After the Long Walk, a Trip to the Beach is in Order

Nicco was learning about the ocean in his science unit just before spring break. How perfect for him to get to see some of the things he learned about, up close and personal! What a great way to reinforce the book learning! He wanted to see tide pools, and since the California beaches are NOT Caribbean beaches, we took him up to the rocky shores of La Jolla Cove. We didn't figure there would be much swimming, and I warned Nicco to stay near the shore since I had no intention of going into that icy water to rescue him. We were wrong. The boy just can't resist the water!

After romping in the surf, he warmed himself up in the sand before heading back out.

He was up to his neck in the tide pools. He's crazy.

Here he is with his Papa, searching among the mussels and snails for starfish and anemones.

Dancing in the cave of the cove.

He found many, many shells and bits of shells to bring back home.

And some real seaweed! Hooray!

Mostly he found barnacles and snails and mussels...

 but we also saw a couple little crabs. Do you see the little crab in this picture?

Another "I Spy..." Can you see the little seal playing on the rock? He tossed and turned in the waves just like all the little kids. That was fun.

 

I warmed my toes in the sand and rocks while the boys played in the ocean.

After a couple hours, Nicco was still having fun. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering, but he swore, "I ain't done!" when he came to warm up a bit with me.

He tried to climb the sandy rock wall to reach the seagulls nesting above him. It was too slippery. Back to the ocean!

My little family on the beach... 

Even though it was coldy-cold, it was beautiful and relaxing to watch and listen to the waves crashing.

When the tide came in and covered those rocks with chilly water, Nicco finally declared himself ready to leave. The Daddy's tummy had recovered from the seasickness of the day before, so it was a good day.

Reviving the Airplane Obsession on a Long Walk

The thing we love about California (besides the beach) is all the vegetation. In contrast to our beautiful-in-its-own-way desert, everything grows there. It's so green! Late Saturday morning, we decided to take a walk. Mark and Sandy live near the airport and Mark mentioned a special vantage point for watching planes take off and land. We enjoyed the sights along the way.

 Birds of Paradise are probably my favorite of the aforementioned vegetation.

 I also like this fluffy red puffy plant.

There are lots of artists in California. They are unrestrained by HOAs and covenants. This was a fun little face in the side of the tree, and a band of some kind playing on a neighbor's roof.

There is only one runway in the San Diego airport so it is really busy. No room for more! That city is packed, I tell ya!

Mark and Nicco looking over the highway to the runway. We were standing above the worst place in the world to live. Above the highway and next to the airport. No peace and quiet, ever. Even when the flight curfew hits at 11:00 p.m. the traffic doesn't stop. I wonder if those people moved in before the airport and highway were built. And if not, why did they move there??!!???

 An airplane taking off...and another one coming in for a landing.

 We stuck around for a while watching airplanes. Nicco entertained himself between flights.

 

After we got our fill of airplanes, we headed back home. We stopped at a garden/koi pond/water feature gallery and met Quirky Mark. He was quite a character. Almost immediately, he handed Nicco a worm and told my boy to come feed the hungry bluegill. He gave a demonstration, then set Nicco to work.

It took a while for Nicco to get a good grasp on the slimy worm, and the fish was getting impatient. But at last, we had success!

(I will insert the semi-amusing video of the fish feeding incident later when google decides not to hate me anymore.)

The whole walk was about two miles round trip. It was more of a stroll really, with lots and lots of breaks during which Mark pointed out interesting neighbors, plants, and their old apartment, plus the airplane and garden stop. In spite of the leisurely pace, my boy thought he would collapse by the time we reached Maple Canyon, under the way-up-high Spruce Street Suspension Bridge. The hike up was daunting to short 7-year old legs. About 10 feet from the top, he sat down and told me to go on ahead. He'd catch up. I let him rest for about 10 seconds then take the five remaining steps to the top.

I guess the boy needs to build his muscles and endurance! More exercise is in order.
When we got home, he jogged down the steps of the tri-level terrace to where Sandy was working in the garden.

I don't know if it is due to him being an only child or if it is because we socialize with people who mostly don't have kids, or, more likely, I am The Greatest Mother in the History of Earth with impeccable manners myself and have just raised my boy to emulate me in social circles, or if Nicco is just a pleasant and happy and social little bug, but he really gets along nicely with adults. It made me proud to watch him interacting with our friends.

