Painting at the church

On Saturday we all went to church to help paint - we're painting the exterior of the building. James was more of a quality inspector really - he was just watching what everyone was doing!

[We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Don Joel (www.thejoels.info) for these first two photos - taken with their new super-doooper camera!]

"You missed a spot ..."

Daddy up the ladder ...

All that painting must have really worn him out because he eventually fell asleep. He looked funny with his leg up on the tray of his stroller/pushchair!

I wonder if he's dreaming about paint brushes?

Another new park

James and I went to explore another park this afternoon. This one was called Lakeshore Park in Newark. There was loads of wildlife there - we saw everything from butterflies to canadian geese, to sea gulls, to cormorants, to cranes, to ducks with ducklings, to weird fat duck things... James fell asleep on the way to the park and slept while I had my lunch and took lots of nature photographs and then he woke up when I was about 3/4 of the way round the lake. It was really pleasant - think I may even have got a bit of a sun tan!

I'm thinking of renaming this park "Geese Poop Park" ... I don't think I need to explain why ... It was only really bad like this in a couple of places and it was such a cool lake I didn't mind at all.

Here's Sleeping Beauty while I was having my lunch.

There's a bridge over to an island in the middle of the lake where there were lots of very nice looking houses ... what a view they must all have!

As well as all the birds there were some really cool silver birch trees. These photos didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.

I really wish I'd taken our zoom lens. I'm pretty sure this bird is a cormorant ... maybe even a double-breasted one (according to my bird spotters book ...)

There were loads of cranes/egrets (?) - I really wish I knew my birds!! (My "Birds of California" book wasn't much help identifying these ones ...)

Look who's waking up ... or at least thinking about it ...

"I was having such a good dream ... I'm not sure I WANT to wake up ..."

"Right - I'm awake now! Let's go and explore!"

"Cool!!! Look at all these birds!!!"

"Errrr, I think we're being surrounded ..."

"What on earth is that thing?!?!?!"

My "Birds of California" book doesn't have anything that looks like this ... any one know what it is?? It looks like a duck pretending to be a turkey to me ... but it's probably something really obvious... In the meantime I'm going to call it a Durkey!!!

"Let's get out of here - all these birds are freaking me out!!!"

As there wasn't a playground at the Lake we went to Newark Community Park so that James could have a go on the swing.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

James really likes this rocking purple dinosaur... He looks a bit like a scary Barney to me ... I thought Barney was supposed to be a friendly dinosaur!!!!

It looks a bit like Lionel The Lizard (our bedroom visitor ...) from this angle ... only Lionel was more ferocious looking ...

Look at those muscles - holding on tight.

Playing with Keagan and Andrew

We went to play with Keagan and Andrew again this week. James found this little peacock to play with (when he wasn't terrorising Andrew ... - sorry, Andrew!)

Keagan is definitely a little mover - he can walk now! Maybe he learned so he can run away from the Attack Lobsters that reside in Livermore ... (see http://iforgott.blogspot.com/ for more!)

This walker is definitely a popular one - this is James and Andrew both trying to walk with it. It's too bad this photo came out blurry.

3 babies ... 2 walkers ... you do the math(s) ...

Book Worm ...

The other day I took James to the library for the first time and we picked out some new books for him. He seemed to like the library - lots of people to watch. This book is all about airplanes.

He really likes this one - "Kevin Goes To School" ... the pictures really make him giggle. Perhaps it reminds him of his Uncle Kev ... they do look alike ... ;0)

He really likes turning the pages of books ... although he often starts from the back ... maybe he's learning Hebrew ... or maybe he just likes to know that the story has a happy ending?

Just another day

James sat drinking his juice with his feet crossed yesterday. He looked really funny.

"What guilty face? I wasn't doing anything ..."

Spot the baby ...

So THAT'S why he's wearing those camoflage shorts ...

Lizard-free zone

We are now officially a lizard-free zone so hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight! I went out to my small group this evening and when I got back Dan reported that he had enticed the lizard out of the house using the neighbour's cat as bait ... when the lizard came out to eat the cat he wrestled it to the ground, put it in a head lock and struggled with it across the garden and managed to throw it in the storm drain behind the house ... all with a wonky finger. The cat should be fine ... it can still walk on 3 legs. Oh, and Dan's nose has grown longer ... !!!

Ok, so really it saw the open door and scurried off outside and disappeared down the side of the house hopefully never to return ...

Lizard Alert!!!

Today I was cleaning our bedroom ... I moved Dan's bedside table to hoover behind it (not something I normally do ...) and this little monster shot out from underneath it ... IT TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT!!! And has given me the heebie-jeebies all day ... It keeps hiding and then re-appearing. I took this photo on the 3rd sighting ... It apparently doesn't want to leave ... I think it must be a gecko or something. Don't think I'm going to be able to sleep in our bedroom tonight .... apart from anything else these questions are going to keep me awake!!!!!

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN HIDING IN OUR BEDROOM?! HOW DID IT GET THERE??? DOES IT HAVE ANY BUDDY'S HIDING ANYWHERE ELSE?!?!?!? IS THIS JAMES' PET??? IS THAT WHY HE"S ALWAYS SO KEEN TO GET INTO OUR BEDROOM AND POKE AROUND OUR BEDSIDE TABLES???

This is the blurry one I took first because my hands were shaking too much ...

Good morning, sleepy head!

James looked so sweet when he woke up from his nap this morning. I could hear him calling cheerfully "Aayyy, Aaayyyy" in this funny little way he does sometimes and when I went in there he was with a big old grin and tufty hair!

I love his bed head. ;0)

An old fashioned game of Blockade ...

Any one remember that old game "Blockade" where you had to block your opponents path across the board by using little gates .... ? It feels a bit like we've been playing that with James just lately!!! Always trying to stay one step ahead! ;0) We decided to get another gate for the other end of the kitchen rather than block too much off with furniture. We want James to be able to roam around and we'll just teach him no for certain things - but we want him out of the kitchen so he doesn't hurt himself.

Looking from the back room towards the kitchen. James can still play on the step and we can still get through the dining room to the living room. We decided if this worked it would be better than totally blocking off the dining room with furniture. There's still lots of space for James to explore and it's not such a pain for us either.

"Hmmmm ... I can just about reach the rubbish bin [aka traaaaaaash caaaaaan] ... just need to grow another inch or two and I should be able to knock it over still ..."

Looking for weaknesses at the other gate ... good job I greased the bars!!!! (just kidding ...)

Tough Guy Pose ...

Would you want to mess with this baby?!

"Let me in!!!!"

TALL giraffe ... TALL baby ...

James' new t-shirt says "TALL Giraffe" and so we decided to hang up his giraffe height chart today (it's been hanging inside his wardrobe for the last 10 months). Unfortunately James was in a lazy mood and I couldn't get him to stand up and be measured but I think he's almost on the chart (it starts at 70cm).