Monday, September 10, 2012

Camping, Day 1

I have lots of summer trips to still post, but we'll start with the most recent: camping at Sequoia National Forest over Labor Day weekend.

Dustin organized the trip and convinced our church small group to come despite earlier trip failures of one kind or another. I highly recommend the ratio of 11 adults to 4 children, especially since our two were the only little ones. Lots of people to help make sure the toddler does not walk into the fire pit as well as plenty of hands to makes fires, meals, and do dishes.

The first day, we mostly set up camp, greeted people as they came in, explored the campgrounds some, and mostly dug, dug, dug in the dirt.

Shortly after arrival: please note how mostly clean they are...they will not be anywhere near this clean again until we get home.





Monday, August 27, 2012

Summer Day Trips: Getty Villa


My cousin and his family from Australia had a long lay-over in LA, so they decided to head up to the Getty Villa. It was a beautiful day to visit Malibu!


Museums with little ones wasn't exactly conducive to visiting or viewing together, but it was fun to meet up with family for various bits.



The outer peristyle is just gorgeous. Both boys loved crawling or running the corridor.



Elijah was delighted to find "mazes," and enjoyed jumping into them just like the little boy in Lehman's "Museum Trip."




Friday, August 10, 2012

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Taking Steps!

Josiah's sentence of the week has been, "I did it!" And, while he applies the exclamation to everything he does, the most exciting thing he has done is walk!

A week and a half ago, he gave up his morning nap and started showing lots of interest in walking practice (definitely correlated). He's been pushing and pushing his stroller around and taking a step or two here and there. On Tuesday, I wanted him to show off his step to Dustin, and he proudly took about five steps to Daddy! 

Practicing at the park:





Monday, August 6, 2012

Legoland

The day before Dustin and I left to see the real, non-lego version of this:


 The boys and I went to Legoland, thanks to a friend's wonderful deal. We didn't stay with the group, but it was fun to spot dear friends throughout the park. Mom and John joined us, which was especially nice since Legoland was not particularly baby-friendly.


 Elijah loved Legoland!


John and Elijah on the slow-paced safari ride, which was clearly too dangerous for a one year old:

The Lego version of Storybook Land:


 One of the Lego Star Wars exhibits:



Look! Josiah and I were there, too:
It was a fun day! We ended up staying until it closed. Elijah was excited to go from ride to ride. He loved it all and was much more adventuresome that I had anticipated.

Poor Josiah got sick while were there, throwing up on the boat ride. He spent the afternoon snuggling in the carrier or napping in the stroller. Mom graciously hung out with Josiah for quite a bit of the day, so that I could go on rides with Elijah and John. Legoland is fun for the 2+ crowd, but there really wasn't much that babies were allowed to go on. I think there were two rides all five of us could go on together.

It was amazing to see all the Lego creations. Disneyland is better, but I'd definitely enjoy going back sometime when Josiah is taller and Dustin can join us.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Playgroup, Week 2

Don't know why this didn't post a few weeks ago--oops!

 Day two of preschool went even more smoothly than day one. I think I have a good preschool rhythm figured out--although we'll see how it goes next week. Our final activity of the day was stations for pouring and transferring water and sand. It was a hit with all four boys and kept them engaged for 20-30 minutes!

More stations than boys was key to a success activity

Josiah's sponge and water station

Using a garlic press to squeeze water out of sponges

Sponges are interesting!

Funneling sand

Saturday, July 28, 2012

My baby is 15 months!

Updates have fallen by the wayside for my poor second born. So here's an overly detailed one!



Josiah is a fabulous crawler. :) He is not highly motivated to walk, but he's getting closer. He now stands independently for a couple of seconds at a time. He's not particularly interested in having us help him walk by holding his hands. Crawling works just fine for him, and when he needs to use his hands to carry something, he just scoots on his bottom instead.

 

Josiah likes to chat. This week's newest word--in an effort to learn Very Useful Nouns--is "chrysalis." (Our caterpillars just entered their chrysalises on Wednesday.)



Other words:
--Mama
--Dada
--Hi
--Bye
--Uh-oh

Noises:
--Quack
--Choo-choo
--Vroom
--and the occasional baa, moo, or woof

What this kid is really good at is phrases, which makes it a little harder to identify when something crosses over from conversational babble to inarticulate phrases. But some things he says are: "There they are!" "Here you go." "Look at that!" "One, two, threeee!" "Where'd he go?" "There it is!"



He loves reading stories and has strong opinions about which book to read. During our breakfast and lunch reading times, he makes gleeful noises when the proper book is chosen, but will cry through disapproved books (and then be all smiles again for a "good" book). Some current favorite good books: "Hairy McClarey and Zachary Quack," "Over at the Castle," "Moo, Baa, La La La," and really any books with trains.



Josiah likes parks (particularly slides), watching birds, going places, playing with trains and trucks, painting, putting things in, his beloved blanket, his grandpa, the ocean, and standing on the step-ladder to help me in the kitchen. When he hears me in the kitchen, he quickly crawls into the kitchen and starts trying to drag out the ladder.

 

He's an independent eater--no help wanted! He loves yogurt, cheese, rice, and all fruits, grapes, strawberries, and blueberries are especially loved. Vegetables rank low on his list of foods and meats are tolerable, but not loved.