Enjoying CA

Last Friday my work hosted a surfing event at the beach 5 min from our house.  Since I hate taking equipment to the beach to enjoy the water, and Chris was thinking about taking surf lessons he went to the event instead of me.  It was his first time surfing in the 7 years we've lived in CA.  He said he had a lot of fun, but his arms, shoulders and abs were really sore the next day.

Waiting to go surf

Hanging out with some of my coworkers

This isn't Chris surfing, but shows a good picture of the beach that day 

Today I took my team out for a team building event.  We had the Sr. Geologic Advisor take us on a geology field trip up to Palos Verdes, about 20 min north of the office in Long Beach.  It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.  Here are some great pictures.

A view from one of our first stops.  This is a hiking trail now, but it was going to be a road.  Back in the 1950's CalTrans was going to put a road through here.  A few years after starting work, the entire area begin a slow slide into the ocean.  The state was sued and had to pay damages to surrounding land owners.  The thought was that it really was a combination of two things:  people adding water to the ground from their septic systems and from watering their yards as well as the removal and addition of material for building the road.

1929 Sunken City.  A massive landslide caused part of the city to slide into the ocean.  You can see the remainder of the road curving from the middle of the picture on the right and then down into the center of the picture.  The 'platform' structures at the left of the picture are remains of buildings and houses.

This is the view from the other side, but much further away.  You can see how the landslide happened.  The rocks are naturally dipping toward the ocean.  As water saturates the ground and/or earthquakes happen, the land easily slides into the ocean.  There are still many more houses up on that piece of rock!

The lighthouse

The team enjoying the view

The color of the ocean today could not be captured with the camera

Who knew nature could make so many cool rocks?!?

A close up view of these rocks which were laying flat in the ocean (see above)

White's Point

Tar seeps (oil/tar actually seeps through the fractures in the rock right at the ocean).  There are tons of these seeps throughout CA.

Yummy chalk!

This morning while still in their jammies, I let them explore with sidewalk chalk to wish my dad a happy birthday.  Charlotte loved it and scribbled all over.  Cooper loved eating the chalk.  He kept wandering out of the picture though.

I tried to get them to say Hi Grandpa, but all I could elicit was a Bampa from Charlotte and a Bpapa from Cooper.  They also had fun dancing to Elmo.  The last time I took a video of this, Charlotte was so much younger--they've grown so fast!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Box Head

Cooper had fun with the box from their new bowling set.

And because they are now both obsessed with the camera, they demand that I take a picture with them.  I don't mind. :)

We have successfully found Cooper a lovey.  It's both his pink hippo, and a book - Guess How Much I Love You. 

I nurse him for 20 min while he cuddles with the Pokey Little Puppy book, then I lay him in his crib, give him his book and leave.  No crying, no fussing, he just reads it and cuddles with it then zonks out.  Sometimes he cuddle with both the hippo and the book.  He also sleeps from 7 pm until 5:30 am, eats then goes right back to sleep until 7 am.  Fantastic!!!  (It probably helps that all of his molars and all but one I-tooth have come through!)

Chatterbox

We had Charlotte's and Cooper's doctor appointment today.  Surprisingly we were only there for an hour and fifteen minutes, compared to the normal 2 hours!

Both babes are doing well!  Cooper has grown a ton and is a lot bigger than Charlotte.  I posted their stats on the right and the charts are below.

The pediatrician is concerned that Charlotte's language skills are not developing as much as they should be for her age.  She expects her to say many more words, and to say at least a few very clear words.  She is recommending we have her evaluated for speech, and if they deem she is behind then we will do speech therapy with her.  I'm happy that we will be able to give her any help she needs...the earlier the better!

She is a little chatter box though, even if she doesn't say many words yet.  

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Diastasis Recti

I have been working hard over the last year exercising to get my body back in shape.  I don't have any particular weight goal in mind, I just want to fit in my old clothes and to feel good.  I've pretty much stuck with 2 days of pilates and 3 days of cardio/weight training. 

At first when I started working out and even when I was just standing or walking for more than 10 min, my abs would really start to hurt.  I mentioned it to my pilates instructor who assured me that with time my abs would come back together and I wouldn't feel the discomfort anymore.

She was right, I spent a lot of time working on my lower abs and I started to feel some strength come back.  I still got tired abs after too much walking or standing, but I could go for a couple hours before having any problems.  In May I started a new workout program with the 30 day shred 4-5 days a week and pilates 1 day a week.  Two months after starting I fit into most of my old clothes and I've dropped about 7 lbs.

