San Diego Comes to Visit

Maybe we were just in San Diego, but that doesn't mean that Aunt Karen didn't bring the boys up here just a couple of weeks later for a visit. It works out pretty well to do things this way. She can spend lots of time with our parents while we feel like we got to see them quite a bit over the summer.

We didn't do a whole lot. Gram was sick most of the time, so the kids hung out together, getting on each other's nerves intermittently, but never willing to go to their separate corners. We took one last outing to Happy Hollow on our family membership, which expired at the end of July. It's probably just as well. My kids seem to be outgrowing it to a large extent. Its sort of sad to see. I didn't take them there nearly often enough when they were smaller.

Smunch was particularly impressive on this little excursion. When neither Mam nor SPENCER! was interested in doing things that Lucas could do, they ran off to the playground, while Smunch joined Lucas for a ride.Ohmigosh. Could that be any cuter? It's a little shocking just how big Smunch is compared to his newest cousin. Even as a small kid, he's just so BIG!

Smunch also took a ride with SPENCER! once we could convince SPENCER! that Smunch would really like to spend a little time with him too. It looked like they both had fun.It has long been the case that Smunch gets left out when it comes to visiting with SPENCER! Spencer and Mam are much closer in age and have more common interests. Smunch and SPENCER! don't really have much in common other than being boys who are cousins. Their personalities are very dissimilar. SPENCER! is much more like Mam in his level of enthusiasm and fearlessness. So, it's really pretty awesome to see Smunch taking such an interest in Lucas. Wonder if he'll manage to turn him into a baseball fan...

Happy, Happy, Happy

In case I haven't mentioned it previously, it's been a rough summer. The kids are constantly bickering when they're together. Someone wants to use the iPad, someone wants to watch baseball, someone wants to watch Electric Company, someone poked someone, someone hit someone, someone kicked someone, someone said something mean. It makes me exhausted just thinking about it. No one is happy...although I don't really think the kids are all that unhappy while bickering. They live for it, I think.

So, Friday I took the kids back to a place they hadn't been in some time. In my defense, it was closed for over a year for renovations. But that made it fun to go back and see what had changed.First off, the kids' demeanor changed almost immediately. Thank goodness. Even the few hours at home in the morning had been torture. But the sight of a few new rides can work miracles, apparently.There was never a rollercoaster there before. And naturally, that's where the kids headed first, although the wait was long, at least for a little amusement park like this one.Mam loved it and if there had been no wait, I'm sure she would have gone again and again. Smunch seemed to think once was quite enough. So did I, really. I've never liked roller coasters a whole lot.And there were tree swings that both of them enjoyed although they're hardly a thrill ride.Although this looks like one of those free-fall rides, it's been modified for young children, so it just goes up and bounces around.You could dig up the bones of an Allosaurus and they might've done that all day if I hadn't pulled them away.These are funny little playthings for the kids to sit or stand on. Some bounce, some rotate. Some do nothing at all.And there's a magnificent new carousel with endangered animals in place of horses (mostly). Smunch chose a rather magnificent dragon to ride on while Mam had a dolphin.Despite the relative splendor of this carousel, I'll always miss the "Snail-Go-Round" that we took so many pictures of Smunch on (actually named King Neptune's Carousel). It was a casualty of the remodel.

And, of course, no trip to the little zoo is complete without brushing a goat. Right?We barely made it out before closing. Ah, how lovely. One day with both kids. And it was FUN!

In case you were wondering...

If you check the blog frequently, you've already noticed that I've been doing a lousy job of updating it over the past couple of weeks. I'd like to make some long-winded excuse about how many posts I wrote when we got back from Chicago. I thought it was going to be a pretty mellow summer. And in some ways it is, but it's been pretty busy too. At least we've been having fun. I'm sure there were lovely little vignettes I could have written up about some choice moments in there, but the problem with not writing is that I've forgotten them already. I can tell you that an hour ago, Mam was listing every animal name stored in her iddy biddy brain and telling me whether it was born alive or came from an egg. Geez.

Anyway, since I've failed to blog each of our fun little events separately, here's a fun little peek at what we've been up to lately.

