My BABY is THREE!!

Ok, this post is long over due, but better late than never!  Last month, my bouncing baby boy turned 3 years old, he's a full-fledged kid now people!  He had been insisting on a "dinosaur cake" for about 6 months prior to his birthday party, and as the date grew nearer he added on "dinosaur balloons too!"  The kid knows what he wants :).  And luckily he has a mommy that takes a theme and runs with it.. so we had a dinosaur birthday party for our big boy Z.

We decorated the house to provide dinosaur-related ambiance :)..

 

 

We had 3 dinosaur-themed games, including, pin the horn on the triceratops, digging for dinos in the sandbox, and decorating our dino-goggles, the kids had a blast!

 And of course we had the dinosaur balloons and the dinosaur cake, as were mandatory

 

The cake left the kiddos with blue tongues and lots of sugar induced energy.  They spent the rest of the night running through the house and dragging each other around in Z's tunnel.  Because, obviously, that is the most fun thing EVAH.  The party was a success, we were so happy to celebrate our little (I mean BIG) man's birthday with great friends :)

 

 

We conclude our SD vacay 3-parter with.. DINOSAURS

Our last outing in San Diego brought us to the San Diego Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park.  One reason we went is that we hadn't really "done" Balboa Park in all the times we visited SD, and the other reason was naturally, dinosaurs.  Our little budding archeologist was VERY excited at the prospect of visiting his current favorite thing ever.

For kiddos, this museum was awesome, VERY hands-on, and they totally delivered the dinos.

Z loved playing with all the displays, in the one above, he is pedaling a bike, with his hands to turn on the water faucet in the case, this was VERY exciting, "look mommy, I make the water go!"

Pushing buttons to make the picture change, definitely a winner.

And then we saw the DINOSAURS!  He was pretty excited to SEE them, but getting close was a whole different matter, I think it's safe to say the scale freaked him out a bit.  Above I have wrangled him into taking a picture with me in front of a dino, he is none to pleased.

They also had some pretty cool displays about the arctic with displays that had bear paws, for easy comparison with your own paws of course ;).  And some games where you had to find fish for penguins.

Z enjoyed the exhibits a lot, the museum was a little smaller than we thought it would be so it only took a couple of hours to go through it.  We spent another couple of hours enjoying the GORGEOUS weather on the lawn outside the museum.  Z ran around in the grass, picked clover flowers and was just generally ecstatic.

On our last day in San Diego we decided to hit the beach again and just take it easy.  We had a fantastic vacation, we definitely need to plan for more week long vacations where at least half of the days we have no  plans except building sandcastles.  And, of course, coming back to the hotel room and making sandwiches for lunch (we're cheap yo!), and ummm.. eating sliced pickles straight out of the jar with maniacal laughter..

I interrupt this vacation 3 parter to bring you this...

We had our "big" ultrasound on Friday, we decided to bring Z so he understood that this whole "baby" thing is real.  There really is a baby inside mommy's tummy, so you really shouldn't body slam her :p.  So we saw a VERY wiggly, healthy, baby... BOY!!  Z is going to have a fantastic playmate, and I am now certain that my house will be smelling like sweaty socks for the next 15 years or so.  We are thrilled, we would have been happy either way, but another boy is very cost effective (we're cheap yo).  We have plenty of boy clothes, toys, and knowledge, so bring it on.  I am destined to be a boy mom, and I wouldn't have it any other way :).

Whales make BIG splashes!!

