Homecoming

After landing in Albuquerque because he couldn't land in Phoenix for his connection on account of weather, being stranded on the runway for 4 hours, then having to wait for his luggage for 1 1/2 hours, finally getting to the hotel to order food only to have the bartender give it away and then close the kitchen and wake up to find no running water in his room...Brady came home to us yesterday. 

It Never Rains in Southern California?

Today is Day 3 of a series of storms that have hit Southern California. Luckily for us, we have been spared the flooding, mudslides, power outages and fallen trees that have hit other parts of the city. But also, lucky for us, we have gotten lots and lots of rain. Perfect for little monkeys to build dams in streets and get really really muddy.

Sure it's Southern California and it's not supposed to rain, but obviously it does. The good thing about the weather here is that when the rain leaves, the clouds also go and the beautiful sunshine comes pouring out. Perfect for playing in the canyon, getting muddy and releasing loads of trapped in the house for 3 days worth of energy.

 

You know what also happened today? It hailed. As it was coming down Mr. Fox proclaimed, "See, it does snow in San Diego!". He was very excited and thought that maybe Santa would make a return trip sooner than December since there was snow on the ground for him to land his sleigh.

Scissors

To say my kids have an obsession with cutting things would be an understatement. It actually seems like a primal need. They take their scissors outside and go to town. They have been instructed that they are only allowed to cut the grass and the weeds...but we have discovered that, to them, everything is a weed or considered grass. The brugmansia? Hacked. Papyrus? Stalks have been cut down in order to be able to fly like Flick in "A Bug's Life". Ornamental grasses? Why, they fall under the heading of grass of course so they must me mowed to the ground! Flowers? Must be picked for Mommy. 

Recently our little landscapers have discovered that the jade plants that we have growing all over the canyon are perfect for cutting. I know I should find this annoying, but I feel that the yard is meant to be explored and investigated- them cutting back some of the plants is just a sacrifice that we have to make in order for them to discover things. They have also learned that each time they cut down some jade, you can just stick it n the ground and it will grow. We now have about 100 plants growing throughout the yard. Now, if they would only get to cutting back some of those weeds that grow next to the jade, we'd be all set.

Rain

For the past couple days San Diego has been hit with something the local weather forecasters have been calling "The Storm of the Century!". Basically it has been raining for 2 days and should continue until Friday with the worst of it coming tomorrow afternoon. It's actually quite funny for someone that grew up in a cold weather state to see how everyone freaks out here over rain. Firefighters hand out sand bags, the stores are packed beforehand with people loading up on supplies...because you can't go out in the rain to buy anything...and people drive as though there is 4 inches of snow on the ground. Well, actually that last part is sort of valid because as it never rains here the oil just remains in the road. As soon as the rains come, the oil escapes making the roads pretty slick. But anyway, it's still crazy to see people here driving slower than people facing a blizzard. Anyway...

The first thing that Teigue said when he found it was raining? 

"Where are my rain boots?" 

Awesome. I am one of those moms that loves almost everything that her kids do, and I think that my kids are the greatest, smartest, cutest...basically I am a normal mom. One of the things that I love most about my kids is their total lack of caring that they are dirty, wet, muddy. They just like going outside and having fun. Today was no exception. We headed out and jumped in some puddles, played in the river flowing down our street, and got really really wet and had a really really good time. Looking forward to tomorrow.

The Party

What a great weekend we had. These last 2 days were exactly how a little monkey should celebrate his 4th birthday. If I wasn't as exhausted as I am, I would write something witty and touching. I think the pictures should just show how much complete and total fun we had these past days. Such a great birthday weekend.

First up was Legoland where we drove a car...and a plane...

and almost got eaten by a shark.

Oh look!  We found some water...guess who had to throw some leaves and treasures in to it?

We found the most fun play area ever. Ever.

We found our favorite city made entirely out of Legos...sea lions included.

Then today...the party. Fun. Giggles. Dancing. Messy faces. Perfect day.

Birthday

Four years ago today, at exactly 12:47 pm, after almost 14 hours of labor, the best little boy entered this world and changed our lives forever. When we left the hospital with our newborn safely in his car seat, the nurse that escorted us out told us that he was one of the calmest babies she had ever seen. In the past 4 years, our little Teiguee has grown into the sweetest boy that we have ever met- a boy that cares about the feelings of his friends, loves his sister to pieces and brings more joy and more love than two parents could ever ask for. We love you will all of our hearts, Teiguee Monster. May you have the time of your little 4 year old life today at Legoland my little love.

Cake...

One day a couple weeks ago, Teigue and I were talking about his upcoming birthday and what he wanted. His answer? Cake. He only wanted cake. What kind of cake I asked? One with all the colors in it. OK...

Luckily for me, I had read a post on one of my favorite blogs about a rainbow cake almost a year ago. The cake looked like it would be so much fun to have as a birthday cake, but as Teigue just had his birthday, the cake would have to wait for another time. Like for a certain someone's 4th birthday party. So we got to work making our favorite, just as good as Duncan Hines, birthday cake recipe.

Once again my little man was a champ in the baking department. No shells, almost perfect aim with getting the sugar and flour in the mixing bowl, and he looks really cute in his little apron. He has done this enough times now that he even knows that the butter and sugar have to go in the bowl first and get mixed. So proud of him.

After the cake batter was finished it was time to add the colors. I wanted to get powder coloring because I knew it would take a lot of liquid food coloring to make bold enough colors. I couldn't find them locally and didn't really care enough to order them online, so the liquid would have to do. We added about 20 or so drops per bowl...maybe more since Mr. Fox was in charge of the colors and counted 3 drops as 1...

We mixed each color in its own little bowl and then dropped them into our waiting, butter and floured, brand new baking pan. We put our lovingly prepared rainbow cake into the oven and waited....

Now this is not the first time that we have made this particular recipe, we used the same cake for Brady's birthday cake with fantastic results. The cake was moist and delicious and came from our baking pans with no trouble at all. Today we did not have the same luck. As I opened the oven door, I found a cake that was puffed up in the center...OK, I thought, no big deal. I can just trim it down. I let it cool in the pan for the necessary 10 minutes and then tried to flip the cake over and get it out of the pan. That is when Part 1 of the disaster struck.
The cake would not come out of the pan. I cut along the edges, pressed on the pan...nothing. Finally after about 5 minutes of me trying, the cake finally relented. That is when Part 2 happened... part of the bottom of the cake was stuck to my new pan. To top that off, as I was getting it onto the cooling rack, the cake began to split and crack. Nooooo!!!!! Thankfully only a bit of the cake cracked, so I figured I could repair it somehow. That is when the final and most painful blow to our little cake occurred, Jayno.

My little lady decided to take the time that I was away from the cake looking up how to repair it as an opening to get a taste of our work..and took a huge rainbow chunk out of the side. We are now having the cake tomorrow, and the ones that just came out of the oven will be served Sunday.

You may wonder: Why did this one fail while the other was so successful? Why, my new pan, of course. While the tag said that this non stick beauty was a 9x13, it was in fact actually a 8x12 and was too small. That will teach me to never again buy a pan at a discount store. Oh well, there's nothing wrong with having too much cake I guess!

Big Girl Bed

For a few weeks now, Stella has been telling us that she would like a big girl bed. She wants a bed like Teigue's where we can read her books in bed and snuggle with her. Well today our little got her wish. After she brought me the sheets we bought for her big girl bed and told me, yet again, that she wanted out of the crib, the old toddler bed was pulled out of storage and set up in the lady's room. Teigue declared that he and Jayno could now sleep together and snuggle, but after laying in the tiniest bed in the world, he decided he liked his better. Jayno did not care, she was so excited about her bed that she made me put her PJs on at 5pm so she could get cozy under the covers. When it was time for her actual bed time she proved what a big girl she really is by staying in her bed and falling asleep alone...but only after snuggling a bit following her bed time stories.

Goody Bags

This coming Saturday is going to be a pretty big deal for this family of Foxes. You see, a little member of our family turns the big number 4. We have been counting down the days for a few weeks now- each day the excitement just grows and grows. We are all very excited about this and have been planning for quite some time for the celebration that is going to occur on Sunday to commemorate this monumental event.

We have discussed the cake and decorations. We have songs that we are going to sing and dance to as well as games that we are going to play. The only thing that I didn't have down was the crafts  that we were going to do- would they be fun? We discovered today that thankfully yes, the play dough and slime that we are going to make and give out as favors would be very very very fun...and a little messy.

I love the idea of giving kids party favors for coming to a birthday party. What I do not like the idea of is a bag of plastic do dads that are going to break in a week or get thrown in a drawer and forgotten about. I am more a fan of the homemade crafts that are fun for kids, last a while and, if they don't last, will not wreck havoc on our environment when they are discarded. Thankfully I found two super fun things to make- and better yet- I had most of the ingredients in my cupboard. 

First up was play dough. Turns out that our favorite molding squishy substance that gets into everything is nothing more than salt, flour, water, and oil. You just toss everything together and cook it. Took about 10 or so minutes to make a large vat of fun. We tossed it out on the table, kneaded it a little, added some color and done. 

We played with it for a bit, but then moved on to some other activity. Sure the dough was fun, but the real star of the day, the thing that we returned to time and time again was the slime. The farty, creepy, oozing, so silly, and so easy to make slime. How easy? Mix 2 parts school glue with 1 part liquid starch, add some food coloring and you have the most fun thing ever.

It oozes across tables, farts, is so stretchable it spans from one end of the living room to other. Plus, when it oozes off the table, you just peel it up and toss it back in its container. It like one big massive booger- a perfect craft for 8 kids under the age of 4. Did I mention that it farts? 

Love

Teigue has a Marvel Super Hero Look and Find book that he just adores. It's sort of like I Spy but instead it has all the Marvel Super Heros. It's our go to night time, day time, anytime really reading book. He loves it and it brings up great discussions about the heroes..which many times I have no idea of the answer because I was never interested in them as a kid...must Google information about heroes...stat... 

Anyway. Usually it's just Brady or I doing the book with him and asking him questions about what he sees on the page. Today while I was in the kitchen I hear Teigue talking with Jayno about the book and all the characters. "Jayno, do you know who that guy is? Thor." "Jayno, do you know where the Watcher is? There." On and on it went. I hear Teigue asking her where a certain item was and she of course had no idea what he was talking about. So he very tenderly took her hand and guided her to where the Nullifier piece was. It was just a sweet moment between the two of them that I was lucky enough to witness. 

I just love how they interact with each other. Sure, they have their moments where he is bothering her too much or she is all in his face about something. But I can honestly say that 90% of the time their day is contained with moments like these. Teigue covering Jayno up so she can be cozy. Jayno making sure that Teigue has his water at night. It's nice to see that Brady and I have two kids that adore each other and the love isn't forced between them. It's just there. Now, if they can just be like this when they are 13 and 14.

Can you figure out this word?

Tonight while in the bath Teigue decided that he was going to sound out and spell...all by himself...SeaWorld. Can you see it now? SeAwRLD. 

Harvard here we come! 

Zoo....Again..

I think about a month ago on a trip to the zoo the kids and I stumbled across the Sea Lion Show- which is really only a tiny bit sea lion, so I don't know why it is only called the Sea Lion Show, but the kids really enjoyed it. Teigue discovered that they pick someone from the audience to go up on stage and hang out with the sea lions. Since we were wayyyy up at the tip top of the stadium, he was not chosen on that day. I had mentioned to him that the next time we watched the show we should sit down in front so that he might possibly get picked. Well today Mr. Fox marched his little almost 4 year old butt to the very front row, sat very tall and raised his hand as high as his little arm could reach when the trainer asked for someone to come up and hang out...and was completely and utterly devastated when another, and much older, boy was picked. We decided, after many tears, that staying in our seats was probably better, as the sea lion was probably very stinky and most likely gave wetter kisses that even Jayno does...and that is really wet.

All was not lost, however, as we did get to see a wolf up close and personal. I do not have a picture of this as little Miss Addicted to All Things Canine almost jumped over the barrier to give the wolf some love. We need to get her a dog. Today.

(Notice the sweet hair that our little lady is sporting lately.)

OK- so this next picture was not taken today, but notice the bird in the background? It's a Western Crowned Pigeon and we see them all the time when we walked through the aviaries. It's a really pretty bird, and seems to be quite social. Today this little pigeon was just a tad bit more social than the kids wanted.

