Another Graduate

A week after Greg's grad, Kai "graduated" from his preschool class. I guess its not a real graduation seeing as he has another year of preschool left but he made it through this year. And so did we. To be honest that in itself is a big deal. Without going into boring details, it's been quite a year and Kai has been an absolute rock star. We are so proud of him and look forward to his new preschool.

I tried to get a nice pic of our kiddos together but it really isn't easy. Like everything else, I'm sure we'll get there and they'll be cooperative posers sometime!

Practicing their police line up faces? Let's hope not!

Daddy is already back at work which means uniform time again. But the Navy changed their look while Greg has been on vacay in graduate school. Here Teia tries on Daddy's new blue/grey camo hat. Its cute on T and will provide some nice camouflage for Greg next time he is trying to hide underwater...or amongst the Blue Man Group. 

Congrats Greg!

Greg graduated yesterday. The true relief was felt a few weeks ago when he handed in his thesis but yesterday made it all real. Our mission in Massachusetts is a fait accompli. To say we are proud of him is an understatement. He not only achieved a double degree (Naval Engineer and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering) but he received an MIT award for excellence in Ocean Engineering for his sustainable energy project. Cool!

Greg managed to accomplish all this pretty much after 9 pm each night because his Daddy duties always came first. We are lucky. Greg needs some sleep. 

I was only able to attend an hour of the commencement ceremony and I didn't actually get to see Greg in person but I did manage to snap him on the jumbotron. The Navy guys were pretty easy to pick out amongst all the black academic regalia.

Grandpa Ed joined us to celebrate armed with a camera with a very large lens so once we get some of those photos we'll post them. Kai was pretty excited to see Grandpa!

GO VANCOUVER!!!!!!

Bummies!

Kai has always been selective about his animal preferences: first bunnies, then lions. He has expanded a little bit and he now thinks goats are pretty cool too. Teia, on the other hand, is a full on animal lover. She doesn't always like to get too close to the real thing but when at a safe distance or when playing with the stuffed animal variety, she LOVES her some 'amnimals.'

Her favorite seemed to be puppies for awhile. Any time she saw one she would start "a puppy! a puppy! a puppy!" over and over until you told her you saw it too. During our early morning walks in San Diego she would chant 'pu-ppy, pu-ppy, pu-ppy' in happy anticipation of a canine sighting. Cats are high on Teia's love list too but for some reason they are known only as "meows." Or more accurately "mows." She has one "mow" that has to go everywhere with her these days - in addition to whichever puppy she can scoop up from her collection. Other animals are also referred to by the sound they make. Today I asked her which animals she saw at the farm to which she replied "baas." She was correct. They did see goats and sheep. Pigs are called "peeg!" usually with a bit of a piggish squeal. Very cute. And ducks are always shouted "DUCK!" for some reason.

But my favorite these days has got to be the "bummies." When she wants to read a book about bunnies, or play with a stuffed bunny (and there are lots in our house), she simply points and looks at us expectantly saying "a bummy?"

I have some cute video of our crazy girl playing with a bummy. Hopefully I can post it tomorrow.

Beach Personalities

So it looks like the two little Fennells are beach worthy. Thank goodness. Can you imagine moving to a place with miles and miles of gorgeous coast line and having kidlets that don't like the beach? We were pretty sure that Kai would enjoy the San Diego beaches given his formative year was in Hawaii where he had many a nap on the beach. But we weren't so sure about Teia. The weather in San Diego was a tad cool as well so this made it a bit more challenging for our fair lass. But she came round and while she was a bit wary of the ocean surf (unless Kip was holding her), she sure liked the sand....

Kai, like his name, is more of the water lovin' type despite being a Taurean. He likes to dig in the sand but only after he runs miles on the beach first, in and out of the surf. 

He also thought the "sand elebators" were pretty cool too!

Hello from San Diego!

We are almost finished with our house hunting trip to San Diego. To say it has been a whirlwind would be an understatement. We have been hopping everyday looking for a place to live as well as checking out schools. Moving with kids is pretty complicated! Our trip has been fantastically successful. We found a great place to live, a great preschool for Kai and possibly even a summer camp for both kiddos! (which means time for Mommy to unpack boxes!) We also got to spend time with some wonderful friends who by coincidence and coordinating visited San Diego at the same time we did.

