A Good Mommy

Recently A rediscovered one of her dolls, which had been packed away in a box for nearly three months. She is now inseparable from this doll and calls it her baby. She insists that we wrap it up in a blanket, like we would wrap up a newborn (this is giving me plenty of practice for our newest addition), and that she sleep with it at night. Today she wanted a "family portrait," so I thought I'd share with the rest of you:

I also caught one of her reading to her baby.

Isn't she a good mommy?

Fingerpainting

Chocolate pudding is good for so many things. Eating is one of A's favorites, but she has also discovered the wonders of using it as fingerpaint. This picture doesn't adequately show the creative mess that she makes - she also likes to "paint" on her tummy. I'd try to be upset with the gigantic clean-up, but I can't get mad at that face. Can you?

Just another Monday

R had one final day off before starting that wonderful resident workload (80 hours a week my eye), so we decided to take a little adventure. Alan told us about a little beach that he and his family have been to quite often out here, so we decided to follow his family's tradition for today.

We left at about 6:30 this morning to make sure that we beat all the LA traffic heading to the beach. We just headed west and hit beaches within five miles of our home (that's right, 5 miles!). Then we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway to see all the beaches for the next few miles. Santa Monica has great beaches that weren't all that busy on a Monday morning (I'm sure that would be very different if it were Saturday), but we wanted "Juju's Beach" a few miles north. We found it (along with free parking!) and had the beach basically to ourselves for the next few hours.

A absolutely loves the beach. At first she wasn't quite sure about the waves and tried to jump over them as they hit her feet. Then she figured out that she could feel the water better if she put her hands in the waves. That first wave that hit her while she was squatting down "feeling the water" really splashed her (face, hair, everything) - I was afraid she would be afraid of the water at that point. But she wanted more!

She also loves the sand and digging around, burying R up to his ankles in sand at one point. I guess my next garage sale purchase will have to be sand toys. We'll work on building castles.

So what did you do with your Monday morning?

Coast to Coast

We did it! That's right - we finished medical school! This is, of course, more R's accomplishment than my own, but I'll take the glory if you want to send it my way. (Why not?) You may now call him "Dr. R" and I will even answer to "Dr. L," if you want to call me that.

R graduated in the middle of May, looking very manly in his beret (they wear berets, not caps, in Rochester) and gown. The graduation ceremony got interesting when the keynote speaker started waxing political about universal healthcare, and I started to wonder if I could get up and argue with him about it (an inate instinct from my dad that has since been honed by Alan). But that didn't last too long, so we were able to get on with the celebration. Parts of each of our family were there for the occasion, for which we thank them profusely. We love having them visit.

The next day was very hectic as we began our cross-country move to California (thank you so much to Julie and Dallen for doing the lion's share of the moving). Do you know how hard it is to drive across the country, trying to remain in contact with your real estate agent who is in the process of selling your house? Do you know that there are a lot of spots in this great country of ours that don't get cell phone reception (especially in Wyoming)? Do you know that you can't talk to your real estate agent without cell phone reception? Do you know that your real estate agent does not like having the conversation cut off in the middle of one of her sentences as you drive out in the middle of nowhere? Why didn't you tell me before we started the whole mess? But we made it to lovely Utah (with its great cell phone reception!), sold our house in New York, and had time to visit with the families (and help another family in their move - good luck, Steve and Tracie!) for a couple of weeks before officially becoming beach bums.

The move to California from Utah was mostly uneventful (although there was a few agonizing hours when we thought we might not be able to get the Suburban with the UHaul trailer hooked to it out of the hotel parking garage, but let's not discuss that, shall we?). Moving into LA took a lot longer than moving into Rochester. For those who haven't had the joys of driving on California freeways, highways, regular roads, side streets, dirt roads, or just wandering trails left by a three-year-old, please note that it will take you four times longer than you anticipate it will take (then add on a couple more hours, just to be on the safe side). Thank you so much to my parents and brother and sister for helping us move here, especially to my dad for driving those many, many, many hours on the LA freeways to help us get set up in our new home. While the boys were out driving around, we girls spent our time building and setting up the place:

(Yes, that's A using a screwdriver to put together some furniture. She even knows "righty tighty, lefty loosy".)

I can't complain too much. We live in a beautiful little community only a couple of miles away from R's work (it is close enough to bike if we had a bike for him to ride). We have made some wonderful friends already in the few days we have been here. And the weather is absolutely AMAZING! A and I go out for a walk every day, then we spend time at the many playgrounds within our little community (they have some for big kids and some for little kids and some for toddlers, where we spend most of our time). So far I really like California.


We are now one of THOSE families - we lived in New York and now live in LA, just driving through the rest of the country (although THOSE families usually fly over the rest of the country, but we're too poor to do it correctly). Won't you come visit us and enjoy the sunshine with us and pretend that you are one of THOSE families too?