Monday, July 29, 2013

Photo shoot!

Ah Mondays. Today I worked for awhile while Judit took the kids bowling. I think I would have rather gone bowling, but I'm also glad I got some work done. I still have a lot more to do before I'm ready for the school year to begin, but thanks to my Yearbook Business Manager, I'm well on my way.

In the afternoon we picked up Bryan at his office and went to a country club where he and his coworkers got their pictures taken for the website. Judit, the kids, and I went - and I brought my camera so I could get some pictures of the kids & Judit.

I bribed Bubby with a quarter to dress up. Judit and I think he looks ADORABLE. Bryan thinks he's going to look back on these pictures and say "I can't believe my mom made me wear that!" Maybe it'll be both. You decide :)

In his pirate shirt with suspenders
Bubs & Judit
He's totally in love with her. He's both very sweet and a little mean, just like most boys are when they're in love! We went out for ice cream after dinner and he was very concerned that we had left her behind since she say in the back of the van and he couldn't see her from his carseat. Once we got there he kept asking where she was until he got out of the van and then he held her hand as we walked into the ice cream parlor. He's really, REALLY going to miss her.

Penelope and Judit. Penelope has started using the "Nicolas Black smile".
This smile is totally my brother. It was one of his more hilarious phases. I think it is funny, cute, and a little frustrating. The frustrating part is that I want a nice, genuine smile - not an angry grimace. But she's 4, so whatevs. She's still adorable.

My children insist on laying on top of me all.the.time.
I really should have taken my sunglasses off. Oh well.

My sweet almost-5-year old
Relaxing in the shade
He needs a piece of straw between his teeth and he's Tom Sawyer.

Lifting the kids while his coworkers look on
I like this one because it has my 3 favorite people in it :)

More fun with Daddy
In order to capture a genuine smile from my husband, he can't know he's being photographed... or at least, it can't be posed. He's an incredibly handsome man (and a great dad) and so this picture gets all of that. Plus I'm amused by how amused his coworkers are with his shenanigans.

Hugging Daddy's leg - his new favorite pasttime
Griffin's new thing is to hug our legs and not let go. Makes for cute pictures. Not really for getting anywhere on time.
Playing
They really do love each other. And I love them.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

What's a trip to America without a visit to a ballpark?

Lame, that's what it is.

Saturday we went to watch the A's vs. Angels in O.co Stadium. It was a rather large group of us. My parents, grandma, B's best friend and his roommates, and my work-mom and her son all joined us for a warm afternoon of baseball. The A's won (off of a 2 run homer) - and are holding on to 1st place!

I won't give you a play-by-play, since everyone just wants to see the pictures anyway. So here they are.

Sissy & Judit before the game began
My attempt at a selfie with the fancy camera
Woo - telephoto lens!
Judit & Conor
Eating peanuts
My Papa
Bubs goofing off with grandpa
Driving a car on daddy's face
Cheese!
Sissy in her souvenir shirt
Bryan and the Bubs
Sis & B had so much fun that they're going back on Tuesday night to cheer the A's on again. I'm hoping they make it to the playoffs again this year - and go even further. The Giants aren't playing so hot and it's getting to be crunch time. Go A's!

Hello Frisco!

Last week, during my "vacation week" (I use quotation marks because I worked 2 of the 5 days), the kids, Judit, & I drove up to the City.

As we passed South SF it was beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees. As we passed the airport we could see the bank of fog on the horizon. Judit asked me "what is that?" and my reply? "That's San Francisco!"

It was, as usual, an overcast morning. Cloudy, cool, and crowded. We headed to the bridge first - I had never walked across it and it seemed like a good tourist thing to do.

The Bridge - 11am
Penny, Griffin, and Judit
It was windy, and cold, and beautiful.

Judit with Angel Island behind her
Sissy enjoyed the bridge and its views
Bubby & Sis
Griffin was decidedly less enthusiastic than his sister. I carried him 3/4 of the way (we walked to the second tower and back, so maybe 2+ miles in total). In fact, the first few times we stopped to look at the views Bubby crawled over to the fence to look instead of standing up next to the railing like his sister. He's not really a fan of heights or bridges - poor thing. I always forget he's afraid of these things until we're actually on a bridge. I should remember, I used to be terrified of bridges when I was his age.

After the bridge we headed to meet up with friends for ice cream and to spend time in the Haight. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but here are a few of the ok pics.

Griffin with Baby Lena
Our friends Tazz & Alyscia just had a baby a few months ago and Griffin LOVES babies. So he really enjoyed getting to hold baby Lena.

My kids + baby + me
I really enjoyed holding baby Lena as well. After carting around the almost 40 pound Bubby, snuggling with a 16 pound baby was like holding a bag of feathers. Plus she's adorable and oh-so-happy.
Squishy with Lena
Sissy loved holding the baby too. In fact, she asked for a baby sister after we left. Good luck with that one Poe-poe.

Griffin also expanded his list of potential wives. He added Liz, Alyscia, & Lena to the list.

On the way home, we took HWY 1 back to Salinas. It was beautiful, I'm glad we went the long way. I didn't get any pictures, but I wouldn't have done it justice anyway since I'm still not all that great with the camera.

It was a long and exhausting day. I wish we could have done more, but I didn't want to get stuck in the horrific downtown traffic. You really need 2-3 days to experience San Francisco. Overall we had a good trip and I'm glad we got a chance to walk the bridge and see some friends.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Ladies man

Today the kids, Judit, & I had coffee with our good friend Patrice before she leaves us to go teach in China.

