Visitors and Vacations

Wow, two posts in one day!

We had a great visit a couple of weeks ago from my good friend Becca. She lives in Hawaii now and we keep forgetting to take pictures when she comes to visit. This is us at the United terminal at LAX.


Our next visitors were the Scott's. They had a three hour layover at LAX on their way to a family reunion in New York. So we picked them up, grabbed In and Out and brought them back to our house for a mini-playdate for Chloe and Alton.
Unfortunately, Chloe had a poopsplosion and needed a bath in the sink.





After she was all cleaned up, Chloe was ready to "play".

Alton shows Chloe the immortal works of S. Boynton.

All their playing wore them out here they sleep together on the way to take the Scott's back to the airport. Funny how though mommies and daddies are all friends, all of the pictures are of the kids only....

Later that day we met The Gedeons and R and H from our home group at Disneyland.


Alton was totally asleep, so he is off screen here.




At the end of the night. We had a great time with you guys! We will miss you.

So It Begins: The Potty Training Odyssey

As you know, I have a little boy and I thought we wouldn't be dealing with this for at least another six months, but the cloth diapers are working! On Monday, we were visiting Maggie and John to help them to get ready for their move to Sacramento. Alton handed Aunt Maggie and diaper and lay down. He was soaked and needed changing. This morning, he was tugging at his bottom and I asked him, are you poopy and he said "Yes." So we changed his diaper. I am not buying training pants or anything crazy like that, but I am going to start putting Alton on the toilet when he wakes up from his naps and at every diaper change so that he can get used to the toilet.

Alton is not about to let his verbal development take a back seat to his physical development. Yesterday he said clearly "Doggies!" when we came home from the Gedeon's and Jack and Lucy ran to greet us. This morning, he was terrorizing the dogs in their beds and Travis picked Lucy up to save her from Alton. Alton grabbed Travis's leg and said, "Lucy!"

Digital Scrapbooking!

I have a new obsession! And it's the best kind of obsession because it's free. Digital Scrapbooking! No more buying paper, adhesive, and praise the Lord, no more cutting! Here is my first page that I put together. It is from my trip to Washington.

My Experience Traveling with a Toddler

NEVER AGAIN without my husband. I swear.

1. Leave yourself LOTS of time to get through security. Getting through security by myself with Alton, his car seat (which I ended up not needing) the stroller, my backpack, and carry-on luggage... 30 minutes, and at one airport they actually made me take his Robeez off. It did not help that I was traveling with a laptop in the backpack either. But seriously, trying to maneuver all of our stuff one handed while I held Alton was not a good time. I HIGHLY recommend taking your Baby Hawk or sling type to get through security at least. Next time I will also just pay the $25 per leg and check a second bag. Stupid airlines.

2. BUY YOUR TODDLER A SEAT!!!! When I bought my ticket to go, Alton was still not walking. About a week before the trip and the day before I called the airline and both times the ladies talked me out of buying Alton his own seat. "There is plenty of room on both flights, save your money!" On our trip out, there were 19 people on stand by. So our infant block was removed and though I'd made it through the entire airport with Alton's Britax Marathon car seat, they took it from me at the gate and he had to lap sit. Alton is not a cuddly lap sitter. :( About half an hour into our flight, I noticed and empty seat and thankfully a very nice gentle man traded seats with me. But since they'd taken the car seat away, Alton wasn't restrained and kept taking his seat belt off. He ended up playing on the the seat while standing on the cabin floor.

On the way home, we had an infant block and I was able to get his car seat installed in the seat and we were about to take off and a dude came up the aisle and said "You are in my seat." His arrival made the plane late and I had to rearrange all of our stuff and take Alton out of his car seat and put him on my lap. He needed a nap and the plane body was MUCH smaller than the previous plane had been so there wasn't room for him to play by my feet. He cried for about an hour on that flight. The dude who arrived late and took our extra seat had the nerve to tell me, "Yeah, I was lucky to get on this earlier flight, I was supposed to be on the three o'clock flight. Now all of my connecting flights are messed up though." Boo frickin hoo, hold my nap deprived toddler.

What really skeeves me about that whole situation, was that I was willing to pay for a seat for Alton, and the airlines sales staff talked me out of it!!! Next time I will just buy him a ticket and leave nothing to chance.

