Thursday, April 30, 2009

Loving CPK

Remember Vera's tour of the fire station...well, this time around she got to see the workings of California Pizza Kitchen. Firefighters or pizza, hard to choose which one was more exciting to her.

The tour started with the kids scoping out the kitchen area. Our guide, a manager at the restaurant, was extremely friendly and good with the kids.


Thrilled, just waiting for the fun to began.


A little sauce, a little cheese, and you have the startings of a yummy pizza.


Vera is her daddy's girl. She chose olives and pineapple, to be honest not two flavors I would have mixed.


Brownies at 10am in the morning, spoiled!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Funny Expressions + Sleeping Bag

Funny expression #1:

Funny expression #2:

What is that little bear doing? Oh, he is camping, going to bed in his sleeping bag.

Weekend Fun

Our weekend again passed in a blur of family time and chores. Blink and the weekend is over and Monday is here. Here it is in recap:

This is how we have fun now, we make Keller wear funky sunglasses and try to snap a picture as fast as we can. The funniest part was that he was loving it and had a HUGE, cheesy grin on his face the entire time.



The zoo finally has its farm animals again and you can feed them. The pigs were loving Vera and we all took turns feeling their snouts. So weird.

Keller expression: What the freak is that?


We also went to the Hot Lava Concert that the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation threw at Padaro Grill.


Keller's new face...loving it!


They had face/arm painting. The kids could pick out a stamp design and then the volunteers would paint it in for them. There were bees, ice cream cones, butterflies...all kinds of fun shapes and designs. Vera chose a football. I would be a total liar if I said that I didn't try to convince her to pick something a little cuter, a little more feminine. She was set on the football.



Friday, April 24, 2009

Friday Musings

Today was one of those days where a million things went wrong, but the pictures are cute...so in the end who cares. My cell phone busted, literally, as it fell from my shoulder as I was talking to my stepfather. Four years ago I had never owned a cell phone. Now, the phone is literally hooked to my ear or in my pocket most of the day. And, as it broke I had that moment where I felt like I should just curl up and cry. Luckily the hubby prevailed and talked me through switching to one of my old phones that he has kept around. Why am I writing this much about a cell phone? Ugh, why am I so addicted to my cell?

My other issue today is that my daughter has for some reason aged from 3 to 13 in the time span of a month. Attitude and talking back are on the menu lately and whew it drives me crazy. Smiling for pictures is off as well and instead we get a variety of Vera expressions.



Keller is a little more agreeable to having his photo taken.




Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Random Collection of Thoughts

1. Breaking glass in my house is one of those things that drives me crazy, especially when I am barefoot. Along this same train of thought. Why is my first instinct always to reach out and try to kick/catch the glass item that is falling? Today a salad dressing container went down and I tried to save it with my toe...which hurt...a lot. Last time it was a Pyrex bowl that I bounced off my heel.

2. You know how a dog's leg thumps as you rub his belly, that is Keller when he nurses. His little leg makes circles the entire time that he is feeding. If he is not thumping his leg he beats on my chest like a drum.

3. I bought the coolest pizza game for Vera today. Jan, you are going to love it!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Gotta Love a Painted Tree

Hot weather in Santa Barbara is the perfect time for BBQing. Mo and the G-Man were up for hosting, which fully works well for us because they have a very kid friendly house...with a TIRE SWING! There is nothing I would have loved more as a kid than to have a tire swing. They also have a very cool, painted dead tree. Seeing that tree really made me love them even more.


Keller loving the swing. Well, kind of, he couldn't really decide if he wanted to swing or to whimper when Daddy took his hand off.

Of all the hundreds of photos I take I get a few that I really like, this is one of them.



Fun for all ages!


Add a hula hoop and Vera was a happy camper.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Roomies

Nonno came to visit us this weekend, he and J headed to the Long Beach Grand Prix for their annual trip. As most of you know, with a two bedroom house company kind of has to squeeze in wherever they can fit. At the moment we have decided that when we have an overnight visitor Vera gets a roomate...which she loves!

This morning the boys were already on their way to the race when we were eating breakfast. Vera was trying to explain to me her conversation with Nonno at 3am.

Vera: Nonno was talking to me in the middle of the night. I was talking to him and he was talking to me.

Me: What did he say?

Vera: "He said, 'Shhhhh!'"

