"Sweet home Alabama..."

Ok, that song doesn't have to do with anything, but SDJ was singing it to me this morning and we were laughing.

This is a quick morning post to say that I've been leaving my camera in the beach house while we experience life. We've been having a great time, but it's no good for you all without pictures!

Yesterday was a big beach day -- my good friend, Oprah, did take some pictures and if she doesn't upload them onto her own new web-site :), then they will be here soon. I do have an embarrassing sunburn to prove my beach time. Just a suggestion -- the "spray" sunblock needs to be rubbed in -- you can't just spray it. I have the blotchiest burn all over my body...like a mottled baby pig.

In the evening, the Joads watched Buck while RKZ & I went to Mass and then had dinner with our "St. V de P dinner group". Because there are no pictures, I will list our conversation using a stream of interjections: "Oh S--!"; "I am saying 'Jesus' in my heart."; "I'm just going to sit there and say, 'Welcome Jesus.'"; "The three days of darkness" ; "Animals in the Bible"; "Don't forget the ram!"; "Just make sure you use a card we haven't used before."; "Why don't you just give us the answer?"; "Thing! No, Cousin It! Uncle Lester!"; "I watch that movie all the time - Raul Julia is so funny."; "I heard them say it three times so I gave it to them."; "That's on my blog"; "Chicken McNuggets? Who doesn't dip Chicken McNuggets?"; "What person over 10 eats chicken McNuggets?"

(Addition from Oraprome: "you forgot the important MAC Truck and the St. Augustine homily in turnitin.com!!!") -- she is right!

Pictures later.

"You're like coming home..."

I guess I expected to feel a giant sense of relief at being back here in California. Strangely, it's more like we never left. Spending the day at my aunt and uncle's and sitting around talking with The Joads and my Grandma, it was as if we'd just had a busy summer and were finally making it back to their house to sit and eat cheese and crackers, drink beer and swim in their pool. We discussed RKZ's new job and our plans for the rest of the year (psycho). I had figured that we'd spend the day getting ready for the beach house -- who was I kidding? (Besides myself? probably no one). Instead, it was a calm & happy time of family bonding. Quiet, random...and I even got a chance to talk to one of the strongest women I know, my cousin.

Oh...on a "name" note -- I'm not using any...not the real ones. It seems that if I'm going to publish all my personal info for the world to see, I'm certainly not going to include names. My family & friends have enough of their lives divulged by me as it is. Of course, this doesn't include Erin :)

So after careful planning and zero execution, we arrived at our temporary home in Sunset. It's beautiful. Much bigger than the pictures made it seem. Early American hodgepodge 80's -- the perfect house for us to invite just about everyone we know to traipse through and eat and drink. The only drawback is the tropical weather So. Cal seems to be experiencing. We spent the first 10 minutes just opening windows to let the breeze in. Still, we were sweaty and tired by the time we lugged our bags up to the third floor. We had the help of Sammy Davis Junior (SDJ), who spent her time watching Buck while RKZ and I did our impression of expensive Sherpas. Is the plural of Sherpa, "Sherpas"? Hmmmm. Vaguely interesting, but not enough to research. Feel free to comment about it.

After a reunion with the local Sam's Club, we finally settled into the place just as our inland friends & their children arrived (Richie Cunningham & Oprah). RKZ and Richie (after yet another trip to the store) proceeded to crack out the Captain Morgan rum while Oprah and I tended to the kids. We all had pizza (I'm quite the chef on vacation) and spent the evening talking. Another set of friends showed up (Wayne -the great one- and his wife, Erin -- ha!ha!)
and joined the fracas (you know you like that word). It was a busy evening, but the perfect start to our two weeks here.

This morning I spent some time praying on the deck off of our bedroom. RKZ took Buck to the beach so that he could feel the sand. For all of our friends who have fond memories of the area, you'll really enjoy the view off of our deck. I'm including a picture above.

If you're reading this and you're near here, we hope to see you soon! If you are in Portland, Ireland or Hungary, we miss you and we've already been re-telling fond memories! Speaking of which, Coach K 1 and Hoonka, don't even think of driving 20 hours with that baby!! CRAZY!

More soon!

"This aint no disco. This aint no country club either..."

Well, we've made it to Southern Cal (Orange, via LAX). No post yesterday due to tired baby and family reunion-style talking.

It was a great flight. First, we met a family from France with 6 children under 11. Shawn had a great hour-long game of catch with most of them. I had first seen them in the airport restaurant and got a little teary eyed over the fact that we never see large families like that anymore. I remarked to Shawn that it was cool to know that there are families like us (or like we plan to be) all over the world. Like a remnant of people who want to reflect as much love as possible. Once we met them (they sort of 'bum-rushed' Daniel while he was playing with a ball, we experienced what great kids they are. With my limited French and the eleven year old's wonderful English, we were able to eek out a little conversation. Her name is Faustine -- isn't that a beautiful name?

The most incredible part of the trip, though, was the fact that Buck was great. If you've read any of the emails I've written in the past, you know that I fear airline travel with the baby the way many people fear death -- it never goes quickly enough and almost always hurts. This trip, Buck was entertained and amusing and only needed attention not to scream his head off. Of course, I did learn that a baby can play "drop the plastic cup" for at least an hour and a half without pause.

