East meets West, the Cousin edition

We spent this past weekend on a much needed vacation in San Diego.

4 whole days visiting with family that flew in from as far as China and Boston for B's cousin's wedding.  The highlight for Peanut was spending time with all his own cousins.

I've been negligent in downloading pictures this summer, and the result is 969 new pictures for me to sort through.  Instead of doing anything in an order that makes sense, I'm going to start with the last outing of the weekend.

We had dinner at awesome Point Loma Seafoods which sits just next to the docks.
It was a bit grey but the weather seemed so fitting to the scene around it.
Besides, I don't mind a bit of grey after a day in scorching SeaWorld sun.

I wasn't really sure how dinner would go considering the only nap that day was 35 min at SeaWorld.

Apparently a dinner of a crab cake sandwich and clam chowder is plenty to keep him happy.

Seriously though, the crab cakes are fantastic!

Meet Dylan!  Dylan and his family flew in from Boston and rented a house in Mission Beach that we used as base all weekend.  He and Peanut are 3 months apart and were fast friends as soon as they met.

I'm already fantasizing about a trip to Boston.

Plus, Dylan's mommy is an ER doctor in Children's Hospital Boston which is pretty much the best thing ever when you have 2 wild boys galavanting around.

I was like, don't worry about Peanut, Katie can save him if he falls down those concrete stairs!

My father-in-law commented the other day that trying to get all the kids to look at the camera for a picture is like trying to herd cats.

I'd say that's pretty much accurate.

So.tired.

And goofy.

Peanut has taken a sudden interest in my camera.

I'm assuming because it's expensive and he feels deep down that he needs to get his hands on it.

He took this picture of his cousin; I think it's pretty good.

Watching these boys together is awesome.

They are at that age where they can actually have conversations,

 and we can still marvel that they are communicating.

Stop growing kid.  Just slow down.

And then we let them run down this dock approximately 184 times.

Everyone needs a buddy to run down a dock with at 8pm on a summer evening.

But this is my absolute favorite of the night.

This picture captures the fun and giggles and squealing and friendship and breathless tromping around, all in one perfect moment.

David Marano Photography

Last year I really regretted not having family pictures done and swore that no matter what, 

I would build it into the budget, carve out some time and make sure that I have photos that actually include all three of us at the same time.

I came across David Marano Photography when he offered a Living Social deal in March and redeemed it the day before Thanksgiving.  

I know, can I possibly run any closer to the holiday card deadline?

This one picture made the entire shoot worthwhile.

I have so few pictures of the Peanut and I together and the look on his face and the sparkle in his eyes make me just melt.

I love the warmth in these pictures and would have loved to take more in the house but in order to get Peanut to cooperate I promised some play at the lake.

We walked down to the lake and tried to get Peanut to sit or stand still, next to mommy and daddy for a great deal of time.

It was quite exhausting by David didn't bat an eye.  

He just snapped away.

Peanut really liked him and so there are quite a few interesting expressions caught on camera.

He was also able to snap a few pictures of us while making sure Peanut didn't take a running leap into the lake.

Falling leaves and piles to jump in make a very happy boy.

The smirk and the mischievous grin.

I can't even put into words how happy this shot makes me.

Tickles and giggles.

and sweetness.

David was mellow and so easy going that it was so much easier to be comfortable in front of the camera.

Despite all the photo sessions we've had, this always remains the hardest part for me.

However, when you are chasing after a 2 year old, I find it's hard to think about the camera or whether or not I have multiple chins and fat rolls showing.

In the end we have tons of perfect, real, family photos to remember the year by.

Instead of the little blurs that I've been getting, 

I can actually look at these moments of love and laughter caught in perfect clarity.

We can't wait to use David again.

Oh and the personality and weirdness are all there.

Baby Conner

Baby Conner came into the world yesterday a total of 14 weeks early.

He is my newest great-nephew and I was able to visit him in the NICU today.

Born at 26 weeks, he is 2 pounds, 6 ounces and 16 inches long.

He's stable now and we'd like him to stay that way.  Grow, little Conner, grow.

Please send out your prayers and keep Conner in your thoughts.

In which my MIL does it all

My fantastic mother-in-law flew out last Wednesday when my mom had surgery

so that she could take care of the Peanut while mom was recuperating.

We're so lucky to have family that loves Peanut (and us) so much that they'll do things like that.

She stayed Wednesday through Sunday and proved that it is indeed possible to:

watch the baby

and keep the apartment clean

and spoil the baby

and make dinner, all of which were special requests, 

from scratch

every single day.

She also nearly finished 2 books.

Did I mention that she watched Peanut and made dinner and 

the place was cleaner then when she got here?

I'm pretty sure she blew my cover because it's taken me 

17 months to convince B that none of that was possible.

But can she do all that AND browse Pinterest and Facebook?

Can she?  Huh?!

~sigh~

The outlook isn't good, my friends.

We're running out of leftovers from her visit

and there are toys everywhere

and there are dishes in the sink

and

wait a minute... where is that kid anyway?

A Very Merry Christmas

Our Christmas festivities start on Christmas Eve with 4 pm mass

where we get to watch the kids act out the nativity which is always my favorite part.

This year mass was a bit different as we had a little Peanut who wanted to walk around the whole time.

As we were in the church hall the seating was chairs instead of pews and I was worried that Peanut was going to poke the people in front of us through the slats in the chairs.

He has this habit of lifting your shirt just a bit and poking your skin (or fat).

I believe he learned this from B who likes to the same and poke my skin (or fat).

It didn't help that the man in front of us had a good inch of skin (or fat) showing whenever he sat down.

I was very careful to keep watch of Peanut and make sure that he didn't poke the man's skin (or fat).

Which of course he did the moment I wasn't looking.

