a brief visit to heaven

we have been to hollister several times and the beauty of it never gets old. i keep telling ryan to hurry up and make our millions (although maybe it will be me who makes our millions...) so we can buy a 100 acre parcel and live there. rolling hills, horses, cows, chickens, coyotes, wild pigs, citrus groves, eucalyptus and oak trees, the milky way...i can think of no better place to be. to exist in this world. i imagine sullivan growing up learning the names of all the trees and plants, collecting eggs, racing down the road with blue and playing hide and seek in the barn. catching frogs and watching spiders spin their webs. learning the constellations and the stories behind them. *sigh*.......



an idyllic day on the ranch.

there are few things better than a velvety horse nose.

a three-week-old colt with his momma.

sullivan crawling on the grass. he doesn't like his feet to touch. :)

backyard escape

sullivan and i like to go to the park, but since school let out it has been very busy over there. we have a lovely backyard, but the lack of shade has kept me from spending any amount of time out there.

ryan solved this problem for me by buying a piece of rebar and pvc pipe to anchor our beach umbrella in the ground. now with a few simple steps, i have my own little patch of shade, away from the chaotic scene at the park.

blue, who as you know insists on being in almost every photo, volunteered to demonstrate.

so far we have used it several times, and it works out great because sullivan does not like to crawl on grass and he stays on the blanket.

except for yesterday, when he took off at a rather brisk (as brisk as crawling can be, anyway) pace and plucked something out of the grass to show to me.

there, between his chubby pointer finger and thumb, was a rabbit turd. i managed to grab it from him before he put it in his mouth, but barely. as it turns out, rabbit turds are the perfect size for babies to pick up and attempt to eat. i learn something new everyday.

look what i can do mom!

after i changed sullivan's diaper, i went to wash my hands. when i returned, this is how i was greeted:

he's looking at the floor like he knows he next move will be to get from his crib to the ground.

here we are at babies r us. as you can see, i am trying to use my shopping cart cover, but it doesn't fit the babies r us (or target) carts that well because those carts are slightly bigger than a grocery store cart. sullivan likes sitting in the cart, but would much rather have the leg holes facing the other way so he can see where we are going, which makes sense to me too. when i was grabbing food to stick in the cart, he completely turned around and got on his knees.

now i really need to start using that little seat belt!

this new standing skill has created something of a problem: when we put him to bed for the night, even though he his clearly exhausted, he is not quite done hanging out so the first thing he does when we put him in his crib is stand up. and once he gets there, he is not quite sure how to get down. so he cries and cries until one of us goes in and lays him back down. then he rolls over and stands back up and cries and cries. we aren't quite sure what to do. if we keep going in when he will cries, he will realize that all he needs to do is cry for us to come get him. but then do we let him stand there and cry? and how will he eventually get down? will he fall? what if he smacks his head? bah, all these questions. soon he will figure out how to sit himself back down and this won't be an issue, but what do we do until then? the last two nights we have had gone in and sat him down and eventually he fell asleep. hopefully we will figure this out soon.

rainy day odds and ends

wednesday it rained off and on all day, so sully and i spend the day in the house. soon the rain started to make a racket outside, and much to my surprise, it was hailing! it hailed for about 5 minutes and started to melt very quickly so i snapped a quick picture. most of the pieces were pea-sized, but a few were kind of big, maybe grape? it was pretty amazing; i didn't think san diego was capable of this kind of weather. the sun was out and the hail was gone about 10 minutes after i took this picture.

see how intense blue looks? in my right hand, the camera; in my left, a bagel slathered in peanut butter. blue did not flinch as sullivan repeatedly yanked on his tail.

sully sitting quietly (a rarity) and playing with his toys.