California Day 2

It seems that starting to shift the children to West Coast time a week early had some benefit. The first morning in California, John woke at 4:30 a.m. and Mary at 7:30 a.m., neither of which was anywhere as bad as we thought it would be.

I am really enjoying being back where it feels like home. This is where I grew up. We drove past several of my old haunts today. It's simply a unique feeling to drive along streets where there might be nothing special, but I've driven there thousands of times at various points over nearly 30 years so there are innumerable memories of moments both important and totally mundane.

The temperature was 108 today, but you know what? It really is true that a dry heat is much more bearable than humidity. I didn't feel terribly bothered, whereas 90 in the South makes me feel suffocated!

The grandparents are able to witness Mary right on the cusp of learning to crawl properly. She's gone from scooting to a real crawl of three or four "crawls" at a time.


Beards are very interesting!


We met up with my dad for dinner, which was rather rough for John who was exhausted by then and feeling that it was his bedtime (even though it was 5:00 p.m. here). Mary loved flirting with Grandpa and batting at his nose as long as she could sit in my arms right next to him. She has a touch of age-typical stranger anxiety!
A blurry photo showing how Mary kept curling into my arms for a safety check, then she'd sit up and laugh with Grandpa again.

We all helped keep John from losing what little self-control he had left by inventing little games at the dinner table. Here Grandpa cleverly challenged John to discover whether he could see Grandpa through the straw.

Recently John and Mary have begun reaching for each other across the chasm between their car seats. That makes Mama and Daddy's hearts melt!