okay just one!

Baby Tuesday on Sunday

I thought now that Easter is over, that I would have got Baby Tuesday up actually on Tuesday.

Not the case.

But luckily, I have these cute pics of Gilroy Gardens to show everyone!

Gil the Garlic epitomizes the charm of Gilroy Gardens. How funny is it that they make an entire theme park around the idea of produce?! Adorable.

And you should notice that Gil is short, like it's not a regular adult in that suit. It's either a kid or a person-of-short-stature -- either way, also adorable.

I was so glad that the kids went over and stood by him for a picture.

Their friends wanted nothing to do with the giant garlic man, and I can see their point.

This is Kid C and her BFF Kid A. Thanks to my friend, Jenn, Kid A's mom, we got into the park FOR FREE! Her mom and dad live in Gilroy and it was free-locals day, so we got in with them, and then they hit the road, ha. Huge thanks to them. The admission price to the agro-wonderland is steep, so I can't say thanks enough for that.

They have here, the biggest soft serve ice cream cones that I have ever seen, especially for a couple of Pre-K's.

Jenn took this pic of her one the flower boats. We had a nice view of the Artichoke Dip ride, which we rode afterward.

We had some snacky snacks and then the kids examined the map on the [probably filthy] floor to plan our route.

Train ride! I really wanted them to have seatbelts on this one.

Because I could see a hospital visit in my future: mixing a 3 yr old's excitement for trains and an actual train ride.

The little sir with his gigantic ice cream. Yeah, he didn't finish it. And he needed a entire wardrobe change afterwards. (does anyone else's 3 yr old try eating the cone part before he eats the ice cream on top? omg.)

He looks kinda older here doesn't he?

Balloon ride! Me and Kid R were in our own balloon and Jenn and girl-Kid-R were in their own. We let the big girls fly solo. That's the advantage to girls, they can be trusted not to leap out(!)

The goldfish [cracker] ride. Little kid rides that I don't have to get on with them, my favorites.

I have some really cute easter pics, but I'll save those for next B.T. They are excellent!...

Baby Tuesday on Thursday

**UPDATE** I'm saved! Jenn posted for me! Check it out

I still have 20 minutes of Thursday left, and I'm running on fumes, but if I don't do this now, it aint' happenin' this week.

Um and this will be the only pic this week. I'm simply just not going to get up and get the camera cord.

The kids have today and tomorrow off, which I didn't quite figure out until yesterday evening. Not the school's fault, totally my brain's fault.

Anyway, they went to their favorite hourly kid care this morning and I scrambled at work to cram as much "doing" at work as I could before I had to go get them. I know I shouldn't leave Kid R there when it's naptime, bad things happen.

In fact, I was late because of aforementioned scrambling and cramming, and when I arrived, Kid R had a fresh rugburn on his temple from some incident. Fatigue related, no doubt!

There was a need for driving to the shore this afternoon. Very real need. So we went, and they happily watched Oswald episodes on my iPhone in the backseat, and I drank in the mountains on the way over.

We stopped at the wharf. I got a mocha (which is how I am still awake right now) and the kids got ice cream from Marini's and hung around. Seagulls, check. Pigeons, check. Sealions, check.

(this was the one bench that wasn't windy or covered in seagull poop, score!)

Anecdote about sealions: Kid C and R really don't make stuff up. I think they do all the time, and then it ends up, they were telling the truth, I just didn't believe/understand them.

(Like the time that I lost the lid to the apple cider jug at the farmers market and Kid R said it was in his sippy cup. I said "no it's not" and then when I opened it up an hour later in the car, there it was, the lid to the cider inside the cup.)

That kind of thing happens all the time, and I kinda feel bad about it.

This afternoon as we drove on the wharf, I rolled down the windows and told the kids to hush and listen for sealions barking. They barely could stop talking for 2 seconds and then Kid C said "I heard one!" and I said "no you didn't that was just some lady laughing as we drove by her" and she insisted she had heard one. I didn't hear anything so I told them not to get their hopes up, and then parked the car down-a-ways.

And then, it turned out-- she was right. We came across 4 sealions that weren't in the usual perch. Barking. Then, I had to apologize.

-I gotta hit "publish" now before it's tomorrow in one minute!...

Baby Tuesday on Wednesday

Yeah I totally skipped last week. I was planning on doing it, and then things fell apart, so there's a blip in the baby matrix. I had thought that I would dedicate this week's BT to my dad, but it's still kinda hard seeing photos of him right now, so I'll wait on that.

I foolishly took the kids out to dinner a couple of weeks ago with some of our friends, but without Kevin. Kid C was fine, as usual, but Kid R was a FREAK! I had completely forgotten that he didn't take a nap that day.

Both my kids really like Kid K. Really really like her. They insisted on flanking her while she ate, and totally bumped out the other little girl.

Kid E, to the right of Kid C was a sweetheart about the whole thing. Her mom insists that she has a rotten side, but I've never seen it. She's a little angel in my book.

