Precious moments

Three great-grands for a great Nan...

On Monday Sue took Cora down to visit Nan in the morning, since Cora was up so early and Stace and I appreciated the chance to get a bit more sleep.

We later joined them, where we soaked up some lovely weather in Nan's back yard/garden. Cora was very entertaining, picking flowers, singing and dancing.

Nan loved up on Violet upon their first meeting.

The weather was beautiful Monday, sunny and warm, but not hot. The kind of weather you want to lounge in, and have to be careful to avoid sunburns!

After Sue took Cora home for lunch and a nap, Stace and I left a sleeping Violet with Mary and walked down to the bakery to get some pasties, meat pies and cider for lunch. Then we had a nice al fresco meal.

Good times.

Arrival

A special treat at the airport was getting to see Euan!

Dean and Jenny's little cutie is 7 1/2 months old, and this was my first chance to meet him.

He's adorable, and very smiley and animated.

He likes to dance and already shows a lot of personality.

We all think he and Violet look alike, perhaps even more alike than Cora and Violet. Could just be the blue eyes and blondeish hair though?

After we left the airport, we stopped for lunch and baby-feeding, while Cora slept very soundly.

Back in Martock, we went to bed around 10 or 11, and the girls did pretty well for their first night. Violet woke up a couple of times, but went back to sleep right after feeding.

Cora slept well until about 4:30, when she woke up with a scream from a bad dream about a snake. She didn't really sleep much after that, but that's not too bad for a jet-lagged little girl.

Today, Monday, she had a good nap and went to sleep around 10:30 at night. Hopefully she'll sleep through!

The Flight

What a great trip we had getting to England, and a great first couple of days!

Who'd have thought that traveling with two little ones would be easier than traveling with one?

Well, at least easier than traveling with one at a certain age...

Cora was very excited about our trip, and she spent much of the prior week packing and repacking her bags. On the day of our trip, she asked to help drive the car to the airport.

As you can see, she also helped pull along our suitcases.

Violet was her normal easy-going self on the flight. She didn't settle into sleep until the last three hours, but hardly fussed while she was awake. (Cora also was easy to travel with at three months - see more here.)

Cora was happy to watch her little television for nearly all the flight, which only lasted nine hours. We had a strong tailwind really pushing us along, as the flight normally takes 10-11 hours.

Even though we landed at 2 a.m. California time, Cora only slept the last hour or so of the trip, and she didn't get a nap during the day, either. She was just too excited!

And considering that, she was extremely well-behaved. Stace and I were proud of both our girls.

On our first trip with Air New Zealand, we were very impressed, and we'll definitely consider them in the future.

You can see the little bassinet that folded down for Violet, and you can also see that she liked it! It just barely gave her enough room to turn over, her favorite hobby at the moment.

The last photo was taken as we were getting our things together to disembark the plane. Thankfully we had Cora's umbrella stroller, as she was in no shape to be walking at that point.

Around the house

We're getting on the plane today, but I thought we should do one more "house" post before we go.

One night, at about 1:45 a.m., we were wakened by a big crashing sound outside. A huge limb of our neighbor's tree cracked and fell into the wall separating our yards.

Thankfully, no one was outside so no one got hurt, and the wall wasn't damaged. I had the clothesline out, unfortunately, and the line and its housing were ripped off the wall.

The neighbor had a tree trimmer out to handle it, and that guy came over to our house to clean up the mess in our yard, too. We later had our friend Rigo come out with his guys to further trim the part of the tree that overhangs our yard.

The worst part about the limb coming down is that we now get a lot of (HOT) morning sun in our playroom. We will need curtains for that room for sure now!

Speaking of curtains, we put up some thermal energy-saving drapes in our living room.

And, we printed and put up some gorgeous photos in our dining room. These were taken by two friends (Jen and Jaimie) in recent months, plus one of Cora at three months taken by my dad and the one taken by a hospital photographer.

Lastly, Stace and Cora are proud to present their onion and parsnip harvest! Not bad for a first year! Stace spent a long evening chopping onions, and we made a lovely curried parsnip soup with half the parsnips. Next year, I think we'll be more careful to space out the planting so the harvesting takes place over a longer period of time.

Three months!

I took Violet to the doctor yesterday for two vaccinations, and put her on the official scale. She's 13 pounds, a two-pound gain since her appointment a month ago. That keeps her in the 50th percentile. She's about 24 3/4 inches long, putting her between the 75th and 90th percentile. (Cora at three months was 11 pounds 13 ounces, and 23 inches long.)

This is how I found Violet today when I woke her up from her nap. She turned over on her own again. She's done this maybe three or four times now, but this was the first time she's chosen to sleep on her stomach.
Violet seems to like sitting in her Bumbo chair. We didn't have one of these with Cora, but I can see how fun they are now.


Violet is starting to notice toys now, like the "Duckie" toy from Grandma and Grandpa. She also has been experimenting with her voice more, and her squealing entertained some people behind me in line at Kohl's last night.

At dinner the other night Cora was helping her baby sister dance to the music, and Violet loved it!

Stories at the park

We spent Wednesday morning at the big park near our house, for Miss Carol's storytime. Carol is a MOPS "mentor mom" who started a preschool storytime at a nearby Starbucks in the spring.

Now, she holds it at the park and offers crafts and games, too.

Juliana and Maya came Wednesday, too, so we all got to play together.

