Being a Tourist

During the summer months here in San Diego, there are loads of fun things to do with kids that are not open during the winter. Balboa Park Railroad, the Carousel, Airplane Ride. During summers of the past we have spent many many days at these places but for some reason we didn't go once. We made up for it today. We hit all the fun places, rode a doggy on the carousel!, had ice cream at the zoo, sushi for dinner. The best part was since kids are back in school- no crowds! Wonderful wonderful day today.

First Day of School

Well, it's official. My baby is officially a Big Girl. A Big Girl that goes to school. Happily. She was so excited to carry her brand new pink princess lunch box into the school. She then headed on out to the play area to take over Teigue's school. Unfortunately she was removed from the safety of Teigue and was told to head on into her classroom by herself. I was so proud of my little lady as she sat on her little mat, crisscross applesauced, smiled her little shy smile and promptly looked at me as if to say, "What is this?! I was promised a day with Teigue! Not by myself! Arghhhh!!!!". I was so nervous to leave her. Any time that I have left her before she freaks out after a few hours away from me. I thought for sure I was going to get a phone call from the school telling to come pick up my hysterical uncontrollable little lady.

It turns out that I need not have worried. When I arrived to pick the kids up my little lady greeted me with the most amazing smile and was so happy to tell me about her day. She painted, played, and met some new kids that she has no idea what their names are. Phew. It was so much better that I could have ever imagined. She is so excited to go to school on Wednesday. Where she will be napping so Teigue and I can have some time together. Without her pacifier. Not sure if that will go as well as today...

Connecticut.

Ahhh...Connecticut. Is there any way we could move the state closer to California? Please? Cause we had a really great time, but the 7 or so hours of travel kind of stinks. Could we switch Connecticut with Arizona? But leave the desert and heat with Arizona. What we love about Connecticut is the lush green grass, tall oak trees and endless amounts of dirt. What else did we love? 

Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa helped us swing, find the best acorns, made us delicious pancakes, threw us loads and loads of pitches when it wasn't raining, let us pick all the tomatoes and cucumbers out of the garden. Grandma promised to make us new winter hats with all the colors, a puppy sweater for winter, and made us some delicious blueberry muffins...

Cousins. Gracie- can you PLEASE stop getting bigger? Please? But continue to have super fun camping sleepover birthday parties, complete with a super fun trampoline that I wish we had space for in our yard here. We will be there next year for your *sniff sniff* 9th. Stop it. Right now!

Oh, Oliver. You are just about the sweetest little monkey in the whole wide world. Your little bobble head, your cute toes, your baby smell. We were in love. The kids have decided that, with all these babies around us, that we should have another baby. When I tried to explain that there was no way I was ever going to have another baby, no way no how, nope, not doing it, they let me know that they would carry it at the beach and dress it for us. Well, I guess that kind of makes the decision easier. I think we'll get a puppy instead. 

Did you know Connecticut has the best mud? Hopefully we left some there.

Lobstahs!

On the last day that we were there, I took the kids to one of my favorite places to go to in the summer growing up- Salem Valley Farms ice cream stand. Yum. Teigue tried 3 different flavors (2 cones and he stole my sundae).

Jayno just had one, but something tells me she slightly enjoyed it.

So, Connecticut, think about moving. The west ain't so bad.

Today The Kids...

Got a little muddy. 

They have discovered the fun that can be had on the side yard. Since we can't figure out what to put there (not many shade loving plants like low water), it remains a bit ol' dirt slope. Which is perfect when you are 2 and 4. Add a hose and some buckets, you have created a very fun afternoon. 

Quote of the Day

"We're best buddies right? And brother and sister."

-said by Teigue as he pushed his chair closer to Stella at lunch.

