A May Update

I have had zero motivation to blog since our trip, 1. because our computer has been spastic so I haven't been able to upload pics and 2. because we have been so busy with such fun things. My mom asked me the other day when I was going to blog again so I thought I'd get something up. We have had a great summer. We have such great family and friends we are so blessed to have all of you!

May is continuing to grow up too fast and frankly is too smart for her own good. She has a pretty big vocabulary and says several sentences. The other day we had been at the Aviary for a couple of hours and I asked her if she wanted to go back and see the ducks. She responded with, "No. Bye Ducks. Home Goober." I was pretty shocked. She also consistently will tell me "No (insert whatever food was presented to her). Raconi (macaroni)."

We've started pre-preschool stuff. She is picking up on it so fast. She can sort all of her colors out but names them either blue or pink. She also can pick out a circle and a triangle and if she is really trying she can find squares too. The program I'm using for letters is super sweet and super simple. We've been doing it for 3 weeks (a letter for each week) and May knows the sound for them although not the names. (We are blogging what we are doing at http://todowithtoddler.blogspot.com in case ya'll want to check it out).

She isn't handling nursery terribly well but I can't say I blame her- I don't like the leaders in there either. She has a friend that lives across from us and she is constantly asking to go play with him so I'm hoping eventually she will be better because he is there- a familiar face is always helpful.

She is still going to gymnastics. She loves doing the high beam and "scooping icecream" with her feet on it. There is a new boy in her class though and I just want to bop him on the head. For some reason he has latched onto Maylie and he chases her around and tries to hold her hand and give her hugs, not in a soft nice way though. It was funny the first week but now it's just super obnoxious. His mom does try really hard to keep him under control but he is a big kid and she is super pregnant so there isn't much she can do. I've just been going and picking Maylie up before he gets to her- but it's like we pay to take this class not spend our whole time avoiding this kid. We are going to change classes next semester if he ends up being in there. May is so good at saying "NO NO NO!" That's my girl.

Her favorite game is the "chase me" game. She will get food and run up and down our hallway so the dog chases her. She will also take a toy from her cousin Kams (who is 2) and run around laughing histarically because Kams will chase her for it. Unfortunately Kams doesn't think it's funny- quite the opposite. Also, Mama and Dada have spent many hours racing her around the house- it's okay we could use the exercise.

And my super exciting news- dun da da dun....

Yes folks she has enough hair to go up in a pony tail. Sweet eh?

In other news we have been looking at houses. Agh I hate it! House hunting is something you think would be fun and exciting but it is for sure one of the worst things ever. Hoping to get one soon!

P.S. I am super sad that Steve Carrell is leaving The Office. I have mixed feelings about them continuing the show without him. I want to keep watching new episodes but what is Dunder Mifflin without Micheal Scott? Lame.

San Diego-Scholars Maintain the Translation was Lost

About 3 weeks ago Zach started arguing with me over the order of June birthdays in his family. Knowing full well I was right about what we were discussing I went to my blackberry calender to show him that I was right...again. Anyway, in my June calender someone had put "Vacation to Cali". That sly Zach surprised me...and obviously knows me too well if he knew I would go to my calender over birthdays. We just got back from our trip and we had a blast!



We had a long drive. May actually handled it pretty well. Here she is mixing business with pleasure.



Zach on the other hand did not handle the car time so well. California is a crazy place to drive in, I'm glad we made it out a live.

We stopped and stayed a night in Mesquite on the way down just to break up the drive. We planned on swimming for most of the day. This was May's first time in a big pool and she HATED it. She is not a child that is scared of much but man she did NOT want to be in the water. So we spent most of the time in our room-which was okay because it was a nice room. Below is May starring at the pool with a fear that we're going to make her go in again.

Monday we finished our drive to San Diego and took the rest of the night to recover. We were at our hotel for about 10 mins and May broke a mug...that was sweet. One of the nights we were at the hotel (my memory fails me on which night) we felt an earthquake. The actual earthquake was on the border of Cali and Mexico but we felt it in San Diego, Scary!! It was the biggest earthquake I've ever felt.

Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. That place is SO big we were completely lost at one point. May's favorite were the duts (ducks), monteys (monkeys), and gaf (giraffes).

