Here are a
whole bunch of pictures of my recent days. Looking them over I am reminded of these recent days and the fact that I have been laughing a lot more often lately. Not that I wasn't laughing before but I am noticeably more laugh-y and even finding myself funnier lately. Good times. I am enjoying it. As I think about it, this is very true for the day time hours, and there are thankfully many hours of day this time of year. However, at night, I am wayyyy more tired and sleepy so I have no idea if I am laughing. Maybe laughing and smiling makes one sleepy. So, without further ado, my recent days in pictures.
That's Enzo and his new friend at school. I am told they held hands most of the day.
We all went to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, and Tia K. Here they are looking at animals. The funny moments were when my mom and Enzo growled like lions together with their hands at their mouth like Enzo often does. Tami and I are not sure if the hands represent teeth or whiskers but it's amusing.
Here is The Kid when we went to a favorite place of mine, Santa Teressa Park. We went there for a baptism party.
This
is my son. He sat and watched an adult play catch with an
older girl. He watched and watched. The cool part was that whenever she
caught the ball he would smile big.
Tami caught a bug and showed Enzo.
Ana snacked and enjoyed the world.
There are the ladies sitting on the picnic blanket.
Ana started playing with sunglasses and being cool. Enzo helped her to put them on.
These kids love playing in their digging pot. Every now and again Tami has to add more dirt to it.
Brushing their teeth before bed. They are so adorable.
Time to play outside! Then we went to play at Ponderosa Park. Wow! So much to see and do. We saw people playing tennis, volleyball- a new word Enzo now knows from watching them hit what appeared to him to be a "soccer ball" over a "goal," three little league soccer games, a little league baseball game which we sat and watched for a bit as Enzo rooted on both the Indians and the Cardinals teams with "Go Oakland!," an adult cricket game!, a dad teaching two daughters how to play cricket, a man doing Tai Chi, a man playing kick the ball with his kid, a birthday party, a bunch of people playing in the multiple playground areas... and all of this in one park going on at the same time!
We played kick the ball too.
And we played kick the ball and run really fast laughing to see if Papi will get to it first or if Enzo would be able to dive on top of it giggling first and the call out "again, again!"
Beautiful girl, one day before she turns 1.
The kids were totally watching the older girl go down the really big slide for minutes. And then, Enzo went up the relatively giant structure all by himself and then got on and slid down the relatively gargantuan slide all by himself!
And he loved it.
And did it over and over again.
And it was a huge slide! Look at that. And when I say all by himself I mean it- I didn't go up on the structure, I played with Ana at the bottom the whole time. Somehow I even managed to not yell out "be careful" or to hold my breath or anything. I am as proud of myself as I am impressed with how this kiddo confidently climbs and slides these days. At my first concern I calmed my self with two thoughts. One, it looks fairly safe and like it would require a bit of purposeful effort to fall from and then I made my mind shut up as the question popped in of what if he tries and I'm way far down.. but no, he will be fine. Two, this is a busy park at a school campus in California, USA where people are happy to sue and if this thing is still standing, well then it must be pretty safe to let my son play on without me guiding him even if he does appear hundreds of feet up in the air without a safety wire or net. And he was perfectly fine and safe and loving it and smiling and going up again and again. Excellent.
Ana and I played closer to the ground.
Big brother helped fill up the giant custom pinata Grandma and Grandpa got for his sister's birthday. My mom even added her own custom features to it with hand cut out letters and attached butterflies. It came out great.
Tami: Babe! Come look at this! You are not going to like it but you need to see it.
Randy: [Sees daughter on ladder with Enzo behind her talking her through the process.]
What are you doing letting her on the ladder!?
Tami: She is OK. And Enzo is watching her and telling her to "Be careful Ana."
Randy: Oh good, so I don't have to warn her to be careful then if Enzo is taking care of it.
Then I snapped this photo and promptly removed my daughter from the ladder while quietly thanking my son for looking out for his sister and mentally shaking my fist at the air because my wonderful wife watches this whole thing and then calls me over to look. I guess it is like a free therapy session for a possibly over concerned parent and that somehow makes me laugh.
My beautiful 1 year old with her Papi.
Tami baked and I decorated. Tami did a couple of the purple flowers that came out the best though. Bottom row, third from the left, and the other two that are similar are Tami's work. We left this all on the island far away from the edge so Monte wouldn't eat them as he did Enzo's 2nd birthday cake. We left him alone for all of 5 minutes... he managed to lick the frosting perfectly clean off of the right inch and a half of the square cake. Luckily the rest of the sweets were far enough out of reach. I think Monte is trying to start a new birthday tradition for himself.
Now for some pictures of Ana's birthday party.
Most were excited, but at least one grandparent took a nap in the middle of the festivities.
Thankfully, this time, the pinata actually worked!
Getting ready to blow out the candle.
This is supposed to be her first taste of chocolate but she never got past enjoying the frosting.
These next two photos make laugh a lot. Here you see Ana enjoying the reenactment of what she was doing 1 year ago.....
....and that's how we got you Ana.
My son wanted to play in the car more then he wanted to go anywhere after we enjoyed some time, just the two of us, eating, walking, and looking around in downtown Sunnyvale.
This cracks me up to. I got some packages I had ordered and decided to open them up while hanging out with The Kid who was taking a long time on the potty. He liked my new toy Ducatis too. He was having fun just playing with the bikes inside the boxes. I wouldn't let him open them yet so he made the best with what he had. I figure he and Ana will get to have them eventually but I'm going to keep them for myself for now. One is already at work for my amusement. Not sure where the other will go yet.
And then there is this picture. If you look close in the reflection of the door you will see my face. I did, but I didn't know it was mine. I smiled at the guy because he looked friendly and he smiled back and then I looked closer and it was me. The illusion made more sense in person then in the photo I took after to try and explain this to someone, anyone. Analyzing the event afterwards I realized that in that brief moment, perhaps two seconds long, while believing the illusion that a) I had thought how nice it was to see a smiling face, b) I realized that the guy had a beard too, c) I liked how he was dressed and looked closer to verify the smiley guy behind the window in the hall was actually wearing a nice purple shirt.. and tie?.. just like... OH! That is me! And then it all made sense. Good times.
