We started off the month dramatically by taking Kamryn and Mike's offer to stay with them and explore Santa Cruz, starting with the Boardwalk!
Kamryn and Mike are such great hosts, they've done incredible work on their home. The kids loved their animals, Marge and Batman. And we even got a tour of Kamryn's salon!
Before leaving town we stopped in at Long Marine Lab's Seymour Marine Discovery Center. It's no Monterey Bay Aquarium, but it was just right for our kids. They got to see and touch sea creatures and we even took a tour. They really enjoyed it, and Everett just asked to go to camp there when he's older. We'll see about that buddy . . .
Lydia had her first day of school! She's going to a preschool right up the street from us, and she's having a great time. She loves sharing. So far she's shared a pirate map, a lizard skin, and a her camera.
She's just the best.
Roz playing on Phil and Gion's lawn.
I'm always comparing these sweet babies. They got this toy for Lydia, so unfortunately Everett couldn't be part of the comparison.
The Olympics! We had a much better way to watch this year (NBC had a great app we could watch on our FireStick, The Gold Zone--screen usually split four ways), so I had sports on all the time for two weeks. It was awesome (for me, the kids were not fans).
Brian's such a private person I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but I adored the way he reacted to seeing Caitlyn Jenner during the opening ceremonies.
Brian: Oh! Caitlyn.
Everett: Who's Caitlyn?
Brian: Caitlyn Jenner. She's a very famous former Olympian.
Hearing that I teared up a little. I feel lucky to be with a person who truly cares about other people and answers our children's questions with thoughtful simplicity.
We had some doctors appointments in San Luis, so we asked Phil and Gion to watch Roz, and we had a fun day, just the four of us.
Bedrooms have changed a lot around here!! Brian built a BIG thing! It's so awesome. The kids switch off where they sleep because both want the top bunk every night.
But most importantly, Roz is in her own room now! Her crib had been in our room. It has meant SO much more sleep for us. If I'd known how much it would help, I would have pushed to make the move months ago.
Rosalind turned one!! Our sweet, mellow baby is now a full on toddling toddler! We have the typical feelings of being surprised by how fast the year went and also relieved that we made it through the difficult baby days.
We had a fun BBQ potluck party with our closest friends and family, with carrot cake cupcakes!
And chocolate ice cream. These kids crack me up!
She wasn't sure about the frosting stuff, but once she got to the cake, she liked it. This baby has some seriously sweet and silly siblings.
I'm comparing babies again! At the same time they look so different and so similar to me. I suppose that's genes for ya.
Finishing up our pink shirt photo shoot.
Lydia at one year for comparison.
Our healthy BIG baby at her one year check up. She's 24 lbs. 8 oz., which is in the 96th percentile for weight. And she's 31.5 inches, which is in the 99th percentile for height! For comparison, Lydia was 20lbs. 11 oz. - 44% and 30.8 inches - 92%. So they were/are both tall, but Roz is much heavier. My back could have told you that!
Serious family selfies (tell me I look like Sansa from Game of Thrones, it boosts my ego). Speaking of GoT, Brian and I watched all six seasons this summer, and it was seriously depressing but also amazing and addictive . . . winter is coming y'all . . .
Roz giving hugs. She's been giving such good hugs lately.
The girls playing with diaper boxes. That's it, diapers are officially the best gift, functional and fun!
And Everett's been making these paper transforming Power Rangers. It's so creative. I think he's using some skills he learned making paper monsters with Grandpa Phil. Our friend Ben Ebert gave us the paper monster making book, which has been so much fun for Everett.
Lydia got tubes in her ears! We've been monitoring her ears/fluid/hearing for over a year and her ENT decided it was for the best. I can't explain what's going on in there, but a vacuum was created and her ear drums weren't able to vibrate, her hearing was affected, and there could be scar tissue forming, which would be bad. So hopefully the tubes help all that.
Of course we think Lydia is the cutest most charming 3.5 year old in history, but it's fun to see other people (doctors, nurses, anesthesiologist) charmed by her as well. Adorable. She did great. I kept being warned that she would be really upset when she woke up, but she was fine, totally her normal self. She did puke on the car ride home from Pismo, but that's better than freaking out crying, honestly.
Everett's first day of first grade!! Holy moly guys, this is the real deal. Kindergarten at our school is half day, so this is the first year of full day school. He's going to do great.
Gion came over to hang out with Roz so I could drop Lydia off at preschool and then give all my attention to Everett at his first drop off. Writing this a couple weeks in, I can say he's never liked going to school more. He even asks to go early so he can have more play time.
It was his idea to strike this pose. Clever boy.
Their response to, "did you have a good day at school?!"
My mom had knee surgery! We went to bug her (I mean visit her) in the hospital. She's home now and doing well. She's such a busy person with work, volunteering, grandma-ing, it's hard for her to take it easy. But she is. It takes recovering from surgery to slow her down at all.
The kids just finished a session of Kidz Love Soccer! We decided to do soccer this way for now because rec soccer for Everett would be many extra hours on top of his new all day school, plus this way Lydia got to play too!
Everett's friend Rosa was in his class, which was so fun for them. Fun for us too because we got to hang out with her parents, our friends, while we watched. Grandmas and Grandpas often came out to watch too.
Everett also recently finished up months and months of gymnastics (parkour and urban acro). We're taking a break with school starting, but Everett had a lot of fun. He even earned advancement from Boys Basic 1 to Boys Basic 2, so he got to feel a little pride in that accomplishment.
Lydia also takes gymnastics on the day she spends with Phil and Gion. She really enjoys it and has improved so much over time.
Brian and Everett replacing the screen on the old laptop.
Lydia being our very own Louise Belcher.
Enjoying the Chinese ink set Peter gave Everett.
I put Willy Wonka on while making dinner. Everett came up to me and said, "watching this movie makes me hungry for candy." I normally wouldn't do this, but in honor of Gene Wilder I replied, "do you wanna search the house for some candy?!?"
Whoa. What a month! Until the next one!
No comments:
Post a Comment