Raised Beds

We have done 5 years of landscaping in the last 3 months. First the fruit trees and now my baby- the raised beds. I have been wanting raised beds in the back for a few years but other things always seem to get in the way and then the season had passed. Well finally two weeks ago we installed our raised beds. Today, Teigue and I went to the nursery to get a truck full of compost to fill the beds. It's pretty cool watching a back loader dump dirt into your truck. Even for someone that isn't 4.

Since I am planning on doing square foot gardening, we decided to go with the recommended mix of peat moss, compost and vermiculite. Thankfully I have two very nice little helpers that couldn't wait to get into the dirt and help me mix it around.

And plant the first plants. 

I am so excited about this new project. If the method works, we could essentially have 85 different kinds of plants in our garden. Which is good since Teigue and Stella picked out 4 different kinds of beans, 3 melons, 5 squash, corn and 3 different carrots (besides the nasturtium that they have already planted). That will mean that there will  be  room for things that Brady and I want as well. Tomorrow we plant the seeds!

Oliver

Happy birth day to the newest member of our family- Oliver Luke Skywalker joined big brother Finn on Wednesday. We can not wait to meet you and cover your sweet littleness with kisses. We love you already so much.

Adventure Tuesday

Lookout! There's a little boy coming at you that had his 4 year appointment today. A little boy that passed his eye (thankfully he takes after me and not Brady in that area) and hearing tests with flying colors, gained almost 6 pounds in a year to bring him up to a whopping 37 pounds, and got two shots without even flinching...and was completely fine until he saw the little drops of blood and then needed a band aid and held his arm as if it was broken. And then in the bath he remembered it was there , and even though he was fine allll day long, suddenly remembered how painful it was and again treated it as if it was broken. He  takes after Brady in this area. 

To celebrate him being so good, we headed on up to the Wild Animal Park. Today I saw a difference in my little monkey. Not once did he complain that he was tired even though he walked and walked and walked, never once asked to be carried and wanted to stay all day. And stay all day we did. I think we were the last car in the lot when we left. We fed some deer because I finally remembered quarters so we didn't have to give sad puppy dog eyes to Mommies and Daddies that are much better prepared than this one. I think they would have stayed in the paddock all day if I didn't lure them out with the promise of ice cream. 

It's such a shame that they have no fun when water is involved.

And we saw the teeniest smallest cutest little baby elephant we have ever seen. A little two week old so sleepy zonked out in the barn tiny elephant. 

Mt. Laguna Part 2

Since we didn't really enjoy the snow as much as I would have liked on Thursday, we decided to head on out to Mt. Laguna and try it again. We bundled up, invited the Teentz's to come out with us, packed up the car with loads of hot cocoa and headed on our way. We drove on up the mountain, found our snow filled spot from Thursday, got out of the car with our long johns, snow pants, snow boots and warm mittens on...and discovered it was 70º. 

Ah...San Diego.

It's True...

Teigue is, in fact, tougher than Brady. 

Mt. Laguna

Ahhh...storms in San Diego. I have learned that the forecasters kind of freak out when it comes to the weather. If there is a trickle it is the "Storm of the Century!". A full on rainstorm, "Storm of the Century!". So basically, you can't trust them. Every storm is the Storm To End All Storms.

We had one of those this week. For the last 3 days we have had nothing but rain and cold- apparently this storm came from Alaska, hence the cold. I figured that since it was so chilly, the mountains just east of here would get some snow, and we needed to go and check it out today. Before it melts. Since it is San Diego and it's the end of April. The TV forecasters announced that the mountains would be hit with a major winter storm. Sure.

I looked online and discovered that it did snow out east and the temperature was around 41º. Perfect. A little snow, warmer temperatures. Should be fun. No need to dress the kids in their full on snow suits, no no.

Umm....yes yes. 

It was 34º and there was a foot of snow. Oops. 

We still had fun and will be returning tomorrow. With snow suits on this time.

I'm still not going to trust the forecasters though.

