楽しい事いっぱいの火曜日！/Fun Packed Tuesday!

今日、やっと外に出掛けるぐらい体調が良くなったので、アパートから1.5キロ離れたロングビーチダウンタウンにある図書館で火曜日にやっている本の読み聞かせに行ってみました...この読み聞かせは０から３歳までの子達用で、今までで行った事のある図書館で一番設備が整っていて少しビックリ：）子供用の本の部屋の奥に行って発見したのが本の読み聞かせ用のミニ劇場！すごいでしょ！？古本バイキン恐怖症さえ無くなればどんどんここで本を借りれるのに...
Today we visited the Main Library located right in Downtown Long Beach about a mile from our place... They have a Story Time for kids that are 0 - 3 years old that I've been wanting to take Madison to and since I finally felt good enough today I thought we would celebrate our better health by checking it out:-) To my surprise they had a really nice mini-theater in the back of the kids book section and the kids section itself was really large and the best I've seen in libraries in the States... If I didn't have such a phobia of touching used books that a million strangers have touched I would have taken such an advantage of all the picture books that they had...　

ミニ劇場に入るなり気に入っちゃいました...本当に劇場みたいにカーペットの段が階段みたいにあって本を読む人が一番下からみんなを見上げる感じ...本の読み聞かせって初めてだったんだけどその他に歌を歌いながらダンスをしたりと良い事沢山：）最初の３０分ぐらいは良い子に聞きながら座っていたマディソンは、歩き回って良いんだーっと気づいてしまいそれからは階段を上ったり下りたり劇場から出たり入ったりとちょっと落ち着け〜！でした。でも初めての他の母と子２０人もいる本の読み聞かせにしては良くできた方かな？体を使った歌踊りも楽しかったしこれから毎週火曜日はここに来る事になりそう...
I loved this mini story time room as soon as we walked in... It is set up like a theater with really wide carpeted steps to the bottom of the room where a librarian reads books for us. We sat at whatever step we felt like sitting and Madison enjoyed going up and down the steps. I don't think I've ever been to a story time before so I didn't know that they also sing and dance in between reading books which was really nice, we sang songs that I've never heard of, but fun since mommies can dance with their babies while pointing different parts of the body... The story teller brought out toys, teddy bears, and instruments to keep the kiddies engaged:-) Madison was really nicely sitting for the first half, but then she realized she could get up and move around... then out the door... then back in... I'd say she did pretty good for the first time ever in some kind of organized activity with 10 other babies and their mommies though... and looks like this will be our Tuesday morning activity and we are very excited about it...

本の読み聞かせが終わった後直ぐ近くにある水族館にお魚観察に行く事にしました。行くまでに絶対寝ちゃうだろうなーと思っていたら頑張って起きていたマディソン、機嫌も良く楽しそうにお魚を見る事が出来ました。もう一つ良かった事は、前に来た時の車椅子でいっぱいの老人の日とは違ってほとんどガラガラの水族館だった事。好きに歩き回ってとてもリラックスする事が出来ました。今日のマディソンのお気に入りはドリー...まだ熱帯魚のタンクあったら相当喜んだろうなー。
After the story time we zoomed over to the Aquarium of the Pacific for some fishie time! I was so sure that Madison would fall asleep on the way over but she powered through and stayed happy so we actually had a great time at the Aquarium plus there were no wheel chairs and walkers like the other day and was quite empty except other mommies and daddies with kids and their strollers... Madison was absolutely in a good mood to either follow me or walk with me while I pushed her bugaboo so it was quite relaxing...:-) She was sooo excited to see all the colorful fishies and kept pointing at them with a big smile:-) I would say Dory(Blue Tang) was her favorite today... Imagine if we still had our salt water tank she would have loved it! oh well...

水族館を出てすぐマディソンはとっても遅いお昼寝開始、そのおかげでとっても遅いお昼を買って合計約５キロの散歩一周を無事終える事が出来ました...
On the way back Madison fell asleep and I was able to get my late lunch and complete our 4 mile circle back to the apartment which went quite successfully...

