Memorial Day Weekend

Daddy got 4 days off for Memorial Day, so we took full advantage of the family time before things get crazy with moving and travelling separately.

Saturday, we did our normal weekend grocery trip and then took a hike over to the horses place again with some carrots and an old apple for them. The horses weren't around this time, but we still explored the trails around the area.

Sunday, we went to Sea World and did some swimming in the pool and jacuzzi.

Monday, we did a lot of cleaning and packing preparation and then went back to the pool, after Miss Kylie finally woke up (she slept from 7:30pm-5:30am and then went back to sleep until 9am!) We made cookies and chocolate zucchini cake for Will's last day of preschool this week and both kids napped like champs...at the same time!

Sea World

We get to go to Sea World once a year for free because of the Here's to the Heroes program offered by Bush Gardens and Sea World. Mommy loves Sea World and we wanted to go one more time before moving, so Daddy said we could go this weekend.

Will went to bed last night in full anticipation of seeing dolphins. For some reason, he's really in love with dolphins. He was so excited this morning, he asked every ten minutes, "Where's Sea World, Mommy?" all the way to Sea World.

We saw the polar bear, penguins, dolphins, killer whales, the Shamu show, Elmo, Zoe, Abbey, Grover, and so much more. Will got soaked in Elmo's Bay of Play, climbed up a huge net sculpture with Mommy, and walked all over Sea World for 6 hours straight. We even got to touch a dolphin!

At the Shamu show, Will announced, "I want whale like that one come live in my bathtub." Ha. Good luck, buddy.

Kylie ate and then slept attached to Daddy. When we got home, Will requested to go swimming where he picked up swimming where he left off last year. We're sure looking forward to a fun filled summer in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia.

Blue Jean Baby

The kids have been getting good use out of their respective wardrobes lately. Almost every day this week, Kylie has been in her 2nd outfit of the day by 9am. Luckily, Mommy captured some pictures of her in her first pair of jeans BEFORE she spit up all over them.

Will's another story. He usually makes it to 11:30 before needing a change and usually it's because he found some sort of water/mud source at the park (sprinkler, spray ground, water fountain) and had his share of fun. Luckily, we keep changes of clothes in the car for these occasions....which we replenish nightly.

7 Weeks and an Artist

Kylie is 7 weeks old today! It's been unusually cool here, which has made it difficult to dress her in all her cute clothes...since she basically owns only summer/spring clothes. Lately we've been pairing some of those cute dresses with pants, lest Kylie grow out of all those clothes before the hot weather arrives...or we arrive in the hot weather in New England. Here's a dress Grammie bought for Kylie.

In other news, after reading about Mairead's new drawing skills, Mommy was inspired to photograph Will's newest drawing skill. (ssshhhh...don't tell Mairead...we mailed it to her!)

He's been drawing people lately. This consists of a head, two eyes, a mouth and pants. Will always leaves a little space there between the head and pants, but he has yet to add the body.

Breakfast, Anyone?

Target had giant boxes of cereal on sale yesterday and since Daddy is on the rifle range all week and therefore leaving for work at 3am, Mommy bought Lucky Charms to cheer him up and get him through his week. Unfortunately, the giant box does not fit in our cereal cabinet so it was within Will's reach this morning when he decided to get his own (2nd) breakfast.

Meanwhile, Mommy was busy playing with Smiley Kylie. (it rhymes!) Kylie smiles and coos a lot, but not when the camera is in sight so it's pretty hard to catch.

S'Mores

Will and Daddy recently watched The Sandlot. Will loved it. A dog + kids playing baseball = happiness for Will. One part, though, he apparently paid attention to, was the camp out part where they make S'Mores. When we were in the grocery store this morning, they had a display of S'Mores ingredients for Memorial Day. Will recognized the picture and said, "I want make those treats."

We happen to have a fire pit in our storage closet outside that we've only used once, so we decided to give it another whirl this evening. Will was thrilled.

Daddy made the fire. Will came outside, squatted down and said, "Helloooo fire!"

Daddy and Will watched until the coals were ready for the marshmallows. *side note: the way Will says 'marshmallow' is maybe the cutest thing ever*

So, S'Mores were made. Will opened his up and declared, "Holy gooey in there!" He's going through a phase where he puts the word 'holy' in front of just about everything. (holy poopy diaper, holy laundry, holy fuzz, etc.) He'll be playing Batman in the next movie.

A Fuzz Problem

Will is 2 years and 9 months old today. Today he left his pediatrician utterly speechless. It probably won't be the 1st time, either.

