Month: July 2009

Portola Redwoods

After the overnight hike to the hut, we decided to continue the family training and do a real backpacking weekend (hike and camp, carrying everything). We originally wanted to go to Big Basin campsites, but since we plan everything at the last minute, they were full. Instead, we had reservations for the Slate Creek camp in Portola Redwoods State Park, not far from the hut in Sam McDonald Park. None of us had ever been there before, but the camp sites are less than 3 miles from the road, and there is only about 600′ of elevation gain.

[Photos by Sonja, comments by Andy]

Here is the usual trailhead picture again, Leilani has her own pack, and ours are a bit heavier because of the tent and cookware:

Lots of redwoods on this hike. Leilani loved looking into the ones with caves:

And walking on the ones that fell down:

I found this redwood shoot and had Leilani pose with her hands around it (unfortunately, it was in the middle of the path, so I doubt we’ll go back and find it has turned into a tree):

For adult hikers, I usually don’t suggest taking frequent breaks, but kids are different. Plus this was at the top of a big hill:

I think I ended up carrying Leilani’s pack the last 1/2 mile, but she walked the whole thing while we took turns telling her stories and fairy tales. For a while it actually threatened to rain on us (in California, in July!), but we only got a few drops. I think everyone was happy to reach the camp site:

Even if there is a bit of grumpiness, a little tickling can still fix the problem:

The camp is not actually by the stream, but it is only a short walk downhill. We went once in the evening, and ended up going back there most of the next day. [Bay Area trivia: the stream site is the location of the original Page Mill, and the wide trail from the camp to the stream is actually the end of the original Page Mill Road.]

Playing in and around a stream seems to be Leilani’s favorite hiking activity, so we made sure she gets plenty of it. We want the hiking and backpacking to be something fun for her, not something that we drag her along just because we like it. We do sometimes have to move her along during the hiking part, and sometimes we have to convince her to go exploring, but without fail we always find something fun and exciting that she likes (and I always like exploring).

Some of the fun things we did at the stream include making bark boats:

Spotting a banana slug (endemic to the region):

A pretty butterfly:

A pretty snake (who did not eat the butterfly):

Finding some blue jay feathers:

Pumping and filtering water (Leilani helped with this chore, filling her own bottles and one of ours, and then loved drinking out of the hose, as well as pretending to spray me):

And soaking up the beauty of the forest:

Since the hike out was relatively short, we didn’t take down the camp until after lunch and a nap on the second day:

Leilani also grabbed the camera and took some of her art pictures:


In the end, it was a beautiful weekend in a beautiful forest. I guess you could say we were happy campers:

Mini Milestones

Children develop slowly, and as a parent seeing your child everyday, you don’t always see the progress. But sometimes, you notice something from one day to the next. I’ve regretted not writing about those little jumps I’ve noticed in Leilani before, so I want to mention two that happened yesterday.

Leilani is still a bit clingy, and especially when upset, wants to be picked up and held in our arms. Sonja resists this because Leilani is almost 35 lbs (16 kg) now. I, Daddy, am still a sucker and can’t resist carrying her around sometimes (I do avoid it when she’s whining). I did notice Leilani getting heavier, and she has been going through a growth spurt right now. We can tell because she eats a lot, and she is a bit clumsy, bumping, tripping, and falling down more as her body changes.

But yesterday morning when I picked her up, she didn’t feel little anymore. I’ve gotten so use to her being a little bundle I can carry around sitting on my arm, with one leg in front and one in back. But yesterday, it felt like her knees were sticking out at me and she didn’t just fit in my arms the way she used to. I’m a bit sad about this: I don’t want to carry her around forever, but she is so cuddly and likes to give me hugs and kisses in my arms. I guess we’ll both out the cuddles soon.

The other mini milestone is not so sentimental and innocent. We know Leilani lies about things sometimes, usually totally inconsequential things like what she ate at breakfast and whether she remembers it (ie we’re sure she know what she ate/did but pretends not to). I can’t think of any motivation other than her own realization of what the truth is and how you don’t always have to say it. I imagine she’s testing the waters and seeing which truths matter and which lies she can get by us. So last night, she was pushing those limits.

Sitting on the potty, she started talking about one of the worst insults she knows, “poo-poo head” (taught to her long ago on Kaua’i). For some reason, she wanted to say that she had not used this bad word in a long time. From the other room, Sonja heard this and said it wasn’t true, that she used it just this afternoon when she had been playing with Seyon at a park in San Jose. As a matter of fact, Sonja added that Leilani enjoyed calling him names but got upset when he did the same to her.

I don’t think Leilani heard that last part, because as she was reminded of playing with Seyon, her face lit up and she started talking excitedly about it. But what she was remembering was the teasing and how she was calling him other names. I call it her mean streak, this need to call kids names, and then pretend to spray a hose at them or worse, pretend to throw chocolate pudding on them–teasing combined with slapstick. So I started lecturing her, first about the name calling and the not remembering, but then mostly about being happy and exicted at the thought of hurting other people’s feelings with names.

