Trunk or Treat
Our friends Carrie and Roger invited us to their church’s Halloween event where they open up their trunks in the parking lot and go trick or treating. We thought it would ab nice way for Vinny to go trick or treating since we dont plan on going out to our neighborhood (a little young).
When we got to the church they were having a chili cook-off with lots of chili and cornbread, PB&J for the kids. We didnt eat anything because we were planning to go out to eat after the event.
Vinny had his costume on and was running around looking at all the other kids in costumes, and checking out all the different rooms and doors at the church.
Lilia was Barney! Yes they still have Barney. Though i think all the episodes are super old! Kids still love him. She was cute, she likes Barney and Calliou, says her mommy.
After the crowd was done eating, they lined the kids up on stage for a costume parade. Jeff took Vince up there, and when they got on stage he walked across by himself, and smiled and sort of waved! It was cute but i was too far to get a good photo.
Next was the trick or treating. Wasnt sure how into it Vinny would be, but he actually got the hang of it! He was just toddling around in the parking lot, and he would go up to people since they had their hand out giving something. And he likes to grab and touch anything!
We brought a little pumkin bag that my mom had sent over with her Halloween treats to store his candies in. First thing he did with the candies once he got a hold of them was put it in his mouth. His first candy was a Twix and it got all chewed up.
Lilia was so cute, she was trying to hold Vinny’s hand so they could go together, but Vinny doesnt know how to hold hands yet! She even held my hand a few times. I think she is trained to do that though — hold an adults hand. Which is good.
Here is Lilia trick or treating with her mom.
Good time had by all — certainly want to do it again next year!
We all went to BJs for dinner afterward. While we were waiting for out table to be ready, Vinny and Lilia were having a blast running around together outside. There was one of those sandwich signs sitting out by the door, and Vinny walked right under/through it, which made Lilia crack up! She followed suit! They did that about a dozen times. Lilia is a ball of energy just like Vinny, running in circles and just laughing. It was super cute to watch. Since Vinny can walk now, it seems like they can play together a lot better as opposed to before.
Dinner went pretty smoothly considering it was late for the kiddos. Vinny didnt want to sit in his chair so much, so i held him while i bounced all over me and the booth, etc. Gonna have to teach this kid some patience and table manners! LOL!
Vincent is 15 months old!
The months are just flying by after Vincent’s first birthday mark! Every day it seems he is learning something new. It is an exciting time to watch him grow.
Big news this month!
Vincent learned to say “bye-bye”! Though i think he is still a little confused sometimes on whether or not he should say “bye-bye” or “daddy” because we usually go “say bye-bye daddy”. Which i guess is too complicated for someone learning to talk… but at any rate he can wave his hand and say either “bye-bye” or “daddy” (but not both at the same time) while waving his hand, either on cue, or if someone else waves at him.
Trying out new foods…
He tried his first hard pretzel baked all the way in Pennsylvania. He loved crunching on what daddy was crunching on. He did a little dance when he was eating. (probably shouldnt let him stand and eat!)
He also tried his first calamari while out with Daddy at Jaycee’s election night. (BTW, Jeff is 2013 Treasurer!) Vincent also tried fish sticks! So far seafood is good.
He tried his first hard boiled egg. He poked at it a lot, ate about half of it. Didnt really seem to like nor dislike. He has had scrambled eggs maybe once before. Kind of the same indifferent reaction.
He tried fresh raspberries from the plant we have in our backyard. He loved them! He is a big fruit eater so no surprise there. He also tried some blackberries i bought from the market.
He wanted to try mommy’s iced tea while we were out eating at Pizza My Heart one afternoon. He sure loves that straw!
Eating fast food and kids menu meals at restaurants. Jeff watching vinny a couple of days this last month and both days he went to fast food for lunch! First McDonalds then Burger King! Oh man.
Also under Dad’s watch, he may or may not have eaten a dog turd while sitting in the sand at the playground (!)
Figured out how to….
