Family Beach Photo

With the exception of Charlie, I think this photo turned out quite nicely.  Just look at how cute Zadie and Skip are.  Charlie is also exceptionally cute, but that's not obvious in this picture.  We've been fortunate to have lots of great days at the beach this summer and fall, despite moving much further away!

Charlie Turned Two a While Back

I'm a bit late in sharing that Charlie turned two about a month ago.  There is so much to say about this child.  He is by far our most stubborn and feisty child, but he's also our most sweet and affectionate child.  He can be so charming and adorable that it makes you overlook some of his faults.  I know that Skip and Zadie feel the same way about him -- sometimes he drives them crazy wrecking their projects and biting Skip when he gets mad at him, but they always forgive him. Charlie is definitely a two-year-old with a very big personality!

We had a joint beach birthday party this year with Charlie's cousin Gavin.  Joint parties are great because you get another family to help you lug a bunch of stuff to the beach and clean up!  Also, Charlie and Gavin have a special bond, so it was nice for them to celebrate their birthdays together.  Thanks to Gavin's mom Katie for all the photos!

Gavin and Charlie with their birthday cake.

Charlie and Skip with their biological half-sister Hannah (same birth mom).  We're so happy Hannah is in our life.  Note the crazy resemblance between Hannah and Skip!

Portrait of our young man at the beach.  He's starting to thin out, but he's still got some great cheeks!

Thank you, Southern California

My parents invited us to a lovely RV camping trip at the Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado. That's them walking with the gaggle of kids.

Thank you, Southern California, for a perfect weekend.  Sunny and warm weather at the beach in early February is pretty special.  Sometimes I bemoan the cost of living here, but this weekend, Southern California, you really proved yourself to me.  I think I heard someone on Facebook call it a "sunshine tax."  Because of this tax, we cram three kids into one bedroom and live in a plain duplex with thin walls and a grumpy neighbor.  But this weekend, at least, I was okay with that.

When I was younger, I thought people who let the weather affect their moods were kind of losers.  I hardly paid attention to the weather because I was planning on having a great day regardless.  I went to college in the "snow belt" of upstate New York and could never understand what people were complaining about with regards to grey skies and snow.  When Tori and I lived in San Francisco, I used to get really frustrated about the fact that we basically spent our weekends chasing the sun in that most sun-deprived of all cities.  She would call people in different neighborhoods and ask if the sun was shining or not and, if it was, we had to hop on a bus to try and soak it up before the fog rolled in.

I know people say parenting changes you, but I didn't think it would impact my feelings about the weather.  Now I'm one of those people who actually reads the weather forecast in the paper.  I enjoy my kids about 100 times more when they're outside and so I now really appreciate warm days when the kids can play outside or, ideally, when we can take them to the beach.  I've gained a much greater appreciation for parents who live in cold areas because that is a whole other challenge that I'm unprepared to face.  Major respect to parents in those cold climates!

Zadie's Birthday Weekend: Day Two

Really like this photo of Zadie and Sophie, but I wish I had a good one of the three girls.

 We told Zadie that today was her actual birthday, even though it's actually Tuesday, because we didn't want to celebrate a third day.  She was pretty spoiled all day long, first and foremost by the fact that her cousins spent the night.  We packed five kids into one room, with the three girls sleeping on the floor together and Skip and Charlie in their regular beds.

As soon as they woke up, we let them watch Zadie's favorite Pippi Longstocking movie, which is a very rare treat.  They had a fun morning at the park and then they got to the BEACH.  Yes, it was that beautiful and amazing today.  I told Zadie she was really fortunate to have such a beautiful beach day in January.  Zadie went pretty deep in the water and got her hair wet.  Her cousins were a bit more tentative about the big waves (and the icy water), but all three had hours of fun playing in the sand and running around.  It was a very beautiful moment.

Eventually we had to leave the beach and go to Aunt Susie's house for a family birthday party.  Zadie had a surprise visit from my parents, which she was very excited about (wish I had a photo!).  She was very fortunate to get many, many presents.  I feel slightly disturbed by how many presents she received for her birthday, but I guess I should get over it.