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tie-Dye Mania

What I really wish is for tie-dye to be acceptable wear all the time as an adult. I love it and it is good for the whole family (just don't tell J)! The kids are so darn cute wearing anything multi-colored and as an added bonus it hides all stains. These are the finished products from the our baby shower tie-dying experience. Vera and I now having matching dresses. Well, hers is a dress and mine is a top....same style...gotta love shopping in the little girl's department.


Vera dyed all of these onesies on her own. At certain points I forgot that she was handling the dye and I would look over at her and she would just have her pieces drowning in different colors. They all turned out amazing, which always makes me think that I should attack art at times more like a kid. Instead, I over analyze what colors are going to go together and try to figure out how they will look.





Appointments

We headed out today for Vera's 3 year old and Keller's 9 month appointment. Whew! Lesson learned, I will never schedule the two kiddos for a joint appointment again. It just felt like chaos getting both of them checked, their shots given, and my questions answered. Plus, it felt like a very long appointment and by the end I wanted out of that little room almost as much as Keller.

Vera is weighing in at a very healthy 40 pounds and is 41 inches tall. We are going back into battle against her curving feet, kind of a bummer after all that has already been done. The doc just feels like now is the time to change things. She was also due for a shot and was a champ. Sitting calmly on my lap she didn't make a peep before or after the shot. In fact, she threw more of a fit when I was taking off the shot band-aid than when the shot was given. Should I type shot one more time just for fun?

Keller's appointment was a bit concerning. Turns out our little boy is 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. I don't know if this in itself would be a concern, but the fact that he is anemic is. We are upping the iron for the next couple of weeks to see if we can make a change. He didn't weather his shots as well as Vera did hers and so I had a cranky baby on my hands today. He always seems to break a small fever after.

Here is to hoping that everything makes a change for the better in the next couple of weeks. Their health problems are minor, yet still hard to hear. You want everything to be great at these appointments and it is a little disconcerting when there are action items (so business like) that need to be taken.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!





Saturday, April 11, 2009

Jack and Jill Baby Shower

Our friends Steph and Bry are having a baby! We are so excited that Keller and Marcus will be hanging out in just a few months. To celebrate the soon-to-be arrival of their little boy we helped host a Jack and Jilly Baby Shower (= co-ed, not twins) this weekend.

Steph is a fellow crafter and so tie-dye onesies seemed like the perfect fit for her shower. What, you want to know how to dye with the best of them, here I am explaining it in all its fun details:


I had never seen this game before! Bry and Steph were so darn cute putting the diaper on the grungy (but very cute) bear using only one arm each. Talk about teamwork.


One of these girls doesn't look like the others. Am I that tall?!?


Vera spent the last hour of the party creating a habitat for her new pet turtle. Seriously, doesn't this scream that this kid needs a pet?


Keller trying to explain to Amy that not getting a nap = cranky baby. We love you Amy, thank you again for the cute clothes! :)

What?


Is this not the best swing you have ever seen?

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Animal Encyclopedia


Remember when I mentioned how much Vera loves mail. Ta-Ta, Opa, a few others, and my very own Aunt Stephanie took the hint and Vera has been receiving fun items ever since. Vera has loved getting the letters, you know what she loves even more...packages! Yesterday Vera got a delivery from Amazon, an Easter present from Aunt Steph and Sandy. Inside was an Animal Ecyclopedia and she is loving it.

For Vera's bedtime story we were studying mammals. On the first page there is five mini pictures that show parts of five animals. First time through Vera nailed the elephant, zebra, and the tiger. With a little help from me we found the bear and the rat. There was still one picture left and I just kind of skipped over it. It was grey, wrinkly skin and me being oh so intelligent knew that it was a hippopotamus.

The book was put down for the night. The next morning I was nursing Keller and while I was with him Vera was in her room reading. I go to see her and she is super excited. "It's a seal Mommy!" Okay, I am thinking silly girl, I know it is a hippopotamus. She then proceeds to show me the picture that matches the seal part...darned if she wasn't right!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair. I picked up this wig on the cheap at Kay-Bee toys when it closed down in Santa Barbara. $2 well spent I think.



How long can Vera play with water, tupperware containers, and a medicine dropper? Well, when you add watercolors to the equation the answer is an entire hour and a half.