To break up the lazy days on the beach we decided to hit some San Diego area attractions.  We usually go to the San Diego Zoo every time we visit so we wanted to mix it up a bit this time, it was between Legoland and Sea World.. Sea World won because it is significantly cheaper, and we weren't looking to drop a ton of money.  Anyways, Z loves animals of any sort, so we totally hyped up this visit with promises of BIG whales.
Before I spout sunshine, rainbows, and unicorn farts, I'm going to get a little venty on Sea World, lemme just say folks, this place is NO Disney, and it shows, in every way.  Our hotel concierge told us that Sea World opened at 9am, lesson learned, IGNORE the concierge and just check the damn website, because it opened at 10am.  They let us park, buy tickets and into the entry way of the park, but we had to stand at a chained pathway until, slightly past 10 for them to open.  Strangely (I thought) they decided to play the US national anthem over the loud speakers before they fully opened the park.  And then we had to wait for another 10 minutes for someone to actually open the chain to let us in.. at like 10:15. Z waited patiently through all this, scouting out all the things he wanted to see..

Eating some strawberries since he refused to eat the cereal bars I brought with us to save money on breakfast..

 We were lined up by the area where the dolphins were because a feeding was supposed to start at 10:30, and Z seemed really excited about the prospect of feeding the dolphins.  Naturally, he clammed up when it was our turn to feed them and *refused* to do it, he said "no mommy want YOU do it", so I held him while I petted the dolphins and tossed them fish, they were very friendly for the record.

And true to Z form, as soon as we were done and left the dolphin area, he screamed, "I WANT TO DO IT NOW"  yah, kid, you totally missed your chance, we did not go back, I just told him to look at the dolphins, because they were full now.

After the dolphins we set out to find the Shamu show, because, well, duh, we were at Sea World, isn't that the whole point of going there?  It was a great show, Z was thoroughly impressed, he still talks about the "whales making a BIG splash!!"

We saw penguins and polar bears, and most of a show about dogs and cats (Z had a potty emergency about 3/4 of the way through) and had a generally great day out in the beautiful San Diego weather.  Z was exhausted at the end of the day, so we snuggled on the hotel bed watching a movie.

We might have gotten a little sun burnt due to our defective (not expired!) sun screen.. Loving Naturals, you will be getting a letter!  It was a good visit, Z loved seeing the shows and animals, but I can't say that we'll be going back, it was a little disappointing generally.

Vacation to a mystical island

We just got back from vacation, and I, for one, am SO sad to be back.  You see, we went to this magical place, it's called San Di-e-go (well, technically we stayed on Coronado, hence the island reference), there the temperatures are at *least* 30 degrees cooler than here, a lovely cool ocean breeze blows and there are lots of fun and interesting things to do, I miss it already.  The only part that I don't like so much, is the loooong car ride to get there, thankfully, Z was AWESOME in the car, no doubt helped by the promises of the "BEACH!!" when we arrived at our destination, we hyped it up for days beforehand, I highly recommend this approach.  Also, my poor hubby endured numerous potty stops, because he DARED take a road trip with both an-almost-3-yo, AND a almost-5-months-preggo, bless him, at least his bladder had no excuse to be full :).

After 6 long hours in the car we finally arrived at our hotel, we stayed at "The Del" aka Hotel Del Coronado, because we got a great deal that made staying on the beach cost pretty much the same as staying by the train tracks, Holiday Inn, I'm looking at YOU.  It is a beautiful hotel, full of history, probably worth a visit if you're ever on Coronado, behold:

Notice, this the view from the beach, where we IMMEDIATELY went after checking in and getting settled, for like 5 minutes.  Z was itching to get out to see what he was promised, and well, we *had* to deliver, so we went out, in our clothes, to the beach.  Let's just say, Z was... ecstatic, there is probably less high pitched screaming in glee at a Justin Bieber concert full of 13 year old girls..

The water was freezing, but we got used to it quickly, hard to complain when your kiddo is in a pure state of joy.  His clothes were soaked after, well, frolicking in the ocean, so we had to change before dinner, after these shenanigans he downed an enormous hotdog and some veggie sides for dinner.  He also slept like a rock, in blissful peace... between us on the king bed :p.  It was a fantastic start to a perfect escape.  Stay tuned, we also visited Sea World, and saw some dinosaurs!!

