November 21-27, 2010

On Sunday, we took a walk. Will and Zayley held hands most of the time.



We also went to Station and Will and Zayley played in the gravel play area while we ate, which was good times. And we went to Target! And played games after the kids went to bed!

On Monday, Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill came down from Fallbrook to hang out with the kids while we went with Nate and Miranda to see Harry Potter and eat cheese & chocolate at the Melting Pot.

On Tuesday, Nate, Miranda, and Zayley headed up to Fallbrook. Ian came over and played Madden with Lorne, and when he got a touchdown Will shouted, "Boo Ian! BOOOOO!" I suspect he's learned how to watch football with his mom.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Fallbrook.



Lorne made 1,000,000 sweet potatoes.





Miranda and Laurel started baking the best cake ever.



Here is a terrible picture of the kids in their new pajamas from Grandma Gail.

On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving. We ate a lot. The kids played in Aunt Diana's bouncy house.





Jenny had some fun crafts for the kids to do. Everyone made turkey hats and a turkey hand (which we didn't get a picture of, but it's super cute and going on our fridge).


Will in his turkey hat.


Me in Will's turkey hat.


Miranda with Jake.

Between dinner and dessert, Lorne got Evie to giggle. It was pretty cute.





Oh, and that cake I mentioned on Wednesday? It was awesome. It's the Aunt Sassy Cake from Baked Explorations. The cake was perfect, the frosting was light and flavorful, and it was just delicious. Yeah, I'm totally raving over the cake we baked. What.



Miranda decorated it perfectly, didn't she? (I frosted the innards - aren't they the prettiest innards you've ever seen?)



I think we need to open a bakery together.

On Friday, everyone drove up to Livermore, CA. Haven't you been to Livermore? It's a magical place, with elves and fairies and chocolate rivers, and everyone should go there at least once. Or maybe it's just where we stayed so we could go see the Huskies play Cal on Saturday.



When everyone arrived, Will and Zayley watched Toy Story on Zayley's DVD player while the rest of us watched the poor Boise State kicker choke. Twice.

On Saturday, we went to Berkeley.



Riding the BART.


Watching the band play at the Husky Warmup (AKA, The Football Party, as the kids called it)

I didn't take any pictures during the game because 1) we didn't bring the good camera with and 2) my cell phone camera doesn't do too well with the rain. And it rained. A lot. All over us. And then it hailed.



But the Huskies won, so it was all worth it.


Evie dries out after the game.


Will and Lorne watch Bee Movie on the hotel teevee after the game.

October 14-20, 2010

On Sunday, Evie began working on her masterpiece.



Will was a hugaholic.



Will also "shaved" with Lorne.



Except instead of using a razor he used a straw.



On Monday, Will & Evie sat together while we read stories.





While Will was trying to fall asleep at nap time, I overheard him talking. He was making up a conversation between Mr. Lion and the Day Out with Thomas train he got last week (that he's been sleeping with).

"Thomas, your face looks like a turtle."

"No it doesn't Mr. Lion, that's not very nice."

"Yes Thomas, in fact your face looks like a turtle."

"Mr. Lion! You stop not being very nice to me!"

He started saying "in fact" and we can't figure out where he picked it up. Last week while reading "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late," when the pigeon asked for a glass of water, instead of saying "no!" (like you're supposed to to all the pigeon's requests), Will said, "In fact Daddy, I would also like a glass of water, just like the pigeon."

After nap time, Will had a fever and Evie's eye was all goopy and everyone was sad. No pictures of this. But because of the sickness, we let Will watch the Sprout channel at night - a first for him. It seems the Sprout channel's evening programming is called "the Good Night Show", and it has this weird stuffed star puppet:



When I turned it on, Will kept talking about "that old piece of cheese." He thought the star was an old piece of cheese puppet. Then after awhile, when the lady kept addressing it as "Star," Will turned to me and said, "Mommy you were wrong, it's a star, not an old piece of cheese." I didn't tell him it was cheese!

On Tuesday, Evie's eye was too goopy for pictures. No, really. It was gross. I read somewhere that breastmilk can help clear up conjunctivitis (seriously!) so after I finished feeding Evie when I got home from work, I figured I'd try dripping some in her eye; if it didn't work I could use some pumped milk and a dropper. But getting it in her eye seemed easier than I thought it would be, and it helped! And then I went to do the same before she went to bed on Tuesday night, except the, um, flow of breastmilk was a little stronger than it had been earlier. Instead of dripping some in her eye, I shot milk all over her face, into her ear, down her neck, and onto the chair we were sitting in. It was like a damn fire hose.

On Wednesday, Evie was excited.



No. REALLY excited.



Also, Will played a game that involved running at and then jumping on Mommy (despite the fact that he'd been sick to his stomach earlier). This is about what an hour of my night looked like:



On Thursday, we watched the Huskies beat UCLA.



