Nanny!

     Living in San Diego over the last 3+ years I have missed my family and friends and home in Santa Cruz a lot, but never so much as I have since Annie was born.  I want her to grow up with her Nanny and Grampy, her Aunties and Uncle, her cousins.  I mean really grow up with them in her life, not just visiting every now and then.  And I want us to really be in the quickly growing up lives of cousins Jack, Shelby and Norah.  And time has never passed so quickly!

    One week from today she will be 5 months old already!  That is almost half a year, how on Earth is that possible? In this almost half a year we have visited home 3 times (one of those times we accidentally stayed for 2 weeks...) and my Mom has come visit twice, my Dad and Little Sister one time each.  Pre-Annie this would seem like lots and lots of visiting, but now it is nowhere near enough.  The goal is to be together at least once a month until we can find a way to live closer.  There are plans in the works for July and August visits and adventures.  I will have to be happy with that for now, and spend lots of time FaceTiming with everyone, texting pictures back and forth, and looking at pictures of when we were last together.

    Just last week Nanny was here for 6 (of the fastest ever) days!

We played in the sand,

Giggled at the waves and stuck our toes in the water,

Walked to the rocks and back, people watching, 

and fell asleep for a little beach towel nap.

We ate yummy pizza.  Thanks Nanny for sharing your crust!

We watched a little mermaid practice her skills!

We secretly worked on Dad's Father's Day apron, which would have been an enormous and frustrating disaster without help and wise, wise, experienced advice.

Another post on this apron, and the pot holders
that go along with it coming soon.
And plans for children's aprons coming to the shop soon!

We played in our new Jolly Jumper in our cute new outfit!

We have been jumping every day since -
Thanks, Nanny and Canadian eBay!

And she took some gorgeous family pictures of us intended as Father's Day presents for my most spectacularly amazing Daddio/ Annie's Grampio (who I am so sad that I did not get to spend Father's Day with,) for Annie's most spectacularly amazing Dad, and for his Dad, too, but which I love and which now cover my fridge and real life pin board over my desk/ tiny sewing table, and which I will treasure forever (cheesy, I know, but absolutely true, plus, cheesy is kind of how I roll.)

I love the look on her face, she knows already she is stuck with two goofballs!

Oh, the spit bubbles!

     It was way too fast and we had to bring her back to the airport way too soon, but it was just what we needed, a little bit of family and home and love came to us, lived our San Diego life with us for a few days.  We can't wait for more playing and baby-rule breaking and snuggling and partying for Big Sister's birthday and lots of loving in just a few more weeks.

PS - That whole blogging twice a week intention thing I wrote about a few weeks back...

I succeeded one week, but got NOTHING else done! I do actually want to/ need to do some sewing for the shop every now and then, list new items for sale (ooh! which is another thing I got to do while Nanny was here.  New bibs! ) and occasionally, I guess, use nap times to do things like vacuum or throw out old food in the fridge.

Once a week is my new goal!