Let's do the time warp again!

This post has nothing to do with the R.ocky H.orror P.icture S.how as you might be led to believe by this post's title (or maybe you've never seen that movie and you didn't notice the reference at all). It's just that the subject matter of today's post is somewhat older than things that have already been posted. So you see, we're going back in time a bit! :)

At the end of the year, we left for a family vacation with some friends of our in Pacific Beach. This is a tradition we've now kept up for three years!

The kids loved going out on the beach this year!! The weather was typical winter beach weather, wet and windy, but we managed to enjoy ourselves anyway!

Coming in from the beach wet!
Notice the light reflecting off Reed's jacket? Wet!

I was amazed that Spring didn't mind that beach weather. She was having trouble standing up because the wind kept blowing her down this day, but she was still happy as could be!

Daddy's girl, playing with a screwdriver and trying to walk in Daddy's shoes!

We got to play scientist when we found a ladybug in the cabin. We caught it under a glass and looked at it before we released it to the wild.

And of course, young scientists have to do a lot of studying. Gerry is reading a children's encyclopedia to the boys. It's been one of Reed's favorite books since Christmas!

We got a kite to give to our friends. We tried to fly it, but it was too windy. This is about as high as the kite ever got.

They let us have a turn trying to fly the kite too. Check out the angle of the line to the kite. The wind was blowing it straight down the beach and giving it very little lift.

We also went razor clam digging! It was really hard to see the shows with the high surf and wind, but we had a good time of it anyway! Dave and I went out before it got dark. I only got a couple of clams in that time, but then Gerry and Dave went back out and got their limits! The second night of digging, I opted to stay in since I hadn't had much luck the night before and the weather was even worse. Thanks Dave for letting my steal your razor clam picture!

The aftermath

We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner a few nights ago. Both kids ate about three times as much as they normally do (literally)! Spring has really been enjoying feeding herself, but of course, the consequence is that sometimes she's a bit messier after dinner than she was before. This was such a classic kid picture, that I just couldn't resist posting it.

Stomp

Puddle stomping fun on a nice day.

Neglected

This poor blog has been a bit neglected lately. I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions, but if I were to make a resolution, it would be that I'm going to get back into my weekly blogging habit.

To that end, I'm going to do a little December catch up! Oddly, I didn't take a lot of pictures in December, so there's not a lot to show. I think we were so busy with the holidays that I forgot to take pictures of everyday stuff and we didn't get a lot of great pictures from Christmas either. Ah well, such is life!

We had a great time selecting a Christmas tree. This was the first time we'd ever gotten anything other than a Douglas fir. We got a Norway spruce, and aside from the fact that it was a little pitchy and had pricklier needles than Doug firs, we liked it. This was the first year we managed to get a tree that was not at least a foot taller than what we actually intended to get and we liked having a smaller tree!

Reed and Spring had lots of fun decorating. We tried to put up only non-breakable ornaments this year and I still think we broke at least three. It was tough to keep Spring from taking down the ornaments. Such a contrast from Reed who left them alone once we told him no a couple of times.

Christmas day was wonderful! Gerry went crabbing on Christmas eve and got a limit of red rock and a limit of dungeness crab and Brian came late on Christmas eve to stay the night. When we got up in the morning, Brian made crab omelettes for us. Yum! We had an amazing seafood feast for dinner that we may have to have on Christmas from now on. It was so good!

And some good clean fun from December. Reed likes to pretend that he's a pirate named Bubble Beard while he's in the bath! :)

Cookie monsters

Reed, Spring and I made cookies last week. Yum! At first, I thought it would really just be Reed and I and that Spring would just play, but I should have known better. My little girl has always got to be in the mix! So, for a while, we were all at the counter; Reed on his step ladder, Spring standing on a chair with me constantly holding her with one hand, and me trying to make cookies with the other hand (and constantly worrying that Spring was going to fall). Needless to say, it was not a good arrangement!