舌打ち!?/Tongue Clicking

この前自分で舌打ちを覚えたみたい...：）
So Madison figured out how to click her tongue on her own...:-)

今日砂浜の裏庭に歩いて行くと目の前にイルカが３匹のんびりと泳いでいた〜!!急いで波際にいってビデオを撮ったんだけど、やっぱり遠すぎて全然うまく映らなかった...：(残念、次は撮り過ごさないぞ〜!
Today we walked onto our backyard and immediately I spotted three dolphins swimming by!! I quickly walked to the shore with my flip video in hand but they were already far away and couldn't get them on film...:-( Hope I will succeed the next time!

最近の出来事パート２.../Recent happenings Part2...

最近またブログが面倒くさくなってしまった...まあ先週から出て来た風邪のせいもあるんだけど、しかも先週末マディソンに渡しちゃったし...）なので、続編として最近の出来事をまとめまーす。まず最初に２週間前の週末に行ったサンディエゴのワイルドアニマルパークから...：）この動物園はサンディエゴ動物園の兄弟みたいな物でメンバー券でこのワイルドアニマルパークに無料で入れてしかも、ロングビーチから３０分近い側の所にあるんです。今日はどういう感じかを見るつもりだったので、地図も見ないで適当に歩き回ってみました。後で地図を見て分かったんだけどここは結構広い！次ぎに来る時には張り切っていっぱい歩くつもりで来まーす！
Since we've been so lazy about posting in our blog lately(mostly because I have been sick with some kind of a cold which I had passed onto my daughter at the end of last week...), I will do another recent happenings post so we can put pictures from two weekends ago when we visited San Diego Wild Animal Park...:-)　The San Diego Wild Animal Park is another part of San Diego Zoo that is located about a half hour closer to our place... Our San Diego Zoo membership gets us in to this park for free as well so we went to check it out:-) We purposely didn't look at the map and walked around in order to not see everything during our first time visit and we did great! We just did a small circle(and this place is huge!) so there is more to see and a much, much bigger circle to complete:-)

お昼におにぎりを作ったんだけど、マディソンとても気に入ってくれたみたい。もっとーって手話してくれてる...
Of course we start off our day at the park by having lunch, and Madison is really enjoying her rice ball by asking "More!"

他のゴリラに凄い威張っていたボスゴリラ...
This Gorilla chief was soooo bossy toward other gorillas...

そこに何が居たか忘れちゃったんだけど、マディソンが指差しているのが可愛いでしょ！
I don't remember what was there but it's just so cute to see her point at everything!

そして、今日お姉ちゃん孝行をする気がしたのか、枕の中でお昼寝していたココを枕ごと引っ張って来てグルグルアパートの中を歩き回ってツアーをしてあげていました。でも、意地悪っぽいよね：）いつもエリーにおもちゃを投げてあげてる時にマディソンがおもちゃを拾う度に、棚の上に置いたり袋の中に入れたりエリーの届かない所に持って行くんだよね...普通３姉妹の一番下って一番良い子のはずなのに...
Also today Madison was feeling nice enough to give Coco a ride in her pillow so I took some pictures of that... I totally think Madison was just trying to be mean to her sister though... She gets mean with Ellie too when we would throw Ellie her Sushi(chew toy) and if she gets a hold of it she would put it in a bag or on a shelf where Ellie can't reach...



最近この子左利き!?の気配がして来てます。やだ〜！ただただ、右利きになる前に試しているだけだと祈る毎日です：）今日の朝初めて、いつもの左手だけじゃなく両手でお絵描きしているのを発見、やった〜マディソン！
More and more we are finding out that our little girl may be a lefty... which doesn't thrill us(Sorry Uncle Jim!) so we keep hoping it's just a toddler experiment stage and she will soon start using her correct(right) hand:-) Here she is using both hands to draw for the first time instead of just using her left hand, way to go Madison!


