7/15/07 The crows are the culprit

Seasonally, we get visits from huge flocks of crows who swarm nearby trees, squawk their heads off for about 5 minutes, then fly away. One such flock is doing this on the west side of our house every morning -- at daybreak. Just long enough to wake up Katrina. Then we're all up.

By the way, daybreak is just before 6am. I know this. Three mornings in a row I know this. Those darned birds!


I took the boys to the Cupertino Fountains today, planning to take Katrina tooo, but at the last minute, she needed nap#2 for the day. The boys really needed to get out, and I sensed that Dave really needed to get them out.

It was nice to have some time alone with them. I ran around with them for a while, including "racing" across a lawn. I'm mean. I don't let them win.

While there, I asked Gabriel to read a sign posted by the fountains, just to see if he could. And, other than reading "safety" as "safely," he read the whole thing, uncoached.

Drat, the audio sucks (windy), but the sign says...

...well, I'll tell you what the sign says, the same way I tried to tell Dave about it. I told Dave:

Me: "He totally read a sign that said, 'Please no pets or....darn, what did that sign say...oh yeah, for health and safely -- "
Dave: "Safely?"
Me: "Well, that's how he read 'safety'. Umm, oh yeah, 'Please no pets or..."
Gabriel: "No pets or other animals in the fountain area!"
Me (stunned): "!! Oh! Yes, that IS what the sign said!"
Gabriel: "No Mom, you forgot: 'For public health and safely [sic], please no pets or other animals in the fountain area.'"
Me (speechless): "...duhhhhh..."

I was going to say I was impressed that he could read it, but remember it?? Considering how much of day-to-day life 5-year-olds forget....! (like putting shoes away). And a little concerned that I couldn't remember it.

Katrina woke up from her afternoon nap too early again, so I decided to make the most of the afternoon and take her running. This time, I headed north to the bay, hoping to find a flat unpaved trail suitable for a jogging stroller. And I did -- there are loops off the S.F. Bay trail that go around some water treatment ponds in Sunnyvale. The idea was that it would be an easy re-introduction back to exercise after that downright scary 24 hours when I was so, so sick.

(I go quickly through some yoga poses before and after running, it's the best way to stretch without a bar or mat, I find.)

But there was one element I hadn't counted on: wind. Whew! Not the same kind of toughness as the steep hills at Rancho San Antonio, but definitely harder to get through pushing a jogging stroller with a huge canopy that acts as a sail.


Windy and sunny meant the canopy was down over Katrina for most of the run. I'd check her sometimes and find her hat down over her face, but most of the time, I'd peek under the canopy and be greeted by a beamy sunshiny smile. She loves to get outside.

Though overall I prefer the wooded -- and yes, hilly! -- trails at Rancho San Antonio, this was a nice contrast. It's also a wonderful area for seeing birdlife. Nice quiet birds.

7/15/07