Sunday, June 6 - Today was my day to sleep in. (David sleeps in on Saturdays and I sleep in on Sundays so, in theory, we both get a little extra sleep at least one day a week.) So I woke up feeling a little more rested than usual. We got ready and headed out for church, running just a couple of minutes late instead of 10 or 15 minutes, which we have been known to do. As we got closer to church, Joel decided that he didn't want to go to the playground and see Gabby (our children's director), he wanted to go to the nursery with Silas and see Mary (the nursery worker). Now, this has nothing to do with Gabby. Once he's with Gabby, Joel has fun with Gabby. But...Joel loves Mary. Joel and Mary have a very special and unique bond. From the very first time we left Joel with Mary at only a few months old, she has called him "her angel baby". Her face lights up when Joel arrives. She was the first person that Joel waved bye-bye to and the first person he blew a kiss to. So, we decided that Joel could stop by to say "hi" to Mary and then sit in the overflow room and listen to the music with us for a while. He lasted about 2 songs and then said, "Momma, I want to go to the pwaygwound." Off we went. As soon as we walked thru the gates, the wailing began. The ugly cry. I don't see it often from him, but when it comes, it's dramatic. And it was. I am so thankful for Mr. Villa, who almost every week, peels Joel off of me and carries him off to find a truck to play with, or in this instance, off to his class. And they say, that as soon as I'm out of sight, he's fine. And I know that's true, but why he can't it make it a little easier on poor Mom? Ironically, later in the day, Joel specifically told me he wanted to go back to the church and to the playground to see Gabby "tomorrow". Of course!
After church we headed out to the beach. We decided to hit up Seal Beach because it was a little closer and the southern beaches looked clearer. It was clear but the sand was nasty and the water was pretty gross too. It was a little windy but not bad at all. Unfortunately, it was windy enough to blow our umbrella all the way across the beach. Thankfully a very nice stranger chased it down for us as we were at the water's edge with the boys when it happened. David and Joel dug a huge hole and then a channel out to the ocean so that as the tide started coming in, the channel would fill with water that then filled up the hole. Joel thought it was pretty amazing stuff! Silas loved watching all of the birds scavenge the beach for food. "Tweet, Tweet! Tweet, Tweet!" He also liked digging in the sand but not quite as much as Joel.
Silas and the sand
He really wanted to get in the water and splash around but it was too cold to stay in for very long at all. We only lasted about an hour and then we loaded up and headed home. The Retts were cooking out so Andrew and David ran to the store to get some carne asada and the fixings. We fed, showered and put the boys to bed, and enjoyed adult conversation with our meal....a nice change of pace. The food was so good. I don't know what is in that marinade but the beef is melt in your mouth tender and so good! So far, I must say this is looking to be a pretty great summer!
Monday, June 7 - Back to the real world! We were in need of food so I loaded up the boys for a full morning of grocery shopping. We went to Target, Von's and Trader Joe's. I should have known that 3 long stops like that was 1 too many, especially since Von's didn't have the handy "car carts" for the boys to ride in. But, we did survive. After naps, they, as usual, wanted a snack. I learned last week that they love cherries so I had picked some up. Of course I have to pit them before they can eat them and I tried to do it by hand last week. It wasn't that hard but it was tedious, time consuming and messy! So, we picked up a cherry-pitter at Target. Joel loved it. I think he had more fun doing that than he did actually eating the cherries! Good thing too...since Silas was eating them just about as fast I we could pit them. They polished off the cherries, had a handful of blueberries, each ate a whole banana blueberry muffin, a yogurt stick and some wheat thins. You would have thought they hadn't eaten in years! How will I feed them when they are 17 and 15? Yikes! When David got home we went up to the Rose Bowl to burn off some calories. Joel thought he wanted to ride his bike but only got about 1/4 of the way around and he was done. So, David carried it back to the car while I tried to keep walking with the Silas in the stroller and Joel by my side but it didn't last long. We finally just stopped and the boys snacked...again....until David got back. Silas went on a drive with David while Joel and I strolled the rest of the way around.
When we got home, we found the Retts headed out the door for dinner. They convinced us to go eat pizza with them. It had been a while since we all went out to eat together and I'm so glad we went. We basically took over this little pizza shop in South Pasadena (Mama's Pizza) and the kids had a great time. The kids played with their cars and everything else they could get their hands on. Overall, they were really well-behaved....just a few loud shrieks that caused the other tables to turn and stare...Fun times with fun peeps!
Say Cheese....pizza!