I've been keeping something from you blog

I didn't keep you from it on purpose, there was just never a good time to tell you.  And now, well, now it almost seems far past the moment to say this, so here goes.  Blog, I am knocked up, with child, expecting, straight up preggers, 16wks now actually, due the end of January.

Z is going to be a big bro.  We told him at around 8wks.  Naturally his response was to open his eyes really big, open his mouth in shock and then say "how she gonna get outta you belly mommy?!?"  I chose to spare him the horrifying details and just said "the doctors will do it" and left it at that, he seemed satisfied.   Quickly, he moved on to more pressing matters  "she gonna take my toys?!?"  These are the things on the mind of an almost-3-year-old.  You notice how he's decided it's a girl, for the record, we don't know yet, we find out in 3 weeks, and YES we will be finding out, as IF I could wait in suspense, my internal planner would probably go (more) insane.

So, there it is, it feels much better to have told you.  And now that you're in on the big not-so-secret news you can be a part of my ridiculousness.  I feel good, I'm past the super-fun nausea, and now, I'm straight up ravenous, like oh-my-GAWD if I don't eat immediately I'm going to pass out, even though I just ate a sandwich kind of hungry, it's crazy.  Oh and cravings-wise, CARBS, carbs are my like, super duper BFF.  And people, I am NOT a carbs person, but right now, give me a bagel, a loaf of sourdough and a bowl of spaghetti and I'll be a very happy preggo.  Crap, now I need a snack, see what happened just there?

We go to da MOUNTAINS!!

Well, kind of anyways.  Last month we decided to get out of this crazy heat and take a weekend trip up to Sedona, which technically involves driving through the mountains.  In order to get Z properly motivated to take a 2.5hr car ride and leave his droves of toys behind we promised him we were "going to the mountains".  And he certainly latched on to this idea, it was VERY exciting for him.

So exciting he HAD to make a silly face for the camera ;).  We arrived in Sedona around lunch time and hit our favorite Mexican place there for lunch, this is our routine every time we go up there, and evidently Z remembered from this past winter when we drove up, because he immediately wanted to look for "grasshoppers!!" in the courtyard in front of the restaurants.  Unfortunately it's hot in Sedona in July, I mean, it feels awesome to us, because it's obscenely hot in the valley in July, but I'm sure by grasshopper standards, Sedona is hot, so they were not out hopping around like they were in December.   After a very filling lunch we hit the tourist trap shops, did some walking around, and then checked in to the hotel.  Since in the Summer in the Phoenix metro area it's pretty much out of the question to go outside and play, Z was itching to do this here, where it was *only* in the 90s.

So we indulged him, and he immediately found some wildlife.. errr.. ants, to inspect.  Whatever makes you happy kid :).  The next day we decided to go on a "hike", and that means everything you'd think it means with a 2 year old, an easy walk in the outdoors, albeit with beautiful sites to soak in, because, well, Sedona is gorgeous.

This particular hike took us back and forth across Oak Creek, Z was a little timid about this creek crossing business, but by the end of the hike he was all about getting in the water.  Oh, and he has discovered the camera, and taking pictures, and he's not to bad at it, when his little fingers aren't covering the lens ;).

He is carefully taking pictures of the ants, I assure you people, we have ants in Phoenix, I have no idea what this was all about. 

On the last creek crossing on the way back, we decided to change his shoes into water shoes and let him burn some energy playing in the creek a little, he LOVED this..

He loved looking at the little fish in the creek, and picking up small little rocks to throw in the water so they would splash.  This hike will definitely be on our agenda when we come up "to the mountains" from now on, it's one that B and I enjoyed pre-Z, especially in the fall, when all the trees turn their leaves into a beautiful spectrum of colors.  I have a feeling Z will love coming here in the fall too... as long as we bring his water shoes :p.

Out on the Farm

So about a month ago, Z and I went to visit a local dairy farm with a couple of friends.  It's relatively close to us and they have ice cream, and a flavored milk bar, and a petting zoo, so it seemed like a fun, unusual thing to do on my Friday off with him.  It was a great deal, you got 2 cups of feed for the petting zoo animals, a hay ride, and a large serving of ice cream for $5.