He figured out how to open the screen door, though i may be on accident. Jeff was looking for his wet suit to put on him so they could go outside and play with the water table. When he came back to the sunroom to check on Vinny (which is where he left him and the cat) both Butters and Vinny were outside on the grass! Either Butters or Vinny opened the screen door and they both fell out — luckily not right into the rose bushes! (Again, this was a day i was at work and Vinny was being watched by Daddy!) Hahahahhaha…
He can now “open” our coffee table. It is one of those that raises so you can be extremely lazy and eat dinner in front of the TV. Its really quite easy to lift, so he saw mom and dad do it a few times and then tried it himself!
He can pop down the lever on his ball pop toy that my mom got him when he was a wee little one (3 months). Finally! He was so proud of himself for learning to do it. Afterwards he would throw his hands up in the air, stomp his feet around and babble.
New Activities…
We just downloaded a bunch of iPad apps. He loves watching the Mickey Mouse Road Rally – an interactive game/story where you can speak back and choose items to tell the story. We also have a simple light-up piano.
Also there is Monkey Drum which is a simple copy-cat drumming game. You press the keyboard or drum (or whatever musical instrument they are using) in a pattern, then the monkey duplicates it. Every once in a while a banana will drop and you can feed it to the monkey. The first time we played this vincent laughed sooo hard at the monkey going “ooohh oooh aaahh” with the banana. (See video below).
Vincent loves to play “tag” — we sometimes set up a dining room chair in the center of the room, then run around in circles getting chased by him, or chasing Vincent. He laughs and laughs and gets so in to it that he almost always falls over because he is running too fast. He loves to run straight for us and charge into our feet and give us a big hug.
New Skills…
On the weekends we consistently give him his meals in his regular high chair, but for morning snack and afternoon snack, if we are home, we will give it to him on his little travel chair in front of the tv, by the couch, on the floor. I am trying to get him to understand when its “snack time” and when he needs to go sit in his chair. I tell him “Vincent, it’s snack time, see your food? Go sit in your chair first.” Now he has sat in his chair by himself before, but i dont think he really knows how to do it on command. Most of the time he will just go over to is and stand on the seat. But good enough for me.
He makes a fishy face a lot now!
He loves to play with Butter’s scratchy pad. He will take it apart, then sit inside of it.
Likes to play with newspapers, as well as grab things off the edge of the table. We are having to be extra careful now.
Enjoy this video of Vinny pulling all kinds of stuff from the bathroom drawers one morning!
He is starting to get the concept of “climbing” – i will notice him trying to grab on to the edge of something then throwing his foot up to try to get over. For instance, when we do bath time and he waiting to get in the tub, he will grab on, then lift his leg. Kinda funny cuz he would never be able to get himself up there! He can however, hop up on one of the cardboard boxes that reams of paper come in! He did that in the office this past weekend, and he was SO PROUD of himself!
He is obsessive sometimes about putting things in a certain place — like lining up my gym shoes on the floor in a row!
His flat head…
So we decided to get Vincent a cranial band/helmet to try to fix his flat head. Its not only flat in the back (i’d say moderate – severe compared to online photo assessments), but it is also “vaulted” or pointed up high at the top. Its pretty misshapen and Jeff and i really regret not getting treatment earlier. Normally this is best treated at 6 months because they are growing so fast at the time and you can see improvement very quickly. but he is really at the very end of his treatment window. Normally they will not treat after 15 months because his skull is starting to calcify. Mostly, it is believed to be just “cosmetic” but we don’t want him to get teased about his head, especially if it is something we have the opportunity to fix now. When he is older, there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it.
We went in for a evaluation, then went back (a couple times actually) to get his head measured for the helmet. Vince has to wear it for 23 hours a day and only take it off to clean it and air out a little. Its going to be a tough transition for all of us and we hope we are making the right decision! Jeff will be staying home with the first few days so he can get used to it and monitor how he is reacting. We will definitely be posting about it more in upcoming blog posts.
Physical changes….
Noticeable for several months now, Vinny’s hair over his ears are getting really long! We wonder if maybe we should just trim it. Its cute though.
Still drooling tons! We recently bought a few more sets of bibs since his were getting a little dirty and stained. Also bought some cute festive fall ones with snaps. I cut off all the tags on the Babies R Us brand ones because you can see them prominently when he is wearing it.
