Puzzle Pro

Matilda is starting to get pretty good at her puzzles.  Here are some pictures and a video of puzzle time.  The video is a couple minutes long and not super exciting, but you can see the wheels in her head turning as she figures out where they go.  At 16 months, she's really figuring out her colors and shapes.  She even throws in a high five at the end!

Random Cuteness

Here's a few random pictures of Tilly.  Check the post page for more photos.

California State Fair

This was Matilda's second time at the California state fair.  She started out by helping mommy at the Bohart entomology exhibit.  Then we walked through all the exhibits and spent alot of time looking at animals.  Matilda also spent a really long time at the petting zoo with the goats and pigs!  See the full post for more pictures.

Movie in the Park

We live really close to a big park in our neighborhood, and they are doing "movies in the park" during the summer.  We decided it would be fun to head out and watch a movie with Tilly.  We loaded up the wagon with blankets and pillows and even brought some popcorn.  They even had a Jamba Juice stand!  The only problem was that they advertised it starting at 7:30, but it didn't get dark enough to see the movie until after 9pm.  We stayed for the first little bit of Cars and then went home for bed time.  Check out more photos of the movie in the park!

Sickies

Today Matilda had her first real sick bug.  She's had some runny noses and normal little colds, but this was a steady high fever with vomiting of anything she tried to eat or drink.  As such she didn't get to eat or drink much all day.  Once she started keeping the water down she moved on to crackers.   Despite being miserable, she did enjoy watching a Yo Gabba marathon.  It took a few days for her to get back to her normal self.  "Read on" for more photos of Tilly during her first real sick day.

Rocking Dog

Awhile back, our awesome neighbors (Chris and Sarah) gave Matilda a rocking dog to use.  It's basically a rocking horse, but in the form of a fluffy dog.   As soon as she could climb up she started riding and yelling "puppy dog, puppy dog!"  Now that she's more coordinated, she's started standing on his back.  Check out this recent video of daredevil Tilly enjoying the rocking dog!

Fourth of July!

This year we entered the Davis Fourth of July Bike Parade.  Matilda helped set up her patriotic wagon and waved flags to everyone watching.  It's a really short parade, lasting 3 blocks and ending up at the downtown city park.  We got there too late to enter the best decorations contest, but Tilly had a great time.  Afterward, we met up with Vivienne and Olivia and Tilly shared her wagon.  It was a very happy independence day!  "Read more" for the rest of the photos.

Bathtime

Matilda loves to take baths and showers.  And of course, she usually doesn't want to get out.  One thing that helps is her hooded Sharky and Kitty towels.  I think she looks forward to wrapping up and running around the house wearing only the hoods.  "Read more" for a video and some photos of bath time.

Tickle Tickle

Matilda is a big tickler.  It might be because we tickle her all the time, but now she loves to tickle back.  She  will tickle all her stuffed friends and will grab you and say "tickle tickle tickle!"  Check out the quick video of her tickling everybody.

Climber

Matilda has been climbing onto the couch for awhile now, but now that she mastered getting up and down on the couch, she want's to climb everything.  She's now started climbing on the step-stool.  The first time she made it up and down with no problems.  Only later did she sometimes get a little scared and ask for "help" coming down.  But now she's definitely got the climbing thing figured out.

Rare Stinky Flower

Today Matilda got to see an extremely rare event.  We went to the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory to see a rare flower (titan arum - aka corpse flower) bloom for it's first time after over a decade of growing.  These flowers have only been observed blooming in captivity about 100 times in history, and the bloom only lasts about 36 hours.  So we were excited to get to see (and smell) the giant flower bloom.

And wouldn't you know it, Matilda made it into the newspaper again. Well sort of. I kinda got in the way and stole her thunder. It's a bummer too, because this photo was one of the top news photos around the world for June 18th!  There we were smelling a stinky flower in the news photo slide shows with president Obama, floods in Asia, and riots in South America. We heard that it was run in newspapers all across the country! And, I stole Tilly's chance at world wide fame.  I blame the photographer for not using one of the other photos. Well, you can at least "Read more" for some of our own pictures of Tilly at the the flowering event.

Pool Time

Matilda got her very own little kiddy pool.  It took her a little bit to warm up to it, and now her favorite thing to do is climb in and out constantly.  She also enjoys playing with her whistling dolphins and tries to get them to whistle by blowing through them. She loves her pool time and even shared with Olivia, but Tilly may have regretted it as she spent the whole time trying to avoid being splashed by Olivia.  Read on for more pictures of pool time!

Sorting Coins

We thought it was funny that at a recent doctor visit, they told us to be sure not to leave small things like coins lying around because babies will eat them.  This was funny, because Matilda's loves to sort coins into her little banks.  We just leave her with a pile of coins and she keeps herself entertained.  She'll even pop open the bank and dump them out so she can start over.  We lucked out, because she hardly ever puts anything in her mouth that isn't meant to be eaten.  Good job baby.

Tilly Picks Fruit

During a visit from Grandma, Matilda got to go pick fresh fruit at the local you-pick farm.  She had a great time eating all the fruit faster than we could pick it.  She ate a ton of cherries and pretty much all the raspberries we could pick.  Read on for a video and pictures of Tilly picking fruit!

Museum Newsletter

Matilda made her second appearance in the Bohart Museum's monthly newsletters today. This time she was advertising the new "Know your sticks" shirt (she's also on the Museum's online shop). She loves real sticks, so this worked out perfectly. She picks up sticks almost everywhere we go.  You may remember seeing her carrying them around on our Mother's day hike.  What's really exciting is that this picture also wound up in the local newspaper. This is Tilly's second time making the paper.  Read on for some more of the photos of Tilly loving sticks.