I dug up some of my phone pics from the fairy party. This was on the treasure hunt. Kid C was super motivated and made off like a bandit.

Fairy picnic.

Kid R pulls this coming-out-after-bedtime deal every few days. And he knows if it's just me in the living room, and he makes a really cute face and quietly plays with his toys, he can stay up.

He gets greedy eventually and begs to watch cartoons and that gets him sent back to bed, fer' sure. I took this pic when I was too tired to do anything about him, and he sat and watched TV with me.

I persuaded my "dink" friends to come with me to the farmers market with me and my loose cannons-- well just one loose cannon, the boy. They were good sports, and I'm sure the entire experience was yet another reason they will reference whenever the subject of "should we have kids?" comes up.

The farmers market also sells seafood, who knew?

If I hadn't had them with me, I would have considered buying a crab, but since it was hard enough just to buy and carry around the strawberries with them with me, I let remain a sideshow attraction.

I bet Matt said something scary to them about the crabs and probably gave 'em bad dreams (jk).

Then we tagged along on an errand Kristen had in Los Gatos and we hit Powells Sweet Shop.

Lindsey gave Kid R this dinosaur painting kit for his birthday and he was so excited about it. He kept waking up at night asking if he could paint dinosaurs (before we let him open it) so I was glad when he finally got it out of his system.

We have a serious dandelion invasion in our yard. If I didn't consider anyone else's opinion, I actually like dandelions, they're cute flowers and they make those fun fuzzy parachutes.

Kid C, pictured here with them obviously agrees.

But I feel pressure as a suburban home owner that we shouldn't have dandelions, because it implies that we're sloppy. Which we totally are.

So we reward the kids for picking them.

And Franklin isn't really our kid, but he kinda is. And he does funny stuff like this:

my inflammatory opinion for the day

Calling a Christian "religious" is like calling a handicapped person "retarded."

Baby Tuesday on Saturday

One pic and one video this week.

I didn't get any decent pics at the fairy birthday party Kid C attended last weekend, but of course the birthday girl's mom did and she blogs, so she did all the work for me.

Kid R got his mega tool set from GiGi for his birthday and he goes around "fixing" everything. Especially the table and chairs. I'm cool with wooden things being "fixed," just as long as he doesn't want to repair my laptop (!)

Oh no, gross, I zoomed in on this pic, and his face is all crusty from whatever he ate before I took the photo. Eewww!

I finally loaded the Valentines Day party that the kids had with their friends onto YouTube:

Baby Tuesday on Thursday

This installment brought to you by Ponyo (the kids are entranced in the other room). It also allowed me to get some last tax documents in order.

Kid R's birthday was actually on Monday, but we had the party on Tuesday in the middle of the day and I let the kids skip school that day and I took off of work.

My favorite pic of him.

I took it right after I put his birthday shirt on him.

Look at that face. So loveable. --Even though he tried to take his cake apart, his pinata apart, and opened up TWO of his gifts when I had my back turned! (he snuck them back into Kid C's room and they conspired against me!)

Post gift opening chaos. All the little boys were busy with his new trucks and showing him how they work.

Overwhelmed? That's a crazy expression.

Evaluating...

Of course his sister wanted to be all up in his business and "helping" with the gifts.

I needed a fly swatter to keep her back.

Me.

Here are some videos of him opening gifts. Kinda funny.

This is him meddling in the gifts. Much meddling.

Here's Kid R's BFF from school Kid T. And Kid C was his cake-lunch date at the counter.


Here is his fancy Umi Zoomi cake and corresponding cupcakes made by Rachael.

At the end of the party all the kids lined themselves up on the couch to watch Nick Jr. So cute.

And Mojito was there to catch every crumb.

Grandma made a big chocolate cherry cake for him the night before. needless to say, he's had his cake quota for the month.

Thanks Nonnie and Gramps (his great grandmother and grandfather) for the trucks!

Presents!

On Monday night we gave him all his family's gifts, Kevin's parents, my family's and the ones from Kevin and me.

And here he is opening my mom's gift to him.

He LOVES it. Really really really loves it.

Baby Tuesday on Thursday

Less than a week until Baby R's birthday. I can feel the buzz in the air, almost like Christmas.
I must admit, that it's much nicer planning his birthday.

He's so simple. He wants his friends over, and he wants cake, and he wants presents.

He doesn't care about a theme.

And when we went to his friend's birthday party last week at Chuck E. Cheese, he didn't ask for the same treatment. Even when Cricket pestered him, and *told him* to want his birthday there, he was indifferent about it.



Here's the soon-to-be-3 yr old playing middle-east-kidnap (j/k) with Stephanie's headband.



We went to a park one morning and Kid C got it into her head that she was going to have a picnic at the park. So she got a plastic bag and loaded it up with items and got a marker and wrote her name on it and set it by the door, all on her own.
She made SURE that I picked up the bag and brought it with us.
When we got to the park , she got her bag and opened it up and brought out this blanket and a pair of slippers. She asked me to help her spread it out and she sat on it, took off her shoes and put on her slippers and began eating her snacks.
Gentile.



