He's all boy

When I first had a boy, everyone was asking me if he was different than the 3 girls. For the 1st year I couldn't really say any differences.  But now that he is almost 2, I can say that for sure he's different.  His favorite things: soccer ball, basketball, baseball, football. Anything with the word ball in it.  He usually picks a tshirt only if it has a ball on it, especially a soccer ball. 

The other day he picked up a frisbee at the park and threw it to me perfectly.  He loves action.  Movement is what he loves.  He's recently taught himself to do a somersault and does them uphill even.  I recall a lot of time spent working with the girls to get a somersault perfected.  Not this kid.

Although he loves action, he also loves to draw.  He really enjoys making shapes on the page and seems pretty coordinated for a boy, but what do I know!  He also seems attuned to weapons.  We don't have weapons in the house but I predict it won't be long before weapons appear somehow.

His talking has advanced a lot during the summer. He went from words to sentences.  We pretty much communicate verbally with him about everything. He is so cute when he talks. We all love to hear what he says.   All the girls love their brother so much.

Anu peeking out the cabin window at Angora

Where has the summer gone?

I guess I failed in my attempt to update about each kid at the end of the school year. I guess I will forget that idea for now and just try to catch up with some of the fun summer things we did.  The biggest thing was taking the kids to Angora Lake in the Tahoe basin for a week.  Man did they have a blast. Since I hadn't been there in 5 years myself, I had forgotten how happy I am in the mountains, the smell of the pines, the cabin, everything!  It was a treat to spend a week with MorMor and Auntie Diana, since we don't usually spend that long with them.  The kids definitely got to know their auntie better.  The only bummer was that Robb couldn't get off work to go, so we left him at home in SLO doing minor house repairs.  He was amazing, he did all kinds of stuff, just in time to conicidentally put our house on the market!  That's right, we are giving in.  This 2 bedroom condo has been wonderful to us for the last 6.5 years, but with the way things have turned out, we are just paying too much money for a too small place and the bank offered us an option to shortsale, so we are going forward hoping that works out.

Mana was in heaven the minute we stepped out of the truck, and headed straight to the lake.

Kawai has vague memories from being 4 years old, and she was so happy to be back!



Anu went with the flow. Since his sisters were happy, he was too.  We didn't realize how much he likes water until he practically dove in off the rocks.



Alani was also in heaven, and her fear of the bears breaking into our van in the parking lot vanished as soon as she stepped foot in the lake.  thank goodness!  Because the whole drive up to Tahoe she was asking me to turn around and go back  home.  But the first day we were there she said this is the best place she's ever been.

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Kawai and Mana were so excited to befriend some really sweet teenagers at the resort and were having a blast rowing around the lake with them and getting to ride in their kayaks as well. Kawai and Mana both got rowing lessons from Mormor and by the end of the week, both were pretty confident at rowing the inflatable boats.  It was neat to see how independent it made them feel.