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January brings the birthdays for two of the most important people in Keegan’s life: mom and McKenzie!

My birthday was on a Friday, which is always nice. We were also in the middle of a “heat wave”, with beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the middle to high 80s. Sorry everyone else in the middle of polar storms. (-:

I woke up to find a dozen of red roses and tulips. I had to work, but Matt surprised me at work with flowers and a balloon, and took me out for lunch at the Thai restaurant next to work. It was a real surprise, because he was supposed to have a work lunch, but at the last minutes it felt through. No, it was not a ruse: he really had planned a work lunch ( I was not too happy about it), and he was just lucky it got cancelled. Still, the gesture was very appreciated.

In the afternoon, he went to do some last minute birthday shopping (guys, always procrastinating), but my biggest gift was that he picked up Keegan and took him to the library, so I could enjoy some peace and quiet. I relaxed in the sun, read, and just kicked back. When the boys got back, we had a birthday celebration, and the ritual candles blowing. Keegan wrote me a really cute card, with very creative spelling (I had to ask him to translate for me), but very very sweet.

I blew my candles over delicious muffins.

The second big birthday was McKenzie’s. She had her party at the Scripps Aquarium, on another beautiful sunny day. When we arrived, Keegan had the best welcome: both McKenzie and Julia screamed:”Keegan is here!” and run to hug him. Very cute. This helped him feel a little more at home, since he was the only boy there. Well, there was also a 3 year old but I don’t think this really counted. Well, like they say in Italy, “beato fra le donne” (blessed between the women).

The party was cool. They did games and activities and learned about the coral reef…

…they got to pet a baby tiger shark…

…examine different marine specimen…

…feed the tide pool animals. Keegan did not like to hold slimy, smelly fish in his hands.

Of course, the group photo was in the courtyard, inside the shark’s mouth.

Then all the kids gathered for some delicious cupcakes and treats.What  a fun way to end the month of January.

Fortunately, since he has started kindergarten, the birthday circus has slowed down, and we don’t have a party every weekend. Another good thing about kindergarten is that he has also doing lots of progress at school in general. I am very impressed by the art education they are receiving. Having helped out in the class twice, I am amazed at what great results the teacher can get from 6 years olds. Check out his first water gouache painting, a still life of an eggplant and an egg. I was amazed at looking them copy real objects, using high end, professional tools.

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2014 has official begun and while we are expecting a few challenges, we are also looking forward to some fun. We started out the year right, with morning cuddles, a morning nap (in turns) and calls to Italy. When we were all up and awake, we tried to drag our “home-buddy” outside. As always, it was a struggle. He played with Kelton for a few minutes fist, then we tried to visit the Birch Aquarium. Despite the messages on their website, the aquarium was closed, so we ended up going to Torrey Pines Gliderport, just down the street.

It was quite windy, so there was only a lone paraglider trying to launch. We watched, and waited, then waited and watched some more. There were many false starts, but we still held out hope.

Finally, another couple of guys showed up, and took off, but quickly disappeared below the cliffs. Definitely not the best day for flying or watching. So, we went explore the cliff overlooking Black Beach. Keegan had a lot of fun climbing up and down the rocks, and even discovered a little “canyon-like” passage. It turns out he likes to “hike” only when climbing is involved. We’ll have to find some other places like that nearby, and maybe one day we’ll be exploring finger canyons in Utah, which I always wanted to do.

Even if I did not wear the right shoes or clothes, I went along with him.

Wearing our new clothes, a New Year tradition, we all posed for photos in front of the seemly endless blue ocean.

It was another “beautiful day in Paradise” as they like to say here, and we could not ask for more. There is no other place we would rather be on New Year’s Day (or any other days), especially when most of the country is experiencing a 40 year old Arctic storm system.

I went to work on January 2, but Keegan was home till January 6. However, the short week felt even shorter because I had to take the following day off for my dental implant procedure. It was not fun, for sure, but being able to sleep all day, undisturbed? Priceless!

We took it easy on the weekend, but we finally made it to Birch Aquarium (third time is a charm). It was quiet and not crowded. Jellyfish and Seahorses are always my favorites.

As always Keegan breezed through the exhibits and tanks, lingering instead in the interactive and multimedia section. He was interested in the California Climate Change area, pretending, with Matt, to be a newscaster for a breaking news report on California wildfires.

January 6th meant the end of his long winter break (yeah!), but not before Befana showed up and left her stocking on Keegan’s door. Now, discovering that Santa is not real, translated also in not believing in Befana either. In fact, we bought together the car he wanted Befana to bring him. Of course, this does not mean we can skip it!

So, as they say: L’epifania tutte le feste si porta via! (Epiphany takes away all the holidays) and with the cleaning up of the holiday decorations we are now ready the face the new year.

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2014!

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