Apricot Baby

7 or 8 years ago I planted a Blenheim apricot tree in our backyard. It was my own little personal homage to the Santa Clara Valley. For 7 or 8 years I would watch it blossom every spring and be disappointed every summer when no fruit was ever produced. I decided (in my infinite botanical wisdom) that it must have something to do with cross pollination or bee colony collapse disorder and I resigned myself to the fact that the tree would bear no fruit. Very sad. Then last summer, while in the backyard of a neighbor, I noticed a huge apricot tree that was just dripping with fruit. Like there were so many apricots the branches were practically snapping off.

So imagine my surprise this week when I noticed out apricot tree had fruit! Several tiny little green apricots, so perfect and lovely. Now I just need to make sure the squirrels stay in the neighbors tree, and not mine ;)

Walking In My Shoes

Patrick has discovered the joys of walking in mom's shoes. Tom is not as amused as I am.

Baby It's Cold Outside

I'm a little late in posting this, but we spent a long weekend in Tahoe over my birthday. It had been a very long time since we'd been up there during the winter, and I've decided I am so not cut out for cold weather. Patrick loved it though. He was thrilled to be able to make snow angels and go sledding. Molly tolerated it for small periods. She absolutely hates having anything on her head right now (including my beloved bows) so she would throw a complete fit anytime we put a hat or a hood on her. I am really hoping this phase is short lived, Patrick went through a similar phase at about the same age. I took a bazillion pictures, more are posted on Flickr.





On the way home we stopped off in Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly factory. It's one of those things I've always wanted to do but never had the chance. The factory only operates on weekdays so I was excited about seeing everything in action. Well wouldn't you know it, Monday was inventory day so the factory wasn't running. We saw a bunch of empty machines and half finished beans but Patrick loved it just the same. He brought home his paper Jelly Belly hat and has been wearing it for 3 days straight now, insisting that we play "jelly bean factory workers". I'll admit it, that one can get old really quickly.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!

I was lame today and left the house with a nearly dead camera battery. As a result I barely got any pictures. And not only that, I never got a picture of the two kids together. Ugh. I seem to go in hot and cold spells with the camera, I need to try and be more consistent with it. More so than being consistent, I need to actually do something with all those digital images. I have thousands of the,. Tens of thousands actually. And I've only printed out about 50 pictures in the last 2 years. Oops! But I digress...

Patrick and Molly had a very nice Easter. We spent the entire day with family, which included trips to 3 different houses, and no less than 4 Easter egg hunts for Patrick. He now has enough chocolate to carry him into 2009.

Here's 2 snapshots from today. Patrick is playing with his cousin Brandie, and Tom's mom is holding Molly.





Yesterday we went to a graduation party for my cousin Aerin. She graduated from UCSB in less that 4 years, with a double major! My aunt and uncle live in a farm, complete with llamas, sheep, an emu, and many, many hawks. Patrick was in total heaven. He had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back.

Patrick wore his "farm hat" to the party...



And Molly just enjoyed playing with sunglasses. She is her mother's daughter ;)



And here is my Molly Catherine, with my second cousin Molly Katherine. So the two Mollys are second cousins, once removed. When you come from a large family you actually know exactly what that means.



Last but not least, my birthday isn't for another week but my mom couldn't wait to give me my gift. I love it a million times over, it's a framed picture of Molly done over Andy Warhol style. Isn't this just the best?

The Luck Of The Irish

My mom is 100% Irish. And anyone Irish knows that we tend to be damn proud of it. So not only is St. Patrick's Day a big deal in our house because of our heritage, but also because my little laddie shares his name with the saint. We had a traditional (well, traditional in America) corned beef (sans cabbage) dinner last night. If you've ready my blog for a while you may recall that last year on St. Patrick's Day I ended up with second degree burns all over my very pregnant belly while I was draining some boiling potatoes. I still bear those scars, though they now have a few stretch marks among them. So this year had to be better, right? Dinner was lovely, and Patrick loved the attention of his special day. He even helped me make Irish Soda Bread and green shamrock cookies.

If you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough :)

Rock N Roll All Night

The other night Patrick decided he was a "rock star". I guess rock stars wear sunglasses and jammies :) He serenaded us with rocking renditions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "The Alphabet Song". Never mind that his guitar is actually a ukulele.



Patrick has quite the active imagination. We spend a large chunk of every day playing out some role play that he has decided on. It usually involved pretending we are firemen, or pirates, or some version where I am the son and he is the dad (I'll admit that one gets a little old, especially when he insists on me calling him "Dad" when we are out in public).

Patrick's birthday is coming up in a few weeks and he has been very carefully planning his birthday party (warning friends: it involves bowling). He will happily tell anyone (even those who don't ask) that he is three and a HALF, and that his birthday is coming up. And he will be 4. And he is having a party. And would you like to come? And when is your birthday? And how old are you? And what is your name? And on and on. Luckily most people seem more charmed than annoyed by his outgoing personality.

Bathing Beauty

Look who is getting ready for summer! If only the warm weather would come...

Mr. Roboto

Patrick has an extremely active imagination. He's always coming up with new scenarios for role playing. It's cute, but is goes on and on. All. Day. Long. Lately he's been playing with cardboard boxes quite a bit, Tom had the idea to turn this one into a robot costume when Patrick kept wearing it and bumping into walls since he couldn't see. He spends hours a day as Patrick the Robot, even talking a a stilted robot voice. Now isn't this the cutest little robot you have ever seen?

By The Beautiful Sea

The weather this month has been absolutely fantastic, free of rain which us a little unusual. Although it has cooled down this week we didn't want to miss the opportunity to get out and about so we headed down to Carmel today for lunch and browsing. If we win the lottery we are definitely buying a house there, nothing spectacular, just a little cottage on the beach. Feel free to come visit ;)





Most of my pictures of Patrick lately look something like this...


Oh my.

Love Is

...these two little cuties!