So we moved the cookie making operation to the floor! For a little bit, I let them both stir, but then I noticed Spring using her spoon to dump sugar and flour on the floor. I figured that would fix itself once we added the wet ingredients, but nope, then she just started putting globs of dough on the floor!











So Spring got to have her own bowl. She wasn't interested in it till I put a half inch of water in the bottom, but I figured water is easier to clean up than dough!

These were white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies. We made a few chocolate and nut free ones for Spring, but she was not impressed. Her eating habits and Reed's eating habits are almost complete opposites. For example, one recent evening we had flank steak, homemade sweet potato fries and green salad for dinner. Spring ate sweet potato fries and tomatoes from the salad, Reed ate meat.

Santa breakfast

Saturday was once again time for Santa breakfast at our local fire station. This is an annual tradition that we really enjoy! Spring woke up earlier than usual on Saturday, so we all got up and headed to breakfast. It was nice to be there early as it gets crowded later and you have to wait a long time for your picture with Santa to get printed out.

Remembering that Reed had been apprehensive about Santa last year, I explained what we would be doing the night before. It paid off because Reed was really excited to see Santa! Spring on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with him! We were surprised because she is normally outgoing, but not that morning. Some of it may have been that she was extra tired from the early morning, but I think it was mainly that she was alarmed by this big guy (the Santa the comes to the fire station is over 6' tall) in the weird suit. Spring watched Santa like a hawk as we ate breakfast. He'd circle the room, greeting all the kids, and as soon as he'd come near, Spring would starting sobbing! Not even nursing her helped and that's usually our magic cure-all!!

So, Gerry and I decided that allowing Spring to trust her gut instinct and not get close to this stranger who she so clearly did not trust was MUCH more important than getting a picture of her with Santa. We did get a good picture of Reed though!

Woot!

Reed is going to sleep without a binkie tonight for the first time since he was born!!! And the best part is, it was his choice! Due to the traumatic circumstances of his birth, Reed had a pacifier before he ever even nursed so this is a long standing habit that he's breaking tonight. I think it really helped that he just learned how to go potty on the potty because he understands and likes the idea of getting a reward for doing this! I had dreaded this for so long because I thought that this was going to involve a lot of tears, but nope! I had told him a few times the kinds of rewards he could have for sleeping without a binkie, and tonight I was reminding him about the rewards when he said, "We should do that tonight!" He's not actually asleep yet, so maybe I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch, but he's quietly laying in bed which I think is a darn good start!!

And in case I hadn't mentioned before, Reed has learned how to use the potty! It happened so easily, I'm still amazed. It started one evening when my dad came over and went in the hot tub with Reed. Afterwards, Reed came in and didn't want to get dressed so we let him run around naked. Suddenly, he announced he had to go potty and promptly sat down on his potty chair. When it happened a second time that evening, I decided that I would try to get him to go with a naked bottom the next day. The next morning came, and I asked him if he wanted a naked bottom and he said no. So I got a cloth diaper ready for him and he said he didn't want a cloth diaper, so he decided he did want a naked bottom afterall! He's only had a handful of accidents and we've been at this for about a month now, and lately, when he wakes up in the morning, his pull-up is dry! He was definitely ready!! :)

Spring is signing and saying more things which is also really exciting!! She signs for more, water, all done, nurse, she shakes her head no and tonight she signed for bath. She also says cat, dog, bird, and seeminly more. She was looking at my necklace so I asked her, so I started to ask her, "Are you looking at my necklace?", but before I could get the word "necklace" out, she said "necklah". Part of me finds it hard to believe that she'd know a word as obscure as necklace, but if she doesn't, then it's a really big coincidence! We've had a few other similar incidents, so her vocabulary may be much larger than what she shows off on a daily basis!

And here are some pictures that need to get posted from Halloween! Gerry collected all the pumpkins seeds so we could toast them. Yum!

Reed helped carve pumpkins too.

Ready to go trick or treating. Gerry was dressed as a cow behind the camera. Butterfly wings were the best I could come up with for a last minute costume. By the way, note that I'm wearing a 3/4 sleeve shirt and mary janes with no socks! I don't ever remember it being so warm on Halloween!!

