As We Like It

Summertime! Tomorrow is the 4th of July, which may end up being Graham's favorite holiday after Christmas. He is quite adept at spotting American flags, telling us he sees them, and that they are there "Because our country is America!!" Yes, I used two exclamation points on purpose. He's really into it. In our neighborhood there is a July 4th bike parade, which Finn had a blast at last year, so we'll doing that again.

In other news, while Katie was in Anaheim at a library conference, I potty trained Graham in 2 days. Yes, I'm that good! OK, in reality Graham just finally decided that he wanted to wear underwear, and that was that. It's been 10 days now, with very few accidents, and even nice work in the #2 department. It's really quite amazing compared to his brother, who wasn't quite doing this well at age three, as you might recall. Graham, at various times this week after doing his business: "Are you so proud daddy?" "FANNN-TASTIC" "Do I get a fruit snack?" "Are you so happy?" Then later: "What does proud mean?" This no diapers thing is all I hoped for and more.

Graham is also growing out of being a fantastic sleeper. (Not as we like it.) Usually both boys go to bed at 7:30 pm, and wake up at 6:15, which has worked fine because Finn doesn't take a nap but Graham still does. He's of course always needed more sleep since he's younger. Finn is still on this schedule, but as Graham gets older, he apparently is needing less sleep. He hasn't been falling asleep until probably 8:30 pm lately which has necessitated moving him and his bed into the playroom. There he can kick around and play after Finn has gone to sleep. This really isn't ideal for anyone, but as long as he keeps napping, I don't see any way around it. Sigh... It was such a perfect system, people! I don't have any pictures to correspond to these stories, so here are some other photos:

Dressing up "like daddy"

Finn IS growing up, isn't he!!!

Superheroes enjoy watermelon

Thanks daddy for finding my fishing pole, buying some worms, and taking us down to Westlake Park (down the street)... Finn hasn't asked to go since, so it may not have been all that he'd hoped for.

Next Venus Transit is in 2117!

Our Eclipse Vacation went so well that we decided to view the transit of Venus. This time there was an excellent view right in town, so we headed to the west side of campus to take in the multi-hour event. Venus transits were first predicted by Kepler (the man) and viewed in 1639.  Here is the best pic that I got through a telescope using only my camera phone.  The white balance appeared to be confused.

Here are Graham and Katie.  This was Graham's first time looking through a telescope.  I'm not sure he could really see, but people had some nice projections onto paper, so he knew what was going on.

Finn looked through 3 different telescopes. He was quite excited.

Still very excited. This was after he got to look at the generator that was powering one of the telescopes.

I also drove up the coast 20 miles to see if I could view the transit at sunset, but there was mild cloud cover. It was still nice to be at a large windswept beach, nearly empty, as the Sun set over the Pacific.

Skinned Knees

The weather has been quite pleasant here lately (well, I guess that isn't such a surprise, sorry) and the boys have been wearing a fair amount of shorts and t-shirts. Scrapes and scabs aplenty! This is actually less "costly" for Finn than wearing pants, since he tends to rip holes in the knees with regularity, which costs us money and time for patches or new pants. That or he can look like a little hobo who wears rags for clothes. It happens. Finn is now 4 1/2 years old, as of the 13th. We're now getting him a little involved in organized activities, which has its pluses and minuses. The minuses are that things cost money and we have to drive him there! But so far he's done a version of soccer with strong parent participation, and tonight was his first swimming lesson in a long time. (We'd done some water-babies type stuff in the past, but it had been a LONG time.) He did great! The only problem from his perspective was that it was only 30 minutes.
He's very proud of his new swimsuit that says "Totally Jawsome" with a shark's mouth. Graham and Finn are really getting along pretty well these days, and while they do play pretty rough, they make each other laugh a lot. Graham can apparently laugh even while getting manhandled as I tell Finn to leave his brother alone. At some point the laughter turns to tears, of course! In this orange (the official color of Fortney Boys, LLC) photo, I think they are both being mice. Graham is "Super Mouse" while Finn is "Flash Mouse."

Obviously here they are "Batman" and "Tiny Batman."  The warm weather has brought out the backyard hammock as well. While last year they were good about not playing on it, this year, not so much. If you turn the volume up to 11 you can hear them giggling. I took the movie from our bedroom window.

