One SUMMER Blog post

Is it possible to go all summer without posting ... one. single. blog. entry? 

I just did ... and it's a rotten shame because there has been so much that has been going on!

Ah well, we can't look back now can we?

Forwards onward ...

Andrew has been busy traveling for work ...

to and from Minneapolis and back. 

He calculated that since January, he has been gone 50 full nights.

That is 50 nights away from us ... sounds terrible doesn't it?

Thank the good Lord for my parents - we could not have made it 

those 50 days and nights without them!

Sophie has probably been the busiest of us all ...

She went to summer school at her preschool for 2 months this summer.

She had a great time playing and eating popsicles, or as she calls them,

popsticles ... all summer long. It's a minor miracle that she's still tiny and petite.

Blake is the typical second child.

Poor little guy has so few of his own friends ...

and most of his friends are siblings of Sophie's friends.

He spends most of his day getting his sister to and from 

her activities. The best thing, however, is getting some special

undivided time with mommy this summer while sister is in school.

6 whole hours ... I don't know who loves it more, Blake or me.

As far as me, I am a typical mom.

I spent ... still spend, most of my time getting the kiddos to and from places.

But thankfully I had some pretty great mommy friends (Annie and Yuli) 

to hang out with ... and we spent lots of time together this summer.

Here are some of my favorite summertime pics ...

 Sophie and her bestie, Charlie

Charlie and Sophie were born 7 days apart 

and have known each other their entire lives.

I think someday, they might get married :) ! 

 Praying at school

Meredith (Sophie's buddy)

There is something so amazing about this photo ...

A princess having a meltdown ...

Classic.

 It was super hot this summer

We spent a lot of time in our kiddie pool

 This summer Blake learned what to do when Mommy says ...

"CHEESE!!!!"

 CHEESE!

Blake's little bud, DD.

One of my most favorite photos from this summer ... 

Our friend, Meredith, in the sprinklers

 Sophie

Love this one of my kids ...

They are so funny! 

It was a pretty amazing summer ...

Wish it could go on forever ...

Happy FIRST Birthday Blake!!!!

My Baby Blake, 

... can I still call you that?

You'll always be my baby ...

Happy Birthday to you!

You are one years old today.

How can that be?

I am reminiscing on the day you were born. It was an amazing day ... of course, there were the normal jitters but it was a planned birth ... and before we knew it, our family was forever changed.

What an incredible year it has been ... simply remarkable.

You are such a bright star - one of our greatest delights. You have the sweetest personality ... winner of the worlds BEST smile ... very good natured. You are so patient - especially with your sister who tends to yank the "best" toys out of your tiny hands ... they are, apparently, "Sophie's toys" and you are most welcome to play with them after she's done. Even with all the patience in the world, sometimes that reasoning doesn't fly.

Despite that, your sister STILL adores you and you STILL adore her. In the mornings, neither of you smile until you see each other. I love that. I hope that you will always have a special smile for each other.

You are so curious. It's good ... and bad. I've stopped you from the possibilities of electrocuting yourself by nearly sticking your fingers to investigate the electrical socket ... or the times I saved you from the (many, many, many) attempts to exit the house to explore the great outdoors. Somehow I think baby proofing is on the (very ... immediate) horizon.

You're babbing a lot lately. I swear you say, "Gung Gung", which is your grandpa ... but otherwise, you just babble away.

The past week, you've started to stand and cruise around, holding on firmly to the couch or any hard surface that you can reach. You love standing and reaching for toys or anything we've tried to "hide" from you. I've even caught you climbing Sophie's chair ... trying to take a peek out the window. Fortunately for me, you're not quite tall enough ... yet. Soon enough Blake, soon enough.

I pray that you will always have that 

sunny disposition and precious laugh ... forever and always.

May you always know how very much 

we LOVE you and are PROUD of you!

I love you Mr. B

Yours ... forever and always,

Mommy

Easter and Desmond's 3rd Birthday

This year, we spent part of our Easter celebrating 

our friend Desmond at his 3rd Birthday.

We went to church in the morning and then headed over to 

Desmond's house for a Birthday/Easter Party Extravaganza. 

We've known the Watson Family since it was just Brian and Suzanne 

and then excitedly waited for Brian and Suzanne to return from 

Rwanda with a little boy they named Desmond. And now, Desmond 

and Sophie are classmates at school, so it was so special to get 

to celebrate Desmond at his 3rd Birthday!

Desmond is obsessed with the movie, "Cars"

 Desmond's Car tattoo

 Sophie got some heart tattoos too! 

 Sweet Meredith!

 Lining up for the Easter Egg Hunt

 Sophie found some eggs ...

 Sophie searched for more eggs ...

 And then found some more ...

And then went back to hunting for eggs ...

 Sophie and her bestie Alexi

 Happy Birthday to you Des!

 Blowing out 3 candles ....

 

There was a cotton candy machine ...

Sophie might have been in heaven ...

really and truly ...

Sophie and Blake go to the Getty Villa

For weeks, possibly months, my mom has been talking to Sophie about the Getty 

and meeting "Pau Pau's Getty friends" ... so Sophie was definitely excited 

to go when my mom invited us to visit her over our Spring Break. 

And what happened was completely and totally unexpected 

but I suppose when you have a 10 month old and a 3 year old, 

nothing in life can really be expected.

It all started out so well. 

We arrived at about 12:30, a little before my mom's shift was done so we 

took our time, getting out of the car, making sure we had everything we 

needed and then finding my mom, who was in the Family Forum.

Pre-chaos 

Sophie was SO excited to see Pau Pau!

This is when chaos hit.

A few weeks ago, one of Sophie's classmates got sick in class, in the middle of the school day. 

Since then, whenever Sophie has gotten upset, even in the slightest, she'll make herself throw up. Sounds ridiculous right? It is ... and so frustrating.

So, back to the Family Forum. Shortly after we arrived, we saw my mom and as she excitedly ushered us to the Family Forum ... it happened. Sophie saw what can only be described as Aphrodite (which my mom has been teaching her about) flying, otherwise known as shadows against a wall, Sophie started slowly backing away ... in a panic. I heard her say, "I want to go home, I don't want to see Aphrodite flying" ... and then I knew what exactly was going to happen while still hoping against hope.

Oh and yes, it happened ... Sophie gagged until she threw up. Right in the middle of what is known as the Roman kitchen. I was mortified. But then what could I do? I handed Blake to my mom and rushed Sophie off to clean her up ... then back to the car to change her clothes and back try to salvage what had started out so well but had gone badly so quickly. 

And despite Sophie crying that she wanted to go home, all the way back from the car, she actually ended up having a great time in the end. Sophie greeted many of my mom's Getty friends and we had lunch in the cafeteria.

It was at the very least .... memorable.

Post-chaos ... 

Lunch with Pau Pau

My sweet little boy ..,

all dressed up for a special occasion!

Pau Pau with the Grandkids

Something about this photo just made me smile ...

The photo of the day ...

Sophie's First Ballet Class

During my first pregnancy (with Sophie), when I learned that we were having

a GIRL, I was thrilled ... absolutely delighted. A little girl to dress up with bows and frills
and the tutus ... oh, the tutus. Who knew how much my little girl would LOVE tutus!
And of course, like most mommies, I dreamt that my little girl might someday
be a graceful ballerina - which if Sophie is anything like her parents, poor thing
doesn't stand a chance. BUT, we are still giving her all the opportunities in the world!

Anyways, moving on ... over spring break, Sophie took her first ballet/tap class
with her friend Ella. As I suspected, she LOVED it ... and really, that's all I really want for
her, to enjoy herself and to have fun at whatever she chooses in life ... including ballet.

Here are some photos.

My little ballerina ready for her first class!!!

At first Sophie sat to the sidelines, too shy to join in,
but soon enough, I noticed her doing all the ballet movements so
I encouraged her to join in ... which she did.


And like if it were a performance,
we headed out for an ice cream treat with our friends
Claudia and Ella ...

The girls enjoying their ice cream treat ...

Sophie LOVED the ice cream

But surprisingly Blake didn't enjoy it as much ...

Spring Break ... Annie and Yuli style

I might have previously mentioned that I was at the very least slightly afraid we'd spend the two weeks of spring break relaxing but majorly bored. Andrew has been traveling a lot for work lately and spring break was no different. To my complete horror, I learned about a week before break that Andrew was going to be traveling the first if not both weeks of spring break. I thought that was a terrible idea (Andrew traveling during break) and though I tried my best to convince Andrew that we HAD to come along on his business trip (hint, hit ... Mall of America anyone?), he was not to be convinced. So he traveled and we stayed in LA ... I was definitely nervous - stay busy, stay busy, stay busy ...

But wouldn't you know it, we kept very busy.

As I mentioned earlier, I would have never survived Spring Break 2012 without my Shabu Shabu Besties, Annie and Yuli. They kept us busy and entertained that very first week ...

The first stop of the week, a little indoor playground called Pintsized.

Calling ... Dr. Sophie!

I think Sophie seen her mommy drink way too many cups of coffee ...
always "making coffee" ... she thinks it's a way of life.

Buying fruit and veggies at the "market"

We headed to Annie and Nicole's after lunch and had a playdate

Sophie, Nicole and Danica have a teaparty

Blake (10 months) really looks up to MJ (18 months) :)

The next day, we headed to Danica's dad's (Brock) beach house ... it was amazing!

Blake's special smile ... love him!

My happy, happy boy!

Eating sweets with the sweetest friends ... Danica, Sophie and Nicole

Danica eating some dried mangos ... yum!

We headed to the beach ... right outside of Brock's apartment

Even Blake loved being at the beach ... eating snacks!

Later that night, Andrew arrived home with good news,
no business trip the following week ... yay!
The next day, we headed out to sushi and the mall (and dinner too!)
for some fun with a friends ...

Sophie in some train maze
Obviously having a great time ... check out that bow!

Sophie and Daddy on the carousel

Easter photo with friends
Danica, Meredith, Sophie and Nicole

The 2nd week of break, Yuli and Danica headed to Florida to visit grandma ...
so though us friends left in LA still hung out (shabu shabu anyone?),
we also took the opportunity to relax and do other fun things ...

Relaxing at home
A pretty typical everyday photo op of my kiddos ...
Cheese - and an adoring little brother

Eating Cheerios

We visited Pau Pau at the Getty Center ...
but I'll save that story for another post.

Then on Good Friday, we met up with our friends at the Malibu tidepools.
We stayed for about 45 minutes before the wind really picked up -
and we were just about blown away ...

Beach Time with good friends!

My friend Annie is the snack mama
Always prepared and always handing out snacks.
You wonder why Blake sat so closely to her ...

Sister and Brother ...
Blake was still eating ... obviously

Meredith
About the time we got hit by sand ..
ready to go!

So thankful for good friends,
to keep us busy all break long!