Self Portraits

The photos don't lie.

We need to start keeping the camera on a higher shelf.

She also likes to run through the photos on the camera, narrating them to us as she quickly flashes by them.

Back to the beach

Last week we had a great day at a Ventura beach, with friends from Stroller Strides and MOPS.

It was lovely and warm, so a great change from our last couple of trips to Ventura.


Cora had a great time in the sand and sea, complete with PB&J for lunch.

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

On Saturday we celebrated our dear friend Kelly's 30th birthday at a surprise party, along with dozens of her closest friends.

Kelly and I go way back; we met not long after my family moved to SClarita in 1989.

She's a true-blue friend of the truest variety, and Stace and I are blessed by her friendship.

Kelly was one of my bridesmaids, and one of the very few non-family members to have babysat Cora.

The party was really fun, with great food, drinks, and guests.

In the second photo, we're posing with another great friend of mine, Melanie, my freshman-year-of-college roommate, and her husband David. It was great seeing them again, too.

There were a number of children, and Cora played really well and enjoyed her time with them.

Happy Birthday, Kelly! We love you!

Whatta face!

Partying and Pottying

Some photos from a fun birthday party we attended Sunday at "My Gym," a fun place with play classes for little ones.

Cora had a great time, and we were both proud of her for how friendly she was, and how she didn't react poorly when it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday twins. (In the past, Cora has disliked the song with some intensity.)

Cora won't be happy about the fourth photo, but how cute is that?
That's the stage we're at with potty-training. The potty stays in the car at all times, and comes in the stroller during Stroller Strides. During Monday's class, she said she needed the potty, and sure enough she used it. She also used it Wednesday during class.

Since Thursday, she's gone one day accident-free, and the other days (until Wednesday) she had one accident. It means that she's using the toilet when we're out in public almost without fail. And she did fine on our long (hour plus) drive to and from Camarillo, and at church and then the Farmer's Market on Sunday.

On Wednesday, she seemed to relapse a bit. After using the potty during our walking class, she later went in her panties while we were still at the park. She also went while watching television. And later in the evening, after we asked her repeatedly to use the toilet, she wet her panties again. So, on went the diaper for our trip out shopping - all her training panties were wet.

We'll see what Thursday brings.

Camarillo Air Show

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon in Camarillo at the Wings Over Camarillo Air Show.

It was a nice family day, with all the WWII planes Stace knows and loves. We got to see a Spitfire and Mustang fly, along with lots of others (that Stace could write about if he were writing this post).

Cora enjoyed it too, even though I was SILLY and forgot her shoes!

Thankfully, the airport was next to the outlet mall, so we found a clearance pair of pink sandals at the Children's Place that fit our needs. The funny thing is, this is the second time we've forgotten Cora's shoes in the last couple of weeks, after she went barefoot to brunch and LAX for Nanny and Pop's trip home.

The third picture is of this fake train engine, which Cora loved. She sat inside, talking all about trains and her favorite Thomas characters.

Which brings up another story: we didn't find out Cora's gender until she was born, and it's no secret that Stace would love to have little boy at some point. So when he left the delivery room to announce the birth to the family, he tipped off the gender by saying, "She'd better like trains!" He certainly got his wish!

Last photo is from the Camarillo Outlets - Cora loved this Snoopy ride.

New Toys

A few odds and ends from our week...

First, we had some big cardboard boxes after Stace finished the bathroom. I encouraged him to save them for Cora to play with, thinking we could just hand her a box to pretend-play with.
Stace took the idea in a different direction, constructing this train engine with all the boxes.
Cora was very excited the next morning when she found it.

On Wednesday, we had our friends Ave (4 1/2) and Johnny (2 1/2) over to play, and they all enjoyed climbing in and on the train.

Johnny and Cora had a great time with our new train table, too.

We were so excited this past weekend to score this GREAT train table off our local freecycle.org network.

We've received some wonderful, and needed, items from freecycle. (I was thrilled earlier this year to request and receive a charger for my Sonicare electric toothbrush after I fried my charger, meaning I didn't have to buy a whole new unit.)
We've also given away many items, so we didn't have to put things in the garbage that still had life in them.

The next photo shows Stace and Cora with the new bike seat Stace purchased this summer with birthday money from Dean and Jenny.

So far, so good, it works great and Cora had a fun time.

And finally, some football in the garden. The weather's been great this week - hot in the day (duh!) but "only" in the low 90s, and really nice in the evenings, cool enough to enjoy cycling or football. We've been eating on the patio each night.

Introducing... the bathroom

Ta da!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm so pleased and proud to present, our new and VASTLY improved spare bathroom!

Stace finished up most of the rest of the work on Saturday. He finished sealing around the tub, installed the cabinet and plumbed in the sink, and put up the mirror, storage cabinet and towel/toilet paper holders.

Cora was so excited to take her first bath in her new bathtub. On Friday, while Stace was working on it, he told her she would soon be able to take a bath. She then got so excited, she didn't want to go to bed and wait until Saturday (as she needed to for the sealant to set).
I told her, "You can take a bath tomorrow."
She replied, "No! To-now!"

Now, Stace will finish up the odds and ends. We need to purchase and install a shower door, change out the old electrical socket, and install new baseboards. Also, the water pipe that fills the tub was slightly too long for our tub faucet, so Stace is getting that cut down a tiny bit so we can put in the faucet there.

The finishing touches will be some new decorative accents, and a new door. (We hope to replace all the doors in the house at some point in the near future.)

I'm so happy with how it turned out, and how the colors go together. The granite counter color goes perfectly with the tile, and I love the sage walls. (Hopefully if you click the photos to enlarge them, you can see the colors decently.)

