Hitting the books...

Today Sequoia got a brand new 30 year old hand me down thrift store Care Bear Desk.

Now she can get serious about hitting the books. There are so many things to learn. So many books to read.

Beach Baby Days ...

Today Colleen and Sequoia packed up there beach gear and headed down to the Yorktown beach for some pre-summer fun.

They were joined at the beach by some of their friends.

Sequoia really enjoyed playing with Elizabeth.

Elizabeth entertained the crowd with her performance of "The Girl With One Red Shoe"

Luckily they came into the possession of some other kid's toys to play with.

It looks like they had a pretty good time.

I wonder what the kid who brought these toys is playing with.....

Will march for dimes...

Saturday, one of our first days to pass 90 degrees this year, Colleen and Sequoia left daddy at home ... well actually at work, so that they could walk in the March of Dimes fund raising walk. Here the Peninsula Mommies group rests up after the hot 5 mile walk.
Colleen kept referring to it as a race if that tells you anything about her competitive side...

After sweating their way through the 5 mile course at CNU, it is debatable whether or not Colleen and Sequoia won since they could not find any judges who were keeping score, but there was no debate about the fact that the Peninsula Mommies raised about $1,400 for a worthwhile cause.

Sequoia thought the best idea after all of that exertion in the hot sun was a refreshing dip in her new pool.

Horsing around....

Sequoia and Colleen took a short trip up to Maryland last week while I stayed home to work. While they were up there Sequoia got to go to the horse stables where Aunt Sherri keeps her horse, Chancellor along with Ryley's Pony, Buddy. Here she is with the Goliath, Chancellor.

And the more diminutive Buddy.

Feeding Buddy a carrot - that was good.

Shoving her hands into Buddy's nostrils - not so good.

Riding Buddy - started out good but went bad...very bad in Sequoia's opinion when they left the stable to try her out in the pasture. Between you and me, I think the upshot of that is that Sequoia will not be asking me to buy her a pony anytime soon. It will happen soon enough.

Our dear friends Becky and Larry were in town and gave Sequoia and Colleen a chance to squeeze in a visit with them. The visit was delightful even if the circumstances were unfortunate.

Larry's sister has 3 kids - the two boys are Sequoia's age.

The all had a ball playing together.

Sequoia particularly enjoyed the pool filled with balls.

She made it look so fun Larry had to try it out for himself.

One of Sequoia's favorite things to do is play with her cousins Ryley and Aiden. They are both really good with her and we are glad they are around to show Sequoia how to be a good big kid.

Want a hug?

These days Sequoia is learning to hug. She'll hug her stuffed animals if you ask her to.

She is having a ball with her new wooden cow.

Evidently she was told you should ride blue cows side saddle.

But mostly she loves to give her stuffed animals hugs.
It is really quite adorable.

Mommy turns 420 months ...

Sequoia helped me throw a big birthday bonfire for Colleen's 420th ...

Elayne was absolutely mesmerized by the fire. I think her mom had all she could handle keeping her re-directed.

It was a lot of fun having a mixture of young families with kids Sequoia's age, along with some of our other friends who get to travel with out a diaper bag as part of their mandatory gear...

The kids had a ball playing with each other and the different toys and of course the trampoline was a big hit.

Don't let this shot of Aiden trick you into thinking he is a loner ... this little guy is quite the ladies man.

Speaking of the ladies ... here are some of the proud mommies who attended the party.

Nanny Sparks Controversy....

So those of you who have been paying close attention from the beginning may recall that we have a friend named Kelli who we jokingly call Sequoia's Nanny. She painted a really cute Shark picture that hangs over Sequoia's crib. Anyway, Nanny Sparks moved away to Kansas or the Ukraine or somewhere before Sequoia was born and this past weekend was the first time she actually managed to see Sequoia. Questionable Nanny dedication at best. The shot above captured on our Nanny-Cam would appear to show Nanny Sparks rearing back to smack Sequoia with a back-hand upside the head ... although it looks like Sequoia's reflexes will allow her to escape.