Why is this here? We have a lot of snails and slugs in our yard. This one is only about 2 inches. The much rarer banana slugs (never seen in our yard, yet) are more like 6-8 inches.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

I recently came out of my teaching cocoon after 6 months within it. Now my life is much more flexible until September. It hard to teach a class and keep up with everything else in life. Other things obviously slip---my contribution to the blog being one of them! I do enjoy teaching and I get a lot of personal satisfaction from reading my evaluations, which generally show that the students think that I know what I'm doing! Or at least that I'm enthusiastic as we stumble along together.

The boys are growing up. Graham is 2 1/2 today! Graham has started to pee in his little potty from time to time, so we'll see where that goes. The swag (stickers, fruit snacks) are far more important to him than any sense that this is what one is "supposed to do." With Finn, it was a long process, and I don't expect anything different with Graham. Only my brother Justin's kids potty train themselves in a week. (Grumble, grumble.) Graham is now in his terrible twos, as he complains about what we're having for dinner and often will lay face first on the ground when he doesn't get his way. But he is still effortlessly cute and snuggly.

Finn is nearing 4 1/2, and about 2 moths ago he told us that he wanted to learn how to read. Katie has been doing nearly daily lessons on reading and writing with him, and he's getting really quite good. Here he is on a "sick day" (he got better fast!) on campus with me. He got to see the room and I teach in and he played with the chalk for about 45 minutes. And he wrote my name pretty well, I must say! Organized soccer practice (Soccersaurus!) just started, and swimming lessons, after a 2-year layoff, in May as well.

My mom came out for a few days earlier in the month, and everyone had a great time. I occasionally daydream just how nice it would be to have more of the family close-by, and then I think about how the life of an academic scientist rarely allows for you to work where you grew up, which is at least possible (if not the norm) for most other jobs that exist. So there is that. Santa Cruz of course has a number of other wonderful attributes!

The boys play together a lot these days. Finn told Katie yesterday that Graham is his favorite person to play with! Graham, being Graham, is usually up for anything that involves Finn, even when it is getting mauled a bit. They had several cute moments on the couch this morning. I promise that Graham was having a good time.

Growing up, and Christmas

Firstly, let's debut the new size chart! Since our last update, both boys have had birthdays. Graham has always been a little behind in height and head size, but has sometimes been a bit heavier. But now it appears the young version of Finn is ahead in all categories. What this means for the future, I don't know. Finn is undeniably a big guy--a 95th percentile type of kid.

Well, the holiday season is over, and the Fortney Family has survived, and enjoyed it! We spent 12 days in the Midwest, split between Minnesota and Iowa. The weather was relatively balmy (mid 30s), and there was no snow on the ground. So that was a little unusual. Grandparents were hugged, cousins were riled up, and raviolis were consumed.

Before we left, Santa was smart enough to come (I guess he got the letter!), and the boys got their very own 2003-era Fujitsu laptop, amongst other things, like color-changing matchbox cars. They are quite excited. (Actually, the computer just broke, but Katie is going to "share" her Mac with them for awhile until we find a resolution.)

Both boys were excellent on the plane ride out. Traveling with them is just getting easier and easier. Graham was especially interested in having his very own bag of potato chips (they bought us nearly an hour), as well as checking out the in-flight tunes.

Last year at my parents' house I spent a good 2 hours making Finn a hollowed out snow cave that he spent about 10 seconds in. This year I spent about 20 minutes raking leaves to make the ultimate leaf pile, and the boys loved it. Mostly they would get running starts and try to go right through it, with limited success.



After the trip down to Iowa (Katie may have pictures?) we spent a few hours at the Mall of America, before we caught our plane out of town. You have never lived until you've played mini golf with a 2-year-old and a 4-year old. At least 5 times, Graham had very short "My do it!" temper tantrums when we tried to help him. He was laying face down on the green carpets. Finn only did a full wind-up whack once (the 2nd hole). And no one got hit in the face, so it was pretty successful. We also rode on quite a few rides at the gigantic indoor amusement park, which is not longer called Camp Snoopy. Oh, and we ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Yay!

Fortney Christmas/solstice/etc. letter 2011

Hello blog readers! If you want a normal Christmas letter, you can go read this first. All that is true of us.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, here are some Fortney family vital stats for those of you who've been out of the loop: Graham is 2, Finn is 4. Katie's a librarian and Jonathan's an astronomy professor. Now we'll do some fun facts. If anyone reading this knew all of these before reading this, come claim your raffle prize. We'll let Finn pick it out.

