Thanksgiving 2013
We spent our Thanksgiving with the Brown’s this year. They invited us over for their family’s dinner.
Vincent had friend to play with! They liked playing with the little rocks on the water table.
It was a pretty nice day outside considering its the start of winter.
He also got a kick out of Charlotte’s collection of rubber duckies. Had to line them all up.
At first we thought we’d be eating a late lunch, but it really turned out to be a dinner, so we played in the early afternoon, then went home for a nap (the toddler that is) and then came back for an early dinner.
Vincent didn’t want to eat any lunch or any dinner! He normally LOVES turkey and gravy when we get it for him at the restaurant, but he wanted nothing to do with it tonight.
The kids loved playing with each other on the stairs. Vinny would run up, and Charlotte would follow behind. At one point, we caught them in a cute Romeo and Juliet moment, where they were yelling to each other from the bottom and top of the stairs. Awww.
Happy Thanksgiving! Vincent has swagger.
Vincent Takes Big Boy Baths
We have finally got rid of his whale tub and duckie tub and are using the full bath! This is mostly due to parental laziness — it was much faster to fill the infant tub then the whole tub not to mention, saves a lot of water. But we figured he’s getting pretty big now so we let him have the whole tub. (We did try a few months ago to do this transition but he didn’t seem to like it that much, so we ended up going back to the smaller tub)
Anyway, needless to say, he loves the extra room because he has more room to play! We love this video of him laughing at the people going down the slide.
Happy Halloween – Vincent Goes Trick-or-Treating
The holiday are so much more fun now that we have a little one! We hurried home from daycare, ate dinner quickly, then got dressed up for trick-or-treating.
We made a quick call to Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Mike so they could see Vincent in his costume.
Mommy tried hard to get some good photos of Vinny near our jack-o-lantern, but wasn’t too successful!
Dad did a good job on the pumpkin. Here is his cute lantern we got at Disneyland. It projects an image of mickey on the floor.
Vinny did sit down on stoop for a few seconds so i got this cute shot.
This one is too dark! But i wanted to get the lighting of the pumpkin!
We used his wagon in case he would get tired of walking. It was a good idea.
On the way out we saw our neighbor Rick who gave him a bunch of candy and cute plush Lightening McQueen car (which said funny phrases and it kept going off while we were trick or treating!)
The first house we stopped at for trick-or-treating. We practiced earlier, so he kind of knew to ring the doorbell and say trick-or-treat. He kind of says “tri-treee” but only sometimes.
He does say Thank You though!
He loved going to the doorbells – even if he could only reach a few of them.
Some of the houses were dressed up pretty cool!
This house had a choice between a candy or a glow stick, but Vinny picked candy! I think if the glow stick was actually activated, he would have picked that instead.
Here is his final stash! He lasted for about 3 blocks which is pretty good. We could tell he was getting tired though, so we made one last stop at my neighbor friend Sandy’s and then headed home.
Trick-or-Treating at The Barnyard
This year is the first year Vincent will go trick-or-treating, since he is now old enough to kind of ‘get it’!
There are quite a few events that go on around here for little ones, but the only one we could really make it to because of the timing was at the Barnyard Shopping Center in Carmel.
We had earlier made plans to go with our friends to the pumpkin patch, but i asked them if they wanted to do this instead, so they said yes.
We met at RG Burgers and ate lunch, then headed over to the shopping center to trick-or-treat.
We dressed Vinny in his Mickey Mouse costume. When we tried it on at home he immediately took off the hood, but when we were there today, he kept it on fine.
I went as Minnie mouse!
Vincent and Charlotte checking out the decor. Vinny tried to eat the corn of course!
Yay! Having fun just running around!
His favorite was to just walk up an down all the steps – they have a lot of them at this place.
He did good going up to the shops and picking out his candy, or holding out his bucket for the candy. This lady gave him a bunch! I think she thought he was cute.
Group photo time! Charlotte trying to steal the show!
And family picture — yep, just got back from Disneyland.
Charlotte trying to steal Vinny’s candy! LOL
Bonnie trying to snag a lollipop from the Kid kraft table!
Found a balloon on the floor, so we gave it to Vinny.
I’m glad we went today — it was fun to get dressed up and see all the other costumes out there – of course my favorites were the homemade ones. There was a kid dressed up as a laundry machine, another as an iPod, and another as a scuba diver. We even saw an adult dressed at the “guy with the yellow hat” from Curious George, which we laughed at because Jeff’s parent sent us his costume from when he was little that his Mom made of Curious George. So if we had dressed Vinny as that, that would have made a good photo!