最近のマディソンの言葉の発達状況は、“バイ！“がはっきりと言える様になって来ました。そしてバイと言う時はちゃんと縦に手を振ってくれるし.........そして、イエスって言う意味の“イヤー”とか...他の子達よりも話さないかもしれないけど、運動能力はずば抜けてる！走ったり投げたり持ち上げたりとすごいです...よくそんな物持てるなーってビックリする毎日です！
Some or one word she is saying very clearly these days is "Bye!" and it's followed by a vertical hand waving which is super cute:-) and............ oh and she says "Yeah!" Her speech may take longer to develop but she is definitely an athletic one, she runs and throws well... and lifting! We are always amazed how strong she is!

そして、例えばここに遊びに来ていてマディソンがお客さんの物で遊んでいるとするでしょ、しばらく経ってあれっ、どこ行っちゃったっけっと思ったらまず見てみる所はマディソンのおもちゃの台所の冷蔵庫の中、何でも冷たい方がいいらしくここに入れるのが好きらしい...：）カーペットに逆さまになって溢れているミルクボトルを見つけるよりは断然良いよね...
And if you are ever here visiting and your things disappear because Madison was playing with it and stopped, your first stop should be in her play kitchen fridge... She likes to keep everything cold apparently so that's where you can find your things...:-) It's much better than finding an up-side-down sippy cup and dumped/dripped milk on a floor...

音楽が耳に入って来る度に踊り出すマディソン、今日エレンを見ている時にゲストで３歳ぐらいの男の子がダンスを披露していたんだけどそれを見ていたマディソンはもう感激！いつもは左右に足を動かして踊るマディソン、今日は腕まで動かしてノリノリでした：）
She likes music and loves to dance! A LOT! We were watching Ellen and they had a toddler as a guest because he can dance really well and Ellen found him on Youtube and he was dancing... Madison went dance crazy watching him dance it was really cute! She usually just likes to sway with her legs alternating being in the air(I think I had a video a couple of posts back of her dancing) but yesterday she was waving her arms and everything. That boy woke up Madison's dance moves!

アパート内にプールがあるので頻繁に使っているんだけど今までで一度も混んでいる時がありません。ほとんどプール３人締めしています：）ターゲットで２才から用の腕浮き輪を買って使っています...マディソンはもう水全然怖くないみたい、一人で泳げま〜す！でもまだ体重が軽すぎるのか縦に浮くと水が口に入りやすくなっちゃうんだけど、ありがたい事に本人は全然気にしていないです...
Since we have a pool in our apartment complex we use it a lot and surprisingly it has never been crowded, most of the time we have the pool to ourselves! We got Madison this arm floating thing even though it said 2+ on the packaging and it's working really well:-) She is comfortable enough to swim on her own now... but since she is under 2 and maybe doesn't weigh enough, whenever she is up right and her head is just floating she tends to drink a bit too much pool water... but she doesn't care thankfully!

先週末ハリウッドにあるファーマーズマーケットとショッピングセンターがくっ付いている所に行ってみました。ショッピングセンターの真ん中には噴水や芝生のある子供達が動き回れる所があってマディソンは噴水のダンスに釘付けでした...ファーマーズマーケットにはいろんな国の料理や新鮮な素材がいっぱい...お昼はギリシャ料理のユーロを食べてデザートにはいちごのチーズケーキのソフトクリーム：）マディソンも自分用のスプーンで楽しそうに食べていました：）
This past weekend we checked out a huge farmer's market/shopping globe in West Hollywood... in the middle of all the stores they had a nice water fountain and a grass area that kids can run around and Madison really enjoyed watching the water dance... and farmer's market was very interesting with so many food vendors packed in an open area with many ethnic foods. We tried Gyro Platter from a Greek booth and a Strawberry Cheesecake frozen yogurt for dessert! Madison is getting really good at feeding herself with whatever:-)




