Independence Day festivities

The Fourth of July!

Parades, barbecues, fireworks, friends and family - check, check, check and check.

Elizabeth and Jerry weren't able to stay long on Monday morning, but Grandma and Auntie Mel came over early and we all headed out to watch the parade. (Grandpa was at work.)

As it's been really hot, Cora wasn't all that excited about it this year - see photo of her with Grandma. ("Cora! Cora! Smile, Cora! Look at me! Smile!")

Cora did like the local royalty in their fancy cars, gowns and tiaras - the "Miss SCV," "Little Miss SCV," etc. She said the princesses were her favorite part. Violet was content to watch it all from her stroller, while Stace and I moved out closer for a better view of the classic cars.

After the parade, we cooled off and rested at home, and prepared for the barbecue.

We feel so blessed to have a bit of space for entertaining, and just hanging out with friends and family. This year, we had my family and Melanie's boyfriend Nick; Genia, John, their kids and John's parents; and Christine and her boyfriend Luke.

While we ate, the kids played with bubbles and a croquet set, and we all set off little poppers when it grew dark.

Then, it was on to the fireworks. Violet took it all in, and Cora later said the fireworks were her favorite part of the 4th of July. (While we watched them, she was in a mood and said she didn't like them, because we weren't able to find and sit near Ave and Johnny.)

Pepperdine Week

It's been 11 years since I graduated from Pepperdine, but this week I've seen many of my favorite alumni.

Julie and Joel were part of our journalism gang, with Jason and Stephanie and JT, and I haven't seen them since Jason and Steph's 2004 wedding. They were in town last week from Texas, and we managed to all get together for dinner.

Julie has two girls - Rachel and Emma - and both of them are three months older than my girls. Jason and Stephanie came with Morgan, who just turned 1, and our friend Armando came with his 20-month-old daughter. Talk about girls, girls, girls!

It was weird (and fun) to be together again, a decade later, all of us married-with-kids.

On Friday, I took my girls out to Pasadena to visit Melanie and David and their new addition, Heather Olivia!
Melanie and I were freshman-year roommates at Pepperdine.

No photos of the newborn, as she was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit due to an infection and photos through the glass aren't worth sharing.
They are home and happy now, and I look forward to visiting again and holding the baby!

We then kept going east, to JT's parents' house, to visit with her and Callie. They are here from England on their meet-the-California-family tour. We had a relaxing afternoon, with lunch at the house and then fancy ice cream in a cutesy part of Claremont.

And speaking of Callie, she and her lovely parents came to visit us Tuesday for dinner, and she took naps in our playpen like an angel - er, a princess.

Pool partying

When it's hotter than hot, we sure appreciate the neighborhood pool.

We made our first family-adventure-trip together on Sunday, and it was just great. Cousin Elizabeth and Jerry spent the holiday weekend with us, so they came too, along with Auntie Mel.

Cora enjoys jumping in, and hopefully by the end of summer she'll be actually swimming properly.

Violet loved the boat we got when Cora was tiny, and had a blast driving it with the steering wheel.

She also thought it was hilarious when Daddy and Jerry would "hide" under water and then jump up.

After the pool, we had dinner, got the girls to bed, popped popcorn and watched a movie.
Yay for summer holiday weekends!

And, yay for Elizabeth and Jerry living close enough to come spend time with us! We love seeing them, and having Elizabeth over is like having a mother's helper. She is great with the girls and such a help to me.

Ventura

We made our first beach trip of the year on Saturday, and it was a long time coming!

After the long months of the kitchen project, we're really appreciating having fun together again. And appreciating Ventura! It had been way too long.

And, with us experiencing our first true, barely bearable heat wave of the summer, the cooler weather was welcome.

Cora and Violet both had a great time. This was Violet's first time at the beach since she's become mobile, and she was surprisingly fearless. She loved the water, waves and sand, and kept going into the waves.
We'll have to keep a close eye on her this summer! It will be a while before going to the beach will be relaxing again.

Violet was equally happy playing in the sand. Where did my baby go? She is such a toddler now.

What we've been up to...

So, another nice summer's week in the books. Here are some highlights:

On Saturday, we saw Auntie Mel's Ugly Duckling show for a last time. Auntie Linda and Mikayla came, as did cousins Elizabeth and Jerry, and our friends Rigo and Colleen and their kids, including Violet's friend Liana.

After the show, we caught up a bit over a Starbucks, and then went on to Ikea with Elizabeth and Jerry.
Cora was such a loving, friendly girl with everyone! Overall, she has been a very good girl lately. We have our moments, but in general Stace and I are really enjoying our Cora Rose at 4.
On Monday, we went to a pool playdate with some MOPS friends, and Cora had a ball. Violet did, too, but since I was in the pool with her, I couldn't get any photos. Cora is much more comfortable in the water, and when she finishes her swimming lessons, I'm sure she'll be swimming on her own.
Last week, my college friend Lylia and her 4-year-old, Kelsie, came over to play. The girls had fun at the park after a bit of dress-up time at home.
Violet played with big girls. At least, she thought she did.