Rainy Zoo

Here in the Fox household we are going through the awful, no fun, makes me want to scream Terrible Twos. Ugh. It also doesn't help that the little terror lady and I are so similar in personalities that this stage is much more difficult than it was with Teiguee. It may have also helped that Teigue was solo so he didn't have the joy of an older brother pushing his buttons like Jayno is lucky enough to have. 

I have discovered that if we stay inside during the day the terribles are much more terrible than if we are able to run around and play outdoors. Well, today it rained. Not so good. I decided that instead of staying home and being miserable, we should head on out to the zoo to find some puddles to jump in. 

We didn't find many puddles perfect for jumping but we did find a real helicopter to practice our flying skills at the new Polar Bear Plunge.

We pretended that we were seals breaking through the ice.

Then, on the way out, after getting properly soaked in the rain, we discovered a full on waterfall falling off of one of the buildings. Teigue was very excited about this and needed to investigate.

But there was no way my little boy would go into the water.

OK, maybe just a small dip.

Or, maybe just discover what fun a waterfall falling off a building is and have to stand under it for a good 5 minutes and getting truly properly soaked. So soaked that this little 4 year old's rain boots had a good 3 inches of water in them.

A Moment of Quiet

Twinkle Lady

To say that Jayno likes to sing would be an understatment. She sings all the time. To her dolls, us, Teigue, herself, Whiskey...she will just bust out a song and start singing. She makes up her own words and tunes usually but is also known to sing a classic children's song. Finally, for you all to enjoy, little Miss Jayno with her rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Enjoy.

Oh, does she look any different to you? Like more of a big girl? You want to know why? We are currently on Day 4 of no diaper! well, except for overnight but that really doesn't count. Day 4! We have even gone out two days in a row and she has used the public restrooms with no accidents! She was not very happy wearing the diaper to sleep tonight, so we talked about how she needs to wake up dry 5 mornings in a row before she goes without. She seemed very serious about the challenge so we'll see. We are so happy to be finally free!

Tide Pools in OB

Our lovely Jill had the wonderful idea, it was even more wonderful when we discovered it was National Park week and the entrance fee was waived!, to head on down to the tide pools at Cabrillo to search out the creatures we can only see during low tide. We were all so excited about what we would see. Stella was sure she would see a whale. Teigue let her know that, um, probably not- were more likely to see some sea urchins or sea anemones. He was giddy with excitement thinking that we would actually see his beloved sea cucumber. What did we see? 

We got our fingers stuck in loads and loads of sea anemones.

Tried to catch a crazy crab that was burrowed in the channel. We discovered that he was very feisty and wasn't all that interested in getting picked up.

After Cabrillo closed, we headed on down to OB and walked the pier. On our way to the pier we had our first introduction with an OB local...and a certain mommy remembered why we moved out of OB  in the first place...Don't do drugs Teigue and Stella. Please don't do drugs...

We raced and ran soooo fast down the pier. I think we have some future Olympians in our family. Look at Stella's form! Look at the speed at which Teigue is running! Lightening fast!

And finally, while Teigue was enthralled with a fisherman baiting his hook with some fresh squid, little lady chatted it up with another, and much more friendly, local.

Awesome idea Jill! Next time, can we bypass the pier and steps? I am still having nightmares...

Friday Helpers

I have the best little helpers in the whole wide world. Today, like most days lately, we worked out in the yard. We are making a yard full of water wise plants...well minus the fruit trees, that is. In order to do so, we need to ready the area for the new succulents and native grasses. Our job today was to pul out all the weeds from the canyon side of the yard. Thankfully for the weeds, my little gardeners quickly replanted them on the side of the house. 

Our favorite labby lab...sniff...that is leaving us tomorrow...sniff...was an unwilling accomplice in Jayno's quest to tie Teigue up ( I don't think Teigue was too upset at this). 

And finally, even though a little boy says that he won't miss him, well except for the throwing the ball in the canyon part or the hiking in the canyon part or the snuggling at night part or the just hanging out with him part, we took our very much loved Whiskey on one last walk in the canyon.

We all hope that Burt and Jack go on a long vacation again soon. Or else clone Whiskey.

