::today in san diego::

We are escaping our normal lives for a couple of days this week in San Diego at the beach. We found a little condo right by the beach (thanks to a recommendation from a patient parent at the office). It's really amazingly close to the beach--probably less than a block away. We don't have to cross any real streets to get there. It's perfect because Max can spend more time playing in the water, and the baby can take the naps he needs, and all that is within a quick walk back to our place if we need it.

I just wanted to share a couple of pictures from today before I got too sleepy.

We went to a fun little shopping area downtown called something like Seaport Village for lunch.

The view of the water was lovely from our table.

And I had another lovely view if I looked to my left--happy babies.


He is so darn darling!
There was a seagull stalking Max's lunch the whole time. Luckily he was behind glass and too big to slip through the cracks.

After lunch Max got to ride on a historic carousel, which of course he loved.

After we walked around the shops for a bit and headed to Target to pick up all the stuff I forgot to pack, Max and I went out to the beach while the baby napped and Kris studied for his upcoming board exam.

Max did some seriously awesome boogie boarding.
Then he had to bury himself because I refuse to get that sandy today.


Poor deprived child. He even wrote RIP in the sand next to himself. Weirdo.
Kris and Sand came and joined us for a few minutes at the end.

Sandy thought the waves were very interesting as long as I didn't dip his feet too much, but he HATED the sand (ironically). He hated it so much. He would hold his feet and legs up as high as he could any time I tried to have him stand in it. We'll see how it goes the next few days.

THEN, after dinner we took a long walk to go and get some ice cream. We saw a cool sunset over the ocean.

We saw a lot of interesting vegetation, chief amoung them this weird succulent black rosebush looking thing. So cool.

Max wore himself out running the first half mile and could hardly make it the rest of the way, but we did finally make it back for bedtime.


I'm going to bed now, sand in my hair and all. Tomorrow we're planning for SeaWorld. It should be fun!

::another first::

I need to remind myself in the future not to schedule Kris hospital cases on the first day of school. With hospital cases Kris has to be out of the house before 6:30AM. So obviously I accidentally did that this year and it was kind of a bummer. Because of course, no matter how early I got up, we had to be late because of a battle. This particular battle was over what shoes to wear. Max wanted to wear his stinky Keens and I wanted him to wear normal shoes so nobody would think he had bad hygiene right off the bat.
Anyway, we resolved it eventually, and got through the breakfast battle. We made it into the car and then were absolutely fine until we got to school and realized that to get a parking space we'd have to park two blocks away and walk. That's pretty fun with a 25 lb baby to haul around.

But the good stuff for the day? Max's new teacher seems really nice. He's in a real classroom when a lot of the other grades are in portables because of school construction. There are a few nice kids in his class that he knows from last year.
The best news? We got him there and we all survived.

And the very best news is that he had a really fun day. YAY!!!

::bye to summer::

Tomorrow is the first day of school for us out here. Kind of a bummer in so many ways. Good in so many ways too. But's it's sad to lose the opportunity to sleep in a bit and bum around and spend time with friends and at the pool. I think we should move to a four day school week. Really. Kids need a little more time just to be kids.

Kids need to bum around and watch Pixar movies with friends and have fun.

Good thing we can do all that and school too I guess, though squeezing it all in is a trick.

Really our summer was super busy with work and summer camps, so we didn't get to laze around much. Maybe that makes the coming to an end part even harder.

You should probably look for a first day of school post coming soon. I'm sure Mr Second Grade will be adorable as he always is.

::::

Pensive baby in Taos, back when we were there for the bike racing weekend.


To the more usual cheery baby.

I sure do love that Bumbo seat. I'd highly recommend it to anybody. It's been a lifesaver in a lot of situations where a high chair wasn't available or the floor just wasn't good for babies to hang out on. I usually just keep it in the car. It's what he always eats meals in at work when we're there.
Besides, his chubby little legs are so darn cute when they're squished into the seat. I love it!

::kris & ginna::

Of an evening in late July...

::scootin' (backwards)::

(No chubby kids were harmed in the making of this blog post. Maybe they're weren't immediately picked up when they wanted to be, but that's a whole other story.)

My little little guy has started scooting a bit. But not forward, where he'd like to go. Backwards. Always backwards. It's because he's not bothering to do anything with his feet, just his arms. And every time he pushes against the floor with his arms he goes backwards, which really isn't what he means or wants to do.
But I think he's happy to be moving at all.

Yesterday he was hanging out on the floor of our big room--the carpeted floor that I wanted just for things like this--scooting crawling babies.
He's on the floor playing with toys, and suddenly I realize that he's halfway across the room, but still facing me. At that point he was having a good time with it.

And he scooted on. Suddenly he realized that he had scooted rather close to the guitar that was leaning against one of the walls. This was cool and exciting.

And actually rather captivating, really.

This is where things started to fall apart. I think he really really wanted to go for the guitar. So he started to try.








He was extremely annoyed with me for giggling and taking pictures instead of helping him go the right direction. What a mean mom.
I'll have you know though, that as soon as I was done being amused and taking pictures of his frustration, I picked him up and comforted him. I had too, he's too adorable. I can't help it.

And that's the scooting report for today.

::first ride::

Last week Kris took Max on his inaugural "real" bike ride. They went four whole miles down the rail trail.

This is impressive because in the past you could hardly get Max to walk, run or ride seriously for much more than a couple of minutes without a meltdown.
Maybe things have changed--at least a bit. But that's the whole reason why we hadn't gotten him a bigger bike before that bike race. He just wasn't that interested, and certainly not dedicated to going fast or long.

So we'll see how it goes from here. No pushing, just gentle encouragement.
I think it was fun for Kris to get Max into watching the Tour de France this year--the bit he watched seemed to rivet him. We'll see if any interest continues!

(storm light--monsoon season!)

::new toy::

Sandy got a new toy today--I think his big brother might be more interested in it than he is. If only Sand would listen better he'd know exactly how to play with it right.

These guys get along so well. I love seeing them together. Hopefully this kind of relationship can continue for them forever!

::new bike::

If you think he's pretty proud and excited about this bike you'd be right. And who wouldn't be proud of this blazing yellow fancy thing?