Here we are in LA

Wow-wee, since we've landed in LA I haven't really had a chance to sit down for a stretch to bang out a post. Not that we've been extremely busy or anything, just that when Lynette and I are together there are these endless streams of sentences we exchange and before long it's 5am and we've been talking since the kids were in bed!

Our flight here was as good as it can get. Kien was brilliant. As soon as he got onto the aircraft and into his seat he settled in and watched a movie. He didn't spill his pre-takeoff juice, and was very compliant with putting and keeping his belt on when it was time to do so.



He wasn't interested in any dinner, but was happy to continue watching the inflight entertainment while Jef and I enjoyed our meal, uninterrupted. After the dinner service was over I made his bed up for him and he happily lay there all by himself and drifted off to sleep cuddling his one eyed koala.



He slept through the night, and continued to stay asleep all through the breakfast service, and finally woke up about an hour before landing.

~~~~~

The last time we were here was back in Jan/Feb 2012, so it's good to see the kids settling in and picking up where they left off, only a tad older.









This one was just a baby back then, and now he's like a little bulldozer. He's young, but he sure is feisty. This was him running off with the glider after he grabbed it off his brother.



~~~~~

It's so hot! I love the heat, but man, this is insane without a breeze for relief. We took the kids to the park and I just had to park myself under a tree with a baby.







~~~~~

3 boys in a bath - oh boy! The little one wants to be in on all the action. The big boys would rather not have that happen. So the little one thinks its fun to pour water on everyone's heads. Yeah, good times.





~~~~~

On Monday we wrangled all the kids to a restaurant for my birthday dinner. Here's the scene trying to get everyone organised.



Dinner was good. The place we originally intended to go to was closed so we ended up at Marie Callender's. My birthday cake was a pie - us non-Americans would call it a cheesecake. I forgot to take a photo of it because we boxed it to take home since all the kids needed to get to bed.



~~~~~

That's all the photos I've processed so far this trip - pretty slack, right? Lynette and I have decided we need to cap our nightly discussions. I've just looked at the time and it's 1:30am already. I need to get myself to bed.

Snippets of life

Bath time at our place is usually a long and drawn out affair. He will quite often not want to go and have a bath to begin with, but once he's in there he doesn't usually want to get out in a hurry either. This is a typical bathing session I got on video a few weeks back.

Bathtime at our place from Lien on Vimeo.

He always has his bath in the that green tub now. He thinks that is his big boy bath. A week ago I ran the big bath for him (for the sake of novelty), and he put his bath toys into the green tub to play with. I come back 15 minutes later to find he had bailed water into the green tub and was sitting in it with all his bath friends.

As an aside, Kien put his shark into timeout the other day, because it was being naughty, he told me.

~~~~~

Our apartment entrance way has sprung to life. Our neighbour planted some bulbs over Autumn and all of a sudden there is a burst of colour.



All of my green leafy vegetables are ready to be eaten and I've been harvesting them for salads and soups. Who says I can't grow my own food while living in an apartment?

I'm growing Bok choy, Parsley, Mesclun salad mix, Coriander, Basil.