Southern California Life

January 31: Jeff, Hannah, Kate and I spent the morning at the zoo, the afternoon in the pool and the evening at the park


February 1: Jeff, Hannah, Kate and I played at the playgound after church, BBQed in the afternoon, walked to Starbucks and picked up a loaner surfboard in the evening (thanks Luke!)

February 2: Hannah, Kate and I spent the morning at the playground, the afternoon in the pool, and the evening outside on the patio

Jesus Loves You

Our old church sings Jesus Loves You to every child after their baptism. We loved this idea and adopted singing it to Hannah before naps or bedtime when she was a baby, and we still sing it to her before we put her to bed at night. Hannah now helps me sing it to Kate before I put her down for her nap. It is a highlight in my day to sing it to my baby girl with my baby girl.

Zoo Members

So we are only 20 minutes away from the San Diego Zoo. It's a great zoo, and we had a coupon in the mail for a year membership for two adults (kids under 3 are free) to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park so we seized the opportunity. We went to the zoo again today as a family and enjoyed some sun, the animals and just being together as a family. I'm sure in the future you will see lots of zoo pictures.

Taking pictures into the sun with a toddler-not easily done!


The petting zoo was a hit with Hannah.

Sharing vs Trading

Kate is becoming more active and is starting to play with toys. Hannah prefers to have all the toys to herself, and I find myself confused on how to teach her what sharing really means.
Good sharing means playing happily together with the same toy (notice that the toys are still out of range for Kate, but totally within Hannah's reach).

Bad sharing is taking the toy away and saying, "Mine."

Trading on the other hand is much easier - you give a toy and then get a toy. Hannah understands it like this, "I get the toy I want and give you something I would never want to play with," i.e. a pair of socks. Yes folks, Hannah this morning tried to trade with Kate the small piano for a pair of socks that she found who knows where. What a girl!

One of Hannah's new favorite games is Pretend Nigh-nigh. Kate hasn't figured out how to play.

A Room of Their Own

Hannah and Kate now officially share a room. They go to bed together and they take an afternoon nap at the same time. It amazes me that they can sleep through each other's noises, but after two weeks of sharing a room things are going really well.

We even let the girls bath together now too. It makes bath time faster and more fun!


Hannah has also "learned" how to do somersaults from her cousin Amy.

San Diego Zoo

Doting Family

I told you all in a previous post how great it is to have doting family members so here are a few pics of the supportive people here in So Cal...







Mom and Dad took care of Hannah and Kate as well as Joe and Kara (my niece and nephew) so that Rachel (my sister), Kirk, Jeff and I could go out this past Friday night. It was a great time to hang out with my sister, something I have not been able to do lately. I am really happy to be seeing family more often.