Adventure

Every morning, it is a fight to get Teigue dressed. I feel like I say "Put on your xxxx." at least 300x a morning. I decided that the other day (after I told Teigue to put on his pants (again) before heading down to put clothes in the washer, and watched him begin to put on those pants while laying on the ground, only to come up 5 or so minutes later to find him in the exact same position) that I had had enough. I told him (I don't think I was very nice about it either) that if I had to tell him more than once to get dressed, and if it took more than 5 minutes for him to actually get the clothes on, that he would not be able to see his beloved caterpillars. I am happy to report that after one day of not seeing his buddies today he was dressed in record time and ran out to find that we have loads and loads of babies. We counted 9 large ones and 3 teeny tiny ones.

Our adventure today was heading on down to Chula Vista Nature Center. Although I found it to be quite disorganized (what sort of nature center has garbage in the surrounding water that is on their land?), the kids and I had a blast.

We chatted with some sea turtles.Got really really dirty. (I wonder if my kids will ever end a day clean.)
Pretended to bowl with some berries we found on a tree.

Went fishing for some tadpoles.

And just played in the water and acted like best buds.

Every night we read books before bed and Teigue likes us to tell him stories afterwards. Normally the stories involve him and Gongol, but in the last week or so, he just wants stories of him and Jayno. When we ask him who his best bud is, when before it was Gongol or another friend from school, he nows says Jayno.

Teigue Has Moved On

He is over his Mango. He has moved on to the fruit of the season, Pomegranate.

Swim Lesson

Today we finally started swim lessons. This has been something that we have been wanting to do with the kids forever, but for one reason or another, we (um..me... I if using correct grammar...) haven't gotten our butts in order to actually get the kids to a place. Thankfully, I finally got around to researching and finding the best place (thank you Yelp). Today was the day and we headed on down to Murray Callan Swim School in PB for some swim lessons.

The kids both really enjoyed themselves and both of their teachers said that they were really relaxed in the water. I think that Jayno is a bit too relaxed around water, hence the reason for the lessons. Even today while we were waiting for our turn (each teacher had 2 other kids) Jayno felt the need to go under the water and attempt to pull up the Mickey Mouse tile that was (obviously) stuck on the ground. She thought she was hilarious. Hilarious.

Since Jayno is teeney, I had to be in the pool with her. This is when she decided that she must have the Mickey Mouse tile.

My little munchkins also helped me make pizza for dinner tonight. Even though it is Teigue's job to put the cheese on (since, as he told me, he does it best) the pizza, he allowed Jayno up on the stool to help him.

She decided that the cheese and mango was just too tasty to not try...

She then let Teigue know the secret of the tasty cheese...

We also discovered that...

even if the cheese falls on the floor,

it is still quite tasty.

The Return of the Teentz

We love our friends Max and Jill. They are pretty much the closest thing to family that we have out here. We hang out with them quite often and our kids talk about them non stop. We usually hang with them at least once a week but they sometimes feel the need to be out of town for super duper long periods of time visiting their real families up in Portland. Thankfully they have returned and we were able to play with them once more. Jayno was quite excited because their little lady, Iris, aka the Teentz, is back as well. Jayno and Teentz are almost 10 weeks apart in age and they are quite smitten with each other (Teigue and Iris are also quite in love). When the Teentz arrived at our house today she was greeted by loads and loads of kisses and hugs. The Fox Family is very happy that Iris and her mom and dad are back with us.

To celebrate the homecoming, Jill and Iris as well as the kids and I headed down to Coronado to hang out on the beach. Although Jill and I didn't really have time to chat (we will later this week for Brady's 34th!), the kids had a blast.

We introduced Teentz to the joy of Bah de dah.

Woof

Jayno has a slight obsession with dogs. Okay, maybe not slight. I would say full on obsession. Bordering on stalking. Any time there is a dog around she needs to love it and kiss it. Dog toys need to be held and squeezed. Dogs are her life. If she could be a dog I think she would be the happiest little lady in the whole wide world. Lucky for her, Halloween is coming and costumes are out. Her wish was granted yesterday.

Needless to say, she was very very excited and thought that she was the most hilarious thing in the whole wide world. At one point she fell over she was laughing so hard. Woof.

Beach Day

It has been pretty stinking hot here in San Diego. Yesterday the thermometer in the car said 104 degrees. Yuck. Today we decided to beat the heat by going up to one of our favorite places, Torrey Pines. Or, as Teigue likes to call it, Corey Pines.

Corey Pines is one of the most beautiful places in San Diego. The water is warm and clear and along the coast are large cliffs of exposed sandstone. It is beautiful. Plus, there is a little channel that leads into a salt water marsh where the water is usually low enough where the kids can play and not get knocked down by huge waves. We haven't been in forever...I realized today we need to go more.

I have introduced the kids to one of my favorite things to do at the beach- build a drip castle. One of the greatest things about having kids is that you get to do things that you love to do...but others would look at you like you are a freak because the activity is usually only for kids. Like building a drip castle. It's not every day that you see a grown woman parked on the beach building a castle, unless that woman is with 2 small children. Luckily I have shown my kids the fun that is castle building...

Unfortunately for my castles, the kids have found that destruction is always more fun than construction.

The cue to leave? When Jayno says "Bah de dah." aka "Wrap me up because I'm cold (even though it is 85 degrees and I was having fun a second ago) and want to go home.".

Jayno Day

She just woke up so stinking cute yesterday.

When I had Stella, I was worried that she and I would not have time to hang out, just he two of us, like Teigue and I did. Thankfully, we have three mornings a week when Teigue heads to preschool to enjoy some much needed Jayno and Mommy time. This is when we do things that are just for the two of us- we go for walks, read books, color...yesterday we decided that the zoo would be a good day trip for us.

I decided that walking the 2 or so miles to the zoo would be a wonderful idea, and Stella agreed (and loudly disagreed about halfway there).

We had such a lovely time at the zoo. We searched for gorillas on the Skyfari (known in our house as Up Up Up), ran to see the elephants, and played on the super fun play structure. Then we had to head back and pick up Mr. Teigue and our time alone was over, until Monday.

I so enjoy the time that I have alone with my little lady, even if it is just a couple hours. She gets one on one attention from me (and I from her). We get to go do things that Jayno wants to do...without any input from her big brother. When it is the 3 of us, it is usually me being a visitor to the Teigue and Stella world (which I love). Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings is just Mommy Jayno World.

Exciting News!

The butterfly eggs have hatched! This is a very exciting time in our household. Teigue has declared them his pets and has already asked if they can sleep with him.

See the teeny one on the inside leaves? This is the smallest one we have ever found. There are also some more eggs on those leaves waiting to hatch.

Gongol's Visit

Since both kids woke up feeling yucky yesterday and therefore were stuck inside the house all day, today we needed to go and burn loads and loads of energy off. Our favorite place to do that is Trolley Barn Park- a short ride away from our hood. We love Trolley Park- fun slides, sand and swings for Jayno. Today, my big boy Teigue went on the swing and actually pumped. I was quite proud.

They are pretending that they are watching a movie

After getting all of the energy out (and insuring that Teigue would sit in a chair for at least 5 minutes) we headed over to Anja's for a much needed haircut.

The most exciting part of the day happened almost at the end, but we were very excited about it all day. Like talking about it every 2 minutes excited. I don't even think we talked about King King today (well maybe just once). We only talked about...a play date with Gongol. To celebrate this monumental event (and well, just because I wanted to) we made some raspberry brownies for Tyler. Now instead of talking about the upcoming visit from Tyler, we switched our conversation to eating brownies when Tyler came. Needless to say Teigue was the most excited ever.