This May Become a Tradition

Last year over Rodeo break, we hit the dusty trail and headed west to California. This year we stayed home during the Rodeo break. You may recall that we were stranded by a snowstorm. We delayed our road trip until the spring break. Last year we went to Legoland, this year we watched whales, I think next year we'll go to the zoo. It's so nice to have friends in pleasant destinations! Especially when those destinations are close to the ocean. Ah, beach!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, had a pleasant visit and dinner with our friends, and tucked ourselves in for a relatively early morning to go on a whale watching tour. I was very excited when I found out that we would be in San Diego during the Grey Whale Migration. Fun! Exciting! Visions of whales breaching danced in my head. Something like this:

Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic for a three-hour tour in Mission Bay.
This was a more realistic fantasy:

We anxiously waited at the marina to board the tour boat, the Privateer.

Once on board, we enjoyed the view as we listened to the last minute instructions before leaving the harbor. Of course, the most important instruction was a reminder for those prone to motion sickness to take a pill! The tour guide said we can get a pill for $3 now, but when you need it, it will cost $30. Ha ha ha. We stayed up above, none of us being prone to motion sickness. I wondered if it might be a good idea to get something for Nicco who had never been on a boat, but I decided not to. He's never been car sick and he's been on some amusement park rides without a problem. Patrice and I have been on all kinds of boats, so no concern there. Off we go!

On our way past the jetties we saw seals and a big bull sea lion catching some rays, hoping for some bait to be thrown their way by the fishermen.

It was a breezy, cloudy day. We definitely needed our jackets. Then again, even without the breeze and clouds we Arizonans would have needed our jackets. It was well below 72 degrees.

That picture there was the last we saw of the Daddy. Poor guy. Once we got out of the harbor and onto the open ocean, we were riding the waves sideways rather than head-on. Patrice's tummy did not like it one bit. He went to the back of the boat on the lower deck and laid out some chum for the whales.

The announcer guy told us "Good news!" We had a trio of whales off our bow, as well as a mama and a calf. We watched the trio for quite some time and it was indeed very exciting the first time we saw a spout:

The whales would blow three or four times, breach, then flip up their tales and go down for 3-5 minutes on a deeper dive. We did see their tales a few times, but with my little point and click camera, I did not have the shutter speed nor the zoom necessary to get a good picture. This was the best photo I managed:

one whale's back on its way down for a deeper dive.

Nicco got sleepy and a little bored...frankly, when you've seen one whale spout, you've seen them all. He rested while I listened to the tour guide explain the exhausting 12,000 mile journey from the feeding grounds near Alaska to the mating grounds near Mexico and back again. I was surprised that we didn't go far beyond the shore to see the whales, but it turns out that since they are so hungry and exhausted, they stick pretty close to the shore near the warm and shallow water to avoid predators.

I had to wake the boy up when we encountered a group of about 100 dolphins feeding. That was really fun and exciting! They're so playful!

We also passed this sailboat, named America, as it is a replica of the American boat that won the Americas cup once upon a time.

 And we got a lesson and up-close view of the baleen, the grey whales' filter feeding system.

The tour guide was fairly giddy as we pulled in to the harbor again, saying that this trip was one of the best...the most you could hope for on a whale watching tour. I guess we were a little disillusioned (curse you, National Geographic!) but I still thought it was fun and exciting. Not so my husband. Two hours of vomiting and seasickness will dampen anyone's good time. Next time, we'll know better.

Top O' Yesterday Morning!

My little boy loves holidays. I put up our Shamrock wall hanging on March 1st for him and he counted down the days until the sneaky leprechaun would arrive. He told stories about the Emerald Isle that he learned at school. He made plans to capture the leprechaun and find his gold. He even suggested that we should use some REAL gold to trap him. I reminded him how sneaky and tricky leprechauns are and I worried he would sneak off with our real gold and leave chocolate coins behind. I didn't think it was a good idea, not to mention an expensive trap at a moment's notice.

He went to bed on Saturday night with dreams of rainbows and pots of gold dancing in his head. And he woke up friggin' early on Sunday! I had planned to make a shamrock trail leading to a pot o'chocolate gold, but I just plum forgot! My boy came in and said, "That leprechaun sure was sneaky. I don't see a sign of him anywhere!"  I said that the day was early, and maybe he'd come while we are away at church. He wouldn't likely come while we are here. I also reminded him that the little fella couldn't get in because of the alarm. We didn't have the alarm last year, so that's how he sneaked in.

As we hopped in the car to go to church, a light bulb went on in Nicco's mind..."Did we have the treehouse last year on St. Patrick's Day??? I KNOW he left surprises there! I just KNOW it!" The boy was about to leap out and check. I sternly told him to buckle up, we'd be late to church, but hang on, I left something inside. I ran in quickly and told the half-sleepy papa that he needed to go for a "bike ride" while we were at church. Give the leprechaun a chance to leave some surprises in Nicco's treehouse. Get it? Wink, wink...

