Honeymoon's Over

Talmage loves a lot of things about LA. He loves that we live in a "pool house" and that we can go to the beach all the time. He's become quite the fish and is not afraid of the waves anymore. He finds seashells and makes castles. He loves that we go on adventures to museums and parks and each  night he says, "And when we wake up in the morning, we are going to do something fun again." I think he also loves how often we've eaten at Old McDonald's since we've been here!

But it only took a week or two before the honeymoon ended. This is the first time we've moved where he's realized what he's missing and been able to vocalize his emotions. He wants his trains and toys and the orange shirt that I forgot to pack. He misses Paddington and wants to go to San Francisco in his courtyard, and he desparately wants to play with his friends--for the past few days he has been making up stories about Franklin constantly! At least once a day (depending on how tired, hungry, or sesitive he's feeling) I hear him ask, "When can we go back to our Palo Alto home?" and  "Why do we have to live in LA?" and then the kicker, "I just want to go home."

Our children, especially Talmage, have been on quite the ride with us. I often joke that T is going to have identity crisis when people ask him where he's from--I don't even know how to answer that question for him...and heaven only knows what our next destination will be. But for right now, even though he's having a blast in LA most of the time, T's heart is in Palo Alto. Our 650 square feet of Stanford dorm is a home that he loves and that we've made our own. I feel like it'll be just a blink before we're waving goodbye to LA and heading back north, and for T's sake I hope home is as good as he remembers ;)