Summer Summary

Laziness seems to have overtaken me lately.  And guess what, I'm done feeling guilty about it.  In fact, I'm embracing it.  Heaven knows it won't last, so I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Blogging, like so many other good school-year habits, has taken a back seat to my new top prioritites: napping, reading, talking, lounging, playing, watching, and doing pretty much anything else I'm in the mood to do.  I know, I know, so gluttonous.  But also so, so glorious.

While I've enjoyed my little break from reality, I'm worried if I let the blog go for too long, I'll forget what we've done this summer.  So, I'm pressing pause on my month of wonderful nothing to do a bit of catch up for family history's sake.  Sadly, there's not a lot of photographic evidence to support these happenings, but I suppose cameras get forgotten by lazy people like me.

June

After a whirlwind month of parties, fieldtrips, projects, and crazy busy weekends, school let out in mid-June.  Benito will really miss his first-grade teachers, Ms. Sample (homeroom) and Mrs. White (reading), two completely different teachers who both really connected to B and made first-grade so enjoyable for him. 

As soon as school let out, we hit the hills for three days of camping with some good friends.  Talk about the perfect way to start our summer.  Great company, delicious food, beautiful scenery, and fun times.

The next week brought daily swim lessons and a whole slew of activities.  We, and many of our friends, were so happy to be out of school that all we wanted to do was play together.  Parks, swimming pools, Great America, play dates, lunch dates, late nights.  You name it, we did it those first few weeks of summer.  We packed it in, all in the name of being free and having fun. 

In the middle of our fun fest, Stephen's sister, Lisa, and her family came to town for a visit.  The kids couldn't have been happier hanging with their cousins and even got to experience their first sleepover with them one night.  We did our traditional bocce ball and picnic at Cuesta Park, hit Santa Cruz to visit Uncle Troy at his comic book shop, picnic and play on the beach and in the waves at Natural Bridges (my first time-- loved it), and eat the yummiest ice cream ever at red-roofed Marianne's on Ocean Street.  Grandpa treated all of us to "Cars 2" at the movie theater, and every night ended with yummy food and lots of board games.  Lisa and Grandma kindly watched all the kids one afternoon so that Stephen and I could slip out to Dish Dash for a little anniversary lunch (we more officially celebrated numero ocho this weekend at the Claremont in Berkeley), and the next day brought a big group weeding party in Grandma's front yard.

July

The next week brought the 4th, and we had a BBQ and day at the park with a big group of friends. The Ogdens offered their gloriously air-conditioned house for the BBQ part of festivities, which included one delectable spread of food, until we headed over to Ortega Park for some fun in the sun. The kids ran in the water, the men and older boys played baseball and bocce, and we ladies took it easy in the shade in our camp chairs, doing what we do best--chatting it up.  We didn't have the energy for fireworks that night, so we rounded off the holiday (and beat the heat) with some slurpees and Settlers and equally-tired Roylances.

The kids got so used to the break-neck pace of early summer that when things started to calm down a bit in mid-July, they went through some withdrawals.  They expected one fun thing after another, like it had been that first month, but I was ready to slow down and relax.  Other than daily swim lessons, errands, and a handful of weekly play dates, we took it easy.  And let me tell you, life on Easy Street is pretty darn awesome.  The kids play outside for hours a day, on and off their bikes; Bennett's reading his library books every day, now that we're more often home for naps and "quiet time;"  Eli and Bennett are quickly moving their way up the levels of Lego Stars Wars; Millie has plenty of time to prance around in her princess shoes with a "pursie" on her shoulder; and Stephen's finally getting some home-cooked meals again, since I'm back together with the kitchen.  We broke up for a few months there. 

Anyway, that's our summer in a boring, picture-free, rather wordy nutshell.  Now back to being lazy. . .

It's Friday, I'm in love

with not having swimming lessons today,

with passing my kids off to somebody else,

with this lovely place of escape,

and most of all with the man who planned it for me.

Late nights

It's official: I need more sleep. Not that I need anyone else to tell me how tired I feel from foolishly staying up past midnight for way too many nights in a row. But when my four-year-old pronounces, "Mommy, you look like the emperor from Star Wars. Your eyes look like his," to the quick agreement of his older brother, then at least I know I'm not fooling anyone else, either.

Depressing but sobering wake-up call.  Gotta love kids and their brutal honesty. 

Mom's May Visit

Grandma Paula came to see us the week before Memorial Day.  With no baby being born, and therefore a whole lot less stress in our household, we had a great time just playing and hanging out.  We had a few must-do's on the agenda, including:

1. The Coast, as shown in previous Half Moon Bay post.

2. Los Gatos, the first town I lived in here in the Bay Area, which my mom fondly remembers and loves going back to see.  We hit the hills for some valley views and dreamy houses, then hit downtown for some fun and decadent reminiscing.  Fav bakery, Icing on the Cake, made our sweet tooths sing, just as remembered.

3. Girl time with Grandma.  Millie loved having a willing, and of course female,

playmate around to share her girl toys with. 

"I want YOU to put the camera down and play with us!"

4. Gardeners unite!  Stephen and Mom have always loved talking gardening,

so she had to check out his latest additions.

