By Jason
As Ann mentioned yesterday, we’re about a month behind in blog posts. The reasons we’re behind (lots of visitors, busy at work) are all good but it is kind of a shame in the sense that I’m sure I’ve forgotten some small details by now. Small details are so much more important when you have a young child.
My parents flew in Friday, October 2nd to spend a week with us. Ann and I are short on vacation days, saving them up for upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas trips, but that they got to spend lots of quality time taking care of Athena.
I can’t emphasize enough how valuable videoconferencing with Skype has been. When we picked up Athena from daycare she greeted them with this wonderful smile of recognition – I don’t think she would be nearly as familiar with all of her grandparents if we didn’t have weekly video chat sessions.
The next day we took everyone over to the neighborhood playground. Athena was walking really well at this point, but we still couldn’t let her run loose in the playground or she’d shovel handfuls of cedar chips into her mouth.
Athena loves swinging:
She loves the toddler slide at daycare, but wasn’t as impressed by the larger playground slides:
Playing with Grandpa:
Happy with Grandma:
She needed a little help walking down a steep hill:
Wearing Ann’s new sunglasses:
On Sunday we took a drive up the coast past San Francisco and into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I recommend driving Route 1 along the coast in either direction, it’s one fantastic view after another. I found the Muir Beach Overlook recommended online so that was our first stop. Athena loved it because it was windy.
The overlook is easy to miss, but has an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean, the mountains, and even San Francisco in the distance.
It was the late afternoon so the glare off the water was extremely bright. I’m glad I brought my polarized filter.
Another view, looking south:
The path out to the lookout point:
We also walked the short trail just around the corner from the lookout – this part, sheltered from the wind, felt 15 degrees warmer. It’s an extreme example of the abrupt microclimates you encounter in California.
We went further north, to Stinson Beach, to get a closer view of the Pacific.
No swimming today, but my Dad did touch the Pacific as a wave rolled in. This is a very broad, horizontal beach, so even calm wave can wash in quickly.
We had a bit to eat at the nearby Parkside Cafe. Athena used the menu as a hat:
The rest of the week, my parents got to watch Athena during the day, take her to the park, and build lego castles for her to knock down. They also, unfortunately, got acquainted with how hard it is to get Athena to eat enough and drink enough milk during the day. We’re happy to report at her last doctor’s appointment she had reached the 13th percentile for her weight, which is a new record.
Playing with the aforementioned legos (actually MegaBlocks):
Finally, the cutest picture ever. Athena has just in the last month started to come up and cuddle with us on her own:
My brother came next, and we had one night here with everyone together. More on that later, hopefully we’ll keep catching up on these posts.