Up Close and Personal with Aveah Dove.

You can tell if Avi is really into something because she will be sticking her tongue out slightly.

Wow, look at how well she holds that pencil!

Katelyn - a new cousin!

Avi has a new second-cousin-once-removed!  Katelyn Pedersen was born on August 9, 2011. 

Oh my!  Isn't she sweet?!

Doug has this totally under control now - he's an expert!

Finn's Place (a.k.a. Santa Cruz area)

We may have been visiting Brant, Aryn, Dax, Cali, Finn, Piegon Point, Halfmoon Bay, and Santa Cruz, but to Avi all that is Finn's Place!  Avi loves her little cousin - and we are taking as many chances as we can to go visit her newest friend.

Dee Dee putting Finn in his rocker for dinner.

Aryn prepared an amazing meal!  Didn't she just have a kid?  How does she do it all?!

I'm wearing the super cool farmer's market backpack Aryn had just given me.  Why?  Because it is so comfy!

Pigeon Point Hostel - cool, but don't go there for the hot tub if you have a kid under 6 years old!  Bummer...

Avi enjoying the patio roof art at the Santa Cruz museum.

What else would you expect from an elevator at a Santa Cruz art museum?

Maren and Finn hanging out on the beach with Avi while Michael and Brant were trying to catch some waves.

San Francisco, Part 2

If you read the story about Lucky "hugging" (i.e. humping) Avi, and were worried, well here's a picture to tame your wild imagination.  Lucky is tiny and Avi loved him!

Michael chillin' in Tracy's swanky apartment reading a Miles Davis book.

Getting some work done.  While in SF, we stopped by the Fairmont Hotel to get the scoop on the scene there since we were shooting a wedding there the next month.  Avi is doing her own "work."

Tracy feeding the baby bird, Avi Dove.

The Children's Museum in Discovery Bay was A-W-E-S-O-M-W-E!  Here Avi walks through a rain tunnel - without getting wet!

Try to picture this (since this picutre is more abstract than discriptive): I'm laying on a blue waterbed, looking up at a fish tank ceiling.  Cool.

I loved these little aprons they provided so the kids wouldn't get drenched after playing in the water.

Miscellaneous July Cuteness

Geez, I'm really behind in blogging!  Here it is in September, and I'm just posting July pictures!  

There really should be a limit to the number of times a parent can say "cute" in a day.  I feel like a broken record sometimes, but I literally tell Avi (or tell others that Avi is) cute, cute, cute!  (See, I can't control myself!  I need outside help.)

 Daddy's sunglasses.  Mommy's favorite pajamas.  Lovey hanging on for the cool ride.

Millie trying to kiss an uninterested Avi while both are sitting on Pacha's lap.

Baptized Dove (or Avi's Second Birth Day)

What a blessing our little Dove is!  We decided to have her baptized Catholic in the Rodriguez family tradition.  Avi didn't like the priest touching her or pouring water on her head, but she liked having her family and friends there!  Sitti, Grampy Jim, Godmother Polly (and boyfriend Hernan), Gigi Louise, and mommy and daddy!

The church requested that all babies wear white to their baptism.  Wow, I wish I would have got a picture of this "white" dress at the end of the day!   Pretty crazy to have a 2-year-old wear white!

Godfather Matthew Eames, Aveah & Daddy getting a blessing on the alter.

Potty Training

The time has finally come.  I'm on day one of no more stinking diapers!  We'll see how it goes.  Of course every parent wants an early potty trained kid, and how hard can it be, really?  Well, it's difficult - just like most of parenting.

This morning, after 3 successful pees in the potty, and a 30-minute-pee-free ride in the car, I felt I was a super mommy with a highly-aware and conscious child. So proud was I, that indeed I was texting my friends and family a picture I had taken of a certain yellow-liquid in a certain plastic receptacle, with a note that said something along the lines of "Potty training, day 1: 4 successful potty..." Well, I don't know exactly how it went because I never got to finish the boastful text message, because I was interrupted (nay, my illusions were shattered) by my friend saying, "I think Avi may have had an accident over there."  Ha!  Serves me right for trying to assume that since the first 2.5 hours had been easy-breezy, so would be the remainder.