Later pictures show that Kelli is actually pretty good with Sequoia and helped her with her reading skills. But honestly, does that make up for the first 12 months of missing in action? Well she did bring Sequoia a cool hammerhead shark ...that counts for something.

So I guess Sequoia thinks it is OK. She really enjoyed her visit with Kelli.

Aunt Julie's corner...

Sequoia has a very large extended family with about a thousand aunts and uncles as well as ten times as many N'aunts and N'uncles ... those people who are actively involved in her life but not actually related to her.

Obviously Sequoia thinks all of her friends and family are equally lovable and would never say she had a favorite ... but last week Aunt Julie came up to visit Sequoia , and since possession is 9/10ths of the law, for about 24 hours she could lay claim to being Sequoia's undisputed favorite aunt.

These are all shots from Aunt Julie's camera - some from the big birthday festival and others from her visit the next week.

Favorite or not ... Sequoia certainly has a great connection with her Aunt Julie.

Possibly the biggest surprise in the running for favorite Aunt is Uncle Brian. He earlier demonstrated his skills as the baby whisperer and continues to impress the judges with his solid Uncleing performances.

A favorite aunt competition without mentioning Aunt Kathleen? I don't think so.

Or how about Aunt Trish ... she did give Sequoia this awesome bike seat after all. That certainly nudges the scales in her favor, doesn't it? Or Maybe Aunt Peggy who gave her the beautiful new Bell bike helmet. Yeah for Aunt Peggy...but was it enough?

Aunt Kathleen knows that it never hurts to suck up to the mommy ... the mommy carries a lot of influence in this competition after all. Well let me put it this way ... if there is a favorite, we'll never tell.

Aunt Julie ( favorite?) did a great job documenting Sequoia's birthday.

Not everyone got the chance to see Sequoia grooming her dad just like the chimps do ... thanks Julie.

Honestly it was really fun seeing these pictures since I spent much of the day doing the things that hosts always end up doing, and it was like getting to see the party from a different perspective.

I love this shot of Sequoia and her buddy Grant.

So like I said, we may never appoint a favorite aunt ... but for all of you out there who are in the running, be warned the bar keeps getting raised. You had better bring your best game to this competition.

Flowers, Fish, Beaches and Bunnies...

This past weekend was our first chance to spend an Easter with our little flower child.

We took advantage of a break in our schedule and packed the family - Me, Colleen, Sequoia and our two border collies and headed down to the Outer Banks for the weekend.

The weather was a bit breezy and stormy at times, which Colleen and I actually quite adore, and at other times it was beautiful and sunny.

We enjoyed ourselves while walking around Manteo where Sequoia discovered a fun and colorful display of crazy spinning whirly-gigs.

She was adorable in her fascination with all of the different pieces of questionable yard art - these may be marginally outside of my taste, but they make for a wonderful playground for a little girl.

We took advantage of the cooler temperatures on Sunday to visit the North Carolina Aquarium - one of our favorite stops when we find ourselves down at the Outer Banks.

Sequoia is always up for a visit to an Aquarium - any aquarium.

She walked , crawled and cruised all over the different galleries, making friends and discovering fish everywhere.

I was quite proud of her when she showed me that she knew how to wrestle a gator. She actually climbed right up on the back of this guy by herself.

Sometimes she rode in her little travel stroller, other times she went around offering rides ... she is always looking for a new adventure.

One adventure that I was happy to allow her mommy to take her on was the snake encounter. Sequoia obviously takes her cues from me on this one as she was not at all interested in touching the King Snake.

But she takes her cue from Colleen when it comes to sharks - she absolutely loves her big fish tanks and of course the big fish that rule them.

Take a look at this face - is there any question about the joy that is rolling through that little head? She had a ball crawling around the open sea tank.

While we were down in North Carolina, the Easter Bunny stopped by our house and dropped off a special basket for Sequoia.

Sequoia had fun going through the basket and playing with the eggs and toys that she found in it.

Colleen quickly swooped in and stole the cute little sun bonnet from Sequoia. That just wasn't right, was it?

well I guess it is OK if Sequoia was not complaining about it.

Here is one last picture of Sequoia at the yard art whirly-gig display in Manteo - I could have watched her play there all day.