Day 7

:o)
Devon

Griffin

He's here!

Griffin - born 12:49am on St. Patty's Day. 8lbs even, 20.5", very very cute :o)
I had him at home just like with Bird and it was awesome.

A few pics to share & more to tell later...
Hugs, Devon

A Santa Cruz morning

We've started hitting up a different Santa Cruz beach after hearing the rangers were ticketing dog owners at Its Beach who weren't following the leash policy. It's actually not so bad though...Mitchell Cove is just a little further down the stretch and has been surprisingly varied throughout the different seasons. The first time we went it was covered in a low tide of kelp forest seaweed (bulbous masses) and tons of flies (yech). Sunday was just gorgeous - the mosses were emerald green and the sandstone and ice plants seem to scream out with color. There were a handful of friendly dogs & owners and enough open space for all to explore.



This picture captures the joy of running from the surf as well as the agony of feeling your iPhone dropping from your pocket into the ocean. All's well now.



Mmmm, moss...Grandma & Bird admired its beauty.



Phylo wanted to climb the rocks too! We helped him up there a couple of times then he managed to get up all on his own with a good running start.


The coolest cave.



Funny thing about the ocean here - it's supremely cold at first then you just get used to it and start romping around like the dogs do :o) Of course, you'll usually see people in bare feet with wool sweaters on. It *is* still early spring here.



Loving having my lens back.



A day is not complete without lots of jumping off things (and in this day's case, a whole lot of cliff climbing too - the girl is unafraid!). Jared is excited to finally have someone who will likely bungee jump and sky dive with him (in the future of course - how young do they allow kids to do those things?? Scary!).

A perfect morning in Santa Cruz (with or w/o your furry friend): hit a beach to get your feet wet and sandy - Mitchell's Cove or another less crowded one, then take a walk along the ocean (W. Cliff Dr.) and watch the surfers battle it out for waves, then head over for coffee & breakfast burritos at Emily's on Mission. If you have young people with you (who still nap) this may be the end of your day and time to head back over the mountain. But if not, you could always then go play disc golf at the local course, or go hit up the boardwalk rides & arcade. Another awesome place to get a bite to eat is Charlie Hong Kong's which is where we ate on Sunday, followed by a little meandering through Greenspace (both on Soquel). And if you're fabric nutty like me then you would absolutely not miss the opportunity to go around the corner on Seabright Ave. to Hart's Fabric!

Seriously fun stuff in Santa Cruz...enjoy :o)

Hugs, Devon
39 weeks pregnant, totally uncomfortable & irritated, trying to maintain great attitude

Good job Mommy!

What Bird said to me while I was in the bathroom yesterday:
"Good job Mommy! No more diapers now!"

Last night going on 9, Bird was standing at her door giggling saying "I'm Dory, you're Nemo!" What could I do but laugh along? Then after a while it wasn't so funny anymore - go to bed kid.

Here's a couple shots from making 15 minute cream biscuits the other day. The recipe is here and it's totally worth it! They only take a few minutes to make, and maybe half an hour to clean up since I let Bird "paint" with flour all over the counters.




Oh, and about baby #2 we're waiting on...I'm already a week past when I had Miranda and will be at 39 weeks this Tuesday. Yep, ready to have him. But he'll come when he's good and ready I assume. Already quite different from his sister.

Have a lovely weekend!
hugs, Devon

In case you need a reason to keep the toilet lid closed

I consider this a public service announcement. You'll appreciate it I'm sure :o)

Yesterday before heading out to pick up Grandma & Grandpa from the airport, Bird and I headed into the studio so I could print some things for preschool (only printer in the house is in my studio). Phylo came too of course - my little shadow. As soon as he stepped through the door he started whining and desperately wanted to get into the bathroom. He'll hardly ever push through a door on his own and will typically whine & complain till we open it for him. I told him to hang on and chill out and to my surprise he shoved the door with his head and ran in the bathroom. Then he really started whining!

I finished my printing stuff then we went in to check on what the heck the dog's going crazy about. He was actually drooling! I looked behind the toilet, in the shower, etc. and didn't see anything. Sometimes he can go crazy for little things - spiders and whatnot. Or for things we can't see like when there was a mouse family in the garden bed. So I started teasing and egging him on a little. "Go get it Phylo!" & "What is it boy?". Then I jokingly lifted the toilet lid...and thought confusedly for a moment, "Is that a kitten?" In the next nanosecond I realized it was a healthy sized drenched rat (!!!) and dropped the lid from my fingers. I seriously didn't get why/how there was a rat in the toilet? And the next thought was how in the world to get him out?? So of course we called Jared who said to flush him (haha, thanks so much for the help hon). This obviously wouldn't have worked - and anyway, I had realized at this point that he had come from that direction anyway (a true sewer rat!) and Bird told me also that rats don't go down the toilet. SO...my next thought was to open the window, then the toilet lid, then quickly close the bathroom door. But Jared shot down that idea saying it wasn't cool to let him go into our yard or the neighbor's yard. I really wasn't into the idea of the rat losing his life :(

Then we remembered I needed to go pick up Jared's parents and decided to make it Grandpa's problem, heheh. He was happy to help and...well, I'll spare you the details. It wasn't awful but I'll definitely say I've cringed a bit every time I've lifted the toilet lid since then. By the way, we have a really heavy ceramic lid out here - a plastic one wouldn't have held him in and then you know, I would have had a totally different scenario on my hands - yikes!

So anyway, keep your toilet lids closed - this could happen to you too!

You're welcome :o)

hugs, Devon