Well, the rest of the day went like this.  She never peed unless she was in her "big girl" underwear. If she walks around like a regular nudist, she's fine - she will pee in the toilet.  But put any clothes around her urethra, and she will wet them within 10 minutes.  So, I wonder how this will work when she's interviewing for her first job and the boss asks, So, why aren't you wearing any pants???

San Francisco, Part 1

Summer took us all over California this summer.  We were lucky enough to stay with Michael's cousin, Tracy in her swanky and HUGE (especially for SF sizing) apartment.  Oh, and she has a dog named Lucky that Avi got to play with - which she loved except for when Lucky would hump her.  Fortunately, I was quick enough to manipulate that into a "hug", so we'd all say, Oh, isn't that sweet Avi?!  Lucky is giving you a hug.   If we hadn't made it into something positive, she would have cried everytime the dog came near, but now that the dog was hugging her, she felt she understood things.  The dog is only 8 pounds, so he really wasn't doing too much harm, and hopefully when Avi is reading this as an adult, she is laughing and inspired by our creative positive spin on the situation.  

 I know parents don't usually play on the playground equipment, but Michael and I are trying to change that boring pattern.  

 Yea, I'm going way too fast!!!  Tracy let me borrow some leggings that were super slippery.  I literally flew out of the slide and landed (on my feet luckily) 6 feet away!

 The cozy and retreat-like courtyard to Tracy's home.

Isn't this lovely for the middle of Nob Hill?!

Emma Wood, Ventura Surfing vacation!

When Michael and I went to Costa Rica in 2008 searching for great surfing beaches, we took the shuttle from the Central Coast to the LA airport.  With neither of us driving, we were able to look around more.  So, when we hit norther Ventura, and saw all the surfers riding sweet waves with their RVs parked right on the sand, we asked ourselves, Why are we going all the way to Central America to surf, when we can do it right here?   (Well, the answer ended up being for the: warmer water, fried plantains with breakfast, monkeys in the trees, wild-never-ending-bus-rides, hot-springing with the locals, mini-crabs crawling across our cheap hotel room which was well worth the nearby surf break, cute Costa Rican kids, and fresh Costa Rican coffee.)

Nevertheless, we vowed to come surfing there as soon as we got back.  Well, that was 3 years ago, and we finally made it this summer!  Woo-hoo for swiftness! 

Our first night's stay was on the rocky part of the beach, the second night we moved and got a sandy beach spot.  Score!

 Michael and I would take turns watching Avi play on the beach while the other surfed.  That surfer on the outside is Michael looking for the next set.

We got a campsite right on the water and sand.  It was gorgeous, fun, relaxing, and Avi loved it.  We will definitely be going there again!

Trippin' North

 We took the train south to Carlsbad, but on the way back, we missed it.  We can blame that on several things: there were about 20 times the normal traffic at the train station that day due to the Horse Races starting, we had a baby, and the station had no marquees or signs to notify travelers which train was arriving and leaving.  Arrggh!  So frustrating!  Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with this country?!  But most of the time I'm happy and feel very blessed to be the 3% of the world's population to be born into the USA and all the fortune we have.

 Speaking of fortunate!  Avi has a "cell phone" so she can call her friends at any time.

She constantly called Millie to tell her she was "at the lake".  Funny how little things stick in a child's mind and they repeat it over and over and over...

In Santa Barbara, we stopped for dinner at the coolest "healing center" called Alchemy Arts.  They serve  tasty vegan and raw food, offer yoga and healing massages and more!  Avi just liked playing on the uniquely lit and inspirational stairs.

My meal.  Yummmm

Avi finally fell asleep around Buellton.  Poor baby!  It was a 6+ hour drive.