お昼の後家に帰りがけに科学館に寄ってみました...ここは駐車料金を８ドル払わなきゃいけないけど入場料は無料！そこに特別にあったマミーの展示には２０ドル入場料、でも無料の展示で今日は十分楽しませて貰いました。ここにあった子供の遊び場は特に予想以上に素晴らしい：）一軒家みたいに台所/居間/寝室/外となっていて、外にはちゃんと偽物の土が入っている砂場があって野菜を植えたり収穫したり、虫のおもちゃを探したりとする事沢山...しかも、この遊び場には人数制限があるから混みすぎなくて最高！しかもこれタダって言ったよね!?
After lunch we stopped by the Science Center before heading home... They charge $8 for parking but the admission is free here except a special exhibition they had which was Mummy(I wanted to see it but we decided we didn't want to pay $20 for it...) Well we were glad we didn't pay any extra here because they had enough things to keep Madison occupied and interested... The best of all is this kids' playroom we stumbled into... This playroom was set up as a big house with kitchen/bedroom/living room/outdoor. In the outside patio they had a box of digging sand which was not sand but artificial dirt that kids can dig and find toy bugs or plant and harvest veggies... Another great thing about this playroom is that they limit the number of parents and kids that are in there at a time so there is plenty of toys and space to play with and run around in... And IT'S FREE! How great is that!?

ここは氷の部屋...この写真の左側にあるのは氷で出来ている壁の一部、だからこの部屋は寒〜かった〜！そして、隣の部屋は砂漠の部屋で、とても暖かくて１０分に一回雨で発生する洪水を見る事が出来ました...
Here we are in an ice room... The white bit on the left of the picture is a wall of packed ice so this room was actually really cold! They also had a desert room that was warm and had a flood caused by a rain storm every 10 minutes...

最近の出来事.../Recent Happenings...

この頃ブログを書いていないので最近の出来事をまとめて...：）
It's been a while that I last wrote in our blog so I thought I would recap some things we've done the last week or so...:-)

デイブの学校が先週の火曜日に始まりました。全部始めてで慣れる事がいっぱい、特に合計８０人近くの生徒を自分だけで持ち教えた経験があんまりない科学を教えなきゃいけないのでちょっと大変です...そして、私はマディソンと昼間一緒に過ごします。ほとんど毎日がこんな感じです...朝デイブが仕事に行った後ゆっくり起きて朝ご飯を食べます。そして少し遊んだ後お昼根の時間の前に着替えて近くの公園やスーパーに歩いたり走って行ったり(もちろんマディソンはバガブーに乗って)...そしてお昼寝の後はお昼を食べて午後はだいたい海辺とプールで遊びます...なんて簡単な毎日...：）この前ロングビーチのサイトで教室を探していた時に見つけた音楽の教室に行くのが楽しみ...
Dave's school started last Tuesday and it has been interesting with a lot of new things such as planning his own lessons in an unfamiliar subject, science, starting from scratch with his 80+ kids, etc... and Madison and I are back to spending days together... Our normal routine has been to get up way after Dave leaves(Sorry Baby!), eat breakfast and play, get dressed for Madison's nap time in her bugaboo and my jog/walk time to a grocery store/playground/wherever I feel like going... Then when Madison wakes up we have lunch and usually go to our backyard (the beach) to play ending with a dip in the pool to finish our day before Dave comes home around 4... We found a great website that has a huge list of different activities and groups we can join so we are really excited about starting some of those... I found a music class and an art & cultural class for Madison and I to attend sometime soon.

先週の日曜日にステュードベーカー教会に通う事に決めメンバーになりました...そこで出会った同い年ぐらいの夫婦(クリスとグレース)と早速夕ご飯を一緒に食べました。これからとても仲良く慣れそうな夫婦友達が出来てで嬉しいです。昨日大学に通っているグレースが授業の後遊びに来てくれました！サーフのレッソンやテニスマッチと予定がいっぱい...
We just placed our membership at Studebaker Road Church of Christ and have already met a really nice couple(Chris and Grace Melton) that are our age to hang out with... We had them over for dinner last week and really enjoyed spending some time together:-) Oh and they are surfers, cool right? Grace came by yesterday after her morning classes to hang out with Madison and I and we had a great time! We have a surf lesson and tennis match on our future activity list...