Pumpkin Patch Time!
It’s October and time to go find that perfect pumpkin! We went back to Borchard Farms this year because it was so much fun last year!
We picked up one of their wagons at the front so we could haul our stuff.
I loved all the warty ones!
Vinny thought they were funny too!
They had some really giant ones on wooden palettes — Vinny wanted to walk inbetween all of them and was very careful not to fall.
Love the coloring on the pumpkins!
Checked out all the bird in the cages. Here is a turkey.
Smiling at some ducks.
Found our pumpkin! Help daddy lift it into the wagon!
Vinny always needs to play with dirt / gravel! He’s like a dog!
Yay! We got a warty one too!
Kitty cat!
I walked under it, so he followed me.
Posing nicely for a photo.
My two boys~ Love them. Next year there will be one more in this photo!
Swimming Lessons at the YMCA
Daddy finally signed Vinny up for swim lessons. Since its on Saturday mornings when i teach my fitness class at the gym, i can’t go with them, but i snapped a few photos before they left for the their first lesson. Vinny gets so excited when you show him his swim diaper and swim trunks! He knows we’re about the play with the water.
Got our gym bag!
Ready to go! Have fun guys!
Jeff said it was more like “open swim” versus any kind of real instruction or structure. Only 1 other younger baby is registered in the class thought they told him when he registered there was only one spot left. They have toys and what not to play with and its just a 1/2 hour class, but nonetheless its gets Vinny to the pool every week, and he loves it. Classes go on i think for 6 weeks.
Vincent’s First Trip to Disneyland – DAY THREE
Day three we decided to start at Disneyland and try for the Peter Pan ride that everyone was lined up for in Fantasyland yesterday. We got there pretty early but the wait was already 30 min long. We went for it. The line moved along pretty nicely but it did take a while. We tried to put on his little stuffed animal back pack leash thing but he didnt like it.
The little boats we got to ride in where pretty neat – its a “floating” ride (tracks at the top instead of the bottom) so it feels like your hovering on air. Vinny doesnt know the story of Peter Pan so i am not sure what he thought of it. But i thought it was pretty good for a little kid “story book” ride.
After that we saw the sword in the stone so we tried to pull it out. No luck.
Next up – Tea Cups! I dont think i’ve honestly ever been on this ride, because i hate things that spin in circles. But i thought Vinny might like it, and there was no line. So we hopped in.
Vinny had a blast! Probably one of his favorite rides.
Make it spin!
Saw Mr. Rabbit’s house so i told Vinny to go knock on his door. Guess he wasnt home.
TOON TOWN
Headed over to Toon Town next – which opens a little bit later then the rest of the park, so it was kind of a ghost town when we got there. Its in the corner of the park too, i think people hadnt’ quite made it there yet. We went on the Roger Rabbit ride, which was pretty scary actually with lots of boings and loud noises. But its a fun crazy car-spin ride. Again, i’m not sure what Vinny thought of it.
When we were done with that ride, Pluto was hanging outside, so we got to play with him for a bit.
Pluto was the most interactive of all the characters, playing with the stuff in Toon town.
We checked out the local post office and heard some funny characters.
I wanted to get a picture with the toon town sign in the background, but Vinny just wanted to play with/ look a the water fountain behind him.
Next we went to Chip n’ Dale’s Treehouse which was basically just a set of tiny stairs in this fake tree, but Vinny LOVED it, he went back 3 times, and then totally cried and put up a fit when we had to leave.
We got to see Donalds boat house.
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And also went back to Goofy’s place to play on his playground.
Tried to get a good picture on the pumpkin — wasnt happening.
He ate his snack here and kept going down the slide with his sippy cup!
Whattya know, when we leave Goofy’s house he was standing right outside the door! We took a “goofy” snapshot with him.
LUNCH
We went to lunch on the walk back from the park to the hotel room. We ate at Millie’s Diner. They had a peg thing at the table and first thing Vinny does was try to eat it.
But then i showed him how you stick it in the holes and he thought that was really fun.
Back to the Hotel for nap. He is so funny in his pack in play, trying to do headstands and throw out all his toys before he finally falls asleep.
PARADE at California Adventures
There was a Disney Pixar parade i read about on the Disneyland app, and it had characters from some of the movies Vinny has seen, so i thought he might like it. Especially since i knew he liked meeting the characters in “real life”.
