Day in the Sun / The Year in Pictures

Today was sunny and beautiful. There is a tree growing beside our house that's covered in fluffy white flowers... their aroma fills the air as soon as you step outside. Our neighbor, Bill, says soon the petals will start falling like snow.

This afternoon, Corey and I went out back and tromped through the tall grass searching for dandelions. He calls them "fluffs" and spent about an hour saying, "I want more fluff." I think we found every "fluff" in the backyard and he blew the seeds off each one. We buried our faces in a copse of sun-warmed snowdrop flowers. Corey discovered the purple honeysuckles growing along the fence. Like a true gentleman, he picked one for himself and one for me. We both smelled our honeysuckles; I held onto mine and he dissected his.

Then we went out front and played "throw" with his red ball. I call it "throw" because Corey hasn't quite mastered catching yet. He can catch a large ball in both arms if he's standing right in front of the person throwing... but with the small ball, we just practiced throwing as far as we could.

As Corey ran into the driveway to get the ball, he looked up and exclaimed "Bird fly!" I looked and saw a hawk circling slowly and gracefully above us. I told him, "That's a REALLY big bird!" and he echoed me: "Big bird." Just then a flock of seagulls passed right over us, their white wings flapping in unison. We stood together and watched them quietly.

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So, it's been a long time since the last post here. Corey is almost three! Our family has been through so many changes in the past year, it's been hard to keep up. Also, Corey became obsessed with the camera, so I couldn't take many pictures of him :( Every time I bring it out, he drops whatever he's doing, runs over to me, and yells "I WANT a Creamra!"

Moving to Our New Home
Guy (best friend, landlord, racecar driver, and all-around awesome dude) bought an adorable white-with-blue-trim house on the rural outskirts of Santa Rosa. The granny unit turned out to be perfect for Adam, Corey and me. The best part: the house sits on about 2 1/2 acres of land, with a little forest of rose bushes and open stretches of wild grass. It's perfect for a little boy to run and play!

Rosy Backyard

Our first night in the granny unit, we worried that Corey would feel frightened sleeping alone. So we plopped our mattress in his room and tried snuggling up next to him. Big mistake! He was so excited about the new place, and about Mom and Dad being close, he bounced around the room until early morning.

Yay, I has a big mattress!

Hmm, how does this thing work?

Too excited to sleep, let's play ball!

With more space, Corey discovers new ways to play!

Now Dad's in the basket! :D

New Home, New Discoveries!

Moving into our new little home was a first time for a lot of things:

• Mom, Dad and Corey living together
• Corey having his own room
• Lots of space indoors for creative play
• Lots of space outdoors to run around

It was a time of new discoveries for Corey, and he had a great time!

Block Art

Untitled collaborative work with Mom.

We spent a long time getting this contraption
to stand up! Corey practiced sharing, fitting
blocks together, and saying the word "TALL."

I took a shot with Corey to show how tall our
structure really was. Unfortunately the perspective
is distorted :P I asked Corey to make a "funny
face" for the pic -- so cute!

Corey finds the "trucks" in his new block set.
Here he's figuring out that he can link
them together. He still loves to do this!

Yum??

What's Corey doing in this pic? Breakdancing?
Eating cracker crumbs off the floor? Nope, he's
throwing a fit because he can't have the camera. :(