Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
First the good news: since we live in University subsidized family housing, we need to re-apply every year for our apartment. Every year they hold a lottery to see how many people get to live in the dorm apartments again (this is the same for non-family grad students as well), luckily we were winners this year and will be keeping our apartment through next year! We are SO happy because not only are we sick of moving every year, but with our upcoming trips, it would be tight for us to move out by the allotted date.
On Mothers day my baby made me a card (with some help from dad who made sure the marker stayed out of his mouth), they suprised me with a massage gift certificate and took me on a picnic at Caltech - it was a beautiful warm sunny day and so nice to spend it with my family.
Monday was the first day in more than 3 weeks that Bronson and I spent alone. I thought he'd be demanding, but he didn't seem to mind that I was the only one around to watch his antics (and sometimes not). We went shopping for garden supplies and then he watched as mom re-potted plants and rounded out our garden - it's small but should provide us with some nice vegetables soon enough.
Tuesday was "Ditch Day" at Caltech, this is a tradition where the senior undergrads organize a day for undergrads to ditch classes - the other undergrads and teachers, etc don't know when it is. On said day the seniors must leave campus for the entire day - any senior found on campus is duct taped to a tree by the other undergrads. The intention is for the undergrads to mess up the seniors dorm rooms, so the seniors must create an elaborate set of clues to keep them away, at the end of the clues should be the key/combination, etc to getting into their rooms. Hopefully the clue set is so lengthy that they never get to the end. If they do find the way in to the room then the senior should have left a bribe to deter them from messing the place.
So, needless to say yesterday was a very interesting day to roam campus! CalTech provides the seniors with a budget, and things were looking very interesting. Each undergrad group had t-shirts made in the theme of the room they were working on and there were large elaborate structures all around. We saw a giant paper mache turtle on wheels with 2 bikes inside so that it could be pedalled around; when we brought Matthew back to see it, it was gone...
There were large boxes, small boxes, buckets of water balloons, a slip & slide bowling alley and more pool noodles than I could count. There were space age contraptions in the middle of fields and the highlight for Bronsons was the 100+ rubber duckies in the pond outside of the library!
Matthew got to participate a little in the fun, as his senior undergrad friend Chelsea enlisted him to play a character at one of her clue spots - his office. Matthew played Zorg the tinfoil eye patched arms dealer who demanded the students create counterfeit copies of art pieces in exchange for the supersoaker weapons that he hoarded. Such art included the standard Mona Lisa, Starry Night, etc; but also such modern classics as a 'Carrot Top' poster, Jimi Hendrix poster and the ever popular David Hasselhoff speedo shot. He had fun.
Tuesday was a big day for Bronson, too as he started crawling forwards! He'll go a few steps, then do a fish-like flop on his belly to move forwards, but today he's doing even less flopping, so we figure in a few days he'll be off! Furthermore yesterday heralded the outcropping of 2 top teeth and a third ready to break skin, too. He is pretty happy for a kid growing teeth and in addition to chewing everything in sight, he likes to click his teeth together, too.
Here is a video message from Bronson who's been just so happy lately that I wanted to share.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Last week my best friend/matron of honor/Bronson's godmother Sabrina was visiting from Victoria, having just finished her teaching practicum and now being a full fledged high school English/writing/French teacher (Congrats!)
Sabrina came for a beautiful week, we had a total heat wave and both got really tanned. We spent most days next to the CalTech pool (and some time in it), but we also took trips to Santa Monica and Huntington and Old Town and Little Ethiopia and of course Target :)
At the bottom of this post I've posted a link to a montage of Bronson pics to a song which is originally posted to YouTube. This is a special mothers day treat for the moms who raised Matthew and I to be the good parents we are today (even if we do call our son Booger face sometimes).
Happy belated mothers day, oh and, Matthew had a great birthday, too.
The video may also be viewed (larger) on You Tube. The video is quiet, so turn up the volume!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
You'll notice that while Diane is clear in this picture, Bronson is blurry - this is due to the aforementioned "vibrating with excitement"
Bronson steal grandpa Terry's chair
A trip to grandma's wouldn't be complete without some cow balancing/acrobatics
Bronson and I spent many the afternoon outside in the sunny backyard - I threw out my back soon after arriving so we spent most of our downtime close to home.
Bronson is very excited to have a great idea!
3 planes later and we arrive in BC. When in MB I gloated that if it's nice and sunny here, then Vancouver Island will be paradise... not so. We had a rainy visit with a couple hail storms and a brief sunny period for Saturday morning's farmers market run. We visited Port Alberni for 10 days and Bronson got very comfortable there. He loves Aunty Aimee and watched the staircase every morning waiting for her to come down and play.
During our trip B learnt to roll from tummy to back and now is rolling over and over and over, covering alot of ground.
We went swimming with David and his mom Melissa and Theresa. Cousin Sky and Aunty Jean came to visit for the weekend and Molly from next door came over to show Bronson her tumbling. Bronson especially enjoyed the doggy - Dixie hung around Bronson the whole time and Bronson was quite gentle with the old dog.
As we flew out of Victoria in the afternoon, we got a chance to briefly visit my old workplace - Amaranth Consulting Group. It was so good to see my friends and I think they feel some closure now having seen the product of all my whinning during pregnancy :)
Grandpa mimicks baby boy
Bronson and Dixie, his faithful companion (though he was rather wary of the doggie kisses)
Now, there is a trip update. As for life in California since returning, Matthew is busy busy with school, we celebrated our second wedding anniversary yesterday and my best friend Sabrina is visiting for the week - which means we're hanging out at the pool and swimming at least twice a day. IT IS SO HOT HERE, we're starting to worry about the months to come :)
Matthew's birthday is this Saturday and he is having a boardgame party (there really is no way to make that sound grown up). Also, we find out on Friday-ish if we get to keep our apartment for next year - fingers crossed!!!
Oh, and we have booked our next trip up to Canada - wedding tour 2007, we will be in these places on the following dates:
June 22/23 Agassiz, June 24/25 Victoria (staying at the Coast Hotel), June 26 - July 1 Port Alberni, July 1 - July 5 MB (July 4 P la P for sure), July 5 - July 8 Assiniboia and Regina July 9.