San Diego Revisited

Check out these two giddy kids on vacation, sans small people!

We went to San Diego last week and left William and Andrew at home with their grandmothers, who gamely agreed to watch them, feed them, and chauffeur them around to their many important engagements. 

Traveling without the boys was the weirdest thing. I only had to carry my own stuff. I only went to the restroom if I had to actually go to the restroom myself. There were no interruptions at mealtime or showertime or any other time. I never had to hunch over my plate to keep small hands from snatching any of my food. I was able to decide to take in a yoga class or go for a run or head down to a nearby bar for happy hour without making any other arrangements. I just went! And when I sat down to work on my laptop while David was attending a session, I never had to get up and wipe someone's tushy or fetch him a granola bar or find someone's missing shoe or referee an argument. I just...got work done. It was a little disconcerting, actually. 

Of course, we did miss the boys. We wondered what they would have thought about dipping their toes in the icy-cold Pacific.

David, right before the water washed over his feet and instantly froze his toes. Del Mar, CA.

And I feel reasonably confident that they would have looooved the food.

Shrimp burrito and fish taco at El Zarape. Oh my God, so good. University Heights, San Diego, CA.

But we knew that their grandmothers were taking good care of them. And we knew that it was good for us to get away for a little while.  David enjoyed the educational sessions that he attended, as well as seeing some old friends, and I did, too. I even ran in a race...on vacation! Aren't you proud of me? I even ran really fast (okay, so "fast" is a relative term here).

It was a really nice trip. But as always, we were glad to get home. And glad to hug and kiss Andrew and William and tell them all about our trip. As we predicted, Andrew was interested in hearing more about how we rode on a train and a trolley, while William was interested in the food. Love my boys.

Couple of quick October photos

Okay, just a couple of quick photos before I leave town for a few days.

Here's one of William and me at the new Zaxby's. Andrew was the one eagerly awaiting the opening of the place, so we took him there the day it opened. I promised William that we'd get him there soon, and so today, that's where the two of us had lunch.

At Cheekwood with Andrew a week or so ago. Love taking him there. We often take a picnic lunch at eat it by the ponds, and then I let him play Julie the Cruise Director and lead me all over the place. 

For example, he took me on a tour of the scarecrows. It wouldn't be autumn in Nashville without a visit to see the scarecrows at Cheekwood, after all.

Oh, and you know how I mentioned that the boys are both playing soccer? Guess who scored his first goal this past Saturday? This guy!

And it was even on purpose! First, I was in total disbelief, and then I was so excited that I was literally jumping up and down. A very red letter day for Andrew and his dear old unathletic mom who's never scored a goal in her entire life. 

Early October Update

How is it that I have gotten so woefully behind on this blog? Ack. Well, I did write a nice little post featuring William and Andrew on my other blog a month or so ago, if you want to go check that out sometime: The Joy of Small Stuff

What can I tell you? We've been busy this fall, per usual. Both kids are playing soccer, and William is busy with a blue streak of other activities, namely piano lessons, church choir, Scouts, and tennis lessons. Andrew gets to tag along to many of those. It can be exhausting sometimes, but they're the kind of kids who thrive on Doing Stuff.

William started the third grade, which is utterly amazing to me, given that I remember very clearly being in third grade myself. He is reading up an absolute storm. He finished the entire Harry Potter series this summer, read the first few Little House on the Prairie books, and now he's happily reading his way through a series called Fablehaven. He's my little bookworm. Er, or my not-so-little-anymore bookworm. I love love love that he's become such an enthusiastic reader.

Andrew started his....get ready....last year of preschool this fall. Gulp. I know! As one of my friends remarked in disbelief, "But he's your BABY." I KNOW. It is utterly astonishing to me, too. He loves his class, loves his new friends, loves his teachers, and is having a ball. His classroom has a bulletin board with a calendar, and a weather chart, and other information, and Andrew is recreating all those things on his own bedroom wall, next to his beloved world map.  He is also making sign-in lists for the entire house, since he signs in each morning when he gets to his classroom. So don't be surprised if you come to our house and see purple pieces of paper taped all over the place. Just sign your name, right underneath where Andrew has signed his own name. It's very important to him. He's so earnest about it, and it's so, so adorable.

It's easy to not notice incremental change, but then sometimes I look at them carefully and really notice them. And I think, "Wow, they really are getting so big!" I recently cleaned out a bunch of old clothes from Andrew's room to sell in a consignment sale, and he's already wearing clothes that William wore in kindergarten. It doesn't really seem like that long ago that William was in kindergarten, and yet....

Hope you are all having a good October! I adore autumn and Halloween and so do the boys. I'll try to get some good autumnal photos to post soon.