Mickey II & Minnie II.

Enough said.

Swimming.

Since day one, Wesley has been horrified of putting his face in the water. Considering we live in the hotbox known as Santa Clarita, it has always felt like a necessity for Wesley to acquire some swimming skills. So last summer, we signed him up for swimming lessons through a friend from the church. Wesley made it clear pretty fast that he was not ready for this. His teacher "Miss Debbie" tried everything, but Wesley snapped into "terrified" mode pretty regularly and would not try very much. Shannon and I felt stuck, trying to balance a desire to not do any harm emotionally but at the same time encourage him to overcome this fear. We decided to not sign up Wesley for any classes this summer and just see how he did on his own. When Shannon suggested Wesley try out the life jacket we had gotten him last summer for use in his uncle's boat, he decided to try it out - albeit with me glued to his side. After an afternoon of getting used to it, the life jacket became his best friend. He wouldn't go in the pool without it, as this freed him up to swim wherever he wanted in the pool. However, he still was terrified of his head going in the water and got very skilled at keeping his head up. During a conversation one day, Wesley told Shannon and I that he would put his head in the water if he had goggles (something he turned down last summer). So we picked up a pair and headed back to the pool. We suggested that he try out his goggles without his life jacket and, after some tentative moments, his fear completely disappeared. Within a half hour, he was like a newly-freed dolphin in the water. Not only was he putting his entire face in the water without hesitation, he was kicking and paddling all over the place in excitement. Now we try to get over to the pool to swim a few times a week, and Wesley loves it. It has definitely increased his confidence in trying new things, which is a very good thing.

Photo by the masterful Adrea.

Stung.

Wesley (4 years old) - 4 bee stings
1 bee sting in our backyard
1 bee sting in our house (bees invaded house thru the oven vent)
1 bee sting at the zoo
1 bee sting at the beach

Julia (2 years old) - 1 bee sting
1 bee sting at her 2nd birthday party in our backyard

And, to complete the picture:
the first 35 years of my life - 0 bee stings
the last 2 years - 2 bee stings in our backyard

Wo Wo Part 2.

Yes, he still likes to do this. Yes, his sister loves it too. No, my back doesn't care for it much.

Snacks.

Considering the amount of Cheerios, pretzels, rice cakes and other snack items I find scattered throughout the floors of our house, I'm fairly certain we could sell our vacuum cleaner bags as snack mix.

Charm.

Whenever Julia walks up to me with a big smile on her face, grabs my hand, chirps "s'go Daddy!" ("let's go Daddy!") and walks me off to wherever she wants to play, I melt. Please don't tell her this.

Carpinteria Fourth.

Family members that have experienced July 4th camping in Carpinteria should appreciate this strip by Richard Thompson.

Julia the Cartoon.

Julia's recently begun doing something very amusing, although I don't have any idea as to where she picked it up from. When asked a question, she'll mutter "hmm" and tap her chin with her index finger. As far as I know, no one outside of a cartoon (it is a staple expression there) has genuinely done the finger-tapping-on-the-chin-while-thinking thing in over 50 years, so I have no idea where she got this from. And no, she didn't get it from me, because my kids have neither a clue nor the interest in what I do while I'm away all day at work.

Mickey and Minnie.

So we went back to the pet store to purchase a new fish for Wesley and brought home two (one for Julia). They settled on the names Mickey and Minnie (I know - Shannon is completely in their heads now). When we had to leave to go camping in Carpinteria a week or so later, I purchased a fish feeder "biscuit" that supposedly releases food over time. We returned a couple days later to find Minnie and a deceased Mickey. Note to self: no more feeder biscuits. I quickly removed Mickey, placed the fish bowl in a place to obscure Wesley's view and waited until nap time to rush back to the pet store and find the best match for Mickey I could find. I found one and Wesley was none the wiser when he visited the fish after his nap. Crisis averted.

R.I.P. James the Goldfish.

Our family lost our first pet yesterday morning. Alas, it was only a goldfish, but it was Wesley's first pet. And unfortunately he took it pretty hard when we told him this morning. After we sat and talked with Wesley a little, he decided he wanted to go downstairs to see the empty goldfish bowl. A few minutes passed and he didn't come back or respond to our calls, so I went to look for him. I found Wesley silently standing at the bottom of the stairs with eyes big as saucers and an enormous frown on his face. My heart shattered as he started bawling. The rest of the day was mostly a series of questions about James and death coming in the middle of unrelated conversations. Yes, for Wesley to lose a "friend" he saw on a daily basis has been hard.

Princess Music.

