Reaching and exploring

Getting into stuff is so much fun! Here's Cora showing off her baby leg-warmers while reaching for Larson's game (please ignore my inadvertantly photographed foot!):

"Hmmm...what's up here? I can't even see it, but I know I want it!"Playing at the train table:

Helping to load the dishwasher (isn't she advanced? Next week we'll be working on cooking dinner, hee hee):
"Oh, hi mom! Getting into the dishwasher? I have no idea what you're talking about."

"What's in here? Oh, look! A fun place to hide out!"

Malia's Birthday

Stephen and Karyn are the first friends we made when we moved here 5 years ago. Their little girl, Malia, just turned 3 and we had a chance to celebrate at her birthday party last weekend. It was a beautiful day to be outside, eating cake, hanging out, and watching the kids carouse in the bouncy house. Thanks for having us over, guys, and Happy 3rd Birthday, Malia!

Larson & Kaleo in the "bouncy"
The birthday girl with her Hello Kitty cake!


Cupcakes with sprinkles!

Malia had wardrobe changes to show off not one, not two, but three party dresses! (the third one being the poufy Tinkerbell dress she got as a gift, natch)

Kaleo looking very sweet before moving on to his next mischief agenda item. This is one smart and crafty kid!

Afternoon at the beach

We had a mini-heat wave out here last week, so on Sunday, we decided to retreat to the beach. Cora got her first taste of sand (literally, actually...) and Larson had a blast running around in the water, throwing rocks and chasing birds.

I love the crinkled nose that comes along with her biggest smiles:

Just as we were about to pack up and head home for dinner, a train came around the bend, whistle blowing and all. Very exciting.

The whole family: (not a great shot, I know, but at least all members are present and more or less looking at the camera...we take what we can get these days!)

Life at 3

It's probably happened a lot more gradually than it seems, but all of a sudden we've noticed that Larson has really turned into a bona fide Pre-Schooler. Full of questions, as ever, and more sophisticated, too: "Dad, if you go up high in the sky, is God up there BEFORE you get to outer space?" Hmm...that one took Brett just a little off guard! Recent achievement: yesterday he finished putting together a 100-piece puzzle all by himself!

Recent snippet of conversation when Larson was *supposed* to be sleeping:

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[Heard from downstairs]

"Daddy!"

.

[Brett goes upstairs to find out what the deal is]

"You're my favorite daddy in the whole wide world. You can't go on any more long trips unless you take us all with you, because we missed you and you missed us. And Cora cried."

.

[pause]

"...and Cora cried when she was hungry, and she cried when she wanted more Cheerios, and she cried when she was all done, and she cried when she wanted a nap, and she cried when she wanted her pacifier, and she cried when she fell down..."

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[more talking about taking trips]
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"...and then...we'll all go drive in the car...except....if Cora's napping, then Mommy will have to stay behind."

.

Here's Larson taking stock of his favorite "guys" after painstakingly, lovingly lining them all up (are they arranged by color? Oh, goodness, we know who this child's mother is...):

Larson making a caterpillar with some "treasure" he brought home from school:

Favorite outdoor accoutrement? The hose! Here's Larson making a waterfall:

Eating pasta for dinner. Naked, because his clothes were sopping wet after playing with the hose (and then the big puddle it created) just beforehand.

Larson making a sad face:

Now here's a scared face:

And a happy face!

