First Day of Kindergarten!

School has finally begun! Parker is officially a kindergartener! He woke up at 6:30 this morning, must have been from anticipation of his big day. His best friend, who is also going to the same school but is in a different class, met us at our house with his mom and we all walked down to school together with Jared and Levi. We joined a big group of parents and kids on bikes and scooters all heading to school--it felt pretty exciting. We've watched the to-and-from-school crowds out our front window for the last eight years living here, and now we're part of it... I know Parker is so ready for kindergarten. I'm sure he was nervous, but he doesn't really show it. There weren't any tears when it was time for me to leave. I'm sure he will get used to the newness of everything in a little while, and this will all be old news. I really hope he starts to enjoy it!

p.s. So now it's just me and Levi every day from 8:15 until 2:10...and I seriously have no idea what to do with myself.

Quilt Top

I'm getting so close to finishing my first quilt top! I finally got all of the blocks finished and sewn together...everything pretty much worked out, but unfortunately one of the rows came out shorter than all of the others--??? Ooops. So I think that rather than trimming the rest of it to match, I'm going to go ahead and take that one row off and take it apart and try to redo the blocks so that they come out bigger...it's been a long process, but I'm still enjoying just working on it whenever I feel like it. It got pretty "interesting" working on it as it grew into one bigger and bigger piece of fabric...it became pretty unwieldy. I often felt like I was in over my head--like a kid in a junior high home ec. class first learning how to sew. (I had many visions of the well-intentioned yet mediocre ceramics projects I brought home in high school.) Once it is all fixed up, I'll have to put the top together with the backing fabric and batting inbetween, and then sew/quilt it all together. I have no idea how that's going to work out, but hopefully good enough :) I can't wait to have a family picnic on this when it's finally done! I'm also ready to start cutting my fabric to begin Levi's birthday blanket--it'll be nice to work with some different colors and patterns for a change.

Whiz Kid

Watch out, Kindergarten, cause here comes Parker!! He is seriously a math genius. Okay, maybe I'm a little over excited because I'm his mom, but I'm very impressed with his math skills. He brought some money from his coin jar to Target yesterday, and he used it to buy these math flash cards--what a nerd! ;) He even skipped reading books before bed time tonight so that he could do some math cards instead--and he gets the problems right (and quickly) basically every single time. He's also been working on subtraction and multiplication. He is definitely going to be waaaaaaaay better than me at math by at least first grade. Good thing Jared's good with numbers, cause I sure won't be able to help him with his homework! 

A Big Day at the Pool

Okay, I think it's about time I bite the bullet and officially declare Parker "A Swimmer." He was amazing at the pool today--I am so proud of him!! He happily and willingly swam back and forth across the pool--width wise--numerous times, and he did this in a deep area where he knew he couldn't touch! He progressed on to jumping into the pool in the "deep end" and swimming back to the wall; by the time we were ready to leave, he decided that he wants to learn how to dive. I am so happy that this has truly been the summer that Parker learned how to swim. Now off to Kindergarten in less than a week! Goodness gracious. 

Sick Day

Poor Levi. He is such a sweet, happy, silly, strong boy...but when he gets sick, he gets hit hard. After having RSV at only 11 weeks old, and then again the next winter, he seems to be particularly susceptible to getting horrible coughs whenever he gets the littlest cold. It's pretty much like dealing with croup with every single cold...which is always scary. Parker got a random summertime cold last week, and as you would expect, it passed on to Levi next. We suffered through four sleepless nights full of horrifying coughs and blazing fevers until I took him to the doctor on a Monday morning. The doctor ordered an x-ray to make sure that Levi didn't have pneumonia, since he was struggling a bit too much to breathe...although his lungs turned up clear, the doctor diagnosed him with "reactive airway disease," which seems to be a way of saying that he is susceptible to really bad coughs...although he doesn't have "asthma," it is an "asthma-like" reaction. It seems to be something that he will hopefully grow out of as he gets older and stronger, but we are really dreading another winter of cold and flu season and watching Levi struggle so much every time he gets a cold. The doctor prescribed an albuterol inhaler to use whenever he gets sick, which will hopefully open up his airways a bit and help him breathe better.

Levi also happened to get sick right in the middle of our worst summer heatwave yet...bad timing to be running a fever. It gets really hot in our house this time of year, so we laid a blanket out in the shade in the back yard and he just submitted to sleep while we played some games of Scrabble to pass the time. Parker now happily declares that Scrabble is his favorite game--even though he pretty much can't read or spell yet--and has the most insane amount of patience to actually sit through entire games while we play his tiles for him. Seems like he is already a boy after his mom's heart ;)

Summatime

Chillin' out and cruising back home after a long, sunny Saturday on Prudence...

Jared's Shirt

Dee made this shirt for Jared when he was just a wee lad, and she passed it on to us when Parker was born. I think that in my subconscious the shirt must just feel too special to actually "wear," because I have always kept it safe in the boys' closet all these years! We went for a sunset bike ride to the beach again tonight, and Jared pulled the shirt out for Levi to wear. Levi loved all of our squeals of delight to see how cute he was, and seemed to feel very special. I'll have to look and see if I can find a photo of Jared wearing this shirt when he was little...

Super Levi!

Let's Go Padres!

While Mimi was out of town, we joined Grandpa Niki for a Padres game! Sadly, the Padres weren't really up to snuff that night, but we had a ton of fun, especially in the last two innings when someone hit a home run and things got momentarily exciting. Levi started getting pretty squirmy by the seventh inning stretch, so Niki took over and explained the ins and outs of baseball in such great detail and so candidly that Levi became absolutely mesmerized. It was magic!

Nap Time

I've never been very good at getting Levi down for a nap, and I always feel bad that he might be a tad "under-rested." We're usually bouncing around all day, from preschool dropoff to preschool pickup, to the grocery store to karate classes to swim lessons to swimming at Grammy and Grandpa's pool....which makes it hard to settle down and get quiet in the house for an extended period of time every day so Levi can sleep. For a long time, I would put Levi in his stroller and Parker would hop on his bike and we would traipse around the neighborhood until Levi fell asleep, then I'd park him in the stroller in my room and he'd usually sleep for around an hour and a half...it basically worked out for everyone, but it was still a lot of effort just to get him down for a nap, and now that the afternoons are so much hotter, walking around the neighborhood in the middle of the day doesn't sound so appealing. So, as soon as we returned from our road trip to Healdsburg, I bit the bullet and started putting Levi down for a nap--in his crib--every day. And for the first week, it worked like a charm...it's like all he had been waiting for was for me to just let him take a regular old nap, like he's supposed to! Eventually, we started having days where he just wouldn't go to sleep, and he would miss a nap yet again, but I definitely feel like we're heading in the right direction. Once kindergarten starts--in just one short week--I won't have any more excuses, and Levi will have a nice quiet house to sleep in every day! 

A Boat Load of Prindles

Grandpa Geoff came down from the Sierras for his annual summer-time visit, and while he was here Nate, Lisa, and Alex joined us for a day out on the high seas. The day was overcast and a little cool, but the winds were light and the seas were pretty mellow, so everyone was able to relax and enjoy the boat. The sun came out for a little while and we anchored in the harbor for a quick swim and dinghy exploration. So fun!

Skate On Film

I'm trying to catch up on the blog...here's a photo from the premiere of the TV show that Jared directed with 900Films for ESPN called Skate On Film. After the showing, Jared and his friend, Jesse, who produced the show, sat on a panel with three professional skateboarders to answer questions from a moderator and the audience. I was nervous and excited for him! Jared is on the far left in the red plaid shirt.