• Graham insists on wearing sweatpants nearly every day. Or, as he calls them, "sofpants."
• Jonathan got to go golfing this month. He shot a 40 on a par 30. It's been so long since he's golfed at home with his own clubs that we cannot figure out how long it's been (and we tried very hard for multiple minutes).
  
• Finn's favorite stuffed animal is teal and electric yellow shark he won at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, "beating" Jonathan in that game where you squirt in the clown's mouth. He calls it "Fishie." He will tell you (repeatedly) that it is not a shark.
  
• Katie tried to grow rhubarb this year, and failed. But the herb garden was fabulous. We still have parsley, sage, chives, and mint. So, so much mint. (Do you need any mint?)
  
• Mona the cat is NINE. She's gotten less picky about many things in her old age. For instance, she's not above Cheerios now.
• Finn knows his right from his left, and could probably navigate you from our house to his preschool on a good day. Of course, you might also end up in the ocean.
• Graham can say just about whatever pops into his head these days. Today, for instance, before 9 am we'd heard "I pooped at the movie," and "I found a knife for Finn."
• Despite having a chest freezer in the garage for most of the year, Katie has failed to follow through with her threats/promises to "buy half pigs with impunity."
• The Father's Day present Jonathan picked out for himself was a German-engineered 5" diameter hot pink high bounce ball. It's still living a happy cage-free life in the backyard.
  
• Speaking of the backyard, we have a tire swing.
• Our current family project is moving crap (books, staples, batteries, exacto knives, wrapping paper) out of our office/nap room/storage area to make it a better guest room. (Hint, hint).
  
• The boys' favorite books right now include Tiddler, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Shy Little Kitten, and anything based on Cars 2.
• Katie recommends NurtureShock (Po Bronson), Dr. Thorne (Trollope), and Kelley Armstrong's YA novels (Darkest Powers trilogy). Jonathan recommends Bossypants (Tina Fey) and An Introduction to the Theory of Stellar Structure and Evolution (Dina Prialnik).
  
• We did our first whole-family movie outing in 2011, to The Muppets. The boys liked it, and ate most of the popcorn, but the grown-ups laughed more.
• The only movies J&K saw in the theaters without the kids in 2011 were Bridesmaids and Harry Potter 7.5. Bridesmaids FTW!
• 6 days after we write this, the four of us will be getting on a plane bound for MSP, and spending 6 days each in Minnesota and Iowa. We're dreaming of a white Christmas (that link is an oh-so-subtle plug for Katie's December project).
  

We hope to see many of you there, or back here after we get back, or somewhere else that 2012 deems fit if that's what works out. We're both fortunate and unfortunate in having so many amazing friends and family so many places. We wish we could see you more often and catch up on your daily trivia the way we've just caught you up on ours.

With love and silliness,
the Fortneys


P.S. No, we didn't order prints of that. We got the other one.

Dispatch from Grandma Week

Yesterday:
Finn: Why are the brakes making noise?
Gma: They must be wet.
Finn: How did they get wet? It's not wet out.
Gma: Must be the fog.
Finn: Fog doesn't get in brakes.
Gma: Yes, I believe it does.
[Graham taking my side and echoing "fog. Fog."]
Finn: Last time when you drove in Iowa the brakes made noise too.
Gma: Yes, they did! You have a good memory.
Finn: So maybe you're not such a good driver.

This morning, unsolicited, he volunteered that his mom and dad were both better drivers than me, especially his dad, who is always learning more about driving.


******
Jonathan and I are currently in St. Ives, not far from Cambridge, vising Jeanna and Craig (Jonathan's sister and her husband). Today he gave a short talk at Cambridge, and tomorrow we take a train to London, and from there to Paris! Besides catching up on our sleeping, reading, TV watching, and eating of English foodstuffs (Wensleydale! Scones! Pasties!), we've also done some sightseeing and shopping. We're having a great time, more so thanks to updates like these from my mom. It's also neat that our rented Italian smart phone can use Google Voice to send text messages to my mom in California while I'm in England.
I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to bore you with soon. Until then...

Finn's First Baseball Game

I like baseball, and I've been to many games in my life. Probably between 100 and 200 games, but that is as close as I can estimate it. Out here the San Francisco Giants stadium (AT&T Park) is outstanding, but the Oakland A's stadium (something something Colosseum) isn't so great. But there is also the San Jose Giants Class A minor league team, which is the closest to our house. They play in a small 1940s stadium that seats probably 5000. And the tickets are cheap!

