California winter afternoons

We've had a very mild winter...today it was almost 80 degrees and sunny.  But even if it hasn't been quite that warm, most days are still so beautiful.  After Debbie leaves, Xavi and I go play outside until tubby time.  Today we walked all the way down our street to the church on the corner.  Xavi pushed his little motorcycle the whole way down...about a quarter of a mile.  Sometimes the motorcycle would go off "track" and he'd squall...can you say "help please?"  "Hep peas"  Sometimes I'd hold on too long and he'd yell some more. 

At one point, one shoe came off...so I took the other off. Oh boy, did I start something.  He alternated carrying them both and lifting up the seat to "store" them on his bike...every two steps.  Then he got distracted by the kids playing at the day care and tried to climb through the fence to get IN...guess he wanted to play.  Then about halfway home...mama carried Xavi the rest of the way. 

Our neighbors have these little solar lights along their driveway that Xavi loves to pull out of the ground and carrying around like swords.  Debbie has a heart attack when he does this and can successfully distract and give him something else...Me?  nope.  so I let him...and replace them after we are done playing.  But this week he also noticed something new...a frog.  He has been obsessed with it...walking up to it, pointing, kneeling down, then touching it's head.  At first he said, woof woof...but then after a few times of me saying "ribbit" and bouncing up and down ...he "jumps" now whenever he sees it.  Too cute...

Mario got home in time to play for a bit before bed time.  They raced cars and made lots of noises and of course, read books in papa's special way (never using the right words and saying funny stuff, where mama is too OCD and HAS to read it the right way...beginning to end...getting frustrated if we skip pages...yep, I'm trying to let go, ha!) We were doing family hug...and Xavi did something he's never done.  He kept pushing my head towards Mario...and making kissing noises.  So we got to kiss...a lot!  Of course that was great fun...

We are on our way to Wisconsin tomorrow for a week of work. I'm packed and "ready"...but never ready to leave.  I'm trying a new schedule of flying direct from LAX...this could either be genius or a total nightmare.  Pray for the former!  Peace...