Even the little people took time to stop and see the snapdragons.

5. Art class.  My mom is an artist at heart and loves to paint--her own works covered the walls of our home growing up--and the boys always want to paint (I never want to deal with the mess, however) so it seemed like a match made in heaven.  They stayed at that table and painted for hours.  Even Miss Millie got to try her hand at watercolors for the first time.  Happy as clams, all three.

6. Soccer game.  Benito had one last game of the season on Mom's last night in town, so she got to see our little soccer-lover in action.  She even snagged a few shots along the way, which is more than we can claim after a whole season of games.  It's still strange to think that just two months earlier, this crazy kid had a cast on his leg.

7.  And of course there were a whole lot of pictures taken, mostly of this precocious peanut, to make up for my photog slacking.  Thanks, Mom!

Did I say he was well?

Poor Stephen.  I feel like I cursed him by writing a post about his health, because wouldn't you know it, now he's so miserably sick he can hardly stand it.  And it's all my fault.  Me and my dumb post.

Here's a little timeline:

Last Sunday -- I write about how healthy my hubby is.
Three days later -- Stephen cleans up a bleach spill under our bathroom sink.
Next morning -- He wakes up feeling like he has a sinus infection
That day -- We drive into the mountains for three days of seriously chilly camping, through most of which Stephen is dripping, sniffling, and shivering.
Sunday morning (yes, Father's Day) -- Stephen wakes up with a killer fever and stays in bed for one of the lamest Fathers' Days in the history of Fathers' Days. 
Yesterday -- The sickie talks to his doctor and confirms what he'd suspected: he got a chemical burn in his sinus lining while cleaning up that bleach.  I did not know that was even possible.
Today -- Another sick day, due to sleepless night and some seriously bloody snot.  What is going on with those sinuses?

Moral of the story = I will never write another post that includes the word "well" and any other family member in my household, lest the curse return.

Wellness Man

When Stephen and I were first married, and even after the birth of Benito, we loved to get outside and get moving together.  We'd go hiking, we'd play tennis, we'd play soccer, we'd take walks rather religiously, we'd play basketball, we'd even walk to places we needed to go.  We'd hoof it to the library, the grocery store, the post office, the park (which with only one child around does feel like a must-do), and restaurants.  You name it, we walked there.

Then came baby #2.  Our exhaustion increased, our energy decreased, and our desire to do anything beyond take care of our children's immediate needs all but disappeared.  Weeknight or weekend family exercise made way for more sedentary activities, and before you knew it the habit had been completely lost.  We still took the occasional hike or small walk, but it was nowhere as regular as it once had been.

Being a woman who was in and out of pregnancy and post-partum body fluctuations, I had to take matters into my own hands.  Thus began my on-again, off-again relationship with running.  Stephen, however, had a harder time fitting something regular into his routine.  We moved, he changed jobs, the church neighbors decided to throw a hissy fit over Saturday soccer on the back lawn, I had a demanding young women's calling, we had another kid, then he got an even more demanding bishopric calling, and his free time is now at its highest premium.  Finding time to work out seems more difficult than ever.

And yet, the desire remains.  Stephen is a naturally healthy person.  He eats well, he sleeps a lot, he does what he should.  So I know that not having a regular exercise regimen for the past four years has been hard on him.  Now comes the good part of this lengthy post: every spring Stanford has a campus-wide wellness program.  You get your cholesterol tested, you go on campus walks, you take a nutrition class, you learn more about good health, and they give you a fun little check at the end.  Nothing big, mind you, but enough to motivate a man like my husband.

Stephen has really taken matters into his own hands this year, deciding to spearhead the weekly HR walks, which get him out moving during his lunch hour at least twice a week.  He also faithfully wears a pedometer, something I'm ashamed to say I teased him about at first, to track his daily steps.  I've noticed him parking the car a little further away in parking lots, suggesting we walk places together, and he's definitely been more willing to play soccer out back with the boys lately.  He'll do anything to try and reach that goal of 10,000.  Speaking of soccer, it looks like church soccer will start up again on Saturday mornings, and with summer gardening in full swing, I'd say Wellness Man is back in the saddle again.  It's good to see him happily making exercise a priority, and he's definitely seeing the benefits.

Look who's two

The birthday cake is baking, the birthday girl is napping, and the birthday party at the grandparents' house is approaching. Meanwhile, the birthday girl's parents can't believe how fast our baby is becoming less and less of a baby.

Can it really be two years since she entered the world in her surprisingly gigantic glory? Well, we weren't too surprised after two other big babies, but the doctors who were "positive" she wouldn't weigh more than seven pounds sure got a shock when out rolled our 9 lb. 8 oz. butterball. Or two years since her calm, newborn spirit made both of us feel like we should toss out the names we'd been considering and go back to one we'd picked five years earlier (when we were so sure Bennett would be a girl)? Or two years since she turned her little head away from nursing to hear the music on a TV commercial we were watching in the hospital?  Or two years since she met her two crazy older brothers, who were quite honestly more excited to eat Stan's donuts than do anything else in that hospital room, including see their baby sister or hug their exhausted mom?

Amelia Jane, please stop growing up.  Right now.  That's an order.