Zeke is four

My birthday came and went. Come to think of it, so did Mama's. Her birthday is just a few days before mine. Daddy and I baked a cake while she was on her annual girl's weekend. We had a party for her when she got back. We had another, bigger cake for my birthday. Chocolate, because it is my favorite.

I also got to meet my first cousin on Mommy's side of the family. His name is Landon and he is just a small little baby. Uncle Billy and auntie Carolyn were down for a visit and came over to help celebrate. I received lots of toys. Some of my favorites are here. Lots of books from my Canadian cousins. A Razor scooter from Mommy and Daddy, and a giant red fire truck from Grandma Martha, Pop-pop and Landon's parents. Some of my friends from Little Dreamers daycare came over for a pool party at our new house.

Unfortunately the pool heater decided to not work and the water was a cool 76 degrees. We all went in anyway, because we are kids and don't care about these things. Cousin Jacob and auntie Patti were here too. Jacob stepped on a bee in the yard and got stung on the bottom of his foot. He was not happy. I hope he is better now.

Grandma Mira came to visit

She was only in town for a few days but we made the best of it. Originally the Newbury Park Amagasus had planned to be down in San Diego for the entire weekend, but plans were abbreviated to a Sunday afternoon in Manhattan Beach. Let's see what kind of weekend we had.

Friday: Carpinteria Beach with Grandma Martha, Pop-pop Bob, Auntie Patti, Uncle John, cousin Jacob and mommy. We even got to ride on the train (something altogether too rare these days). Evening Gymnastics and pizza party with Daddy's company Transitions group. Daddy to pick up Grandma Mira at LAX. I was already counting sheep by the time they got back.

Saturday: Lazy morning, quick swim in the pool, lunch in Thousand Oaks, see Grandma Mira off to the wedding in Ventura. Zeke to Grandma Martha's so Mommy and Daddy can go to an outdoor concert at a Malibu winery with friends.

Sunday: Pick me up at Grandma's house on the way to Manhattan Beach for an afternoon of pool sitting and barbecue with Mommy's girlfriends and their kids. Return a little after dinner time, but in time for a quick Greek dinner of Gyros and chicken kabobs.

Monday: Visit Daddy's work in the laboratory because his cell cultures were calling. Lunch in Thousand Oaks at a new brewery-restaurant, paint some ceramics at a local pottery shop, visit a church whose interior pieces were created by Sam Maloof, dinner at a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant with GrannyM and Pop-pop Bob.

Tuesday: Before work, Daddy does a quick run down to LAX for Grandma Mira's flight back to Pennsylvania. Phew.

That was one busy weekend, but a fun one. Maybe we will not try to pack so much in next time. The long days of summer are here, but it's already starting to feel like they are shortening.

Hanging with the big kids

Lori Wagerman and her two boys came to visit this week. Lori is one of Mama's friends from college days and they have kept in touch all these years. Her family normally lives up in the bay area not too far from Mountain View, but was down visiting.

It was nice to get in the pool and cool off since it was so hot this week. Not unbearable, but uncomfortable. The two boys in the photo are Lucas and Matthew. They are bigger boys but nice boys. We had fun in the pool and jumping around with squirt guns. I just noticed some fingers behind my head. I think Lucas was having fun at my expense. No worries, we do live in the Conejo (rabbit sp.) valley.

Take care for now, I am going to try and keep cool this week.

Happy summer solstice

Well, it's here. The official start of summer and the longest day of the year. The summer solstice is, astronomically speaking, when the North pole is at the most extreme tilt toward the Sun as it spins on its axis. It also means the apparent position of the Sun in the sky is at its Northernmost track. What it means to me is longer, warmer days and more swimming.

If you haven't already seen over at Mama's blog, I am officially a Tiny Tot Seal. It is an intense 8-session class concentrated over the course of two weeks. We are learning to dunk our heads and kick with our straight legs. We even get to retrieve toys off the pool bottom. There are only three kids in my class and my instructor keeps a watchful eye on all of us. After a refreshing thirty minute swim, we take a warm shower and get bundled up for the short drive home. Yay summer.

SoCal weather patterns

We are officially in the beginning of summer, but down here in the Southland we have lots of grey in the mornings. They call it "June gloom." Sort of reminds me of when we lived in Montara. I guess the difference being the clouds usually burn off by midday so at least half of your day is nice. Actually, this year we've been having unusually grey days and sometimes it does not clear at all. Harrumph.