We got there just as it started and snagged a pretty good spot.
Waving at the characters.
We were disappointed at the end because they said Lightening McQueen would be there but he wasnt!
We walked around Radiator Springs / Carsland area a bit more before we had to head to meet my cousins for dinner.
We saw the fire truck again and got to take a photo with him.
And THEN! What do you know! A little further down, there was Lightening McQueen! So glad we found him!
Heading out of the park we saw Mickey balloons, and well, we know how much Vinny loves balloons, so we had to get one for him.
We met my cousin Candace and her husband Don for dinner at the Disneyland hotel steakhouse restaurant. It was a bit fancy, and we weren’t dressed the best and had a toddler, but it seem to work out OK. Vinny behaved nicely, though he was really loud and happy and it was hard to keep him quiet.
Speaking of loud, while we were at the park, Vinny would do this thing where he covered his ears. I think he thought it was too loud in the park or he was just tired. He wouldnt cry or do anything else but flap down his ears. It was kind of cute and funny.
Anyway, dinner was AWESOME, Don, Jeff and I had the prime rib, and its not normally something i order but it was so good with the au jus and the horseradish! YUM! I was supposed to meet my other cousin there, Sandee, but she had to work last minute.
Candace is always very generous to us and paid for dinner, and gave Vincent a bunch of Disneyland stuff (Cars toy figures, a long sleeve shirt, food/snacks, and a cool Thomas Train book/toy set)
LOL, couldn’t get Vinny to concentrate for a picture because he loved that Thomas book.
But then he saw the flash go off on the camera.
We walked back to California Adventure and wanted to try to catch the light show that was cancelled the first night we were there.
We were able to take this photo of Radiator Springs! Neat shot!
We went to the same spot we were at last time, and waited for the show.
It came on and was pretty neat, but it was a little long and kind of the same-thing after while, so we decided to just start heading back since it was late by his time (just about 10pm).
I bought some pretzels and candy for my office co-workers, along with some Candy apples for us later (they had some REALLY fancy halloween decorated ones that were so neat!)
We were sad it was out last night at the park, but we really enjoyed ourselves!
Vincent’s First Trip to Disneyland – DAY TWO
We wanted to get an earlier start today! So we were at the park a little after opening (8am) which i’m quite pleased with! We walked straight to Fantasyland since that is where most of the “little kid” rides are. Though we did stop to take a photo in front of the Walt and Mickey statue. Vinny had his serious face on.
We rode the Dumbo elephant ride first because the line was super short and it normally is pretty long. As soon as we loaded in, Vinny was excited to touch the little lever that makes it go up and down. But then when we were actually moving in the air and could use the thing, he didnt have any interest. Too many things going on i guess!
He saw Daddy taking pictures and got really happy and waved 🙂
Next we rode the circus train ride. We were in the animal cage!
He was having lots of fun (little boy next to us, not so much?).
DISNEY CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES
We headed out quickly to California Adventure side to check out Carsland. We rode the Mater ride, which is a a cool spinning ride – its pretty unique and fun because Larry the Cable guy is singing throughout the ride.
We got to see a Cars firetruck coming down the road. Vinny kept saying “yo, yo, yo, yo!”
Then we went on a Luigi’s Floating Tire ride which is like a little hover craft using air coming up from the ground to lift your tire up. Pretty much like bumper tires except you steer yourself leaning from side to side. Pretty unconventional!
It was Daddy’s idea to take him to the Disney Junior Live! show in the Hollywood area of the park. It featured his favorite characters, Mickey and the crew, Doc McStuffins, Sofia, and Jake.
It’s a live show with singing and puppets, and things coming down from the ceiling like bubbles, confetti, and gold coins (more confetti).
He loved that part!!
Monsters ride next. He loved the ‘doors’ part because that’s his favorite part in the movie. This photo is funny because he wasnt looking and it just reminded me of myself when i was young and i’d actually intentionally turn around if i didnt want to be in a photo! (Though not the case for Vinny here, he was just distracted)
DOWNTOWN DISNEY
It was lunch time so we walked outside of the park to Downtown Disney and went to Jazz Kitchen – great food, good menu– i didnt know what to get!
Vinny has a weird thing now where after he finishes eating his meal at a restaurant he will just sit there, stare at me and start laughing hysterically!
Its cute but i dont know what he is laughing at! And he gets really loud. He liked his pasta lunch here.
