A Return of Friday Five

It is time for another Friday post! 

1. It rained for almost 3 days this week. Made it hard to get outside. We did enjoy a little puddle splashing yesterday. James loved it. 

Enjoyed lunch and hot chocolate afterwards.
He kept putting his hand up to hide from the camera.

2. We've had lots of flying onto the couches as an energy out let since playing in pouring raining wasn't really an option.

 

3. We're getting pretty excited about our Christmas trip. Well, James and I am for sure. Not so sure if Tracy is or not. James talks about how were going to take the train to Christmas just about every day. Only 24 more days till the train ride. Probably what James and I are most excited about.

4. Tracy has been working hard. He just received the peer reviews for a paper he submitted, so now he gets to do some edits and then send it back in. Hopefully, he'll have another publication soon which will make it his 6th paper as first author. 

5. Today we ventured out to a park. James told me this morning "we can go to the one downtown if you want. There's lots of parking there." LOL! Such a funny kid. I took the hint and that is where we went. He had a blast at a new park and threw a tantrum when it was time to go. Sigh. Told me the whole ride home that I was a bad mom.

Veteran's Day

On Monday, Tracy discovered that he had yesterday day off. So... naturally we headed to the beach. He decided to take us to Baker Beach in San Francisco. The beach had a great view of the Golden Gate bridge.

We had a fun time watching the fisherman and playing in the sand. The water was too cold to play in and it wasn't that warm of a day either.

James loved all the cargo ships that came by.

While James and I played on the beach, Tracy walked up the path near by to check out the Battery Chamberlin. If you're curious what one is, check out the Wikipedia page on them.

One of the 4 batteries.

This one has an original gun displayed.
They do live demonstrations of the guns once a month.

 And a pretty flower:

After our fun on the beach, we drove to the other side of the bridge to check out Fort Point. Tuesday was a no tour day. :( But we enjoyed the site and the sounds of cars going across the bridge.

Fort Point is under the bridge.

One can never have too many pictures of this great bridge, right?

We then did a drive by Boudin run. Meaning I jumped out of the car and went into Boudin to get some sour dough bread and Tracy drove circles around the block to avoid paying for parking.

I love all their animal bread. I got one of the little turtles as well as a regular round loaf.

Not my picture. Just one I found on google.

Then we went to across the bridge to the other side of the bay and drove to a view point area along Conzelman Road. There we watched the sunset but it was a bit foggy so we didn't really see much of a sunset. However, we still got some great pictures.

And another of James and I.
I should really get some of Tracy next time.

Examples from a 4 year old

Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm failing at this parenting thing. Then there are moments when James does something that makes think maybe I am doing something right. There are also times when he's being an example to me.

The other night I had tucked James into bed. He immediately jump up and said he needed to turn his bike light on. The light is an old one from Tracy's bike. His light was on his dresser and he had it shinning towards his Jesus picture. He said, "I need my light to see Jesus." At first I thought wow, maybe he is listening to things I say. Then I thought wait a min. I should follow James' example and do more to look towards Christ, think about His example and have Him in my life more.

This is James' picture he had his light shinning on.

James always shows an immense love and concern for others. During my sick moments early in this pregnancy I was always amazed that he was right there rubbing my back and bringing me water or making sure Tracy did those things. Also, the past couple of days, when choosing a piece of candy from his Halloween bag he also gives me one. It surprised me at how easily it was for him to share his candy when that is something most kids have a hard time sharing. Good reminders to me to be more willing to help others in need even in small ways as just being there by there side and to share what I have, like a few dollars to the homeless guy on the corner or anything else I may be prompted to share.

Of course life with a 4 year old isn't always so pleasant. These are just a few example of those occasional times when he's doing things right and times when I'm reminded that we really should be like little children. I'm very grateful to have James in my life and that he helps me become a better person.