Da Keiki Blog

Leilani is learning to ski, and she has fun at the same time! She was on her skis for the first time ever this weekend and really enjoyed it: whenever she fell down, she thought it was funny. She wanted to go again and again, and really made progress. We are really proud of her and look forward to a lot more skiing (hopefully we’ll be able to keep up with her for a few more years).

I thought we were pretty advanced compared to families where the moms who were yelling “Now you have to take this seriously!!!” “Do your pizza [slice]. Nooooo!!!!” among other things that I wouldn’t put on the babyblog. We also lasted substantially longer on the slopes. The only real crying in the entire day was when I interrupted one of downhills, to force her to take the lift after she had just discovered that she could ski all the way down, way past the lift and I would carry her back up. Unlike many other kids Leilani didn’t crash into anyone, except for once, at very low speed, she used a standing, adult snowboarder to stop, and appologized too.

It also was our cheapest skiing trip ever, below $100 and that included gas, motel, lift ticket, and a pair of sunglasses that I would have needed anyway.

A video of her first turns. Yes, she was making controlled turns and stops already, she figured it out by herself when she couldn’t do the snow plow very well to stop. Did I say we were proud of her?

We drove up to Donner Summit (7200 ft – 2200 m) on Saturday moring and found an area to play in the snow and go sledding.

Leilani, the little polar bear.

Wheeeeeee!

Andy forgot to pack Leilani’s gloves, but soon found a shop to buy another pair, almost the right size and definitely the right color.

Later we went randonnee skiing a little bit, on the trail towards Castle Peak. Uphill Leilani took a nap in the pack and Andy did all the hard work.

She woke up just in time for the downhill part. This was actually her first time on skis, hors piste too. But it was hard for her because it was not very smooth, and we had to hold her the whole time.

After a good night of sleep at a nice motel in Reno, we went back up the mountain to the Donner Ski Ranch. It’s a small family-friendly resort, the lift ticket is only $5 for Leilani, none needed for the parents.

The big attraction was the moving carpet. The first few times they let us go up with her, but soon she learned to do it by herself.

Leilani makes a pretty nice turn here, and Andy is brave to trust that she will and doesn’t jump out of the way.

Even before she had mastered basic turns and stops Leilani started asking about the chair lift. I was not sure what was more fascinating to her, the longer downhill, or the cool ride, Andy thinks it was the cool ride. We told her she couldn’t go until she went 3 times on learning slope without falling.

That’s probably what motivated her to go over and over, but after lunch, she managed (I think she did fall but did so well otherwise we counted it). So towards the end of the skiing day Andy took her for one ride on the chair lift with her (don’t ask how he got his lift ticket)

I will now include at least one “photo of my feet” in every post and eventually I’ll have it printed as a coffeetable book :-)

(Andy took this for her–hey, I have cool skis too)

Andy adds: going down the “big” slope was too much for Leilani. It was too steep and uneven for her, and she never made more than one turn. So I had to pick her up after every turn on the way down. But she didn’t mind and laughed everytime.

We left after that because Leilani was tired and we wanted to drive home before the traffic–no skiing for the parents. But we made it home almost without traffic and Leilani napped and was then very good in the car.

When we put her to bed, I told her how well she had done on her first day of skiing and how proud we were of her. Mommy said that we would go again because she liked it so much and she would learn to ski even better. “And faster,” she added without hesitation.

Mrs Barbara reads a story

Teacher pam from the Millbrae Music program sings a song

Cool in the car

Grandma gave her a Madeleine doll, Leilani picked out clothes to match her.

Leilani colored the princess in the rainbow coat (Allerleirauh in English has a feather coat – the rainbow coat)

Leilani had a lot of fun playing with Grandma Rosemary and Grandpa Jim in Austin.

It didn’t take Grandpa very long to learn the chase-Leilani-around-the-house game. Leilani liked to hike in the pantry, but then always came out because she likes being scared.