I just pretended I didn't know what happened.

I looked the other way.

Is that kind of lying frowned upon in church?

Peanut had his own tree in his room.

I grew up with one and wanted him to have one too.

He loved it and gave the appreciative WOW whenever we lit it.

And then he pulled it down (as you can see him doing)

After church we headed to my grandma's house and we were just about done eating and unwrapping presents when I remembered that I didn't get any pictures of Peanut in his holiday finery.

That nice mark on his face is from a head on collision with a rocking horse.

He tripped right before he got to it and his face sort of just slid down the side of it.

It didn't bleed at all but has left a nice scab in it's place.

Have I mentioned that Peanut loves Christmas?

He loves the lights, the decorations, the parties....he's quite the party animal.

When we got home Peanut went straight to bed while daddy and I stayed up.

We ate Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is now a tradition, exchanged a gift and set up for Christmas morning.

I was completely excited for Peanut to see what Santa brought him

and I'll share more of that with you soon.

At first all Peanut cared about was his kitchen set (which he went directly to) but eventually we got him to open some other presents.

All we actually bought him was the kitchen set and the rest of the presents under our tree were re-wrapped birthday gifts.

Thanks everyone for the birthday/Christmas presents!

After Christmas morning at our house we went to my parents for the feast to begin!

My sister Sherri created "A Very Pinterest Christmas" by coming with 

gifts that included diy canvas photos, record bowls, homemade sweets, banana bread

and of course, Christmas photo props!

The props included everything from elf hats and ears, santa's hat and beard, reindeer antlers, rudolph's nose and any variation on those things that we could come up with.

I really like Scott's use of the elf ears and Rudolph's nose to create the Yukon Cornelius look.

I'm telling you, every Christmas party should have photo props!

We had lots of fun and all of us were spoiled, especially Peanut.

I'm pretty sure that at this point he thinks every get together is a party just for him.

How was your Christmas?

Don't judge me!

at the OC fair

My computer is back- yay!

Life is just not the same using other people's computer.

Anyway, I came across this photo and it made me laugh.

Did you know that one more than one occasion 

people have asked me and/or my mom if the boys are twins?

Twins.

I get that they look close in age, but who in their right mind would think they are twins.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito type of twins perhaps.

I also notice that I get looks when I'm pushing the boys around.

People look at me, they look at the boys, they look back at me.

In their heads they are forming ideas about how I came to have these two very different boys,

 so close together.

This happened a lot at the fair for some reason.

I've seen some whispering.

People give knowing looks.

It seems to me that the only thing to do is to pass by these people and nonchalantly mention that the boys obviously have two different dads.

Take from it what you will.

One of the vendors very nicely asked me how far apart the boys were.

When I said 3 1/2 months he burst out laughing and said what a amazing woman I was to have given birth to these boys so close together.

He told me he should be interviewing me! That we would make the Guinness book or world records!

I'm still waiting for fame and fortune.

Bathtime

Bathtime is one of my favorite times of the day.

What is it about bath time that makes it so wonderful?

Maybe I just love the 5 minutes that the boys are actually clean.

It will be time to cut Daniel's hair soon

so we like to take this opportunity to play with those curls as much as possible.

When his hair is like this I say he looks like a Who from Whoville.

Forget the bath toys.... cups are so much fun!

He has the sweetest expressions in these shots.

And he has such squishy kissable cheeks.

I just can't imagine him without those golden curls! 

Carefree

Do you remember what it was like to be so carefree?

To stand at the ocean's edge, 

daring the waves to come get you,

laughing into the roar of the sea,

being so completely full of summer.

B took these photos and so perfectly captured the moments.

Seeing them made me think about so many summer days.

It's been so long since I thought about times in grade school and the adventures we had.

Magical.

PS.. Since I already had a few messages after posting this picture on Facebook.  

We used a stock lens 18-55mm.

I think part of the beauty of this shot is the exposure.  I had the exposure set pretty high for pictures in the shade and forgot to adjust it before handing the camera off to B.

Honestly, it was so bright we couldn't see the screen to tell if the shots were turning out anyway.

And B is a natural with a camera.  His shots always come out good.

A Peanut goes to the beach

Last weekend we headed down to Laguna Beach to my new favorite spot, Aliso Beach.

It's my favorite because you can park and walk a short distance to the water vs. some of the other beaches that require stairs or hikes.

You just can't do hikes with the 150 things you need to bring for an entire day at the beach with kids.

As we walked up asked B if he remembered when going to the beach meant grabbing our towels.

The 2 ladies next to us started cracking up and they were friends for the rest of the day.  

Their kids are a bit older and they were having a girls weekend.

Peanut is already eager to check out this sand stuff.

By the way, this umbrella/tent thing totally rocked.  

You need shade with a baby and I don't like the umbrellas that have to be upright.

This umbrella tacks down on the corners so you aren't fighting a collapsing umbrella in the wind.

Thanks mom... I still owe you for this one!

You just never know how babies are going to feel about the sand.

What is that?

Isn't it weird?

He loved it! 

He would grab handfuls, lift his arms and watch the sand run thru his fingers.

Shake those hands!

He was all over the place.

At least I had Jordyn, the baby-wrangler.

She also made our lunches and kept tabs on her brother.

And helped me make baby food.

We took Peanut down to the water and he was fascinated by the waves.

Oh man, the water was cold!

The first couple of times the water came up, he just watched it swirl around his feet.

Then he got wise and lifted his feet whenever it washed near him.

His cousins were nice enough to bring up buckets of water that warmed in the sun.

He splashed and splashed until he was drenched.

He was a little confused by the taste of the water when it splashed all over his face.

Alex is showing him how to play with the sand.

That must be Peanut's official sand-shakin' face.

Phew, playing at the beach is hard work.

Living the good life.