My husband is amazing! The tile work is beautiful. His brother asked him if he plans to start a second career in home projects - any SClaritans looking for some remodeling work? (It might take a while since Stace does have a full-time job, but the results are brilliant!)

Now, on to making the rest of the house live up to Cora's bathroom!

Donkeys and Rock Movies

Stace, Cora and I sadly took Nanny and Pop back to the airport Thursday. It was so great to share our lives here with them, and have all their help with the house and with Cora.

We had a nice weekend, with a great mixture of work and play.

On Sunday, Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Mel took Cora with them to Disneyland! They have annual passes, and Cora is still free until she turns three.

Apparently she was an angel for them, and had a fantastic time - you can tell, look at her smile in all these photos!

Stace and I took advantage of the free afternoon by having dinner together (can you beat Chipotle, I mean really?) and a movie. I honestly can't remember the last movie we saw in a theater.

Anyway, it was the opening weekend here in L.A. for "It Might Get Loud," a documentary with rock guitar legends Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White jamming and talking music. Stace heard about it a while ago and we were happy it worked out so well for us to get away together to see it, since it's only playing in a small handful of theaters. We went to the ArcLight Hollywood, a movie connoisseur's movie theater.

Stace nearly finished the bathroom on Saturday, and we also went to Hart Park to see the barn animals. The enclosure for the animals had been rebuilt over the last year or two, and it was the first time we'd been over to see them. Cora enjoyed the pigs, ducks, deer, chickens, pheasants and turkeys. We also bought a small bag of feed and fed the donkey ("Half Pint") and steer ("Norman").
The park was hosting an art event, so we stayed for lunch and listened to some folk music and wandered around the booths. It was a great morning, and not too hot, so we really had a nice time together.

And, a quick potty-training update: Cora is in her training panties just about all the time now, except for overnight (and Disneyland), and is doing quite well with using the toilet. We are having to wash the panties pretty regularly, so she's not, at this point, close to "accident-free."

But I'm very pleased with her progress, especially when she wore her panties to brunch on Thursday, used the toilet at the restaurant, and then stayed dry through the ride to LAX and back, until using the toilet at McDonalds in Santa Clarita.

Our weekend trip to San Diego...

On the drive down Friday, we stopped for lunch in Long Beach at the harbor. Cora cracked us up when she pointed to a beautiful 35-foot cruiser and declared, "This boat is like our boat."
"Like our kayak?" we asked. "Yeah!!!"
Here's Cora "ooohing" over Shamu's antics. For some reason, watching her take it all in brought me to tears! It's so amazing to watch these little people you help to create and raise, grow up to enjoy watching the same things you enjoyed as a kid.

The weather in San Diego was exceptional. I expected it to be a bit cooler than it was, and we all got a bit hot watching Shamu, sitting on the aluminum stands.
Cora enjoyed the touch tank, though later in the day she was asleep when we all touched the rays.
She really liked the aquariums. The manatees were her favorite, and she named two of the catfish "Somer" and "Zig," for our cat and Nanny and Pop's kitty.
Wearing our glasses for the 4-D Sesame Street show. Other than Cookie Monster, who is scary, Cora really like this show too. We also watched the classic Seamore and Clyde sea lion show.
Later that night, hanging out in the Gaslamp District.


It was our first time revisiting San Diego since we had her, so watching all the "young" people out for clubs and drinking was pretty funny as we walked around with Cora.
I love this picture of Daddy and Daughter! Cora slept very well at our downtown Holiday Inn - I snagged a great deal a few months ago and we managed to stay two nights for less than $90 per couple, including taxes. That included a free shuttle to and from Sea World.
At an awesome classic car dealer in the Gaslamp area, where Cora said the cars are all "like our cars at home."
Next time we go down to SD with Sue and Gord, we'll have to plan a half-day so Stace and Gord can tour the USS Midway carrier...
It was a great weekend trip all around! Thanks, Sue and Gord, for the excuse to go down there!

Our Week

A quick post as we get ready to head down to San Diego - SeaWorld, here we come!

We've had a nice week, having fun and getting a few things done. Most importantly, Sue, my mom and I got some serious relaxing done at Glen Ivy Hot Springs in Corona. It was a great day, and so nice to have the time together.

While we played, the men worked. Stace took half a day off and he and Gord rebuilt the gate leading to our back yard.
The gate had been a dark metal, older and not very attractive, with a broken latch. We've been using a wire around the posts at the top to keep it closed since we moved in.
I think they did a beautiful job on our new cedar gate, and best of all, we can open and close it properly.

And on the potty-training front, I ordered Cora some cloth trainers (training panties, the reusable version of pull-ups). She was so excited about them! She then, on her own, said, "Bye bye diapers! We'll put them away!"
I recreated the moment a bit for the video below.

Cora wore her training panties the rest of the day, and we used a public toilet once (at Babies R Us), and my parents' toilet twice (we went there for a very nice dinner). She also peed in them once.

Now, we'll be in diapers this weekend while we're away. I should have thought it through a bit more, and not got them out until we came home from San Diego. Oh well.

Playing weekend

With Stace off over the weekend, we had some fun with Nanny and Pop here.

We went to the L.A. Zoo on Saturday (but our camera memory card was in the computer), and then to the Concert in the Park (bottom photo).

On Sunday we took our kayak to Ventura and cooled off - way off. It was in the 60s all day and cloudy until just as we were leaving the beach area.

We had a picnic lunch, played paddle ball, and played in the sand. We then walked around Main Street and had dinner, but Cora slept through it - she conked out in the umbrella stroller, poor thing.