However, 15 months after having Cooper and 12 months after starting exercise again, I have this protruding mound above my belly button that I have really become concerned and frustrated with.  So I turned to my trusty old friend, Google.

I have Diastasis Recti or abdominal separation.    Basically my abs have separated down the middle and I am at risk for chronic lower back pain, altered posture due to weak ab muscles, stress incontinence, and abdominal hernia (yikes).

The worst part is that Pilates and traditional ab work (which I HAVE BEEN DOING FOR A YEAR!) actually make the problem worse and can even 'fix' the abs into a permanent separation which can only be fixed by surgery. 

The good news is that it's probably not too late, as long as I make changes now.  There are only two DVD's on the market (that I have found) that go through specific exercises to repair the separation and prevent further separation.  I will be  stopping my workout (since pushups and much of the 30 day shred exercises are on the no-no list) until I can begin to repair my abs.  I'm really disappointed and frustrated by this.

Carousel Ride

We went to Fashion Island today.  It's an outdoor mall with lots of fountains and a carousel ride.  It was a beautiful day outside, but a bit warm.  We bought Chris some new summer clothes, enjoyed some Pink Berry frozen yogurt, rode on the carousel, and let the kids play in the droplet fountain.  They liked to watch the spray fountains too.  My favorite part was watching their faces light up on the carousel.  It reminded me of being a little girl.  I didn't bring the camera and I couldn't take a picture with my phone plus hold onto Cooper on the carousel, so I only got one picture of them watching the spray fountain.

Wild Things

Yay, I booked the plane tickets and reserved the car for our trip to Denver in August!  We'll be there August 8-16th!  The only evening we already have plans for is August 9th since that is our 6th wedding anniversary.  I'll be working 8-5 all week, but Chris will be available all day with the kids.  Hope to see as many people as possible!

Grandpa Larry (my dad) sent the kids a water table recently.  I finally got a couple of cute pictures.  The kids love splashing and drinking the water.

The kids are little food beggars.  They like to eat whatever we are eating.  They've finally started to like apples and applesauce and even bite into the apples!

 

I love that both of our children have a complete obsession with books.  Cooper's obsession started with the Who Am I - Bambi and Simba books.  He would grab the book, plop in our laps and whine until we read to him and then he would laugh and smile the entire time.  After reading the four page books 20 times a day Chris and I memorized them.

His newest obsession is Where the Wild Things Are.  I think he really likes the illustrations, but seems to also like the story until the 'wild rumpus starts' and then he wants the story to be over.  It's the ONLY book he will let me read him before nap and bedtime and then he cuddles with it while he nurses.  It's a bit awkward, but maybe his lovey is a book?  After reading it a zillion times I also have that book memorized.

Charlotte's favorite books by far are Dr. Seuss books.  She always picks them out and will sit and listen to the entire story.  I'm not sure if it's the pictures or if it's the rhyming, but probably a little of both.  The other book she really loves is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See.  She especially likes the purple cat.

We had to go to the bookstore last weekend to buy some more books because Chris and I were getting bored with the 15-20 we already own for them.  We bought another adoption story, a Dr. Seuss book, and a book about dogs (Cooper also really loves dogs).  I'm so thrilled they love books!

Jeckyll and Hyde

I was feeding Charlotte a few weeks ago and she was making a very mean looking face at me.  I looked at her concerned and then she smiled and I realized she was mimicking my face so I smiled back at her.  Now it's turned into a game--she's learning to make faces!   She sort of looks like Jeckyll and Hyde doing it though.

This is her scowl:

And immediately after she smiles at us:

This is Cooper attempting to scowl:

And then trying not to smile (this one cracks me up because he almost looks like he is flipping us off):

Today the kids were so goofy.  This is Cooper pretending he has long hair with the pajamas:

 

And this is Charlotte joining in:

I also need to find a reason to make these.  So adorable!

Happy 4th of July

No special plans for the fourth...fireworks are too late for the kids and the beach is way too packed to have fun at.  We'll be staying home and just enjoying our day!

We did crafts in preparation.  Charlotte didn't have very much fun.

But Cooper liked it and was very curious:

Clean up was fun for daddy, while Charlotte tried to drink the water through the window:

Then I put it all together after they went to bed: