The Small Family     

Well, the big event of our week was our weekend in Santa Cruz/Monterey. Technically, we stayed in Cupertino (where I grew up), which is just outside San Jose, but we actually spent most of our time “over the hill” in the Santa Cruz/Monterey area. (And no, “over the hill” isn’t a reference to our ages--ha!!)

Friday morning, we drove down to Monterey, stopping at Casa de Fruta for a nice, two-hour lunch break. Casa de Fruta is sort of a fixture for travelers going through that part of central California--it’s a fruit stand, but it is a whole complex of a playground; a train; some ducks, peacocks, and buffalo; a sweet shop; a wine-tasting shop; a deli; etc. Basically, a roadside attraction that has been around for many, many years. I hadn’t been there in several years, and I honestly couldn’t remember much about it. But now I’m kicking myself for not getting my camera out while we were there, because Theo had a blast and was so funny! He fell in love with a duck that appeared to be “with eggs,” as her belly was nearly dragging on the ground. This poor duck wasn’t quite as enamored of Theo as he was of her, but it was fun to watch him follow her around, waggling his head like she did as she waddled. He had fun on the playground and climbing on the trains, too, and we had a nice lunch and break.

After lunch, we drove the rest of the way to Monterey to meet up with our friend Shelley, who was in grad school with us. She and her husband have two daughters: Ella (2 1/2 years) and Grace (10 months). We met at a wonderful playground called Dennis the Menace Park, and again, I should’ve brought my camera! But if I had, I would’ve spent too much time snapping pictures and not enough time visiting, so I suppose it’s best that I refrained! (Chris got a couple iPhone snaps.) Theo and Ella ran each other ragged for about two hours, between the several playgrounds, the big train, the swings, etc. And it was great to catch up with Shelley and see her girls again, as it had been a while.

We got lucky this trip: Theo slept through the nights instead of waking up wanting to play in the hotel room at 2am. BUT, he was very short on sleep. After his big day at the playground and at Casa de Fruta, by the time we got to the hotel, had dinner, gave him a bath, etc., he got to bed at 10pm and didn’t fall asleep until 10:30. No problem--he’ll sleep until 9am or so, right? Nope. He was up at 6. And I’m sorry to say that this did not do him any favors on Saturday. We drove back over the hill to Monterey on Saturday morning to meet up with Bill (Chris’s cousin), Sarah, and Liam (age 1) for lunch and a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And instead of Theo, we apparently brought Joseph Stalin. Or Benito Mussolini. Or you can insert the name of your favorite dictator here. Oh my word. Theo did okay at lunch, but he was pretty much a tyrant at the aquarium. Tantrums, whining…you name it. Not his finest hour. Thankfully, Bill and Sarah have a little one, so they are a very forgiving audience! After about 90 minutes of fighting with the Generalissimo, we gave up and called it a day.

Luckily, the Tiny Tyrant took a nap on the way back over the hill to San Jose, and he was in a much better mood by the time we got to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom’s house. He played with cousin Nik, and we had a nice pizza dinner with the grandparents, Aunt Tanya, Uncle Steve, and Nik. I think the highlight was the Easter egg hunt Grandma and Grandpa set up for the boys--what fun!

Sunday morning, we drove back over the hill again to go see Auntie Lisa, Uncle Chris, Cason (4 months), and Auntie Jeanette at Lisa’s dad’s house in Soquel (near Santa Cruz). This was my first chance to meet Cason, and oh boy, is he ever cute!! Sorry to say I don’t have any pictures--Lisa and Chris don’t like to put a lot of pictures of him up on the Internet for privacy reasons, so out of respect to them, I left my camera in the car. So you will all just have to take my word for it that he is cute, cute, cute! And what a little flirt! You just look at that kid and he gives you a big, saucy grin. So adorable! I wanted to take him home. :-)

We all went down to the beach for a bit, and Theo was glad for the chance to play in the sand. No water play today, as neither Chris nor I felt like braving the chilly water, but Theo had plenty of fun in the sand anyway. He is a beach bum, that one!

Mid-afternoon, we drove back over the hill one more time and stopped at Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom’s house for Easter dinner with them and Great-Grandma Norma. Theo took a nice, long nap on the way over (he was once again working on four hours less sleep than he normally gets), so he was pretty cheery and enjoyed doing some watercolors with Grandma Kathy.

Finally arrived home late Sunday night, rather exhausted, so I’m keeping this entry short. But I have to close with a farewell to a good little friend: My Mom’s dog, Peek-a-boo, passed away on Sunday. I cried like an idiot several times this weekend--I probably should not own pets because I’m such a softie. But she was just such a sweet little dog, and I really did love that little mutt! When my Mom got her, 10 years ago, she was a 2-pound ball of black fluff, and although she was timid the first night, by the next morning she was throwing herself with all her might at Bitsy, who at the time weighed about 14 pounds. There was just no stopping Peeky! I used to call her Ms. Peeks because she was such a diva that I felt she deserved the “Ms.” designation. She was a Pekingese/poodle mix, and she had this wonderful, huge plume of a black, bushy tail that she would prance around with. She sort of looked like a squirrel, really--little wiry black body and this HUGE, bushy tail standing up! And she would get so irritated if you’d touch her tail--she’d race around in circles, checking to make sure it was okay, and then look irritated with you.

If she didn’t like her food, she’d bring it over and spit it in a pile at your feet, and then look up at you as if to say, “This is crap. I refuse to eat it. Bring me something better.”

And speaking of food, when my Mom was so sick in Canada a few years ago, Chris ended up taking care of Peeky along with our two dogs (Bitsy and Luna at that time). Well, Peeks the diva decided that she was going to go on a hunger strike, so Chris, being the softie that he is, ended up hand-feeding her kibble piece by piece. Now, she would’ve pushed her way in and gotten her food from the other two dogs when she got hungry enough, but somehow she batted her eyelashes (she had these beautiful, crazy long lashes) at Chris and got him to hand-feed her. Diva!!

Funny thing about Peeks was that as a younger dog, she was sort of snarly with my nieces and nephew. My mom had gotten her from a woman who did daycare, and we always kind of figured maybe the kids there mauled her a bit, because she never really liked kids much. She never bit, but she would growl at them if they got too close. (Though they were in good company--she also used to growl at Oprah on the TV….) But when I had Theo, she never once growled at him. She stayed out of his way, but she never snarled or anything. It was like she mellowed by the time he came around. And I have to say, it’s going to hurt when Theo talks about her for a while. And he will--he loves Peek-a-boo.

So, poor Peeky’s body was just shutting down on her, and she is certainly now no longer in pain and is at peace…but I can’t help but cry, because darn it, I loved that little dog. She was one of a kind.