Tavi, Shannon and I have been friends since our grad school days but haven't been together since our wedding in 2006. So 5 years and 5 children later, we all spent a few days in SoCal. Check out Harry and Kai! You don't get cuter boys than those two! 

Speaking of cute, here are Teia and Piper. These two are 5 weeks apart, just like their mommies and we hope also destined for an enduring friendship. 

At Windansea beach in la jolla: almost like the good ol' days.

Teia had quite the crush on Piper's Dada. It was hard to get the little ladies to look but this is a great shot anyway. Kip was T's main man whenever he was around!

Awwww!

We haven't had the best weather but it hasn't slowed us down. Here a bundled up Kai checks out the seal rookery at Children's Pool.

These two are definitely beach babies!

Happy Fourth Birthday!

Obviously this is a little man who loves birthdays! Kai isn't so much about the presents but he loves the singing, candles and cake and ice cream that goes along with such a milestone! 

It is really hard to believe Kai is FOUR! For some reason, four seems more incredulous than 1, 2 or 3. Maybe b/c it seems to mark the gateway from being a really little person and the transition into full kid-hood. I think the tattoos, blue nail polish and words like "dummy" appearing in Kai's vocabulary are proof enough that he is now full on kid! 

I am going to steal an idea from a friend's blog and post a few "memory lane" photos:

The Birth-day

1 year old beach baby

2 years old 

3 years old - ice cream theme continues!

Handsome 4 year old having his fav lunch!

And a few more photos of the birthday man, dressed in some stylin' threads courtesy of his very cool aunt and uncle. 

Today we celebrated with Kai's friends at his favorite place, TumbleKids. Kai has been waiting very patiently, asking everyday since his birthday if we can go to TumbleKids for his party. 

As you can see, TumbleKids is a very fun place!

And yesterday we all went for a paddle on the Concord River, which together with its many bridges ("they're all over the place!" as Kai said), is one of Kai's favorite things. Granddad has been here to share in the festivities which has made it extra fun! 

And just in case getting back to the blog takes forever again, here are two cute pics of Granddad and the kids that I couldn't resist sharing:

18 months already!

My goal: to do a quickie post in 5 minutes so I can get to bed by 11:30 am. Ready, set, go!

I had to make time to get on here b/c Miss T turned 1 and a half and I can't not commemorate that. But next week is a big week for many reasons so I know if I don't do a quick post to acknowledge her halfway to 2 birthday before next week, it won't happen! Sorry no pictures either. We've been rather lax on the photo taking lately.

I can't believe our little baby is 18 months. It has happened so fast. Too fast. But as she grows she just becomes more and more fun. She is a spirited, opinionated, affectionate, caring little woman (as Greg calls her). Yesterday Kai fell off the chaise in our living room and Teia came with a concerned look on her face to get us "Gai, Gai, GAI!"

Kai is about her favorite word to say these days. She is completely infatuated with her big bro. Last week he was "Dai" but now her speech is evolving a bit so this week he is "Gai." As soon as she wakes up, she asks "Gai?" She keeps tabs on him too. If I ask Kai to hang up his coat, Teia will quickly get it and bring it over to him. She also helps him to put on his shoes and do them up, even though he is better at it than she is. She just likes to help.

The other day I was calling Kai to come in from the backyard. He was ignoring me as almost 4 year old boys are apt to do and I called out "Kai, NOW!" I only had to say it once b/c mini-mommy beside me started hollering "Gai! NOW!" until big brother ambled over.

Teia also loves to sing. Her favorite song is twinkle, twinkle little star. It is cute to hear her sing (usually while driving in the car or lying in her crib). It usually goes like this

"jabber, jabber, jabber, ar, jabber, mommy, mommy, daddy
up abuh jabber jabber high, jabber jabber jabber sy
jabber, jabber, jabber, ar, gai, gai, gai
jabber, jabber, mommy......"

I know, I know, we must get some video of that.

Okay, 14 minutes...gotta run. But not before I report that Greg's thesis is D-O-N-E!
W-H-E-W!