I should remind everyone that Z likes to be clean, like almost Monk-ish clean (you know, the show that used to be on USA network?), so the petting zoo, where we got to feed the animals our 2 cups of food EACH?  For Z, that was more like, stand behind Mommy while SHE feeds the animals, shaking my head vigorously if she asks if *I* want to feed them.  It was all good, my hands got nasty from the animal spit and feed, and a baby cow BIT me, but Z seemed to enjoy the show. 

Then it was time for the hayride, it was a trip around the farm to see all the cows and learn about them and how the farm worked.  We got pretty close to the cows..

And they smelled, well, like cows smell, Z was not amused..

He spent the whole ride holding his nose like this and telling me "mommy da cows stinky!!" and "da cows stinky like pepper mommy!!"  (Pepper is our flatulent pug).  What can I say?  Z is a city boy, but at least we can give him the experience :).

After the hay ride we were able to get our ice cream, this, obviously, was the highlight of the trip for Z, he ate the whole cup.

To this day, every time he sees a cow, he tells me, "da cows stiiiinky mommy!!"  I guess the trip made an impression of sorts ;).

Peaches!

A few weeks ago we ventured to a local farm for it's annual Peach Festival. We've been a few years now, and it's always fun, there are rides and games for the kiddos, the longest line EVER to get peach pancakes, fresh-baked peach pies, and the reason we really go, peach picking.  After waiting in a loooong line to get on the hay ride to take us out to the orchard we were ready to do some peach picking.  Z was especially excited, because he LOVES peaches, and doing *anything* all.by.himself.  So this was perfect, he got right to it, climbing over dirt mounds to get to the low hanging fruit

He put most of the peaches in the boxes for us to buy and take home, a couple *may* have gotten lost in his mouth, and a couple more fell on the ground and were deemed "ewww! dirty with bugs!!" The peaches were a little green, but they still looked mouthwatering.

And daddy graciously helped Z get to the higher fruits when Z decided he was "all done!" with the lower ones.

The weather was near perfect for this excursion, just flirting with being super hot, thankfully the farm had coolers of ice water throughout, the peaches could have used a few more weeks to ripen up, but Z had a blast anyways.

Ring Bearer

The reason for our trip to FL in March was my little sister's wedding, she married her high school sweetheart, and a great guy.  She was also brave enough to ask little Z to be the ring bearer for the grand event.  Thankfully the wedding was in March, and the weather was not super hot, because as it was, convincing Z to get in his little suit was... challenging.  He fought, screamed, resisted, and after much sweat and tears, he finally was wearing his shirt, and pants..

Doesn't he look like the cutest little man?  As you can see we bribed him with crayons and a coloring book, somehow crayon ended up ALL OVER the couch in the bride's prep room, but hey! The kid was dressed, whaddaya want?  Of course he wasn't all the way dressed, getting his little suit jacket on him was another ordeal, my sister said he didn't have to wear it bless her heart, but damn it I paid $40 bucks for this suit and the kid was going to wear it at least for 30 seconds so we could get a picture, I mean really, we'd come this far!  After much bribery we have this money shot

If you do not just melt at the picture of this tiny little man in a suit then you have no soul.  And in case the torture was not complete, the child still needed to perform his ring bearer duties, you know, actually walking down the aisle.  We were not fool hardy we were well aware there was no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that this child was walking down the aisle by himself, luckily(?) I was the matron of honor (omg how old does that sound?  I *begged* her to still call me a "maid")  and my sister being indecisive and hating to offend managed to have 2 more bridesmaids than groomsmen, so my little man walked me down the aisle.. pay no attention to the stark white sausage shoved in the blue casing, clearly I need to up the ante on c25k..

