Counting

Last week, all of a sudden, after forgetting about the numbers 5 and 6 for a couple of weeks, Landon was counting correctly all the way up to 10. Since that day, he has yet to remember 5 and 6 again. So it goes like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.  He also went from singing the alphabet while missing half the letters to now getting almost all of them. It's super cute to listen to him singing nursery rhymes. He especially loves twinkle twinkle and its a small world. We love this smart little guy so much.

Truck Lover

Jon is constantly coming up with home improvement projects. One of these was building a portable fence to block off our driveway from our relatively busy street to let the kids and Quincy play out front a little bit while he gardens. The longest available fence to be found is only 25 feet across and we needed one that was 30 feet across so Jon came up with this system of pipes, netting and zip ties to make our very own special fence. We recently set it up one morning so Landon could watch the trucks that were working on our street. He loved watching them while we would walk Avery to school and didn't want to stop watching them when we got home.

Sweetest Words

Avery has taken to writing us letters. She will leave one on my pillow or give one to me when she gets home from school. They brighten my life. Here is a recent example. Sweet girl. And yes I will show this to her when she's a teenager and doesn't feel quite this way anymore!

That's my kid

While in Atlanta, my sister gave me 2 pictures of me from when I was a toddler. We showed them to Landon and said, "who's that?" and he said, "Landon".  See what you think.

Warning... Gross

Prior to our departure for Atlanta, the kids sink was clogged mostly with Avery's hair. I asked Jon to deal with it but in the chaos of getting ready to travel, it was left for several days. We also have taken to eating chia seeds in smoothies and oatmeal. They contain omega 3 fatty acids, fiber, antioxidants and minerals. Anyhow, they tend to get stuck in between teeth and are best removed by brushing your teeth. Do you see where this is headed? No? So sink is clogged with hair, then Avery brushes her teeth, chia seeds get stuck in the hair ball and alas, we come home 5 days later to a little chia plant growing out of our sink. So disgusting, but also an interesting little science experiment.  And since Jon was still sick upon our return home, I had the great pleasure of cleaning out this mess!

Gross, I know.

Grandma Libby turns 95

My beautiful, beloved grandmother Elizabeth turned 95 this March and we were so fortunate to get the whole family together and have a lovely party for her. Unfortunately the first night we arrived in ATL Jon came down with some wicked stomach bug that left him out of commission the whole trip and beyond. But the kids and I enjoyed our time with Grandma Libby, Grancy, Aunt Nita, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mayo, Aunties Kate and Bee and all the cousins. We also got to see my college friend Karla. She brought the kids little gifts including chocolate covered bugs. The kids loved them, apparently not caring what the chocolate was covering. We went to the High Museum to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit. I didn't see much from the floor where we set up the kids to color pictures to keep them out of trouble, but it was still lovely.The party had a great turnout. We also had a fun easter egg hunt for the kids in my grandma's yard. Our flight home was crazy delayed but we did all make it home :)

Landon Eating the Chocolate Covered Bug

Cousins playing at the water-logged park to keep out of trouble during party prep time

My handsome nephew

I love this picture

Oh yes, it's true, that says flight home from ATL to LAX was delayed 6hr 19 min, and indeed it was...

Dancing in the airport, they were such troopers during the delay

The new Pauley

Thanks to Great Work Perks, Jon and I were able to go to a UCLA basketball game this year. I got to see the newly remodeled Pauley Pavilion and it is super cool. They have made it very contemporary but have preserved the old center court in a sort of museum-style exhibit on the east side of the building. I hope to get back there again soon. I would love to take Avery to watch gymnastics there too. When I was 8, my mom took me to the Olympic gymnastics exhibition at the old Pauley and I can still remember my first exposure to UCLA. I loved watching Mary Lou Retton and Bart Conner perform.  I digress. UCLA beat Arizona State 79-74 in overtime. They went on to be a terrible disappointment in the Tournament, but I did enjoy watching them win on the new home court. I love this place.

Road Trip

The public schools in our city are part of their own school district. We have been very happy with our little (less than 370 K-5 students) neighborhood school so far. The principal, teachers, and support staff have been great. Due to budget cuts, this year we have 6 furlough days. At least they were kind enough to add the furlough days onto 3 day weekends to make them 4 days or at the beginning of spring break to make it 12 days instead of 11 days. That I appreciate, although I obviously wish there were no furlough days. Mid-February for President's Day weekend we took a little getaway to Palm Springs to stay at my friend's condo. It was great fun. We got to swim, go to the zoo and eat lots of frozen yogurt, the best of which was at Eddie's Frozen yogurt, so yummy. We brought Quincy too and he was in heaven. Landon figured out how to climb out of the pack and play this trip which was not so much fun. He was up very early each morning roaming around trying to find some trouble to get into, the worst of which was to drink the remnants from my wine glass from the previous night, surely not more than a drop or two.

 Sweet, cuddly, sleepy guy

 view from the balcony

 Cool train exhibit at the zoo

 Sooo hot

 Carousel at the zoo

Lots of fun swimming time with our little tadpole

We love kindergarten

Watching Avery progress in Kindergarten this year has been so much fun. She went from knowing her letters and loving to be read to, to now trying to write sentences of her own. Her teacher insists that we not help with spelling, that she spell as she hears the word and I guess eventually she will learn how the words are really spelled. She also has done great with her sight word lists. She got to go to a father/daughter dance with Daddy and she had so much fun with him and all her friends. They did a little girl conga line and had shaved ice.

Avery's shrinky dink Valentine for her beloved teacher, aka chycher.

Sweet Cousins and Aunties Visit

After the New Year, we were graced with a visit from my sister and her family. We enjoyed a bunch of quality cousin time. We enjoyed the PV tide pools, sledding at the beach, park time, and a small birthday party for Landon and Auntie Bee. Here are a couple of pix from my phone. We are so lucky that although we live thousands of miles apart that both families make it a priority to get together as often as we can. Of course we didn't get to all the things we wanted to do, so they will have to come see us again soon.

 Lucia, Quincy, and Elliott

 Sweet matchy Minnie Mouse girls

Dark sunset after the tidepools

Late Christmas Present

Let me set the scene. Avery and Landon are in our bedroom playing "night night", where they get under the covers and pretend to sleep for a second, then jump around a little, then pretend to sleep again.
Jon is in his office and I am downstairs finishing up making dinner.

Avery: "Come quick, Landon took off his diaper, and oh no...."
Jon: "Karen! Karen! Come up here now!!"
I grab paper towels and antibacterial spray (I've been here, done this before, or so I thought).
Avery: "Landon teetee'd on your side of the bed, mom!"
and as if it couldn't get worse...
Avery: "And he pooped on daddy's side of the bed!"
Yep it's true. In no time flat, he managed to use our bedding as his toilet/diaper.
So now I am doing laundry, obviously.
I carry the filthy linens downstairs to load them into the washing machine and am reminded as I look into the dryer that I still had Landon's laundry in the dryer from the night before, when he cried so hard (for no good reason) that he puked all over his crib. 

 It's a good thing he's so handsome.