The time before vacation is uber-stressful. As we prepare for our
week at June Lake, the stress levels in my house are hitting near record highs. I have 3 projects that I am trying to set into a good position to leave for a week, Toby gave a presentation at our weekly Lou Grant Parent Child Workshop meeting that she had been working on furiously for about 2 weeks, the van needed new tires (easy experience at Costco), the van needed the new tires aligned (almost awful experience at Firestone), Max had his final Cubbies meeting (which, unbeknownst to us, was an awards ceremony, that we were expected to attend)(Max got an award for ‘Newest Cubbie’). Seemingly, the solid rock in our week was Weezy. She happily crawled along, unaffected by any strain or stress. 🙂

Man – there’s just been this hysterical jump in movement and communication with this baby girl. Lou can clap, reach her arms up when you say ‘Uppie!’, do ‘please’ and ‘all done’ in sign language, understand when you say ‘Night-night’ (in sign), and put her toy phone to the side of her head when you say “hello?” The last one is the funniest – since 1/2 the time the phone ends up backwards or in the middle of her forehead. She’s crawling with a sort of gallop or trot – like a horse – when she’s excited. We’re having a really fun time. 🙂

I grossly underestimated the number of people that attended Max’s pre-school’s campout. There were nearly 200 people there. Everything went along very smoothly. The baby was content, Max was well-behaved and Toby slept better than expected.

Friday night, I put up the tent that was borrowed from the JMB family. I didn’t want to look like an idiot putting up the tent for the first time. (I needn’t have worried. Nearly every person that I saw putting up their tent was referencing the instructions. Some were even rotating the instructions and scratching their heads.) That tent was HUGE! It even had a divider to make it into 2 rooms.

We got to the camp ground at about 11a. There were about 10 families already there, so we had our choice of tent locations. The tent went up with the greatest of ease.

The school has a giant slip & slide for the kids to use, and it was a hit. Even Max, who hates getting wet, had a good time on it. There were kids on it for nearly 6 hours.

I will post some pictures, and a small AVI, so you can witness some aspects of our adventure.

Thanks again to the JMB family for the use of the tent. It worked great!

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of camping. I prefer my vacations in a hotel, preferably near some great scuba diving. So it is with some trepidation that I embark on a camping trip this weekend with my family. And not only my family, but with the families of Max’s pre-schoolmates. Yes, my camping experience will be with a group of 40 or so five year-olds.

Stay tuned…

Holy cow – I can’t even believe that my little baby is one. We had a great party for her and cousin Nathan (3 days older than she) last Saturday. She really enjoyed the tissue paper included in her presents, and meticulously ate her cupcake for about 15 minutes. Max had great fun at the party as well – and the picture below captures his very silly nature as an almost 5-year-old.

Lou is pulling herself to standing at just about every occasion possible, and on every table, chair, pet and human she can find. When you approach with a camera, she automatically begins to squint, as she anticipates for the flash!