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We've begun implementing time outs for Az. (When I say "we" I obviously mean "I", as I am currently 100% in charge of her discipline. Miguel asked me how I get her to stay, but there is no secret. The first time I tried putting her in time out she ran out a couple of times but then decided to just stay. Since then she hasn't tried to run out once. She asserts herself by standing up in front of the stool rather than sitting as instructed, but I let her get away with that much. She even requests to go sit in time out sometimes when she wants some time to herself, so I feel like it has been successful. I feel like Az sees it as a consequence and a place to cool down rather than a punishment.

The rest of Az's day was much better than her two minutes in time out. It was the three year anniversary of the day my father passed so I decided to head to the ocean. I had to go into Santa Rosa (the opposite direction of the ocean) first to pick up Miguel so I ran some errands while in town. After that we stopped for ice cream in Sebastopol because I had been promising Az some for a while. It was getting pretty late by then and I wanted to make it to the beach before sunset so we grabbed some burritos after Miguel insisted he absolutely needed to visit the donut shop next door and after a tractor photo op. And then I started racing the sun to the horizon. The beach I wanted to go to because it held the most significance in terms of my dad and me was too far away so I ended up stopping at a parking lot I had never been to before. Fortunately the parking lot was for a trail down the face of the cliff that led to another beach that I had gone to with my dad sometimes. In fact, it was the last beach I went to with him before he went into the hospital and never came out.

We ended up running towards the horizon and just making it. Like just. The sun set and I ate my burrito but the thing about the ocean after the sun sets is that it's really cold, so we didn't end up staying very long. I'm glad that we made the effort to get to the sunset though. Even with all of the changes that occur throughout life, a sunset stays pretty much the same: perfect.