A zoo day...

Last week we headed up to the Santa Barbara zoo.  We hadn't been in ages, summer crowds are finally gone and the weather has cooled off, not to mention Mimi's sister is in town which made for the perfect formula for a great zoo day.

We got there when it opened and quickly realized that many of the animals weren't up yet.  No worries.  We killed some time at the play ground.

Hello ant hill!

This nugget really got the hang of the ant hill for the first time.  He went up and down more times than I could count.   He did great until he took a pretty bad fall and scraped up his chin.  That just meant he didn't have to pried away from the fun because up next was a train ride!

These two could probably spend the whole day at the zoo and never see an animal and be totally cool with that.  There is lots of construction going on right now (read: backhoes and excavators out the wahzooo).

Classic cheese face.  Love him.

Stealing smooches from my seat mate.  Already trying to push me away.  "Mom!!! The train is about to start, be cool." - occ

Then we finally saw a few animals before we sat down for our picnic lunch (which Scott had been asking for since we walked through the gates)

Giraffes, always a highlight

Look at these three big kids.  When did this happen?

Elephants are always a favorite too

After the zoo we headed back to mimi and papa's for more playing and of course some ice cream and popsicles.

Thanks for a fun day Mimi and Papa and Mimi's sister!

Mimi's Sister

Mimi's sister, my Aunt Charlotte, has been in town for the last week and a half and we've had lots of fun times hanging out.  Family dinners, a trip to the zoo (post to come) and a practice thanksgiving dinner because she was in town.  I'd call it a success.  My favorite is that, although the boys know her name they still usually call her Mimi's sister.

And did you know she was skilled in the ways of tackle football?

And of course story reading:

More "fun with Mimi's Sister" posts to come : )

Candyland

I few months ago I started to feel like Scott might be ready for board games.  We didn't have any to I set out to find my childhood favorite Candyland (Amazon for 11$ by the way.  I was not going to pay 20 bucks for it at target/toys r us.)  It took us a while to find a good opportunity to play (meaning Owen  napping with time to spare) but the other day Scott was the one to bring it up and since I knew Owen had at least 45 minutes left on his nap we got to it.  And it was a hit!!!

First let me say how sad I am that they have changed the artwork so much.  As with all classic toys that I see these days Candyland has been revamped to be busy, brighter and distorted.  I mean have you seen the new my little pony...why are there heads GIANT?  

Example the original Princess Lolly (my fave!!):

Princess Lolly today:   

Why is your skin pink?  And your eyes on the side of your head?  And of course, of course she went from being petite and normal looking to super disproportionately skinny with a super short skirt.  

And don't get me started on the former Queen Frostine turned Princess Frostine.  Too late.  Home girl looks beat.  Too much makeup, especially eye make up.  Were you at a bar last night?  Maybe that's why you got demoted.  And your hair is not beach wave sexy, it looks dirty, and you look like a slut.  Queen Frostine used to be so wholesome and motherly looking.  Obviously that is not the trend anymore.  

 Original board (or at least the version I remember).  Simple, bright colors, easy to follow, wholesome and cute characters.  Win.

Today:

No wonder Scott had a hard time which direction to go on the path.  I was having sensory overload by my second turn.

But despite all that we had a great time.

Scott really got the concept and of course really wanted to win.

He won the best of 3 and was a good loser when I won the second game (win finished on a high note of him winning)

I can't wait to play more board games as a family but I will be browsing garage sales for some of the original game boards.

Papa

Papa has been home for a few weeks now and is doing fantastically well.  This picture was texted to me two weeks ago from his first walk on the beach.  And it makes me think of a lord of the rings character!!!

Barbies

Its no secret that superheroes are a major presence in the Campbell household.  Recently Captain America and Wolverine were added to the mix (on sale at target).  I made the mistake of bringing one out and the boys were going to fight to the death of the good captain so they were both added the same day (rookie mistake mom!). 

I love the versions we have because, with the exception of Batman, none of the talk.  I loathe talking toys.  They are beyond annoying and I feel that it takes away from the imagination side of playing.  These are just about the size of Barbies and it occurred to me that basically this our collection of boy barbies.  (For the record I'm down for boys to play with barbies and/or for girls to play with super heroes, there just aren't any barbies at our house so this is it!)

Wolverine.  He's crazy intense.  And thankfully his claws (blades? weapons? machete hands?) are removable.

Dog?