You see, Will loves collecting fuzz. Fuzz from carpets, clothes, blankets, etc. Recently, though, he's been sticking it places it really shouldn't be.

Exhibit One:

Last Sunday, Will went down for his nap and all was peaceful in the house for about 10 minutes. Screaming and sobbing coming from his room brought Mommy back in the bedroom where a tearful Will said, "I put my fuzz in my ear." Mommy looked but didn't see anything, so she brought Will out to the dining room table where operating room lights shine. Just barely, there, inside his ear, was a little string sticking out. Mommy summoned Daddy. Daddy fetched the tweezers. Daddy fished out the "little" string, but it just kept coming. When it was all out, Will was still crying as Mommy brought him back to his room. After many, "Does it still hurt?" "Can you hear?" questions, Will sniffled and sobbed, "I want ride in ambulance."

So. He was upset the ambulance didn't come for his owie. Sigh.

The next day, Mommy put the kids in the stroller and ran to the fire station. Very nice firemen oblidged and spoke to Will about putting things in his ears. They let him look at the ambulance the "safe way". With no owies.

We thought: lesson learned, right? nope.

Exhibit 2:

So, today, Will had his follow up check up for his ear infections. About 3 days ago, though, he started having a red, runny eye and one runny nostril. Mommy was suspicious. Daddy thought maybe pink eye?

Mommy: He seems better from the ears, but his right side has been runny lately, I'm wondering if he stuck something up his nose, could you check?

Dr. Wells: Hmm...let me take a look, but it's been allergy season, so that's probably it.

Dr. Wells: Yeah, something's up there.

10-15 minutes later, she pulls out exhibit 2.

Will exclaims: "MY FUZZ! YOU FOUND IT! GOOD JOB, DR. WELLS!"

Poor Dr. Wells. Totally speechless. She did say it was the largest thing she's pulled from a nose in 12 years. She also took it out to show her collegues and then put it in a cup for us to take home to share with Daddy...and all of you.

Houston, we have a fuzz problem.

Silhouettes

We went back to Stroller Strides yesterday. It was a nice, sunny day, perfect for running and exercising at the park. Kylie was what you call not too cooperative in the stroller but she'll get used to it.

After Stroller Strides, there was a playgroup where a lady came to cut silhouettes of the kids. Mommy didn't sign up for it because we weren't sure we would be there, but, we won the raffle prize of a free silhouette! The lady, Judith Housel, actually cuts the silhouettes right then and there out of sticky black paper. She just looks at the kids and snip snip snip, there's your kid...on paper! It's really amazing.

Shortcake

Kylie had to have a few outfit changes today.

In the morning, before preschool, Will joined Kylie for a little play time under the baby gym. Kylie already adores Will, and she makes all sorts of sounds to him and smiles at him and follows his voice and face around the room.

After preschool, Kylie needed a new outfit. It was finally sunny out (we're in the season they call "May Gray" here), so Kylie went with a seasonal theme. Will walked into the room and said, "Oh, Kylie, you look so yummy! I eat you strawberry Kylie!" and then he made eating noises at her. Doesn't that just explain why she adores him?

She did look pretty yummy, though. Like Strawberry Shortcake.

6 Weeks

Yes indeed, it's been 6 weeks already! Mommy had her 6 week post-partum check up today and was given the go-ahead to resume all normal activity. Ah-hmm. We'll pretend she waited until today to do that. More impressive, though, is that Mommy is only 2 pounds away from her pre-baby weight. Thank-you, Kylie and Will, you keep Mom in shape.

Kylie has grown much more expressive over the last week, and she coos and makes cute sounds which Will often translates for us. Usually these sounds end up meaning things like, "Oh, Kylie wants to go to the park!" or, "Kylie needs a snack!" Uh huh. Foggy translations, I think.

Afternoon Hike

After nap time yesterday, we decided to go for a little hike on the trails near our house. There are a bunch of trails through the little valley over there, and we haven't really explored that many of them but it's an excellent way to exhaust the boy. So off we went.

We hiked along while Will ran and shouted, "I hiking!". He collected rocks and put them all in his pocket. He also collected handfulls dirt in his pocket for some reason.

We came to a fork in the trail and Daddy spotted horses in the distance, so we headed in that direction.

We're still not sure what these two horses were doing there, in a fenced in area labled as an ecological reserve for the University of California, but Daddy was pretty fascinated with them. They were fascinated with us, too.

We hiked up the biggest hill we could find, and then down the other side. Good old fashioned tiring out for our almost 3 year old. and his parents. Kylie just slept through it strapped to Daddy.