appropriate/inappropriate

Tonight, we took Noah out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. On the way back to the car, he demanded to hold Grandma's hand, then grabbed Grandpa's hand as well (say it with me - awwwww!). Of course, he took advantage of the situation and started swinging. Also of course, the grandparents were delighted.
Then grandpa thought it would be funny to swing Noah up to lightly kick Papa's butt. Noah thought this was hilarious! He giggled like mad and his back-seat-monologue on the way home included a lot of "Popo" (German for butt) and "Papa" and fits of giggles.
All of this was actually pretty cute and funny.
It didn't stop being funny until Noah kept slapping Papa's butt and dissolving into giggles after we got home... Well. It stopped being funny for Papa, anyways.

Luma!*

A weird thing happened a few days ago: we had no plans for a whole Saturday. None. It was the perfect opportunity to go on a little family field trip to see some wildflowers.

We hiked up and down and all around "Wildflower Hill." Noah impressed me by walking most of the trail on his own. There were sticks to carry around and big rocks to sit on, so he was a happy camper.

This part was a little scary: After a while, I carried Noah in the Ergo, and he asked for a drink (Dink. Watta?) He's been practicing drinking out of his sports-top Klean Kanteen, and while he's getting better at it, he does still usually end up being at least a little wet. Miraculously, we both stayed dry this time.

And just because this is Southern California, we got stuck in traffic on our way home (which made us take a detour, which made us pass Ikea, which made us go into Ikea and buy a new shelf for the kitchen, which is really not a bad thing to have to show for getting stuck in traffic).

Obligatory California Poppy shot. Pop!

* Luma = Noah's version of Blume = German word for flower

Easter

chair-sitter, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

Happy Easter, everybunny!
We did an "egg" hunt/photoshoot in the front yard before church... Enjoy!

Yes. I just wrote a blog post about a playground.

The child... he grows. Like a weed. We recently discovered a really nice park with a very cool play structure when we were invited to a birthday party there. Noah particularly liked the bridge.
It also had a bunch of little slidey tunnels I really liked. I think we'll be back.

(So. This is a new low, yes? A blog entry about a playground? I'll do better. But hey, cute photos. That counts for something, right?!)