I haven't blogged about San Diego in part because I took so many pictures and we had so much fun, I didn't quite know where to start. And, also? Because we've been weathering our first, full-on sick baby. Looking back on it, the cold actually started our last few days in San Diego. It didn't actually get bad, though, until we got back to Texas. And it didn't get really, really bad until (of course!) New Year's day.
Natalie kicked off the new year by sleeping almost all day while refusing to eat and drink and not peeing at all (that we could tell); she had a fever off an on and was clearly snotty, miserable, and very sick. But the sleepiness and the not drinking had us worried. I tried my best to force fluids into her. But you know the thing about a 17 month-old? If she doesn't want to drink it,
ain't no way you can make her. We were so worried that we had, in fact, resolved to take her to emergency room (not where one wants to go at night, in the middle of a holiday weekend). Literally, just as we were gathering our coats, I noticed that her sock was wet. How did that happen? Girlfriend had had such a big pee that it had run down her leg! Mike and I were so elated that we high-fived each other right in the middle of our living room (Yes, this is what passes for fun these days. I mean, we also watched the Rose Bowl, but since we were simultaneously debating taking our kid to the ER, that was, uh, less fun).
Anyway, I LOVE our pediatricians. And not just because they have weekend sick kid hours. Although, well, that is a part of it. Anyway, we were able to get an appointment first thing the next morning. Natalie had both a double ear infection and a bad chest cold. Poor dear! We had no idea that her ears were bothering her at all. Anyway, a little medicine for the ears, a nebulizer to help her breathing, and tincture of time, and we're well on the way to recovery.
So that explains the blogging hiatus, right? Good.
Okay, so, San Diego. Or, at least the first part.
We actually got very, very lucky with the weather. We arrived the Wednesday before Christmas, just as the major rainstorm was moving out. We had one other night where it rained, but other than that, we had lovely weather. We walked on the beach every day!
Natalie was a great flyer. We'd bought her a seat and we decided to try carrying our car seat on. Since our car seat is, like, the ginormous SUV of car seats, I wasn't sure it would fit. But it did! And this was a total win for us!
Natalie wasted no time making herself at home in my grandmother's house.
The original kih-kah also made an appearance. This kih-kah is so hungry for love and attention that she also allowed Natalie to pet her (something most other animals don't allow, for some reason). Natalie would put her hand on the kih-kah once or twice and then have to run away and bury her face in our pant legs, unable to handle the overwhelming excitement associated with touching a real! Live! Kih-kah!
We were joined in San Diego by my brother and my family from San Francisco. The San Francisco folks were more than willing to surrender to Natalie's pleas of "again, again" and read her stories ("Again, again" is the way she asks for anything, from a [new or old] story to be read to her, to food from your plate, to a certain person [lately, daddy] to return or hold her).
The San Francisco folks are a sporty lot. Alas, after my great asthma attack, I wasn't quite up to running (although now I am: the asthma is gone, and I'm coming back slowly, taking care of my old foot injury - I'm almost at 3 miles!). My aunt Polly and cousin Jesse ran on the beach almost every day.
They also swam in the water. Seriously. Without wetsuits. And I know it's San Diego and all, but it's also December. And that water is COLD. Here's picture of rather poor quality (in fact, I think if you look a little to the left there you can almost possibly, maybe, for sure see the Loch Ness monster). Anyway, I'm including this picture just as proof that I'm not the craziest person in my family. At least I wasn't two weeks ago.
I'll leave you with a few beach shots (the astute San Diego observers among you will recognize that these shots were actually taken at two different beaches), and I'll write more about the rest of our trip in the next post.
My mom bought Natalie this super-cute holiday dress. She didn't wear it for the actual holiday, but we put her into it a few days later when we went to visit some of my childhood neighbors.
We also went to the beach.
In fact, my brother and his lovely girlfriend even played football on the beach.
Notice those lumps of seaweed there behind my brother?(this is called foreshadowing) The picture above was taken about two minutes before Eric majorly ate it, tripping over a giant pile of seaweed while running for a catch. One minute he was all suavely running, and the next he was flat-out on the beach, covered in sand. But he was ultimately fine.
We also went to park and played on the swings:
Natalie also checked out all the books at Oma's house.
Here's a picture of my love:
This is my family (whom I also love very much):
I love the picture above. To me, it's the picture of 2010. I especially like it because it reminds me how far we've all come. Of course, Natalie is bigger. But last Christmas, things were also a little grim: my aunt was ill and didn't travel down to San Diego, I'd broken my arm a few weeks earlier, and Mike was in Japan. As a family, we'd battened down the hatches and were getting by. This year: much, much better. On all fronts. Here's a 2009 / 2010 contrast shot:
While we're on the subject of family, here's a four-generations picture (shared even though I look horrible, thanks to my weird, white-ish sunscreen. Dear readers, I do this for you! For you!)
And then we packed up and came home. Whew!