I decided it was time to take Finn to his first game, to see how he liked it. I'm not yet decided on whether or not Finn "has to" like baseball, but I think it would be fun if he did. We went to a 4 p.m. game, which was the first of a double-header. Here we are just before we left to go home, after the 3rd inning of the 2nd game. (It was bedtime.)

So, the story: After downing a frozen lemonade during the first two innings, he was getting pretty bored, but I still managed to point out the dugouts (below ground level!) and Gigante, the gorilla mascot (amazing!). Given his restlessness, I was thinking the trip maybe wasn't the best idea. We left to go check out the bounce-house area (yes, there was an entire are) and we spent about an hour down there before returning to our seats with nachos and a brat (the sausage, not the boy).

We saw a 7-run inning with a lot of action, and he liked the home run and the guys throwing the ball around the field, and into the outfield. It was pretty hard for him to follow the ball off of the bat, but seemed to have an OK idea of what was going on. After that long inning we headed back to the bounce-house area for another 90 minutes (at least!). Oh, he and I also managed to "blow it up" with Gigante, when we walked by his seat. That was a big deal. Here is what Gigante looks like:


They had all manner of bouncy things. The standard bounce-house (what I call a jumpy-jumpy), the bounce slide (see above), a few others, and the interesting bounce-vacuum t-ball set. Below is a video of Finn hitting. It took him awhile but his last few swings were quite good. His mom taught him everything he knows. On the last one he hit the ball into a small target and won us two free tickets to a future game!

A Swing and a ...? from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

After getting all the crazies out, we made it back to some seats for another 2 innings, where Finn had his *first ever* cotton candy and downed a giant bottle of apple juice. The cotton candy was another highlight.

It was a fun and very memorable trip. Maybe we can do it again before the season is up. He picked up a lot about the game, but I'm a little worried he thinks that inflatables are a big part of any professional baseball game....

A Gentle Soul

For those of you who don't know Graham very well, I think it is fair to say that he is a quite a bit different than Finn. Maybe not as different as my brother and I (Hi Justin!) but they are very distinct. Graham is a sensitive little guy who wants to make you happy. He takes slights very personally. He will give you as many hugs and kisses as you need, and will ask you for them. He dances. This is one of the cutest movies ever.

Dancing to Ella from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Actually Finn is a lot more sensitive in some particular ways. If Finn hurts himself he will wail and let you know about it for 20 minutes. And many band-aids will be required. Graham will forget that a bump or accident ever happened in about 20 seconds, and just go on his merry way. The children-addled brain I have makes it hard to sensibly compare the two, mostly because it is hard for me (already) to remember what Finn was like 2 years ago. But that's the beauty of the blog! :)

The most important news of the week is that we got Graham a big boy bed, very much like Finn's, from IKEA. The two boys are back in the same bedroom, probably for many years to come! He had been sleeping in the pack-and-play in the office for the past several months, because that was easy, and the boys would never wake each other up. He's now slept in his bed back-to-back nights, and he loves it. Finn has been showing him the ropes, including the VERY KEY rule that you can't get out of bed to come wake up mommy and daddy until the moon light comes on at 6:15. That is the key to everyone's sanity. When we're in the Midwest in August, Graham will be too big for the pack-and-plays there, so we had to get him trained sleeping on a bed before then. Finn likes having his brother in their room, but he needs to stop piling so many stuffed animals on Graham when Graham is trying to go to sleep.

For comparison, here is Finn sleeping in his bed from the same time of year in 2009, but he was about 6 weeks younger.

Below is one of my favorites from two week ago---Graham sitting with Cato, our neighbors' cat. Cato looks just like Mona, but likes attention from small people more than Mona does. Just a very peaceful scene.

Here are brothers being brothers:

We visited Alex and Laura up in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, and during brunch the boys each got balloon creations. Graham got a flower, but the balloon artist suggested it could also be a hat. I think he was right.

Waterlogged boys

Summer, or what passes for summer, is in full swing! Highs of 67! Lows of 52! What?! Anyway, at least it is sunny in the afternoons when the fog burns off. A few days ago when Katie was in New Orleans the Fortney boys went with some friends to a fun neighborhood pool in Sunnyvale, on the warm side of the Santa Cruz mountains. Both boys enjoyed the 1-foot-deep kiddy pool and the main pool (with parental assistance--thanks Rachel!). Here is Graham getting warm and dry after a fun afternoon. In other news, they inhaled paella on trips out of the pool.

