Liveblogging a vacation

We are at the mid-point of our Santa Cruz summer vacation. So far, excellent.



We arrived in the late afternoon on Monday and were delighted by the location of the hotel, The Dream Inn. (Oh, and the first lovely part of the day was that we had our babysitter come and watch the kids for 5 hours while we took our time preparing for the trip. So worth it!) We upacked at the hotel, had poolside drinks and then went to a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Santa Cruz called Malabar. Delicious.

Tuesday we floated from beach to pool to the Boardwalk where Julian enjoyed carnival rides and a Chinese acrobat performance and Ryan and I DID NOT enjoy the food. We had dinner outside at the hotel pool and it was far more relaxing than the restaurant. Julian danced in place while he ate, and that went over just fine. Scarlett is a total maniac and you don't even want to know what she was doing while we ate. "What wasn't she doing?" is a more appropriate question.



Wednesday was more pooltime and rides and then downtown for dinner. The Taco Bar in The Palomar restaurant was perfect for our overtired little people. I was feeling a little fuzzy after only 1/3 of my pina colada, so I poured the rest in a sippy cup and drank it on the way home. Classy.

More details later, and more pictures are here.

The dress up box has been in use

An uncommonly mischevious adventure

A couple of years ago, we made an "instrument" out of a small tin. We filled it with brown rice - uncooked - duh - and closed it, sealing it with packaging tape. Julian decorated it with stickers and it became a shaker. It was durable and got tossed around in our large bin of musical instruments, surfacing every now and then to remind me that we should make things together more often.

Now let me say that as the parents of Julian, we haven't yet experienced much in the way of the classic naughty preschooler tales you hear. There have been no markers on the wall, DIY haircuts, or snakes, snails or puppy dog tails in my purse.

Yesterday, however, I was treated to a little trouble making. Of course this is entirely my fault for leaving three-and-three-quarter-year olds unsupervised in the house for more than 10 seconds, but live and learn, right?

You can guess where this is going, I'm sure. I looked up from the backyard and see that Julian and his playmate Lila are gleefully screaming something to me from the window of his bedroom. They are very excited and seem to want my attention. I go upstairs where I can hear them saying "Magic seeds! We're eating magic seeds! There are magic seeds everywhere!"

And indeed there were. Brown rice - at least three years old - was everywhere in Julian's room. And pieces of brown rice were on and around the shiny wet lips of the hyperactive preschoolers.

"Stop! Don't eat that rice!" I said.
With full eye contact, they both picked more rice from the carpet and put it in their mouths.
"It's magic seeds!" they said.

After some explanation about how you should not eat things that might not be food, like what you find inside an instrument or a stuffed animals, the twosome was persuaded to come downstairs where their moms could watch them better. We left a storm of brown rice behind in Julian's room which facilitated a more productive conversation after Lila left about what kinds of things are safe to put in one's mouth.

I was annoyed at the mess, but I could not stop laughing on the inside, of course. Plus, no worries about lack of whole grains in this kid's diet today.