Fall Weekend w/the Grandparents

We're fortunate that we get to spend a lot of time with my parents, but I guess because we see them so frequently we always forget to take photographs.  So I made a special point to get at least one good photograph for the blog this weekend.

This is a photo of my parents taking our kids to a little pumpkin patch in their brand-new MOTORHOME!  They drove up to see us Saturday afternoon and spent the night in their motorhome nearby our house.  It's a special treat because they haven't really had any incentive to come visit us in L.A. since we don't have any space to accommodate them.  Now that they have this motorhome, hopefully we'll be seeing a lot more of them.  

We went on a mini-road trip with them today to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the kids got to run around in nature for a little bit.  The kids were very happy cruising in the motorhome because it has a television and so they watched movies the whole time.  The best part was that we didn't have to pull over when they had to go to the bathroom!

Charlie's First Words

As odd as it is, I would have to say that Charlie's first word was "uh-oh."  I wish that it was "mama," but although he can definitely and occasionally does say "mama," he doesn't really say it with the proper context.  On the other hand, he totally understands the uh-oh concept and says it at the perfect moment.

The other word that he has just started saying is "bye-bye."  Once I thought he said it when Zadie was making him wave goodbye, but maybe that was a coincidence.

He really is hitting all kinds of developmental milestones lately -- my favorite is that he now uses the proper sign for "more" instead of just screaming like a wild man.  That is a huge relief and hopefully he'll learn some other signs, too.

I'm eagerly waiting for him to start walking because I think that will be really fun (hopefully I don't eat my words).  But he's rather on the heavy side, so it will be nice when he doesn't need to be held all the time.  And I also know that he'll have more fun keeping up with his siblings once he can walk.

I seem to always be creating these light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel scenarios, so my current version of that is that our lives will be soooo much easier once Charlie can walk.  Fingers crossed!

Flashback to Port Angeles Trip

I finally downloaded photos from my camera and found all kinds of fun memories from our trip to Port Angeles, WA this summer to see Grandma Linda.  

It's great to have a yard.  Makes parenting much easier and less stressful!

 I love this red table.  It was great for having a sunny breakfast together or a quiet cup of tea.

 Two of Zadie's cousins slept in the backyard in the tent (we had lots of people visiting Linda's house) and so of course it was quite the fun place to hang out.

Love this photo of Zadie with her Grandma Linda.