バーバパパのぬいぐるみに抱きついて遊んでいるマディソン：）
In this video Madison is showing her love for her Barba Papa:-)

マディソンとパパがエリーとココの散歩に行った時にアパートからビデオを撮ってみました。
Madison and Daddy took the Beans for a walk and I was able to film them from our apartment...

食事の前のお祈り/Prayer of Thanks

最近マディソンのする可愛い事でとびっきり１位で可愛いのが食事の前のお祈りです。一緒に椅子に座ってご飯を食べれる様になった時から家族みんなでお祈りをしていたんだけど、やっぱりその間ずっと手を握っているのは難しいし、すぐに気が散って食べ物で遊んだりうるさかったりお祈りの邪魔してばかり...
This is by far the cutest thing Madison started to do recently... Ever since she was able to sit with us and eat meals we would try to hold her hands and say a prayer and until recently she would engage and hold our hands for a few seconds but then she would let the hands go and play with something or cry or scream to interrupt the prayer...

でも最近は...
BUT now this is what happens...

例えば夕ご飯の時、デイブに一足先にご飯を食べさせて貰っていたとして私が席に座ると手を出して来るんです...家族揃ってお祈りをするのを知っているから...しかも最近はお祈りの間手を握ったままじーっと私とデイブを見てデイブがお祈りし終わるのを待っています...そして、最後に“アーメン”って言うと、マディソン語で“アメーン”って言います。ちゃんとアーメンって言える様になるのももうすぐだろーな：）
She would sit in her chair and maybe Dave would start feeding her then when I join them and all of us are together she would extend her hands to us so that we can hold hands and pray... She would quietly observe us as Dave says a prayer keeping her hands in ours... When we say "Amen" she would say something in her language that means "Amen" and I know that it won't take too long before she can say the word!

エイ踏んじゃった!!/I stepped on a Sting Ray!!

土曜日の朝エリーとココを連れてドッグビーチに行く事にしました。いつもは車で行くんだけど、この日はエリーとココをバガブーの下の荷物入れに入れて走って行って見る事に...居心地の良い座席に良い子に座って景色を楽しんでいれば良かったのに、走り始めてすぐにエリーが飛び出して来て危うくバガブーでひく所でした...それから２匹とも首輪をして一緒に歩く事にしたんだけど、それもそれで大変。何でかって言うとマディソンが起きていれば絶対エリーとココの散歩ヒモを持ちたくなるからなんです...だから、歩行通路結構場所取るんだよね、しかも半分ぐらい(約１キロ)走った所でエリーが急に変なお婆さんみたいな呼吸をする様になって、仕様が無いからエリーは抱っこ！そんなこんなでドッグビーチに到着です。着いた後お水をあげたらエリーもすっかり元気、パパと水泳の練習開始。ここにいる大きな犬達はほとんどが平気で海に入って泳いでいるけどエリーとココはまず海水に慣れないといけません。だからこの日はパパにゆっくりと水の中に置いて来てもらって海辺へ泳いで帰って来るのれんしゅうです。２匹の華麗な泳ぎをビデオでどうぞ！
On Saturday morning we took the Beans to Dog Beach for some swimming... We usually drive there but we decided to try jogging/walking there and back... Well, it was interesting... We've been wanting to try to put the Beans in compartment underneath our Bugaboo and see if they will stay there and enjoy the view... So we put down a comfy towel and put them in and headed out onto the shore path... Our plan was to jog there and walk back but right after we started to jog Ellie decided to risk her life and get out of her carriage and almost got run over by the bugaboo wheels... Ouch! So we took Coco out and leashed them both and went up on to the side street and started to jog with the Beans running with us... Oh and as long as Madison is awake she would demand to hold the girls' leashes from her bugaboo seat so imagine, a good size of this party taking up a side walk! At about the half way point(0.75mile) Ellie started to wheeze like an old person so we had to pick her up and start to walk the rest of way... Then I was thinking we would never attempt to do this again... Once we got there we had a great time, I gave the girls some water and Ellie magically came to life and they got to go swimming with Dave... A lot of doggies on the beach get themselves in the water and swim but the Beans are not there yet so we've been getting them used to the idea of waves and swimming by gently placing them in the water and making them swim back to shore... Here you can see them in action!