How much longer is she going to be a little bundle who likes to snuggle after her bath?

Grandma had a great painting easel for Leilani to play with and the perfect aprons. She painted pictures of Mommy and Daddy hiking on the mountain while we were away.

One night we went out for vegetarian BBQ (don’t ask) and the smarter people got pasta. Leilani likes showing off her bad manners.

And Daddy doesn’t think Mommy was helping. She called this feeding the baby bird.

When Mommy was off shopping at craft-store-heaven and Daddy was babysitting, we played much nicer games like dress up the animals…

… and build the princess castle.

The doll in these two pictures is Madeline, a present from Grandma that Leilani loves. She still loves being read stories, and Grandpa Jim is good at reading children’s books.

Leilani also helps out in the kitchen when she’s in a good mood. Grandma’s hand-cranked cranberry grinder is still as much fun as Andy remembers from when he was a kid.

We got this at a candy store in Fredericksburg for Leilani.

Big Mistake. She was happy with it, but we weren’t happy with the effect that sugar and artificial ingredients have on her.

And then Uncle David arrived and it was time for Christmas number 3.

There were a few more rounds of presents, and Leilani still had to help Grandpa.

The goggles are for a 3-D calendar of Mars.

David got Leilani a great puzzle, the biggest she’s ever had.

Like many of her toys, she had to try it out right away.

Books …

Huge cauliflower in Grandpa Jim’s garden that we ate later.

And ever since then, Leilani always asks if the cauliflower we eat is coming from Grandpa’s garden.

Leilani likes to help dig holes in the garden and pull up radishes.

… more books …

Another perfect gift from Grandma: (Noah and) animal stickers. We’ve read the story of Noah to her in one of her little Golden Books, and she made this picture all by herself.

… and even more books.

One last family portrait under the Christmas tree. Andy does the self-timer and barely makes it into the first picture.

Our new family tradition seems to be Raclette cheese dinner for the holidays (oops, not pictured here).

Thanks everyone for the great time in Austin.

We left Leilani for a night with her grandparents and went to Fredricksburg, a German-founded little town a 2-hour drive away, had really fake german food (actually, it was not that bad, had I not expected German flavors and rainbow trout but American flavors and fried pollock), watched a movie, spent the night at a very nice bed and breakfast, visited local parks and churches and went on a hike at the enchanted rock.

It’s a charming downtown with old storefronts full of antique and tourist shops. But it’s still nice to walk around and it was nicely decorated for Christmas.

The bakery had the winner of the ginger-bread house contest, and as much as we were trying to do adult things, we couldn’t help but think that Leilani would’ve liked it.

Unlike other American towns it has a nice Marktplatz, and many other little details reminiscent of the German heritage. Apparently, you could hear native German speakers in town up until the 1950’s. On the Marktplatz was a Maibaum sculpture that showed the history of the town.

We went back to the Markplatz by day and looked around some more. This statue commemorates the agreement that the German settlers had with the original Indian tribes to use the land, the only one in the US that the white man did not break.

Then we went to look at the painted church in town. Some of the Czech settlements in the area are famous for the churches painted all over inside, but the Germans still had a nice church. I think it was mostly the German Catholics who left Germany and came to the US.

The stained glass windows were very colorful, and we took pictures for Leilani who likes them.

Then we headed out to Enchanted Rock State Park, the whole excuse for this trip. It’s only 400 feet (120 m) high, but it’s a beautiful pink granite monolith that is exposed in this near-desert.

You can hike anywhere you want, and it’s fun climbing around on the various rocks.

We avoided the crowds on the main trail and walked up the bare rock on the back side, where it got rather steep at times.

We did find the cave, which is a huge crack in the rock filled with large boulder that you can climb between, but somebody had said we wouldn’t need flashlights on this trip.

The top of the rock is flat, and thanks to the recent rains, there were pretty pools of water everywhere, each with their own little microcosm.