget.net
    

    shopping guide for baby products

    April 19 at 2:10pm ·  · 

We got home in time to reheat a frozen homemade pizza for dinner AND plant some beans in the garden.  And so concluded our perfect afternoon together: we both got to do what we really wanted, and we got to do it together.  I spoke to my mom on the phone that night and she sounded comfortable and much better than before.  I was amazed that night how much relief I felt.  My stress was gone and I really felt recharged. It was great and evidently, just what I needed.  Spending time with him definitely recharged me.

Yesterday I went to Livermore to visit with my mom (sans germy Eddie), now that she's out of the hospital and on her way to recovery.  We didn't do much--just had lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Hanabishi, and chatted at the house.  It was particularly nice because Edward and my dad joined us, so it was us 4 Levies together.  We didn't do much other than that.  She had some chores to do around the house so my dad and I spent some time diving up herb seeds so we could each plant some.  My heart aches to see her sick, but I know that she's getting the care she needs and it was so nice to hang out with her for a bit.