Already?!

Lia has two teeth already. She's had them for a few weeks now. I shouldn't be so shocked, it's a little late as far as first teeth go. But still, Max didn't get his until he was 14 months old!! Yes, his first ones!! Sigh... no more gummy smiles. They really don't last very long...

Singing Bee!

Our little Bia has started to sing along to songs she hears on the radio and TV. Maybe she picks up on Max's love for music. But it's really cute how she tries!

Silly in the Sand

Max loves the sand. Much more than the water. See for yourself.

Turning 27

Yes, it was my birthday. I'm in my late 20's. And as much as I try not to think about all the depressing things that come with getting older, I can't help it. And my actual birthday day didn't help much. The car died and we cost us about $800 to fix. So being stuck inside the house stranded all day with two cranky kids was not a birthday I want to have again. But, I guess the car could have been worse, and we picked it up that night and went to dinner at Benihana. And later that weekend we went to Dumpling Inn with the Bakers and had a lot of fun and yummy food. So in the end, I guess it wasn't so bad. I just don't look forward to birthdays like I used to. Sigh...

Getting even better!

She's getting even better at walking. Pretty soon now she'll just be doing it all on her own. It seems like she doesn't have much motivation to do it, accept that it's kind of a game to her now. Not like Max who was born wanting to walk, I'm not even exaggerating. Lia seems to want to take her time. Fine by me!!




This video isn't great walking. But I think it's pretty funny.

Baking

With daddy. In his underwear. Priceless.

Racing Friends

This is what the kids like to do. These are most of the kids from the neighborhood that we play with regularly. Isn't it fun for Max to have so many friends?

He never fails...

To get really good belly laughs from Lia. She is constantly cracking up at him! Here are a few more videos of them just being goofy together. Love it!

Ew.

This is disgusting. And it was right outside our apartment. Sick. Ew, sick, ew, sick!

She's almost there!!

Lia has been trying to walk for a few weeks now. She loves to push this thing around, although she's not too steady yet. She's getting better though! She can take a few steps between me and Tyler now. Cute thing! I don't want her to walk quite yet. I don't want her to grow up quite yet! I want her to stay a sweet little baby.

Beach Picnic

One of the things we love about living here so close to the beach is that we can go have beach picnics any time we want. Or so we thought. This night was a Wednesday or Thursday night so we thought the beach wouldn't be that crowded. Boy were we wrong! It was at sunset and the beach was packed! I drove around for half an hour looking for a parking spot. I guess since it was before Labor Day everyone was still on their vacations. We like when tourist season ends so we get San Diego back to ourselves!

Anyway, we still had a fun time playing around at the beach.





Lia and Max both love the beach. Max is still a little iffy about the water, but not Lia. She has the fearlessness that Max used to have at that age about crawling right out into the waves. And eating all the sand she can get her hands on!






The sunset was amazing that night! So golden and red and gorgeous.


See how packed it was? At sunset!


Max mostly sticks to land and sand, not so much liking the water. But he builds lots of sand castles.



Lia likes getting splashed.

It was definitely worth the crowds to hang out together at the beach. And now that it's after Labor Day we are even happier to go down with our dinner.

Rare

Here is a rare picture. And not because this kid doesn't take naps anymore. He does -- 3 hours a day. But mostly because he's such a light sleeper that any little noise (opening his door, clicking a camera, breathing) wakes him up.

Breakfast With Danielle

Danielle had a gift certificate to a cute little cafe in Encinitas on the 101 and she invited all of us to help her spend it. We got a delicious breakfast and yummy desserts! The cupcake was filled with peanut butter!




Max got bacon. He loves bacon. Won't eat eggs, but he'll eat a pound of bacon by himself if you let him.



Lia had scrambled eggs. She loved them. She ate almost 3 eggs! I think her stink face here is because the eggs were gone and she was mad.


We will definitely be going back here. It was soo good! Thanks Danielle!!

When it's so hot we want to just die...

We go hang out at IKEA!! Yup, we seriously do. It's air conditioned. It's HUGE so you can't get bored. And it's got a kids play area. And cheap dinner. AND ice cream! It was so hot one night we had to get out of the house so we got some dinner at Ikea, let the kids play, and finished up with their ice cream -- and by the way, it's really good!




I think she's probably yelling at Tyler in this picture to let go of her so she can do it herself. He didn't let go, because she would have toppled right over.


Danielle playing dress-up amongst the Swedish play-things.


Max pretending to sleep under this cool bed tent right before some Ikea worker yelled at us.


We stuck Lia in this cabinet and shut the door and would open it and yell "BOO!!" and she would just crack up. She thought it was hilarious. Until we got yelled at again by another Ikea worker.


Yes Max got ice cream. And yes he wore his pirate costume.


No surprise here that Lia loved ice cream. She could not get enough! Danielle couldn't get the spoon into her mouth fast enough between bites. Sometimes this girl is a little scary!

So, lesson here, if it's so hot you want to kill your family and friends and/or yourself, go to IKEA!! Lots of fun things to do and look at. Cheap food. Fun will be had.

Wicked #3

Yes. I saw Wicked again. And loved every single minute of it. This was my third time going (second time in less than two weeks). It was soooo good!!! I can't get enough of this musical, the music, the acting, the story. If you haven't seen it GO SEE IT. I promise. You will wish you saw it three times, too.


Please ignore my double chins. Brooke looks pretty!


Brookie and her mom -- gorgeous girls!

Very Awesome Day!

We recently went to watch some of our best friends get sealed in the Temple up in Newport Beach. It was an amazing experience watching them finally get sealed! And it was so fun to see most of the old gang from our Berkeley days. I miss hanging out with all of them! We all live fairly close to each other, but it's so hard to get together when there are kids involved now.

Here are all the kids so far. Since this picture was taken a new one has joined the bunch!

This was seriously the best picture we could get of all of them together. Mostly because my kids don't stop moving!


Max thought Brad was pretty cool.


And despite the obvious racial difference, I swear these babies looked SOO much alike when they were littler! It was so funny! Putting them next to each other like this made us think that maybe they don't look that much alike. But I swear, they do, er, did.

We really do need to get together again, all of us! Without kids maybe this time? Ha, who am I kidding!

Andy Visits!

Tyler's youngest sister Andy came for a quick little visit. We went to PB for some real Mexican Food for dinner and played with the kids. Max loves when people come to visit and won't stop asking when Andy will be coming back. So Andy, when are you coming back?