Saturday, May 31, 2008

Las Madres Spring Picnic

Mommy's mommy group had their spring picnic today. It was originally planned for last March, but it got canceled on account of rain which is a pretty rare thing out here. One of the highlights was the "Easter" Egg Hunt. All the kids got to find 6 eggs - I got 2 chalk eggs, a funky ball, and 3 eggs full of edible goodies. The park had lots of fun things to play on, like this see-saw that Daddy & I rode one with another boy and his daddy.

And of course, plenty of swings. In this pic, I've got a mouthful of yummy rice krispie treats. You can also see my golden poodle balloon that the Balloon Guy made me. You can't see the balloon ball that he's standing on in this angle, but it was pretty cool. It was a fun day.

Sous Chef-in-Training

























Sunday, May 25, 2008

My 3rd Haircut

Mommy took out the shears while I was eating cereal.


Bubble Wand

Auntie Terry got me this awesome bubble wand to play with at the Baby Shower BBQ we went to this weekend. Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't able to capture any of the bubbles, but as you can see by these pics, I was having a great time. I went through three whole bottles of bubbles.




Saturday, May 24, 2008

Copying Cooper

Cooper's got something here - Double the pacifier pleasure.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Old Mac Donald Had a Farm . . .

...and on his farm he had some goats and chickens (See pics below). Today, we went on a farm tour at Deer Hollow Farm with the other Las Madres mommies and kids. I got to see all sorts of animals - goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, chickens, geese, and ducks. Afterwards, we ate lunch in a barn. I got to run around in the hay.


Sunday, May 11, 2008

Yosemite!!!

I got to go to Yosemite National Park for the very first time. We went to celebrate mommy & daddy's anniversary and Mother's Day. We went with two other families with three other little boys, so I had plenty of playmates. We rented a big house in Yosemite West with lots of stairs for me to climb and a pool table. I liked sitting on the table and rolling the balls into the pockets. On Saturday, we drove down to the Valley. We stopped by the vista point near tunnel with a clear view of the whole YosemiteValley with Bridal Veil Falls a prominent feature and Half Dome in the background. Afterwards, we took a short hike to get a closer look at Bridal Veil Falls. I enjoyed splashing in the puddles on the path made by the mist from the falls. Later, I got to explore the river downstream of the falls. It was a great trip.

Ben and Me playing with bubbles.

Jacob, Evan, and Me with our mommies.

Bridal Veil Falls


Sunday, April 27, 2008

Friday, April 25, 2008

My New Bistro Grille

My mommy got me this "manly" kitchen so I could practice being a good cook like Daddy.





Thursday, April 24, 2008

Watering the Plants

Now that it's warmer out, Daddy lets me help water the herbs and plants in the backyard. It is my most favorite chore.



Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Watch out wizards. . .

Here comes Zachary Potter!

Love Our Kitties

We have two kitties - Gizmo and E'bi. Gizmo is tortoise colored (black, brown, tan, & white), and E'bi is all black with a couple white spots (one on her neck, and one on her belly). They're my buddies. Gizmo likes to play hard-to-get, but I have fun chasing after her. Sometimes she'll chase after me if I'm dragging a balloon string. E'bi was my mommy's "baby" before I came along. We both like to cuddle with mommy. I like to use E'bi as a pillow cuz she's so soft. While daddy was getting ready for work this morning, I wanted to pet E'bi so I climbed onto the bed where she was sleeping and proceeded to gently pet her and amazed my daddy by saying, "I pet E'bi. She's soft."

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Monterey Bay Aquarium Playdate

I got to go to the Aquarium again. This time we met up with mommy's friend from grade school who recently moved up from San Diego with his wife and kids (Mikaela, Joshua, & Lukas). We had lots of fun. Lukas is only a couple months older than me. We really enjoyed the Sea Otter exhibit. After our playdate, we ate yummy pizza at their house.


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Stats, Just the Stats

I had my 18-month check-up today. The doc doesn't think my reoccurring hives are hives at all. I've got an appt next week to see the allergist to see if we can find out what's going on. This latest batch has been quite itchy. Keeping me up at night. On top of that, I've got another cold with a runny nose and another sore throat coming on. Other than being sick, the doc says I'm growing and developing just fine. I'm 34-1/2 inches tall which puts me again at the 95th percentile for height, and I weighed in at 27.5 lbs so I bumped up to 75th percentile for weight. Course, I got to *stand* on the scale with my clothes on this time so that might have skewed things a tad. I got two more pokes - Hep A and DTaP. Mommy says I was a trooper once again - only cried during the injections. There was a little girl before us who kept crying all the way out of the clinic. No more official immunization shots until I'm ready for kindergarten. Yippee! Course, mommy will probably make me get flu shots every year, but I can handle one measily shot.

Rebel Without a Highchair

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A Year and a Half!!!

I'm 18-months old today. My checkup isn't till next week, so I don't have any new stats. But I figured I'd at least start on an 18-Month Update...

MOVEMENT: Mommy says I've regressed as she'll often find me crawling around . . . pretending to be a cat or cow, "meowing" or "mooing". But mostly, I run around to get from place to place. I'm getting quite proficient at hopping and jumping. When I want to be silly, I like to spin and twirl around. I especially like it when mommy or daddy spins me around. I like to help mommy sweep and wipe my hands & clean my tray when I'm done eating. I can climb onto the couch and into my parents' bed.