Evie thought it was kind of a nailbiter.



On Friday, Evie rolled over for the first (and only) time. We tried to get her to recreate the event so we could have video evidence, but she refused. So we just have this one picture of her right before she flipped.



On Saturday, we overslept. Which would have been fine, except that Laurel had a craft show. We'd packed everything up the night before, so Lorne took one car down to the show and set everything up while Laurel got the kids up and dressed and fed Evie, then we swapped. Lorne took the kids to the science museum. Later, Nate, Miranda, and Zayley arrived! Hooray! Will and Zayley played together and it was adorable (even when they cried about something), then Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill and Grandma Jo all came down for dinner.

There is no photographic proof that any of this happened, so you'll just have to take our word for it.

November 7-13, 2010

On Sunday, we took Will and Evie up to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA. Why, you ask? Because that's where they were having the Day Out with Thomas. Yes, that Thomas. We told Will we'd be going to look at trains, but not exactly what was going on because we wanted it to be a surprise. He was SUPER surprised.

There was a real, live, full-sized, working Thomas engine there. While we waited in line to buy tickets, Will watched as Thomas drove by a few times.



THAT'S THOMAS BACK THERE.



The first thing we did was ride on the train. The actual train that the actual Thomas pulled. Do you know how exciting this was for Will? I'll give you a hint.







Evie also enjoyed the ride on Thomas, but I don't think she understood the significance of the event.



After we rode on Thomas, we walked around and looked at the other things the Day Out had to offer. The museum had lots of little kid-sized replicas of old LA trolleys. Will waited, very patiently I might add, to ring the bell on this trolley.



And when it was his turn, that stupid jerk dad took the string and handed it to his kid. And I was all, "Dude, it was my kid's turn." And the guy didn't speak English, so I couldn't get into a shouting match with him. Lame. Will was okay with it though, he just left and we found other things to look at, like this trolley.



And this super old engine. There was a railroad museum volunteer there that let Will hold the oil can for the picture.



Evie would like to let you know that if the sun is in your eyes and you cry a lot, you can probably get your dad to act as a sun shade for you.



Toward the end of the day, as some of the people filtered out (holy crap, there were A LOT of people there), we found that the line to go meet Thomas was pretty short. Here's Will waving at Thomas as he pulled back into the station.




Do you see Thomas back there?


Seriously guys, it's Thomas.


I have to make sure he's still there.


Doing a Thomas dance

As we were walking back to the apartment, Will said, "Mommy, this was a beautiful and special day." It sure was buddy.



On Monday, we were still recovering from our Day Out with Thomas.

On Tuesday, we went on a walk.



Lorne dressed Will. That's all I'm saying.


What are you implying, Mom?

Anyway, we went on a walk. Will went on the swings and down the slide.



When we got home, Evie made some faces.





On Wednesday, we took no pictures. But after his nap time, I asked Will if he wanted to go on a walk or go on a drive to the store, and he picked going to the store. We got stuck in traffic and a trip that usually takes 15 minutes took about an hour. Will passed the time by spelling out the letters on signs and then asking me what the words spelled. At one point, Will spelled out, "G-E-N-T-L-E-M-E-N-S-C-L-U-B. What does that spell Mommy?"

At least it didn't say "L-I-V-E-N-U-D-E-X-X-X."

On Thursday, Lorne took the kids to the zoo in the morning. No pictures, but it's probably for the best, as the tortoises were doing what was probably just being advertised inside the Gentlemen's Club from the night before.

During Will's bath Thursday evening, Lorne and Will were playing a game where Will set up some of his bath toys in a particular pattern, then Lorne would mess them all up. Then Will re-set them up in the original pattern. We were pretty impressed with how well he remembered his original pattern. At one point, in mock frustration (he was smiling as he said it), after Lorne rearranged his toys Will said, "Oh, Tootsie Rolls!"

Perhaps it's a good thing he's almost out of Halloween candy.

On Friday, Evie wore a dress.



Will wore his "Eyes of the Tiger" t-shirt. He also told Lorne, "Daddy, you're my best friend ever."



Evie was shocked.



On Saturday, we watched The Sound of Music. Will has been on a "Doe a Deer" kick for awhile (he sings it, loudly, everywhere - in the car, in the living room, at the grocery store, on walks) so we popped it in after nap time to have on in the background while we played. During the scene where the children are singing "So Long, Farewell" Will sat on his knees in front of the TV. "Where are they going Mommy?" he asked.

"They're going to bed, so they're singing a goodnight song to the people at the party," I said.

"Oh, I miss them already!" he exclaimed. We really should just have a video camera running on him at all times so we can catch things like this. Anyway, no pictures of Sound of Music fest, but here are a couple of Evie.

Evie sat in the chair for a little while.



Then, after an unsuccessful attempt at bed time, she passed out on the couch next to Lorne.