The other day Owen woke up from his nap asking for his dog.  We have this small plastic dog, with a broken tail no less, that they boys "borrowed" from my office that they, and especially Owen, are obsessed with.  This particular day Scott and Brian had gone to the pool so Owen probably wanted some unlimited access to the dog.  He looked at me and said "Dog?" over and over, looking so forlorn.

We proceeded to look for the dog for about half an hour.  About 10 minutes in I realized that it was in my car (the one the boys took to the pool) and we weren't going to find it until they returned.  This cannot be explained to a 17 month old.  So we continued to look.

He dragged me all over the house.  We looked under the couch (a common hiding place for toys).

In the bath tub toys.

In Scott's bed

Between the couch cushions

"Where dog?"

I have made the mistake of letting Owen bring the dog with us places.  Once or twice its been forgotten, thankfully we haven't been on the road yet by the time I (he) realizes he doesn't have it so we've been able to go retrieve it quickly.  Oh the things they fixate on?!?!!

**It should probably be noted that Owen is wearing chonies over his diaper.  Along with sitting on the potty after Scott uses it, Owen is also really into wearing chonies just like big brother.  We are not potty training yet.

Family Game

We used to play a family game over email, back before my parents moved, then we moved, then had a baby and, you know, life got crazy.  It was a really fun game.  One person would come up with a question, answer it in an email to everyone and then everyone would email their own responses out.  The asker would chooses their favorite as the "winner" and that person would ask the next question.  It was such a fun way to get to know family members I don't see often.  I miss the family game.  Let's start again guys?  Any takers?  In that spirit here is where we are at.  Scott just learned about the rescue bots (aka transformers) and is kind of obsessed.  I love playing with my kids, I do.  But its rescue bots 24/7 around here and every time I so much as walk into a room its "Mom, mom, moooooom, want to play rescue bots?"  And I only have so much rescue bot imagination stored up and I'm feeling tapped out on rescue bots.  I love his enthusiasm though!

So what game are you sick to death of playing?  Or if your kids are older what was it in back in the day that you just could only handle for so long before you though your head was going to explode from "rolling to the rescue"?

Au Revoir Summer

A few oldies but goodies that Kay captured while BBQin' this summer.

Summer is officially on its way out (FINALLY, a taste of fall weather, here come the pumpkin candles!) but these were too cute not to share

Fun with cousins!

Words with Owen II

Here we are, 18 months.  I did a similar post with Scott around this age and I wanted to have them to compare.  (Not that it matters who said what when, or who was more verbal by 18 months, just for pure curiosity)

"Mama, Momeeeeeee" - Mom

"Dada, Dayeeeee" - Dad

"Doc" - Scott
"BawPa" - Papa (my dad)

"Dog" - not to be confused with "doc",  Dog.  They come out very similar, context clues.

"Mo" - more, plus he does the sign

"Hot" - hot, done anytime you put food in front of him, done as a question, and starting to touch things that are warm, like food, bath water, the slide at the park and state that is hot.

"Cheeeeeee" - cheese, done when taking pictures, not when he wants cheese to eat
"Jush" - Juice
"Jooos" - Shoes, sounds a lot like juice but its different
"Dis, Dat" - this and that, used when asking what something is
"Waawaa" - water
"Whoah" & "Wow" - used when surprised and/or excited.  SO.STINKIN.CUTE.
"Uhoh" - he used to say this a lot more, not as much lately
"Maow" - meow, what does a cat say?
"Bop" - pop aka lollipop, you can hear him hollering this as he runs out of the childcare class at cardio barre to the desk where they hand out the lollipops.  Yelling.  And running.  At least he says please once he gets there?

That's all I can think of right now.  There might be a few more.  I love this age when the seem to learn new words everyday!

18 months

As of yesterday we have an 18 month old in da house!  Full toddlerhood is upon us.  

 Owen is still the happiest kid around.  He goes with the flow on everything and is so adaptable (second kid for ya?!), not to say that Scott isn't adaptable but Owen is especially so. 

His favorite things are still playing with Scott at numero uno, playing outside, riding his trike, wrestling with Scott or daddy, oh and probably eating is up there too.  He is usually out the back door in the morning before anyone else is up (well besides me, I don't just let him go outside while I'm still sleeping).  He loves to have a good half hour to hour to play with all the riding toys out back unimpeded.  Whatever Scott is into Owen is into.  Lately playing "guys", cars, rescuebots and dress up are at the top of the list.  