3. Take a LOT of toddler snack food. I mean a lot. Alton went through almost a whole bag of Veggie Bootie. True, at least a third of it ended up on the floor (Take that Alaska Airlines) but he was his happiest when he was stuffing his face. On the plane ride to Seattle, I had a snack container (I think it is meant to be a formula dispenser) filled with Graham cracker fish, Cheerios, and Gorilla Munch. That kept him happy and boy oh boy did he love the graham cracker fish.

4. Traveling with an infant toddler = you can bring on your own bottled water. WHOOT! No waiting for the stingy flight attendants to dole out your 4 oz of water in a plastic cup. I don't know if it is an iron clad rule, but I was able at both SeaTac and LAX to bring on a 1 1/2 liter bottle of Smart Water because it was "for the baby."

5. Bring new toys or books. I bought Alton toys that I would normally not approve of, but they kept him entertained on the plane, except during the last hour on the trip home.

6. Take your spouse or significant other! It's a lot of stuff to carry, a second set of hands during security alone is golden.

We had a good time, and I think that if I had slept better the night before, the return trip would not have been as bad a time....

Happy 14th of July!

So somebody (cough cough Kate) chastised me for not only not updating frequently enough, but for also not posting enough photos.

Here are a couple of pictures from our Fourth of July. Our original plans got cancelled on us, and I decided to celebrate our nation's independence with a relapse of pneumonia. So we did not do much, except eat pizza at Round Table and eat cake.

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Here is a picture of Alton being patriotic all by himself. We didn't pose him, honest. Travis actually called me out of come take pictures because Alton was being "Patriotic and photogenic!" Daddy's words, I promise.


This one we did pose him in, I think it came out cute. :)

My camera has this nifty feature where you can pick one color and have it make every other color black and white... now if I could just figure out how to change the color again that would be awesome!

Let them eat cake!

(Okay so the lady who said that was French by marriage (she never actually said it either, but everyone thinks she did) and not English, but their colors are red, white, and blue too.)
I made this cake and piped it all by myself! Did you know it takes almost an entire jar of red icing coloring to get the red icing that red?

Smallish update

So bad me, no posts in over a month. When I have some more time (and Travis's computer) I will post more pictures from the last month or so. Here is one from his birthday.

Alton with Wendy from Peter Pan at Goofy's Kitchen.

Okay so I lied and I can't stop, here are a couple more to get you through the week:

King Arthur's Carousel in Disneyland on Alton's actual birthday

Alton surrounded by part of his harem... there are no boys his age in our playgroup and I swear it looks like Penelope (in the pink hat) is bowing to in front of him. I think he looks like a little Sultan in this sun hat.

In bad news, I have pneumonia. Again. We need to get our house tested for dangerous molds.

Hell is...

taking an almost one year old with a serious balloon and color red fetish to the supermarket where they are giving away RED BALLOONS.

It started innocently enough, as we entered Ralphs (Kroger to those of you east of CA) last night, the greeter girl gave Alton a red Ralphs balloon. How cute! Look how happy he is as he flashes his dimples and happily bounces his balloon!

The balloon kept him entertained for most of the trip through the market with my dad and grandmother. But when we approached the check stand, trouble loomed. Each check stand had a bouquet of red balloons tied to the open sign as well as an assortment of Congratulations Graduate mylar balloons.

It was as if you could see the balls roll into place in his head. Alton swiveled his head from checkstand to checkstand and took in the sights of red balloon nirvana everywhere. Brains clicks; hand reaches for the balloon display; and "SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

OH MY GOODNESS, the loud pitched squeal of an almost one year old who can't reach what he wants!

"Alton, you have a balloon. Those ones need to stay here for other little boys and girls." At this point, the cashier is laughing. "SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK." "Alton, this is not acceptable behavior, you need to use your inside voice."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK." At this point, the cashier is starting to look alarmed and other people are looking at us. "Alton, you are hurting Pop Pop's ears. You have a balloon."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

Now people are staring and talking behind their hands while they discuss my lack of mothering skills, so I fling my Mastercard at my dad and unbuckle Alton from the shopping cart. He hopefully lunged at the nearest balloon bouquet, and came up empty handed.

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK."

He kicked his brand new shoe off and had it land on the conveyer belt where our groceries were being checked. I carried him out to the car with as much dignity as I could muster while his face took on the color of his beloved balloons.

