Family Gathering in San Diego

Jam-Packed Trip to Ohio

Whew. It's been a really really busy few weeks for us. We got back two days ago from a whirlwind trip to Ohio. We spent one night visiting one of my best friends from college. She has a son who is 3 months older than RUS. We even dressed them in matching outfits! That was a total coincidence, though. RUS got the outfit from J's grandmother & great-aunt back in June, and when I dressed him in it, D mentioned that her son had the same outfit. I took more pleasure than I ever expected I would at seeing them in matching clothes.
Here's us! I'm impressed that J got a shot where everyone was looking at the camera. R has been VERY camera-shy lately--she insists she doesn't want any pictures taken, or she looks very grumpy at the camera pointed at her--so it's been hard to get pictures with her in them.
After leaving D's house, we drove to my grandmother's house for her birthday bash. Here she is with both kids--you can just see how thrilled R is at having her picture taken. Thank goodness for my Aunt C who really got R to open up and start enjoying herself. I think she was a little intimidated by all the strange adults she didn't know. But she remembered Aunt C as we've spent time at her house several times before when R has just had a blast running around and playing jack-in-the-box. So they wandered around my grandparents' property and pretty soon Aunt C had R talking about the balloons and feeding everybody different flavored balloons.
My grandma also has tons of baby and kid toys that she's saved from when we were kids--someone dug up this little wooden rocking horse that might have been Local Hero's when he was a baby and RUS looked so cute riding on it. He is such an easy-going baby that he just loved being passed around and held by anyone who wanted to hold him. I'm frankly surprised we haven't experienced any separation anxiety with him at all yet.
Then we drove to my parents' house and stayed for 1 day before heading back to Delaware. We had no agenda for the day other than spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Geg. My mom got so many smiley pictures of RUS, it was awesome. I'm still trying to get one that's really good of his one little tooth. I call it his pirate tooth because he looks like an old toothless pirate when he smiles really big. I've even started trying to figure out if I can wrangle a pirate costume for him for Halloween!
We went to a delicious thai restaurant to celebrate my birthday and then had cupcakes back at home. R was really tired as she didn't nap, which is why she looks thrilled to be having cupcakes in this picture.
We left the next morning to head back and while we were running around getting everything in the car (well, while J was loading the car and I was packing up my stuff) RUS fell asleep on Grandpa. I couldn't resist taking this picture.
The drive home was really really good: we are really lucky to have kids who do well in the car for long drives. R spent most of the drive--there AND back--reading this Dora book over and over again with her LeapFrog Tag Reader. I have the story memorized. And all the activities. So does R. It still is so crazy to me that she wanted to read that book over and over and over and over again. I honestly don't get it: what is it about Dora that is so captivating and addictive? At any rate, it was great to have something that kept her really focused and entertained for so long.

Favorite Holiday Photos: Ohio

In no particular order, here are some favorite family pictures from our Ohio trip.

My mom, Cali, Li'l Tyke, R, and my dad--just a nice picture of them all.
I absolutely love this picture of Surf and my father making Li'l Tyke laugh. The entire time we were there, we kept trying to come up with things that would get him to just laugh and laugh. What usually worked was finding some phrase that you could say repeatedly, and loudly, right to his face. "Merry Christmas!" worked very well, as did "Yes, sir!" and "There you are!" and "Calm down!" among others.
In this picture, R is "smiling". She squints her eyes shut like this when she's trying to really smile. (Kind of like our other nephew G used to smile with what I sometimes call the "Beast" smile.)
This next picture was taken the night Surf and Cali arrived. Surf was checking out my parents' tree and laughing at all the old ornaments. A lot of them are actually ornaments we kids made at school. The one he's holding has a picture of Geg on it in these too-short blue sweatpants and a teenage mutant ninja turtles long-sleeve t-shirt, on a paper cup covered in tin foil and hung with a pipe cleaner. Remember those elementary school arts and crafts? My parents still have them and hang them on their tree every year, when most parents probably threw those things out the minute they came home from school. Note, too, the angel at the top of the tree. She is wearing a knitted hat that used to be a christmas ornament in the colors of a high school my dad used to coach at. It got put on the angel's head when the last strands of her hair finally fell off.
Ok, in terms of picture quality this one isn't the best, but I love that my dad looks like he is really talking on a plastic green phone.

AND MORE TO COME...

Geg

R is loving Christmas at her Grandma and Grandpa's house. One of her favorite parts of the whole shebang? Her uncle "Geg." She starts signing and saying his name the minute he walks into a room, and often calls for him when he's not in the room.

R had a lot of fun playing "Barrel of Monkeys" with Uncle Geg on Tuesday. On Friday, Uncle Geg taught R how to read time.