Beach Bubbles

Today Ace's friends Shawnie, Ryan, Jake and Samantha met him at Lover's Point, and Shawnie's and Ryan's mom brought a bubble machine. Now, does it get any better than that? The beach... the bubbles... the sun. This is the life for little kids. Other than when Ace poured a pail full of northern California ocean water over the top of poor little unsuspecting Ryan's head (he's not even two, poor kid), the morning was just peachy. Lover's Point is the main beach in PG, a historic little beach town, whose streets are lined with flowers and trees and Victorian houses of various sizes (they range from about 400 square feet to about 5000). There are three parks within walking distance of our apartment, and every one is consistently brimming over with rambunctious kiddos. I still suspect a few of the moms who frequent the park are robots, but I can't yet prove it. At this point I do believe all the kids are real.
TTFN,
Syb

Papa's Work

Last night we got to go hang out at "Papa's Work" after hours. To Ace, getting to go inside Papa's Work is as good as getting to go to Home Depot or getting an In & Out chocolate shake. Whenever we go pick Arich up, Ace suffers from a mysterious urinary tract affliction, whereby he MUST go to the bathroom in Papa's Work right away or he "might have an accident." Once inside, of course, the urgency suddenly disappears at the sight of the forklift or one of "Papa's Friends." So last night when he got to go into Papa's Work, and then got to sculpt with clay... well, you can imagine the joy... and the mess.

In pic number two, you can see some of the scientific reference Arich uses. In his work, everything has to be just right, because, as he says, "Subconsciously people recognize when something is amiss anatomically. They may not know what it is, but if a sculptor tries to fake it, it's obvious." Plus, when you're working in three dimensions, if one thing is off, everything is off. I don't know how he does it.

The third picture is Ace in front of an Olympic pommel horse monument titled Flair, sculpted by Richard MacDonald. The first time Ace saw it, he said, "I can do that." Knowing Ace, he was probably referring to both the gymnastic feat and the sculpting. It's great that he's exposed to such amazing stuff at his young age.

The 'Hood

A few nights a week the three of us take a walk through the neighborhood for exercise. I just wanted you guys to get a glimpse of this incredible place. The pic at the top is the end of the road, where we turn around to head home. It's called Asilomar State Beach, one of the best surf spots in the area. Some nights we're late enough to catch the sunset. The video features our friendly neighborhood deer. These guys just hang out everywhere around here -- the apartment complex, the side of the road, the parking lots, wherever. It's the neatest thing. We don't know how long we'll get to stay here in Pacific Grove (called "PG" locally), so we're just trying our best to enjoy the moment. This is world class stuff.

Princess?

I showed Ace the family blog just now, and he thinks it's really cool. So that's good. But when I told him the title of the blog, he said, "I'm not a princess."

I love this kid.

Home Depot Day

Saturday was Ace's first ever Home Depot Kid's Day. Could the name on the box be any cuter? How cool is that? (It's certifiable: I'm a doting parent. Whatever.) Ace worked with his dad to build this cool flower box, which took them about 15 minutes. I just hovered around taking pictures for the most part. I did fetch wet paper towels a few times to clean up various messes Ace made with the wood glue. (Ha, hovering around cleaning up messes... sounds like just another day.) Other than that, I had the pleasure of watching an amazing dad and his amazing kid work together to make something really cool. I am truly blessed.

This is the first of what I hope to be many regular posts chronicling the ever-changing life of this little Harrison family. I'm thinking eventually I'll get the hang of this whole layout thing, but until then, try to look past the awkward picture placement, etc. I'm not really the artistic one, after all.

Don't forget to check back for updates.

See ya,

Syble!