Christmas in Monterey

Merry Christmas from Monterey! We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and we wish we could be with you. You are all in our hearts and prayers this year and we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Love,

Joseph, Stacy, and Xavier



P.S. This video was filmed at a secret government location. Please make little to no attempts to reveal the precise location should you feel as if you've seen this place before. Because you haven't. Really.

Bliss or Miss

This is bliss, seeing X smile--this smile was after waiting two hours for his picture session during which mom, dad, aunt and grandma tried to keep X and cousin Z entertained, and kept getting to clean up cousin Z who was throwing up but insisted on staying so she could have her pictures taken too.

And this is miss, the times in life (like this month) when it feels like everything is falling apart. This month has, so far, brought shrinking bank accounts, a statistics final and project, a malfunctioning modem and random internet service, unpredictable weather, a monster cold that had me out flat for several days, and job rejections for Joe. Still, we have amazing friends who helped watch X for us, and Joe helped me out with everything--from cooking and taking X on outings to tutoring me in stats and working out my paper. And we just keep applying for more jobs. Joe's theory is that if you don't apply, you definitely won't get the job. Smarty! This week is "apply for Kaiser" week (at least for me). Maybe I'll get some use out of my bachelor's degree (Community Hlth Ed) after all!

Now that I actually have a second to blog, although X really wants me to play cars with him, I'll show you the highlight of our Thanksgiving...Disneyland! Xavier was not sick this time around and it felt so good seeing him excited and amazed at everything. His favorites were: Mark Twain's island (is that what it's called?), the teacups, the carousel (he told us it was like being on Mary Poppins), Dumbo, and the ultimate favorite was "the castle" known to most as the It's a Small World boat ride. Everything was decorated for Christmas and it even "snowed" at certain points in the park at set hours. Very cool. We got there just as it opened and got through a ton of rides before lines started forming and then we stayed there until nine at night, I think. It was a lot of fun and a tradition we are all happy to repeat!

Treasure looting on Mark Twain's island. X did not want to leave this place until he serenaded everyone with a loud rendition of "We are the Pirates Who Don't do Anything" from Veggies Tales. Xavier did actually find a dime on the ground and very carefully put the treasure in his pocket.

The wiggly pirate bridge.

Ready for Winnie the Pooh ride after X had just gotten to meet pictures with Pooh and Eeyore.
His review of the ride consisted of putting his hands over his ears and repeating "Too loud."

Wheeeeeee! On the boat ride for "It's a Small World" with cousin Z.

X's review: "I like teacups." So there you have it.

Honey Grilled Sweet Potato recipe

If anyone wants to try a non-marshmallow, non-buttery sweet potato recipe that is yummy, try these Honey Grilled Sweet Potatoes. This recipe's directions were for the grill but since we don't have a grill, I tried to adapt it to the stove. Trial #1 sweet potatoes got an "okay". Trial #2 sweet potatoes got "mmmmm"s (as in yummmmm). I used the ingredients in bold.

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes OR 1 can cooked sweet potatoes
1 can of pineapple chunks* (drained)
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/4 cup honey OR 1/4 cup organic blue agave nectar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp garlic salt

Directions:
Cook sweet potatoes in microwave or oven until soft, then take off skin and cut into cubes (or use already prepared sweet potatoes in a can). Spray large frying pan with cooking spray and add cooked sweet potatoes, drained pineapple chunks, and pecan halves. Heat on medium, turning often. Drizzle most of the agave (or honey) on top of ingredients and let it heat through, marinating, for a few minutes. Add the rest of the agave (or honey), sprinkle with the cinnamon and garlic salt and stir while it bubbles for about one minute. Cover and serve warm!

*For less sugar, use unsweetened pineapple chunks.

Pillowcases for gifts ala my sister

My sister is a stay-at-home mom of five and is known in our family for making fun pillowcases as gifts. I love having new pillowcases that go with the holidays and she is finally taking her pillowcases (and other hand-made items) public. She also takes special requests. Get your order in early, as time and fabric is limited!

