July is a big birthday month for us, starting with my mom's in the beginning then Jon's, Becky's & Eden's are all clustered into the last week or so. We celebrated Jon's bday on Tues and despite the kids being a bit under the weather it was a beautiful day. Jon went diving down at the Coronado islands with his buddy for the first portion of the day and brought home some beautiful yellowtail (3!). Apparently it was magical out there, the boys also brought home tales of seahorses, dolphins, and great blue whales - as it turns out the tales were almost as delightful as the actual fish. One day I will sneak may way onto the ski for one of these adventures. (: Later in the afternoon, Jon's family came over to celebrate with presents and cake, and Jon's mom was super sweet to take the kids and we got to go on a little date. We walked down to Del Mar sans the kids and it just felt so strange (and quiet) to be walking anywhere without them.
Eden waiting patiently for some raw fish
One of the first cards Eden has made so I had to take a picture
Jon being silly with the kids
I think these pictures are so special I wish they would not have come out so dark
Yesterday Eden and all of her (near by) cousins went to visit Jon at the fire station. The Walla cousins are not shown because I do not have permission to put them on this blog. Anyway, it was lots and lots of fun. Especially fun to spend some time with Easton. Eden absolutely adores him and they are at such a special age where they are just starting to really play and interact with each other. I really can not get enough of those two together.
We did baby beach in two parts today. Pre- zion nap and post. The morning was super peaceful and perfect. All the kids were pretty relaxed (especially Zion) see below. The afternoon was equally perfect but just a little bit more crowded and crazy. Eden was stoked to be playing with her cousins again!
Zion wanted a ride on the boogie so badly today that he did not care how he got it. This is how Eden placed him on it, so he just went with it. It was quite strange to see her dragging him through the water like this. Tracy and I could not believe how relaxed he was about it.
This is the new move Eden has been working on.
She is actually getting pretty good at it.
She also Loves the wiping out part - can't get enough of it
I can't believe I have let so much time pass since I have posted anything to this blog. But even now as I try to post something Eden is badgering me about picking this picture or that for some imaginary game she is playing. Which is wonderful and great fun but absolutely not conducive to my own personal productivity. That, in addition to the fact that she decided to quit napping and Zion decided to start crawling, and somehow my days are a constant blurr of trying to keep us all alive and in one piece.
Updates on Zion since the last post:
He started crawling on Easter day, since then he has climbed out of his crib, crawled up stairs (while no one one looking), and now he is walking along furniture. He also has several words including mamma, dada, Eden, and Ya (in response to "Do you want this?"). We have also heard him say hi once or twice but not consistently.
Updates on Eden:
She is riding her scoot bike really well. Rides it all the way down to the school, around the school and home. Jon says it might be about a mile which seems like a lot for a 2 1/2 yr old (which is how old she was when she started doing that). She is also swimming really well and starting to be a lot more comfortable in the ocean. Recently she started letting the waves crash over her head.
That's all I have for now. Eden is relentless for attention. I don't think I can ward her off for another second.
Here is a sneak peak into our daily rhythm...
And one more because I can not help myself - this one gets a bit long, but it is pretty special to us. A bit of background: we have fairly recently discovered books from the library. Just about every other week now we go and check out new books. It has been incredibly fun! A few weeks ago we came across a book that Eden came to love dearly. We read it so many times, and she loved it so much that one night as Jon was reading it she just started reciting each line before he got a chance to read it. We didn't get that first moment on video (we were just enjoying it too much and didn't want to break the spell), but the night before we returned it I tried to capture it. At this point she had become somewhat bored with the book so it didn't happen as magically as that first time she did it, but it was pretty special.
