Random ramblings

Who hates tax time? Lots of people I am sure. But not me. It always means money coming back to us, at least it has so far that we've been married. This year is no exception. Yeah for tax returns! Now Joe can go to the dentist, and we are planning to go to D.C. to see my parents in the spring. Maybe we can do some more home improvements as well. Of course, I would really like a new bed too. Hmmm....how far can we make it stretch??? Sure we should probably put it all in savings, or invest it or something, but someone has to stimulate the economy, so why not us?

Simon told me my shirt is "pretty pink" today. What a sweetheart!

I love ticklish children. They are more fun than non-ticklish ones. Eli and Simon are very ticklish, and love being tickled. Alice is ticklish, but she is not sure if she likes it yet. It is amusing to me though.

Alice is eating food. She has likes rice cereal and has tried sweet potatoes. She definitely thinks she should eat dinner when we do. Now she can sit in her high chair by the table, and we have dinner all together. Of course, that means there is one more child for me to help during dinner, so my food is never hot when it finally makes it to my mouth. Such is the life of a mother.

I love it when Eli and Simon play together. Usually it involves chasing or throwing things (soft things like stuffed animals or shirts) at each other, and is pretty noisy, but it warms my heart to see them having fun with each other. The other day Simon told me Eli is his best friend. So cute. I love how Simon is exploring language and learning how to express himself. He knows his favorite color is green, he loves the letters H and K (I don't know why), and the word Kangaroo. This is a fun age (I try to remember that during the moments when its not).

I love dessert. I know I shouldn't eat it everyday, but it is so hard not to. When I don't have ice cream or something, I make dessert. I often tell myself I will be sorry later, you know "a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips" and all that, but I am not deterred. Maybe I will get a grip on myself after I stop nursing. For now, I feel like I deserve extra sweetness at the end of the day. And that is just the way it is.

We love LA

We went to Southern California last weekend to visit relatives: grandmas, grandpa, aunt, uncles, and cousin. It was a lot of fun, and we were spoiled. We even got sunny blue skies, and no rain while we were there. It wasn't warm enough for a swim in the ocean, but we did visit the beach. Here are some pictures of our fun time.

My Gramps, Nana, and Uncle Kevin took us to Universal Studios. We had lots of fun seeing cool shows, including one about animal actors that the kids thought was great. We met lots of characters, and Simon was so excited to see them. And they thought he was hoot. And they all wanted to say hi to Alice too. Eli was kind of shy around the characters, but he did ride the virtual roller coaster with Gramps, Joe and I. And I think he kind of liked it. I know I did!

Then we went to Pacific Park at the pier in Santa Monica with my Aunt Kara, Grammy, and cousin Kelly. We walked to the end of the pier, rode the ferris wheel, played games in the midway and won animals (Eli won his all by himself!), rode the carousel, went through the little aquarium, and picked up shells on the beach. We put our feet in the water too, which was very cold! And then Eli fell down in the water and got half of himself wet. It was rather amusing.

We also went with Gramps and Nana to Travel Town, a place in Griffith park that has trains the kids could climb on. And a little train we all rode on.

We had a nice family dinner with everyone that night. Everyone was so nice to the kids. Simon found a buddy in Uncle Kevin, and Kelly. Alice was such a good girl and let everyone hold her and shared lots of smiles. We had a fabulous time. Thanks to all my family for hosting us and showing us such a fun time!

And Alice learned how to rollover last week. So here she is on her stomach, she got there all by hereself. It took her several tries to get her arms out from under herself, but now she seems to have the hang of it. She also rolled from her stomach to her back again once, but hasn't done it since. She will be mobile in no time though!