Thank you so much for coming to visit, Grammy and Grandpa Don!  We love you both, and it was so great to see you.  David really loved all of the attention.  He followed Grandpa Don around most of the time and said “I miss Grandpa Don” every time Grandpa Don wasn’t in his line of sight (like when Grandpa Don went to take a shower.)  During their visit, David provided lots of entertainment by singing his own rendition of “Sticky Bubblegum”  over, and over, and over, and over, and over …  We enjoyed taking a few excursions with Grammy and Grandpa Don, too.  We went to a few local parks, to the beach, and to the Hiller Aviation Museum.  We hope you enjoyed your trip, Grammy and Grandpa Don, and we hope to see you again soon!

On Friday, we went to the Goblin Walk in San Carlos, where the stores on Laurel Street give out candy to trick-or-treaters.  David had a great time and really enjoyed getting lots and lots of candy.

This week, David and I took our first trip without Chris – we went to Virginia to visit our friends Claire, Lin, and Eileen.  I was really nervous about the cross-country flights, but David did incredibly well on both the flight there and on the flight home.  We’re very thankful to Claire and Lin for making our stay so comfortable.  We had so much fun – and we really enjoyed staying in their beautiful new house.  It was great to meet Baby Eileen – she sure is a cutie!  Here are some pictures.

We’ve been getting into the swing of fall with weekly preschool and gym classes, but we’ve still found time to enjoy some less routine things.  Recently, we took David to Happy Hollow in San Jose.  He was finally big enough to ride the roller coaster there.  I wasn’t quite sure how he would react, but he LOVED it.  The laughed the entire time, and insisted on riding again. In fact, we rode a total of FIVE times before I managed to pry him away from the the roller coaster and onto something else.  Even as I’m writing this, he’s saying “I go back to roller coaster.  I ride that again.”  Here are a few pictures from our adventures in Happy Hollow.

In addition to Happy Hollow, we’ve also enjoyed a few other really fun and memorable times.  We recently went out to dinner to our favorite Japanese restaurant, where David insisted on drinking the miso soup with a straw.  A bit unconventional, but it was a very efficient delivery method.

David has also grown quite fond of playing hide and seek.  Here is a picture of him hiding with our neighbor, Madeleine, while Chris is seeking.  Can you find him?

We also went out to a chocolate festival in Belmont.  I was really concerned, because it wasn’t an event that catered to kids, it was late in the evening, and it involved a lot of chocolate.  However, the boys (David and his friend Ciaran) were extremely well behaved and enjoyed the live music and festive atmosphere.  A big thanks goes to Chris for watching and entertaining both boys all evening.  I know that I enjoyed the opportunity to slowly pursue the chocolate.

Here are some pictures from David’s recent adventures.

Throwing rocks into the water (note that he’s gotten really good at making a splash):

Helping Dad get money:                                                     

Doing the hula:                                                                   

Helping Dad build a play structure at Little Hands:

David’s preschool celebrated the beginning of fall with apples.  His teacher even brought an apple peeler corer slicer (which we’ve affectionately named an “apple torture” device.)  David LOVED it!  He peeled 5 apples himself (and he ate most of them, too.)  The next day, he woke up and said “Go see Teacher Lalaine.”  When I told him that we weren’t going to go to preschool that day, he replied “but cut more apples, cut more apples, please.”

Over the weekend, we actually had rain.  Considering that it’s rained for the majority of the summer for our family in Georgia, one wouldn’t think that rain should be newsworthy … but this was the first rain we’ve had in a long time.  David was really confused as to why we couldn’t go to the park to climb.  Instead, we passed the time by having bike races in the garage with our neighbor.

Sunday, Chris and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary by running a 10K.  Luckily, we had a beautiful morning without rain.  We both finished at around a 9:20 mile, too.

Today was David’s first day of preschool for the 2013-14 school year.  Last year, David and I started going to Little Hands preschool in Belmont.  We liked it so much, we decided to continue this year.  David seemed to have a great time.  Here are some photos from today.

Here are a couple of other random photos from our recent adventures.

Making “hot chocolate”:                                                    

“Playing” blocks (with a hot chocolate mustache):                                                                 

Throwing rocks in the water:                                            

Watching Bear (a friend’s dog) walk through the water:

Last year, David and I participated in a parent co-op preschool in Belmont called Little Hands.  The most amazing thing about the year at Little Hands was watching David transition from having very little awareness that other kids were around to becoming really good friends with them.  Even after a whole summer of not seeing a few of his classmates, he began playing with them immediately.  Here are a few pictures of David with his friends and classmates – Cam, Ciaran, and Sienna.

This summer, David and I did Tiny Treks, a program that takes toddlers outside on short hikes.  We were thrilled that our good friends, Jean and Ciaran, were able to join us.  We picked berries and corn, splashed in streams, threw rocks in lakes, and saw lots of animals (including deer, donkeys, and chickens.)  David had a great time, and is still talking about hiking with Ciaran.

David turned 2 on August 5th, and we’ve had a great time celebrating!  In addition to the party that my mom had for him in Georgia in July, we went to Raging Waters on his actual birthday and had a party the weekend after.

Birthday pancakes (he insisted on putting the entire box of candles on the pancakes):

Raging Waters (we celebrated David’s birthday along with the birthdays of some dear friends, Patrick and Emily):

David’s party at Laureola Park:

Some quality reading time with Nanna Lynne and Paw Paw: 

While we had some family in town, we took them up to SF.  David went on his first cable car ride and had his first Ghirardelli ice cream.  However, he fell asleep while we were walking across the Golden Gate.