In the photo of Cora running, Carol set up a game where the kids ran back and forth filling up one bucket with water from another, using cups with holes in the bottom. It was a lot of fun, and gave Cora water to later dump on her legs.

Cora and Maya played really well together, as always.

Maya and Juliana were very sympathetic when Cora showed them her skinned elbow and knee.

She was running down the driveway the other night and fell. It was bad enough that she needed the blood washed off, the wounds cleaned and bandaids. It was the first time in a long time that Cora had that type of injury, and it was a Big Deal.

We've discussed her boo boos, or baddies, a lot. She wanted to tell her friends about them, and needed dishtowels in her bed to protect her blankie from the blood. (No, she was not bleeding profusely, and nothing seeped out of the bandaid. But, you never know.)

SClarita Aquatic Center

On Tuesday, we made our first trip to the Aquatic Center of the summer - hopefully it won't be our last, but who knows?

My MOPS friend planned it, so it's been on our calendar. Sometimes to do the fun things that are right in your own backyard, you just need someone to organize it.

Harvey and Elissa joined us, and it was great to see them, as it had been at least a month - maybe two - since our last meeting.

Cora loved her time playing in the water, and especially loved going down the slide. She was much more confident this year than last, but not in an overconfident, dangerous way.

Violet was very well-behaved, and even took a nap in her stroller. Earlier in the day, she celebrated her three-month birthday by sleeping 9 hours for the first time, from 10:30 until 7:45. She normally sleeps eight hours straight.

A few more photos

Here are a few shots from recent events from my dad's camera.

Our little family at Casey and Bradley's wedding, followed by us and the Wahlas...

Then Cora with a smile, without her tongue out at the Dodger game, and Violet taking part in her first "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Return to Blue Heaven on Earth

Ahhhhh, the sights, sounds and smells of baseball, America's pasttime and my favorite sport.

Dodger Stadium, I'm sorry I didn't make it out to visit you in 2009. Game times just didn't work well for us with Cora's nap and bed times, plus we had that little house fire and bathroom remodel to deal with.

We remedied that mistake this year, and got tickets for us and my family as a Father's Day gift for my dad and Stace.

It was, obviously, Violet's first trip to Blue Heaven on Earth, and Cora's first in her memory, though she had been a few times previously. You can see her very first trip here, when she was two months old and wearing the Dodger top that Violet wore Sunday.

Our day out went really smoothly, and great fun was had by all.

First off, the game was perfect for us. It was a pitchers' duel, meaning it went by fast. With two little ones, that is a good thing.

And, with it remaining scoreless until the bottom of the eighth, when the Boys in Blue went up 1-0, there was that needed tension that made the lone run that much more exciting.

It wasn't a terribly well-attended game, but that meant no hourlong line to leave the parking lot.

And, it was warm but not too hot, and our seats were in the shade. We love our new camera's awesome 20x zoom lens - that shot of Martin at bat is from our top deck seats!

Violet was excellent during the game, happy to look around. She only took one short nap, on Grandma's lap.

Actually, all day she only took very short naps. She stayed awake during church - that was a first - and only napped for about a half-hour on the way to the stadium, then the short nap during the game, and another very short nap in the evening.

Cora also did really well, working on writing letters with Grandma when she got bored of the baseball. She walked all the way to and from our car, except for the l-o-n-g staircases, and fell asleep in the car before we reached the freeway.

A good week

The other night, Cora stayed up in her room for close to two hours after we put her to bed. I could hear bits and pieces, but wasn't quite sure what she was doing until the morning, when she showed me that she had packed her bag for England.

So cute! She is very excited about going to England next week, and wants to know why we can't go sooner. She also is very excited about having packed her bag, full of toys and things she'll need, things she needs to show Nan and Pop. The bag is so heavy she can hardly carry it herself, and keeps asking for help with it.

She has her money, so she can buy ice cream, sweeties and popcorn with Nan and Pop. She also has her jewelry box from Aunt Patty and Uncle Bill, so she can show Nan and Pop the Seattle charm bracelet Patty brought her.

Next, I give you a random photo of Cora with her best friend.

This week Cora has attended Vacation Bible School at Valencia United Methodist Church, where she does Pioneer Club and we have MOPS.

I have fond memories of VBS from my childhood, so I was excited when I learned that this particular VBS offers a three-year-old class.

Cora had a great time. She wasn't eager for me to leave each morning, so I'd stay through an opening song or two. Then her class would take part in games, crafts, snack time, and a Bible story. She had a great time! The photos here are from the closing time, when the children sing and dance together.

You can also see Cora hugging her friend Madison's little sister, Kendal.

The classes ran from 9 a.m. till 12:15 p.m., leaving me and Violet with a few hours together each day. I got some shopping done, some cleaning, and, most importantly, some photo work.

I have a number of little memory books and a couple of scrapbooks that call for actual, printed photographs. On some of these books, I was quite a bit behind. In the world of digital photography, printing photos takes some effort!

I have to search through lots of folders on the computer and figure out what I'm doing, then go to the drugstore to get them printed, and then pick them up. (OK, before you comment, I know there are ways to send your photos by email to places to print them, but that is a new method for me that would require additional time figuring out...)
I was pleased to get so much accomplished - it's so much easier with just one little baby to take in and out of the car during errands. We also had lunch with two sets of friends this week as well.

It was a good week!