New Favorite Book

Grandma Elinor sent Anthony a copy of "Flying" as a just-because present. I think its a new favorite. I believe I read it TEN times the first day. Honestly, I think the plot is a little lacking. Maybe because its completely lacking. :-)

Anthony is a big fan. He likes to point to all the different pictures of airplanes. The illustrations are fabulous!

Constructing

Anthony's been showing more interest in his Lego Quattros lately. He used to just enjoying pulling them apart and putting them together. Today we actually built a little structure/tower/thingie.

Walking over the Golden Gate Bridge

Al, Lisa and the gang are in town from Michigan for an extended visit. Today we were able to get together to explore the Golden Gate bridge. How is it that they had NEVER walked over the bridge in all their years living here??

Anthony LOVED Brooke and Lindsay. They pretty much took over. They pushed the stroller (I didn't trust him walking on the bridge!), they walked him around the viewing area, they fed him his treats.... He thought they were the best thing ever!

It was ridiculously hot down the peninsula which made for a beautiful day on the bridge. It was beyond windy but it wasn't cold!

One funny... Lisa came into the house to get us. I left Anthony standing near her and went to grab the diaper bag. He shrieked and came running. It was definitely, "Mama! Don't leave me near her!" I remembered later how her youngest screamed bloody murder the first time he saw me--I was wearing a hat and sunglasses and he didn't like it one bit!

Socks aren't quite as fun as shoes!

While we were doing laundry Anthony became quite interested in a pair of socks. They didn't keep his attention quite as well as shoes do. I think that diaper and black socks is quite the look.

(Fortunately he's rapidly losing interest in my shoes. I'm tired of finding them scattered all over the house.)

E.T.

Bob took this picture and then came to show me Anthony's E.T. impersonation. Remember the scene where ET is camoflauged as a toy in Drew Barrymore's closet?

Happy Father's Day

Anthony says "Hi" to all the chickens, but has a special message for all the fathers out there....

A few more family day pictures

I believe there were six different bounce houses, including three different slides of different sizes AND a water slide. The second picture is Anthony going down the little slide by himself. It was about 5 feet tall and very steep. I was a little worried about sending him down it, but he had a blast. Dad sent him down the last time and instead of sliding he pretty much fell straight down on his face. Whoops! The landing was soft and it didn't seem to bother him!

Family Day at Roche

Today was Family Day at my work. This was our first year and I was really impressed. Anthony had so much fun. When we arrived we headed straight to the bounce house area, via the arcade. Anthony watched some bigger kids playing the jump frog game and wanted to play too. He couldn't quite handle the mallet but definitely enjoyed making the froggies fly.

This was his first time really playing in a bounce house. He had so much fun. In the beginning it was just him and two little guys a little older. They were bouncing, running around and falling down and laughing up a storm. Later in the day the bounce areas got pretty crowded with older kids but we were in with him to make sure he didn't get trampled. I think he could play for hours in the bounce house!

We took a break from bouncing to go check out the petting zoo. There were goats, ducks, rabbits and chickens. Anthony liked the chickens the best. He would go up to them, say "Hi" and then proceed to chase.

We decided to give the poor chickens a break and headed over to the pony rides. Yes, pony rides. Honestly, I wasn't sure what he thought of the pony ride. He was generally quite serious, though we did get a good picture smiling. When it came time to get OFF the pony there were true tears. I guess he liked the pony ride!

Stylin' Dude

Bob and I went to see Up last week in 3-D. Ciaran's mom babysit and after the initial trauma of Mommy leaving was over (all of 30 sec.) they had a nice time. Anthony is enjoying playing with the 3-D glasses. Daddy thinks he looks a little like Buddy Holly. (Mom doesn't quite agree.) When Anthony is done wearing his glasses he'll stick them up on his head like Bob does.

Mama's New Toy

For mother's day I got a Cricut. It is the world's coolest die-cut machine. It came with a basic font/shapes cartridge. I added on a more sophisticated alphabet and a Sesame Street alphabet. In addition to letters like this one, I can make a handful of Sesame Street characters and plain letters in the same font as the character ones. Its ridiculously easy to use and the results are amazing!

Biking to work

I've been doing pretty well at biking to work lately.** For the past month we've ridden every day. Anthony of course rides in his trailer which I then leave at daycare. He's also getting pretty good at putting his own helmet on!

**Up until this week, we all have colds so no biking until I feel better.

Fun at Ciaran's House

Yesterday we went over to Ciaran's house for a barbecue, the first of the summer. Anthony and Ciaran had a wonderful time playing together with Ciaran's water table. Anthony even turned the hose on himself for awhile!

He rejected both breakfast and lunch yesterday but made up for it by eating 3 hotdogs for dinner! Bob read him "The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog" as his bedtime story. Question... Does Anthony consider each morsel to be a "taste sensation?"

Great America

We have a season pass to Great America/Gilroy Gardens this year, and probably every year in the foreseeable future. Its about the price of one visit to each park. Today we decided to go to Great America and check out the little kid offerings.

We started off with two rides on the double-decker carousel. Why TWO rides? Well, Anthony started screaming that he wasn't done when we tried to get off after only one ride. Fortunately there was no line so we were able to ride again. Then we rode the Autopia style cars. I tried to get pictures but it was hard as both of our cars were moving. (Anthony and Bob rode together.) There was a line so we weren't able to do consequetive rides there. Too bad as there was screaming when Anthony had to get out of his car. (A theme here.)

Then we headed off to KidzLand. Kidzland was clearly created when Paramount (or was it even before them?) owned Great America. It was pretty heavily themed in Scooby-Doo. We rode the kiddie carousel there and Anthony got to sit on Scooby, his Aunt Erika's favorite character. His favorite ride by FAR was Kidzair, a ride in a pretend airship. We rode that one SEVEN times. When we tried to get off the first time there was screaming. Fortunately no line so we rode again. Still screaming but I wanted to check out the other rides. Then we came back and rode it twice more, then one more trip back for three more rides.

