Happy Holidays from Sunny Santa Barbara

We're here! Despite a seemingly insurmountable obstacles, our little family made it to Santa Barbara for our much anticipated (and much-needed) holiday. There were the semester exams we had to finish, work projects that refused to get wrapped up, a house to shut up and pets to pack away ... and then I went and threw out my back four days before I had to fly Colin and me half-way across the continent!

But we made it! And now I get to enjoy two weeks' uninterrupted vacation with my boy, and Kevin gets to enjoy two weeks' uninterrupted research (i.e. no students), and we couldn't be happier. Colin is the only one who needs a little help adjusting to the new arrangements. I'm sure I'm not nearly as much fun as daycare--and he can't seem to understand why I want to go to the beach every day.


It never occurred to me that the beach wasn't a natural magnet for every child, but I guess my Alberta-born son doesn't have an awful lot of experience of waterbodies in his nearly two years. We've taken him to the "beach" exactly two times in his whole life, and both times it was to cold, calm Alberta lakes. So far, he finds the crashing waves of the Pacific to be a little intimidating. Oh, and my fastidious little boy doesn't like to get his feet "dirty" in the sand and surf--and, unfortunately for him, sand and surf are both in plentiful supply at them, ehem, beach.

But I'm proud to announce that we had a little breakthrough today. I finally convinced Colin to take off his alligator boots and go barefoot in the sand by teaching him how to jump off a little ledge on the edge of the boardwalk. After all, a two-foot-tall toddler can't jump off a huge eight-inch ledge wearing bulky golashes.

And Colin enjoyed jumping so much, he soon forgot about the dirt, and proceeded to get really, really "dirty." Score one for Mama, and Santa Barbara, and much-needed vacations.