Vacation

A couple weeks ago we had the immense privilege of joining Kasey's family for a little vacation. We took a little trip up to Angel's Camp. The drive for us wasn't too bad (less than 3 hours); the drive for the rest of Kasey's family was a bit longer (8 hours, 11 hours to get back home). I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not to ride in the backseat with Kalin. You see, car rides are not always so fun anymore. He tends to be really needy and demands my attention either for entertainment purposes or to pick up the toys, shoes or sippy cups he has dropped. Knowing that he would probably need a nap during our drive (and that he has a hard time sleeping if somebody is in the backseat with him) I decided to sit up front and hope for the best. I managed to keep him entertained (while not making myself sick from turning around so much) for awhile until I decided it would just be easier to give him his pacifier - hoping for a nap. He soon fell asleep - for about 40 minutes. Then it was time to set up the portable DVD player with one of his Baby Einstein movies. This kept him entertained the rest of the way.

We had a wonderful week with Kasey's family. We went swimming, ate all our meals together, explored a little bit of what that area of California has to offer and relaxed. Contrary to popular belief, we weren't actually camping in Angel's Camp. We stayed at a lovely resort with kitchens, exercise equipment, and pools.

We stopped for a night at my parent's house on our way home since it had been a couple weeks since we had last seen them. There is something magical about their house that makes Kalin sleep great. Kalin slept until 8:50am when, on vacation, we couldn't get him to sleep past 7. And he never sleeps anywhere near that late here at home.

We went on a picnic with my parent's, sister and grandpa before heading home on that Saturday. It was at a park called Little Basin. I never knew this place existed. Of course I knew about Big Basin - we've had several family vacations there but I had never heard of Little Basin. Apparently it was (or technically still is?) owned by Hewlett Packard and the employees of HP have built cabins and such in the area. There are some picnic areas and also a campground. I guess it was recently opened to the public so my grandpa wanted to go check it out. We had a fun day and I think Kalin enjoyed himself. It sure was nice to get home though.

Kalin has gotten another tooth. He was extra drooly while on vacation so I was happy to see that it was for a good cause. This tooth is his lower right lateral incisor. It's the tooth I've been waiting exactly 3 months for. He had gotten the lower left one back in April which made him look lopsided with only 3 teeth on the bottom. However, while waiting for the matching pair to come in, we were blessed with 4 molars. So his top and bottom gums are now even again, 6 and 6. And it appears that the drool faucet has been turned back on this week so maybe we'll be getting some more teeth in the next couple weeks!

My sister, Jessi, came to stay with us for a couple of nights this past week before heading back to China. Kalin loves Jessi and I'm glad that they had some extra time together.

This last weekend Kalin and I were invited to join my parents, sister, cousin and her daughter, and my aunt and uncle for a free trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Sadly, Kasey had too much homework to get done so he wasn't able to come along. I think Kalin enjoyed himself and he was a very good boy considering he only had a 15 minute nap in the car (while we were driving around trying to find parking) for the whole day. Afterwards we went to the famous restaurant Phil's Fish Market. Bobby Flay did a throwdown here against the owner, Phil. Apparently Phil makes the best cioppino. I wouldn't know. I don't like seafood. This made it extra sad that Kasey couldn't join us because he actually does like seafood. It's sad that we've never gone there together in the (almost) 2 years we've lived here. For the 3 months we lived with my parents we really weren't far from the restaurant at all. Maybe I'll take him there someday soon. His birthday is coming up soon, ya know.

Kalin has been learning the meaning of the word "obey". For the past couple of weeks I've been telling him over and over what "obey" means and what it looks like for him to "obey" Kasey and I. I'm seeing some fruit. If I ask him to do something and he turns away to do something else or pretends like he didn't hear me (toddler's pull off selective hearing so well) I'll either tell him to "obey Mama" or ask him if he is being obedient right now. He'll look at me and then usually do whatever it was that I had asked of him. He's learning that there are consequences to disobedience and that it makes mommy (and more importantly, God) happy when he chooses to obey. Now, how much of his reason for obeying lies in the fact that it makes mommy and God happy, I don't know. He might just be more concerned about the consequences of disobeying - but it's a start. He is by no means a model citizen (or toddler), and I really wouldn't expect that right now, but the seeds are being sown.