They grow up so fast! On not wanting them to...

Here's a funny thing about me: I am always looking to the future. I have been planning for retirement since I was 23. I'm impatient. I rush things. It's just my nature. And even with the kids, I find myself looking forward to their next accomplishment, next milestone. What is the next, newest thing??

Zadie had her Occupational Therapy evaluation the other day. It was much shorter than the speech one, and it was very active, so that was better for her (although actually, I had a feeling she enjoyed the challenge of the speech one, and when I asked her later, she confirmed it). The therapist, Lisa, was testing fine and gross motor skills -- things like hopping on one foot, or passing a penny from one hand to another. To no one's great surprise (although don't tell her this later -- I'd feel disloyal), she's on the low end of average, rating at the 38th percentile. She can't really ride a bike yet, needs to work on her handwriting, ought to practice tying her shoes... all of that. But because she still ranks within the average range, she doesn't qualify for therapy. Which is fine with me. The therapist gave us several good suggestions for things that will help her coordinate her movements, many of which are household chores, so yay!

But a few of those things are "self-care" items. Brushing her teeth, washing and combing her hair, etc. And while we make sure those things get done, we've been giving her a lot of help. I still (until this week) put her toothpaste on the brush for her. We still washed her hair for her and combed it about half the time. We run her bath for her. I button buttons and tie shoes. It's faster and easier and makes sure it gets done more quickly, but we've been advised to let her start taking charge of all those things. So, this week, we have. And it's been kind of hard! I love combing her hair. I like washing it and pouring the rinse water so it doesn't get in her eyes while she squints and wrinkles her nose. I would still trim her nails if she would let me. I'd paint them if she'd let me. But the more she does these things on her own, the more independent she becomes, the less she's my baby! She's much too big to wrap in the towel, carry to her dad and say, "I found a little flower fairy!" But until this week, she wasn't too big to soap up. And now she is. And I'm a little sad. I think her dad might be a bit, too -- he was actually the primary hair washer, which he did as "Pierre," the French-Transylvanian hairdresser. They grow up so fast, right?

I'm trying to quell my natural impulse somewhat with the boy. I keep thinking of a video I took of his sister when she was ten months old. She said several words, made a few signs, makes puckery kisses, and says "mmm" about several foods or pictures thereof. She even plays pat-a-cake fairly well. Lochlan does none of that, basically. Oh, he can say a few words, but he reserves them for when they're really needed. Mostly, as my mom said yesterday, he knows we'll respond to him even if he just grunts. He can't sign, or clap, or pucker, or stand un-aided, or really crawl without being on his belly, or... you know, basically anything except be adorable. So part of me is like, "Hurry up! What's the next milestone?" But part of me is a little happy for it. I'm jealous of this baby-time, and I need it, I need him to be my sweet little baby for a while, knowing he'll be my last. Someday soon enough, he'll be walking and talking and climbing play structures and causing trouble, but for today, even though he's a big little dude, he's still my little baby, and I like him like that.

Incidentally, though, the boy has WAY more hair than she did at his age, and a mouthful of teeth -- he just got his first molar, and the next one's almost in. So he has nine teeth!

Z at 10 1/2 months

L at 10 1/2 months

Zadie over ten minutes at Speech Therapy, a photo montage.

Birthdayversary-palooza!

Man, had I ever missed Santa Cruz! Just had to get that out of the way first.

We headed out Thursday morning, hit a bit of traffic in Benicia, but otherwise made good time to Santa Cruz. We stopped once in Fremont, and the baby slept most of the way.

We checked into the hotel and got a message from Monkeygirl that she wasn't going to make it Thursday-- had a work obligation she couldn't get out of. So we met up with Mom and Boompah and walked downtown for some shopping. For dinner that evening, we went to Mobo Sushi, where Buddy tried a bit of everyone's food, and then we headed back to the hotel and went swimming and hot tubbing for a while. Some mean ladies complained about the kids in the hot tub, so we got them out, but were crabby about it. (There are two rules signs up, and one of them says no unsupervised children, the other one says no children. We've always chosen to go by the first one, and no employee has ever said anything. Plus, there are ALWAYS kids in there when we've been.)