Oil Spill

In our Story About A State routine one evening a couple weeks ago, Teigue decided that he wanted a story about the Gulf of Mexico. I think he asked right after the oil spill initially happened so I talked to him about it. We talked about how the oil was coming up from the bottom of the ocean and was spreading over the surface. We talked about how birds and turtles were getting stuck in the oil and the shoreline were getting covered. It helped that I had stepped on some random tar ball when we were at Cabrillo tide pools a few weeks before so he could sort of understand just how sticky and icky the oil is- and what a problem it creates. He asked loads of questions that night about it and was obviously very bothered by it- we now talk about it almost daily. The other day while Jayno was napping, Teigue once again brought it up so I decided to use a visual aid so he could understand what the oil does.

We used olive oil for the oil and basil leaves for the shoreline at first, until Teigue decided that they should be the pelicans instead. When I first told him we would be using olive oil he said, "Gross! Why do we eat oil that we use for the car?!" I then add to explain the different kinds of oil that we use- some is from plants but the oil that is coming up in the Gulf was once the skin of a dinosaur (or other long dead animal). He thought that was pretty cool.

Anyway, visual aid. After we poured the oil in and it covered the leaves, I told Teigue to take a leaf out and look at it. Then I asked him to figure out how he was going to get the oil off. Uhh...soap? This little aid was so helpful in showing my budding little environmentalist just how bad it is that the oil was in the water and what it can do. He now sort of gets it especially since we see animals at the beach all the time, he can visualize how hard to would be to clean all of them. 

Oh, did you notice his Iron Man bracelet that was a party favor from his friend Zane's birthday last week? That is a standard part of his outfit now. He still holds his arm at a weird contorted uncomfortable angle because the bracelet feels odd on his arm, but thankfully it's not a 90º angle anymore, more like a 30º.

Little Lady's Outfits

Stella and I have a little routine that we perform every day. I pick out clothes for her and lay them out on the floor. Trying to get her into the outfit usually goes like this:

Me: Here's your undies, can you put them on?

Jayno: No, not those! *she then opens her drawer and pulls out a more suitable pair*

Me: OK, here's your shirt, do you want me to help? 

Jayno: No! Me self! No, not this shirt, THIS ONE!

Me: You still want these shorts?

Jayno: Ahhh...no. These.

These are the outfits that Stella has deemed fit to go out in public in.

Sunday for a playdate:

Monday for grocery shopping (this one is actually quite cute):

Tuesday for her first dentist appointment:

This last one was when we picked Teigue up at school Wednesday and was completed with monkey slippers:

She's her own person, my little lady.

And updated on Friday- Today she picked out Teigue's clothes- a nice red shirt with matching blue and red shorts. This is what she chose for herself:

Pictures

I love doing this blog- I love going back to old posts and seeing how much the kids have changed, love writing about the kids and our adventures, love keeping a daily tab...but I don't always love using my brain at the end of the day and updating with a new post. I admit, my kids exhaust me sometimes and at the end of the day the only thing that I may want to do is surf the internet or watch mindless TV. But then I am without posts to go back to so I can see how much the kids have changed, or read about our adventures. I promise that I will get back on track- hopefully tomorrow. Maybe the next day. Or maybe tonight. Until then, here are some pictures that I have taken in the last weeks that I have been meaning to post but just can't find the energy.

My little lady picked out her first beautiful silver tiara complete with sparkling pink jewels and matching earrings. She was having a bit of trouble with the tiara..thankfully she has an older brother there to help.

We hung out at Quail Gardens with our favorite Teentz and the Juice, who once again, found us very boring and slept the whole time, missing out on some tasty high fructose corn syrup pops.

We discovered a couple new mediums for our art: watercolors and chalk.

Enjoyed the one day of summer that we have had so far at the park.

But, just because it's overcast and chilly outside, that doesn't mean that ice cream cones are out of the picture.

And finally a certain little boy learned how to spin spin spin and spin all by himself...but also learned that maybe it isn't the best thing in the world. Well, I guess I learned that it isn't the best thing in the world. Little tummies aren't meant to spin as much, I guess. 

Hopefully soon I'll be able to post pictures at the beach, playing in the sun...if the sun ever decides to come out. San Diego is experiencing the coldest summer since 1933!