See the Blog Pillow Case Place or PillowCasePlace at Etsy.

My Big Boy

Xavier made this Lincoln Log creation all by himself about a month ago. I didn't notice him making it, so when I turned around I was amazed at his imagination and building skills! Each log is close together and he even balanced a second row.

One of my favorite nicknames for Xavier is "Baby Boy" because to me, no matter how old he is getting, he really is my baby boy. However, he often reminds me that he is not a baby anymore. At the grocery store the other day, a little girl younger than he was pointed to him and said "Baby boy!" He was polite enough not to push her over for saying that, but he quickly came back to me and told me, mostly to reassure himself, "I not a baby boy. I a BIG BOY." So there you have it. Xavier is not a baby anymore. He's a big boy, and only his mommy gets by with occasionally calling him "baby boy".

I Spy...YOU reading this post

About two weeks ago, my friend Miru from Japan sent me a birthday package in the mail that included an "Anpanman Sagase" book for me to do with Xavier. It's the Japanese version of an "I Spy" book. That started a new thing for Xavier. He loves to find things by looking. At the park today, we spent 10-15 minutes playing an "I see..." game while we walked around. I would start by saying something like, "I see a boy walking" and he would respond with something he saw. At first he said whatever I said, but pretty soon he started adding on to mine ("I see a blue car" instead of just "I see a car.") and then said the things he noticed on his own, like "I see a shadow," or "I see a duck in water." I always find it fascinating what he notices. X is an observant little boy.

We played a similar game for Family Home Evening tonight. Joe and Xavier lay on their stomachs and I was the caller. They had to look around the room and visually find the things in the room that I asked them to find. Xavier's were easier--Can you see Mr. Potato Head? Can you see a book? Can you see something brown? Joe got harder questions--Find three things that show your personal preferences, find three things that remind you of me, etc. Joe had me find three things in the room that made me feel happy. It's a fun, easy game that requires NO preparation whatsoever. :)

Another fun thing we found with our imaginative little Xavier right now is the use for random boxes. His diaper box was converted into a fire truck with some construction paper and he likes to put stuff in it and push it all around the house. We also found two great books about using your imagination while playing with boxes. One is called Not a Box by A. Portis, and the other is Panda the Train Engineer by Oda Taro. I make up my own words for Not a Box (basically repeating, "It's not a box! It's a ..." and letting Xavier fill in the blank) but the idea of the book and the pictures are great.

Any suggestions for fun books or activities you've done with young kids lately?

Kami No Ko

Xavier is singing the primary song "I am a Child of God." He then sings the Japanese version "Kami no Ko Desu."

Here are the lyrics, see if you can follow along:

I am a child of God
And He has sent me here
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me
Help me find the way
Teach me all that I must do
To live with Him some day.

Kami no ko desu.
Watashi ya anata
Afureru megumi ni
Kansha shimasu.

Watashi wo tasukete
Michibiite
Itsuka mimoto e
Yukeru youni

Happy Halloween!

Cowboy Dad, Fireman Sam, Cooking Mama

Happy Birthday to Me!

Boy, am I glad I finally got on Facebook! I have never, ever in my life gotten as many birthday wishes as I did this year. Not to mention that I think every one of my 10 siblings, parents, grandparents, and in-laws wished me a happy birthday, too! Maybe they somehow knew it was my "golden" birthday, meaning I turned the age that my birthday date is, if that makes any sense. It was truly a historic day. And now my life is officially one-third over because I really don't want to live much past ninety if I can help it!



My dad and I were born on the same day and he always claims that I'm his very favorite gift, even on years when I can't give anything! I also think he knows that I have a hard time celebrating by myself because somehow it always seems to turn out that he will be coming to visit right around our birthday time. This was true even when we lived in Japan! I love it. Thank you always, Dad, and Happy B-day! Xavier (below) loves to help blow out candles. This time he got to try several times since Joe used one of those little trick candles!



Joe was the amazing husband he is and didn't stop giving me birthday presents and wishes all day long. He did the dishes, made me Swedish pancakes for breakfast, did all the phone calls for work, took me shopping for just the kind of plates I've been looking for, even smiled at my indecisiveness and let me go back and get the plates I originally liked as we were halfway to the checkout, took me out for a family bday dinner, and wished me happy bday even when we got in bed way after midnight when he is usually such a stickler for saying the day is over after 12o'clock! He also helped Xavier give me a present and even splurged on the buy--two fish, not just one! Ollie and General Sherman are holding up so far, and I am realizing that I have a lot to learn on taking care of pets. Joe says this is just a step toward getting a dog. He might be right. I had a really great birthday (even if I did cry over my statistics class in the middle of it). Joe is a great support to me and I love him more and more each year. He even patiently let me give a kids' Halloween party on one day's notice and didn't complain when I put away all the Halloween decorations just a few minutes before our first trick-or-treaters in two years trekked up our rickety stairs for some candy. What a sweetie. Happy Birthday to me!



P.S. Don't worry, the fish have been relocated to a bigger bowl and are awaiting a real fish bowl which will be arriving a few weeks from now when our friends pack their house for their move to Germany.

Nothing is better than family

Here are some pictures of our family-filled weekend in San Francisco and Alameda! Many of my siblings and their families came to see Ben and Esther's "Baby Izzy" blessed. We stayed in a fabulous condo with a personal dock and boat (though we didn't take the boat out), a gourmet kitchen, a jacuzzi bathtub, and lots of cable TV (we love Netflix but oh, it's great to have lots of variety on TV sometimes).

The first night we were able to take a ferry across the bay, eat near Fisherman's Wharf and then literally run back just in time to catch the last ferry. The next day we ventured farther, crossed all the famous and not-so-famous bridges, saw hundreds of boats on the water, measured ourselves against the high-reaching Redwoods, dug in the sand, played games, watched movies, etc. But best of all, we got to be with family!!!! Xavier was beyond ecstatic. He was non-stop energy after five minutes of getting used to the situation--running around in circles or running out to the deck and back (scaring me every time since I was sure he was going to slip through the rails and fall in the water), talking non-stop, and getting into the middle of everything that was going on. At one point he had all his Lincoln Logs out and smashed through them, kicking them all over the room, yelling that he was a giant. You might wonder how two (mostly) introverts made such an extrovert, and I would just have to say, he must've gotten some of his grandparents' genes! X is definitely going to keep us social as he grows up! He just loves people.

I tried to keep some semblance of his normal routine while we were there. During the afternoon of the second day, there were tears when he was torn away from his beloved cousins and forced to go upstairs with mom for a little "quiet time." (I figured everyone else needed some calm, too!) After reading a few books and running around, X was given a stern warning to stay on the bed, and he obediently flopped on the bed face first and instantly fell asleep. His super-charged energy was amazing and I can see that his love for family members is incredible. He loved sleeping next to Noelle, insisted Asher and others play with him constantly, ran around yelling everyone's names and giving hugs, and was perfectly happy playing without mom and dad because he had so many other great people to choose from! Whew! Just thinking back on his whirlwind energy, I am getting tired. Or maybe it's because it's almost 1am... Goodnight!

Peachy!

Wouldn't it be awesome if this is where Joe got to work? Actually, Joe was at a career expo in Atlanta and we convinced him to meet us at the CNN building on his lunchbreak. Maybe next time we'll take the $12 tour.

Look at this hot mama! Shell has only about a month until her due date and still drove all the way down to pick us up and then trekked all over Atlanta so we could sightsee.

Olympic Park had this great fountain play area where the water had all sorts of random sequences set to music. We watched carefully and made it into the circle of water (and back out) without getting wet!
This was an adorable little boy who loved playing with the water.