Today was a good day and we woke up to sunshine. Mommy had a business trip to the SF bay area, so she hopped a plane from Burbank meanwhile Daddy and I headed the opposite direction to Ventura. There's a long wooden pier there and we went to investigate. We found lots of fishermen and crabbers. A lot of sand, seaweed and a playground was also encountered. Maybe we'll have to come back with our fishing rods.

On the way home, we stopped off in Oxnard/Camarillo for some Vietnamese pho. You know, the big beefy, salty broth with slices of steak and rice noodles? We used to eat it all the time in the bay area, but have yet to find a good spot down here. This place was pretty good, probably not worth the drive specifically for it, but serviceable if you happened to be in the area. There's a sneaky little back entrance to our neighborhood from the Western side. It made for a pretty direct route back home for a big nap.

Home at last

You just know it is a good day when it starts with pancakes. Pancakes and maple syrup. The disadvantage is getting hungry way before morning snack time. That's ok, Daddy just gave me a bowl of cut strawberries and yogurt. Then we had In-N-Out burgers for lunch (oh and a granola bar on the way to the restaurant), a big container of milk for afternoon snack and a mess of Chinese dumplings for dinner. I seem to be hungry all the time, but I am a growing boy and need the nutrition.

We are definitely settling into the new neighborhood. Our block had a birthday party for one of the residents last night, complete with potluck (Mommy made a 5-cheese macaroni casserole). It is so nice to have been invited into their homes and warmly received. I like it here and hope we stay a while.

What's in the field of green?

Huh? Don't bother me, I am picking strawberries. There were fields and fields of them at Underwood Farms. Different species too. We had to walk down the long rows and find only the biggest and reddest of them (they were the sweetest, most perfect ones). I know I tried them myself. Over and over again. Strawberries are my favorite.

The best thing about fresh picked strawberries is their texture. Even the very sweet ones are still somewhat crisp. So yummy and so plentiful. After the hay ride and strawberry picking we were allowed to see all of the resident farm animals: donkeys, horses, goats, geese, peacocks and peahens, cows, pigs were all represented. I liked them all, even though some were stinky.

I am not absolutely sure, but I think this picture is of the biggest berry I found. It didn't make it back home because it was eaten promptly in the field.

Finding Jane Seymour

We tried. We really did. But ultimately, we failed. We spent a sunny Saturday at the Paramount Ranch in the hopes of seeing Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. You see, this is the site in Agoura Hills where the bulk of the 6-year long TV production was filmed. It was used for many other important Western films since the 1920's, but we were mainly interested in seeing Dr. Quinn. Daddy has always had a thing for her. I think she's a pretty lady too.



Ok, I'll confess. The real reason we were there was to meet other kids my age. It was one of the Amgen Transitions events. There were other kids there, but most of them were older and playing too rough for me. However, we did go on a short hike and we saw some cute rabbits (aha, that's why the named it the Conejo Valley). We had a nice picnic and then went looking for Jane.

There's a downtown area complete with saloon, and an old train station but no Dr. Quinn. Apparently it was quite a bit more built up during filming but several buildings were razed after filming ceased.

Jane Seymour, er Dr. Michaela Quinn, Medicine Woman - Where are you?

I wanna be a fireman

A totally random event occurred on the way home from school today. We stopped off at the store to pick up some food for dinner, but I spied a little red truck. Daddy proclaimed it was a fire truck. I decidedly said, "it is not." There were no ladders nor hoses. Daddy said that indeed it was a fire truck again and there were firemen standing nearby in the parking lot. Why don't you go ask the nice firemen if it was a fire truck or not.

Glad I did; they were so pleased I was wearing my firetruck T-shirt and willing to ask them about their truck that they let me drive it. Well, maybe I overstated my case, they let me sit in the driver's seat. Nice guys, they said to come by their fire station over the weekend if I wanted to see the really big fire engines and ladder trucks. Good stuff.

Life is good

I had an extra special day last week. First my daycare had an impromptu face painting day. Every day should be like this, especially when I can become a bee, bzzzz bzzzz. Then the Transitions group (Amgen-sponsored community integration team) hosted a weeknight out at the Chuck-E-Cheese in Thousand Oaks. I have never been before, but I'm sure I'll be back. We had pizza and a sickly-sweet Hi-C drink for dinner. Then we spent most of the evening being maniacs with the different activities. Skee-ball, whack-a-mole, water pistol game... You name it, we played it.

What did we get for our troubles? A stack of paper tickets which were counted in a special machine in exchange for a printed receipt. I took my receipt to the counter and was able to afford a curly straw and a very small tootsie-roll pop. I was happy. Daddy thought it was a total scam.

Anyway I had a good day. See you next time.