 See the lollipop in Z's hand?  Yes, so a little about this trip, we live in AZ, which stays on mountain standard time all year, so in late March, we are 3 hours behind FL, so this 4pm wedding was 1pm for our bodies.. wanna guess what time nap time is?  Yah.. 12:30 :p.  So obviously, Z was feeling SUPER cooperative.  He did manage to walk down the aisle, and he even stood with me, for at *least* 5 minutes, but folks, it was an outside wedding, and my child loves the outside, but not so much standing still in a suit in the outside, so he wanted to go explore.  I sssshhhhed him once, but we were right next to the microphone, so that was my only attempt, after he shouted "wanna go sit with DADDY" I gave up

Look at that smug little cutie sucking on his lollipop.  Yes, you won Z.  The ceremony was beautiful (I think, I also had to wrangle the flower girl, who was the same age as Z, yay me!), but the torture for Z was not over yet, because, it was PICTURE TIME.  The photographer was awesome, thankfully he has 4 kids at home so Z's antics didn't phase him, which is good, because after the ceremony Z was in this kind of mood

After pictures we ate dinner, and the DJ cranked up the music, at which point Z declared "wanna go home!"  So we compromised with the venue patio, we let him change out of the dress shirt and put him in his official tshirt my sister gave him

And he played with my 4 yo cousin, and one of my other cousin's kids, and all was right in his world

Honestly, for being 2.5, dressed up in a suit, and asked to perform in front of people he's never met, he did fabulously, and we snagged some pretty cute pictures, even if my dress did end up a sticky mess from the lollipop hugs :).

Opens basement door and peers in..

blog? are you still there? It's me Mommy to the Z.  It's been a while, a lot has happened in our lives, obviously.  And while that all settled out, this blog got shoved into the dark corner of the basement, it's all covered in dust and spiderwebs, and wait, is that a fruit snack?  Anyways, hoping to start posting regularly again, because I'm sure you all are dying to hear all the details of Z's antics, I mean, isn't everybody?  So I'm not going to completely recap the past few months because really, who has time to read all that, but I will share the story of when we went to Disney World for the second time in March..


We were in Florida at the end of March for my little sister's wedding, Z was slated to be the ring bearer, how brave of her, no?  So in an effort to not make the whole trip completely boring for Z, we decided to take a side trip to the Magic Kingdom, but this time with just the 3 of us.  We told Z we were going to the "castle" to see Mickey, because you know the castle that appears at the beginning of all Disney movies, telling you it's a Disney movie?  He LOVES this, and shrieks "it's the CASTLE mommy!!!" every.single.time.  I'm not sure if he believed us, because he just half-smiled and said "ok".  We drove about 1.5 hours to get there, and at 1.25 hours Z was getting majorly antsy and showed his "super-duper 2.5year old" side.  Until, we exited for Disney, and we drove down long road with various mickey mouse silhouettes, that's when the grin from ear-to-ear appeared "Mickey!!" he shouted from the back seat, "LOOK MOMMY, IT'S MICKEY!!!!"  The child grinned from ear-to-ear from the parking lot, to the ferry..

 He got so excited he had to cover his eyes because he could NOT believe this was happening..

 He grinned while we waited in line to meet Pluto, and he grinned while he bopped Pluto on the nose..

He smiled so wide I thought for SURE his cheeks would cramp up while we watched the Mickey and Friends show, AT the CASTLE:

He ran around in amazement and absolute JOY while waiting in line for the Winnie-the-Pooh ride..

And then he saw all the bees and proceeded to start "bzzzzzing"..

We stopped for lunch, and his excitement could STILL not be contained..

After lunch we went on the Jungle Cruise ride, which is just ridiculously punny, but Z was immune to the cheeseball humor and in awe of all the animals along the way..

Finally, after a loooong day of Magic Kingdom, Z passed out in his stroller..

He talked about that trip to Disney for weeks afterward, it was sooo very worth it, every second, and every penny I've never seen Z so happy before, and even though he was only 2.5, and probably won't remember it, I will remember it always <3.