The Downside of Ice Cream

Noah LOVES ice cream. Last night he was pleasantly chomping away on a big bowl of vanilla when he suddenly burst into tears. He was sobbing in a way that is very rare for him. He was in severe pain. As he finally caught his breath he tried to explain what he was experiencing in the only way he could relate "I got sick! sniff, sniff, sniff, ahhhhhhhhh!"

We finally realized what was happening. Noah was experiencing his first ice-cream-freeze-headache (AKA brain freeze). It was sad and funny at the same time. For all he knew, this burning sensation in his brain would never go away and the ice cream had permanently ruined his life. He began to panick. After the pain slowly subsided and he calmed down, we were able to explain to him what had happened and encouraged him to eat his ice cream slower. He wiped away his tears and, with great caution, continued to eat his ice cream. Moments later it happened again, he burst into tears and through the waterfall of tears and gasps for breath he said "I ate too fast! Need to eat smaller bites. Need to slow down". There is only one way to learn this lesson.

THE Show

As any mother of a newborn or young child can attest, sleep is a precious commodity...you grab it when you can. A blessing is when I can get both the boys to sleep at the same time so I can also rest. The other day I finally got Weston down to sleep and thought Noah was also asleep but he foiled me. I laid down and just barely fell asleep when I heard Noah's little voice, "Mommy, are you awake?" I decided to pretend to be asleep to see what he would do.

For the next 45 minutes I pretended to sleep while Noah kept bringing me toys, whispering all the while "Mommy is sleeping, I must get ready for the show." Show? You may wonder to yourself as I did. I couldn't wait to see what he had planned. At one point he even bumped his head, whispered to himself "Mommy must give me a hug" and wrapped my arms around himself. All the while I pretended to be asleep. Finally I opened my eyes to see what array of toys were on the other side of the bed: 2 of his blankets, my scriptures, two bears, Weston's moose, Noah's spider hat, his monkey game, the omelet pan with 4 airplanes and two pigs and two ladybugs. The show was Noah putting each object on his head and dancing around.

It was better than a nap by a long shot.

Cayucos Pier

The rain stopped just before sunset, so we had an opportunity to capture some interesting photos of Cayucos Pier, which is just a few blocks from our house. These pictures were taken 10-30 minutes after sunset. The first two were taken using a high-dynamic-range photo technique in order to capture the range of light that the human eye actually sees. The third image is just a simple snapshot with a 30-second exposure on a tripod. The final image was blended with an underexposed photo taken immediately afterward in order to properly captured the remnants of the sunset.

Beach Day

We spent MLK day exploring tide pools and hanging out on the beach with lots of friends. It was a beautful day. (It always puts a smile on my face when I need to turn on the air conditioning in January.)

There are all kinds of creatures for little boys to find. Noah picked up a little Hermit Crab and let it walk around in his hand. "It's tickling my hand daddy." He also really enjoyed teasing the sea anemones by running objects across their tentacles to make them grab on.

Our Backyard

This morning we loaded up the kids and the camera and took a drive into our backyard...Big Sur. Within 20 minutes, we found ourselves on one of the most spectacular drives in the world. We consider ourselves very lucky and very blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

Snapped these pictures on the trail to McWay falls.


Amy and Noah walking on a trail near the cliff side.


On the way home, we stopped the car to take this picture. It was about 45 minutes after sunset. A long, 30-second exposure was necessary to capture the dark scene with a camera. The sky turned out to have a very soft color. (This is what the camera actually captured. No photoshop).

Zoo

We took a spontaneous trip to the zoo today to recoop our family from a long few weeks of work.



Weston Chilled-Out Most of the Time.



And Noah's favorite part of the whole trip was the bug display and the 50 cent train ride.

The New Year

Happy New Year! We rung in the New Year In Albuquerque, NM with the Davis side of the family. We had sparklers which made Noah a little nervous at first....

But then he quickly warmed to the excitement

We had noise-makers...

...and topped it all off with a little bubbly

And again...sweet Weston slept through the entire thing.

And my New Year's resolution? To come up with a good resolution....

A Blessed Christmas

Christmas was a lot of fun this year...our first with just our little family. Noah fully comprehended Santa this year; his nightly requests for Santa stories lasted the month of December. While doing some shopping, he desperately wanted this bear. He played with it for about 20 minutes, showing everyone in the store the bear, talking to him, hugging him, etc. He decided he must have the bear and take it home. I told him he could ask Santa for it to which Noah replied, "I will be Santa and give it to me now". Sadly he put the bear back and talked about it all the way home.
On Christmas morning I awoke at 4am to feed Weston and waited for Noah to wake up. I checked on him at 5am, 6am and 7am then finally laid back down to wait. I awoke to Noah's little feet upstairs and jumped out of bed realizing we had missed his initial reaction to the fact that Santa had indeed come. When I came upstairs, he was holding his precious bear and the only other thing he asked for Christmas...a cookie. Eyes full of wonder he looked at me and said, "Mommy, look what Santa brought".
It was a great day as we opened presents for about 9 hours. Each present had to be fully unwrapped and played with for a half hour before we could move on. Sweet Weston slept for most of the day. We watched a huge storm ride across the ocean while we were warm by the fire. This goes down as my favorite Christmas to date. Hope yours was as dreamy. Merry Christmas indeed.