Funny things my child does

Wooden fruit placed with real food.

James... I am your FATHER!

You have to say that title in your best Darth Vader voice.

At Disneyland James had the thrill of assembling his own custom lightsaber. Daddy had the thrill of paying for it!

We have plenty of lightsabers now (we have more sabers than people living in this house!) and we were due for battles that would prove to be legen... wait for it... dary!

James uses the force to knock Daddy off his feet!

I taught James this next move. Spins!

And attack!

Yup, legendary stuff.

T-Ball Game

SIGH OF RELIEF. T-ball was a success :) Jim and I both gave separate pep talks to James about participating in t-ball. On the way to his practice today James told me, "Daddy said I should be brave at baseball."

And he was brave! I was able to sit with the other Moms on the sidelines and just watch my beautiful son play t-ball! He waved at me constantly, gave me the thumbs up once (haha), and blew me a kiss several times. Awwww!

First, a little warm up with one of the Coaches.

Group huddle explaining that they will play in the field.

This Coach drew a circle in the sand for each kid and told them that it was their position to stand in for the game. James is standing in his circle.

And he never left his circle! I think he took it very literally that he should stand there. I almost intervened and tried to tell a coach that he should be encouraged to move around and catch balls, but I didn't want to ruin his new found independence. I stayed put.

Waiting to bat.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On first base!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Did you see in the videos that he never let go of the bat? They had to take it out of his hands at first base. Haha. And then I'm not sure if he ever made it to 2nd base. I think he wandered around a bit before the coaches noticed him but at least he made it to Home Plate!

Shaking hands with the Yellow Team (aka Macaroni & Cheese, as they called themselves). The Orange Team doesn't have a nickname, but that's okay, James said.

Group huddle.

"Mom! Did you see me?!"

Yes I did! I was so proud :)

Snacks after the Big Game, from the Coaches.

We hit the playground right next to the baseball field.

Jazz Hands!

Hi Mom.

WJDN?

T-ball GAME against the Yellow Team!!

We're in the $$$$

Because we're not buying diapers or nighttime pull-ups anymore!

I told James that after vacation he is a big BIG boy and would just wear underwear to bed. James actually reminded me about this when we came back. I had purposely waited two nights to get used to the time zone change and for all of us to get some good nights of sleep (anticipating that we might need to get up several times in the night to change sheets, help him to the potty, etc.)

This is the picture I took of James in his underwear on the first night. He was pretty darn proud of himself.

This is his self-portrait.

Results from Night 1: Bedtime at 8pm. I checked on him at 10pm and he had wet the bed already :( I woke him up, took him to the potty, and changed his sheets. He is pretty groggy but cooperative. No accidents the rest of the night. But he was slightly wet AFTER he woke up. Ooops.

Results from Night 2: A friend suggested restricting James' liquids in the late afternoon/night. After dinner he was only allowed sips of water if he was thirsty. Bedtime at 8pm. I checked on him at 10pm and he was dry! I tried to whisper to him, asking if he needed to go potty. He sleeps pretty hard so no answer. I tried again at 10:15ish and finally pulled him up to wake up. He didn't say a word but staggered to the potty. He went and then stumbled back to bed. Dry until the morning but again slightly wet AFTER he woke up. Mental note: Encourage him to go potty first thing when he wakes up.

Results from Night 3: Same as Night 2 but NOT wet in the morning! It is so hard to wake him up at the 10pm check. He is such a heavy sleeper! He reminds me of his Tia Kiki :)

For the Love of Krispie Bars

I'll admit that James was pretty spoiled for the whole trip. There was an abundance of sweets, treats, snacks, not-so-balanced meals but frankly we didn't worry about it. There's not much to order for a picky kid at restaurants and my feeling is that if he's hungry he'll eat eventually. We bought fruit when we could (Disneyland was AWESOME about having healthy snacks around- grapes, pineapple wedges, craisins, trail mixes, etc.), and we offered everything that we ate to James.