The next day we went to Cafe Brasil and had a pretty good breakfast, as usual. Then we went to the hotel for a bit to feed the baby, then out to Seymour Marine Center. I think Mom and Boompah had a good time, and it was nice to have a couple extra pairs of eyes on Z. It was a beautiful day out, so we also walked along the cliff for a while. Seymour had several interesting new exhibits up. They really do a great job there of making the exhibits interesting, informative, and interactive.

That afternoon we rested a bit, then met up with Jenny and got ready for a dinner at Shadowbrook. I didn't know anything about the place, and Mom had said it was kind of a surprise, so I didn't look it up and find out. The surprise was it was SO COOL. There was a sort of tram car thing that zipped you down from the top of the grounds to the dining room area. The place was impeccably landscaped, and it had seven dining rooms on five levels. They can seat something like 600 people! It was beautifully appointed, too, and our waiter was super-nice. We had a really good dinner (I had a shepherd's pie), and we started with probably the best baked brie I've ever had. The baby even got his own anti-pasto, some celery and carrot sticks, raisins, and cheese. They asked if we were celebrating anything, and we were, of course: our anniversary (ten years, woot woot!), and MG and Boompah's birthdays. So they brought ice cream sundaes and truffles! We walked up the stairs on the way back to admire the gardens and the view. It was a really lovely evening. Back at the hotel, we swam again. Then we had orange Bundt cake in the hotel room that Mom had made.

Yesterday was Saturday, and we got up and went to Kelly's French Bakery. It was surprisingly warm for Santa Cruz, so we ate outside. They screwed up our order six ways from Sunday, but we ended up with two extra loaves of bread, so that worked out later. We went back and fed the baby (here's a little note -- having the baby didn't really cramp our style, but it did mean we had to go back and sit in the hotel rather more than usual. He was a good traveller, but it did slow us down a bit, but possibly for the better), then went to Trader Joe's to get provisions for the beach!

Natural Bridges State Beach was as beautiful as ever, warmer than most days but breezy so that it didn't get uncomfortable. The baby really enjoyed crawling on the sand (and dipping his snacks into it -- yuck!), and he ate a bit of kelp. The girl didn't do as much playing on the water line as usual, because there were some big warning signs about rip currents which made her nervous, but Grandma took her tidepooling. And she ate her weight in bread and cheese doodles.

That afternoon we just went back to the hotel and I got the baby to nap. Then we convened downstairs and had a couple drinks in the bar before dinner, which we also enjoyed in the hotel. Their food is quite good, but I've had a couple misses now. I was supposed to have a mushroom pasta, but if there were any mushrooms in it, I missed them. I had a ton of red wine braised celery instead. Odd. Not awful, but not the mushroom madness the menu described.

We walked downtown for ice cream from Mission Hill Creamery, and I had a really wonderful salted caramel ice cream.

Then we went back to the hotel, opened MG's birthday presents and retired (it was a little late for the pool).

This morning we had pastries at Verve Coffee, then pretty much packed up and hit the road.

It was a great trip. Like I said, if we hadn't had to keep going back to the hotel for baby feedings and whatnot, we might have gotten in a bit more stuff (a Boardwalk trip? Another bookstore visit? Another beach walk?), but it was relaxing, and it was great to have our extra celebrants with us! Boompah was quick to take the boy on a walk if he started to fuss in a restaurant, and Mom took Z to the park a couple times.

A quick few final words... The point of the trip was to get the wedding party back together for our ten year anniversary. Sadly, Bryan is no longer with us, but we sure thought of him. But you know how big weddings often have the officiant say something about how the people attending are part of the support system for the couple? Well, we just had the ceremony they photocopy down at the county clerk recorder's office, so nobody said anything like that, but I really feel like Mom, Boompah, and MG are a big part of our support system, and while I won't say they've kept our marriage together against the odds or anything (I really think Sweetie and I are a great match, and we'd have stuck it out together even if we'd had to move to Siberia or something), I do think our lives our better and easier and richer for having them as part of it. And I know our kids are lucky to have them.

(Lochie's first time getting measured by the salmon.)

And finally, a slightly belated happy ten-year anniversary to my Sweetie. I am the luckiest gal in the world, and I think we were meant for each other. Here's to another... how old are we? Well, here's to the future.