Connect with Sourskittled
I post most my videos to my Youtube channel and also started back up using Instagram. I keep meening to reconnect my twitter account but just havent yet. Im on facebook all day, so not sure why i need just one more social media outlet to occupy my time! I do have Pinterest though! Best invention ever for us creatives and do-it-yourself-ers!
Claremont Park in Salinas, CA
I guess it is becoming a new thing for Jeff and I to go out to eat lunch on weekends, since we can hardly manage to squeeze restaurant dinners during the week with Vinny and his 7pm bedtime (geez, Vinny!) So today our eatery of choice was Guadalajara Grill, right next to Jeff’s office, just a few minutes away from our house. Food took forever to get there, and Vinny was super starving because he took an early nap and didnt eat lunch at his normal time. I had their chicken enchiladas with green sauce (super yummy!), Vinny had a quesadilla, and Jeff had carne asada tacos!
After lunch, we wanted to do something fun but didnt want to go far, so we google searched for some nearby parks. We have only been to the one that is across the street from our house. We saw one close to Memorial hospital and decided to check it out.
Score! They had two play structure areas – one with wood chips and one with sand!! And two sets of swings, one for the bigger kids and one for toddlers (4 baby seats!) So lots of area to play.
Vinny was so excited. We felt like bad parents because we forgot to bring a jacket for him and it was windy and cold outside. In fairness, this week had been super hot, so we are not in the mode of grabbing jackets! Though Jeff and I both had ones for us! Oh well, he’ll be fine…
He went running for the wood chip area first. He immediately squatted down and started swatting at it like a cat taking a dump. LOL. Then he wanted to eat the woodchips! He got several in his mouth, but hopefully he didnt swallow any. Good roughage?
This park had two baby slides. We tried to let him go down himself, but he would just lean forward and go face first!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sourskittled/8111819678″ thumbnail=”medium_640″ overlay=”true” size=”medium_640″ group=”” align=”none”]
Lucky Dad caught him.
We said it’s better if Mommy goes down with him!
He had a blast either way…
He liked climbing back up the slide with mommy’s help.
He also (as always) loved staring and trying to play with the other kids at the park.
And last but definitely not least the swings!
This guy loves thrill i tell you.
He had a constant smile on his face, kept laughing… he would have swung there for hours if we let him.
We will definetly go back to this park! Its just a short drive away (a little far to walk though).
Marina State Beach
We had been talking about going to the little boardwalk hike they have at Marina beach for a while now, and we actually got around to going this weekend! It was a little chilly out – more so windy, but overall pretty comfortable and the sun was out so that is about as much as you can ask for for little old foggy town of Marina! I should know, i lived there for a few years and man oh man, fog city for sure. It could be super foggy in Marina, but if you drive literally 2 minutes in either direction away from the town it’d be sunny!
Vincent absolutely loves riding in his backpack! I was wondering if he would after he spent so many hours in it on our last day trip to Monterey/aquarium with Uncle Pete, but he did really well.
He was babbling the whole way and smiling and cooing! He loves the wind in his face, and being up really high.
It was little sunny, so we pulled out his sunglasses. It stayed on for a few minutes, then he couldn’t resist touching them. He also liked playing with Daddy’s hoodie.
The wind blows a lot here, we noticed that some of the boardwalk was covered with sand. Which made us wonder, does someone come out here periodically to uncover the path? I mean they must, its blowing sand constantly… that would be a job!
We saw a pretty flock of birds fly under the setting sun. Gotta love nature.
There was also this funky looking plant.
Here is the part in the path we decided to turn around at! Well, we meaning Jeff, but then again i wasnt carrying a 23 lb. toddler on my back!
Vinny says “Can’t wait for the next hike!”
Evan’s 2nd Birthday Party
My friend Patti moved to Arizona a few months ago with her husband Chris and son Evan. Patti’s mom lives in Salinas still, so she decided to throw Evan’s birthday party here. She flew in and stayed for about a week.
The theme for the birthday party was goldfish. I helped her make decorations using my Silhouette Cameo, which i hadn’t used since Vinny’s party! We made the fishes on the wall, lil flags that went on everyone’s drink straw, favor tags, and a “Happy 2nd Birthday Evan” pennant banner.
The party was held at Roundtable Pizza in Marina — right across from where i used to live when i was going to college. I had forgot it was even there! I miss Marina sometimes… mostly the beach, but not ever the foggy weather!
Anyway, when we got to the party, we were actually on time! But Patti was still setting up and Evan was still taking his nap. Here the dessert /favor table. Patti bought the top cake and the cupcakes — i thought they turned out super cute! Favors where goldfish crackers!
Vinny had fun running around the party room and trying to escape into the parking lot.
When Evan got up from his nap, he yelled “fishie”!! Guess he likes them! He kept saying it and pointing to the decorations as the night went on — it was pretty darn cute.
Evan was nice and shared his toys with Vinny – they had fun playing together.
Vinny really loved that retro car, and a bouncy ball that light up when you bounced it.
Vinny loved riding on the Spiderman toy. Well he didnt really ride the ride, but he got to sit on it! Maybe next time. He looks like he’s ready to take on the world.
Cute family pic!
Earlier in the week when Patti was visiting us at our house, Vinny kept going up to her and “patting” her on the back then running away laughing. It was hilarious — ive never seen him to do that to anyone!
The boys had a lot of fun running around together and stealing each other’s toys!
They also ganged up on Butters! (But unfortunately i didnt get a good pic of them together)
Hope to see you guys again soon! It was a fun visit.
Borchard Farms Pumpkin Patch
It’s October! We decided to go to the pumpkin patch a bit early this year and be ready for Halloween. We went to a place outside of Salinas called Borchard Farms. We have never been there before but their website said it had lots of activities beyond just buying pumpkins so we thought we would check it out. We dressed Vinny in fall colors and his jean “marty mcfly” jacket.
Its a bit of a drive through fields to get there but it was a fun drive. Along the parking lot area there were large pumpkins sitting on top haystacks, the perfect photo op!
We didnt bring his stroller or backpack but we saw the wagons to pull the pumpkins in and thought Vinny would love riding in that! And he did! Mommy was afraid of how rusty and dirty the wagon was, but Vinny didn’t seem to notice (LOL, like he would care!)
They had a HUGE variety of pumpkins for sale! Tiny ones, small, medium, large, extra large, and jumbo pumpkins!
Vinny had fun hugging the big pumpkins and toddling through them all.
They had wall on the outside of their barn (which was made up to be a haunted house on the inside) that had a bunch of old iron stuff.
Next we checked out the animals.
They had all kinds of different birds, including pheasants and turkeys, bunnies, ducks, chickens, and more.
Vinny was real interested at what was in the cages!
Daddy was dressed up in fall colors too!
After the animal tour, we started to shop for our pumpkins for the season.
Daddy got a big one, mommy got a medium one, and here we are looking for a small one for Vinny.
Here we are with our stash!
It was a nice view!
Can you spot my little Boo man in this picture? He spotted the SPOOKY sign all by himself and started running towards it. Then i had Jeff place him behind it for the picture!
Vinny had a blast since we let him ride in the wagon and also run around everywhere. They had a kids area with a bounce house, hay rides and more activities, but we just did the free stuff because that’s all we would have really enjoyed anyway. Can’t wait to carve our pumpkins!
Vincent is 14 months!
This month i’m trying a new approach to the “monthly update”. By category i’ll list some new things Vincent is doing.
New Routines
– Is nursing for shorter periods of time, in both morning and night feedings. doesn’t fall asleep nursing at bedtime anymore. I might wean soon, or just let him wean naturally.
– I’ll read him a story book after i nurse him at bedtime. Favorite now is the The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
– I’ll sing Twinkle Twinkle, kiss him, then put him in his crib for bed. He doesn’t cry or say anything. After i leave he plays with his stuffed animals and talks until he falls asleep
– Stopped waking up at 5am to nurse (usually went back to sleep after) – is now sleeping from 730p to 6:45a
– Taking two naps a day while at daycare (9:30-11, 2-4p), one afternoon nap on weekends. Was previously only taking 1 long afternoon nap
New Skills
– Loves to grab things out of the cart behind him when we go grocery shopping, or grab at things directly off the shelf, then eventually throw things on the ground.
