Vacation weary

Too worn out by the sun, sand, water, kid to post much. It's kinda sad that we're leaving tomorrow and kinda great too. The crazies have moved into town for the holiday weekend and the beach was packed today. We've so enjoyed having it to ourselves all week.

Tonight, our walls are rattling from the music of the college kids who've moved in next door. Predicting a long drive tomorrow.

Anyway just had a funny story to share. Yesterday Amelia was running around like the maniac she is and when Justin tried to catch her she tripped over his hand and fell. She half laughed and half cried. Justin asked her where she landed and what hurt. She squeezed her meaty cheeks and said "cheek!" with a whine. "Your cheek? Alright Then you're good! That's the best possible place for you to fall" he replied with a chuckle.

There aren't too many places on that little body with more cushion.






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Beach Bug

We are having a great time on vacation in San Clemente-- the best beach town in California. Amelia luuuuurves the beach and plays in the water until her skin hives and her lips turn blue. We have to chase her away from the waves just to warm up
for a minute. We've done nothing beyond sitting on the sand for hours on end, playing under the umbrella and sharing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We come back to our apartment for naptime and then back to the beach until dinner. On downtimes, we sit and play on the 8' x 8' sundeck watching the trains go by and listening to the waves roll in.

It's fabulous.

We're looking for jobs.

I've been taking lots of pics with my real cam, but some from my phone too. The others will have to wait in lieu of iPhone shots.

Beach bound!


View from our deck. Not too shabby.


Somebody is very serious about her sand play. She said she was making sand cookies.


Blue lips and hives. Lol


Amelia, do you like the beach?


Sunset, socal style.


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Crazy People

Amelia had the most fantastic birthday party! My heart ached with happiness watching her have such a great time. She absolutely "got" the whole concept of the party carrying on in her honor. She showed all of her friends her new house and just had a blast. I can't really describe how exciting it was for her mama to watch the whole thing. She's growing up, that girl. And I most adore watching it all unfold.
The blogging problem in the way of this here post is that we are now on vacation and therefore I can't post the full recap--yet. If I had a more modern than a dinosaur laptop I could post adequately, but you see, I don't. In fact, I'm teaching an insane THREE classes in only 8 weeks this summer hoping to buy said non-Dino machine. AND if we weren't complete and total lunatics who drove 9 hours for a 6 day vacation the morning after our kid's second birthday party, I could've posted from home. But we really are that crazy. So I didn't.
Here she is on our sun deck after arriving last night.


She looks good at the beach, no? On a sidenote, she did pretty well on the drive down. Yet I wouldn't recommend that plan to anyone--a loooong drive with a newly potty-trained, newly 2 toddler is . . . Um, well, challenging. Perhaps more accurately, it's crazy.

In any case, I plan on blogging from my phone while here and then with full picture updates when we get home. Including a full dedication to A's party. Remind me to describe her face when everyone sang to her. Priceless. I shall never forget it.

In the meantime, I leave you with some colorful tidbits.





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Amelia is two.

Amelia had a superb birthday! We got off to celebrate early, let her pick lunch, and unveiled among the best gifts I’ve ever seen a kid receive. She blew out her candles, ate cake, and had an otherwise just awesome day.

It’s rather late and this mama is weary from all the excitement of the day, capped by a late-night grocery run for somebody’s party, and the blogging juices have run dry of late, but I just couldn’t let her birthday go undocumented. That can only mean one thing---lots of pictures and not a lot of commentary! woot! Isn’t that why anyone comes here anyway?

I shall try (I mean try) to not talk endlessly about the day she was born because quite frankly, that’s what I could go on and on about.

Happy Birthday to ME!

TWO! And Peace my brothers and sisters.

We spent the morning at Fairy Tale Town after deciding that a bounce house was too germy with sweaty, sticky kids a mere 3 days before her big bash. Then we looked at each other and smiled in deep appreciation of our shared paranoid neuroses.

There are so many fun things to do/see/play at FTT! I’ve never been and was impressed with how perfect it was for tots! Amelia feigned her shyness at first, but was running around like a wild banshee by the time we left, so it was safe to say she LOVED it. 

You mean Teepee isn’t just for toilet paper? 

She most particularly loves the animals. Naturally. I love you sheep. Come kiss me!

Uh. Oh. I’ve seen this face before. From this angle it looks like. It’s just exactly the same as . . . oh no. I have to.

Oh my. Precious. Love.

Okay, I’ll pretend to recover and keep moving.

