Angst? What angst?

Yeah, I've still got the angst, but you have to put it aside for a bit when you see this face, no?

Husband & I noticed today that Northern California welcomes summer in grand style. Art & wine festivals abound, bounce-houses set up shop in parks creating make-shift bounce-towns, even our local Whole Foods was celebrating today with a free BBQ (picked the wrong month to go vegetarian), strawberry shortcake and a live band. The collective mood of the entire area just seems to amp up to smiley contentment.

So we went to the park this afternoon to bask in some of the happy vibes and toasty sun. We set up camp in between the plethora of birthday parties (see the bounce-house reference in the paragraph above), as close to the kick ass spray sculptures as we could.

note bounce-house in the back of the spray park. Northern California is rife with them.

Ethan doesn't always get the "we are going to go out and have fun now!" memo. That's kind of a pain. He fought us over every bite of his lunch (our fault for setting up lunch arm's reach away from the magical spray flowers). And then, when he grudgingly ate the last bite of his sandwich (yeah, that sounds Mommie Dearest now that I write it down), and we changed him into his swimsuit...he wanted nothing to do with the magical spray flowers. GAH!!!!

Eventually he did warm up to the water, but one can never tell. Yesterday, we went to the pool with our neighbors and he swam away from us with his floaties on, off on his own little adventure and then danced under the outside shower until we had to pick him up and carry him away. Today? Not a fan of the water. Mr. Mercurial Moodman.

The watermelon was far more acceptable to him than the sandwich.

mmmmmmm

holy cuteness, Batman!

running away from the teeny tiny spray of water. Bless his little heart.

basking in the refreshing spray of a tiny trickle of water...until it turns back on

aaaaaaand then we run....

After the spray fun, we put Ethan back in his regular clothes and headed over to the water-free play ground. Much fun was had by all. Ethan will be going to school only 3x/week this summer and I've decided that on the mornings he doesn't, we're going to this park. It's about a 1.5 mile walk from our house, so I will be packing him in the BOB stroller, giving him a bagel, some juice, my iPhone and making the trip to the park. I mean, look at this face.

first time down the slide on his belly (that I know of--and that makes it his first time. So there.)

"Are you still taking pictures, woman? For the love!"

last time down the slide...

See ya!