Mealtime Antics

Another of his recent favorites is to dump his food on his head....

Hanging at Home

So Cole and Lauren had Fri off from school, so it was a day of fun at home :) I honestly don't think I'd be a very good stay-at-home mom, b/c I struggle with activites to keep them occupied and out of trouble. But we managed to get through Fri with minimal whining, fighting, and injuries. First off was an 8am walk around the neighborhood - Lauren brought an extra pair of shoes to change into while she rode in the stroller. Then bubbles in the backyard - Cole only put the bubble wand in his mouth once. We headed back indoors, Lauren spread out a blanket, and we had a tea party - she was serving chocolate tea with a sprinkle of salt, yum. Then onto a real snack, followed by some Sesame Street - 'word on the street' was 'concentrate'. Cole only sat still for about 5 min of the episode though.



Cole was starting to fade, so we had a quick scavenger hunt to keep him awake till lunch time; Lauren couldn't wait to cross the items off the list. Lunch was enjoyed by all - meatballs and corn for Cole and quesadilla and plums for Lauren - followed by an all-too-short nap... Ah well. We did some puzzle 'work' after nap and had bunny grahams for snack. Then, since I was running out of ideas and Lauren was actually behaving quite well, she got to watch another episode of Sesame Street (with appearances by Norah Jones and Tiki Barber) while Cole and I played with Thomas and the trains. We had one more scavenger hunt - Lauren shows off her found loot above - then closed out the afternoon by playing with McDonalds happy meals toys (boy, we have way too many of these...)

San Diego Favorites

To complement Stew's post about our recent vacation to San Diego, everyone has chosen a favorite (or two) from our trip. Here they are:


Stew's pick: Our hotel, the Courtyard Marriott at Liberty Station. Newer hotel, beautiful grounds, excellent location, restaurants/shops within walking distance, very clean, free parking, great staff, nice breakfast. An A+, would definitely stay there again.


Christy's pick: Dinner at Mitch's Seafood in Point Loma. The food was super fresh and delicious, reasonably priced, and we arrived just at the right time. As we were finishing up, we noticed the line extended out the door and then it was pretty much standing-room only.


Lauren's pick: Playing in the sand at Torrey Pines State Beach. She could not wait to get to the beach. She carried around her sand bucket all morning.


Lauren's runner-up: Ice cream at the Seaport Village - she enjoyed every last lick.


Cole's pick: Running around with Lauren in Balboa Park. He spent a lot of time in his stroller, and was always so excited when he was finally set free to roam.


Cole's runner-up: Eating fried food. Boy, this kid sure does like chicken nuggets. Snapped this photo at our McDonald's stop on the drive out.

The Invasion

We have scads of these white-lined sphinx caterpillers in our neighborhood. You can see them up our street, all heading down the hill on a mission: to find some earth in which to burrow into and pupate. I'm surprised we've never seen or heard about them before in all the years we've been in Arizona, as apparently they can have some serious population explosions. Can't wait to see the ginormous moths take flight in a few weeks... eeewwww. In the meantime, watch your step.

Swimming 101

Lauren and Cole recently started weekly swimming lessons at the Gold Medal Swim School in Chandler, and really seem to enjoy it.


It actually took Lauren a few lessons to get comfortable in the water, but now she loves it. Her favorite part is going (slightly) under water to retrieve the diving rings, and she is also working on perfecting her float.


Cole seemed to enjoy the water from the start. He's in the Baby & Me class, and loves the 'torpedo pass' (shown here) and knocking over a row of turtle-shaped kickboards one by one.

State of the Art

Lauren did some watercolor painting yesterday. Her resulting artwork was very colorful, and amazingly, all the paints remained as their original colors :)

Baking Withdrawal

It's been so long since I've baked. I made this batch of cranberry white chocolate scones on my birthday, way back in April. May need to whip something up this weekend....

Mr. Clean: Part 2

Vacuuming is another one of Cole's favorite activities. Go figure. I hate to vacuum, so Stew is pretty excited to finally have some help.

Addicted to Words

Stew found this free Scrabble-like app, 'Words with Friends'. It's pretty neat because you can just take your turn whenever you have a spare moment. So far I'm 4 for 4 :)

On Cloud Nine

View of the morning sky on my walk into work today.