The cutest little elephant and ladybug in the world! Call us nuts, but we didn't let R and S have candy. Instead, we got some small toys for each of them (toy cars and the like) and took them to our neighbors houses so they could give them to R and S when they came trick or treating. I just didn't want them to have all the sugar, but I wanted them to have the fun of trick or treating!

And this one's not from Halloween, but it's a cute October picture I wanted to post. Both my kids LOVE their grandparents! I can't wait till Grandma Lisa gets here so they can shower her with love in person (and vice versa)!!

Birthday boy!

Three years old! Wow! I'm amazed that my little boy is three years old, and even more amazed at the person he is!!

We celebrated Reed's birthday yesterday by having some of his friends over to play in the morning. I tried to take some pictures, but honestly, it was a little chaotic, so I didn't get anything that was blog worthy. We had a bustling house full of moms and dads and kids and it was SO much fun! Reed seemed to especially enjoy playing "moons" with his friend T. They'd go into Reed's room with the lights off and curtains closed, then shine flashlights on the ceiling, and say "Moon!" :) Later, T and Reed both put on their mei tais and carried around dolls/stuffed animals. I can't tell you how much I wish I'd gotten a good picture of the two of them babywearing! So cute!

G had baked a cake during naptime and in an effort to cool it faster so we could frost it, he put the cake pan on ice. I can not recommend this as a good way to cool a cake, but it happens to be an excellent way to break a pyrex baking dish! Oops! We were a little worried because Reed had wanted to help make the cake and we were concerned he might be upset about buying a cake, but he was totally fine with it.

We took Reed out to his favorite restaurant for dinner, the rice and beans restaurant (most of you probably call this a Mexican restaurant, but not Reed!)

And then we came back home for presents!

And cake! Licking the frosting off the candle, one of the great birthday traditions.

I love how deliberate Reed is being about eating his cake here!

Baby Elephant - part 2

It's been too long since we've posted a video... let's hope this one makes up for it.

Why walk, when you can DANCE!

Portraits

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!! A million thanks to our photographer friend Kathryn for doing portraits of our kids. Here's a preview of the pictures she took.

Birthday girl!!!

My how time has flown!!! We celebrated Spring's first birthday last week!

We let Spring open her presents in the afternoon so she'd have time to play with them before bed. Reed was pretty excited about the stroller that Grandma sent.

But eventually he let her play with it.

Reed was also good about helping her open the presents.

And happily, Reed let Spring open some on her own too!

Showing off her pearly whites after opening presents.

We spent the day together as a family and went out for dinner at our favorite local vegetarian restaurant. We got a wonderful surprise there when we discovered that there would be live music that evening. The music was a little hard to describe, trance-like and peaceful, but energetic at times too. The artist (Christopher of the Wolves) played various instruments simultaneously including didgeridoo, a type of steel drum call a hang (pronounced han), drum, bells, ectar (one string guitar) and a type of Chinese flute. The artist was really nice and explained to Reed what he was going to do while playing in case Reed got scared (though once he got going there was nothing scarey at all). Reed and Spring sat wide-eyed enthralled for the first few songs. Eventually, the newness of the music wore off and they started dancing to the music. After we finished dinner, I sat Spring on the floor so she could dance there while I cleaned up the sweet potato fries she'd strewn everywhere. She danced so vigorously that the musician joked that he thought she was going to start turning cartwheels!

After dinner, we came home and had cake. Spring wasn't super excited about the cake, perhaps because she had gorged herself on hummus and sweet potato fries at dinner, but we still got a good cake picture!

Then last night, we had my family over for dinner for a birthday celebration. Since we had already had a cake, I decided to make an apple pie. Spring seemed to prefer the apple pie over the cake, and I am reminded that for several birthdays, I requested an apple pie in lieu of a birthday cake!

Are you people seriously going to let that pie burn?

Yum! (For some reason, all the pie-eating pictures were a little fuzzy.)

The sticky aftermath.