– Can drink from a straw, and drink from a real cup with mommy’s help (and lots of spilling)
– See VIDEO above: Making a funny lip noise “lalalalla” by moving his tongue left to right between his lips
– See VIDEO above: Opening and closing sliding glass doors, and also dropping toys into the crack.
– “Dancing” to music but only certain songs. Mostly theme songs on Sprout TV
– Stashing food in his bib for fun, but mostly throwing it over his head, by his side, or over the highchair if he is not interested in feeding himself
– Crying and getting his feeling hurt when we tell him “no”
– Playing with curtains – this time in the bedroom
Fascinations
– laughing hysterically at the little toy people that fly off the diving board on his water toy
– Likes to watch the dump truck/ firetrucks go by
– Loves to be “scared” by sneaking up behind him and saying “BOO!”
Physical Changes
– His head is still flat!! But probably way too late now to do anything about it. Our bad for letting him lie on his back all day. Oh well, hopefully we won’t screw up the next kid as bad… right?
– Is growing out of his 12 month clothes. Still fits 9mo pants, though getting a little high-waters.
– Bought him new socks that fit 12-24 months.
– Hair is growing slowly. On his left side, the hair above his ear is super long, but not on the right side! Sometimes his little cowlick area will stick up in the morning.
– Starting at 12 months, “onesies” are getting harder to find, but for good reason. He’s too antsy to sit still for clipping buttons of the onesie. Shirt and shorts/pants much easier to put on a toddler! The onesie was also good when he was crawling because his clothes would stay in place, now thats not really an issue when he can walk
Still loves…
– Harassing Butters – pulling on his fur, and ears, and stepping on his tail (though that last one not on purpose)
– regular ol’ peek a boo, singing “wheels in the bus” and “happy and you know it” songs
– watching ceiling fans, feeling the air from a fan, and rolling down the windows and feeling the breeze
– Pressing on all the keys on moms laptop when we video chat with grandma. Or closing the laptop shut! (mom has Macifer to disable keystrokes and clicks!)
– Talking a whole bunch of jibber jabber but no real words
Evening Playtime, Dinner Time, Bathtime
Jeff and i both have fun watching/playing with him when we come home from work. It is sad that by the time i get home it is almost 6pm, so we only get to play for about a half hour, then its time for his dinner. Sometimes we have dinner ready for the adults too if I did something in the slow cooker, if its leftovers, or if Jeff picks something up after work. As Vinny gets older we are going to have to try to keep a normal family dinner time with him so he can learn how to eat properly. As it is it seems like we should be doing this more. I’m ready for him to start using utensils and feeding himself already! He can pick up his food with his fingers and drink from his sippy but he only behaves well for the first few bites, then he just starts playing with the food (swiping it off the table) or smashing it in his face or bib or legs. Then he starts wailing and getting red if he is full or tired of sitting in his chair. Its quite the amount of work to feed this lil guy!
Talking?
And that brings me to my next subject, — talking ! He can’t say really any words yet. Dadadada he says like 24/7 but i dont think he fully comprehends just who Dada is? Or maybe he does, but he doesnt “say” it towards the actual person on cue. He says “mamama” only when he is upset (usually in the morning when i go get him). Sometimes i swear he is speaking Korean!
I bought a baby sign language book a few months ago and was really ready to try it out with him to start communicating more, but my then (now previous) sitter said she was not willing to do it with me, so that kinda shot me down a lot since if i dont have her support, then its pointless!
I haven’t asked my new sitter about it, but maybe i will if it seems like he can’t communicate with us (getting mad/frustrated) and i think it will help him.
Coming This Month
For October we already bought his Halloween costume and tried it on! We picked the Dragon outfit from Costco! I think we might go with our friend to her Church’s “Trunk & Treat” the weekend before Halloween. So we are looking forward to that, and we’ll go to the pumpkin patch this year with Vinny and get a pumpkin.