These are the not-so-adorable but definitely interesting to watch fish at the Georgia Aquarium. Shelly and I got to go see it while Joe finished up at the expo. The height of the tanks and the variety of sealife was amazing. In the top photo I was actually trying to focus in on the whale shark in the background when a huge shark swam right in front of the window I was leaning on scaring me half to death. The next fish looked like a chain saw, and the size of the grouper in the third shot is easier to tell if you compare it with the random guy's head in the picture.

I wanted to show everyone pictures of where Shelly and Rob live and work in rural Georgia, with all of their beautiful trees, their two cute dogs and cat, and their long house but that's when our camera decided to be uncooperative, so it will just have to be memories. We had a great time and I loved being able to spend time with my sweet sister and brother-in-law who live so far away!

My Daddy (by Xavier)

Xavier and I were drawing on our giant Aquadoodle wall today (thanks Hilary!) and Xavier talked out loud about what he was drawing, mostly "car tires". I took a picture of his best creation, though--the face he drew on his daddy. I drew the body and then X carefully drew the mouth, eyes, nose, and teeth. If I got the explanation right, Joe is "brushing his teeth". :)

Do you know what month it is?

My birthday month!

and

My school is reminding students how to be cyber secure and suggests we try the quiz below to see how well we can detect phishing attacks. My school is so cool. http://www.sonicwall.com/phishing/

Things about me

10 years ago I:
1. Was an outdoorsy summer camp counselor in South Carolina, where I kayaked, canoed, did ropes courses, pretended to be fine with living among giant spiders and bugs, and met the most amazing kids.
2. Was a sophomore at BYU.
3. Worked as a medical transcriptionist for the student health center. I have to say, it is fascinating to hear what kinds of problems people deal with.
4. Turned down the first offer in my life to go out drinking. Who knew it was so easy to say no?
5.Could drive a stick shift. (Not so confident in that area anymore)

5 things on today's to-do list:
1. Visit the college my brother-in-law and sister work for.
2. Do a workout on Wii-Fit. Apparently, I am awesome at the balance required for ski jumping!
3. Call X who is with grandma for a few days.
4. Read the statistics book and lecture for last week's homework.
5. Finish reading "Auralia's Colors" by Jeffrey Overstreet.

5 Snacks I enjoy:
1. Blue tortilla chips with fresh salsa
2. Jalapeno-cilantro hummus with Stacy's (the brand, not me) pita chips
3. Snap peas and fresh veggies from home gardens
4. Fresh homemade bread
5. Anything sweet! (I'm sorry to Xavier who I gave my sweet tooth to. )

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
1. Pay off all of graduate debt.
2. Buy a cute house with a cute yard and then redecorate like crazy!
3. Get eye surgery so I wouldn't have to remember where I put my glasses or deal with scratchy contacts ever again!
4. Try out lots of fancy hotels.
5. Get a personal trainer and a cook, then get in really good shape and have great eating habits!

5 Places I have been:
1. the Bahamas
2. Puerto Rico
3. Boston
4. Japan
5. Illinois

5 Jobs I have had:
1. early morning newspaper deliverer (I had a great throwing arm then!)
2. gas station attendant
3. preschool teacher
4. high school teacher
5. full-time MOM

People I tag: Jodi and anyone else who wants to!

Tt is for Turtle Bread

I am a cook.

Maybe it's the cider we've been drinking or maybe it's excitement from the start of the holidays, but I have been cooking a lot of new recipes lately, attempting some semi-healthy recipes and even making some things from scratch! The other day I was rearranging our cookbooks that are overflowing our kitchen shelves and found an ABC cookbook for kids with the perfect recipe. It's called Turtle Bread. Let me back up.

My strategy for cooking usually goes like this:

1. Find ingredients in fridge that definitely need to be used up or items in the cupboards that are bugging me because I never use them (in this case, it was yeast).

2. Find a recipe that will use up the ingredient without having to go shopping for other ingredients in the recipe and/or one that does not add more miscellaneous ingredients to my fridge that will then need to be used up. (See the cute Turtle Bread recipe that will use up my yeast. Feel surpise that I have all the ingredients.)