Goofy

Just a glimpse of how we often spend our time together in the afternoons/evenings, such as

making a fort out of the carseat box:

Giving dad a workout:

++ 9 months! ++

We have reached the home stretch for the first year and my goodness how things have flown by. Because Brett was away with our camera, snapping photos in far away lands, I don't have quite as many pictures to commemorate the 9 month milestone as I would like, but I've put in a few here. Recent developments and activities:

• Crawling like nobody's business and very steathy about it, too, I might add. Not so interested in pulling up to stand just yet, but up on her knees to get better views of what's going on.
• Loves waving bye-bye, or really just waving in general. Does it with both hands at once.
• Despite the slow start to solid foods, once she got the idea, she has decided that she loves to eat! This girl can pack away a 4oz container of plain yogurt, a small bowl of cereal and multiple handfuls of Cheerios, and that's just for breakfast! And she loves doing the feeding herself - not happy unless there's something on her tray that she can do herself.
• Lots of babbling these days, in a very cute, conversational kind of way.
• Loves watching anything and everything that big brother Larson is doing or saying.

Below: Cora's demonstration of "so big!"

Sitting pretty, showing off her growing hair, which now very nicely covers any evidence of a former bald spot.

I love this one: I think she's both talking to herself and concentrating really hard on playing the drums on my belly.

Likes:

• The Bath! Not afraid of the water, this one. She keeps trying to get down to "mouth" the tub drain and doesn't seem to remember from the time before that she got merely a mouthful of water instead. It's pretty funny to watch and totally doesn't bother her in the least.
• Eating, see above
• The tupperware drawer in the kitchen. We pretty much have to wash our food containers before we use them, because they've been emptied out onto the floor a dozen or so times by Miss Cora on a nightly basis.
• The cat. Squeals of delight any time there's a cat sighting.
  

Hiatus

Whew. It's been a bit of a month, if you know what I mean. Hopefully my 5 readers out there haven't completely given up on us! I'm back, have lots of photos to post and things to share...

First:
Brett made another marathon business trip (now that it's over, I can tell you about it) to here:

Can you figure it out? (Hint: They speak Turkish.)
Larson wanted to go, too.

But the three of us stayed behind, with business as (almost) usual. Daddy was missed and we were very glad when he came back! Grandma once again arrived to save everyone's sanity for the second half of the trip. After our amazing nanny, Lindsey, put in some extra time, including an entire busy call weekend! Larson gave Grandma a thorough education on all the cars in "Cars", his current favorite topic of conversation. You know the Flame Guys, right? Cora took about 30 minutes to decide that Grandma could be let into her inner circle and practiced getting yet another grown-up wrapped around her finger. Hopefully it wasn't all work and no play for Grandma and she'll keep wanting to come back. :)

Second:
Garden update! Maybe it's not so exciting to others, but the fact that I can actually get things to grow just tickles me, so I'm going to post a few pictures (I'm sure they won't be the last...) Just scroll down if you only want to look at people-pictures :) We had a great showing of our tulips and cherry blossoms. Now as those have faded, the perennials are starting to flower. I can't believe that the columbines I planted in a corner came back, much bigger, too, and some of the shrubs that were nearly dead when we re-planted our "yard" a couple of years ago have made it through and actually produced flowers this year! To think we almost threw them out. The dogwood tree is just blooming now and the white flowers are so pretty. Don't have a good photo of them yet, but hopefully soon.
Here are the ranunculus near the front door:

Tulips, daffodils and Japanese barberry (which only a few weeks later are so much fuller than in this picture!).
Larson and I doing some spring planting while Brett was away. The flowers to his left are Iceland Poppies.
The above picture reminds me...
Third:
One of Larson's first real boy moments happened a week or so before Brett left. They were coming home after it had rained one day and Larson said, "Look, Dad, I found a worm!" Brett turned around to see Larson holding said worm up in his fist. Then, "I'm SQUISHING it!"
Despite the fact that squishing worms is something I find pretty disgusting, I just smile every time I think of that story. All of it said with sheer joy and excitment on Larson's part. These are the stories I want to remember always.

Lastly, a trip to the park on one of the first warm, sunny spring days. We somehow managed to get Cora strapped onto my back (not a one-man job!) and hiked down to the beach to watch all the sailboats and enjoy the sunshine.

Next on the agenda is Cora's 9m update and some more silly pictures of a typical evening in our home. Happy Spring!