6/24/07 Ortega Park

I'd seen enough photos and references on friends' blogs about Ortega Park in Sunnyvale that today that I figured it was as good a place as any to take my little bundles. Gabriel was being unbearably pesty at home, showing all the signs of a bored kid, and he needed to get out almost as much as we needed to get him out.


Ortega Park is the closest park to us, and we could in theory walk there, but it's not that nice a walk and would take for-ever with a putzy 3-year-old. However, it's undergone major renovations recently, and is actually a pretty interesting and nice park.

One of the new features is a funky water play area, centered around a giant yellow flower with a crooked stem. There are also poles that spritz water, and fountains that come out of the ground, all on a padded, comfortable surface. I never figured out how to activate the water poles though. I guess they're on a timer, but sometimes it took a really long time for the water to start, and I got squirted enough times that I suspect there's some sort of weight activation.

Anyway, the boys had a great time running around the water. It was a little windy there though, making it cold unless you're in full motion. Julian pooped out pretty quickly and huddled in a towel on the blanket with Katrina, while Gabriel did funny dances standing on a fountain waiting for it to start.



As much as I appreciate Katrina sleeping until 7:30am these days, I'm not liking how it shifts her naps until so late in the day that the afternoon nap ends up being far too short, or, like yesterday, not at all. ~shudder~ -- a baby that doesn't nap. I can't bear the idea. Then again, this baby is pretty much happy and cheerful all the time, nap or not, so it's not so bad.



Gabriel continued to be unbearable at home, and I finally gave him one last warning that one more throwing a track piece into its box, and he was going straight up to bed (which meant NO Thomas video this week, a huge loss). And predictably, he made me carry out that threat. Oh, the howling and screaming as I confiscated his tracks to the garage!! I'm sure our neighbors thought I was beating him to within an inch of his life. And he continued to carry on through the whole curtailed bed-bath process (which I did with his sister happily playing with books sitting on the floor nearby).

But it was crying, not confrontational insult-hurling. Though he cried and cried, he almost seemed relieved. He'd dropped the obnoxious attitude and was sad, instead of defiant. Contrition doesn't come easily in Gabriel-land. I think he was truly very, very tired, and in the end, went right to bed at 6:30pm.


All 3 all day tomorrow. Brace yourself.

6/24/07