Crafty Like a Fox

Marin has frequently lamented Charlie's lack of interest in anything craft-related. If the activity involves construction paper, crayons, paints, glue, scissors, or anything related, Charlie is not interested. Actually, it is safe to say that if the activity involves sitting at a table for anything other than eating, Charlie is not interested. When other children would bring home sparkly colorful crafts from preschool and Primary, Charlie would bring home a blank piece of paper with one crayon streak down the middle.

So, imagine Marin's excitement when, after reading the book Pig Pig Charlie got interested in painting his own piggy bank (we've had a paint-your-own piggy bank set kicking around the house for a few days). Marin documented the experience thusly:






It should probably be mentioned that Charlie was not at all interested in participating in the Mother's Day key chain making exercise in Primary on Sunday. It should also be mentioned that Marin stifled the urge to show Charlie's Primary teacher this photographic proof that Charlie has managed to sit at a table and make a craft in the recent past.

Mother's Day

Gil set up a great Mother's Day for Marin on Sunday. The highlight was a picnic dinner in the park, complete with sparkling lemonade. Gil gave Marin a wildlife book for Southern California and a "Free Things to Do in LA" book.
For the record, here is a (probably incomplete) list of the locations for which we collected "Things to Do" books during our marriage:
LA
Chicago
New York City (several)
Salt Lake City
New Mexico
Seattle
Mexico City
Washington DC
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
Various church history sites

Swimming with Dad

Every once in a while Gil gets home from work in time to swim with Charlie. Between the workload, the bike commute, and the babillion church activities we have in our new ward, this can't be as regular as we would like.
Charlie is getting braver in the water, which is fun, but scary for his long-suffering parents.


Charlie LOVES the jacuzzi. He can swim for hours on end as long as he can switch back and forth between the "cold water" and the "warm water."

Exploring Thousand Oaks

Charlie and Marin decided to take to the hills behind the apartment complex last week. Charlie watched "The Jungle Book" a lot at Grandma's house, so the idea of exploring through the jungles of California sounded pretty cool to him. He told Marin that he was Mogli and she could be Bagheera.
Most of our journey was along this drainage funnel thingy. It was pretty outdoorsy for a paved walkway: there were rabbits and lizards all over the place.

Here is one of the thousand oaks in Thousand Oaks.

Charlie lost his Mogli spirit right about here and started asking to be carried. Marin is trying to ween him out of being carried, and she convinced him to press forward.

Marin grew up in this area, and when she sees views like this, she feels an eerie sense of deja vu. It's not that she ever climbed this particular hill, but surroundings are all familiar. Even the smell of the air is familiar.

We found some rocks to climb at the top of the mountain, and Charlie/Mogli was satisfied. The total time of the round trip was about 40 minutes. Next time we'll lengthen it out by bringing a snack or something.

Our California Apartment

It's taking us longer than usual to unpack into our new apartment. There are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest is that we always seem to find something more interesting to do than empty more boxes. Charlie, for example, would rather swim than anything in the world. He usually has the pool to himself since the other Californians in the complex don't swim unless the outside temperature is above 65 degrees (wimps). And every time Marin settles in to organize the apartment, she remembers something else she needs from Costco. And Gil is working, always working, with very brief periods for sleeping and riding his new bike.

Here's a photo of the new casita (taken with Marin's new iPhone):

The window in the bottom right corner is ours. We have a tiny patio immediately behind the bushes. Right now it's pretty crowded with the bike trailer and the drying rack for wet swimsuits and towels.

All in all, we're settling in pretty well. The new ward is extremely friendly (it was almost alarming the way they all pounced on us when we walked into church last Sunday), and we're slowly discovering where everything is in the new neighborhood.