ZooZooZoo

BLT Sr had a kayaking class on Sunday, so LT and I headed up to the Oakland Zoo with my old friend G. She and I went to Italy together in 1999. How has it been 8 years already!??!

Following in the footsteps of Daddy...

Oops, I realized I didn't pick the best pictue. BLT is using his Fisher Price camera.

And some excellent results! These next two are BLT's actual pictures!



BLT really enjoying these small doors at the reptile house. He was not as interested as the inside. And he really hated the insect house!


Oakland Zoo is the only zoo in the area with elephants (SF Zoo and our little Happy Hallow don't have any). We enjoyed them!

Blur

It's hard to capture a 2-1/2 year old on film! LT loves to "make laps" at the playground.

This fountain was poorly designed with a bunch of rocks in the bottom and then a small plaque that says "Please do not throw the rocks." Try explaining that to every single child who comes by. LT was picking the rocks up and dropping them. I said,

"LT no thowing rocks."
"Mommy, I'm not throwing them, I'm dropping them."

Fair enough!

Cupcake Cafe

Yesterday after I picked up Lucas, we stopped by the library to pick up a cookbook. I wanted to get this vegetarian cookbook I checked out before so we could have a remake of the squash curry in roti. While in the cookbook section, LT found the book he was looking for. It was not a vegetarian cookbook. It was a cupcake cookbook. We left with that one. (Someone else must have checked out the vegetarian cookbook!) LT and I then cooked up some very delicious carrot cupcakes with flowers on top. Amazingly, we had all the ingredients actually at our house already. He instited on the flowers on top because that's what's on the cover of the book! When we put them in the oven he said "Are they going to turn into cupcakes? Are there going to be a flower on top?" :D

You can compare with the cover - I think we did a good job!

Censored

It's the simple pleasures in life. Like... little potties! Little sinks!

"Mommy, it's little, it's little like me!"
"Mommy, the sink is little, too!"
"Mommy, the paper towel is little!"
"And, look! A little trash can! Little like me!"

I don't think he will mind going back to Ikea again. Good thing since our end table was missing a piece.

I've been swamped with work since we've been back and have been working every night after LT goes to bed. Ugh!! Hasn't left much time for blogging. Note to self: start taking more pictures!

First "joke"

This took place this morning as I was getting LT dressed.

LT: Knock on the door.
Me: What?
LT: Knock on the door.
Me: (I make a knocking sound on the table)
LT: Orange!
Me: ???
LT: Orange!
Me: Oh, knock, knock?
LT: Orange! Knock knock... banana.
Me: Who's there?
LT: It's not banana... ha ha... it's orange

I thought he must've learned it (poorly) from an older kid at daycare. A bit later, I asked him, "Who likes to say banana?" He says, "Me... and Isaac [a five year old]. He's funny!"

China

We're back! We're tired! We're recovering!

Lots of pictures have been posted at the family website. If you don't know the address, post a comment and I'll email it to you.

Somebunny Loves You

Look! It's the Easter Toddler!

We've been super busy so we haven't been taking many pictures or making many updates ... but we'll be taking a lot of pictures the next two weeks! Look for them soon!

Pizza My Heart

LT can now hold his own pizza slice! He loves mushroom pizza. He even puts his own parmesan on - every other bite.




Extreme closeup!


We went to a party tonight and LT was pleasant and fun all the way til 10:30!!! He was still pleasant until I wouldn't let him take a plate home. The hosts graciouslly offered to give him one and all was happy again.

Party Crash

Let's see ...
Chocolate cake smeared around mouth
Candy necklace around neck
One plastic "watch" from Spidey Eggs around each wrist
Paper sack of pinata candy in one hand
Puzzle party favor in other

Yes, it was a good party.

Two Heads, One Pillow

Aren't they so sweet? My boys. The small one does like to get as snuggly as possible.


And in case you're wondering if LT ever sleeps in his room, here he is just a few minutes ago on Circle Bed with his trusted friends 'Eigo, Giraffe Blanket and Heart Pillow:

The early years

This is the video they'll be showing on SportsCenter when he gets drafted into the NBA. hahaha

Please excuse the messy living room! We tend to dump things at the door when we come in. Bad habit!

SF Zoo & Beach

We had a fun day in the city (the real one) today. In the morning, we drove up to the zoo (the real one, not the local Zoo & Park). BLT was brave enough to pet a sheep. They had some predatory birds out on display (they were chained down). You can see from the pictures, the Golden Eagle looked fierce, and the owl gave us a wink.

After a nap, we went to the beach across from the zoo and played for the rest of the day (sorry, no pictures). I think the whole city was at the beach today, but we still had fun. BLT fetched water from the ocean for his sandwork about 20 times, and got knocked down by a wave once. Since we weren't prepared with swimsuits, BLT spent the rest of the time sans bottom. He had a blast.

Little Miss Muffet

Oh, he makes me laugh.

Photo shoot at the beach

While Mommy was at the spa, LT had a photo shoot with Daddy.

Running!



Swimsuit model pose


Where do we go?

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...