With Ruthie

Last week we had the joy of baby-sitting Ruthie for the first time for about 3 hours. Ruthie is Ian and Esther’s first child and is roughly about seven weeks old. So she is still quite a new born.  We told Sam and Abbie at the beginning of the day that she was to stay with us in the evening. So they were very eager to see her when she arrived. To put it simply, they were enamored with her. They constantly wanted to affectionately touch her face, her tummy, and her feet. They really did not leave her side the whole time she was with us. Of course, it was a delight to watch this, but it also showed me that Sam and Abbie will have no problem with our new one on the way. We might have to peel them off of the baby because they will never leave his/her side. The baby will be overwhelmed with smooches, pats, snuggles, pokes, and smotherings. In any case, the baby will know he/she is wanted and loved.

Wall Walking and Just Plain Silliness

I will often go and sit on our front porch steps and just watch the kids play. This mostly entails watching them run around and giggle at each other. Sam usually just throws whatever he can find. Abbie tends to just wander and meander about the yard. However sometimes they will both walk the stone retaining wall. Abbie cannot do it as of yet on her own, so she eagerly pursues me to make sure she can follow right behind Sam and then jump at the end of the wall.

 

Fun On A Rainy Day

My days off when I work weekends are the Friday before and the Monday after the weekend. Monday we typically take as a day of rest for the family. This can include family outings, or staying home, but definitely we do not do any routines that we have done for the rest of the week or any typical “work”. On Monday off it rained all day so we had fun being creative about what to do indoors and eventually outdoors.  We played blocks and cars, we read quietly, we did puzzles, Mary painted her toes and also Abbie’s and Sam’s, ate a pancake breakfast, we made silly faces in to the camera to see who could make each other laugh the most (I think mommy’s face won!), and finally we jumped in puddles when there was a break in the rain. It was a great rainy day off.

Park Across The Street From Kaiser

Every morning when I come to work I park across the street from the hospital I work at, Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center. The regional park is right across the street from it. I arrive pretty early in the morning and sometimes the ground fog and crisp, cool air really make it quite a stunning and serene place. I tried to capture it one morning with my camera. I think I was unsuccessful, but I was able to get a few OK shots.

California Adventure Run

One of our ongoing family outings throughout the year is our runs to Disneyland or California Adventure. When I mean a run I mean it in the fullest sense of the word. It only takes 15 minutes to get to the Magical Kingdom using the carpool lane from our house!  Out excursion is only about a four hour event.  We do this in part because we get only 3 hours of free parking at Downtown Disney. The other reason is that we do not like all-day trips to Disneyland! A bit overwhelming and exhausting. (Maybe when the kids are older.)

More frequently, when we have headed across the large plaza at the entrance of both parks, we tend to go to California Adventure than to Disneyland. It think the little kids rides are better there than at Disneyland. . .maybe. Sam and Abbie’s favorite rides right now are in the Bug’s Life section of the park. The pictures below are at night when we were riding the converted-cartons-into-a-spinning-swing ride. We also like riding the spinning Ladybug head ride.

Personally, I have always found going to theme parks a bit too much work both when single, and then when married, and now with kids. They are not really my cup of tea. However, these short excursions have fostered some really fun times together as a family, and some consistent and remaining memories. I am coming to look forward to these outings. May our children come to love play and enjoyment in our family context, and may these times also be put into perspective by other times of service and love to others as well.

Long Beach Aquarium

Esther and Ian invited our family to spend the afternoon at the aquarium in Long Beach. They got us free tickets so it was even more enticing. Esther and Ian just had their first child, Ruthie, on Dec. 19th and it fun to see her as well. We ran into Rob and Rowen (they have annual passes, and Rob takes Rowen there weekly after work. Sounds like great father/son bonding.) Anyways, Sam was very excited to go because he really loves animals, no, he really loves animals. He has an assortment of probably 50 small animal figurines and he knows all their names. He especially likes sharks and sting rays. So when he was able to see all them up close he was very excited and would just stare entranced by them. We spent the most time at the string ray petting pool, the seal area and the shark tank (sounds menacing doesn’t it). The place Sam liked least was the Lorikeet area. It was an enclosed large netted area where you could walk through and feed these large, obnoxious, and playful birds. They were to much for Sam.

We would like to go back again soon. Sam loved that place and I know Abbie will too. Both Mary and I liked it too. LB Aquarium is a pretty cool place!

Christmas With Family

Our family Christmas with my (Mike’s) parents and siblings was on the 28th of December. For dinner, Mary continues in the tradition of cooking turkey cranberry enchiladas (very delicious!). We opened presents and were in for a surprise because we had agreed earlier in the year that we were not going to do presents for Christmas. But my mom (and my dad) could not resist and bought us each novelty food items. But the real surprise was the craftsmanship that my mom and dad gave to the grandchildren. Rowen got a wooden rocking horse (the same as Sam’s only black saddled). Sam received a wood train engine. Abigail received a wooden rocking cradle, with bedding and a doll sized pillow made from a goose down pillow that my great-grandmother made from a goose she actually hand plucked!! Also she received a doll with clothes that matched a set of clothes for Abigail made by my mom. Quite the craftsmanship and time. Each grandkid loved their gift and we were impressed by the sheer quality of the gifts.

The shots below are all of Abbie.

Christmas Day. . .Sort of

Christmas was moved around for our family this year. This was mostly because Mary and I work every other weekend for work. Our work weekend fell on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day. Mary also had to work the day after Christmas as well. We had Christmas on Friday the 23rd. We told the kids the 23rd was Christmas and it really worked out well for us and felt like Christmas. So much so that when Christmas came on Sunday, it felt like Christmas was already over.

Abbie and Sam are in the perfect place to open presents. The process of opening stockings and presents are still so new. Abbie especially loved her doll, doll stroller, purse and play jewelry. She is quite the little girl. They were not too focused on the presents, but on the experience of opening and of surprise. I know this has the potential to fade, but hopefully the wonder of Christmas will stay with them for some time.

In the afternoon we went to the Pirate Park and played tag, and hide-in-seek. It was a good sort of Christmas Day.

 

Christmas Card Picks (And Not Picks)

We realized we had some great shots of Abbie for our Christmas card, but we had very few to chose from for Sam. So this year we tried get shots just for the card. What is funny is we still ended up with some great shots of Abbie, but still only a select few for Sam. I will for sure keep trying to capture Sam well through each of his life stages.

 

Hot Day At The End Of November!?

So we had another couple of days after Thanksgiving that were pretty warm. Only in Southern California. Well Sam asked if they could play in the pool and sprinkler. Well our pool was already put away so a storage bin worked just fine. They had a blast!