Orange county fair

I love county/state fairs more than many things in this world. I try to make it to the orange county fair multiple times a summer. I've even been to the Alaskan State fair (where I rode a mechanical salmon, by the way).

My favorite things about the fair are the knitting, quilting and crochet, the wood working, centennial farms... oh man, all of it.

This year was a little different with baby in tow. Lots of finding a good place to feed him. But I did get a chance to go through the textile exhibits twice and got all inspired. Next year I will submit a piece or two, just have to decide what!

Baby wearing

Makes me feel like such an in tune mother.

Nothing makes me happier than spending the day in a sunshiney park with unschooling moms while cuddling my baby close in a sling.

Trip to Sequoia

The one good thing about Fresno is that it's an easy drive up to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and National Forest. Our friends loaded up their toddler, while we loaded up the baby, and we drove a beautiful hour to get there.

We checked out Grant's tree, we went to the Chicago Stump, and on our way back stopped at a beautiful meadow. My husband has a remote control drone that he attaches his Go Pro camera to, and so a lot of our stops are based off of where he thinks he can get the best video.

#200happydays Day 14

I can feed him anywhere!

entertaining babies

we found a field!

Grizzly Falls

Mini family vacation

#200happydays Day 13, in photographic form...

Visiting our friends who just moved to Fresno, we had all sorts of fun...

Torturing our son on our car trip to Fresno...

Little family portrait

Baby absolutely enthralled by the ceiling fans

Baby BFFs hanging out

Wyatt's dog, friend, and protector

Time to swim... and totally unsure about this wet stuff

Trying on hats!

Munchkin

One of my greatest pleasures in the whole world is playing tabletop games. I like party games (like taboo, scattegories), and classics (like scrabble or Risk), but my favorite type are tabletop games like Dominion, Seven Wonders, Castle Panic, and Ticket to Ride. It's always nice to find other people who like to play too, as few people outside of my family seem to have the desire to play quite as much as we do.

This weekend we visited friends who have Munchkin - an easy to learn tabletop game that pays tongue-in-cheek homage to D&D. Of course, I have the added dilemma of how to be a nursing mother while getting in my game fix. This weekend, I was very pleased to have a baby perfectly happy cuddling and sleeping in a wrap so I could be hands-free to play!

#200happydays Day 12

Say cheeeeeese

It sounds cheesy to say that my best friends are my family, but it is very, very true. There is no one I would rather spend time with than my sisters, no one I think is smarter than my mom and no one I find as delightful as my dad.

One sister lives in San Francisco now, and came down on the bus this week. My mom picked her up in the early morning at Union Station, and since I was awake feeding the baby, they brought breakfast to my house. We sat on the front lawn eating pancakes and talking baby talk to Wyatt.

Of course,  I forgot to take pictures of that.

But here are some of Wyatt with my family.

#200happydays,  day 6

Wonder

I remember before we were married taking my husband to Disneyland.  "That was fun," he said, "it'll be more fun when we take our kids." Same thing at the apple orchards. We both looked forward to seeing all these places through the eyes of little children.

Every day my baby is a little more alert. Every day his field of vision seems to expand, and he expresses more. Today we were walking through The Lab ( used to be called the anti-mall), in Costa Mesa, when we parked his stroller underneath trees that had been yarn bombed. It was sunny, there was a lot of light playing in the branches, and he was delighted.

We were lucky to get photos of some of his experience. Everything is brand new for him. And I'm so lucky, as I watch what he's watching, that it is all brand new to me all over again, too.

#200happydays day 5

Baby as accessory

I knit. And crochet. And would like to go grocery shopping one day again.  People always say that baby wearing is the way to go, but I haven't found anything that worked...til now.

Sling made by my sister's soon-to-be mother in law. It's beautiful,  and clearly made of magic because this little man is sleeping,  despite the fact that it is the fourth of July and we are in a fireworks-are-legal city!

#200happydays day 4

Dragontree

My mom and a few of her friends started Dragontree park day, a weekly get together of unschooly folks in long beach, many years ago. I was one of the oldest kids when it started, and pretty quickly was too busy with college and stuff to go every week, but whenever I could I'd go back to park day. Recently I realized how important this group really was to me, and started making an appearance more often, and then prioritizing my schedule so I could go more and more.

Yesterday I brought Wyatt,  the first second-generation dragontree baby to his first park day. He's the youngest dragontree-er, but just barely. This is a picture of Tsiri, a mere four weeks older than Wyatt. Hard not to imagine them getting older and playing together, since they are so very close in age...

100 happy days all over again

I just finished my first round of #100happydays, which was a wonderful experience.  Every day I'd find something to post that made me happy.  The great thing is that in 100 days, it's not all big exciting events. You have to look for the little pleasures in life.

A great example of how it improved my outlook was just the other day -- I woke up with one of those terrible neck pains that makes you afraid to even look in another direction. I couldn't life the baby, and it was about to feel like it ruined my day. Except, I had #100happydays to post about. So you know what I noticed?  I have a sweet and thoughtful husband who brought me ibuprofen and went to the store to buy a heating pad for me. Instead of woe is me, I felt glad and grateful.

So I finished the original challenge,  and want to do it again, but I want to do it here and not on facebook so I can keep some record of it.

Today,  I went for a walk with a friend, and the baby and along the way we found a whole wall of grapes growing. #100happydays #200happydays day 1!

New baby in the little house

Introducing Wyatt, the newest member of our family. Born on May 13, 2014 he has already been camping twice!

Photos. .. my face after 77 hours of labor, newborn Wyatt, and one month old Wyatt.

Painting the baby's room

100 days of happy, you are easy today :) having the best sunshiney sunday... husband and I painted the baby's room. Once it has time to settle I will be putting up some tree decals. I love how it turned out.

The whole time I was painting it smelled like redwoods and summer,  from the trees in the backyard.  Someone nearby was barbecuing,  too.

Good day, and it's not even four pm yet.