Picture Day

Picture day at Avery's school has never before coincided with a day she was there. Finally this year it did. How they could not get my perpetually smiley boy to smile is beyond me. Good thing they weren't all super cute since they were ridiculously pricey.

Language Explosion and other things Landon

Getting ready to throw a block...

Always Climbing

In the past week, Landon has gone from randomly saying words like "nana", "dada" and "mama" without understanding the meaning of these words, to now saying and understanding all sorts of words. He now says "hi", "more", "mama", and "dada". He will yell upstairs to Jon saying "dada!!", it is so sweet and funny. He holds on to my leg while I try to make dinner saying "mama, mama". I love(d) language development with Avery and look forward to all the things that L will learn over the next months and years. He also follows verbal directions much better and knows who Avery and Quincy are. When we ask for a kiss he leans forward to give us his forehead. He has one molar mostly in, one that has broken through and the other two are very swollen. He loves to dance and clap when music plays. He also loves to carry books and toys around the house. He loves to throw balls, along with all other toys. He can do the "wheels on the bus go around and around" which he apparently learned at school. After a month of rejecting shoe-wearing he will finally wear shoes. He loves to run around, climb stairs, touch leaves, and occasionally throw down a mean tantrum hitting his head on the floor. He is a sweet, busy, and adventuresome little boy. We love him so very much!

Exploring plants at the Getty

Special Visitors

My sister and her family ventured out on a cross-country trip in March. We were so fortunate that their adventure included a 7 day stop at our house. It was only going to be 5 days but thankfully for us their camping in Zion became pretty much impossible when it was forecast to snow those days, so they came early to us! Yay! We enjoyed some great meals, art projects at home, art projects at The Getty, a day at Disneyland with friends, and a trip to the Palos Verdes tide pools. Although we went at high tide rather than low tide, it was still a wonderful time together with rock collecting and exploring.
I have taken to crying like a baby whenever my sister leaves me. It reminds me of how my dad's mom, GranHaysel would cry every time we (especially my dad) would leave her house. I understand what she must have been feeling a lot more now than I did as a child/teenager. My dad was the only one of her five boys to venture too far away, all the way to California from Georgia, so I am sure she wanted him closer, especially as 2 of his brothers lived so close to her, just on either side of her house.
I always wish we could be closer geographically speaking to my sister's family and I see that is not in the near future for us. It makes me sad but it also inspires me to get on with planning our next time together. Thank you for coming all this way, over 5000 miles round trip, to spend the week with us. It will undoubtedly be one of our favorite weeks of the year. I only have a few iPhone pix from the week, mostly of food but hope to post some others from the real camera and from Katie's pix, sometime soon.

caramel sauce made from boiling condensed milk + homemade panna cotta with berries

Auntie Kate helping Avery sew the mermaid top to the outfit she made Av for her doll

Teaching Katie to make matzo ball soup, which I learned from GG

Simon Says with Bee at the Getty: Elliott, Mazie, Lucia and Avery

Landon exploring the leaves at the Getty

Playing in the family room at The Getty

Landon did not cooperate for this picture but we took it anyway, just as we did 3.5 years ago when Avery turned one. I love Van Gogh and love this painting.

So Proud

Redondo Kite Festival

This weekend our neighbors invited us to a Kite Festival near the Redondo Beach Pier. It was a beautiful day with tons of kites flying through the air. Avery enjoyed flying her kite for a little while, until it got taken out by a shark kite. Then we just watched all the kites and Avery built sandcastles. The babies (Landon and our neighbor Olivia) hung out on the blankets, which I didn't capture a picture of. It was a great day. Oh and we walked there and back. It was 6 miles and took us hours and hours because Avery walked at least 3 of those miles, in Uggs. I hope to make this a family tradition, excluding the walking part of it.

See the shark kite already imfringing on her airspace, it wasn't long before ours was taken down