An interesting "celebrity sighting" is that Robert Downey Junior (Spelling?) was sitting in front of us. We were in the first row of coach and he was in the last row of 1st class. I only noticed him because I was coveting the awesome pumas he was wearing. Beautiful style that I've never seen before. He was reading US weekly. I found that ironic.

Now we're here. Check in to the beach house this afternoon.

Can't wait.

All the leaves are brown...

and the sky is grey. I've been for a walk...

Yep - California dreamin'.

Today was spent at a mom's group where the mom I go to see didn't show. She was sick, so I totally understand; and I spent the time missing her and basically making small talk with the other moms about what our kids do and don't do.

My recurring line is: "I wouldn't use me as an example." Advice to which, I whole-heartedly adhere. My son eats from my plate (or has processed "toddler" food), we don't really encourage him to crawl or walk, we don't care that he hasn't honestly said his first word yet (he does maintain a steady stream of "mamamama" and "dadadada" but the jury's out on whether or not he knows what he's saying), he daily watches at least 20 minutes of a Praise Baby video, and my basic mothering philosophy is that I'm just going to do what I think is right and he can save up his issues for Oprah. I mean, I don't want to harm Buck, but I don't think it will do either of us any good if I'm second-guessing myself all the time. We have to live. Also, a great friend once told me that she believes that God gives us the kids we're meant to have and He also gives us the grace to raise them. I don't know where that leaves people who don't believe in God, but for my part, I think they get grace too (even if they don't acknowledge the source).

And with this attitude, I don't really get a lot of listeners at the mommy group. It's probably better -- I mean, with them focusing on winning that "baby of the year" award and everything. Buck will just have to settle for mellow and happy, I guess. Not too many awards coming our way.

Of course, his dad did eat 10 hamburgers at McDonalds once, so Buck has big shoes to fill.

Humber Bay Walk

A lot of people (or many of my friends and family members) did or do not realize that Toronto, Ontario is a city on the water. I am posting a few hazy pictures of the walk Buck and I took today in Humber Bay Shores. In the fuzzy distance, you can make out the CN tower and the sky line of downtown. We live fairly close to downtown, but I never feel like I'm in a big city. I think it's because of the amount of parks and greenspace here.

Toronto has many beautiful places to spend some time in nature -- a lot more than I can remember finding in California. Of course, it's hard to beat the waves in So. Cal, but the expanse of Lake Ontario (and the lack of waves in the expanse) is really amazing. I was dissappointed with myself that this was my first real walk along the water. I also thought that RKZ would have really appreciated it. Buck, of course, was unimpressed. He did enjoy the crowds of geese flocking around our stroller in hopes of food. He also got a big kick out of breaking the sunglasses he refused to wear. Also, somewhere along the route he pulled off his baseball hat and threw it away. If you're ever in Humber Bay and you find a red Roots hat, please let me know.

"Spoon Wars"

"Spoon Wars" -- Day 2

Today is one of those days where nothing really happened (to us anyway. That's probably not what people in the Middle East are saying right now). I'm trying to stay away from posting on these days (boring), but I want to keep the posts going as a little practice for myself and the technophobes who might be checking for updates from our world.

It's Gymboree day, so there's bound to be a story. Well, the teacher uses this baby-sized doll called "Jimbo" and Buck (aka "Buster" a la Fr. Jerome) has been obsessed with Jimbo since almost day one. Now that Buck has mastered crawling, he has taken to attacking Jimbo at every opportunity. Today was no exception. Buster made a bee-line for the doll and proceded to stuff the doll's face into his mouth. We affectionately call this kissing (when he is trying to eat our faces), but I'm not sure the fellow Gymboree moms saw it quite this way. Eventually, the teacher began the "lap songs" and I had to pull the doll vampire off of his prey. This repeated itself everytime Buck got free. Lovely.
In reference to the title, Buck has started grabbing the spoon whenever RKZ or I are trying to feed him mushy stuff. Because all of the "mommy" books suggest "letting your little one hold their own spoon," I gave Buck a spoon of his own. He subsequently grabbed the spoon and scraped up dropped yogurt from the tray (quite a dexterous little terror, eh?) which he proceeded to spray all over his face. What can I say? It's funny. At least to me.

Lastly, we're packing to go to California on Friday. With Crawling Godzilla on the scene, I now need to pack in shifts. And I'm trying to avoid washing the same clothes three times this week. If I pack it now, at least it will stay clean until Saturday.

A big "shout out" (ha) to all of our friends who have been driving by the vacation house. Thanks for the comments. We are excited to see you all. THREE MORE DAYS.

Until then, "Peace in the Middle East" (right, DJ?)

Day 1 - Just figuring things out

Well, looks like I have a new addiction - this freekin' blog. Primarily set up to record our trip to California and our move to Calgary, I plan to limit personal sharing to wacky stuff that only seems to happen to us...(or maybe we're the only ones who talk about it...) Here we are in Bronte Park (Ontario, Canada) trying out the new "tough traveler" backpack with our 26 pound 11 month old. The pack is awesome!