Our 14-month-old

Violet Mae is now 14 months old, and becoming more of a toddler than a baby with every passing day.

She is much better at walking. She still wobbles a bit here and there, but she can sometimes run a bit without falling down. Thankfully, she hasn't yet reached the point of demanding to walk on her own whenever we're out and about.

Violet likes to make us laugh. While we waited for our dinner last week, she was having a grand time playing with Stacey's sunglasses. She also entertained us by being super silly, dancing around and throwing her head back and forth while laughing like crazy.

In the next two photos and video, Violet was being funny by playing with the (clean) silverware by pretending to use each piece. "Yum, mmmm, mum, mmmm," she was saying as she pretended to eat with the spoons.

I'm proud of something Violet did this morning.

Lately, I've been putting her on the toilet, on Cora's princess seat, when I can tell she needs to go No. 2. When she does so, of course, we make a big deal about it and clap and cheer. We've been doing this for a few weeks, and have had a number of successes.
Well, this morning, I could see her standing in the dining room, and it looked like maybe she needed to "go." I asked her if she needed to poo, and Violet immediately toddled off toward the bathroom. She waited until I opened the door, and then went over to the toilet, waiting for me to remove her diaper and lift her up. Sure enough, we had success! So, she is starting to understand.

I should point out that I'm NOT expecting to have her potty-trained any time soon. But I figured, why not get her used to using the toilet, while she isn't into the defiant toddler/2-year-old phase.

Dentist trip

Cora had very successful dentist visit this week.

I was amazed on her maturity and cooperation, and so proud of her! What a big girl she is becoming.

Cora had her first experience with x-rays, and though she thought they were uncomfortable inside her mouth, she stayed still. She's holding a Dora the Explorer book about going to the dentist, which explained about the x-ray machine.

In the x-ray images, were able to see her adult teeth under her baby teeth, and her six-year molars beneath the surface.

Cora got a clean bill of dental health from Dr. Mindel, and he made her laugh out loud when he tickled her finger with the tooth-polishing tool. (Cora's face is overexposed in the photo from the bright light, but see that laughter?)



Stace also had a good checkup, and Violet impressed all the staff by toddling around the office.

She and Stace then had a hilarious time putting stickers on each other's noses.

Settling in

Our new cats are settling in very well. They are such sweeties! Spencer is a little more outgoing and Sebastian a little more skittish, but both are very friendly, happy, purrrrr-y cats. They love to play and sit in your lap, and neither have a problem with either of our girls.


We're mostly keeping the food and water up on this sideboard, away from Violet. She's already sampled the cat food and spilled the water, of course! This is Sebastian - you know it's him by his two extra toes on each foot!

Cora's box of dress-up clothes has been a source of fun and amusement for both cats.

This is Spencer. His eyes are brown, while Sebastian's are more greenish.
Blurry photo, but you can imagine how cute this scene was - Violet crawling under the train table to get to the kitties! She wakes up in the morning and from naps asking for Gia and for the kitties, using her "meow" noise to refer to them.
Sebastian playing with the foil ball. We toyed with changing his name, while keeping Spencer's name the same, but Cora was already attached to both names and wouldn't hear of it.
Stace has been watching all the Star Wars movies this week, in honor of his birthday. It seemed like a good time to introduce the boys to his favorite franchise.

Sebastian inside, Spencer looking in. So far, they have been very well behaved. A bit of curtain-jumping, but not too bad. The main problem is when they jump on the dining table. And, they've been a tiny bit sick twice, because they're eating parts of toys - theirs and Cora's.

I was concerned about being up all night with two kittens, since Somer kept us up all night her first week or so in our home. Come to think of it, she kept us up other nights, too. What a talker she was!

But perhaps because they have each other for company, Spencer and Sebastian are just fine in the house overnight. We've tried to let them in our room at bedtime, and Spencer is a real lovebug, but he purrs so loudly and walks around so much that we can't sleep. But when I put him out and close the door, he and his brother are super quiet all night.

Happy Birthday, Stace!

We celebrated Stace's birthday Tuesday with dinner at Stone Fire - their barbecue chopped salad is our current favorite.

I gave Stace an English classic car magazine - hey, everyone needs to have a dream - and a Kinks CD and a trip to Guitar Center for a new capo.

We then had ice cream together. Violet especially enjoyed eating Cora's cone.

Happy birthday, Babe. Thanks for all you do to give us the life we've lead together for nearly eight years.