Some of her favorite presents included a new scooter (from her moms), a new helmet and water sandals (from my parents), a piggy bank, jumper, and book/stuffed animal (from Grandma Linda), a M & M dispenser (from Aunt Katie), and a t-ball set (Aunt Susie).  And I just realized that I forgot to give her the present from my sister.  Oops!

Beach Days

We like our kids best when we're at the beach and least when we're in our house.  At the beach, all three kids are really good at entertaining themselves.  Our routine on the weekend is to pack lunches and lots of snacks and try to get to the beach around 10am and then leave about 2pm for naps back at home.  We're not sure how long we're going to be living such a close bike ride to the beach, so we're trying to make the most of it now.  It always amazes me how many people live in L.A. and never go to the beach, since I think it's one of the main benefits of living here (then again I rarely went to the beach when I lived in San Diego).

Here are some of my favorite photos from the beach over the past few weeks.

It's always so special and rare when one of the kids wants to stop playing and just chill.  I was a little bit jealous of this moment.

Check out Charlie's weird kimono robe thingie.  A friend brought this back from China as a bathrobe when Zadie was little, but it's thin and cool and perfect for keeping his pale skin out of the sun. 

Hooray that Skip has a boy cousin his own age!  Here is cousin Gavin, who will soon be moving to L.A. for more beach days! 

I think this was a day when we came to the beach after work and didn't have bathing suits.  I like it when Tori wears this cute hat instead of the other, totally awful Korean hat she typically wears.  Had to document the occasion.

Beach in November

Minus the snotty nose, I think this is a really cute picture of Skip!

Zadie trying to bury herself in the sand.

Skip loves to hold hands with Zadie when they're in their car seats and sometimes he can get her to cooperate. He's about to fall asleep here after a nice workout running all around the sand.

I know that L.A. has its detractors, but you can't beat going to the beach in November. Our summer weather this year was definitely subpar, but we had some great beach days in the fall. According to my camera, this was November 13th that we were enjoying this fine weather -- not bad!

I would have more beach photos to post, but most of them involve nudity and my sister tells me to watch out for weirdos on the internet.

Reunited with the Beach

Zadie loves her some beach! The past few posts have been about the Skipper, so this post will be devoted to the Zadie Zoo. This past weekend Zadie was reunited with the beach -- her favorite place on earth!

When we first got to the beach Zadie was loving playing in the waves and was completely filled with joy. But then later in the day (or was it the next day?), she got knocked down by a wave and kept on tumbling and couldn't get up on her feet. She cried but then went right back out in the water. But then the exact same thing happened within 30 seconds and then she was done with it. Hopefully the trauma won't last too long, but she just contented herself with playing in the sand and demolishing sand castles.

Beach Zadie

We just returned from a wonderful week-long vacation in Kauai with our whole famdamily. There were 13 of us who traveled there to celebrate my parents' 35th wedding anniversary and my dad's 60th birthday. What kind of parents take their whole family to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary? Those are some good-hearted people!

I could blog about bajillions of memories from the trip, but it's late and I still have a lot of things I need to do tonight, so I'm going to just break this up into chunks. The first thing I want to blog about is Zadie and how much she loved the beach. It's a good thing, too, because Tori might disown her if she didn't like that beach! My dad said she was like a little sand crab. I'll try to find a video to post of her splashing around and rolling around in the sand like a little maniac, but for now these photos will have to suffice.

Thank you to Kim for taking AMAZING photos throughout the whole vacation and then posting them all so quickly. I'm going to post a bunch more of her great photos (and not just of my child) later.

Beach Photos

One of our favorite things to do with Zadie is to take her to Manhattan Beach. Now that it's finally getting cooler out, we tend to go in the evenings to see the sunset, walk the pier, and get an ice cream at the Manhattan Beach Creamery. Zadie has always loved the beach, but particularly likes playing in the sand and kicking around in the water. Mama T is so proud because I don't know what she'd do if she got a baby who didn't like the beach!

Here's some photos we took this weekend at Manhattan Beach. The ones with Zadie and Tori came out much better than the ones with me. Zadie wasn't in a particularly smiling mood on this occasion, but she still looks pretty cute!