Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Lucinda and Mommy went to the zoo today. While they were there, Lucinda spent some time playing on the playground there. Today she finally was able to do the monkey bars. She learned to brachiate like her ancestors.

Lucinda learned to ride her bike today. She practiced up and down the driveway. Later on, we went to an empty parking lot up the street and she rode around for a long time. She is able to balance, as well as to start and stop by herself.

Also, this afternoon, we made a fire in the fireplace and toasted marshmallows. This was Lucinda’s first time to have toasted marshmallows, and she liked it a lot.

Lucinda is learning to ride her bicycle without the training wheels. This evening she achieved the equivalent of the Wright Brothers’ 12-second first flight. She rode down our driveway far enough to show that she now understands the concept of how to balance on the bike. She still needs to practice to train her reflexes, but now she knows what to do.

Today we took Lucinda to the Skirball Cultural Center to see the exhibits there. She was curious to learn more about Chanukah and such, so this was a chance for her to see a bit about Jewish culture, even if we aren’t actually Jewish. [Despite having a Jewish-sounding name.]

We got Lucinda a printer for her computer today. Most of her games and kid web sites have things to print out. So now she can print things for herself.

Today was the grand opening of the newly-remodeled playground in Victory Park. Lucinda had fun playing there, and she also got a little balloon animal.

Lucinda knows how to tie her shoes now. She is, of course, very pleased with this.

Mommy took Lucinda to see the Caltech-Occidental Concert Band this evening. The show was Lucinda’s first time seeing a real concert.

We still have the praying mantis. It’s been living in its cage in the kitchen. Here is a picture of it eating a spider.

Today we all went to the Science Museum in Exposition Park to see the Risk exhibit. This is about probability and perception of risk. It was pretty interesting. It also seemed somewhat appropriate, since fires are raging in the mountains. Lucinda was a bit afraid of the bed of nails at first, but after she tried it, she liked it enough to do it six more times.

There were also some exhibits on the second floor from the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

http://www.1134.org/lucinda/photos/index.php?string=&ayear=2003&amonth=10&aday=26&byear=2003&bmonth=10&bday=26&submit=Search

After the museum, we all had dinner at El Torito before going home.