4th of July and Etsy

Last week we went to a beach in Alameda. It's just the bay so the beach isn't big or all that but it was nice and quite and the water is super shallow and therefore warm. I brought the dog which I guess I wasn't suppose to do, at least that's what the rangers (or whoever the people in the white trucks driving on the beach were) told me. Last time we went to the beach was in Santa Cruz and ocean water is freezing, Penni was not a fan. This time she loved it! Right away before I even laid our blanket down on the sand she plopped her happy toddler self down and got down to business digging with her hands. She happily went into the warm shallow water and also happily sat down in it and continued digging. Needless to say the kid was covered in mud head to toe. There was even sand in her diaper, gross. But she was so happy and content I didn't even care. She even managed to get sand in her ears, not quite sure how that happened. I brought my husband's fancy DSLR camera (I'm trying to teach myself how to use it) except it ran out of pics within the first 5 mins. So I don't have any pictures of Penni covered in mud, sadly, but I do have some of her wondering through the shallow water.



Then it was July 4th weekend. It was nice weather that day so we spent most of it outside, I got out her baby pool and set it up on the patio, dumped a bunch of toys in it and she dumped her baby dolls in it and had a blast. The I grilled up some burgers and we had a picnic on the patio.



For weeks leading up to the holiday I kept debating if I should let her stay up for fireworks or not, that day she ended up taking a 3 hour nap. That's miraculous in Penni world haha. So I figured she was resting up because she knew fireworks would be late and she didn't want to miss it. We watch them from my sister's house, they are a few miles away so no loud explosions above our heads. Last year she was only 7 months old but watched the entire show, she was mesmerized. This year however she was less than impressed, she started whining as soon as they started. I'm not sure if she didn't like them or if she was just tired, but either was we ended up leaving halfway through. She just about fell asleep on the 5 minute walk back to my sister's house. I felt bad for making her stay up, but I really thought she'd be more into it. Oh well, maybe next year she'll enjoy it more.
she was wondering around before they started

but once they started this was her expression, that is when she wasn't hiding her face against me.


In other munchkin news she had her first experience eating out. It was Chipotle and I think she liked it :)


and yes I still wear my 30lb toddler, and we both like it.


when I don't wear her this is how she rides in the stroller, I think she is going to be a gymnast.


And lastly today much to my surprise she climbed on the big slide and went down all by herself, she thought it was the greatest and kept doing it.

She also loved the monkey bars, she can only hold on for one or two seconds, but she giggles the entire time and it's the cutest.

In other happenings I finally braved it and started an Etsy shop,

Etsy Buy Handmade anyasboutique

And as my luck would have it the day after I started it my sewing machine broke. Well my sister's sewing machine broke. So the main thing that I wanted to sell, kid's aprons, I can't make right now. So I've been making some headbands and plan to crochet some hats in the next few days or weeks. My lovely husband did say I can get a new machine so I'm in the process of doing some research and trying to figure out which one I want. I'm excited about it though!