Excellent news: we have survived our trip to Northern California with the children. It was touch and go for a while there, but we managed to pull through. They had a pretty good time. I think Annah had the toughest time of all however. It's difficult when you are one, but then when there's a three-hour time change, it really messes with your very scheduled and normally predicable world. Her sleeping and eating were way off- when she was supposed to be eating, she was typically sleeping, and her absentee mother was not on top of it enough to feed her at odd hours. But she was a real champ. She slept through the Golden Gate, and Lombard St (which yours truly drove down in a minivan, right up there with flying spacecraft in terms of achievement by the way), but managed to enjoy John Muir National Forest, downtown San Francisco, and Berkeley, which I love and I am already living there in my fantasy world.
Annah has made a great breakthrough in terms of speaking. Her biggest accomplishment has been "wa'sa?" which sounds unimpressive on its own, but combined with finger pointing at objects, translates in English to "what's that?" That's a full-on, two-word sentence, people. She has also started biting, but we are trying not to praise her for that.
Gavin too enjoyed his trip. His favorite activity was riding the trolley. He had a front row seat right at the front of the thing, and his nose was pressed right up to the window the whole time. He loved hanging out with his cousin June in particular, and she was also a trooper by letting him cling to her like white on rice, which deserves kudos for a teenager. He also told me today that he really enjoyed watching Cars, probably for the billjesunth time, at his auntie Val's house. During the car wreck at the beginning, he stated "This is why I like this movie." Oi.
I got to take a special day all to myself as well- just another reason why my husband is the Bomb- to travel to LA and see my cousin Tim and his wife Annie and their two beautiful new twin babies. Complete with new baby smell, and ridiculously cute to boot. It really was a vacation from the vacation, as I flew down there carrying my purse, and there were no kids attached, which felt odd, but also a little liberating, which I hate to admit, but it's true.
We got back at 11 PM last night, and the kids were exhausted. We all slept in today - myself to 9, and the kids to 10 AM, which is unheard of, but again, time change. I cooked all day, making bread, yogurt, granola, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, and, for the first time, butter. Which makes me feel awfully Holly Homemaker, but it was delicious, and great after a week of primarily eating out. We came home in a snowstorm and lost power last night as well, but it came back on after a few hours. But it was out long enough for me to pine for Berkeley again.
Below pictures are up in the Berkeley hills, with June sitting on the log, and Aunt Val holding Ani, and Val and Gav walking through the streets of downtown Oakland, stopping traffic with their magic signs they made at the Children's Art Museum, which is also a wonderful, wonderful place.
