Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Baby Sister

Island Boy got a new baby sister today. He seems excited and even supportive. At the very least, he's very interested.

He's already learned to be very gentle with her and given her several kisses while marveling at the size of her tiny hands holding on to his. It's magical to see them together.

We're all doing fine, although eager to get home from the hospital.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Lil Sis

Island Boy is expecting a little sister any minute now. He seems genuinely excited and has an amazing intuition about what is about to take place.

For the past few months, he has correctly identified items that are specifically for his little sister even if we have not pointed out that that is their purpose in advance.

We're all a bit excited and a bit terrified. Life is about to change for us once again and we couldn't be happier.

Friday, March 20, 2009

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

In case you missed it, and if you happen to be reading this post on the day it is being posted (3/20/09), check out the Google homepage today. Seriously, how cute is that??

Ok, if you happened to miss it, you can get a little idea of just how cute it was by clicking here. See what I mean?? Sooo cute! I also cannot believe that that book sells a copy once every 30 seconds somewhere in the world! Isn't that crazy? It's been 40 years since it was published. I'm not saying it's not a great book - we love it, but WOW!!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Paperwork Surprise!

Today the whole family happened to be together as we opened the mail. Since we recently ordered a number of things from our Vital Records office, I was only slightly suspicious of a certain parcel from that entity. I only paused briefly before opening it, thinking that we had already received everything that we had ordered from them.

Can you guess what it was?? I didn't and probably for good reason.

Although we would have liked to have a birth certificate for Island Boy over a year ago, we weren't able to request one until almost a year ago and we were told we would be waiting up to a year for it. When I last checked on the status of that document over a month ago, I was told that with the budget crisis in California (and the nation), staffing cutbacks meant that birth certificate processing was being delayed more than ever, so I hung up the phone and prepared for a continuing wait, thinking that it might be another six months or even more.

Both my husband and my son stopped what they were doing when they heard my reaction to seeing our son's birth certificate there in my hands. WOW!! What a THRILL! Could this really be it??!

We had a mini-celebration.

Why did this particular document make us so happy? It wasn't new information to us and it didn't really change anything legally. What it did was represent the final chapter in a long road of paperwork. Oh, I hate to say that because as soon as I do, another challenge will present itself, but still, whatever that document meant, it felt good to hold it and to know that all of the paperwork - all of it - has been worth it.

Now we're off to get our little Island Boy a new passport!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Did he just gerund??

While enjoying a lovely ride in our car on Sunday, our son requested his magnetic writing tablet. (What are those things called anyway??)

"Write!", he said, indicating he wanted his tablet.
Ok, son, here ya go...
and we handed him his tablet.

A few moments later, Daddy and I were back in our conversation when Island Boy declared, "writing!".

"Did he just gerund?!", Daddy asked.

Yes. Yes, I believe he did.

I'm not sure which should impress me more - I mean, how did my husband find that word floating around in his head?? I admit it's been a while since I've used the word, "gerund", and unless you happen to be an English teacher I'm guessing it's been a while since you have, too. :-)

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Whale Watching

We got away for a day in Santa Barbara over the weekend. While Santa Barbara is always a beautiful place, on this particular day it was amazing.

We had the rare treat of watching a young gray whale frolic in the bay. He was there for hours (or days??). Of course, we have a toddler, so we watched for "minutes" and enjoyed it all. Island Boy was captivated. Who wouldn't be?

Unfortunately, there was some controversy as kayakers and even boaters in relatively large vessels crowded in for a closer look. The whale was surfacing *very* close to some of those kayaks and I'm sure it was a genuine thrill for them.

Luckily, we had a tremendous and close up view of the Cetacean from the wharf - not quite the same as being in a kayak, but certainly dryer and more reliable!

As Island Boy said, "Amazing!!!"