Fun with Stickers

We got a promotion for Highlights for Children in the mail yesterday. It came with a bunch of stickers; little dude had fun!

New Toy for Warm Days

With warm weather here, I decided that Anthony needed his own water table. I kept my eye on Craig's List for about a week and then I scored! We got the Step2 sand and water table. Anthony doesn't like sand and I don't like mess, so we're going to keep both sides water. It didn't come with any accessories so I appropriated some of our indoor toys--the submarine, a cup and a few little cars. Anthony had a LOT of fun.

I'd still like to find a waterwheel and a few other cool toys to go with it.

The Triumverate Revisited

Elly and I have been friends for years, but I got to know Amelia when all three of us were waiting to adopt. All 3 of us adopted boys born within 3 months of each other.

Here is their first group photo.

Amelia moved to Texas awhile ago, so we haven't seen Nathan since he was a baby. They are here on vacation and we got all three boys together again for a playdate and photo opportunity.

First Solo Flight

No pictures, but today Anthony took his first solo flight.

Well, not really, but it was his first trip with Daddy completely unchaperoned. I was a little worried about Bob being able to pre-flight the plane and supervise Anthony, but it went off without a hitch!

Enjoying the California Academy of Sciences

I'd say the highlight of the museum for Anthony was bubble play outisde. The American Chemical Society meeting is in San Francisco this week. They sponsored science activities at the museum this afternoon, all run by college students. Anthony thought the bubble play was LOADS of fun and had a regular laugh fest.

Suprisingly enough, he did NOT like the aquarium. I think all the exhibits were too big and intimidating. It wasn't particularly crowded, either.

Our Friend Matthias

Bob's former housemate Ercilia and her family are in town from Italy for a month. We haven't seen them in TWO years. Anthony and Matthias hit it off like they were old friends. We went to the California Academy of Sciences together. What a great day!

Something to ponder...

Why will Anthony eat playdough and diaper cream but not rice crispy treats???

Fun-Dip

Last summer, one of the many ways that Anthony drove me crazy was by eating bubbles. He would eat them like Fun-Dip candy. Dip the bubble wand into the liquid, lick, repeat.

One of his Valentines contained GENUINE Fun-Dip. I set it aside, hoping to scarf it for myself. At some point he found it and recognized the package as candy. Didn't take him too long to develop a taste for it.

Potty Camp

This probably sounds crazy. In fact, it might actually be crazy.

The long story... My work provides up to 2 weeks of back-up daycare for when Anthony's sitter is sick or on vacation. The center is very nice and EXTREMELY expensive, a good $250/day.

Said expensive daycare sends out monthly announcements touting their great activities, trolling for business. Well, their March theme is potty camp. The way I figure it is, if my work wants to pay over a thousand dollars to potty train my child, who am I to say no?? (I might be just a little hostile about losing my job in two weeks.)

I'm not convinced that Anthony is actually ready to potty train. However, I'm not convinced he isn't, either. He is motivated--Kobe at daycare (a big kid) just learned to use the potty and Anthony is FASCINATED. So, we're enrolled in potty camp for the week.

The first day he wore big-boy underpants over his pull-ups and sat on the potty regularly. However, he wanted to wear his clothes on the potty. (He does NOT like sitting on a cold seat.) Supposedly day 2 or day 3 they wear their big boy underpants full-time. I've got about 5 changes of clothes in his bag.

I suspect they won't have much success and we'll go back to diapers for awhile.

In the meantime, though, boy is he excited about Potty Camp. Imagine Bob answering the door to some random solicitor. Small child runs and announces, "I'm going to Potty Camp!!"

More Holi Pictures

I think we'll use the family picture in our next adoption letter, what do you think???

If Anthony looks exhausted, it might be because he was. He took a 20 minute snooze in the car and declared that he was done for the day!

Happy Holi-day

Sunday our neighborhood had a block party to celebrate Holi, the Indian festival of colors. Manish provided the colors, Peter organized the water-fun and a great time was had by all.

Well, when the water play got overly rambunctious Anthony and Ciaran started crying immediately. Anthony definitely prefers vigorous play at a healthy distance. They gave the older kids a wide birth and then all were happy. Anthony spent about 10 minutes coloring Elly's (Ciaran's mom) cheek orange and both boys spent a lot of time making a mess of bubble liquid and spilled color.

After we were done with colors, water balloons, balloon rockets, a waterballoon catapult, and bubbles, we blocked off the street for tricycle time. Then we had a pot luck dinner.

The top picture is Rachel painting Anthony's face. Don't worry, Bob got a lot more color on him by the end of the day!

Happy Hollow Zoo Reopens

Today was the members only preview of Happy Hollow Park and Zoo. It reopened after being closed for almost 2 years for renovation. Boy is the new zoo nice! We only saw a little bit, and I was impressed.

The new entrance area is gorgeous. Just inside is the newly refurbished carousel, all shiny and new. Anthony chose to ride the dragon. Then we went over to the petting zoo area and made friends with some goats. The goats seemed out of practice remembering where food comes from, but when they did notice us they got a little aggressive, which made Anthony nervous. We saw the mineature horses, a donkey and lambs that were only 8 days old. We also visited the wallabies and the lemurs. Anthony enjoyed the parallel play area next to the lemur exhibit and that and lunch pretty much rounded out our trip.

Oh, while we were waiting for lunch, Anthony met Danny the Dragon. The Danny the Dragon ride was a beloved part of the old zoo and will be better when it reopens and isn't belching diesel fumes anymore! Anthony was a little nervous about Danny but warmed up to him and seemed quite interested that Danny doesn't talk. (Bob had the camera, so no pictures.)

There's a lot more to the zoo/park that we didn't get to experience today--a bunch of kiddie rides, an enormous play structure and all the animals down in the hollow.

We'll be back again!

Playing Hopicopter

 

Bob bought a little remote control helicopter a few weeks ago. Anthony, of course, likes it almost as much as Bob. He loves flying it in the house, but that makes Mama shriek that hopicopters are outside toys. Unfortunately, they tend to crash harder when flown outside.

Airplane Crash into the Windsock

For quite some time, Anthony has obsessed over the "Mike da Mustang" video. He loves acting it out, but until now he didn't have a windsock to crash the airplane into. Well, we put Grandpa Walt (and Grandma Kay) to the task and they came through and then some! Anthony's face totally lit up when I showed it to him. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!



By the way, the copy of Richard Scarry's "Biggest Word Book Ever" is open to the airplane page. In fact, its the only page that ever gets read.