During the course of the conversation Patrice told us a hilarious anecdote about one of her children when he was Bubby's age. In response to said anecdote (about who children imagine marrying when they're three), Griffin said the following:

"I'm going to marry Patrice! I'm going to marry ALL the ladies! I'm going to marry Sissy, I'm going to marry Patrice, I'm going to marry Judit, I'm going to marry mama. ALL these ladies."

Monday, July 22, 2013

Beaches, Boardwalk, and Elephants

You have no idea how disappointed I am that I couldn't fully alliterate this blog title. I sat here for a good three minutes trying to figure out how to make the alliteration work. I could have said "bears" since we did see bears at the Monterey Zoo today, but when I'm 90 years old, the only thing I'm going to remember is feeding the elephants so they get first billing.

Still, I wish I could have alliterated it.

Anyway, elephants!

Well, lets go in chronological order. We'll start with beaches.

A few weeks ago, Judit & I took the kids & the dog to the beach to play. It was chilly (Asilomar is rarely very warm), but we had a lot of fun. By the time we left no one could feel their toes.

They like to hold hands and run away from the waves
Harley-Quinn LOVES the beach. She'd play in the waves until her heart gave out if we let her...
Playing in the waves!
Remember, this water is COLD
This one just amuses me
Watching the waves
Not long after the beach trip, we went to a series of parties for friends. It was a fun, but exhausting, weekend. I tried to get some good pictures, but it was hard to take pictures AND socialize. So I just captured a few that I really like.

See, you CAN take a selfie with a fancy camera!
Penelope took this one :)
Griffin took this one of our friends Patrice & Sascha
Having fun dancing with her new BFF
After the weekend of parties, I left for Pasadena for a few days. While the conference I attended was both informative and productive, I was very happy to be home. I get a few days of vacation before the school year gears up and we're taking advantage of the time.

We went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk this weekend (as well as the Aquarium), but I didn't take as many pictures. Penelope went on a dozen rides and Griffin finally discovered his bravery shortly before we left.

Today we ran some errands and then went to the Monterey Zoo, where we got to get up and close with some animals AND we got to FEED ELEPHANTS. This was the coolest thing I've done in ages. You can actually take tours there where you can bathe the elephants. I desperately want to give an elephant a bath. Desperately.
Sissy feeding the elephant. She was SO brave. Other little kids, her brother included, were terrified, but not my little Miss!
Griffin didn't want to get near the elephant, but consented to be held while I fed her.

Judit & the elephant!

The whole tour was neat, but the elephant part was awesome.

In other news, Griffin is pretty much night potty-trained. We haven't had an accident in almost a week and he's really proud of himself for not wetting the bed. I'm pleased as well, hooray for less laundry!

We're still working on sleeping all night in his own bed. This is going to be harder because he really does hate to sleep alone and he is such a mama's boy. We'll keep up with the sticker chart and hopefully he'll be in his bed mostly full-time by the end of the year. It would be nice if it happened sooner, but neither one of us is ready to really push it (sticker chart aside). This too shall pass and one day I'll look back fondly on all the extra snuggling.

Tomorrow I have some work to do, but the agenda for the week includes a trip to SF, swimming, beach time, and a baseball game!

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Aquarium!

Today Judit and I took the kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We haven't been in awhile and Judit had never been, so everyone was pretty excited. I brought the fancy-camera in the hopes that I could get some cool shots of the various sea creature and/or the kids.

Because you're not supposed to use flash (so as not to disturb the creature and because the light bounces off the glass) most of my pictures are pretty blurry. I'm still not very good with the manual focus and the auto focus has a hard time in low light.

So I didn't get a lot of pictures that I love. Below are some that are just ok.

Penguins!
Jellies!
More jellies!
Baby turtle!
Judit & kids, having fun at the jellies exhibit
More jellies...
Dragon-thingie (can't remember its name)
Octopus Garden
Looking through the scope... at the sky
Judit and the kids
Sometimes they're sweet to each other
After the Aquarium, Bubby slept and I did a photo shoot with Sissy so I could play with the settings. Here are my favorites.

A girl and her dog
Chalk
Love this girl

Popular Posts

Penelope's Growth

6 years: 50 inches, 47 lbs
5 years: 48 inches, 42 lbs
4 years: 43.5 inches, 41.0 lbs
28 months: 39 inches, 33.1 lbs
26 months: 38.5 inches, 32.1 lbs
21 months: 37 inches, 31.8 lbs
18 months: 35 inches, 30 lbs
15 months: 34.25 inches, 28.8 lbs
12 months: 32 inches, 27.1 lbs
9 months: 30.5 inches, 25.1 lbs
6 months: 29 inches, 21.2 lbs
4 months: 28.5 inches, 17.13 lbs
2 months: 24.75 inches, 12.12 lbs
At birth: 20.75 inches, 7.15 lbs

Griffin's Growth

5 years - 3 feet 11.25 inches (47.25 inches), 51 lbs
3 years - 3 feet 5.25 inches, 40lbs
18 months - 34.5 inches, 27.13lbs
12 months - 32 inches, 26.5lbs*
10 months - 31.75 inches, 23.4 lbs
7 months - 29.25 inches, 21.4 lbs
5 months - 28.5 inches, 17.9 lbs*
4 months - 28 inches, 15.5 lbs
3 months - 27 inches, 13.10 lbs
2 months - 25.125 inches, ?? lbs
1 month - 24 inches, 10.13 lbs
At birth - 22.5 inches, 9.1 lbs
*with diaper

Izzy's Growth

2 months: 23.25 inches, 10.8 lbs
At Birth: 22 inches, 8.11 lbs

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