marky's visit

My baby brother Mark has been coming to visit me every year since he was 11. He's turning 17 this year, so it's definitely a long standing tradition that I hope we can always keep up. I'm sure his future wife won't mind coming to my house for her honeymoon. Mark and I are just about that tight :)

We've already done all the big stuff, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, etc. etc. This year Mark just wanted to hang out with us. We tried to do a few fun things like a visit to Grandma Shirley's, a UCLA volleyball game, bike riding on the beach and a trip to the Long Beach Aquarium. Here are a few pictures from the week:

Marky took a few photos for his Facebook page. You know, to rub it in to all his friends in Idaho who weren't spending spring break in California:

Notice the lady passed out on the sand. I always find it strange to see people laying fully-clothed on the beach like that. Hmmm, I hope she's not dead. It'd be tragic to die so close the the lifeguard tower.

I thought Johnny might be too young to enjoy the Aquarium, but I was wrong. He loved it! He splashed in the wave pools (which you're not supposed to do), pounded on the glass of the fish tanks (which you're also not supposed to do), and crawled all over the filthy ground (after which he put his hands in his mouth, of course).




A few pictures on the pier in Long Beach. It's so pretty there!

Poor Brian had to stare at a computer screen all week long:

sunday duds

leaps and bounds

Junior seems to be reaching a lot of milestones lately. It is so fun to watch him grow. Only two days after I wrote a whole post about how he couldn't wave...he did! And to a complete stranger in the doctor's office, I should add. No one warned me about how proud and weepy this would make me feel. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed. Here he is waving to me at home:

Today he crawled on his own for the very first time. Though he doesn't make too much ground and teeters on the edge of a face plant the whole time, it's unmistakable. He IS crawling! Here's the raw footage. You're watching history here, folks.


He's also...

Standing up in his crib when he should be sleeping (I should really do something about those blank walls!)

Sitting up to the table like a big boy

Getting into all kinds of trouble in the kitchen

Practicing the get-away

And just getting bigger and sillier in general (is that a word?)

is he waving?

I have to share this video because it's so cute and so funny. I'm sharing it even though my laugh in the background is way too loud and kind of embarrassing. Sometimes I just can't help it. You know? So in the video, it looks like Johnny is waving at me. But he's really not. That's why it's so funny. He's never waved at anyone in his whole life (8 months is a long time to go without waving. you try it). So what he's really doing is trying to reach back behind himself to touch the bookshelf. He's really into surfaces and textures. I don't know how else to explain it. It's just his thing. Brian stood him up and I guess you could say we were both a little surprised that 1) Johnny can stand up by himself and 2) he can wave ;)!