やっぱり週末だけあってドッグビーチは大賑わい、家族連れでみんな楽しんでいました...
Since it was Saturday there was a lot of doggies and their families on the beach enjoying the day...

ドッグビーチを出ると直ぐにマディソンのお昼寝開始、持っていたエリーの散歩ヒモを取り上げた後のんびりと自由な散歩を楽しんでいたと思ったらまたお婆さんの登場！仕様が無く木の下で休憩を取った後抱っこで帰りました。アパートに着いた後、すでに水着を着ていたデイブは寝ているマディソンを連れてプールに直行、私はビーンズを連れて部屋に帰り急いでお風呂に入れた後水着に着替えてプールで合流。そのまま、暖かいプールにいれば良かったのに何でか知らないけど海辺に移動する事に...いつも冷たすぎるから海には入らないんだけど今日は泳ぐ気がしたので歩いて海に入って行ったら...何か平たい物踏んじゃった！しかも動いた！エイだよっ！気持ち悪い〜って海辺に戻ってデイブとお子守り交代です。デイブは信じてくれなかったけど絶対踏んだのエイだった！あんなに平たい生き物他にいないし、この前ここで日が落ちるのを見ていた時漁師さんが小さかったけどエイを釣っていたの見たもん！
私とデイヴの将来の目標の一つがトライアスロンに挑戦する事です。トライアスロンって三種類(水泳、自転車、マラソン)の競争の事です。だから少し海で泳ぐ練習をしてみたんだけど、プールで泳ぐのより難しい！波に揺られながら泳ぐのや海水が口に入って来ながら泳ぐのは思ったより大変で疲れる...これから頑張らないと！
Right after we left Dog Beach to head back Madison fell asleep while holding Ellie's leash and as soon as Dave was able to pry it off her hand Ellie took a nice walk with her sister until she pulled one of those old lady things again that required us to carry her like a baby and stop and take a quick break under a tree... When we got to the apartment Dave who was wearing his bathing suit all day and sleeping Madison went down to the pool and I went up to our room with the Beans to give them a quick bath and put on a bathing suit and came back down for some swimming... We were at the pool for a bit and we decided to go out to the beach. The sea water is a lot colder than the pool water so I don't like it but that day I felt like swimming in the ocean so I was starting to walk into the water and I stepped on something flat and it moved... A sting ray!!! Dave does not believe it but I am 100% sure it was a sting ray I stepped on!! One of the reasons is that the other day when we were on the beach hanging out we saw a guy fish a small sting ray!! Another reason is that it cannot be anything else, what else is flat and moves that is in the water!? I was grossed out after that and quickly came back onto the beach and switched with Dave for the baby sitting role... We also tried swimming in the ocean that day since we do want to try a triathlon someday but it is really hard to swim with waves rocking you and really salty water getting in your mouth all the time... That's hard!

最後に、マディソンがやっと絵本を読む気になって来てくれたみたいです...まあ、３、４ヶ月の間マディソンの本は全部箱に入っていた事もあるんだけど、前は本を読むというよりもページをビリビリ破るぐらいしか興味を示さなかったからこれは嬉しい発展です：）少しだけど、ビデオに撮る事が出来ました！
Lastly, Madison is finally interested in pulling books out and looking through them... I guess mostly they have been in boxes the last few month but she was more interested in tearing the book pages than actually using them in the right way before so that is very exciting to us:-) So we got a little bit of that on film here!

