Garden!

I will finally make a post that doesn't have to do with Thomas, to prove that I do have a life outside of him! ;) Even though I have a black thumb, and even though I JUST started to be able to keep some plants alive, I decided to try gardening this year. I tried last year and it was an epic fail. Last year we thought "Oh hey, look the old owners planted a garden in the yard, let's just plant stuff there and see what happens!" So we planted a tomato plant, strawberries, and a couple other things I can't even remember. I don't think I watered them ever and we also realized that the soil there was total crap. Everything died. Obviously. So this year for my birthday Shem had a friend build me a raised bed. I also planted tomatoes in pots on the early side and they seem to be doing well. I also paid a tiny bit of attention to the fact that we have two citrus trees and an artichoke that were here before us. I fertilized them and we have two artichokes right now, and the citrus trees are budding so we will find out what the produce soon too! Once the raised bed was built, I planted two kinds of lettuce (one Bibb, the other, no clue), a red pepper, a green pepper, chioggia beets, basil, kale, and haricot vert green beans. Ambitious, yes. Foolish to try my hand at so many new things at once, yes. But it was all relatively cheap so if I kill everything at least I will have learned. I will keep you updated as things grow (hopefully).

Grandpa "Bapa" visits!

Grandpa Tom came and spent a week with us last week and it was great having him around. Thomas immediately loved him and called him "Bapa" the whole time. If Tom left the room, Thomas frantically looked for him, and every morning when he woke up, Thomas would try to get into Grandpa's room. I got to go on some outings too and Tom was nice enough to watch Thomas which is always good for me. Shem, Tom, and Thomas all went to the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate park one day and went to the aquarium there. Thomas loved it but he also gets overwhelmed after about an hour at places like that and then he starts making his car noise because he wants to get in the car and leave. At least he tells us when he is over it! We went on a couple of fun walks together and went to the Farmer's Market at the Civic Center in Marin. It had been a couple of years since I went to that one and I forgot how awesome it is. Fresh fish for reasonable (well, more reasonable than the markets out here) prices, and awesome local beef, and fruits and veggies. The food there was amazing. We plan on going a lot more this summer but it does get crazy crowded. I also bought some vegetables to plant there. More on my intro. into gardening later...Thanks for coming to stay with us Tom....we miss "Bapa!"

Palm Springs trip

On the airplane on the way to Palm Springs, Thomas and I were getting off and the pilot asked us if it was his first ride. I said no, but it got me to thinking all the places he has been. We were talking over lunch once we arrived and that was Thomas's 6th plane ride! I can't believe we have taken him on a plane that much. He really has been super easy to travel with, it's me that freaks out. We also figured out that we have been to Palm Springs 3 times with him, making that our most frequent destination. Makes sense since it is so close and only an hour plane ride. The other plane rides were to South Dakota once, Pennsylvania once, and Seattle. We had a blast in Palm Springs this time. One thing I did realize is it's not quite as much of a vacation as it used to be now that we have Thomas, but it's certainly fun in different ways. Exploring and swimming with him is so fun, and we often get to meet up with other extended family members down there. This time a bunch of people were there! We had Paige, Dary, and their 8 month old baby Kara stay with us for a day. Paul, Lindsay and their 5 month old Olivia were also there. It was our first time meeting Olivia and we got to spend lots of time with Kara. Thomas loves babies and he was great with them. He loved pointing at them and saying "wah-wah-wah" (that's what a baby says!), and touching their heads. He also loved bringing them all of his and their toys and stacking them in front of their faces. Also in PS that we got to see briefly were Kevin, Colin (saw him at the airport), Mike, Suzette, and Cole, and Joe, Jennifer, and Neil. We wished we o could have spent more time with everyone but it was still fun just to see everyone. Thomas went on a few golf cart rides with Grandpa Dan and he had lots of quality time with Gma Arlene. He called Grandpa Dan "Bapa" just like he called Tom that a week before. And he calls Gma "gung-gung." Sort of...it's more of a sound he does in his throat like he is trying to say a "G" but can't. He also got to see Uncle Doug and was super excited about that. He still asks for Da-Da and Duh-Duh on a daily basis. I have to be like "Nope, I am all ya got!" Thomas loves water and playing in it. Mostly he loves throwing rocks in water. So he loved my parents courtyard that has a little fountain and rocks. The night before we left we also let him throw two rocks in the pool which he thought was the best. We figured Uncle Doug could fish them out the next day. It was my birthday on Friday so we went out to dinner and came back and sat by the fire which was great. The night before I wasn't feeling well so that day Shem and Doug took Thomas to the Living Desert (a desert zoo) and saw all kinds of weird animals. I will post those pictures later as they are on my brothers camera! ;)

Grandpa and Grandma Klein visit and more hiking!

Tom and Char (Grandpa and Grandma) came to stay with us last week for awhile. It was a great visit. It had been a few months since they had seen Thomas and he has changed quite a bit! Thomas loved hanging out with them right away. The first day of their arrival unfortunately coincided with the end of Thomas's sickness of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. I knew this illness from working in childcare and it's usually in daycares or schools so it was weird that Thomas got it. It was horrible. I have never seen Thomas so upset in his life. It was 2-3 days of complete misery and then he was much better. Luckily by day 2 of Grandma and Grandpa's visit Thomas was much more himself. Char got him coloring the most he has ever colored and we all taught him how to only color on paper with a few rogue marks here and there. We went for walks around the neighborhood and took Char to music class with us. Once Shem was home from work for the weekend we got to go on some big hikes. It rained their last day so we just spend the day inside coloring and reading. Thomas thought Grandpa Tom and his antics were pretty funny. By the end of the week, Thomas was calling them "Bapa!" for both Grandpa and Grandma and he would go around the house looking for them. It's been a week and he still asks for them! We have also been getting more time with Uncle Doug and as you can see, Thomas likes coloring with him too. He also has started to love wearing my sunglasses around. I got him a pair of his own and he wears them now when we are out in the sun! I am really glad I got him geared up with those before our Palm Springs trip next week. We had an awesome time with the Klein side (thanks guys for a wonderful visit!) and are about to go spend some time with the Kirby side! I also threw in some pictures of more of our hikes. Thomas loves exploring nature and his favorite thing to do these days is throwing rocks into water.

Bubbles!

Oscar and Thomas have fun with bubbles!

Visit to Bolinas

Doug moved to Bolinas a couple of weeks ago and it's only 40 minutes away! We are so excited to have him close by. It's been fun watching he and Thomas bond and play. Thomas loves him and looks around for him when he isn't here. One problem though is that "da-da, dog-dog, and doug-doug" all pretty much sound exactly the same when Thomas says them so I am never really sure who he is asking for. Even though it was chilly, we went to the beach where Thomas proceeded to pick up every rock he could find and chuck it. When the water came up to him, he would get real disoriented and fall down which was funny, but cold! Uncle Doug has a really cool farm house in Bolinas and has a great music set up so they played around with that for awhile too. We can't wait for more days at the beach and farm house with Uncle Doug.