HOJO POOL TIME
Went back to the hotel and took a nap (all of us!) — Vinny took forever to fall asleep again!
The place we were staying at has a great pool area – so we took Vinny over once he got up — but it was getting later in the afternoon and the water was cold! I think he was shocked by all what was going on. He rode down the slide a couple of times and even the bigger slide.
They also had a regular adult pool so we decided to take him there too, so he could jump off the end!
He was barely making clearance over the edge — i got nervous every time he did it!
He was so upset when we had to leave of course!
After pool time, we washed up and got ready to go back to Disneyland – maybe check out the fireworks. We ate at a mexican place in the park, and while we’re eating, Vinny pukes up his food! He had eaten apple juice and applesauce, and some rice and beans. We were glad the place was very darkly lit! But we didnt really have spare clothes or anything, so we just headed back to the hotel room and called it a night.
Vincent’s First Trip to Disneyland – DAY ONE
Impromptu Road Trip!
Our sitter had a Friday-Monday off in October, and with some slight miscommunication between Jeff and I, we BOTH booked days off from work to “watch” Vinny on those days. So we decided to take the opportunity to visit to Disneyland! We originally planned to take him to Disney World in Floriday during our July vacation, but ultimately decided he was too young, and the Florida heat, summer, crowds, toddler — was not sounding like something we wanted to battle with. But off season, in the more moderate So-Cal weather, for an extended weekend, sounded like a lot of fun!
We waited till the last minute to get our hotel room, so the Disneyland hotel was booked up. Which worked out better anyway, because it was going to be pricey $$$ to stay there, and i think we ended up liking Howard Johnson’s a lot better. Trip Advisor top pick – great kids pool area and still walking distance (8 min) from the park. We loved staying there and will probably go back the next time we visit.
Getting to the Hotel
We left on Thursday night, drove from 101 to 46, to 5….. which was actually closed for construction so we got stuck in traffic at midnight! Vinny slept for a couple hours inbetween but was up when we arrived at the hotel. He was so excited to check out the room, and best of all a play telephone?!
He took a while to fall asleep in his pack n’ play the first night — at one point i was hoping we didnt have neighbors who could hear from crying so late at night. But eventually he fell asleep. We brought his favorite bedtime blanket, stuffed glowing seahorse and his gray kitty.
Disneyland Day One — Tomorrowland
Since we got in late the night before, we got a late start to the park — was there by 10:15a, and it was busier than expected for being a Friday when everyone should be at work! We went first to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters ride. It’s a fun interactive ride you get to shoot with a laser gun at targets on the wall and you get a score at the end of the ride. Jeff and i had been on a similar ride at California Adventure on our last visit.
They sure have this ride figured out — to load yourself onto the vehicle there is a moving conveyor belt, so it’s constantly flowing people in and out. We barely had to wait it in line it seemed. Vinny was probably in shock from it all, and i’m glad we got to capture a photo from his first official ride at Disneyland! (I have no idea when they took this photo in the ride, but it turned out pretty great!)
We walked up the big ramp to check out the Innoventions area — which is basically half museum half video arcade to promote Disney video games. Jeff of course couldn’t resist picking up a free controller and playing a minute or two of a Cars game. They were both entertained as seen in photo.
Next up, we ate an early lunch at the Tomorrowland eating area. I was impressed with their food choices. I had a salad, Jeff had a burger, and Vinny had a special Toddler sized meal of mac n cheese and apple sauce. Yum, he at it right up. They were starting the Jedi training show as we were leaving, but Vinny was a bit young to participate, so we left to do our fast pass for Autopia ride.
Since i’m pregnant, i decided to skip this ride and just take pictures. Vinny and Jeff had a good time driving the car on the track — Its one of Vincent’s favorite things to do back at home — sit in the front seat of my car and pretend to drive! They even got little driver license cards.
Next up — Toontown!
Such a cute area of Disneyland – everything looks straight out of a cartoon! I remember this being my favorite part of the park when i visited at 10 years old. Vinny didn’t seem too impressed with the Firetruck here.
But he did like running through the little jail/gym area (over and over again).
He also really loves the water fountains — i think he wants to dive in mostly. Weather was warm but not unbearable. Pretty comfortable actually.
We visited Goofy’s house and he had a toddler playground area perfect for Vinny to run around in while we took a break.
Inside the house was a cute little piano that made silly sounds when you banged on it. Vinny kept trying to turn the page of the book.