Wednesday we went to Sea World. This was probably our favorite thing we did. We were worried May wasn't going to watch the shows but she was totally enthralled with them. Zach tool a million pictures of shamu so if ever you find yourself wishing you could look through someones shamu photo album we are the ones to call.

Disneyland which was our most expensive excursion was probably the least fun...in fact it was totally miserable. May slept a lot, I think we just burned her out by Thursday. We rode only a few rides her favorites were the carousel and the Snow White ride (which we rode 3 times).

We had to be selective about who we stood in line for because May kicked and screamed the entire waiting time until she could see the character. We decided the most important were Snow White (her favorite princess) and Minnie. May was so excited to see Snow White and wanted her to pick her up but... after hours and hours in the same diaper, lots of sunscreen and dirt my child was admittedly pretty gross and I'm sure Miss White didn't want soil that dress.

We waited in line for Minnie and when we were one away Minnie had to "go check some pies" and May was so upset and when she came back she got so excited, "Min! Min! Min!" She loved going through Minnie's house. We caught a picture with Goofy too but she cried that one.

Friday we went to the beach. Oh how we love love love the beach. But...remember how May was scared of the swimming pool, well she was just as terrified with the ocean. She was having an absolute blast until we got about 10 feet away from the water and then it was like her worst nightmare. Below is Zach chasing May we could have a pretty sweet flip book of him chasing and falling after her.

Despite all the fun places we went I am positive that May's favorite part of the whole trip was playing with her cousins. She was running and screaming around crazy and just having a blast.


We had a great trip but it's nice to be home for sure. I've been trying to get this up for like 3 days so I'm not reading through it again so if parts don't make sense...meh.

Things I've done that I said I would never do.

I was thinking today as I ripped open a box of fruit snacks in the middle of Wal-Mart about all the things I scoffed at parents for doing that I now do, mostly for ease and a little bit for my sanity.

Then: I thought opening things in the store before paying for them was rude and a little weird. Now: Whatever reasonable thing keeps May from throwing herself out of the cart and or screaming at the top of her lungs will be done.

Then:Let my kid sit in the big part of the shopping cart, with no straps.
Now: May starts in the front with the straps on then the straps come off and then she moves into the big part. Reason: the same as above.

Then: Buy things for my kid just so they will stop whining for it.
Now: Bad habit I need to break, I think my problem mostly is I love to buy things for her. She gets so excited over stuff and I love it. My goal is to go back to the then.

Then: Just letting my kid throw a fit in a public area without doing something about it.
Now: Really? What can you do? Spank them so they cry harder? I just ignore it, exactly like the parents I scoffed at before.

Then: Let my kid walk around with a dirty face.
Now: I swear May has traveling shmutz on her face, it really is impossible to keep clean all the time let alone most of the time. I've given up.

Then: Allow my kids to eat in the car.
Now: May probably eats (and when I say eats I mean what actually makes it to her stomach not what I offer her and she throws on the floor) the most in the car, mostly because she is strapped in and can't go anywhere, plus a bowl of Cheerios is a great form of entertainment.

Then: Let the front room be overrun with toys.
Now: The whole house is overrun with toys, I'm not sure why I thought the front room would be special.

Then: Let my kid be a picky eater.
Now: The way I see it now the choice is not let your kid live off the one thing he'll eat or make your kid live off of the many things it's let your kid have the one thing they will eat or let your kid starve herself to death. I do try to give her different things but in the end she always gets that yogurt.

Then: Put my kids in a "leash" backpack.
Now: We just bought one of these. May does not like riding in her stroller and she does not like holding Mommy's hand. Also, she is not a child that pays attention to where she is, she gets a little spacey, like running into walls spacey. We are going to places such as Disneyland and Sea World and frankly I'd rather feel like a fool with her in a "harness" backpack (sounds better that way) then have her run off and be lost forever.

Then: My kids would not be allowed to watch TV everyday.
Now: May watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse every morning while I shower and I usually put on a movie around 6 or 6:30 so I can cook dinner. It's either that or her throwing an absolute fit on the kitchen floor and dinner taking twice as long to cook.