Dirt bike days

It's all about dirt bikes these days for our little man. Five-year old John next door, J's hero, has several toy dirt bikes and the two boys were playing with them last week. John kindly offered to lend J one of them, and it's all he's wanted to play with since. Or look at. Or touch. Or talk about.

J's special early-morning Saturday "online video-clip watching" with his dad (interspersed with pancake-making while we girls sleep in) - used to center on goose-hunting or dog-training... But those days are gone. It's all dirt-bikes, all the time now.

I'm ruing the day already when John asks for the little bike back...!

Surfing and Santa Barbara

Our dear, old Boston friend Andrea and her husband Thomas, who live in Santa Barbara, are expecting their first baby in six weeks' time, and on Sunday a baby shower was held in their honor. Our other Boston friends who now live in Pasadena, Dan and Rebecca, came up with their 10-month old Noah and spent Saturday night with us. Y and Dan went surfing on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning... Dan notably more so than Y, as the conditions weren't fabulous. Y acted as surf-photographer on the first of the two outings (evidence above).

On Sunday we grown-ups left the kids with a babysitter and headed up to a gorgeous villa-style house overlooking the mountains in Santa Barbara, where the co-ed brunch (really more of a celebratory gathering than a shower as no presents were opened) was held. It was one of the most beautiful places we've been since we moved to California. Andrea and Thomas don't know what they're having, but I had a vivid dream last week that it was a girl... Prophetic? Or do I just have babies girls on the brain since that's what we're having?

Our own little Miss Muffet...

Yesterday Y came in saying Q had just encountered a spider and freaked out, screaming and carrying on extensively. "She's definitely a girl," he said, clearly a bit dismayed by the whole scene. I thought perhaps he was exaggerating, since Q is typically a pretty tough girl. She cries little when hurt, doesn't mind being wet or muddy in the least (unlike her brother), enjoys snails and worms and the like. And since she's never seen anyone react negatively to an insect, why would she do so? Maybe it was a fluke.

Well, dinner the other night put those notions to rest. We were eating together at the table when a housefly began buzzing around (it was about 90 degrees and the screen door had been open). When it flew near Q, she began to shriek. Hysterically. Unceasingly. For about 5 full minutes. She reached out to me, wanting me to hold her, screaming and with tears running down her face. It was actually a bit surreal. Her poor Daniel-Boon-style father heaved a deep sigh and wondered aloud where we might have gone wrong...

It'll be interesting to see how long this one may last!

Bare naked babies

90 degree heat and a little hike in the Ojai mountains alongside a shallow, warm stream ended up with this result yesterday afternoon... Fun times for all!

Mini road-trip

As Y had a work project that kept him occupied Fri evening and all day Saturday this week, the kids and I drove down to visit our old friends the Welds in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, where they live. We'd last been down to see them in August, eight months ago, and had been trying to get a visit on the books for a while. So last minute, we arranged the quick trip when I knew the kids and I would have the time free.

The drives down and back were largely uneventful - no small feat given LA traffic - and took about 3.5 hours each way. The kids are noticeably out of long-car-trip practice and they, particularly J, were crankier than the ideal, with J's refrain of "I don't feel well" (he did) ringing out perhaps 40 times each trip. We were with the Welds for about 24 hours from Friday noon till Saturday noon and had a great time. Andy and Emily are gracious and easygoing hosts who know how guests feel welcome and comfortable.

Michael and J are both 3 1/2 and aligned in terms of activities - cars, playsets, playing ball. The girls did OK too though Q had several bullying moments with 1-year old Kathryn, taking dolls away and knocking her down, quasi-accidentally. Such visits remind one that 24 hours in kid-time (with four children 3 yrs and under) is more like 4 days in adult time... it was busy to say the least. Both kids and I slept together in the same room for the first time, which went fairly well and was good practice for us for our upcoming 5-day trip to WA in May when this will become common practice for us.

Civic engagement

Across the street from the entrance to our neighborhood is the county town seat, hub of county-wide politics throughout our region. Whenever a rally is being staged, that's where the action happens - sign-holders on the corner, "honk for such-and-such," and the like.

In the 9 months we've lived here, there's never been anything like the crowd and action that assembled midday yesterday for the "Tea Party" gatherings. Multiple hundreds of people were there with gridlocked traffic all along the busy block and scores of passing cars honking in support of the rally... Definitely far more action than I expected to see, when driving by, in a notably left-leaning region like southern CA.

So I loaded up the kids in the double stroller and popped over for about 20 minutes... since we're a notably conservative lot ourselves (coming as news to no one) and not fans of increased government spending. We enjoyed ourselves and the signs, costumes (J especially enjoyed the 'pork barrel spending' pig - see below) and camaraderie, and I even ran into two friends there with their kids too. Inaugural foray into the world of political rallies!

Snapshot of our Easter Sunday

He is risen!

Easter weekend, CA style

Well it's Good Friday and we're gearing up for a low-key but hopefully meaningful Easter weekend. After all, this is the first Easter we've had as a family since J was 18 months old, so it's our first chance to really think through and begin implementing how we want to celebrate. We've been pondering Jesus-focused ways to engage the kids and are implementing some this week, so far to good effect. Tomorrow we'll do an egg hunt with neighbors Kim and Chuck and their four kids, and then Sunday we'll do our own family Easter celebration including church and a nice meal.

It doesn't really feel like Easter to me this year, primarily because spring doesn't feel like spring. It's almost comical to see storefront signs with promotions like "Think spring! Get a pedicure!", given the reality that the temperature right now is identical to what it was two months ago. I mean, no discernible difference whatsoever. While exuberant news from New England is "it hit 65 degrees today!" - that's the temp we have every day. Feels very surreal.

Off to make Easter cookies with J...!

Will wonders never cease?

Last night little Miss Q shocked my socks off by - get this - actually eating something. Something not specially prepared for her and, in fact, the very dish that the rest of the family was eating for dinner. An egg fritatta with peppers, sliced turkey, onions, and cheese (she has never eaten one of these ingredients except cheese ever, in her life) . She ate it with relish, even, and as much as I gave her. My jaw was on the floor.

If ever any incident should encourage moms to believe that toddlers can in fact expand their eating repertoire, this incident, undertaken by the Pickiest and Possibly Most Challenging Eater Ever, should be it.

While I'd be exuberant if such an event should happen again, I don't expect it to...!

It's a GIRL!

You can take the guy out of the wilderness...

... but you can't take the wilderness out of the guy. Obviously.


Y bought an little mini outdoor, wood-burning fire device and has been entertaining the kids with it all week... It's been the highlight. Yesterday we boiled water and made hot chocolate, an event that proved to be more exciting in concept than it was in taste. Nevertheless, J was ecstatic...

Fun times, dreaming of the camping life in our suburban backyard. ("I thought I smelled smoke!" said our CHIP neighbor Sergeant Bob when he came to return a dish.)

Blogging blather

Well it looks like I'm turning into one of those bloggy type people. Who would have thought? Not a year ago I barely ever so much as looked at blogs, let alone thought about having one. "I don't get the blog thing," I remember telling a fellow blog-skeptic friend. "It seems so self-important."

Now here I am, almost a year into this family one and having just started another one... this one focused on parenting preschoolers from a Christian perspective. Just a place to work out some of my thoughts as Y and I read, process, study, and think stuff through with J and Q. It's been helpful for me and a nice way to connect with some other like minded moms.

And on top of that, I'm even writing about bloggy stuff for my 'real writing' gigs (or gig, I should say, since this women's Christianity Today forum is my only real one at this stage)... Never say never, I guess.