Everyone at Baldwin Beach

 Okay, mostly Elliot so far, but it gets more diverse. 

That is NOT her butt crack.  It's a swimsuit tag.

Daira, Aaron, and Albie at the Beach

I was just going to toss a few photos of all of us on the beach.  But the shots of Daria, Aaron and Albie create such a beautiful family that I had to segregate:

This one I think was taken in 1955.

Patterns and the breaking of them

Last night we were playing in the bedroom.  I was tired, so I lay down onto the bed.  He frowned, and made that vague whining sound he makes when he doesn't have words for what he wants.  In this case, it was "sit up and play with me!"

"Daddy's tired," I said, not moving.  A smile spread across his face --- it's a game!  He flopped down next to me, right into the crook of my armpit.

We lay like that for quite a long time.  Probably 15 seconds or so.  Then he popped his head up and looked at me.  I feigned a surprised face, he laughed. . . . et voila!  A new game is born.

So for the next ten minutes that's all we did.  Both of us pretended to sleep, he popped his head up, I pretended to wake up in surprise.  We ran this routine like 100 times, I'm not kidding.  It got really old.

But it's been teaching me a lot about patterns.  Kids need structure, like it.  Patterns represent structure.  And the undermining of patterns is humor.  Hence, establish a pattern (we are sleeping) and then break it (wake up startled).  It's simplistic, but it has actually helped me think about adult humor in certain ways.

Goodbye Franklin Ave

We'll miss you most of all, Veggies Natural Juice Bar....

Dinner after the Marie Ferguson Memorial

A lot of washed-out shots, but it's all we got:

Elliot immediately fell in love with both of these ladies.  The one of the left is my Aunt Debbie, and the one on the right is a woman named Mary who lives in a cabin down the hill from us.

This is Jack Herrero's daughter Kathy.

Hanging out at the Herrero's

Before we moved into the Tahoe Cabin proper, we spent a few days at Jack Herrero's cabin.  This cabin holds a special place in my imagination, actually, because I visited when I was ten while Ricky Herrero (Jack's son) was building it, and Ricky was the guy who I had seen waterski barefoot so i knew this place was cool.

Anyway, Ricky (or Rick as he is now known) took over Jack's construction business and now builds schools and hospitals and other massively large structures.

Elliot loved the Herrero house as much as I do, and we had a good time hanging out there.

 

This photo looks like we're in the J Crew catalog or something.

Amateur Videographer

He doesn't like having his toy taken away.

Tahoe Sunrise

On the first morning we arrived in Tahoe, Elliot woke up at 5am.  Which was better than the 3:30am he awoke when we were in San Francisco.  Can any of you clever Sherlocks figure out why Elliot woke up at 3:30 am?

Anyway, the early awakening gave us an opportunity for some great sunrise photos.

The answer: jet lag.  Good job Sherlock.