I’m not happy about turning into a Dad who lectures (the mini milestone of the first lecture went unrecorded, too), but it seems that talking about issues and making her see how unhappy we are about certain behavior is the only way to address them after the fact. But she has become sensitive to it, and knows she doesn’t like my lecturing, because the point is to make her feel bad about her actions.

So she immediately pointed to some pretty crystal perfume bottles we have as decoration in the bathroom and said no, she was excited by how pretty the bottles were with all their colors. I don’t remember her exact words, but it was such a blatant lie that I called her on it immediately. I told her to stop lying and trying to make excuses (it was really the first time I’ve seen her make up a false excuse for her behavior). To break her out of her lie, I asked her if she remembered what happened to Pinocchio when he lied. She knows about the nose. I said her ears would get longer (pulled) when she lies. She has been really good for the past weeks, and this was the first time I even threatened to pull her ears in a long time. I didn’t pull them in the end, but I think (or really hope) she realized she cannot get away with lying and making excuses.

PS: Just because I’m still thinking about it: the first mini milestone I forgot to write about was around 18 months when Leilani played by herself for about 30 minutes, with us parents out of the room.

Up until then, she was totally dependent on someone for everything, including entertainment. This means that the only way Sonja and I could sit down alone was when we had a baby sitter. But this one time, one of us started playing with her in the living room, probably with some of her wooden puzzles or blocks, and then got up to do something else. Usually the complaining or crying would start in less than 5 minutes and we’d have to be back at her side. But this time, as I remember it, we both looked at each other after about 10 minutes and realized she was still playing happily by herself. We checked on her now and again, but I think we had a half-hour to sit down and relax and start feeling our independence again.

Backpacking to Sam McDonald Hut

Photos uploaded by Sonja, comments by Andy:

Now that the weather is finally warming up, we need to practice carrying our packs for some mountain hikes. So I found a hut in the Bay Area, owned and operated by the Sierra Club. Ella and her parents Shay and Ayalet want to start camping and hiking, so they came along too. I think this was their first camping trip with Ella.

We started in Sam McDonald County Park, which is off Pescadero Rd off La Honda off of Skyline. It’s pretty much in the middle of the Santa Cruz mountains, but there are lots of cabins up in the woods there, so it’s not the middle of nowhere. The hut is more like a vacation cabin, it has electricity, water, a kitchen and flush toilets.

Here’s the obligatory start photo, where everyone has their packs on. It’s about 2 miles to the hut and the girls carried their little backpacks the whole way, without ever complaining about them. They carried their own small toys, pens and paper, and Leilani had some of her own clothes. The parents’ packs were not that heavy since we didn’t need the tent or any cookware, just sleeping bags, clothes and food.

I think it was the first time Sonja used her big backpack in a long time, too.

The girls really amazed us being such good hikers. They even had energy to run and play chase:

Of course, we also told them stories to keep them walking. Leilani always asks Uncle Shay for Thomas (the train) stories since he makes them up for Ella. On the second half of the hike, I took over, and I think I was telling the story of the Jungle Book (or at least the Disney movie version).

The girls loved the hut, especially the loft. What a great place to play and jump on (and off) the pile of mattresses. When they got too wild unsupervised, Sonja went up and did some drawings with them (but mostly for them):

We also played frisbee outside, after which Leilani tried on the sunglasses she found for me. I think it makes her look like a dragon fly, but the reflections are cool.

The game was pictionary (found in the hut), the rules slightly modified. But it is a fun game that kids can play just as well as adults. You can see the fully equipped hut kitchen in the background.

We stayed all morning at the hut the next day, relaxing, playing games, then cleaning up. We got another group photo at the hut before leaving:

The hut sits up on a ridge, with nice open views and trails in many directions.

There were also some flowers still around. I’m amazed that we always seem to see one or two new flowers on each hike:

What was so interesting?

A big beetle!

On the hike out, we took a different trail that went down through a beautiful forest:

The color of these berries is even better without the flash, but I never saw the red-eyed fly when I took the picture:

We ended up in grove of redwoods:

The girls played by a stream for a few hours while Uncle Shay hiked to get the car. It was late already, so we just got a ride back to our car as well. We all drove to Pescadero for dinner at a good restaurant (artichokes, yum).

Then we enjoyed the sunset from Pescadero State beach before driving home on Hwy 1:

Leilani’s Photos at Sam McDonald Hut

Time for a new Leilani Art Post… all photos unmodified

The display of stuffed birds fascinated her…

Leilani took these 2 photos within 20 seconds. We tried to make her explain, but she would or could not. Let’s just call it everything has 2 sides….

Leilani and Ella kept taking each other’s photo… seemed to be great fun

And playing with the camera settings makes everything much more interesting…

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