We ended our day with two more carousel rides, this time on the top deck. It was a good day.

My review of the two parks. I liked Gilroy Gardens a lot. It has very little to offer to the over 10 set in terms of rides. It has some great rides for little people, though. The gardens are beautiful, as are the rest of the grounds. Its also relatively small. Because it is oriented to younger folk, there weren't roaming gangs of teenagers and the like. It also felt very new.

Great America had a reasonable selection of rides and activities for the smaller folk. You definitely had to get deeper into the park to reach them. Kidzville felt a little run-down. It was definitely an older area of the park and could use some refurbishment. An adjacent area, Nickelodean Central was much newer. It had a great water-play area that Anthony will probably enjoy in a few years. Great America also has its own water park. That's a ways off for us. Obviously it also has a huge selection of roller-coasters and the like. We'll have to go back without Anthony.

In general, as a family outing I really liked Gilroy Gardens better. Too bad its an hour away!

Front Yard Friday

Last Friday we had our second "Front Yard Friday of the summer. Basically, they are mini block parties with minimal work on the part of the organizers.

Paul and Sarah (Robert's parents) pull their barbecue out into the front yard, set up some card tables and we have a bring-your-own-dinner/potluck. Totally informal. The kids play, the grown-ups chat, its fabulous!

Last time we got official permission from the city to block off the street. However, the police department said we couldn't do this too often--its work for them. So this time we decided it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. We blocked off the street and our plan was that if someone complained we would deny knowing who put up the cones/garbage cans. Of course, we weren't too worried abour someone complaing because all the affected houses were outside with us!

The top picture was Kathryn's daughter Rachel, "Queen of the Little Kids" pushing everyone on her old swing. Anthony stood in line with the other kids but didn't get to ride.

I love the wagon picture. I believe A. the 8 year old next door was pulling the wagon at that point. He gave a whole bunch of wagon rides.

How does he know???

Anthony "helped" unpack after our camping trip last weekend. I turned around and he was chowing down the rest of the Hershey bar. What I don't know is... How does he know what packages contain the good stuff? We ate the s'mores after he went to bed. He's never seen a Hershey bar before. Yet somehow he knew what and where the chocolate was.

Family Meals

Now that Anthony is getting older he sits at the table with us in his new chair and we eat meals as a family. I think he eats better when he's eating with us. I think he eats more and he's definitely more likely to try new things. Last week he ate two piece of spinach (and would have eaten more if it weren't all gone). He also tried roast zucchini and yellow squash. He spit both pieces out, but at least he tried them.

For the most part his table manners have really improved. Generally there is no throwing of food. He also is reasonable good at keeping his plate on the table rather than dumping out all the food. Still likes to play see-food, though. He also tends to bang his cup/spoon/bowl on the table. That's a big no-no.

We all eat breakfast together every day. On weekends we also have dinner together. Weeknights it too hard--Bob doesn't get home until 6:30 and I can't cook and keep an eye on Anthony at the same time. Besides, we play outside with Claire and Robert until dinnertime!

Big Basin Part 2

Well, we didn't get the best night sleep. I don't blame Anthony for most of it. There was a kid in another site coughing all night. After spending quite a few nights listening to Anthony cough I seem to be a little hyper-sensitive to it. Unfortunately I didn't have his inhaler with us, otherwise I'd have gone over to offer it to that poor family.

I was already awake (way too early) when Anthony woke up unhappy about being in the pack and play in the tent. I just pulled him out and he happily went back to sleep next to me. Of course, that meant I had no pillow as I was a little worried about suffocation. And, of course, the poor kid in the ajacent site was still coughing!

Anthony woke up a little early and we let him play in the other room of the tent. He had some fun with Daddy's hat. Then he discovered that he could zip and un-zip the tent door. He spent quite awhile doing that. Next thing I knew, he reached out and brought a whole pile of dirt and leaves inside to play with. Groan!
The bottom picture is Anthony standing inside a big stump that was at the entrance to our camp. The older boys made it into their treehouse and spent hours playing on it!

Summary of our trip report: I'll do it again in an instant! Anthony had so much fun playing in the woods and was a real trooper.

What I'd change: Pack and play is of dubious utility. I think one enormous air mattress with room for 3 might be more useful.

Camping at Big Basin

We took Anthony camping at Big Basin State Park this weekend, our first trip of the season. We went with Celisa and her boys and everyone had a grand old time!

As we got out of the cars I commented to C. that we were already off to a better start than our two camping trips last year. Her response, "Because he's still in the clothes he started out in??" Yep, when you start off low, you have nowhere to go but up. (Little dude got carsick last year.)

We had lunch, set up camp and played in the campsite for awhile. Anthony had so much fun running around camp exploring. There were stumps to run around, roots to climb over, a downed log to walk on and a tent to go in and out of!

After settling in, we headed into the main area of the park and took a 1/2 mile walk on the Redwood Loop Trail, an easy nature trail. I'm guessing that Anthony walked about 1/2 of it, maybe a little more. Some of the time he rode on my back in the Ergo and Daddy carried him on his shoulders some.

We all spent quite awhile playing inside the hollow tree. C's boys are 6 and 4 and all three boys were running around the tree, inside the tree, around the tree....

We ended the day with S'mores and a short campfire. Grown-up s'mores were made with Ghiradelli chocolate (the caramel filled kind) instead of Hershey's bars. Vast improvement!

Bedtime didn't go smoothly, but it finally went! Someone was overexcited and overtired.