Joel making us laugh...as always
Tuesday, June, 8 - Tuesday started off like a fairly normal day. I decided to take the boys to Rose Bowl for a run and then a trip to the playground. Joel showed off his climbing skills and Silas had fun going down the slide! We chased the birds for a bit and then headed home. Thankfully, we didn't have too much planned for the rest of the day. We (and I use that term very loosely because all I do is say Yay or Nay to whatever David finds) have been looking to purchase a 2nd car for David. We've been a one-car family for almost 4 years now and David's patience with bike commuting has been wearing very thin. So, he found a car last week at a dealer in Montclair that he liked. He went to look at it on Saturday and was really excited about it. We had been talking it over and David called on Monday and made the guy a final offer. They negotiated a bit (why does $100 seem like so much in when it's only a small percentage of the overall purchase price of the car? I think it's either pride or principle or maybe both....) Anyway....they came to an agreement over the phone, pending my seeing the car and giving it my approval. David called just as the boys woke up from their naps (ok, he actually woke me up from my nap, too) so I threw a few things in the diaper bag, got shoes on the boys, and off we went. It should be about a 35 minute drive, but of course we were driving with rush-hour traffic at 4:00 pm so it took about an hour. Joel was so excited. He wanted to know if the new car would be orange or white. Answer: Neither! When we got there, Joel just wanted to "drive" all of the cars. David took the car for one last test drive and Joel had a melt down because he couldn't go with him. Joel sat in about 10 different cars. He really liked the "race car"...aka a Toyota MR2 Spyder. He thought that was really cool, especially when David put the top down. Sadly, there were no seats for Silas and I. At one point, while David was going through some paperwork and Silas was hanging out with him in the air conditioning, Joel and I went "driving". I asked him to take me to Disneyland to see Mickey Mouse (we're hoping to go in a couple of months). When we got to "Disneyland", Joel leaned over and picked up Mickey Mouse in the palm of his hands. I tried to explain to him that Mickey Mouse is very tall, probably taller than Mommy, but he wanted to hear nothing of it. So I am a little concerned that seeing an adult-size (or larger) Mickey Mouse may freak him out a little bit when we go to Disneyland. Back to the car....So David and I signed all of the papers, moved Joel's car seat over to the new car and we are now the proud owners of a 2001 green Honda Accord. It's a standard (which means I can only drive in emergency situations, never on the freeway, and on streets with as few hills as possible...so umm, never!) but it's ok because the car seats will easily fit in it if David needs to take them somewhere. We left the dealership and headed to Chick-Fil-A (the boys' fav) and were happy to realize that it was Kid's night, which meant the boys ate free! Considering each kid can almost eat his own kid's meal, it was a great deal. They had fun playing in the playground and of course, loved the food. Joel rode all the way back with David and refers to the car as "his" car. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the poor car will be 22 years old by the time he's old enough to drive. Who knows! Stranger things have happened. We got home, got the boys in bed, and Kim stayed with them so I could actually ride in our new-to-us car. The interior is in perfect condition and it rides very nicely. I'm very happy for David and thankful for an extra set of wheels!
Wednesday, June 9 - The morning started off a little rough when we realized that David took Joel's car seat with him to work. My normal plan of an outing every morning went out the window. I decided to get a few things done around the house since we couldn't go anywhere anyway. Fun things like cleaning out the pantry, under Silas' bed and in the boys closet. Most of what I cleaned out was stuff that nobody sees anyway, but it made me feel better. By mid-morning, the boys were sick of being inside so I finally got us all dressed enough to get outside. We played for a little while, rode bikes, etc. It was almost lunch time so I went inside to preheat the oven for chicken nuggets. Mistake! After about 10 minutes, the smoke detectors were beeping and Joel was crying again. They are so loud that even outside, they make your ears ring. I couldn't get the kitchen window open, which usually shuts them off, couldn't leave the boys outside, couldn't open all the doors with the boys inside, and by now, they've been beeping for like 5 minutes and I'm starting to think it's more than just the oven! I finally started fanning away from a specific one that seems to be extra sensitive and got the beeping to stop. Needless to say, we had macaroni & cheese for lunch instead and I won't be baking above 350 for a while. Ugh! David came home for lunch and I have never been more thankful. I crashed while he fed them and got them down for their naps. After their naps, we headed out to Target for a quick outing. Silas is so friendly to people. He is always saying "Hi" to people as they pass, which seems to make everyone smile. And Joel has started saying "Have a good day" to the cashiers as we leave each store. They only understand him about 25% of the time but I think it's really precious.
