Thursday, February 28, 2013

A 3 year old...

We have a three year old.  WOW!  I can't believe Scott is three already, where does the time go?
We began the celebrations yesterday but there are many more to come. 

Getting tucked into bed the night before his birthday.  Last night as a two year old.  Snuggled up with Daddy (still in a toddler bed, daddy rocks!)

After he fell asleep Brian streamered his door for a birthday morning surprise.  If you know Scott then you probably know that he is not a morning person (plus I know I've mentioned here before!) so our guess was he was either going to the think it was really cool and snap out of his morning funk earlier than normal or it was going to really piss him off.  
Luckily it was the former.  He was pretty excited about it, and we've actually left it up because he has enjoyed it.

3 years old!

Brian had originally planned to take the day off, but do to a meeting he couldn't get out of he is taking tomorrow instead.  It wasn't a school day, Owen still has a runny nose so we couldn't work out (when I asked Scott on his birthday morning what he wanted to go do he said "play at cardio barre", ha!  when I said we couldn't do that today he said play with his cousin so he wasn't sad!) so we decided to head up to my parents and go to a museum and the beach.

Owen loved exploring the aquarium


There was even a cave that the boys got to explore with some big star fish, lobsters and huge orange fish.   Scott said "ooooh lobsters, those are so cool right?!"  haha




 CHEEEEESE



Then we hit the beach for a snack, some sand and of course the FREEZING COLD ocean!


The boys convinced Papa to take them in the water.  Papa rocks!



Best way to spend your 3rd birthday if you ask me!

I don't know what made me think they would keep their chonies on...


We're going streaking....

Owen was happy to play in the warm sand with mommy and Mimi.

Its not a birthday without some birthday fro yo at surf'n'yogurt (our fave yogurt joint)
Gummy worms, don't mind if i do!

intense

Then the boys and I headed home to meet daddy who was getting off early.
Mimi and Papa, Auntie and Parker J. joined us for dinner a few hours later.
We had birthday spaghetti (per the request of the birthday boy) and pink lemonade (the big boys were in heaven)



Thanks to Grandma and Gpa for the cool birthday hat!  It is adorable and Scott LOVED wearing it.  It also sings and dances and he played it so much we finally had to force him to give it a rest while we ate.

We even let Owen have his first taste of spaghetti.  I think he had more fun playing with it than he actually ate it, but I count that as a success.


Chocolate cupcakes and ice cream for dessert.  The candles were blown out before I even set it down in front of him, about 1/3 of the way through the birthday song, and Scott was digging in paper and all, I don't think the cupcake ever touched the table.

Thanks to everyone who wished Scott a happy birthday and helped make his day special!  We have a little party planned for both boys in a few weeks.

Today we are suffering from birthday hang over.  All that sugar and running around made for a grouchy under the weather boy this morning.  We got to school and everything seemed fine until I took away Scott's new ironman toy because it was causing problems with his friends not sharing before school started.  I thought he was just mad about the toy when he told me he wanted to go home, but then he started to tell me he didn't feel well and he wasn't acting like himself and didn't play at all.  Upon feeling his forehead I decided we would bail on preschool for the day so now we're home watching the Winnie-the-Pooh movie and a nap for Owen.  

We love our vivacious three year old.  He is so fun and he always keeps us laughing with the things he says.  He is so kind and it warms my heart to see him take care of his brother or be kind to his friends and include kids at preschool, or apologize for something from the heart (even when its something he doesn't need to be apologizing for, example: we got a flat tire on the stroller and I was frustrated and Scott said "mommy I'm sorry we have a flat tire."  he is just so sweet.)
Age three has brought us a love of superheroes.  Batman, Ironman, Iceman (?) are a few of his favorites.  He likes for Brian and me to be Superman and his favorite way of playing superheroes is for us to call him on the phone and give him a mission.  I'm horrible at this game because I have the hardest time thinking of scenarios, but I've created a formula (subject)+is stuck at/on (location)+ needs rescuing.  If I keep changing the subject and location and use a lot of enthusiasm its Batman to the rescue. Part of our superhero play includes dressing the part (as you've seen with the batman mask).  He loves dressing up in everything from the batman mask to his old halloween costume and anything else he can get his hands on.
Scott still loves animals, mostly dinosaurs and if we're not playing superheroes we are usually playing dinosaurs.  He has also started to become a little interested in sports.  When we see people playing different sports when we are out at the park or driving past a school he always asks if he can play (insert what the big kids are playing here) when he gets older.  I think it will be fun to start introducing him to different classes here soon.  Our parks and rec has a great intro to sports class for 3-5 year olds where they learn a new sport every week for 8 weeks.  Its only an hour a week and I think it'll be a great way for Scott to see if there is something he is especially into.  I think that plus swimming lessons this summer will be perfect.
He still lets me dress him for the most part which makes things simple, he'll put on whatever I grab.  He does however have an opinion when it comes to chonies (batman are #1, other superhero #2, thomas or other are his last choice). Looking back at these pictures I also realize the poor kid's hair is a mess.  We really gotta figure out how to style his hair, or at the very least  brush it.  For the longest time he didn't have hair and even now its so thin I just don't know what to do.  Hopefully he doesn't look back at these pictures and think "mom, why didn't you brush my bed head".  I think its adorable though so I'm not too stressed.
He's been day potty trained since about October but we are still doing pull ups at night.  We tried chones over night once (by accident) and it was not good - literally soaked the bed and he didn't wake up until morning.  I'm not worried about the night thing though, I'm thrilled he potty trained as easily as he did so I'm sure the night thing will come in time.  And I've gotten some great advice from mamas (you know who you are) about boy potty training so I feel confident that we are doing just fine.
I'm hoping to do a 3 year old interview that I can repeat each year.  When I do I'll post it here for future reference and just for fun.  For now I'll say that his favorite food is spaghetti and for breakfast oatmeal (he will eat 2-4 servings every morning!!!).  His favorite toy is probably t-rex or batman (possibly ironman now since he just got one).  His favorite book of the moment is this new winnie the pooh series that have mini life lessons in them (sharing, apologizing, telling the truth etc.) they are not my favorite to read but he loves them so we do a few every night (there are 20, JOY!).  He just started using the term "best friend" (which I guarantee he learned at school), but its ever changing (Ryker, Parker J., Gavin, Katelyn are a few I've heard).  I will probably ask him a few of these and a few more for an interview and hopefully get to posting that here soon.
For now I'm off to work on taxes (blerg!).
Happy birthday to our crazy, sweet, hilarious 3 year old Scotty P! We love you so much and can't believe you've been blessing our lives for 3 whole years already!