They were doing their standard throwing leaves in the waterfall when I noticed the bird heading our way. I pointed this out to the kids..but then the bird kept on coming...and coming...and coming. Next thing I know, Stella is scooting on her butt backwards, almost falling over terrified, screaming. I grab her only to see Teigue bolt off as fast as possible, arms waving above his head, and also screaming as loud as he can. By the time I get Stella in my arms, Teigue is almost at the other end of the aviary. I have him come back, only to have him run off again because the bird has decided to stay and get closer to him. I go and put Stella on a bench, run and grab Teigue, come back to find Stella once again screaming because the bird now wants to be her friend. This whole episode lasted maybe a minute, but there was not one moment in that minute that either child, especially Teigue, was anything but terrified. We quickly grab our things and run out the double doors, panting and red faced- the kids, not me. The first thing that Teigue says when we get out? "Did you see how brave I was Mommy and how I protected Jayno from dat bird? I was brave, wasn't I Mommy?". Yes, my love, so very very brave.
The kids were never in any danger from this bird at all, and the whole situation was really quite humorous. I say this because the 5 or so people watching...me included...found it difficult to suppress the giggles that were trying so very hard to come out.

We were at the zoo today for close to 5 hours, so we had two separate groups of treasures. The first is before lunch (when I only had my hands to hold treasures with), the next is after (when we had the help of the bucket our lunch came in).

Pincocchios

Growing up, My Aunt Jean was the go to person for anything cooking related. She taught all of us how to cook, was the inspiration for us wanting to learn how to cook (since she was such an amazing cook and we wanted to eat like her), and any recipe we had a question about, Aunt Jean had the answer. One of my favorite dishes that she and I would make together was spinach gnocchi- little tender pillows of deliciousness. With Aunt Jean over my shoulder I always made them perfectly- just enough flour so the dumplings melted in your mouth, the flavor, amazing. Unfortunately for me (in more ways than one) my Aunt Jean does not live in California, so I have not had such success without her (in any gnocchi recipe I have tried). Until tonight. Apparantly the secret to the success of these delicious creations is not being super careful in the amount of flour or watching that you do not over mix or over roll, no, the secret is just the opposite. Make sure that the mixer is pulsed more often than needed, the more flour you have the better, and roll, roll and roll the dough some more. That is the secret of success. Thankfully I have my kids to show me the way. Plus you get really cute interpretations of the name.

At Least He Is Dressing Himself

"Mommy, I knowed my underwear are on backwards, but I like them that way." Gotcha.

Finally Clyde

Every time we head to the zoo, the kids have a routine that they like to follow. I have finally learned to let them follow this routine, even if I do not want to see the orangutans for the 100th time. We head in straight to the Francois Langur monkey exhibit (holding hands, of course). We run as fast as we can to the glass and stare straight up to the tip top of the trees and exclaim- "Two Free!" (Jayno) "I think they're sleeping." (Teigue). Always.

We then run to the little stream next to the monkeys and do the standard tossing of some leaves in the water and see them fly down the waterfall. Then the conversation always turns to our beloved Clyde. Will he be there? Will he be sleeping? Our Clyde has been somewhat of a recluse lately and not showing his um, pretty, little head. We have learned that Clyde comes out every other day...so we come every other day and he is not out. Or he comes out in the afternoon so his son Satu (who is trying to be the head of the clan) can come out in the morning. Nope. Trying to get a hold of Clyde can be quite tricky, and a certain mom has learned more about the orangutans than she ever thought possible. Well thankfully, we were able to finally! see Clyde and chit chat with him...although he was being very antisocial with that bag over his head. We didn't care. We love our Clyde and all is 350 lbs of dread locked loveliness.

Clyde has a very special place in our hearts, especially the heart of one Mr. Fox. When he was little, he would come and chat with Clyde (since Clyde was out every day at that point) and tell him things that were happening in his life. After he went poop on the potty, on our next trip to the zoo, Brady told Teigue that he should tell Clyde the news, as loud as he could. Thankfully for me, that was the beginning of the Satu vs Clyde era, and we could just not get the timing down. When we finally did, enough time had passed that Teigue had forgotten he was supposed to yell, and quietly mentioned it to him. Phew.

We were so excited about seeing our Clyde, even going as far as to attempt to kiss him through the glass, that we pretended that we were Clyde. Oh, my little lady.

Thank you Clyde for being out and chatting with us today. We will come and see you again soon.