We went berry picking...and enjoyed an awesome berry pie later...Mam started going to a local preschool for "summer school" with her buddy, Riley. Not entirely coincidentally, I'm also an alumna of this school. She loves it. Chickens roam around the campus, there are rabbits, finches, doves, guinea pigs, tadpoles, frogs, turtles. It's really pretty awesome. I'm sorry its mostly ending this week!The kids started semi-private swimming lessons at a local swim and tennis club. Their teacher for the first three weeks has been fantastic and they've both made a ton of progress. We had to switch instructors for the next three weeks. I only hope they have as much fun. We're visiting the pool 3-4 times a week right now.Aunt Karen and the kids' cousin, Spencer, arrived from San Diego, prompting another fun trip to Happy Hollow...along with a lot of running, jumping and very loud screechig from all three of them.We caught a Celtic concert in the park.And we celebrated the 4th with a block party on our street and fireworks at the park.We also took time out on the 4th to get some photos taken of the kids all together. I still love last year's photos, but these were pretty good too.Spencer and Aunt Karen will be leaving tomorrow, but it won't be long before we're off to visit them at their home. I'm sure the kids are already stockpiling their squealing power!

Happy Daze

On the day just before the great panic attack, which has now subsided into a dull depression, we had a really fantastic time with friends from school out at Happy Hollow. I need to remember just how much difference it makes to take a day off and do something relaxing that the kids really love.

Our trip to the park was the result of a cancelled playdate the prior week, so we met the moms and kids of two other families there. Smunch is big buddies with one of the other little boys and hopefully, he's now feeling friendlier with the other one too. Mam is on friendly terms with one of the younger brothers, who is her age. The other little boy has a big sister and she was all over that. It was a lot like herding cats. It was hard to keep track of all six kids at any one time. But it was so much fun! In so many ways, the rigamarole of school, speech therapy and occupational therapy every week, with the addition of PONY baseball and a little gymnastics has been really draining. This one little trip was more rejuvenating than I could have imagined.It was a day when no one cared if Gavin stuttered. There was no homework to do, no shopping trips to be cajoled into, no rooms to clean up or things more important than having fun.

Unfortunately, the ride I like to refer to as "the snail-go-round" was closed, supposedly for repairs. But I know they'll be auctioning it off in July when they close the park for renovations. I'm bummed that after multiple measurements and a lot of wishful thinking, a carousel just won't fit in our backyard and the snail-go-round probably isn't set up in such a way that we could power it with solar panels, huh? I took one of my first favorite photos of Smunch on this ride. I included it in my last Happy Hollow post. Hard to believe that was almost a year ago already.

The kids were also thrilled to get to see this guy up close. Here begins their interest in entomology. They love telling everyone how they saw a Tiger Swallower. Uh. yeah.

We rounded out our super fun day with some fun for Mommy. Because wouldn't you know it? There's a letterbox within easy walking distance of the park entrance. Ha! Even the kids seemed to think that was pretty cool!

Serenity

Serenity? O.K., not really. But this is about as close as you can get to it when you've had two kids in tow all day and it's getting late in the afternoon. Last Friday (yeah, I'm behind again), I took the kids to Happy Hollow...well, actually, I made an ill-fated trip to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. Smunch really, really wanted to see the Clifford exhibit that they've been advertising on PBS and both kids love the museum. It seemed like time to take them back. But I didn't count on it being the first day of the Silicon Valley Grand Prix...and the roads to the museum parking were all blocked off. And parking was going to cost me $25. I bailed...thankfully. It turned out it took a Grand Prix ticket to get the the museum anyway. The kids begrudgingly agreed to go to Happy Hollow instead.

We've been to Happy Hollow a lot this summer, so I didn't feel the need to take a lot of pictures since I did that every other time we were there. It was another fun day with the kids. No fighting, just a lot of wandering around, riding rides, feeding goats. At least Mommy managed to remember to bring a pocket full of quarters this time!

The most surprising part of the day (and this is where the serenity comes in) happened when we left the park. We were headed back to the mommymobile when Smunch spotted a little sign with an arrow and asked me what it said. I told him it said "Japanese Friendship Garden".

