Celebration and Goodbye

Last Sunday we had a party to celebrate James's tenure offer at UT Austin, his PhD, and Louis's five month birthday. It was an opportunity to say goodbye to our wonderful California friends, since we leave for Chicago on Monday.The kids had a lot of fun on the swing, bouncy house, and we filled our whale pool with balls -- endless fun throwing them out of the pool and cleaning them up. We also "painted" with water (since they don't know about real, messy paint, why teach them?) Rosemary is becoming a little OCD -- we swept up bird seed from underneath our feeder for about an hour together the morning of the party. It was the best time she's had all week, putting bird seed into the trash can.

Most of Rosemary's first playgroup was there (Anthony and Abby below).





























And the two baby Louises were there!

Since James's only wish for our wedding TEN years ago was to have mariachis, and no one really paid attention to him, I decided that tenure and the PhD was an important enough occasion to have his own mariachis. Maria helped me book them with her Spanish language skills, and they were a big hit (especially with Rosemary -- she was absolutely mesmorized, as you can see from pictures below). James was surprised! He reminded me that he had been wanting mariachis since he was in the womb (his mom said he liked them when she went to their favorite Mexican restaurant while she was pregnant with him).


























Since the bouncy house wasn't getting picked up until the next day, we even had a night-time jump with Aunt Summer and Baby B. Rosemary told Aunt Summer, "you don't know how to jump but I'll show you the way."
Rosemary is really into her backyard and pirate hat right now

A Day at the Races

Last Friday, we discovered the incredibly beautiful Santa Anita racetrack. Rosemary, Louis, James and I met our friends -- Henry (Rosemary's adorable friend featured in the pictures below), Louis (the original Louis, born 3 months before our Louis), and Rachel and Greg. You can watch the horses do their morning workout while eating breakfast at the track -- a better way to see the horses and the view of the mountains than an actual race!










Possibly even better than watching the beautiful horses race, was climbing up and down the stadium stairs.









Which finally tired them out, so they spent time "sleeping like horses" (apparently this is how horses sleep, who knew). They were absolutely covered head to toe in filth.

Getting ready for change

Louis is really all smiles, at least the first half of the day. As long as he can see a friendly face, he doesn't need much of anything. He tends to be a little frustrated/fussy in the afternoons, probably because his life is totally unpredictable and I'm putting him down for naps at seemingly random times. Or it could be that he is really constipated -- since he's started solids he seems to poop only about every 4-5 days.



Below are videos of Louis's first tastes of solid foods (a lovely melange of rice cereal and breast milk). Rosemary of course wanted to help feed him. She also seemed to be insanely jealous when we first put him in the high chair -- there was something about it (possibly the fact that food is a high priority for her and she realized she's going to have to compete for resources now, or maybe because it made him more like a little boy rather than a cute lump when he sat in the high chair) that really bothered her. She hasn't shown jealousy towards him in months, so it was a bit of a surprise, but of course she adjusted quickly.



Because of aforementioned jealousy, I left Louis for a morning and took Rosemary to have some fun. We went to Griffith Park to ride the train and say hi to the ponies (I offered her a pony ride and she was VERY clear that she was not interested in that -- only "say hi"), we went to the mall where there was a cool water fountain & escalator ride (highlight), and we ate lunch at an outdoor cafe that gave lollipops, and for dessert, a strawberry crepe that we watched the chef make. We even played on the playground before going home for a nap.




Because its been such a pleasure to see Rosemary play with her friends now we've been having playdates most days (its also much easier for me to get through the day with both when James is working if I have other adults to talk to and we get out of the house!). Below is a picture of her in the "ocean of balls" at "The Little Barn" -- we had a great time jumping into it (I even went with just her and no Louis once). Rosemary showed unusual bravery in this regard. There are also pictures of her with her best friends Shane, Henry, and Abby at Caltech feeding the turtles.
And finally, though its been a BIG month with a lot going on (many good things, including James successfully defending his dissertation!), including getting ready to leave for Chicago for four months, we've managed to do a few of our favorite family activities one last time. Below is a trip to the Arboretum. One of the pictures we took reminded me of something -- see Rosemary below at 2 in the cherry blossoms and Rosemary exactly 2 years ago (though the picture 2 years ago was at Lake Balboa).