Hotel Holloway

Kevin and Melissa invited us to go beach camping this past weekend. Kyle couldn't get any time off from work so we just went up Friday evening and stayed one night. Easiest camping ever....they had a tent set up for us, food ready to go, and fun planned. Thanks guys!!

Logan hasn't stopped saying, "Reese", it's the only name he is able to say. He loved riding her pink bike. Now that we know we can survive a camping trip with the two kids we may just try it again next summer!

not quite 4 months

Nixon is a few days shy of being a 4 mth old, but he had his checkup today. A few new things: 2 lbs heavier, 2 inches taller, 3 shots, a little rash on his neck, and not adding solids yet to his diet unless he acts hungry or stops sleeping through the night.

I finally made a right diagnosis of my own child and poor nixon will need to have his frenulum clipped. Unfortunately, he will need to go to an ENT pediatric specialist at CHOC to have it done (I was hoping his pediatrician would just do it in the office). The procedure itself only takes a minute or so, but because he's so young, he will probably have to have a little conscious sedation, making it an outpatient surgery. We just have to wait for the insurance approval, make the appointment, and get rid of his little snake tongue.

Logan was a good boy at the appointment....surprise, surprise. He let me know that he needed to go to the bathroom so I was pretty happy with that. The examination room that we were in was right by the checkout counter (aka: lollipop counter), so my sneaky child stood at the doorway and waited for every Dr. and nurse to walk by, got their attention, pointed to the lollipops and received many.

There's no going back

I don't mind diapers. I love that we can be anywhere and I can find a spot, clean up a little bum, wrap it in a tight little package, and toss it in the trash. I don't get grossed out by them. How could I when I used to change huge, gross, bedridden bums for a living (that makes me sound like I had the worse job ever). But after my last shopping trip to Sam's club for 2 boxes of diapers for the boys, I decided it was time to potty train Logan. Enough of these $80 bills for diapers! We are on day 6 of training. There have been a few accidents, but he has been doing pretty good. He's been wearing underwear for 6 days now, so it looks like my money saving idea is paying off. I was a little nervous about putting him in nursery for church yesterday without a diaper, but he went the whole 2 hours without any problem. I expect we will have accidents along the way but there's no going back now.

I think since I'm saving $40 on diapers, I deserve a new shirt....don't you think (kyle)?

San Diego Zoo

I've realized after yesterday that I have been going about these day excursions all wrong. Trying to take care of both kids, carrying all the necessary stuff, and pushing a stroller by myself is a lot of work. Yesterday, my parents joined me and the kids at the zoo. So I had lots of help! Here are a few of the highlights.

Snakes alligators....or were they crocodiles?

turtles (one of nixon's nicknames is turtle)

animals statues were a big hit

These two reminded me of my and nixon

monkey masks were a hit

Nixon's turn

Hippos

not sure why there was a tractor but logan loved it

Elephant odyssey

elephant statues

Absolute favorite of the day was this polar bear playing with the big purple ball. Logan was a little irritated that he couldn't play ball with it.

Zebras

Bears. Hopefully we will see some in ID in a couple of weeksRhinos

Giraffes

It's nice to have grandparents isn't it?!

Watch out Michael Phelps....

Logan started swim lessons a few weeks ago. They are just parent-and-me swim lessons so I don't expect him to be swimming laps quite yet, but our swim instructor is horrible. I used to be a swim instructor and if I had my own pool I would prefer to teach Logan myself.

So....he probably won't be a backstroker, the sun hurts his Asian eyes!He loves the water and who wouldn't when you get to warm up afterwards in a jacuzzimy little swimmer in the making

Born to be Wild

I mean not too wild, he just gets to ride slowly down our street. The kid wakes up saying, "vroom, vroom, and key every morning."I better not find any heart shaped tatoos with the word "mother" written in it on his arm.

Perfect day at CA Adv.

1st stop: the carousel of course 2nd stop: snack at the tortilla factory

3rd stop: playhouse disney show (no pictures....I was feeding Nixon)

4th stop: the fountains. Logan LOVES splashing

We spent a good 1 1/2 at the fountains. They were my last planned spot for the day. I was a little nervous that Logan would throw a tantrum when we had to leave and then he spotted this.

He's into bugs right now.

Some of you may have seen this picture on my last post and probably thought I was a horrible mother for putting my naked, crying child in his seat (I did cover him with a blanket). Let me tell you why this stinker was naked.