Here in Sockswithsandalsland, there aren't many gimmicky chain restaurants. Being from Dallas, I love gimmicky restaurants, and I seek them out whenever possible (like the just put in a Wing Stop, holla!).
Armadillo Willy's tries to pawn itself off as "Real Texas BBQ."
Now, I know what TX BBQ tastes like, and it is not even close. Seriously.
But, they have a great "look" and they're nearby and I like them anyway. The way I might like a place in China for trying to serve me a cheeseburger and french fries, even if they smell a bit like fish sauce and bok choy.
I took these photos the last time we were there as a family, and the kids scarfed down their corndogs like they hadn't eaten for days.

...the boy is up...I gotta go tend...

nope, not hip

The Chicago Auto Show unveiled the "Honda Odyssey Concept" as a cooler looking minivan...

Uh, no. It's still a minivan. It will still make your butt look bigger just for driving it. And it will still make you too embarrassed to valet park it.

And "concept cars" are supposed to really be amazing and unattainable. This is neither.

4th generation Odyssey= FAIL.

Baby Tuesday

Alright, getting a jump on this week's BT.

Baby R is in the living room watching Diego, and Kevin and Kid C are still asleep in bed.

I'm coming down with a cold, but Baby R has made a full recovery, thank goodness.

And best of all, I didn't have to take him to a doctor and mess with all that weekend/holiday, on call stuff.

Normally, I try not to take both kids to the store. And my instinct is to say "no" to these types of carts, but I did it anyway.

He lasted about 2 aisles before he leaped out and started touching everything. Kid C was happy to watch Oswald on my iPhone the whole time in the "car."

Btw, I love Oswald. Not like how I love Charlie and Lola. Because I would watch Charlie and Lola even if I didn't have kids. But Oswald is super mellow but not teletubbie mellow. It's like reading a bedtime story. No rambunctious songs, no whining, no yelling, any conflict is calm and collected. I highly recommend downloading the whole season like I did on iTunes. It's worth it.

The kids got their first real haircuts the other day. I didn't go to a kid cut place because I thought Kid C would have more fun thinking she was doing something "grown-up." This place is near our house, and I could tell that the lady wasn't too pleased about me showing up unannounced on a Saturday with two kid haircut requests. I'm pretty sure she charged me the adult cut price for both of them, so I guess she got back at me that way.

Anyway, Baby R was so adorable I couldn't stand it.

Baby R took this pic with my phone. He also took pics of my knee, his shoe and the magazines, but I left those out.

We originally bought a pack of Valentines tattoos to send to Cousin S, but then Kid C wanted a pack too, so we got double.

The funniest thing is that they wanted ALL of them at once, and ALL of them on their arms. The kids got tattoo sleeves before I did! ;)

This was right before bathtime, that's why his diaper is half off.

This is video of him and his salon visit.

Baby Tuesday on Thursday

Baby R just barfed.

Barfed all over our bed, 4 layers of our bedding, himself and worst of all his blankie.

It pretty much happens that everytime he's sick and barfs, he barfs on his blankie which means that it has to go in the washing machine and that he can't have it for about 2 hours. And then that means it's nearly impossible for him to rest/sleep for those 2 hours.

Right now I have Bob the Builder on the portable DVD player (thank you again, Sam) in his room-- oh I just heard him come out of his room. I think he's come back in our room so that he can barf on our second set of bedding...

...okay after about 10 min of him sitting on my lap on the floor over some towels crying about how much his stomach hurts he went back in his room and is now pitifully saying "mommy" and crying.

Last night at our small group we talked about being joyous in bad times and someone shared a story about this guy they knew in Rwanda who spent 3 hours at a "dentist" which he used a chisel to get his abscessed tooth out of his mouth. And how he came to church that evening praising God because they got the tooth out and that his gums can heal now that it's "fixed" and not complaining at all, he was joyous.

Clearly I suck at doing that kind of thing, joyous in bad. I am glad that Baby R doesn't have a chronic disease, but I'm not happy that he won't be able to go to school tomorrow and I won't be able to go to MOPS.

I'm gonna go try to lay in bed with him (while he cries" I want my blankie!!")...

I can't tell if I hate it or not

cross my fingers and say a prayer

Another church in the area is kinda overhauling their stuff, how they run things and what they do, etc.

I was asked to draw up some plans on how to polish their look. It's kind of a dream of mine to be able to take a church that hasn't changed at all in 30 years and make it look hip and help bring young people in. There is a rough $5K budget for it, so keep that in mind, I can't totally buy all new stuff or make major architectural changes.

The downside is that it's pro bono and I'm up past midnight working on it. I know there's tons more to do on it. There's a gym and sunday school rooms, and a lounge area-- but I think if they actually follow my guidelines, then I will devote more time to it and do the rest. We'll see if they'll gonna give up those silk plants and 70's furniture, in favor of lamps and ebony stain...


These are pics of how it currently looks:







And here are my design proposals: