Monsters

For some reason Alex & Zachary love talking about monsters. Maybe it's a boy thing. They fight imaginary monsters, pretend that they (or mom or dad) are monsters, and just talk about them in general alot. We do have one movie about monsters, Monsters Inc., but those monsters are nice for the most part. Luckily, all this monster talk doesn't keep them awake at night but......Zachary does ask about monsters getting him quite often when he's in his bed ready for nap or nighttime. He doesn't seem really scared but he asks about them. I've started telling him that he doesn't have to worry about monsters because mom & dad take care of them and they can't get in the house. This seems to make him pretty happy. But then, what exactly does mom do to keep the monsters out? You can't just have a simple answer and leave it at that. Well......mom gives the monsters a hi-ya! kick, or a one-two punch, or I put them in a headlock and give them a knuckle sandwich (they love talking about knuckle sandwiches too). I never thought I'd been having conversations like that with my kids but it's kinda cute and it makes them happy.

We're going to Vegas!

Yea! We're going to Las Vegas next month with my sister and her husband & possibly a few others (not sure yet). I know we just got back from a big trip but this is adults only, we're leaving the kiddos with grandparents. When we got back from our road trip we discussed taking a separate girls trip & boys trip but it didn't really work out and then it turned into this. We'll be staying at the Flamingo this time. It's not the newest on the strip but it was a great deal and a great location pretty much in the middle of the strip. I can't wait!

**Now both of my sisters are coming!! Watch out Las Vegas!**

Slimming down.....again

I'm not going to bother everyone with weekly posts about what I'm eating or if I worked out. That didn't really work when I tried it before. That time I didn't try very hard either. This time I am. It all started when I came home from our vacation in mid-June. I had decided before we left that I was going to get serious about losing some weight when we got back. Of course the vacation itself added an extra five pounds! I've been watching what I eat - big time. I'm using a website called SparkPeople to track calories. It also tells me how many I should eat a day along with how much protein, carbs, fat, etc. I'm borrowing a treadmill from my parents but it's so ancient that I've only used it twice so far. Instead (& I know it's not the same) I just got a Wii Fit and a Wii Active. I set up the Wii Fit yesterday but haven't tried the active yet. This is going to be part of my work out routine. So, if you've noticed the new ticker at the bottom of the right hand column you will see that I've lost nine pounds already. I've got a long way to go to be where I'd ultimately like to be but I feel I've made a good start. I'll update it from time to time along with a post too but I won't talk about it everyday. Or at least I'll try not to!

My baby is three!

Today is Zachary's 3rd birthday. I can't believe that I have two 3 year olds. I have no more babies. I don't even have toddlers anymore - they are preschoolers, I guess. A little bit sad. Yesterday we had a birthday party at home with a few friends. We played lots of games and had a good time.

We had a race to see who could pop a balloon with their bottom the fastest.

We played pin the tail on the donkey.

Bowling was a big hit!

I'm glad that we hadn't planned on playing outside because we got some much needed rain during the party. Of course we were on the deck throwing water balloons when the rain started so the kids (& dads) were already wet!

After the official party was over we cooked out hamburgers & hotdogs for all who wanted to stay.

Birthday celebration #1

My sister was in from out of town (way out of town) this week and so the boys and I headed to my parents to spend some time with her and her kids. (Chris had to work and couldn't come.) Since we were there we decided to have a little family birthday party for Zachary who turns three on the 19th. My cousin also came over with her 1 year old so we had six kids running around. We had birthday cupcakes and presents. The next day the kids all played in the sprinkler & a little pool.

Is this not the sweetest little face? Elizabeth and the boys are 4th cousins! (Her mom and I are 2nd cousins so I think that's right.)
Zachary got sooo excited when we started singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

After all the kids were done playing in the water we recycled. Alex & Zachary watered Mimi's plants. Party #2 with our friends is this weekend. More later.

Who needs a water table

when you can play in a bucket of water on the deck? And who needs swim trunks either? Not us! I actually had been looking at water tables on line because we still don't have a good yard to play in and it's just so hot anyway with 100+ temps most of the time. Yesterday I decided to just fill up a big tub of water, throw in some squirty bathtub toys, and strip the boys down to their skivvies (we don't have any neighbors) to play on the deck. They LOVED it! They splashed and squirted with their toys (and got soaked too). The boys thought it was fun to make wet handprints on the concrete porch. And of course we had to take several breaks to rest and have a cold drink. What a great day.

A little bit of bragging!

Yesterday was Alex's first day EVER to be clean and dry the entire day...and, get this....he actually even cared about it! He's woken up dry in the morning a few times this past week and he did again yesterday. I told him that I wanted him to try to stay clean and dry all day (as I often say) and to tell me when he needs to go and we will run, run, run to the potty. (Or run like the wind, as Mimi would tell him.) As the morning wore on I kept reminding him and he would take off to the potty or not, even doing his regularly scheduled duty there. I was excited and so he was excited. I told him that if he could stay clean and dry all day then he could have a treat at the end of the day. A popsicle was talked about every time he went to the potty and I just reminded him "not yet". Finally after dinner when he was still clean and dry he picked his treat - a bowl of icecream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and sprinkles. The best part was that nobody else got any treat at all no matter how much whining Zachary did. He was beaming when I took this picture of him enjoying his treat.