As we were checking out the ladybug statue, I started feeling drips on my feet. Since Logan had been splashing me I didn't think much of it. Then I started feeling dripping all down my leg so I looked down to find this all over my shorts, legs, shirt, and feet.

Yellow baby poo dripping out of his jeans onto me!!!

Just imagine the damage done to Nixon's clothes. You would think I would know by now to pack a change of clothes.

It still was a perfect day at the park!!!

press pause

Today Nixon is 3 months old! I would love to press pause on him right now. He is at my favorite baby stage. He's perfect in nearly every way. Apparently, my doctor's office thinks I'm a pro my second time around and don't need monthly checkups, so there are no stats on him until next month. However, he is wearing all of Logan's 6months clothes. Here are some things I would like to remember about my chunky white boy.

He HATES riding in the car. I have to sit in the back with him and talk to him or else he will scream the entire ride.
He has cute dimples He is almost always smiling

Unless Logan is around

I always wonder what little babies are thinking.......I know he is planning revenge on LoganI think his frenulum is a little too tightbut it doesn't seem to bother himHe is a thumb sucker when asleep He loves to cuddle

He sleeps from 8pm-6isham.....pure heaven for me, sometimes I actually miss him at night.

But during the day he demands attention and prefers to be sitting up so he can check things out. He's just too perfect.....throw up and all!!

Patience please

I'm not a very patient person. I get irritated easily. I snap pretty quickly.

I thought being married was teaching me patience.......and then I had kids.

Logan was the sweetest baby. I remember holding him thinking, "how could anyone get upset at their kids?" I was pretty positive that I would never get mad at him. Then he started running into the street, hitting kids, spitting food on the floor, throwing stuff, yelling in church, rolling on the floor, refusing to eat everything, playing in the toilets, etc. etc. etc. Typical toddler behavior that tries my patience. I find myself wishing that these behaviors would stop.

I remember hearing a talk from President Monson about "finding joy in the journey", and have never forgotten it. I love what he said.

"If you have children who are grown and gone, in all likelihood you have occasionally felt pangs of loss and the recognition that you didn’t appreciate that time of life as much as you should have. Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future.

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."

This thought runs through my head everyday, numerous times when I'm about to lose my patience. I still lose it occasionally, but I think it helps. Plus I can't be mad for too long at these two adorable kids.

(I still have that "how could I ever be mad at you" feeling for Nixon. He is so sweet and laughed for the first time last night. Sweetest sound ever)

A little behind

I'm a little behind on our activities from last week. So here it goes....

We spent alot of time playing in the backyard (by the way my family thinks Nixon looks like Jeffrey R. Holland, what do you think?) Kyle taught Logan how to water the lawn, but he prefers to water us

One morning last week, I propped Nixon up on a pillow and started getting ready. After a little while I realized it was way too quiet. I feared for Nixon's life and ran out only to find this.

We went to The Huntington Library to meet up with some friends. We met up with Angie Jones and her two kids. Angie is a professor of biology at CSULB. When did I start hanging out with professors? I thought I was just a student there!

Here are a few pictures from the library

There is a childrens' garden that has water fountains for the kids to play in. This little stranger taught Logan to drink out of the fountain....great. The two boys explored the gardens

They climbed through the gardens

Logan loves any water so he got drenched

He loved every minute of it

I was super hot, especially having Nixon strapped to me (no strollers allowed). I wasn't about to nurse Nixon in the care, so before we left I fed Nixon in the air conditioned car. Logan drove, I think that was his favorite part of the trip.

Friday night Kyle called me out of the house to show me these two rat sitting on the power cords above our house. Ugh.

Since Logan loves the sand and water so much we took him to Seal Beach on Saturday evening. We thought it would be the perfect to let him get his feet wet, dig in the sand, and watch the boats. He hated it from the moment we stepped on the sand. He wouldn't walk. He didn't want the sand on him. He hated the water.

He ran away from the waves

And started walking back to the car without us

Kyle tried to show him how fun the waves were

He wasn't buying it. He just clenched onto Kyle's shirt.

Just proof that me and Nixon were there

We taught him to make a sandcastle. He was interested in it but didn't like the sand on his hands. I think his dear friend Collin taught him that.

Kyle and I both had our backs to the water while we were building sand castles. A big wave came soaked us, and knocked Logan over. The water almost covered his whole body so he wasn't very happy. That ended our trip to the beach. We'll try again next week!

Mother's day morning was spent at church. Don't let Logan's sweet face fool you, he was a pure terror in Sacrament.

My family came over in the afternoon to celebrate