February 11, 2012: A Streetcar Named Julien

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Toddler!
I wanted to write about public transportation. After all, it's one way that many people around the world get from one place to another.
I first experienced public transportation when I was 4 months old, when we flew to Chicago in October 2009. It was my first time on an airplane as well as any mode of public transport! Otherwise I traveled via car, stroller, and baby carrier! This is because I was not yet walking or crawling or rolling over - at the age of 4 months, I was lucky if I was rotating my body.
Since that time, I have been on public buses and subways in Paris, Manhattan, London, and Chicago. But I've never been on any form of public transportation in my home city of San Francisco!
Saturday February 11, 2012 now marks the first time that I've been on the San Francisco MUNI, my home city's version of public transportation! I rode on a streetcar - the J Church. This is not to be confused with the music band from the '90s, who my father once met while at the airport in February 1995 (he was flying to Germany and they were flying to Japan).

Here I am on the J Church, with Veronica, Nathan, and his mommy Julie. My parents and Veronica's mommy Jennifer are seated nearby. It was not possible for us all to sit together, but it was okay because we were all super close!
We headed downtown, to Market Street, to enjoy the Chinese New Year Parade!
The Chinese New Year Parade was a lot of fun! I got to sit on Daddy's shoulders and watch a lot of action for almost an hour. Ironically we stood right across from his pilates studio, which is probably why he was able to have me on his shoulders for so long! He has some good shoulder strength!
And the Chinese New Year Parade will be the focus of a separate blogpost.
After the Parade, we went to Dubai for dinner. Not the city of Dubai, but the food court at the Westfield shopping mall, because that's the type of shopping mall that one would see in Dubai! Afterwards, we took the J Church back to Jennifer's house, where we had parked our car.

When we got on the streetcar, it was a little crowded but there were 2 teenage boys sitting by the door and they moved so that Veronica, Nathan, and I could sit down! This was good because we were a little tired!

I really loved looking out the window.

Even in the dark evening (8pm), there was just so much to see in the streets of San Francisco.
Love,
Julien the Toddler
ps - I have a *lot* of information to share with my loyal readers about what I've been doing the past several months! I'm aware that I've been very busy and haven't been blogging very much.

First Haircut, Two Years Old

We had been holding out on cutting Julien's hair until he turned two. I loved all of his curls and the way his soft flowy blonde hair kept getting a little longer, a little softer, and a little more curly. But after Julien turned two, we decided that it was getting a little unruly and it was time. We sought out suggestions for cute and gentle first haircut places and on a sunny Saturday morning, we headed up to Marin to the Panda Room.

We quickly realized that Julien needed to sit in Dadda's lap if we were going to make any progress on the hair cut!

The box of toys helped quite a bit! Distraction!

Our haircutter Colleen moved quickly.

Bye bye gigantic baby curls. Sniff, sniff.

A new structure and form for our little one's head of hair was taking shape. My little baby was transformed into a little boy before my eyes!

Colleen, the haircutter, gives the cut two thumbs up. Even Julien seems semi-okay with it all. We left with a cute certificate with a polaroid picture, some of Julien's snipped hair curls, and our comments about the experience. For the scrapbook!

One of the best parts about the first haircut is that Grams, gal pal Veronica, and mom Jennifer came to witness it and provide moral support for little Julien. Veronica and Julien enjoyed toddling about Corte Madera and in the playroom at the Panda Room after the haircut.

The winning "after" shot!

I miss Julien's curls. In my two years of being a Momma, I have learned that motherhood is about letting go. So last Saturday June 11th, 2011, I let go of my baby's baby curls and embraced him becoming a little man with short hair.