BFFs

Seriously, could these two pals be any cuter?

Gavin and Nory

When we lived in Santa Barbara, we used to love to take pictures at Alice Keck Park. So when we visited a couple weekends ago, we went back to the park for a fun photoshoot with the kids!

Lots more from that photoshoot and the rest of our California pictures here.

The Spungin Girls (and one really small boy)

When we were in California we overlapped with the girls from my mom's family for a day... what a great opportunity!

Nana and her grandbabies!

Little Brothers Are Awesome

Elliott: Two Months!

COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME HOW ELLIOTT COULD POSSIBLY BE TWO MONTHS OLD ALREADY???

Mom, I don't fit in this NB outfit anymore!

Well, regardless of how it happened, it happened. This little guy went into the doctor's office yesterday for his two month appointment! He seems so much longer and leaner than Nory, but when I compared the stats to hers, he was pretty much the same (he is slightly longer). I guess he won't be our basketball star, after all!

10lb 5oz (25th%)

22 inches (25th %)

He also got a shot: DTaP*, which he handled fine except for having a particularly fussy night. Elliott got a glowing health review.

I am enjoying this child more and more. Of course I loved him from the moment I saw those two lines on the pregnancy test, but these first two months were a lot rougher than I expected. However, he is slowly moving from being a very difficult infant towards a rather happy and darling baby. He has started smiling all the time when you talk to him, which brings out a lot of his personality. He still isn't sleeping very well, but at least he has long periods of happy wakefulness where he will interact with Daddy or Nory or me.  

Check out all that hair! Nory's was long gone by 2 months.

*In case you were thinking, "but wait, there's more!", my philosophy on vaccinations is different than the average mom's. I am all for vaccinations, don't get me wrong, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended schedule is basically aimed at getting as many vaccines as possible in the shortest amount of time because they are afraid that parents won't continue vaccinations as their child grows. They want you to give your baby Hep B in the hospital for goodness sake, Hep B, which is a sexually transmitted disease. So by following that schedule, you end up with itty bitty teeny tiny babies' bodies being asked to create antibodies for a lot more than should be necessary. Anyway, our technique, loosely based on the Dr. Sear's Vaccine Book, but taking into account our pediatrician's advice, is to give only the shots necessary in the first year for diseases which are high risk for babies, and then to catch up after that, once a child's body is a little bigger and more capable of handling the vaccines. We also like to spread them out so we go in an extra time between normal wellness checks for vaccine-only appointments. Nory is pretty much caught up now, she will be totally caught up by age 3. So anyway, we discussed with our doctor what she considered to be the most important vaccine for infants and we decided on DTaP. Next month we will do HIB and (probably) Rotavirus.

Plus it was kinda fun giving Elliott a Polio vaccine since Dan's company works a lot on Polio. He got to have a show-and-tell moment yesterday.

Child Labor - Not Just For The Third World!

(I stole that title from a chapter in The Three-Martini Playdate, a must read for any parent)

I meant it - nobody.

Nobody escapes being put to bed... Not even Finny! (And may I strongly recommend Golden Retrievers for all of your toddler-dog interactions!)

Father's Day

This year was Dan's third father's day. I continued the tradition of getting Dan a cheesy mug to celebrate. I wonder how many of these we'll end up with before he begs me to stop :). Actually, even though I got the first one mostly as a joke, I kind of love seeing them in our cupboard, and Nory LOVES when one shows up during breakfast.

Also, Nory and I made a cake. Which was both more and less fun than I had expected. More fun, because she could really participate and loved it, and I love seeing her love cooking.

Yes, we cheated, but when you are baking with a 2 year old while holding a 0 year old, you need all the help you can get.

She didn't spill a drop!

Butter and flour the pans, so it doesn't stick.

And less fun. Less fun because we made the cake on Friday so that it could be a surprise for Daddy, but beginning on Friday night and lasting throughout Saturday and Sunday, Nory begged, pled, and tantrumed because she wanted to EAT CAKE. Which is why she didn't get to help with the decorating. Maybe next year!

Cake!