3. Decide if I really feel like cooking or not. (Xavier wanted to cook and I didn't mind. Ok, then!)

4. Make the recipe following the directions exactly (until I realize I missed a step) OR give up and don't cook at all. (Turtle Bread was so easy and so fast with our Kitchenaid that I would make it again and again. It came out well even though I did the recipe a little bit wrong! And letting the bread sit only took ten minutes, which Xavier didn't mind because I told him the turtle was "hiding" until the timer went off. After making Turtle Bread I even told Joe we should make our own bread every time! Thinking back on my cooking history, I don't know about that idea, but ohhhh, it was tasty!)

Here's the recipe that I did which is slightly (accidentally) different from the Alpha-Bakery Children's Cookbook by Gold Medal if you want to try it:

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 pkg quick-acting active dry yeast (I couldn't tell if that's the kind I had...)

1 Tbls sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup milk

1 Tbls margarine or butter

1 egg

2 raisins (I would say these are optional)

Directions:

1. Let your kids help put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt into your Kitchenaid mixing bowl. Mix.

2. Heat water, milk and margarine in the microwave to so-hot-the-butter-melts (recipe says 125-130 degrees but I had no idea how to measure that); stir into Kitchenaid mixture. Stir in egg.

3. Sprinkle a surface lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the surface; take turns kneading the bread a few times with your child. Cover with a kitchen towel, set a timer for 10 minutes, and let the dough rest. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

4. Think of something to do with your child for the last 8 minutes of the wait.

5. Turn off timer.

6. Shape a 2-inch piece of dough into a ball for the head. Shape 4 pieces into balls for feet. Make a tail. Shape remaining dough into a ball for the body; place on cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Attach head, feet and tail. Press raisins into head for eyes (or just gouge two little holes with a knife).

7. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. (What?! I never saw this step until now! That's embarrassing. This is not the step I already did "wrong".)

8. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

9. Make crisscross cuts in body, 1/4 inch deep, to look like a turtle's shell.

10. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

Makes 1 turtle.

Spooky Boo's

I have been in a completely Halloween mood this year. I even marked off time in my dayplanner to decorate the house on October 1st while Joe was at work so he'd be surprised when he got home. Xavier was so excited to see the container of decorations come out. He chose who got which spooky pillowcase (skeleton, pumpkin, or ghost) and helped me put what he calls the pirate a.k.a. skeleton, tablecloth on the table. I changed the doormat, hung ghosts on the lamps, put up a skeleton shower curtain and made a spooky bouquet.

Today, Xavier and I played a "scary" memory game made out of funny Halloween cards, and for Family Home Evening we all decorated little pumpkins. Every night since October 1st, part of Xavier's bedtime routine is to do four rhymes or songs with paper ghosts and pumpkins as visual aids. It is so fun! He already has the first rhyme "Little Ghost, Little Ghost" almost memorized and insists that he get a turn saying it and flying the little ghost around.

It's funny that I like decorating for Halloween because I don't like actually scary things (my motto is "just say no" to spiders, haunted houses, gory costumes, etc.) and now that I'm older I can't believe the commercialization that I realize I'm a huge participant of or that parents let their kids get and eat all that candy! Do you know how many WeightWatcher points just one mini-candybar is? Still, I love it. I like our glow-in-the-dark pillowcases, seeing pumpkins and corn mazes, thinking up costumes Xavier could wear, and enjoying the fall atmosphere with our little family.

Grandma sent X a ghost camouflage t-shirt. Can you find him?

Our FHE activity--Can you tell who decorated which pumpkin? Hint: Xavier got two.

A recent spooky day in Monterey.

With a few days like this, how can you not get in a ghostly mood?

My Reading List

Can you tell what is going on in my life just by looking at these titles?

1. Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender (by Louise Bates Ames) This book has great insight on two-year-old development and I'm constantly nodding my head as it distinguishes between two-year-old and two-and-a-half-year-old behavior. It is funny, too, because it is old. It talks about letting your child have his own phonograph and records!