Whenever our family gets into the car, there is a fairly good chance that a disagreement will arise over the choice of music we listen to. Both Wesley and Julia like Disney music, so Shannon keeps the car well-stocked in that regard. But recently Julia has begun to describe any Disney music with female vocals as "princess music." And while Wesley has always liked Disney music, the description of songs he likes as "princess music" is too much for him to take. As a result Wesley no longer likes to listen to "princess music." A few days ago, we were getting into the car when Julia immediately requested "princess music." Wesley vehemently protested, but was told he'd have to wait until Julia's song was over before he got to choose a song. Wesley was visibly stewing as Julia's music played in the car. At that point Julia looked over at Wesley, smiled, and started singing at the top of her lungs along with the "princess music." Intentional or not, she was clearly rubbing it in and it made me laugh out loud. Fortunately, Wesley began to laugh as well, although I'm not entirely sure he knew why.

Secrets.

Last night I was sitting in our living room watching Wesley play and feeling sentimental, so I called him over and told him I had a secret to tell him. He leaned in as I cupped my hands around my mouth and whispered in his ear, "I love you." Wesley looked back at me with a pleased and loving smile, then told me he had a secret for me too. I leaned in as he cupped his hands around his mouth and whispered in my ear, "I have a pickup truck."

Julia's 2nd Birthday.

Last weekend Julia turned two and we celebrated with a casual Elmo-themed birthday party. The weather was warm, so we inflated a couple plastic pools and filled them up in the backyard. Everyone seemed to have a good time despite Julia getting stung by a bee for the first time (no allergic reaction, thankfully). Aunt Kelley outdid herself, constructing an enormous 3D Elmo cake, with blocks spelling out Julia's name and all. Thank you to everyone that came - you made the day special for our little girl. And thank you Aunt Adrea for the first three beautiful photos.

Caillou.

Who is this monster who has overtaken our home? This is "Caillou," a Canadian animated show on PBS that until somewhat recently was completely off Wesley and Julia's radar. Not anymore - this boy and his show are an icon at our house, and possibly the only show on TV both our kids can agree on. Daily.

Our Girl.

I feel like we haven't posted much about Julia lately, so here goes. She loves Elmo and Caillou. She loves her brother. She loves babies and anything baby-related. She loves Mickey and Minnie Mouse. She loves walking on her own and thinks she is done riding in strollers and shopping carts. She loves wearing pretty shoes, pretty dresses and pretty jewelry. If you understand her dialect, she can communicate pretty well now. And she will be 2 years old in 5 days.

One more thing. Her brother is fiercely protective of her, and if you touch her in an unkind way you will have a four year old boy breathing down your neck demanding to know what happened.

Hiking.

A few weeks ago, Wesley and I decided to visit nearby Placerita Canyon for a hike. My previous hiking experience with Wesley consisted of us walking halfway up a small hill before he asked for me to carry him, so I didn't expect much in the way of stamina. Wesley got very excited about our hike, bringing along snacks in his Thomas the Train backpack and bright green binoculars to look for animals. We started off going on a short, mostly-level trail. Wesley thoroughly enjoyed the hike, which included a veggie chip and juice break, and wanted to go on another. So we found another short trail along a creek, which he loved as well. Well, after another chip-and-juice break, Wesley was ready for more. Surprised at his level of endurance, I found another hike up a short hill to a water tower. I figured this would be it, and we'd just turn around and go home after. But Wesley was loving it, and didn't want to stop at the water tower. One full hour of uphill climbing beyond the water tower later, we reached the top of the mountain. Wesley blew my expectations out of the water. After that feat, I fully expected to be carrying him down the mountain. Nope. Wesley decide to pretend he was surfing all the way down the mountain, sidestepping and making large plumes of dust all the way down the trail. Not until we were literally 30 feet from my car and on level ground did Wesley decide he had had enough of walking and asked me to carry him. Not a week goes by now before Wesley does not ask me when we will be hiking again.

Travel Town.

File this under "why in the world didn't we take Wesley here sooner?" This past weekend, in an effort to create a little "boys only" time, Wesley and I drove down to Travel Town in Griffith Park. I hadn't been there since I was about his age, so I didn't remember much. But, man, was this place a home run with Wesley. As if climbing up into enormous steam engines and going on a train ride weren't enough, we discovered an enormous miniature Lionel-style train display in one of the buildings. To say Wesley loves watching miniature train sets is like saying Shannon is fond of Disneyland. Given the opportunity, I'm pretty sure Wesley would stand and watch the trains all day long. It was a good day.

A Long Day at Disneyland.

Brother & Sister.

Julia's Mommy.

Julia can be very possessive when it comes to her Mommy. It has actually gotten to the point where she doesn't like Dave holding my hand or even having his hand on the back of my seat while we are in the car together. There are times she doesn't want anyone, including her Daddy, touching her Mommy.