Outing

We did it! This morning I made it out of the house with not only both kids, but both kids and the DOG. This was a first for me! I don't know why, but somehow I hadn't thought I could manage the dog with the two kids. We walked to the local park, Nory played for a while, I kept Finny from going crazy when another golden retriever showed up, and Elliott cooperated by sleeping the entire time. The weather was perfect - sunny, but not too hot. Hooray! I am feeling very fortunate for a child who is old enough and brave enough to play at the playground without help (she still needs lots of "hello!" and "peek-a-boo"'s from mommy, but no physical help except to occasionally catch her at the bottom of the slide).

Another mom at the park took our picture, and was nice enough to understand my need for documentation!

Peek-a-boo!

TWO airplanes?

Since we now have to pay for Nory's ticket, we opted for the cheaper Southwest option, which meant really nasty layovers both ways. I admit I was a bit nervous about how the kids would do. But they did great! Elliott nursed/slept the entire way, and Nory was so excited to go on TWO airplanes that the first words out of her mouth when she woke up in the morning were "Go on two airplanes and a bus!" She spent the morning begging to leave for the airport and our flight wasn't until 3pm. The girl is really into transportation right now. I was a little sad that her brother was too young to share the enthusiasm - although when he is old enough, that means that they will be old enough to fight over the window seat, just like my brother and I used to do as kids!

Santa Barbara

We drove to Santa Barbara for the weekend while we were in California. The kids were ROCKSTAR travelers. I couldn't believe it. On the way from SB to Redlands, we hit pretty bad traffic, making for a 3.5 hour trip - and Elliott slept the entire way!

We stayed with our dear friends Tim and Adrienne (or as Nory says, "Gagin's house!"). Gavin was so sweet with baby Elliott.

Well hello, there!

My favorite girl.

We scheduled the entire weekend to see as many people as possible! Here we are at a beach picnic that turned out to be freezing.

Missing from that photo, the photographer Abby and her baby Ewan, the sweetest, happiest baby I have ever seen.

Oh ocean, how we miss you!

Here is Dan pointing out the dolphins to Nory.

We realize that we miss Santa Barbara a LOT. We are already trying to plan our next trip back!

At Nana's House

We had such a good time at Nana and Papa's house in California! I'm not going to lie, it was a ton of work, but totally worth it for nana and papa to get to spend time with the kids.

Nory was totally unphased by the wheelchair. Although putting her babies to bed all over the house made for a very interesting wheelchair obstacle course!

Hey, cool bed!

Nice to meet you baby Elliott!

"Fishes hungry?"

Nory's favorite game, chase!

Dan took some "real" pictures too, but those aren't ready yet.

Nobody Escapes

Nobody escapes being put to bed in our house, no matter how ferocious!

When you go to the park with daddy

I couldn't resist. This is too funny.

SUN

Well I'll tell you something, living in the PNW after 2 years in Santa Barbara sure makes me appreciate the sun when it comes out! And this at the tail end of the girls of the family (Nory and myself) having a very nasty but short lived stomach bug. Ever tried nursing while puking? I don't recommend it. So far the boys have remained unscathed, let's hope it stays that way.

Anyway, our stomachs settled, the sun came out, and the Kleins went out to play! Crappy phone pictures, sorry, I can't find my camera right now.

First, we played baseball! Nory LOVES baseball (you hear that, Charlie?). This is a consequence of living in a house that requires us to drive by a large community baseball park every time we drive home. Sometimes we walk there and watch them play. So Dan bought Nory this baseball bat and some wiffle balls. She isn't quite good enough with hand-eye coordination to actually hit the ball without help, but she sure has a lot of enthusiasm!

This morning we went to the dog park. Gotta love the PNW, I swear it is the only place you can take an adorable 2 year old, a brand new teeny tiny baby, and still get more people mentioning how cute your dog is than even noticing that you brought kids with you. Finny got some much needed leash-free swimming and running.

I even dug out some sun screen for the occasion, although we hadn't used it since we left SB. We needed it anyway since we are going to California next week! Wahoo, vacation!