Three hours later, we came home and Nicco ran straight to his house. There wasn't a pot of gold, or even chocolate coins...they would have melted by now. But there were some silly surprises:

"This was the best St. Patrick's Day ever!" said the boy.
"Phew!" said the Mama.

Springtime in the Desert

It's my favorite time of year!
The outside temperature is in the 90s, the inside is about 78.
I'm so warm!

It was 70 in the pool so I scrubbed, vacuumed and skimmed it and put the solar cover on. We'll be swimming before April at this rate!

My quails are out and about and we were almost late to soccer practice last week because we had to chase a lizard out of our room. (P.S. my cat is useless.)

We had our book club out on my friend's patio and last night, Patrice and I sat at our own patio and enjoyed the sunset.

I love it. LOVE it.

Elementary School Dystopia

In 1984 they are the Party Ministers.
In The Hunger Games they are the Peacekeepers.
In Matched they are the Society Officials.

In my son's elementary school, they are the Monitors.

On Tuesday evenings, I take Nicco to his school to play with his little buddy while the little buddy's older siblings practice soccer. Another church friend who lives nearby walked over and played with the boys. They played and climbed. They laughed and squealed.

Then the two who attend the school became subdued and slowly approached The Forbidden Slide. "The Monitors don't let us on that slide," they said. It has a crack and someone could get hurt.

The one who does not attend the school went to climb the rock wall. The other two said, "The Monitors don't let us climb up there. We could fall and get hurt."

They moved on to the monkey bars. "The Monitors say we can't go on the monkey bars. It's not safe and someone could get hurt."

They went across the playground to an open field where trees were dropping acorns. They gathered acorns and were hunting for more. One kid wanted to climb the tree to get more, but Nicco and the other girl who go to the school said, "The Monitors don't let us climb trees or pick acorns."

I pictured my baby walking, slowly, looking wistfully with much longing at the colorful and exciting playground equipment forbidden for use by children at the orders of The Monitors and I had enough! I told those kids to climb! See who can get the highest! Slide! See who can go the fastest! Jump! Swing! Run! and for heaven's sake, FALL! LEARN HOW TO GET BACK UP!!!

They paused, looked at me then at each other, then around the playground as if a Monitor might be lurking unseen ready to bust them, then they laughed and giggled and squealed and climbed! and slid! and jumped! and cracked acorns with rocks!

And without even a bruise or a scratch, every single one of them survived.

A Real Haircut, for Once

About a week or so ago, Patrice said that the next time Nicco needs a haircut, he wants to take him to a place. Naturally, I took offense and asked if the Mommy Haircuts aren't good enough for him. Naturally, he said, "It's not that..." but didn't tell me what it was, exactly.

 

I didn't really take offense. I'm well aware that the Mommy Haircuts aren't perfect. They are good enough, I thought, until the boy started to notice for himself the uneven spots, or until he started caring about his appearance.

 

The boy did NOT want to go to a place. He said, "You're cutting my hair, and THAT'S. FINAL." He also said, "I'm not going anywhere!" and proceeded to throw a baby tantrum that would put a two-year-old to shame. It was delightful.

 

The Daddy, who was due for a haircut, refused to take the kid with that attitude. I kind of refused to cave to the attitude, so I had to tag along so I could remove the kid from the premises if he tried to shame and embarrass us in public. The excursion was prefaced with a very real threat to destroy Super Mario Bros if the kid couldn't get it together by the time we got to the place.

 

Miraculously, the tears were dry when we pulled up. He waited patiently for his dad to finish up, he sat pleasantly and obediently in the chair...

...he even managed a smile. When all was said and done, he confessed that it was in fact a good experience.

He likes his new 'do, he liked getting buzzed, and it was worth it, he said. Then he asked if he could play wii. What a funny little guy! I reminded him that his reward for being good at the clip joint was NOT having Mario Bros destroyed by the Angry Mama.

He's a little booger, but a handsome little booger!

KidzArt

My boy wants to be an artist when he grows up. I'm trying to encourage that. He also says he's going to live with us forever and never leave and just be in the office making art. We'll deal with that later.

 

In the meantime, we enrolled him in an after-school art class called KidzArt. I L-O-V-E-D the snake picture he brought home the first day. Loved it.

In the second session they made masks for carnival.

 

I'm not really sure what the Egyptian was all about. Maybe we should consult the baby teeth that hold the memories?

