Welcome, Grandpa

Grandpa came to town after Grandma was here for almost two weeks. Anyone who knows Grandpa (Sarah's dad) knows that he doesn't like to be alone very much. So, it was a big sacrifice. That made his arrival especially sweet.

Grandpa soon joined in the nighttime walks with Austin. It's a little dark here, but you can see.




Grandma swears that Austin learned how to say "glasses" while she was here because Grandma's always using her reading glasses. For sure, Austin makes some sounds and puts his hands by his ears as if he's putting on glasses. But I'm not quite sure he can say "glasses" yet. Here he is trying on Grandpa's glasses.



Grandma bought animal crackers, even though we try to stay away from too many sweets.




Austin immediately bonded with Grandpa. Austin figured out VERY quickly that Grandpa is a it of a softie. When we yelled at Austin for putting a rock in his mouth, Austin went to Grandpa for sympathy. When we wouldn't take him outside of a restaurant, Austin walked over to Grandpa, who did take him outside. Grandpa also let Austin sit on the hood of his truck and play with the windshield wipers. Austin got him to read a book, too. The little guy is a hard to resist sometimes.




Here's Grandma with Austin at the Orange circle after breakfast.





On the grandparents' last day, we finally did some sightseeing by going to Seal Beach.



Austin loved the sand, but didn't get too wet. I think he was a little bit afraid of the chilly waves.

Grandpa scooped up water and made molds of damp sand to show Austin how to make a sand castle.

Grandma and Austin enjoyed the lovely view.

We miss you, Grandma and Grandpa!

Visits from grandmothers

Over the past three weeks, all grandparents came to town.

We needed help with child care while our nanny, Ana, was on vacation. So, both grandmothers came in shifts to babysit. Grandpa visited on the last weekend.

Noni, Michael's mother, was the first to arrive. She had a little bit of trouble with the buckles on the high chair. Instead of waking Michael up to help, she made do by using a scarf to tie Austin to a regular chair. Looks like he stayed put while eating his strawberries.






During her stay, Michael and my aunt, Pat, put the finishing touches on redoing the backyard patio. We had a nice dinner outside.




Normally, we don't let Austin have desserts. But we made an exception for Knott's boysenberry pie. It's fruit, right?





On Noni's last day, we went to the Santa Ana Zoo.




They enjoyed looking at the animal displays and the abundance of monkeys.

Austin in a big egg.

Noni started a tradition of going on a before-bedtime walk in front of our house. She let him sit on the fire hydrant and play with car handles (not the best idea). Austin also learned to say "moon" around the time she was here. Pretty much every night, Austin says, "moon," so he can go out and look for the moon on his walk.

Grandma, Sarah's mom, arrived just as Noni was leaving. In fact, Grandma got off the same plane that Noni boarded.

During Grandma's visit, we went on a trip to Costco for some staples. But Grandma couldn't resist buying Austin this truck and helmet set. She claims that Austin was physically drooling over it. I think he was just teething.

Grandma's visit coincided with parent-and-me swim lessons. Austin learned how to blow bubbles, but he mostly just wanted to climb on the pool stairs.

I dunked him underwater for the first time. See, he didn't cry.

We took Grandma to a concert in the park at Hart Park, where Grandma led Austin to the dance floor. They were groovin'.

Grandma also joined us on our Taco Tuesday tradition at Taco Mesa. Austin colored on his placemat.

He took a big bite out of a full taco, instead of just picking out the meat and tearing off scraps of tortilla.

Austin was getting so good at coloring that Grandma bought him a box of crayons and coloring books. He got this elephant from story time. Serious art.

Next time, we'll bring you pictures from Grandpa's visit.

-Sarah

Elephants and friends

With our San Diego Zoo annual passes, we had a few free tickets. So, we invited the Dings along.

Austin and Sedona enjoyed petting the goats in the children's area. I think Maven was there, too, but we didn't get any pictures.




After walking in the sun for awhile, we took a break indoors to look at the underwater polar bear exhibit. We saw the huge polar bears up close.



Austin and Sedona joked around with each other on different levels.





We then headed over to the fabulous new elephant exhibit. That was a huge highlight for Austin, who loves making elephant noises. Our nanny, Ana, taught Austin to shake his head and blow like an "elefante." It was one of his first tricks.


You can see the elephant in the distance to the right of his hat.



They were a little closer here. The zookeeper was feeding the elephants.

Here are Sedona, Maven and Austin all holding hands.

A family picture at the end of the day.

And a group shot. We're all tired, but not as tired as Maven.

We hope to do it again sometime soon.