 Owen is a great eater and there is not much he doesn't like.  He get particularly excited when its time for "drops and vitamins" before bed (the boys take liquid fish oil drops and take a probiotic), he bounces and screams with excitement.  He also loves dancing to music which is one of my all time favorite things ever on the planet.  So cute.  I have to get it on video.

Sleep is still not super stellar for this boy.  He usually wakes up between 2-2:30 and then I bring him in bed with us (because I'm too lazy to get him back down in his bed), I think moving him in with Scott has really helped him stay in bed as long as he does.  He still takes one nap a day, anywhere from 1 - 2.5 hours, and I'm definitely hoping that lasts a while longer.  He is still nursing once during the day, before bed and once during the night, I'm guessing that once he weans from night nursing that he will sleep through.  

One of his other favorite things to do is sit on the potty.  Especially if Scott has just gone potty or right before or after he gets in the bath.  He will sit on that thing for like 20 minutes, its hilarious, he's even peed on it once or twice (I mean if you sit there long enough something is bound to happen right?!).  I'm under no delusion that he is going to be potty trained by too, I think its great that he is showing an interest though, so my hope is that whenever he is ready to potty train he will do so as easily as his brother did.  No rush.

I wrote a whole other post about Owen's vocabulary lately which I will try to post soon.  Other than that we are just excited to be ringing in the fall season and loving these two boys to bits.  Happy half birthday mcgweetums - we love you with our whole hearts (and your brother too!)!!!!

24 hours of San Diego FUN!

Daddy went down to San Diego last week for some work related stuff with the boys and I planning to head down Friday to meet him. 

Friday morning looked like this:

Two kids in my bed while I got us packed and cleaned up to get out of town.

By some miracle the bags were packed, the kids were fed, the dishes were done and we were all dressed and loaded in the car in time to even hit the gym on our way out of town (while we waited for traffic to die down).  Owen napped.  Scott and I chatted and we made great time to La Jolla (where daddy was working).

We made it to daddy's hotel mid afternoon and enjoyed the views from his room for a few hours.

 Grandma and Gpa were so nice to offer to fly down and meet us so that Brian and I could go out that night.

And you'll never guess where we went:  

 A little band called Rascal Flatts (again!)  Brian has seen them more than he probably cares to, but this was only my second time (we went a year ago, another great date night)

This time Brian got to take me backstage

And a little meet and greet with the band (last year was more fun because we even got to take pictures with them, but this year was still awesome, they are seriously talented)

The opened with the "Race Car Song" as Scott calls it and it was a great show.

Back stage during The Band Perry

 I got to meet a lot more of Brian's coworkers and agencies that he works closely with.  It was nice to put faces with names and get a little glimpse of Brian's work life.

The next morning we headed to Sea World with Grandma and Gpa in tow.

We started the day with the Shamu show which the boys really liked.

Owen did lots of clapping and waving.

Every time one would jump out of the water Scott clapped.  He gets very stoic when he is having fun, he had the most intense expression the whole day but definitely had a great time!

After Shamu we visited the sharks.  This was probably the highlight of the day for Scott.  He is still very much into animals (although you'd never know based on the amount of rescue bot and super hero play we do at home) and sharks are one of his favorites.

 Going through the shark tunnel.

 We may have run back up the moving sidewalk a couple times to repeat that part, we are crazy rebel rule breakers that way.

We saw a dolphin show after that, which I took zero pictures of, it was neat but by that point it was getting pretty hot out and we were all getting hungry, and it was the show that just wouldn't end.  After some water, lunch and some shade we were ready to face the afternoon.

Scott in Brian in the polar bear cave.  I told them to do a "bear face", Brian participated, Scott thought I was lame.

Whale vertebrae 

Dolphins

The boys at one of the shows.

We spent  a solid half hour in the turtle exhibit.  Indoors and air conditioned.  Sign me up.  Plus the boys really enjoyed it ; )

This nugget sayin' "cheeeeee".  He knows how to ham it up these days.

Doin' a fish face.  (Don't mind the white face.  Hippie sun screen doesn't rub in, or so I've been told.)

Owen fell asleep for the last hour or so and then we wrapped it up and headed home.  Special thanks to Grandma and Gpa for meeting us in San Diego for the weekend and joining in on all the fun!  And of course Farmers, love us some free concerts, thanks for working hard babe, I love reaping the benefits ; )