Christmas Eve hike

The mummy

Lemonade stand

Riley made $4.50 in about 20 minutes selling lemonade outside our house before we ran out (will buy more lemons next time). I’m not sure our business was very cost effective, but man, people were really happy to buy a cup of lemonade on a warm Sunday evening and Riley was thrilled with her loot. We set the price at 50 cents per cup figuring people would give her a dollar and be happy they were giving such a big tip (we were right). We met some neighbors we’d never seen before too. Overall, I’d say it was a success for all involved!

AYSO

Riley, warming up for her first game!

Damon

Eating a carrot

My cats

I have 3 cats. One is named Turbo. One is named Mia. And one is named Leo. Turbo and Mia are kittens. I got them on my fifth birthday. Turbo and Mia fight a lot. Turbo is black and white. Mia is only black. Leo is black and very big. I love them very much.

Devastated

We’ve been reading a lot of Fancy Nancy books recently. Damon loves them – mostly because they are Riley’s books. They’re actually great books, despite the title. They are about a girl who likes to be “fancy,” but she lives with an ordinary family, so she has to be creative and fancy things up with all sorts of random things, very much like Riley actually. The brilliant part of the books is Nancy uses “fancy” words, which are just big SAT type words. Totally tricks the kids into expanding their vocabulary! Damon’s favorites are devastated, heirloom and ecstatic. If anyone within earshot says devastated, Damon will hear and start running around singing about fancy Nancy being devastated about knocking over the Christmas tree. His daycare teacher was pretty impressed when he told her the kids were devastated about a toy being broken. The combination of Damon and big words that are probably inappropriate for a 2-year-old cracks me up every time…

Speaking of inappropriate… heard the following from Riley a few weeks ago…
“I went out to check the strawberries yesterday and there was a big one that was almost ripe. But when I went to check on it today, shit damn! it was gone!”

She’s been throwing the f-word into conversation from time to time recently too. She totally responds well to the explanation that swear words are special words that kids aren’t allowed to use and that they are supposed to be saved for really serious situations. And that the older you are the more you can use them (which is why Grandma gets to use them the most). Guess we need to start watching our mouths around here…

Uncle Eric

Eric just finished his first year of law school and is living with us for the summer. He has a job with the city attorney and is doing research for his professor, but he says the real reason he decided to come to LA is to spend time with the kids and get to know them better. I was a little surprised, honestly, but it’s worked out really well. There is nothing more important to me than family, so it was really nice to see that Eric feels that way too (I think everyone in my family feels that way).

Celebrating Eric getting an A+…

Anyway, Damon is a big fan. He would come home from daycare saying “Wrestle with Eric!”

Sharing cookies and telling secrets…

Playing basketball…

Riley is a fan too. Eric is (very patiently) teaching her how to play chess. He even lets her win most of the time.

Reading a book with Eric and Kylene (she spent a lot of the summer with us as well… through the computer)

Jungle gym…

Last week Eric left for the east coast to finish up law school at NYU and live closer to Kylene. It was really sad to see him go, though we all know this is certainly the best move for him. The kids miss him terribly already. I suppose we’ll have to make due with video chat, and try to convince him to come out and visit again soon…

Siblings

Recently Riley and Damon have been squabaling A LOT… mostly because Damon wants to do whatever Riley is doing and Riley wants him to leave her alone (sounds familiar to anyone who is an older sibling I’m sure). Anyway, I put these pictures together to remind myself that they really do love each other…

Tea party…

Reading on the stairs before school…