2. I Brake for Meltdowns: How to handle the most EXASPERATING behavior of your 2-to5-year-old (by Michelle Nicholasen & Barbara O'Neal) This one is definitely for me. It gives specific instructions on how to handle child-parent clashpoints. I love the sample dialogues. In fact, today I met a mom at the Aquarium who was having "one of those days" starting with trying to put on her two-year-old's shoes. I told her I'd just read about a "fast talking" diversionary tactic and showed her a couple of seconds later when I put on Xavier's shoes. Of course, she doesn't know that I never have trouble with Xavier refusing to put on shoes, but anyway, she seemed happy to talk with another mom of a two-year-old and said she was going to try out fast talking next time.

3. Basic Statistical Analysis (I won't mention the author, I don't think any of you will be reading it anytime soon, except Joe). School again. (BIG SIGH). I can hardly wait to be finished but I also don't want to finish because it means I will be job searching (and we know that takes a long time, especially if you're not credentialed to teach) plus then we'll only have six months before even more school loans come due. Why did I think grad school was such a good idea again?

4. Lupe Vargas and her Super Best Friend; Jingle Dancer; My Pal, Victor; One Night; Salt Boy; Josais, Hold the Book; Romina's Rangoli; Jalapeno Bagels; Halmoni and the Picnic; Mama and Papa Have a Store; The Tortilla Factory; How My Parents Learned to Eat; The Lotus Seed; A Gift from Papa Diego; Sumi's First Day of School Ever; I Lost My Tooth in Africa; The Way We Do It in Japan; dear juno; Catch that Goat!; An Angel Just Like Me; The Always Prayer Shawl, and so on. Yes, this is called procrastination. I am doing an independent study class on multicultural children's literature. It's too bad that it's not a regular semester class like most of my online classes since I obviously have no self-discipline. You see, I've had a year to finish the course and I currently have 28 out of 40 book reviews plus a paper and a half still to finish before November 15th. Still, I've had so much fun with this class. I get to go to the library all the time. After reading several articles about what is (and isn't) "multicultural" in today's educational circles, I am pretty picky about the books I get, so the ones above are the ones I've really liked. If you have a chance, check them out!

The saga continues...

Unfortunately, our week of craziness is not yet at its end because while we were finding fun books to read at the library yesterday, a car backed into ours, scratching our car and breaking a light reflector. Fortunately, the person left a note and offered to pay for the damages. (Now, please, please, please let this be the end of our most recent string of unfortunate events that, luckily, are also always fortunate in some way.)

The End (again)

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Once upon a weekend we had a series of unfortunate and fortunate events. This is our tale...

Joe and I were all packed and ready for our (secret) anniversary trip to Washington D.C. this past weekend. Fortunately, we were using free plane ticket vouchers that Joe won at an MBA conference. Unfortunately, we didn't take the tickets with us as we drove seven hours down to drop off Xavier at grandma and grandpa's house.

Fortunately, we had made the reservations online. Unfortunately, the airline insisted we have the vouchers as well as the reservations and we had to cancel our trip.

Fortunately, we got to take Xavier to Disneyland for his first time along with Joe's parents and niece. Unfortunately, Xavier had a high fever from a stomach bug and didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped. Fortunately, he didn't get the diarrhea part of the bug and his fever broke an hour before we left Disneyland.

Unfortunately, we were all sore the next day. Fortunately, we rested by going to see the movie, Wall-E, and fortunately again we ate ice cream cake for Joe's birthday! Unfortunately, on Joe's real birthday we were in a car accident on the freeway. Very fortunately, nobody was hurt.

Fortunately again, Joe and I used our second day of our Park Hopper tickets to go to Disneyland by ourselves on Monday. Unfortunately, it was cloudy. Fortunately, there were tons of Disney characters out and about, the ride lines were short and the weather cleared up!