I printed this picture and hung it up in his room to be a reminder. This morning he woke up dry again and after going potty pointed up to his picture on the wall and said he was going to go in the potty all day. I wish I could say that today went as well as yesterday but we were away from the house all morning so it was a no-go. I'm just happy that he finally cares. Maybe this was the turning point!

Staple removal & check up

Yesterday I took Zachary to his pediatrician to have his staple taken out. Since it's so close to his birthday I also scheduled his 3 year check up for the same time. He did so great! I was really worried about lots of crying when the staple came out but it only took a second and he didn't even flinch. What a big boy! On top of that he had to get one more immunization. While looking at his shot records, it turned out that his Hep A vaccinations were done too close together so the 2nd one had to be redone. He was a trooper again and had no tears. My big almost 3 year old (next weekend) has finally hit the growth charts for weight with an all time record weight of 26.75 pounds (6%)! He's getting taller too at 35.75 inches (14%). Developmentally he still seems to be pretty much on track. Good job, Zachary!

San Diego Zoo & Universal Studios

I never really finished up our trip pictures & reviews. We went to the San Diego Zoo towards the end of our time in California. It was a nice day but as usual, most of the animals weren't very active. Everyone had a good time. I won't post a ton of pictures of animals because everybody's seen that. There was one really gorgeous peacock that just stood in the middle of the path and everybody had to stop and look.

Don't worry, it's not real!

The last day took us to Universal Studios. Unfortunately, I left my camera in my beach bag so I don't have pictures to post. Again we saw several characters like Curious George but the boys refused to take a picture with him. We did a few things with the boys and then also rode one without them using the baby swap line. Great idea! That concludes our trip. Now back to our regularly scheduled postings......

Fashion Victim

or Cutie Patootie?
I'll let you decide.
By the way, Zachary's head is doing fine. It doesn't even seem to bother him except when I touch it to put medicine on it or he lays back directly on it. We've got an appointment with his pediatrician to take the staple out on Thursday.

Another ER visit

This time it was for Zachary. He and Alex were "fighting" with their big Incredible Hulk hands and Zachary got knocked down right into the dreaded coffee table (we really should get rid of that thing now that it's sent two kids to the ER!). He hit the back of his head, possibly on a knob for a drawer or maybe just the corner but boy did it bleed! I threw on some clothes (I was still in pj's) and scooped him up to go to the emergency room. One of my sisters and her two teenage boys were here along with one teenage girlfriend so they stayed home with Alex. We had just taken the carseats out of the car because the big kids and Chris were going to go tubing on the river and needed the room. Chris just held Zachary in his lap buckled in the seatbelt together and applied pressure to the back of his head. The bleeding didn't last too long but we thought it would need stitches. Nearly three hours later we made it home with one staple in the back of Zachary's head. He did really well and didn't seem to be in much pain after the initial incident. He was happy and sang songs at the doctor. Of course we can't take him to the pool this afternoon as planed but we'll try to find something else fun for the little boys to do.

We'll go back to his regular doctor in 5-7 days to have the staple removed.

This is a cute fireworks craft that the boys and I did a few days ago. It's made out of pipe cleaners cut in half with the tips dipped in glue and then glitter.

Happy 4th of July!

Laguna Beach

We took all sorts of beach things on the trip with us but never really bothered to check the weather. Most of the time it was too cool for the beach, in the low 70's. But darn it! - we wanted to go to the beach. One morning we packed up a few beach things, put the boys in their swim suits and off we went. I only put on a suit top and capri pants thinking there was no way it would be warm enough for less (& I had a t-shirt on top too). Chris planned to take trunks but forgot them. So what happened? I was a beautiful day! The water was still really really cold but the sun was out and it was nice. The boys didn't really want all the way in the water anyway so it worked out. I rolled up my pants and was fine. The boys liked to stand at the edge of the water and squeal when the wave got their legs.Zachary was wearing new swim trunks & swim shirt from grandma that were so long! He was really protected from the sun!

Of course we also had to dig in the sand. The boys thought it was fun to be buried up to their bottoms in the sand. They stood right in our big hole and let us cover them back up.

I had wanted to go back again after lunch and naps but I got a little too pink out there. It was fun anyway.

Long Beach Aquarium

You didn't think I was done, did you? I don't think Long Beach Aquarium was the actual name of the aquarium but I don't remember it (or feel like looking it up) so sorry about that. It was nice. The boys had a great time getting to touch quite a few things like sting rays, sharks, and star fish. They even got to take part in a little skit in a childrens section. Alex wanted to do it and then changed his mind so although he went on the stage with Zachary & Daddy (daddy had to read the lines) he didn't wear a costume or have a part. He did at one part though, grab the mike and start talking. What a goober!

The children's skit - The Case of the Missing Mahi. The detective is interviewing Zachary. The cutest little octopus ever! He didn't take the Mahi.