3 Years

My blog is 3 years old today, happy blogiversary to me!

I'm Going To Disneyland!

We got back from a nice little trip to Disneyland last night, we had a blast but it was soooo cold down there! I packed warm clothes for everyone but we really could have all used the extra heavy duty jackets us Northern Californians save for the few times a year it dips below 55 degrees. I even bought a scarf and gloves for myself because I thought I just might freeze to death out there on one of the rides. The drive down and back makes me wonder what I did in a prior life to deserve such cranky travelers. Patrick has gotten better with age (and with the investment in a portable DVD player) but Molly was at her limit after about 90 minutes in her car seat. Needless to say, it was a long trip. But worth it!

Patrick loved every minute of it all, especially the parade, the Peter Pan ride and the ginourmous Ferris wheel. Molly enjoyed Small World and people watching.

My mom and I made Molly the most adorable little Minnie outfit. Molly got about a million comments on it, but sadly it was so cold I didn't get a better picture than this, you can just see the top of her blinged out Minnie shirt.



Sleeping Beauty's castle was decorated for Christmas. Having been to Disneyworld a couple of times in the last few years I can say with great authority that Sleeping Beauty's castle is much smaller, and much less interesting than Cinderella's castle at Disneyworld.



I bought Patrick and Molly each a pair of Mickey ears. Patrick pretty much wore his straight for 3 days. He plans on taking them to school for show and tell.





We rode the teacups 3 or 4 times, we were even able to walk on with no lines!



Patrick has the same appreciation for churros that his mom and dad do. Here he is enjoying the Christmas parade with a churro snack.



Patrick really loved the huge Ferris wheel at California Adventure. I did not thankyouverymuch. Besides the fact that it was freezing up at the top, there were no seat belts and I was having visions of Patrick jumping up, prying open the doors and flying out. Tom assures me that these kinds of thoughts are not normal. Whatever. Molly and I sat out on subsequent rides.



We got to meet up with some friends while we were down there, Patrick and Calvin had a blast taking Fantasyland by storm. Calvin even tried to convince Patrick to ride the Haunted Mansion. We got as far as the elevator room before we took the chicken exit.



And finally Patrick got to "meet" two of his favorite characters, Mater and Lightening McQueen. He was actually a little giddy about getting to have his picture taken with them!



We have a nice time, but I am so glad to be back home. Molly seems to really thrive on her routine and is sleeping much better at home. I am sleeping better as well, hotel beds just aren't the same.

Up next on the agenda for this week: getting a Christmas tree, doing a little shopping, visiting with Auntie Cheryl who arrived from Holland, going to a wedding and a gingerbread house party. I am exhausted just thinking about it all!

Booty Scoot

Despite my best attempts to delay the inevitable, Molly is officially on the move. Over the last few days she had started getting up on her hands and knees, so I knew it was coming. First it was just lifting, then the rocking back and forth, and today she figured out she could scoot herself backwards. Check out this little video...




All I can think about is all the toys Patrick has that have a million little pieces and how to keep her away. Sigh...

Baptism

It was a big day for Molly, today was her baptism and she barely made a peep during the service, she just served up lots of smiles and coos.





With the proud godparents, cousins Danny and Anna



And with all grandparents, and godparents



There's a bunch more picture in flickr, click on over to check them all out.

It was a lovely day, thanks to everyone who helped us to celebrate, especially all of the grandparents and godparents! :)

My Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! We did the usual two house Thanksgiving day tour, Tom was a little ill at the end of it all. Every years he says he needs to pace himself better and every year he overeats. Oops! :)

Tom's parents live on a street lined in beautiful ginkgo trees. At Thanksgiving they are always shedding their bright yellow leaves and it makes a perfect fall scene (well, as perfect as fall in California can get). I wanted to take some pictures of Patrick int he leaves but there weren't many on the ground. Somehow I convinced Tom to climb up into the tree to shake some leaves down (amazingly, he remembered exactly how to get up into the tree, he climbed it a lot as a kid). That didn't work so well but I did get some cute pictures of him holding the kids in the trees.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Here I Am

Yoo hoo (waving my hand), I'm still here! Life has been busy this week. On Tuesday I had oral surgery under full-on anesthesia (a wonderful thing), we finally got around to having the backyard landscaped, we're getting ready for Thanksgiving and Molly's baptism next weekend, and I've been doing some Christmas shopping. The Christmas tree in Union Square was lit this weekend which struck me as a little early, but I've been hearing friends talk about already getting their trees up this week! Halloween was only 2.5 weeks ago! I need to get through November before I even begin to think about setting up decorations. And here I thought I was pretty slick for having half my shopping done.

Total Recall

I'm pissed. Sorry there isn't a more polite word to describe it. I've ranted before about Patrick's Chinese-made toys that were recalled. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old why Thomas could make him sick and that he needs to be sent back. Or Diego, or Sarge...

More than anything, Patrick has been asking for Aquadots for Christmas. Thanks to a few commercials on Nick Jr. he became quite obsessed, and has asked for them nearly daily for the last 6 months. Well wouldn't you know it that Aquadots it the latest toy recall. And it's not a lead paint concern that only applies it your child eats the paint off of toys. Apparently the manufacturer didn't make the dots to the correct specifications, and if swallowed the dots metabolize into GHB, the date rape drug. It can send your kid into a coma. What the heck is wrong with these manufacturers?

Patrick saw something on the news about the recall, and I had to explain that they weren't being sold anymore because they made some kids really, really sick. And that Santa probably wouldn't be able to bring him any for Christmas because there weren't any to buy. Patrick was crushed, almost in tears, and said "But Mom, I promise I won't eat any. I promise. I promise."

Being the good mom that I am I had already bought an Aquadots set for Patrick for Christmas at Costco. Costco was kind enough to call me and let me know I need to bring them back in for a full refund. My heart is breaking a little that the one thing my child wanted more than anything will not be under the tree on Christmas morning.

Picture Perfect

Molly's first tooth came in just 10 days ago, and yesterday her second tooth appeared! Before she lost those adorable gummy grins I wanted to take some pictures. I used my 50mm prime lense, which I have very little experience with, and most everything turned out underexposed and a little blurry. But thanks to the wonders of PaintShopPro and Photoshop (because I only know how to do certain things in each) I think these will print out nicely. Since I can't freeze time, this will have to do :)

What Are You Looking At?

We don't get the paper so my mom will sometimes save a few ads for me (especially my favorite, Target). Last week she saved the Target ad for me along with the Toys R Us Big Book that comes out every year before Christmas. As a kid I loved reading through it over and over again, fantasizing about what toys Santa will bring (Easy Bake Oven? Barbie Dream House? Snoopy Snow Cone Machine?). When Patrick saw it he immediately wanted to look at it and he's been "reading" it all week. He'll sit on my lap and we'll go through it together, or he'll sit quietly on the couch and look through it and the Target ad. This afternoon he was reading the Target ad and staring intently at one page...



I asked him to flip the ad around so I could take another picture. Guess what it was he had been staring at?



Oh dear.