Meeting Mickey Mouse himself!
We ran over and through to Mickey’s house – literally — Vinny was moving so fast Jeff had to run to be sure we didnt lose him. We didnt realize that at the end we’d get to meet Mickey! Had to wait about 15 minutes but it was worth it…
I wasn’t expecting Vinny to really care much but he had the biggest smile on when Mickey turned to meet him! It was adorable.
Playing peekaboo! Disney has a new thing now called PhotoPass which is a card you give to the professional photographer they have standing around with the characters and at different locations throughout the park. You have no obligation to buy the photos but you can see them online (and therefore have a low quality version of them saved to your computer!) They were also really good with helping take photos with our camera. Great service, i think. Though SO TOTALLY expensive to actually buy the prints…
Back to the hotel for Naptime!
By the time we meet Mickey it was naptime! So we walked back to our hotel, but not before stopping for some McDonalds ice cream cones! I think this is Vinny’s first time actually eating a cone. First lick is always a surprise to him, he doesn’t expect it to be so cold!
He ate all the top of it, and then we through out the rest. Naptime was a little rough — this first day he cried when we put him in the crib, but as per normal we just ignored him and eventually (hour later) he fell asleep, and slept a good 2 hours. Jeff and i relaxed, dozed off as well.
Night One – Disney’s California Adventure
After nap time (and another snack for Vinny), we got ourselves ready to go back to the park and check it out at night. We planned to try and stay for the light show at 9:25pm in the California Adventure area.
We ate dinner at a pasta/italian self-serve place. Again, it was fancier than what you might expect for theme park food, but it makes sense they have some better quality food considering the amount of traffic and the amount of money you’re paying to get into this place.
We visited the new Carsland area and took a few photos. The Radiator Springs area was super fun to see – straight from the movies.
I dont think we rode any rides but we walked around the Bugs Life area (kid rides) and Hollywood Studio Backlot.
We happened upon Mad Tea Party — they were having rave music!
We decided to check out the Muppets in 3d — Jeff and i saw it last time we were here. We were interested to see how Vinny would like it. He ended up liking it a lot i think. He even wore his glasses the whole time! Since he face is so small and the glasses are one size fits all, he had to hold them up with his hands the entire time. It was so cute, too bad i couldnt take a photo (too dark). He jumped at certain parts in the movie because of the 3d.
By that time, we were ready for the World of Color show. We bought Vinny this cool light-up toy that spins. He so totally loved that thing that he actually broke it — but we were able to exchange it for another one.
We got in a good spot to see the show, and its about to start… and… announcer comes on saying due to gusty winds its cancelled. Wah wah! So we walked home and ended the night! Even with that, we had a great first day — Vinny behaved well, had a great time, and we were tuckered out for the night but ready to come back for more tomorrow.
Pregnant with Baby #2
I found out in the beginning of June that i am pregnant again! The baby’s due date is officially February 7, 2014. We used the above graphic to announce our pregnancy on Facebook. I’m not sure Vincent is old enough to understand he is getting a sibling…. he will be a great leader of mischief i’m sure!
The beginning of my pregnancy was a little bit tougher comparatively to my pregnancy with Vincent. Pretty much right away, i started to get really dehydrated/nauseous whenever i taught my fitness classes. I had to start taking it easy so i would make it through the whole class. Outside of teaching, i had no appetite/nothing sounded good to eat, and i had to force myself to eat because i knew i needed to. Worst feeling really — when i LOVE eating! That lasted longer than i liked — finally let up around 14 weeks. I was sleepy and went to bed earlier almost every night, but i wasnt as tired as i was with Vincent where i couldn’t stay awake at work or was tired immediately after waking.
Here is the baby’s first ultrasound at 9 weeks. Heartbeat was 171 bpm.
Ultrasound at 21 weeks, baby measuring right on target (though the legs were a little short), 12.5 oz, heartrate at 136 bpm. You can see it’s eye sockets and it’s hands up by its face.
We are “team green” again and won’t be finding out the sex of the baby till it shoots out of me. Yay!
As far as names, we have a short list but nothing decided and nothing im super excited about either, so i guess we’ll keep looking.
Here is the a belly shot progression i posted on Facebook:
You can see all my belly shot photos at this flickr set by clicking here.
Here is a fun comparison shot at 18 weeks. Left side, with Vinny, and right side, this time around. I definitely starting showing earlier with this one, as they say is normal for second pregnancies.