Smunch: Can we go there?
Me: Well, sure Smunch, but it's getting a little late. (looks at time on phone) You might miss Curious George
Smunch: (pauses to think) O.K.
Me: Really? Mam, do you want to go to the Japanese Friendship Garden?
Mam: O.K.

I have no idea where we're headed because, although I've seen the sign before, I've never actually considered going down there. But all three of us head down the hill. It doesn't look like Japanese garden down there. There's a big sign "Japanese Friendship Garden". I took the kids that way and finally spot a little doorway, which opens, as you might hope, into a big, lovely Japanese garden.

I don't know what I expected, exactly. There were really quite a lot of people there and it was just a garden, after all. But the kids were thrilled and they were well-behaved.




They loved the bridges, the giant koi, the water lilies and the dragonflies. There was a waterfall, flowering trees and streams running around the whole place. There was even a dispenser for fish food...but I'd used up all my quarters on the goat chow at the Happy Hollow petting zoo.

A.K. and Little S Come to Visit

You couldn't hold the anticipation down as the day of Aunt Karen's arrival got near. Smunch is particularly enamored with AK and Mam thinks she's pretty cool too. This time, as in a couple of visits past, the show was stolen by my sister's own adorable little boy, Spencer, who is cute as a button and now interactive enough that all three kids have a blast together, even if Spencer is following behind at a sprinting crawl.

He thought Smunch and Mam, in particular, were hysterical. They were his entertainment every time he got in the car. Glad I'm not to one who has to drive him around solo in the coming weeks!



AK and Spencer spent an entire week with us and, as usual, I'm not really sure where all the time went or what was the most fun. Honestly, the fun started when we picked AK and Little S up at the airport. Mam insisted on carrying Spencer's car seat while Smunch had AK's suitcase full of bricks...or something equally as heavy.

We went to a Beach Party concert in one of the local parks and packed ourselves a picnic dinner. That was a lot of fun! The kids ran around like maniacs, dancing and doing somersaults. They even went up front to join in some of the "real" dance moves.

We also went to the Ice Cream Zoofari fundraiser at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose. I like to go to that one because it supports Hope Home Services, which provided early intervention services for Smunch for his first 3 years of life, but also because Happy Hollow is fun and this event features as much free ice cream as you can eat. Yum! It was just a bonus to have AK and Spencer along for the event. Even Gram and Grandpa joined us!

We decided to risk Spencer crying when we put him on this firetruck ride. I told Mam to take good care of him and make sure he was happy. Her solution? Tickle him whenever his smile started to fade. At least it kept the little guy happy...and made his first ride without Mommy a success!




As silly as it sounds, one of the best experiences of the visit was that promised photo shoot at Sears. After such brilliant school photos, I'd wanted to get some decent pictures of the kids anyway and AK's visit made it the perfect time to get some portraits of the kids with their cousin. I sound excited, but the truth is, it was the regular pain in the butt of getting the kids to look all perfect, then fixing it all when we got there.

Mam refused to let me put the pretty bow back in her hair. I forgot that I'd been thinking of trying to conceal the scar on her forehead. Oh well. They got some great shots, but the only ones of Smunch by himself were lousy. They were nice enough to shoot a couple more that turned out pretty good. Spencer cried when the photographer decided he was done with the rocking horse prop. The kids ran up and down the hall outside the studio squealing and throwing their belongings. BUT, it was so exciting to get some neat pictures of the kids, that it almost seems like it wasn't painful at all! Fortunately, Mam put off getting a giant purple goose egg in the middle of her forehead until this morning.

Speaking of geese, we took a walk out at Shoreline Park and found it overrun with Canada geese. And if you know Canada geese, you know the place was also overrun by goose poop. That was a nice, relaxing little trip after the big photo shoot day. I'll blog a little more about that in a different post.

After a breakfast, marred only by poor service, one cranky old woman and the crashing of one little Mam into the corner of a neighboring table (don't ask. I don't know how it happened), it was finally time for AK to pack herself and Spencer up and start the journey back to San Diego. Thank goodness we'll be driving down there in just a few weeks!

It was a busy week of visiting. I'm sure Spencer was a little tuckered out from all that attention, but I don't doubt he knows he's ADO(RED). And AK? Yeah, she's adored too!