COMMUNICATION: I've been working on my 3-word sentences these past few months - "I get down.", "I got it.", "I broke it.", "I want it.", "Where is it?", and most recently "I love you." I say a new word or two almost every day. I like to repeat whatever words my parents say, especially when daddy is driving in annoying traffic, much to his chagrin. I say "thank you" often. I still sign some words quite frequently like "milk", "airplane", and "more". I've created my own signs for "help" and "spin" which I use quite often, too. I can identify several more body parts now like mouth, teeth, lips, chin, hair, fingers, hands, knees, and feet. I also like to make animals sounds when asked "What does an X say?" like horse, cow, cat, dog, duck, sheep, chicken, sea lion/seal, chimpanzee/monkey, pig, bird, lion, and frog.

EATING: I've had 16-teeth for most of the last 3 months. Mommy doesn't have to cut my food as small anymore, but sometimes she forgets. I'll eat almost anything, especially Chinese. My current everyday favorites are hot dogs, broccoli, cheese, and rice. Still like noodles of all kinds, especially spaghetti and mac-n-cheese. Apples right off the core have become my favorite fruit. I enjoy eating my Cheerios in milk without any assistance. Yogurt is also quite tasty for breakfast. I'm eating two breakfasts, lunch, and two dinners with snacks in between these days. I've pretty much given up milk before bedtime.

PLAYING: Not much has changed in this arena. I still like playing outdoors and will whine & fuss when it's time to come in. Balls and balloons are still my favorite. I'm getting really good at throwing overhand. I can even aim what direction to throw at. I've been practicing with our next door neighbor. I'm also getting good at playing with other kids not just around them, like taking turns on the slide or playing bumber cars at daycare. I can cruise quite quickly, forwards and backwards, on my riding toys and even steer, although often I just muscle it. My current favorite book is Baby Einstein's Jane's Animal Expedition. I like all the animals hiding behind the flaps.

SLEEPING: I can climb in and out of my crib with ease. These days, I prefer sleeping in the big bed next to my crib, but I need mommy or daddy to keep me company until I fall asleep. Once I fall asleep, I'm usually out till morning.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

It's Official . . .

I can climb out of my crib all by myself.

I snuck out of my crib FIVE times last night after Mommy put me to bed. The 1st time, Mommy spotted me in the doorway to my room. The 2nd time, I found her in the office. The 3rd time, I found Daddy watching TV in the livingroom. The 4th time, I hung out in the kitchen for a little bit before weaving my way through the diningroom to the livingroom. The 5th time, Daddy was waiting for me in the hallway. I was too tuckered out to try again, so I just wailed out my displeasure from my crib. After I had quieted down, Mommy came in and rocked me for a little bit. This time when she lay me in the crib, I crashed out till morning.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!!

We started Easter off with breakfast at Hobee's. I got a plastic Easter egg that I tried balancing on a spoon and eating whole. This one had a coupon for a free kid's meal. So, I got to enjoy my funny face fruit platter of kiwi & grape eyes, strawberry nose, whipped cream cheeks, and cantaloupe mouth, 2 sausage links, 2 scrambled eggs, and a huge slice of blueberry coffeecake on the house. It was starting off to be an excellent Easter Sunday.



After breakfast, we stopped by Washington Park on the way home. I enjoyed climbing on the different structures, sliding down the slides, riding the bronco dolphin (which mommy mistook for a fish), and swinging on the swing.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

More Egg Hunting

My mommy's company had their Spring Carnival today. There were all sorts of inflatable attractions - obstacle course, bungie tug-o-war, velcro wall, and bounce house. Daddy really wanted to try out the velcro wall, but there didn't appear to being any adults doing it. The 'rents tried to get me to go in the bounce house, but I wasn't interested. But I did enjoy being bounced on the wall of the obstacle course. When it was time for the 2 year old or younger Egg Hunt, all of us toddlers lined up around the egg hunt field. Once I spotted all the colorful eggs in the grass, I was biting at the bit to load my bunny basket full of them, but Mommy kept holding me back cuz they weren't quite ready to start the hunt. After taking forever to setup, they started having technical difficulties with their microphone. They went through two cordless mics before hooking up a wired one. By then, the excitement had passed. The hunt was old news. The mic & speaker were actually quite loud & annoying. I only put a few eggs in my basket before I was ready to move on. At which point, I discovered POPCORN - yummy wondrous popcorn. I probably ate two conefuls all by myself under the watchful eyes of my parents. I also ate half an ice cream sandwich. Mmmmm

Friday, March 21, 2008

Backyard Bumper Cars

After an afternoon of Easter egg hunting, cupcakes, and egg dying, we got to burn off some energy outdoors at daycare. The gang and I love driving around the patio. Today, I got to drive the convertible.





The Daycare Gang
1st Row: Yaniv, Ava, Kyle, Liam, ??? w/Leron, Ryan
2nd Row: Ori, Aiden, ???, Me, ???
3rd Row: Arlene, ??? w/Anastasia, Maytal, Darlene, Sonya, Ryland, Karla w/ Brianna