When I Was A Baby...

As a stay at home mom, I feel like I know my kids pretty well. I feel as if I've been around for all their amazing adventures, but every single day Jayno reminds me of certain things that I have missed. Certain major things that I am sure I would, and should, remember her doing. Things that she always did when she was a baby, but doesn't anymore. You know, since she's a big kid.

What kind of things you ask? Well, the other day I was informed that she walked the 2 miles across the Coronado Bridge. She didn't make it all the way across, however. She fell at one point and luckily landed in the trees in the water. You know, the trees growing in the water that protect you from the sharks swimming around. With the trees in the water, a baby such as Jayno could just swing from limb to limb and get the beach safe and sound.

Today while riding the glass elevator down from her dermatology appointment, Stella informed Teigue and I that: 

"When I was a baby I fell from this elevator." 

Teigue: "You did? Did you get hurt?" 

Stella: "No, I just grabbed onto those [beams] and swung down to the ground." 

Teigue: "Wow, you were lucky those were there."

Each day I learn more and more about events that I have missed in her little life. She used to drive a car, walked in the canyon by herself and fight the coyotes... Each tale always starts with "When I was a baby, I...". Pretty amazing life my little almost 3 year old has had. 

Let the Crafting Begin!

It's been looking a lot like Christmas around here- glitter, gingerbread, snowflake hole punches (thank you Martha!). Did you know that I love this time of year? You know what else I love? Doing crafts outside. 

You know what Stella loves? Putting a wet stocking on her head so all the glitter and sequins get stuck in her hair. Pretty festive my little lady is!

Thanksgiving

What an amazing time we had at Thanksgiving. We invited our most favorite people here in San Diego, welcomed some cousins from the rainy Northwest, ate some wonderful food, drank some tasty beverages...it was just a perfect day. Brady and I actually feel as if it was our most fun Thanksgiving ever. The sun decided to come out and warm us up for a bit so we were able to eat outside and enjoy our new and improved deck. The kids played with their buddies and cousins allowing Brady and I time to actually chat with our guests. Imagine that! 

Wait...what were the kids doing? Oh yeah, that's right. They were destroying the gingerbread house that they made with Brady 3 days before...and could not wait to eat up. Mom, can we have the gingerbread house now? No, on Thanksgiving. Well, is today Thanksgiving? Every day I heard this. They knew they had to wait until all the kids arrived to devour it. It was no surprise to anyone that when Iris arrived at 2:00, out came the house and away the decorations and icing went.

It was also no surprise that when the food was finally done, most of the kids had two bites and declared themselves Full! and moved on to the next activity- which was usually making Max bury them under the piles of pillows on the couch and making each of us "find" the kids- because that crazy Max always loses them on his watch. This usually ends up with the kids laughing hysterically and declaring that they want to do it over and over again.

Ok, can we have Thanksgiving again this week?

Billy Week One

One week ago we brought Billy home and into our family. How has it been? I would never would have thought that a stinky little labrador would have such a positive effect on our family after just one week. Our little lady has woken up happy and undemanding every single day, temper tantrums are no existant, and my floor have never been cleaner...well certain patched of my floors anyway.

 He helps Teigue and Brady win every time at Mario.

 Teigue decided that he wanted to nap next to Billy on the living room floor. During the day. When it was still light out.

He discovreed that Stella's play dog bed- meant for her small stuffed animals- is the best place for afternoon naps.

And Stella's bed is the best place for sleeping at night. Especially if a little boy is also in the bed.

He played in the rain, discovered the spider webs under the deck, gave us loads of love, fell in love with one of Stella's baby dolls and has adopted it as his own, and has just made us all so happy and thankful that we have him in our life and family. It would be better if he would pee outside more often , but oh well.

Yohigho!!

Yes, I realize we have been home for more than a week and I should have posted these pictures on Saturday, the day after we arrived back. But you see, I have a newborn at home. A very cute, hairy pee pee smelling newborn that doesn't understand that he needs to sleep through the night and pee outside. Combine that with a husband that conveniently went out of town for the week after getting puppy...well, I was tired. I fell asleep every night after telling the kids stories and spent my days chasing a dog out of certain areas that he was so fond of peeing in (why is carpet so much better to pee on than grass, deck, or even hardwood floors??) and cleaning up that pee. Well, here we are, YOHIGHO! 

We arrived late Friday night and landed in Ohio's first snowfall of the year. Driving down the highway we were surrounded by trees dusted with white, slushy roads and falling snow. We were so excited- we couldn't wait to wake up and play, build snowmen, throw snowballs...but alas, that was not to be. Thankfully, it did snow again during the day and we were so very excited to get out there and catch some snowflakes.

(and by we I mean me...I was a tad obsessive about getting the kids out before the snow stopped so I could grab that all important picture of them in their first snowfall...Sorry Brady...next time I'll let you put on some real clothes. At least the kids had their super cute hats on.)

After playing outside and having the most fun ever playing with all the apples that had fallen from Gram's tree, we headed on inside to play some Monster Match and Go Fish! that Gram thankfully played over and over and over again.

The next day was a little warmer, but a tad bit more treacherous. Did you know that Gram has an abominable snowman living in her backyard?! Thankfully Daddy showed us all the correct way to fight them. 

 We love you D'd and Toddfinney.

The rest of the time? We just played and played, loved Grandma, spent time with family and found a super fun park to play in that had zip lines, tire swings and loads of bad guys. 

Did I mention we loved Grandma. Yeah, just a little bit.

 Until next time, Yohigho.

Summer Has Finally Arrived

Yesterday and today it was 90º, low tide was in the afternoon and water temps were in the mid 60s. Of course we went to the beach- summer has finally arrived!

Yesterday we headed to the tide pools at Cabrillo. We climbed cliffs, hunted for crabs and found more hermit crabs than, um, I could handle.

Today we had the intention of again visiting Cabrillo, but instead made a B line for Coronado. 8 foot waves pulled us there- waves that a little boy so very very wanted to jump in to, but also realized that maybe he was just a little bit too little for such big kid waves. It sure was hard to resist.

 

This week, 90º and the beach- next week, OHIO!!!