The boys were supposed to fall asleep in the car, since we left at 7:40, just before their bedtime. Graham held on for 25 minutes, and Finn made it all the way home, plus another 45 minutes. He was rattling around his room til 9:15, probably the latest he's even stayed up. He was on a swimming high.

As for more local water, I put a little too much bubble liquid in a few nights back, but of course that just made bath time even more fun.

Finn was unable to attend school yesterday due to a fever (which had already broken), so the two of us went to see Cars 2. It was Finn's 2nd movie, after Toy Story 3 from last summer. He did pretty well, and only moved seats or rows a few times.

In other boy news, Graham has been stringing 2-word phrases together, like "Up high," "my turn," "bye cows," and "mean daddy." The last one was from when I changed his diaper without his permission! I'll remember that one forever.

Oh, and here is Graham dancing with Elmo at Toys 'R Us. :)

Elmo and Graham, Buddies from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Graham's first hair cut!

Graham's hair has grown in a lot more slowly than Finn's. But finally, here at 20 months, we decided it was time for him to get his first trim. We found a 1-chair Dr. Seuss-themed place that is a ways down towards Monterey. Finn went first and showed Graham how it was done, and then Graham took his turn, sitting on Katie's lap. He was a real pro!


For a comparison, here is Finn's first haircut, when he was 18 months old. He was much shaggier, and apparently we'd already done two little trims at home when he was a bit younger.
In other news, summer is taking its time in arriving. 63 is a nice temperature for January, I will admit, but in June....not so much.

Little Scam Artist

I'm at the Denver Airport but I thought that Graham's shenanigans needed to recorded on the blog while they were fresh. He has ascended to toddlercy, and life will never be the same. It is amazing that someone so small and so young (20 months) could be so crafty.

Sometime late last week Graham contracted some sort of virus that gave him a slight fever and skin rash. Saturday and Sunday he was definitely under the weather, and didn't sleep or nap as well as usual. He got a little more personal attention than usual, mostly because he demanded it. Monday, he seemed better, so we brought him to school. That lasted only a few minutes, and he was very sad and upset. I spent the whole day with him at home, and, except for an extra long nap (on me) seemed quite normal, but liked spending the day with me and watching a Sesame Street. He requested it by pointing at the TV and saying "Mooie."

Then came Tuesday---I wasn't in town so I'll let Katie's Facebook post tell the story: "Cried and refused to eat the whole 1/2 hour between when I dropped him off and picked him back up. Ate his muffin in the car on the way home, then came in the house, climbed on the couch, pointed at the TV, and said "Mooie!" I am sincerely hoping the doctor we see this afternoon will clear his rash as "not contagious" and the little faker can go back to day care tomorrow." (Dr. said he was fine.) Here is a pic from that day:

Today, according to Katie he went into hysterics again at drop-off today, but, just like yesterday, he is no longer sick. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice....nah, won't happen.

It is beginning to dawn on me that Graham may have been scamming us since day 1. This easygoing personality, chipper attitude, and good napping thing was all just an act, and he's been waiting patiently to take advantage of us.

My Spoon is too Big!

Going out to restaurants with the boys takes a certain state of mind. You have to want to go out to eat (fun!) while wrangling the boys in an unfamiliar environment (maybe!). We're gradually finding places in Santa Cruz that are kid-friendly. That can range from the restaurant being loud (a plus), to having books for kids to look at (new books!), to giving each child their own ball of pizza dough (a huge winner).

A couple weeks back Jessica and Daren, and their kids Caitlin (age 4) and Liam (age 2) came over the hill from Sunnyvale to spend the afternoon with us. We went to the Surfrider Cafe in downtown. We'd been there once before (they have books) but managed to keep it quiet that the kids meals came with ice cream. But not this time! Both boys really loved their vanilla ice cream, with Graham really taking to his "I'm a big boy now" status. There isn't much that is cuter than little boys with big spoons.




We've been making it down to the park 2-3 times a week, depending on the weather. Ducks are there in tremendous numbers. And coots. "What is a coot?" you might ask? (I sure did.) It is like a duck, but smaller. Instead of webbed feet they have what looks somewhat like green leaves that extend from either side of their three toes, to help them swim. Both boys like to chase the ducks and coots, which usually happens in slow motion. It's rare for the ducks to have to ever actually take flight to get away.