We missed one session because Nicco was sick. I really hated missing one of only six classes, but I just couldn't send him in. I kept him home from school on another Monday and about an hour into the day I realized he probably should have gone. Not wanting to miss two of the six classes we paid for, I went ahead and took him to his after-school class. He was not happy about that. But, he drew a dog. Which he named Bowser, after something on the Mario Bros. So that made up for his earlier displeasure.

 

Monday was the last class of the session. Again, I L-O-V-E-D what he brought home. Flowers in a vase. I love them. I also love how he signed his picture. NrB. 

I think I'm going to collaborate with him on a book. I'll do the words, he can do the pictures.

I'll Guard My Own Memories, Thank You Very Much

We watched The Rise of the Guardians some time last week. I liked it. Each of the Guardians protects some aspect of children's innocence: their dreams, wonder, hope, fun, and memories. They guard against fear and darkness brought on by the Boogeyman. The Tooth Fairy is responsible for guarding the memories. You see, somehow, important memories are stored in the baby teeth and the Tooth Fairy returns them just when we need them the most.

I think Nicco was conflicted at the end of the show. He believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. The Sandman was new to him, but I think he's open to the possibility of him being real. He's on board with Jack Frost. Jack paid us a visit recently, you know. But fairies...they aren't real. I think he had a hard time reconciling the real guardians and the made up one.

His top front tooth has been loose for days. He kept saying that if he got punched in the face, it would pop right out. Or if the soccer ball hit him in the face at his game, it would pop right out. I kept telling him that it would probably just keep getting looser and looser and we would pull it out, just like the others.

Yesterday morning while I was making his lunch he came running into the kitchen and said, "Mom! I bit my tooth and it popped right out! I think it comes from hitting myself in the face so much."

I asked if he wanted to leave that tooth for the tooth fairy. (I don't want to ruin his sense of wonder, see. I'm a guardian too.) He said no, he pretty much remembers everything. He can guard his own memories.


In Which I Brag and Beg a Favor

My Niece Lucy at the UT State Cross-Country championship.
She's totally intense, even in warm-ups. Eye of the Tiger, baby!

My niece is the most spectacular, amazing young athlete in the history of high school athletes. She's a wonder. Just ask her Grandpa.

But seriously, she's kind of a big deal in Utah.

Last year she was just a wee freshman runner. In her first cross-country season, she discovered that she really likes running. And she has some talent too. She had her eyes on the faster, stronger, more experienced runners ahead of her on the team and as the season went by, she consistently closed the gap between them.

Then came the track season. She had a promising start, but then all of a sudden, she got a little sick. It was just a little cold, but it slowed her down. At the same time, the girls she was chasing seemed to find a higher gear and she just couldn't catch up. After a disappointing (to her...she did quite well by normal people standards) track season, she and her parents looked into what she could do to improve. She changed her diet, corrected an iron deficiency, and practiced some new positive thinking skills.

I think nobody expected the Lucy who showed up for cross-country in the fall of her sophomore year. Her name was conspicuously absent from who-to-watch high school sports reports, and yet she was winning almost every race she ran. My Nicco did a P.E. report on her in which she stated that her goal was to win the state championship and go to Nationals. That may seem like a lofty goal for a sophomore who had yet to beat the defending state champion, but Miss Lucy pretty much decides what she wants to do and goes out and does it.

A rare break in the intensity--our girl is smiling!
About to win, and come in under 18 minutes. Wowsers.

She continued chopping seconds off her time, she continued closing the gap between herself and the reigning champ, and by the time the State Championship rolled around, Lucy was ready. She not only won the race, but she ran the fastest time of all the girls in all divisions on the course that day. She recorded the fifth fastest time on that course ever, in history. She's legit.

The top 10 finishers at state, minus one; the WINNER on the right.

She ran the southwest regional race in Mesa AZ, and I cried a few nostalgic tears and tears of pride. Her Mama somehow kept it together. I guess she's used to it. Lucy did indeed qualify for nationals. Including the girls who ran different races that day, she's in the top 100 cross-country runners in the nation. In the whole wide U S of A.

People who had missed her in earlier reports took notice. Kids on sidelines whispered, "Do you think that is Lucy Biles?" as she walked by.

Now, she is nominated for the Utah Governor's State of Sport Awards in the category of High School Female Athlete. You don't even have to be from Utah to vote, and you can vote from all your devices! Wouldn't it be awesome, not just for my niece to win, but for a kid representing a sport other than soccer, basketball, or volleyball to win? Runners Rule! Vote for Lucy! Tell your friends!

http://www.stateofsportawards.com/

Just a Thought

With all these scandalous reports of horse meat being hidden and found in Swedish Meatballs and Lasagne and now Chalupas, I have just one thought...

So what?

What are your thoughts on the scandalous horse-meat scandal?