Cookie dough

When dumping my iphone pics I came across the beauty.  I have to share the recipe.  If you follow me on pinterest, that's where I got it.  Look on my "pinterest success stories" board to find it.  But just incase pinterest gets hacked and we lose it forever (aka armageddon!) I will type it up here for future reference.

Raw vegan "cookie dough" balls:

2/3 c raw almonds
2/3 c raw walnuts
2/3 c of gluten free oats
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 c raw honey (recipe actually calls for agave but I'm not a fan)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tb of cacao nibs/dark choc chips

Blend the almonds, walnuts, oats, cinnamon and salt in a food processor or vitamin.  Mix in honey and vanilla and chocolate.  Roll into balls.  Freeze about an hour before eating.  Store extra in the freezer.

Enjoy

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Smoothie pops

 Its no secret that Scott is not the world's best vegetable eater.  I know he's not the world's worst either but it seriously stresses me out.
He does a great job sharing my morning smoothie with me most days, which always has greens in it of some kind.  And for my latest trick: smoothie pops.  Zoku popsicle maker is a game changer here folks.  I can make them for him on demand, they are ready in 10 mins!
So now he usually has one of these every day, rain or shine.  And I know he's getting a few more greens in that way.

Don't let this face fool ya, he LOVES them!
I posted this picture to facebook and got crazy enthusiasm from my friends who all wanted the recipe.   I'm not so much of a recipe follower.  I just freeze what I happen to put in my smoothie that day, but here is the general idea:
some kind of liquid base, usually almond or coconut milk
about 1 cup of spinach
about 1 cup of kale
half of a banana
half of a avocado
about a tablespoon of raw almond butter (only if Owen isn't going to have some, he hasn't tried nuts yet)
3 dates
a teaspoon, probably a little less of honey
every once in a while I do some gluten free oats as well

vitamix, freeze, BAM

Lately...



Just wanted to dump some of my iphone pics.  Just some random things we've been up to these days.


 Family movie night.  Owen crawled over to snuggle up with Scott.  At first Scott was not having it, but in his defense Owen was all up on him.  They finally found a comfortable spot for both of them.  This particular night we watched Aladdin for the first time, Scott loved it (no surprise there).  

Then Owen got the sickies again.  Probably just teething for the most part but he tends to run really high fevers and thats been followed by a runny nose and post nasal drip awesomeness so he and I have had lots of extra snuggles.

Took my little sickies out in the sun for some vitamin D because the weather has been SO gorgeous!





 We got some family tattoos - spiderman of course, super classy!
Scott has several.  I have one on my arm (still) and that's Owen's little baby leg with a tattoo of course. 

We also recently explored a new park near by.








Wednesday, February 20, 2013

First steps


Look who is taking steps! Pretty excited stuff in the Campbell house.  He did this a few times and a few times he even took more steps, of course never when I had a video device nearby.  And, if you'll remember, Scott took his first steps when only Brian was home so YAY for Owen doing it for all of us!  The cutest thing was how excited Scott was to see Owen take steps.  He even said, "This is SO EXCITING!"

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Butterfly hike

 We went to butterfly grove again this year.  
 The big boys drove up with mimi and papa and Hilary and I drove up with Owen (poor little buddy, already getting left out) and got to stop for some palermo on the way (heavenly!).  Of course the boys and mimi checked our hiking directions first.  And they did a great job of following the signs the whole way.

We met some dogs on the path and, after asking their owner for permission, played and patted them and got tons of kisses.

 And Scott taught Parker about making this face for pictures, Hilary: you're welcome!

And for comparison, here are the boys starting out the hike at this time last year - crazy the difference a year makes!

We went a couple weeks later this year and may have missed the peak of the butterflies.  We saw quite a few don't get me wrong but last year there were millions.


We hiked a little further this year, because the boys are bigger and experienced hikers now after all, and went over by the cliffs where we could see the ocean.

Buds

It was the perfect day with perfect weather and amazing views.

Owen enjoyed the fews from the backpack!!!

We picnicked in the shade of a grove of trees

And we tried for some pictures of all the boys, and of course didn't get any where they were all looking.

Owen's expression!!!  Just kills me!!  He's a crack up!!!

Papa and Auntie went tree climbing...

Prompting the boys to tree climb with them!

Mimi and Papa

We let Owen play with the empty juice box on the walk back.  He thought he was pretty big time.

The big boys helped each other get back to the cars too by exchanging "kitty back" rides.

I'm so glad we have little hikers on our hands!  It always makes for a fun day and a great adventure!

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