So we tried when it came to food but nothing compared to the KRISPIE BAR. OMG. James was a little obsessed with his rice krispie bars. We brought a few of them for snacks because somewhere he had them (at daycare?) and he kept talking about them. I surprised him on the plane with one.

When we got home I told Jim that we were going on vegetable and homecooking overload. I've been making GOOD meals every night since.

But I did indulge my little guy one day. I had the ingredients to make Rice Krispie bars. James helped. He loves to help!

And guess what?

He said they were YUCKY.

They obviously were not as sugary and artificial tasting as the packaged ones. I read that you can freeze rice krispie bars so I did freeze a majority of them for adult snacking :)

Home!

After a long day of travel James was WIPED. He fell asleep in the car and even slept through our car troubles and stop at the mechanic's. That kid can sleep through anything!

Disneyland, AKA Mickey Mouse's Castle

For weeks we had been telling James we were going to Mickey Mouse's castle for vacation- never mind that I think it is technically Cinderella's castle? Anyway...

The day finally arrived! We goofed about the opening time, thinking it was 10am and not the actual 8am, so we arrived after the opening. It was crazy busy and HOT. I think Mondays are just a busy day for the Park and there seemed to be a lot of school-age kids on a field trip. It was an enjoyable day but not leisurely. We went on a few rides and then called it a day. We were determined to be at the park for the opening on Tuesday and hoped for a good day again.

Tuesday WAS a much better day! It wasn't as crazy busy or hot. We were there before the official opening and were able to get a picture with Mickey before 8am! Mickey appeared out of nowhere and once James saw him he really did want to take a picture. We took an awesome picture :) It was one thing I had on my mental checklist of must-do's, so I was thrilled! (Otherwise it was like an hour wait at Mickey's House in ToonTown to get face to face time.)

Afterwards we headed straight for the other priority on our list, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters ride! We were again pleasantly surprised with NO LINE! We jumped right on the ride and had a great time blasting away at aliens. Well, Jim and I did. James sat between us and watched, his choice. By 8:15 we had done two major things on my mental checklist. When Mommy is happy... everyone is happy!

The rest of the day and rides were great. Short to medium sized lines for the rides, and most of them were family style- where all three of us could go on together. I think James appreciated that.

Speaking of James and rides, he was okay for rides. We were careful to choose small, not too scary rides. Our first ride at Disneyland was the Pirates of the Caribbean on the first day. James said it was "too scary". It was dark, kinda creepy, and with some unexpected log chute drops. Ooops. I was a little anxious myself so I was kind of sorry to put James through that. I hoped it wouldn't ruin the rest of the rides and I was glad it didn't. It really wasn't scary, the content I mean. Sometimes James was a little stinker. He is 4 years old, after all. He insisted on us putting arms across him (like a shoulder seatbelt!) to protect him on the other rides. It was cute.

But the two days were awesome, wonderful, and a great experience for James. He is such a lucky little boy to have been on FOUR vacations now in his short little life. His Daddy is so good to him! Mommy isn't so bad either :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you ask James I think he would tell you the best parts of vacation were: staying up late each night, the toys he got at each major park (SD Zoo, Legoland, Disneyland), and all the ice cream cones.

My favorite parts of our vacation: seeing everything through James' eyes, introducing him to characters like Pooh and Pinocchio, and remembering my own childhood trips to the Zoo and Disneyland. Oh, and buying him Mickey Mouse ears. I think every kid should have them :)

Maybe Jim can comment on his favorite parts?

Cupcake Surprise

I couldn't resist this Cupcake book at Target. And then I thought of the neat recipe I had bookmarked for One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two. While James was occupied with his TV show I whipped up these easy cupcakes, and then half a recipe of (easy) vanilla frosting. I hid my work and then surprised him with the book first.

It's a cute story of a vanilla cupcake who is sad that he is so plain and ordinary. An ordinary birthday candle tries to help him with different toppings to make him special, but in the end they join forces to become a special birthday cupcake.