カリフォルニアの免許証と車の登録／Getting California Licenses and the car registration

今日は、デイブの夏休みの最後の日です。カリフォルニアに引っ越してもうすぐ１ヶ月なのに今日まで面倒くさくてしていなかった事は、カリフォルニアの免許証と車の登録をする事...昼間時間があるのも今日で最後と朝早く出掛けました。アイフォンがあるのになぜか道に迷って３０分ぐらい余計に時間がかかった後やっと目的地のDMVに到着、番号券を貰ってまだ全部の書類を書き終わっていないうちに私達の番と今までで初めての最短待ち時間！全てがうまくいくかの様に思っていた時に知らされた事は、カリフォルニアの免許証を取るにはもう一度筆記試験を受けなきゃいけないらしいと言う事...え〜聞いてないよ〜！落ちたらどうしよ〜：(仕様が無く試験を受ける事に。最初に写真を撮り終わったデイブがマディソンを抱えながら筆記試験開始、簡単だから大丈夫と余裕な顔をしていたデイブだったんだけど...私も写真を撮り終わっていざ試験開始！って、えっ！何これ難しくない！？やばい！問題は全部３択なのに最後までしぼり切れないのは私だけ？デイブ、マディソン泣き叫んでいるけど大丈夫かな〜？ちょっとうるさくて集中出来ないんだけど...何とか最後まで答えてギリギリ合格：）車の登録にはもう一ステップあるけど、今日の目標達成です。
Today was Dave's last day of summer and it has been almost a month since we've moved here officially so it was finally time to take care of something we've been putting off till the end... The nightmare trip to the DMV... I'd say the DMV has been one of our least favorite places to go to in NYC and last year Madison and I had to make numerous frustrating trips in order to obtain a new set of license plates after our old ones got stolen... And on top of that I was not too thrilled and ready to switch out our NY drivers license to CA ones since I've been having a bit of NYC-homesickness lately... But we had to take care of it today so we headed out in the early morning to a DMV we picked that was close to Dave's school so that we could combine a trip to drop off some of his classroom stuff... When we got there, there was a lot of people, but our number was called before we were even done with filling out our papers so that was a nice surprise... What was not a nice surprise was that we found out we could skip a driving test but would have to take a written test again in order to get a CA license... Oh great...:-( Dave didn't seem concerned and said it would be really easy, but I was a bit worried and nervous about it... We went over to a different counter to take pictures and after that we started to take the test. Dave volunteered to hold Madison while he took the test since he thought it would be really easy... Well he was wrong... Not only was Madison a pain in the butt the whole time we were taking the test by squirming and screaming, etc, but the test was hard!! Even Dave thought it was really hard and we just barely passed it! Those Californians take driving very seriously! And you can imagine we were so happy about that...:-) I thought I would list a few of the tough questions here, but I left the test in the car so that will be in the next post...

夕ご飯の後、海辺へ散歩に行って来ました。丁度日が降りて来ていたからナイスシャッターチャンスと写真を撮りました...
After dinner, we went outside for some family relaxing time on the beach... The sun was just setting so I thought it would be a great time to take some pictures to share...

Madison is getting really comfortable in the sand...
砂の上に座るのに慣れて来たマディソン...

Here she munches on a log of some kind while Daddy poses for the picture...
デイブがカメラ目線で写真を撮っている時に何か変な棒を口に入れている...

Then Madison stuck her face in the sand...
砂を食べようとして顔を砂に入れたマディソン...

Her chin shows the remnants of the mud created when you put a bunch of sand in your mouth...
砂一握りを口に入れた時の汚れた口回り...

Who said Long Beach doesn't have waves...
ロングビーチにもちゃんと波あるみたい...

Our building is the one on the right...our apartment is on the exact opposite side...
私達のアパートは右側の高い建物...私達の部屋は正反対側...

Heading back in...
アぱートに戻ります...　おやすみ...

可愛すぎる.../Cute Stuff...

マディソンはここの暮らしにだんだん慣れて、いろいろ覚えて来たみたいです...例えば、アパートの外に行く時は鍵を掛けなきゃいけないから最近は鍵を持つ事がマディソンの仕事になっています...(と言うか、鍵をあげないとすねるからなんだけど...)そして、エレベーターを動かしたり扉を開ける為に鍵をパネルに近づけるのがすごい好きらしく、ピーッて音が鳴る度に喜んでいます。あと、鍵の持ち方にも小さいながらこだわりがあるんです。まず、デイブの鍵を持つ時は車用のボタンを握って、そして私の鍵を持つ時はミニーの人形を握っていないといけないらしいい事...そういうこだわる所がママに似ているような...頑固な所は特にね...！
So Madison is getting really used to what we do here... For example, she knows that when we go out of our apartment we would have to lock the door and it has been her job to hold the keys(since she would fall down and throw a tantrum if she does not have the keys in her hand...). She LOVES holding the keys to a panel in order to move the elevator or go through doors within the complex:-) And she has a specific way in which she would hold her keys... when she has Dave's set of keys she would have to hold it by the car key button(where lock/unlock/panic/trunk buttons are...) and when she has my set of keys she would hold them by holding onto Minnie Mouse... She does not like to hold them any other way and I guess that's my personality coming through...:-) Yeah PURE stubbornness!

今日はデイブがオリエンテーションに一日中行かなければいけなかったので、学校が来週始まったらまた“一日中２人きりで過ごす日”の練習をしました。朝、２キロ弱離れている所にあるスーパーまでバガブ−にマディソンを乗せて走って行く事にしました。本当はその時マディソンにお昼寝をしてもらいたかったんだけど、残念ながら失敗したので買い物の後海辺の通路を歩いておやつを食べながらアパートに帰りました。その途中でやっぱり歩き疲れたのかお昼寝を始めてくれたので、そのままアパート着いた後２時間もの時間を使って壁に飾る用の絵を描く事が出来ました。午前中の計画は大成功！マディソンが起きてお昼を食べた後、外に出て海辺で遊ぶ事にしました。日焼け止めをちゃんと塗って外に出たんだけどそれでも日が強いかなーと思っていたんだけど、やっぱり自分でも暑すぎると思ったのか、１０分程居た後マディソンが一つずつ持って来た物(ビーサン、サンダル、帽子)を次々に私に渡して来たんです...そして、全部渡し終わったと確認した後トコトコとアパートに向かって歩き出しました...凄い!!でも２、３歩暑い砂浜の上を歩いた後、クルッと後ろを向いてダッコしてーって来たんだけど...あ〜もう可愛いすぎだね！
Today was our practice day of what it would be like once Dave starts his school in a few days since he had his orientation all day until about 4:30pm. So this morning I jogged while pushing Madison in her bugaboo to a near by grocery store called Vons about a mile and a half away then since I was not successful in getting Madison to fall asleep we took the beach path back while munching on some snacks... She eventually fell asleep in her bugaboo and I was able to paint while she took her 2 hour nap which was so great and after getting lunch we walked out onto the beach for some sun time... It was a bit too hot and although I had put on sun screen before we headed out I was thinking maybe we should head back inside... I guess Madison could sense the strong heat on her or something because after about 10 minutes of playing in the sand she suddenly picked up her hat and handed it over to me, then my flip flops one by one, then her sandals... And when she made sure everything got picked up she started walking back toward the apartment... How cute was that!? But then after a few steps into the warm sand she turned around and gestured for me to pick her up, but oh it was the cutest thing...:-)

部屋に戻った後、直ぐに水着に着替えてまた下に降りて来てプールでのんびり、そして２人きりの日は家に帰って来たデイブがプールに登場した時無事終了です。写真をすっかり撮るの忘れていてゴメンネーです！
After we went back up to our room we quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed back down again for some pool time! and our practice day was over when Dave came home and joined us at the pool. Sorry, no pictures today!