first swim

Kumquat has swimmers on several branches of his family tree, so when he was born with with big feet, narrow shoulders, and big hands all thought he'd be a great swimmer, that was until he hated bath time. Fortunately for the future of the American Olymipic swim team, Christian Crew has learned to love the world of water. Here are a few photos from Uncle Carl of his first swim with his daddy:


p.s. for some reason my internet is taking forever to load pictures, so perhaps I'll add some more to this post later.

How to get the border control to compliment you:

wear Stephen's NRA hat.

Who but Kumquat

Could be so cute?

San Diego Days

As usual we had a scare with the airplane. Christian had poked my eye yesterday and I didn't think much of it, but it was sealed shut this morning and it hurt to look at the light. We went to do a quick stop by my favorite Ophthalmologist and he taped my eye shut and gave me a patch for the next day and a half for my "cornea abrasion." This was somewhat unexpected and we ended up racing to the airport to make it just in time. We were so happy we almost didn't notice all the people trying not to stare but staring at my pirate imitation. I think I scared the 10 year old sitting next to me half to death.
Now we're here with my sister Ruth and her two little boys and brand new baby girl for at least the next week when we'll drive their old car back. Ohhwee!!!
Christian was a trooper, though it was a little rough for him at the end. Yay for ice cubes in the drinks from the stewardess.

Pictures of kumquat coming soon.

Red Thai Curry

Stephen's uncle Mike gave us the most amazing/simple/fast recipe for red thai curry that I finally tried out yesteday. It was so good, by the time we got the camera out this was all that was left:



Bring can of coconut milk to boil
add 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup peanut butter
3 tbs thai red curry paste (get this and the coconut milk from an Asian market.)
salt
squeese juice of 1 lime'
serve over steamed veggies
with jasmine rice

(I had some cilantro I needed to use before it went bad, and it was so so good. We loved loved it!!!)

Thanks Uncle Mike!

Too cool for you

We're tempted, oh so tempted, to quit our dreams of academic glory and become swimsuit models instead.

"Just wait when until you're a parent" rebutle

Occasionally when I saw my nephews playing with trucks and guns and my nieces girls with baby dolls I would hear my siblings comment that they came that way. I differed in opinion, but what could I say? I hadn't had any children of my own.
Thus you can imagine my ha!-take that-joy when yesterday I was at Grandmas and was trying to quiet Christian and I grabbed the nearest toy, a doll. Suddenly Christian had a smile on his face and was laughing. When I took it away because it was time to go he cried. I've seen Christian interested and focused on other toys yes, but I've never seen him so happy with one. My conclusion? Our social bug of a boy naturally likes dolls, and I don't think he's the only one.