I brought out my box of sprinkles and things and told James we could decorate some plain cupcakes to make them special for us.

Excuse the dirty, wrinkled up face but he was clearly excited about something!

A loose sprinkle.

James' Special Cupcake, a little heavy on the sprinkles.

The cupcakes were good! These ordinary cupcakes could be customized in so many ways- by adding chocolate chips, cocoa powder, fruit, etc. It's nice to just make TWO cupcakes whenever you need them! (Haha. NEED cupcakes. I mean, WANT.)

Now I just have to tell James that he doesn't get cupcakes EVERY TIME we read this book!

What's James Doing NOW?

Well, ten minutes ago.

James helped me water my plants with his water saber. Fun!

LegoLand

As I look through the last few day of our California vacation I see that I have quite a few pictures. Rather than have you scroll through this blog entry to see all of them I have put them in a slideshow. It also saves storage space on my blog.

We left San Diego early on Sunday morning to be at LegoLand for its opening. It was such a great choice for Father's Day. James and his Daddy were soon to be in heaven with all of the Legos AND Star Wars themed events and things to see. The weather was also pretty darn perfect- kind of cool in the morning (the better for standing in ride lines, you know) and it warmed up enough to be comfortable by the afternoon.

I hope my Jimmy had a wonderful Father's Day! We love him so much.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

At the end of our day we drove the remaining distance to Anaheim. Next adventure: Day One of Disneyland!

SD Zoo

We met Grandpa Frank, Grandma Julie, Jamie, and Julie's sister and her husband for a fun SD Zoo day.

Life is good. Shade from the stroller canopy, buttered popcorn, and family members loving him from all sides!

James could NOT get enough of his Grandpa Frank. He was giggling and pulling on Grandpa for the entire day. Wow, that's a lot of love.

Silly!

Hey, there are two Franks in this picture!

Seriously, this kid's love of ice cream is unreal.

I think the pictures say it all. Just a super fun day. Thank you Grandma Julie and Grandpa Frank for a fun day!

SD Air & Space Museum & Chillaxin'

Our trip to San Diego would not be complete without a trip to The Hash House. The pancake was as monstrous as I remembered and yet I still ordered it. Jim and I went in there with a plan to share a breakfast and then we were dazzled by the menu and all plans went out the window. Oh well. We were in pancake overload but happy!

I loved the Gay Pride flags all over the 'hood we stayed in.

I wasn't too proud of this grocery store run. Junk and alcohol. Hey, whatever gets you through vacation, right?

Jim found a cool museum that we thought James would enjoy too because he loves astronauts and has taken an interest in planets, comets, stars, etc. (We hope to get a telescope one day. I think both of us have ALWAYS wanted one but we want the RIGHT one. Someday.)

Anyway, the SD Air & Space Museum was very cool. It was jam packed with cool old airplanes and space items. We could spent all day (and more) there reading all the information, but James walks through pretty quickly and leapt from one cool thing to another.

Trying out an astronaut bed.

Pretending to eat astronaut food.

The Red Baron!

A history of flight attendant uniforms. I bet the miniskirts were popular!

James really enjoyed the children's area. He LOVED this space ship house.

He really had so much fun manipulating the "floating" balls.

We saw a very cool 4D short film. The seats moved, water droplets were blasted at us, the wind blew, and the movie was in 3D. I think James was a little stunned but he did well. It was like an amusement park ride.

James and I posed in a helicopter. For James this fulfilled a lifelong dream. He had JUST told me, "I always wanted to ride in a helicopter". And there it was!

James and his Daddy in the air tower. The tower overlooked the entire museum space.

It was a great museum!

The day flew by and soon enough it was dinner. We relaxed at the hotel for a bit and then headed downstairs for the hotel's complimentary BBQ. It was so nice not to worry about finding food and everything was good. We sat poolside and enjoyed each other.