I'm a Whale Watcher

And a sea lion watcher, and a sea otter watcher and ...






We went to Monterey for President's Day weekend. On our whale watching cruise we saw a pod of about 4-5 gray whales. Yippee! The captain said that kids under 6 have to wear life jackets, or if they were LT's age, mom could hold it. He was surprised that LT let me put in on - he said kids that age usually refuse. LT didn't mind and even used the jacket wings to take a nap on the way out and then again on the way back in.

Sudoku Craze

The Sudoku craze has made it's way down to the toddler set.

Here's what I found when I picked up my sudoku tonight:


PS - yes, I'm still working through last years calendar. BLT Sr. & I picked up this years for $1 each this weekend.

Edited to add: He filled in some more squares this morning while saying yi, er, san, si, ... (one, two, three, four in Chinese). Guess he knows what those squiggles are supposed to be! So funny!

Be Mine Valentine

Here's my little Valentine. He's such a holiday lover. He helped me wrap Daddy's Valentine present and then when we brought it down he looked over to the living room and said, "Oh no, no Christmas tree, Christmas is over." He mentions Christmas is over at least 2 times a day. He absolutely loved Valentine's Day and "wrote" out his Diego valentine cards for all his friends at daycare. He wrote the to/from and also decorated the envelopes. The favorite valentine he got was the one decorated by another girl with My Little Pony and lip print stickers all on a pink background. You can just see the corner of its envelope in this picture. He inventoried the valetines at least five or six times tonight. What a cutie!

Not enough toys?

Or is it too much imagination?

Safety first!

Look Ma! No pushbar! LT has graduated to an independant tricyclist. He may need a helmet upgrade before long as his head seems to be growing quite rapidly.

We've been sick now for a while. I only went to work for about 8 hours last week. It was amazing - I actually got sick first and then gave it to LT! Then he stayed home sick as well Wed-Thurs-Fri. This week we are well enough to go to work & daycare, but not nearly 100%.

LT's daycare moved to a new house which is sooo close to ours. It's on the same street now and just across one light. Great! It's a home daycare and they split into two homes so they can have more kids. Most of the kids went with LT to the new house. He still has his main teacher and his sister. He's definitely getting better at Chinese. Mommy has been practicing to with the Pimsleur language cds. LT cracks up when "Mommy speak Chinese."

Fishy

We got LT some color tablets, just like cousin JT has! He loves them! He looks like he's in an aquarium!

LT & Daddy in Circle Bed! I never got around to posting a picture of LT's big boy bed, well here it is in use!

I just like this one of LT eating dinner. He's having breaded eggplant, and apple, and apple juice box. Is the apple juice redundant? I'm not sure why it's pixelated, I shrunk it the same amount as the others. Hmmm...

Still Life in 3

1. My best, I mean LT's best, train layout to date.
2. Enormous book on cooking techniques bought with Borders gift cards & Christmas money by BLT Sr.
3. Book purchase pays off with pork tenderlion medallions in a red wine vinegar sauce, potato duchesse and sauteed green bean.

A few more San Diego pictures

Well, it turns out we didn't take as many pictures in San Diego as you would have thought. These are from my new Christmas camera. Now I should be able to take point & shoot pictures of LT when we are out and about and update the blog right away. We shall see...

It seems like it might almost be time for a haircut! Thoughts?

Awesome Whale & Dolphin Pictures

A certain someone told me to post these pictures complete with title. Now if he had only written the post to go with them!






From Sea World San Diego. We all have "Fun Cards" now, so don't be surprised if you see a Sea World Part Deux sometime before Dec 31, 2007.

Family Portrait

For my 100th entry, a family portrait.


Wait a minute ... how'd two kids get in the picture? Oh, it's BLT's cousin JT!

Christmas was very nice. Of course, we are still recovering and trying to back into things.

So far BLT's favorite Christmas gifts seem to be the wooden train set and the plastic battery operated for age 5 and up train set. Also, his purple flowered doll strollered bought with his Christmas money from the Great-Gmas. Really, though, he loved everything. Next project will be thank you notes. He loves to color on them or "write his name" (which means scribble with a pen).

Today LT & I visited his best gal pal and her new baby brother. He was so cute and soooo tiny. I'm sure that LT & M were never that small. Now I want one.

Tunnel Usage 101

I don't think he read the instructions.


Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

A sad update from an earlier post. 2 years and 2-1/2 months is not an appropriate age to restart the cuckoo clock. A yank on the wrong end of the chain and it all goes wrong. Hopefully, we can take it to a clock repair.

FunChops

Check out this amazing invention! The funchop!

We went to one of our favorite Sushi restaurants on Friday and the server really took a liking to LT. She brought him out his own bowl of rice & miso soup and a big bowl of edamame. She kept shelling the edamame for him everytime she came by. LT LOVES edamame, so he was quite happy. She also introduced us to the funchop and then it came home with us (with waitress approval).

Frosty the Snowman

Somehow we haven't taken any more pictures in the last week and a half, so we have to go back in time to November.

LT is just being so funny recently. His newest favorite phrase is "Stop it." Yeah, it gets a bit annoying. We are listening to Elmo cd in the car from the library now. One of the songs in "John Jacob Jinglehimmer Schmidt." At one point, Elmo & friends get very quiet. This prompts LT to say, "Stop it Daddy! Stop it turning the radio." Then I have to explain to him that they are just singing quietly and Daddy did not actually turn it down. Then they start singing loud again and LT thinks it's really funny.

Today Daddy was supervising while LT took Doggy to the potty (after taking his diaper off, Doggy's diaper that is, proclaiming "big poo-poo" and using two wipes). Doggy walked up the steps, sat on the potty, went "pssst" and then got a "Good job!" from LT. Do you think we might be doing a lot of potty learning around here?!? After the potty, Doggy gets a new diaper and then goes to take a nap. He does a lot of napping and pottying.

Christmas Card Reject

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words ...

Cuckoo for Cuckoo Clocks

It was finally time to crank the cuckoo clock back up. It's was off for almost 1-1/2 years now waiting for LT to be able to resist the urge to pull the chains every 2 seconds. 2 seemed old enough and it is! LT LOVES the cuckoo clock. See for yourself.

(So apprently do Mom & Grandma.)

JUMP!

Whoa. It's been weeks since I updated! This last week and a half have been a bit crazy. Fun! But tiring. So tiring that LT even said in the car tonight that "I tired" and it was only 7PM! He went to sleep at 7:45 - he hasn't gone to sleep that early in a while!

We had lots of visitors. Cousin JT, Uncle S, and Auntie C came in the first wave, followed by "Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa" T in the second wave. Really, there's just one Grandma, but LT likes to call grandparents by that name.

LT was soooooo excited to have Cousin JT visit. Somehow 1 toddler + 1 toddler = mass chaos. Toys were flying, bedtimes & naptimes were passed by, and lots of fun was had.

Hello! Welcome to our hen house!

Monarch Season!

Look closely... what do you see?





It's butterfly season! Lots of Monarch migrate down to this area during the winter to Santa Cruz, Monteray, and even this mall parking lot in Freemont (!). We took a trip down to Santa Cruz this weekend to a Butterfly garden. There were a lot of butterflies!

LT and I voted today. We had a very funny conversation on the way over there.
Mommy: LT, do you want to go vote?
LT: Yeah, Ride the boat at the beach.
Mommy: No, not boat with a "b," vote with a "v," vvvuh
LT: I want boat with a "b"

LT even managed to sneak in a vote for an American Independant party candidate for State Treasurer. I let him have his vote. :)

Last weekend

Last Saturday we went to a party at a vineyard out in Livermore. There was even a whole pig cooked in a pit underground! Very exciting. LT had lots of fun running around and dancing with the other kids. You can see he really got down.

I'm a little behind - still on last week. Poor LT has a fever now and is resting.

Trick-or-Treat!

It's official: LT loves Halloween!

He loved everything. Dressing up, face painting, knocking on the door, saying trick-or-treat, saying thank you, getting candy, getting candy, getting candy...

He had a party at daycare and then we went to one at BLT Sr's work before coming home for the grand finale. I was asking him what he wanted for dinner on the way home in the car. This is the conversation:

Me: LT, do you want zuchinni pancakes for dinner?
LT: No, chocolate!
Me: How about beans & rice?
LT: No, chocolate!
Me: A veggie burger?
LT: No, chocolate! I like chocolate.

He ate a few bites of a scone when we got home, but once the doorbell starting ringing, he was ready to go! Off we went!

He practiced saying trick-or-treat ... pause ... thank you all the way up to the door. He usually froze up with the trick-or-treat once the door was opened. I think the problem was that the neighbors were answering with giant candy basket in hand. How can you remember to say trick-or-treat when you are getting your bag ready? LT liked to take the candy himself and then carefully place it in his pumpkin bag. And then go back for another ... He did really well with saying "thank you" though! By the last couple houses, he was able to get out a trick-or-treat. We went to about 8 of the neighbors and then he was "All done trick-or-treat." We made our way over to his friend M's house, but he didn't want to TOT there - just play with all of her toys. We stopped at one final house on the way back (the "pumpkin house" with all kinds of outdoor decorations) and they had a very nice treat of animal crackers for the wee set.

Back at home, BLT Sr. held down the fort and handed out all our treats by 8pm. I guess I'll pick up a few more for next year. We had 109 full-size bars and a few people got two, but we still probably had at least a hundred TOTers before we turned out the light. We got three more groups of bell-ringers after that, but they got turned away empty handed.

LT really loved Halloween and we all had a great (& tiring) time. Today he asked Daddy to go get his panda suit and pumpkin bag to take along to daycare ...

Helping Daddy Turning!

Here's LT "helping Daddy turning" as he likes to say. We went to our next phase of toy storage, which required another bookshelf in the family room. We're trying to downsize some toys, too. It's hard!

While the boys were assembling, Mommy was cooking up the small pumpkin. The result: pumpkin lasagne. Dishes required: 2 baking dishes (1 washed and re-used), 1 pasta pot, 2 saucepans, mandoline, cutting board, knives, cheese grater, and numerous spoons and spatulas.

Chef LT

What can I cook for you today? Some fried banana? A sliced carrot, perhaps?

LT has been enjoying his birthday kitchen. He also got some very nice fruits & veggies to slice and even a chef hat and apron! Thank you everyone!

I like the last picture... look closely at him and see if you notice anything. He takes after his mother!

Pumpkins & Pandas

We had a fun filled afternoon at a nearby pumpkin farm. They really had the setup. LT (not really a "B" anymore) got to go on a silver train with Mommy and a cow train with Daddy. They boys rode in the Hugh Heifer car. We left with 4 pumpkins - a $7, a $4, a $3 and one 75 cent. Plus two guords. We even watched a video on the "Life of a Pumpkin." Did you know that pumpkins have male flowers and female flowers? Neither did I.

Watch TB

BLT made a startling discovery last night. He turned the radio on and was memerized! He was a little confused and kept saying "Watch TB, watch TB" (aka TV). He was jamming and getting up close with the clock radio. Hey, I'm fine with him thinking the clock radio is TV!

Poor thing is sick tonight. He threw up after our run and again 20 minutes after he went to bed. We're not sure if we went running too soon after he ate or if he is really sick. He's been sleeping now for almost two hours, so I hope that will be all! Poor baby.