Our sitter is out next Monday for Columbus Day — Jeff is off so he will watch Vinny. Next Friday she is also out, so Jeff is taking a day off to watch him. And Mommy works! Mommy works everyday… LOL. In more ways than one! Full time job, side job, mommy job.. and this blog is also a job. LOL.
Growing Up…
Recently i’ve been reminiscing on how last year this time Vinny was celebrating “his first Halloween” and his “first Thanksgiving” etc… Now that he is a year old we’re past all his “firsts!” Though i know this is still MANY of more of those to come! (Like he tried his first pretzel the other day, oooh exciting! LOL) But still — he’s just growing up so fast….as they say!. I am enjoying every millisecond of it.
Vincent’s Finally Over His Month-long Cold!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sourskittled/8055798910
Vincent’s been fighting a cold for over a month and a half now (he got it from one of the other daycare kids at the old sitter). His cough wass really bad and last Monday, and he also got a fever in the afternoon when he woke up from his nap. So we decided to take him in on Tuesday to see why he hasnt recovered. The doctor said its probably an infection and gave him antibiotics (Amoxicillin). He is almost done with his meds and his cough is almost gone completely, and his nose doesnt run nearly as much anymore. Yay! I think he is better now.
When I took him to the dr’s office and we were waiting to be seen, he had fun playing with the toys they stash under the cabinet. He also got a cup from the nurse to play with while they took his temperature and I gave him a mum cracker. He discovered the chair could go in circles and was quite entertained.
Later he found some blocks and spun those around!
Aquarium with Peter and Merry
Today we planned to go to the aquarium with Peter and Merry. I still had to teach my class in the morning because its very hard for me to find a sub for my Sunday class. So we hung out at the house all morning and then the rest of the gang went to Ellis for Buffet Brunch while i taught class.
When i got back, they were done eating and Vinny was napping, so i ate lunch myself then took a shower. When Vinny got up we fed him some chicken fingers and butternut squash then headed out the door.
It was a busy weekend day, but not too bad. We got to see most of the aquarium and enjoyed the outdoor deck area since it was a warm mid 80s to 90s! Very rare for here, especially since we had a cold streak last week in the weather.
We put vinny in his backpack because the last time we were here, we took the stroller but just ended up draggin it along side us and worrying about where to put it. The backpack was the way to go! Good call on Dad’s part. I was figuring just go without anything since Vinny can walk now, but that would have been a disaster and we would have had to chase him all around the whole afternoon.
He loved touching the glass to try to reach the fish!
The jellies are always my favorite! Vinny seemed to like them a lot as well.
Vinny had a BLAST in the toddler area, jumping on the waterbed and playing with the fake fishies in the water fountain.
He didnt want to leave that area!
At 4pm they had a fish feeding in the kelp forest tank. The diver could actually speak to the audience! It was pretty neat!
After the aquarium we stopped by Ghiradellis so Merry could pick up some candy. WOW! They have a lot of flavors now, like pumpkin spice, sea salt caramel, cabernet, coconut and more.
After the chocolate store we went to Bubba Gumps for dinner. Its always so noisy in there! And there is always a wait on the weekends. Vinny had fun stacking the drink coasters.
And our waiter kinda sucked and didnt do any trivia questions! And my fishwich was falling apart and not good… my go-to dish was not on the menu anymore it seemed (shrimp dippin broth). Boo…. but anyway still had a good time with the company and the view.
Vinny had a kids mac’ n cheese meal that came with fries and blue jello in a boat. I gave him some of my fish too, and he liked it. The blue jello he seemed to dig as well! Just like mama! He’s crying in this picture because we’re try to strap him in his seat for dinner, but he just wants his boat!
We gave him the boat to play with after he was done eating his dinner!
We were so happy to entertain Peter and Merry who visit us from North Carolina. We hope to see them again soon! One of these days we will make it out there to see their custom built house. Thanks for visiting us!
Jacks Peak, Dennis the Menace Park, Meeting Peter & Merry
Today we were expecting Jeff’s Uncle Peter and his wife Merry to come and visit us, so i got a sub for my morning class at the gym. But it turns out that they were coming later in the day, so i had a free morning! Vinny and i normally go to the grocery store in the morning, so we took our time and let Daddy sleep in.
