Spaced

Coming home the other day, she looked out the window and saw a Red Bull advertising car. She asked "Look! Is that car carrying the Hubble space telescope?" There is certainly a significant resemblance! Petra's fascination with space continues. Not only does she know the planets (and everything about them), now she is learning all the moons as well (Ganymede is "large and in charge"). Ask her how she knows we're on Earth and not Mars, and she'll tell you "because there is a plentiful supply of surface water."

The last few days she and I have played "Skateboarding Saturn," in which I am a clueless Jupiter, and Saturn skates past and bumps me. She also has me tell her stories about the planets (playing baseball with meteors, going on picnics, whatever), and sing her a song about "Poor poor Jupiter" getting whacked by comets every night before bed. We will also sometimes play "gravity well" in which one of us runs past and the other tries to grab them in their "gravity well."

She is still a girly girl though (pink is her favorite color), and her grandma has been loading her up on her favorite princess gear recently (thanks Mom, really).

The princess has landed

After a visit to Grandma Kate in Eugene, we returned home and found a Cinderella tiara waiting for Petra. She was thrilled, but not as thrilled as she was when a Cinderella dress arrived today. She was so excited to put it on and, thanks to the miracle of iChat, was able to show Grandma that it fit and tell her how much she loved it.



We spent a week in Oregon around Labor Day. We arrived in Portland, and headed out to Art in the Pearl, which had art for us to look at, art stations for Petra to make art (she made a marionette and a fish print), and she got to paint a car for charity. The art show was in a park with a fun playground for her to run around in. She had fun on the monkey bars and only banged her head once.



We stayed at the Hotel Monaco, which did wine tasting in the early evenings, and also had an easel and paints set up. Naturally, Petra made a beeline for the easel and did a painting every evening.

Grandma Kate joined us on Sunday afternoon, and we also hung out for a while with our friend Patti and her son Noah. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to visit Patti & Andy’s café , but maybe next time.




We also visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry . Petra loved their Science Playground, but the Planetarium show was a bust. It was way too much for Petra and Alison carried her out after only a few minutes.

On Tuesday, we drove down to Grandma Kate’s house in Eugene. Petra had a blast playing with Grandma Kate, Janice, and Olivia, and even warmed up to their dog Sasha. After a few encounters with over-affectionate dogs in the past, she had taken to screaming and hiding behind the closest available parent whenever she saw a dog, but after a day or so, she was quite comfortable with Sasha, and even gave her hugs and kisses before going to bed.

As of tomorrow (the 18th), it will be 1 month till Petra’s 4th birthday. Wow! For months, she’s been talking about her “four-year-old birthday” and planning what she wants to do for her party. She’s very consistent about wanting a “strawberry heart cake”, but most of the other details change from day to day.