Here is Graham coot herding. The coot whisperer?

Duck walking from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Two grown-up boys

Finn of course has his own wants and needs. (yogurt, The Incredibles movie, bike riding, Gorilla Munch cereal). But Graham, little chubba jolly Graham, alas, also has wants, besides just being squeezed and tickled by his parents. The cutest is his sassy "Nooooooo!" in his little squeaky voice, if he disagrees with you. He's remarkably good at making animal noises, and has a few actual human words he can pull out as needed. But yeah, he's starting to have his opinions. He also is quite willing to "attack" Finn if he wants to have some fun, but that basically never goes his way in the end, since Finn is big and not afraid to be the victor.

Lately we've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Happy Hollow zoo in San Jose, and to the beaches in Santa Cruz and in Pismo Beach, which is 3 hours south down the coast. (Hi to Sarah and Joel!) Being outside is certainly great for family sanity.

Finn is full of questions, as always. Lots about Mr. Incredible and the Incredible Hulk, which he certainly now knows are different people. We spent a considerable amount of time at the dinner table last night discussing how, often, big things can be faster than smaller things (horse vs. cat, say) but then something can be so big, that it can be slower than small thing (elephant vs. horse, say). I'm not sure that he bought it. Anyway, lots of active discussions, which can be repetitive, because he just won't care that we had the very same discussion the day (or minute) before.

Here is Graham at the aquarium last month. Both boys had a great time, although the Outer Bay tank is closed for refurbishment.

This is one from bath time just last night! Maybe a haircut for Finn this weekend? One thing that Graham can ask for (and does) is a bubble bath. "Bubbo!"

These last two are from on the beach in Santa Cruz. Finn spent most of his time under the boardwalk, while Graham preferred the open sand, after he finally woke up from his nap. It is about a 30-40 minute walk from our house to the beach, so that is a good weekend activity when the weather in nice. Finn even rides his bike all the way there. Coming back home uphill is a different story!

A post from Kobe

Saturday night Graham gave Katie and me our first experience with one of our boys throwing up. He took it pretty well, really, but it made for a pretty rough night, especially for Katie. For some reason I didn't actually think it was very likely that I'd get whatever he had. But here we are a few days later, and Katie and I are both feeling pretty bad. Katie is worse off, especially because I'm 5000 miles away in Kobe, Japan, and can't help out. Hopefully Finn will escape the bug, but we'll see.

I've generally been waking up at 4 a.m., so I have a nice view of sunrise whenever I want it. The hotel I'm at (for a conference) is right on the beach, but when it is 40 degrees in January, things are pretty desolate.

The weather back in Santa Cruz has finally started to take a turn for the sane (meaning dry), after we managed to get rained on for about 27 days out of 30 days. It was just soggy for a long time. But sometimes you just gotta go outside:

Rain! I don't mind! from Jonathan Fortney on Vimeo.

Graham continues to be as cute as ever. He can reliably say a few things now, more or less. He can moo. He can make a little elephant noise. He can say "no," "all done," "kitty," "momma", and "dadda." No sign of his saying "Finn," yet---that post from 2 months ago where I claimed that he could was just a false alarm. He asks for food all the time by using the sign for "more." The kid is a MAJOR ham. The top picture below is what we call his cheeser face. He makes it a lot when cameras are around.

Decemberists

December in Santa Cruz! On the plus side, there is no snow. On the minus side, there is no snow. It's been raining a lot here. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it out to cut the grass until March at this rate. At least the grass has started growing more slowly. I did manage to get some wet leaves raked for the boys to jump in.

Our standard-issue plan between 5:20 (when the boys get home) and 6:40 (when we eat) had been to make them run around outside, or I take them to the park. But it's pretty dark by 5:30, so we're all forced to make it work in the house. When we're all stuck in the house, things like this happen, because Momma is the best, and everyone needs her hugs.

We still make it to the park on the weekends. The rate of Duck-flation continues to increase at an increasing rate. There must be 100 ducks there now. Easy. Here is Graham herding them around the pond. He and Finn managed to force them into the water, like two little-boy sheep dogs.

And sometimes we do play in the backyard, even when it is raining. But things don't always go well. Below, at least Finn was having fun. It was mostly my fault because I stuck Graham up there against his will....

If you look carefully behind Graham you can see the edge of our garden. It has become massively overgrown with clover, and some grass, and I think a part of the garden may just stay like that.