Fairy Tale Town should just rename itself as “Photo Op Heaven”

Hey! My piggies don’t fit in this thing!

 

We had a really good time! I took so many pictures, I’ll have to dedicate an entire post to our FTT visit. And we will definitely be going back! At $4 per adult, what a deal!

Lunch was Missy Pant’s choice.

Pizzy, pizzy!

Okay and then there’s The Gift. Yeah, we gave Amelia a few cool 2-year-old gifts. An awesome dump truck, new Ladybug Girl book, Bubble maker thingamajig, and a couple other small things. But there is something else. Something that was the brain child of her parents beginning several months ago.  It required blue prints. And a design aesthetic. And a lot of sweaty Dad work. Just like FTT, it shall get its own post very soon. It deserves it! But here’s a sneak peek. . .

 

Yes. Those are shingles. In case you were wondering.

Finally, Amelia was as pleased as punch when we sang the Happy Birthday Song to her. She LOVES that song and sings it pretty well too.

AND I had to double back to the kitchen to get the second candle! Holy Mother, she’s TWO.

It just makes me think back to . . . I just can’t help myself.

Oh for Pete’s sake. I’ve made it all day with a single tear. My sweet angel. Two. *choke*

Okay, focus.

Cheers!

 

Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl, Baby Love, Sweet Angel, Bug, Preciousness, Sweet Love, Punks, Squirt, Darlin, Missy Pants, and Punkin Pie. You’ve made it all so complicated and exhausting and silly and joyous. You’ve defined my spirit and tickled my soul. You’ve created a new me as I try to guide a great you. You are my life, my love, my heart, my soul, and my daughter. You have no idea, Love, that I still smell your hair when I hold you, that I still see my first sight of you when I close my eyes, and that without you there wouldn’t be much of me.

Random Thoughts

Amelia's turning two tomorrow. TOMORROW. I wish I knew how to feel about it all. It's not shock, or happiness, or sadness. It just . . . is. She's turning two. It doesn't help that we are in the party planning frenzy or that this month has been otherwise pretty awful.

I will say that next year, I'd definitely like to have her party BEFORE her birthday rather than after as we are this year. We don't have any major plans for tomorrow because so much effort has been sucked away by her party. Whereas if she's already had a party, you don't feel so bad about playing it low-key on actual birthday day. Feel me?

Although it might be difficult to have her party on the weekend before her birthday next year because . . . because, well . . . because Amelia's cousin was born this past Sunday! Not just Amelia's cousin, but our NIECE. N I E C E. Yep, a girl, born a mere 4 days before her big cousin's birthday and with a thoughtful, polite arrival in the middle of the day and after a very quick, amazing, natural birth for her mama. I'll have to post pics of that event very soon. Our niece. The baby girl who made Justin an Uncle and me an Auntie. Girls in the family---it's a beautiful thing!
Oh and back to the original thought---Baby Sage's bday will most likely be the weekend before A's. Hmm. So much for planning ahead.

I can tell you one thing--the reason I am not overly affected by Amelia's birthday (at least at this moment)is because she's so ahead of the pack in most areas. She almost seems older to me than 2 because she knows so much. I'll have to fill in the details tomorrow in her Second Birthday Blog. But I'll tell you this little detail-- She's potty-trained. By two.

So there's almost a conflict with her just turning 2. She seems so much older than that. Although I'm guessing that by tomorrow I'll be a whole mess of tears, crying, "My BABY'S two today!!! What happened to my BABY?!"

As you can see, there's mot much point for this post. I think it's beyond hope by now. It's largely here only out of practice for myself. I'm rusty and lethargic in the ways of words, work, and most significantly, photo uploading. Though I did find my camera cord after having lost for 5 months. Now that it's been so long, the thought of loading all of those pics and sorting them and backing them up and then picking the best ones? Blak. I'm hoping that breaking the seal for Amelia's birthday shall get me moving again. Hoping!

And on a final note, I'm sure I won't be asleep at 430 tomorrow morning. I don't know if I will ever sleep at the moment she was born. Not only did I find out that she was, well, a she in that moment, but I met my little soul sister, and was born myself in so many ways. Though I may, at times, long for the days before motherhood, I also see my life beginning under the operating lights and shrouded in anticipation as the clock struck half past 4 in the morning that day. There is no me without her and just as life grew more exhausting, complicated, and heart-wrenching with her arrival, so too did it begin.

Cheers to my BABY. The one who's turning two very soon.