August 14th, I say, "This is _________" and Sam says, "George!"

Sam's loving his new Curious George book (thanks again Cheryl, Libby and Masa!). We read it before bed Saturday night. Sam awoke at 2am for a second reading :( By 8am Sunday morning, we'd read it twice more! Sunday night, I wanted to see how well he knew the story...the following is a video taken today, but he knew the words just as well Sunday! It's not much to look at, but it's pretty amazing! What a memory!





We've had a busy couple of days...my walking partners are both back in town (HURRAH!) so our days start with a nice brisk walk then a play at the playground for the kids. Yesterday, Rachon and I and the boys went on a yarn run (never before have I had a friend that helped me be a better friend than I could be without her...does that phrasing make sense?) then took the boys to an indoor playground (lots of big fiberglass things for climbing with no nasty balls). Last night, I attended a Mom's Night In Craft Night. I LOVE MNI! The moms in this group are hularious and so laid back and by the end of the night, my sides are aching from laughing so hard :) I'm working on a special project for a special friend of Sam, I'll post pictures after I give it to her. But, I did make a little dress for Natalie's little girl Grace and it arrived today! Here's a picture, but I might get a picture of Grace wearing it and Jan's daughter, Claire, wearing hers (same pattern, but smaller and tan colored) when I'm in Halifax in THREE WEEKS !!!



Speaking of our upcoming trip :), I'm so, so excited! But I've got to say, that leaving this time makes me think of leaving SoCal for good and that makes me a little sad. I was not expecting that! But I've got such a fantastic group of friends here. Friends that I will keep in touch with for life and try to come back to visit. Friends that have promised to come to our future home in Canada for a family vacation :) Can you tell that I talk up our little part of the world?

Today, we swam for hopefully the last time this year. Sam was in the pool for about 5 mins of our 2 hour swim! The rest of the time, he was digging in the adjacent flower beds...we even had to make a trip home for the shovels :)

I have 3 photoshoots this week! Plus...I've booked a multiple family photo with 17 people for November...I'm so excited! I feel like I'm getting much better...more confident in directing the subjects, quicker in finding the ideal settings, way way better at choosing the correct exposure even in very challenging, quickly changing lighting conditions. I'm so excited!

I've got to do some serious packing, though! I've got one large suitcase packed tight...two more to go, plus a carry-on for all of Adam's gear for a 4 day fishing trip in the Marimachi, a carry-on for all of Sam's gear for our 12 hour trip and a carry-on for my camera equipment and our laptops...

Sorry for the long post, the videos are taking a super long time to upload!

PS-Since I've got the time...I finally figured out what was going with the blog being 97% full (I saw this warning in the photo upload screen). It's not a matter of filling up the blog per say, but filling up the Picasis 1 GB free photo album to which photos are automatically added and saved in. It took way to long, but I deleted 500 photos and freed up 10% more space.