When we got back from the grocery store (which is going through a remodel right now — don’t know where anything is, but at least now i have glasses that work so i can read the signs down the aisle!), we fed Vincent some lunch then hopped in the car to take a hike at Jack’s Peak. We have been there once before Vincent was born, but it had been a while and its a close hike with great views.
Of course, Vincent fell asleep on the car ride there. We had tried to put him down earlier in the morning since his new sitter said that he is now back to taking two naps a day (9:30-11 and 2-4), but that was a no go. So, we let him sleep a little by going to Quizno’s for lunch and eating in the car. It worked out perfectly because he woke up as we were driving into the parking lot of the park.
We strapped him in and he already has a smile on his face! He loves the backpack.
It was sunny, so i put on some sunglasses. They stayed on all but 30 seconds.
It took us a while to decide which way we wanted to go.
We picked a cross between two routes.
A great look-out spot over the bay.
Last time we were here we remember the cool rocks and the signs saying to look out for skeletons from ocean life of past years. Found nada!
Vinny grabbed hold of the mirror that dad uses to watch him. He loves playing with it. Behind them in this picture is a good view of the “fog” layer but hard to see in the this picture.
I really liked this tree on our loop back.
The floor was kind of wet. I had capris on and new socks, so that was a terrible combination which allowed for small pine needles to make there way onto the back of my leg and into my sock. Ugh! But at least i was smart and wore my junk shoes this time.
The hike was short! But i had to pee (LOL — drank to much of my favorite SoBe drink only sold at Quizno’s!) so i didnt mind getting going… we had planned to go to Dennis the Menace park after!
Driving our way out of the park, we saw a deer with antlers drinking from a large puddle on the side of the road. I had my good camera in the trunk but we were able to catch a few photos with Jeff’s iPhone 4.
This one’s got and artsy water color filter effect on it! (Actually its just blurry — action shot!) But you can see it’s great antlers.
When we arrived at the park we were ready to play! This is our first time going there since Vincent could walk. This is also our first time going in the exclusive toddler area, made for lil’ ones. Vincent really loved it! He had that sparkle in his eye the entire time! I bet he was thinking, man, i can run around this WHOLE place?
And funny thing, first thing he goes for is the chain link fence that surrounds the whole area! A little girl was having a birthday party and he wanted to join in on the fun!
Then he figured out where to go. Or lay i should say.
Best picture ever, what a cutie.
He loved peeking over the side of this one section, had a little cutaway for his face.
Running toward daddy!
Ready to go down the slide daddy! He still doesnt not quite get how to go down the slide without …
Bonking his head as he goes down!
He doesn’t even cry though. He just smiles and thinks its funny.
After the playground area, we walked over the drawbridge and checked out the rock climb wall for a little bit.
Then of course we had to stop by the swings.
When we got home, i wanted to do yardwork. So i pulled out Vinny’s water table and filled it up with water so it would get warm enough for him to play in. The day was turning out to be sunny and nice. Jeff dressed Vinny in his new rashguard swim shirt and slippers from Hawaii (growing out of those though!)
Jeff chatted with Gma and Gpa while I pulled a lot of weeds and dead flowers from our yard, trimmed down a lot of stuff and filled up our whole yard waste. I even got rid of the rotting oranges tossed to the side of our house by the lawnmower who comes to mow twice monthly!
I picked some fresh raspberries from our wild little bush in the corner of our yard. I let vinny taste some. He grabbed the whole handful i laid out for him and shoved it in his mouth. Then he came back for more!
Just as were were wrapping up all our fun outside, we get a call from Peter that they are in town and coming over to see Vinny and our house! Yay! We fed Vinny his dinner, then hung out for a bit, gave a tour of the house, then went out to eat at the Brew Pub.
The adults (minus me) had some beers and great food! Vinny loved the flash that i used on my camera. I hardly ever use the flash so he’s super excited about that. I am now thinking i probably should utilize it more with this lil’ guy being the move and shaker he is, half my photos are always blurry!
What an action packed day! Vinny was out like a light when we put him to bed!