Picnic

Today was a great day to have a picnic in the backyard. Unfortunately for our house guest, not a crumb fell on to the ground.

Pizza Chef

A Boy Some Bread and Jam

This is what happens when you leave a little boy alone for a few minutes while you put his little sister to sleep. I case you wanted to know, yes, a quarter of a jar of jam does fit on a single slice of wheat bread.

Camping

The last time we went camping, the kids started screaming at 6pm, fell asleep by the fire at 10, woke up at 6am and we left the site at 8. Basically it was a disaster. To say that Brady and I were a tad nervous on how our two nights of camping were going to turn out would be an understatement. Especially since Teigue let us know every single time we brought the subject of our trip up that he did not want to go. At all. Ugh.

How did this trip go? Just like last time, the kids fell asleep by the fire on Friday night...but woke up Saturday morning with the most excited look in their eyes...their eyes practically sparkled. Teigue immediately set out to see his surroundings. In his PJs. 

We found loads of streams and discovered that our little outdoors boy no longer needs any help getting across them. He only intentionally fell in three times! 

Stella found a tree trunk that worked perfectly as a megaphone. Well, I guess Stella doesn't really need the help of a megaphone...

We rode bikes, met new friends, out of the 11 other kids that were with us, Teigue and Stella won the prize for the messiest kids at the camp, and stated that they never wanted to go home. They didn't even mind that it was 32 degrees at night. They both have already asked when we are going camping again. Phew.

Scooter

My little lady. Oh, my little lady. You are going to be the death of your father and I. You and your adventurous little don't care about getting hurt attitude. I see loads and loads of medical bills in our future with you.

You may remember a while back I posted about how little Stella is a tad bit like me. Well this weekend she showed us once again how history is repeating itself. When I was 5 or so- I'm not really sure on the exact age, I just know that I was in kindergarten- I decided to borrow my brother Kevin's scooter and walk my friend Stacy home. My friend Stacy that lived at the very top of the hill in our apartment complex. A very steep hill. I knew enough in my little 5 year old brain that I wasn't allowed to walk Stacy all the way home, but halfway up the hill was OK. I then decided that it was a brilliant idea to ride the scooter down the hill back home. Well, instead of riding it home, I rode it to the bottom of the hill, hit a patch of sand, skidded to a halt and crashed my head on the curb. My mom then drove me the 30 minutes to the hospital (why no ambulance mom?) where I stayed in intensive care for 3 days. I thought the whole hospital experience was great- people sent me loads of presents so it was like Christmas. I didn't see the whole experience as a scary adventure, the way I'm sure my mom and dad saw it. I was just a silly little kid.

Where am I going with this story? Well this weekend, my little lady fell in love with a scooter while camping with friends and I got a glimpse of my parent's side of the adventure. She then decided that going down a really steep hill was a wonderful idea because a certain daddy rode a certain scooter down a certain hill more that a few times. Thankfully she fell at the very tip top of the hill (as I was chasing her down) and her adventure was not going to happen. Did she try again? Of course. Will she ever be getting a scooter of her own? No way. 

Big kid?

So, he may be beginning to read, count to over 100, shoot baskets like LeBron, run faster than Spiderman, be a great little gardener and is a (to him anyway) big kid, but to Teigue this forklift that is putting wood in the truck that will be our soon to be raised garden bed, 

is still a tow wuft. Ahhh....he's still our little boy.

An Original Story By Teigue

Jayno, you want me to tell you a story about puppies? 

"Once upon a time there was a little boy named Teigue and a little girl named Jayno. They went on an adventure to the jungle. They were walking and a bad guy fell out of the trees so Teigue and Stella knocked down the trees, but not any trees with fruit or flowers on them, and bonked the bad guy. He fell down to the ground and had some blood on him, but he was OK. Then a triceratops came out and climbed on the house then fell down and climbed up again. Then some puppies came out and licked Jayno all over her face. And that's the end, I guess."

As you can tell, this picture has nothing to do with the story, but it's a sweet moment of them sharing some ice cream that happened a few weeks ago. Telling stories to each other, sharing ice cream...kind of the same thing, right?