Unfortunately, the next day, we got a flat tire on our drive home. Fortunately, we were stopped at a gas station with a tire shop nearby and quick, cheap service. Unfortunately, all of our tires needed air. Fortunately, we had no more trouble on our trip. And fortunately again, our house was nice and clean when we got home.

Unfortunately, we had to make quick plans to use our ticket vouchers before their expiration date in a week. Fortunately, Joe thought to go directly to the airport where the ticket agents were having a good day and changed our tickets so we can take a trip in a few weeks when it is more convenient. Unfortunately, grandma and grandpa are unavailable as babysitters. (Any takers?)

Fortunately, we will get to visit my pregnant sister and her husband in Georgia. Unfortunately, her baby is not due yet so we won't see the baby. Fortunately, with the change in our trip location and dates, Joe gets to go to the same MBA conference where he first won the tickets that brought about this series of unfortunate and fortunate events. Will he be so fortunate to win them again?

We actually feel very fortunate that our "fortunately"s outweighed our "unfortunately"s this past weekend. May you all be so fortunate this weekend!

The End

The Happiest Place on Earth...if you're not sick (and sometimes even when you are)

Disneyland day with Grandpa, Grandma, Zelia, and us!

It was Xavi's first time at Disneyland but he wasn't feeling well so the face you see below is how he looked most of the day. We took medicine with us and I carried him a lot. Poor baby.

A few things coaxed a smile out of him, though, like Donald's boat in Toontown...

the teacups...

and, of course, seeing Lightening McQueen in the Pixar parade!

Oh, just thinking about our day makes me want to go again! We had a great time! And now we know all the rides that are fun for two-year-olds.

GOOD--the teacups, carousels (both), caterpillar ride in bug world, Winnie the Pooh ride, Monster's Inc. ride, plus the Pixar and Main Street parades, and (depending on the child) the water play areas in bug world and the boat along the boardwalk (do these while it's sunny!) . Xavier liked the Roger Rabbit ride and Pirates of the Caribbean but we sometimes covered his eyes or redirected his attention at scary parts we didn't want him to see or covered his ears because the rides were loud.

BAD--the ladybug teacups (way too fast and can't control them), It's Tough to be a Bug 3-D show (too scary, Xavier threw down his glasses at the start and said No!!! so we waited outside until the show finished).

Our tips for Disneyland: Take as much of your own water, food, and snacks that you can handle carrying. Take two sets of dry clothes for every kid. Take the grandparents, your camera, and... enjoy!

Sneaky Sitters

CHEESE~!

Xavier's friend, Brennen, who he gets to play with while mom studies.

Xavier loves Hilary!

I had a moment of shock when I started uploading pictures the other week because I found pictures on my camera that I knew I hadn't taken! It turns out that I'd left the camera in the diaper bag when I dropped Xavier off with Hilary, his regular babysitter, and she knew just what to do with it! It was a great surprise. Hilary is such a wonderful babysitter. She always seems to know just when I need a boost in my day and has Xavier color something for me or invites me to lunch or does other fun things. Yay for super sitters! And thank you, Hilary, for that fun surprise!

P.S.

Xavier loves watching the short videos of himself as a baby (sorry, the videos aren't working on blogger). The best part is listening to him narrate. On this one, he was saying, "Come on! Come on!" as the baby (himself at about 14 months) tries to step over the ball pit onto the carpet. He cheered, "Yeah!" when the baby made it and then cracked up because "Baby Xavier" fell down on his bottom. X's laugh is so contagious that I always laugh, too! You don't make a child vain by letting him watch videos of himself, do you? I figure it boosts his self-confidence and lets him know we love him at all ages. Right?

Feeling nostalgic

Looking back at pictures and clips of Xavier from birth to now, I am just amazed at how he has changed and grown. We love this baby boy of ours! A few weeks old

One year old, chubby and bald, eating lunch with his cousin but completely distracted and scared of the puppy running around the table.

Two years and three months old, posing with a mouth full of grapes and showing off his "dinosaur" grape vine. I love this imaginative stage! And it is nice to see that he really does have more hair now.