Thursday, June 10 - The Rose Bowl was calling our name again this morning so we met Kara and Levi. We were a little late because of the great shoe debate of 2010. Joel could care less about what shirts/shorts/pants I put on him, but he is highly opinionated about his shoes. He has very strong ideas of what he likes/wants to wear/needs to wear every day. Some days his choices are in line with his outfit and other days, not so much. Some days he's easily persuaded to wear something more appropriate, other days, not so much! Also, Silas loves to play the game...empty all our shoes out of the bin and leave them strewn about in our room. So, we're trying to get out the door and Joel cannot decide what shoes he wants to wear. Since he and Silas are only a couple of sizes apart these days, he kept bringing me random shoes and asking...Go-el or Guy-wus? He finally settled on some loafers that sort of kind of went with his outfit. Oh well...he was happy so I was happy. Anyway...we finally made it to the Rose Bowl, around the RB and over to the playground. There had to have been 1800 5 year olds running around at the playground, all wearing matching royal blue shirts. Yikes! They were on top of each other so we scooted over to the "big kid" playground that was empty...for about 3 minutes when one of the teachers realized it was empty. We didn't last much longer. Silas found an area with tons of pigeons so we chased those birds 'til every last one of them was gone. He loved it! He is always spotting birds when we are outside and loves to run after them. Joel really thought he was going to catch a couple of them. I thought he might, too, and I was so thankful when those birds finally got smart and just flew away! Thursday night, I got together with our "Bible study" gals. I placed "Bible study" in quotes because it's become more like a weekly catch-up on each other's lives meeting. That's ok though...I'm so thankful to have such an amazing group of friends who can share life together in every sense of the word. They are encouragement to me every time we meet and I would not survive if they were not around. Annie, we will miss you when you head East! The group will never be the same without all of your insight and wisdom! Since we didn't meet last week, we surprised Kim with her favorite dessert, "Dirt Cake"and a couple of special gifts. (Dirt cake is really yummy, easy and fun! Maybe I'll post the recipe on here some time.) Andrew tried really hard (not intentionally, but he really almost did) to ruin the surprise but I think she really didn't know. We love ya, Kim! Hope your 27th year is awesome!
Friday, June 11 - My new goal each week is to have all my laundry done before the weekend. Thus, we started out the day doing 5 loads of laundry. Amazingly everything was even folded and put away before we went to bed! The boys and I met Katie and Eli at Sonic for a lunch out. When Katie and Eli got in the car, Joel looked very confused and asked, "Where's Go-ey (Joey)?" He loves all of our friends so much! It was great to catch up with Katie again after her trip to Michigan. After their naps, Joel wanted to paint so badly. So, we got out the paint and Joel went to town! He painted 5 pictures and I think they were all of him. Silas tried to paint a little bit but he doesn't quite have the hang of it yet and really just wants to put his hands all through the paint so that didn't last long. After David got home, we agreed with the Wrights and Retts that we should order pizza and watch a movie. The guys went and got Pizza Hut (my favorite!) and then after the kids were asleep, we watched Couples Retreat. (We missed you Chris!) It was pretty funny but I fell asleep about half way through. (If you have never watched movies with me, my falling asleep in a movie has no direct relationship to how entertaining, interesting, or anything else the movie is. I have been known to fall asleep in the theaters.) It was a nice relaxing evening. Then, Joel decided to be up off and on from 2:00 to 6:30 so it was a long night for me.
Saturday, June 12 - After a long night, the boys and I woke up and made pancakes at Joel's suggestions. He loves to help me cook and making Saturday morning breakfasts together have become quite the tradition for us. Silas sat in his chair and ate the pancakes almost as fast as we could flip them. What an eater! He cracks me up. When David got up, we decided we'd try a family hike. He looked online and decided we'd head to Monrovia Falls. It was only 1.5 miles round trip and we knew the boys would love the waterfall at the end. I told Joel we were going on a hike and he thought I said we were going to fly a kite. He started singing...Let's go fwy a kite....from Mary Poppins. He LOVES that song! We loaded up and got there around 11:00. We had to park a little ways off so David dropped off Joel and I at the trail head and went to park the car. Joel immediately was not excited and I could tell his restless night was going to make this hike interesting. As we started out, I was trying to encourage Joel so I started singing another of his favorite songs, "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho" from Snow White. From that point on, we would randomly hear Silas sing "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho." So funny! Silas loved the hike and wanted to walk the whole way. (We had to carry him across some narrower/rocky parts of the trail.) He made friends with everyone we passed, offering a loud "Hi" to the fellow hikers. Periodically he would stop and point to the sticks or dirt or leaves or he'd lean down really close to check things out. I have a feeling many more hikes are in his future. Joel on the other hand, didn't think it was so great. It was nice and shady but he was so, so tired. At one point, we were dangling fish out in front of him just to keep him moving. But, he loved crossing the stream (I called it a river and Joel looked at me, confused, and said, "A baby river?") and was really excited to finally reach the waterfall. We let them take off their shoes and walk in the water a little bit but the water was really cold so that didn't last long. They enjoyed their fish and cheerios and then we headed back. Silas is a very slow walker so at one point I teasingly told him we were going on. He looked up and started saying, "Wait! Wait!" I am so amazed at how his vocabulary grows every day! I'm sure he's heard Joel say it hundreds of times but it still made me laugh! We finally made it back to car, made a quick Sonic stop (yes, twice in 2 days, but we were literally 5 minutes from it) and then headed home. The boys took a great nap so David and I did too! I haven't taken such a long nap in a really long time. It was great!