I now see why my mom would take a preemptive advil before going to the market with FOUR children.

He WALKED!!!

Today the five of us, (Travis, Alton, Lucy, Jack and me) were in the front yard; I was watering plants when Travis came home from work, so we all stayed out there while I watered. Travis was sitting on the grass playing with Alton while making sure Jackson didn't jump over the fence to eat a neighbor's chihuahua. Alton had been standing next to Travis, waving a spade when Alton took a step and a half and landed on Daddy!

A few minutes later when I finished watering I was walking by them with the hose and Alton took 3 steps towards me!


Previously, he has taken 2 or 3 steps at a time between pieces of furniture or whatever, but this was the first time he walked towards his parents!!!

Where did my little baby go?

Sick Babies Aren't any Fun!

To make a long story short, we had to take Alton to the emergency room last night because he had a fever of 105.4. He'd been to the pediatrician earlier in the day and diagnosed with an ear infection. By the time we got him home, he was screaming his head off and felt like he was on fire.

So we called the pediatric advice line and she said take him to the emergency room. I will spare you the details of that nonsense, but his fever did break while we were there. Thank the Lord for the power of prayer!

His fever was back up this morning, so we went to see his pediatrician who said he most likely has roseola....

Still hot

I know it was only 90 and it can and will get worse, but oh my goodness was it hot today!
We had a nice breakfast with our home group today to celebrate our "dedication".
I really want to blog more an write about my day, but it is still too warm! I'm going to bed.
Good night!

Sunny Spring Saturday

We had a pretty good day today. My dad and I went to Costco, and Alton charmed the pants off of everyone. I got a gorgeous Star jasmine bush for $15. I LOVE star jasmine. Our local Costco was out of the the Fraggle Rock season DVDs, and since my brother mentioned that he wants them too, my dad and I had to venture to the Costco in the ghetto. Inglewood is scary, but thankfully the Inglewood Costco was not as scary as the Inglewood Target was.

After that, I came home and planted my plants, and Alton discovered that he can stand for a long time. He also discovered the hose. I got a cute video of him with the hose and I will post a link to it later. Then we went over to my grandmother's for dinner and to be squatters in her living room because she has air conditioning. I miss our air conditioning. When it got cooler, we took Alton and his cousin John John out to the back yard to play and I gardened for my grandmother. All and all it was a pretty good day.

Our Latest Trip to Disneyland

We started out doing a secret shop of the Carnation Cafe. Alton was a BIG fan of his Junior Mickey Mouse waffle.


He was not as big a fan of the orange slice garnish.

While we walked breakfast off walking along Main Street, we ran into someone famous.
You will notice that Mickey and Alton are holding hands. This was not a loving gesture, Mickey was trying to save his nose from the prying hands of Alton. :)


This visit to Disneyland was special, because it was Alton's friend Angus's first trip to Disneyland.
Here are Angus and Alton in front of the honey pots in Pooh Corner.

I think Alton might know he is cute. :) Look at his grin!

Pop Pop (Grandpa Scott) always takes the best pictures:
I have already been to Costco to have this one blown up. It is framed in our bedroom.

Alton and Pop Pop in the beehive on the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Alton loves his Pop Pop.

My new camera does some pretty nifty stuff.

We had lunch together at the Hungry Bear Cafe. Alton and Angus had a good time watching the ducks on the Rivers of America eat random bits of food their mommies kept throwing. Not that mommies would ever abdicate throwing of food.
Both of the boys loved the new Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure. Here is Angus expressing his appreciation of the Magic of Disney Imagineers.

Quick update

We are still alive! I got a new computer FINALLY and I look forward to being able to blog more often. I discovered the great time suck that is Facebook, so if you are on there, look me up with my G-mail e-mail.

Alton is sort of walking. He took three steps yesterday! He is also biting, scratching and pulling hair. He is such a fun age. Le sigh.

Who's here reading? Or did you all give up?

Wonder Woman Underoos

When I was four or five, I had underoos! Who didn't in the 80's right? Well I had them all, Collect all four! But my favorite ones were my Wonder Woman ones. They were blue, the were red. They were sexy! Well as sexy as a kindergartners underwear can be anyway.
My Wonder Woman Underoos were special. My Wonder Woman Underoos were going to make me fly like Wonder Woman!

So one afternoon, my sister and I decided to try out our new underwear. Kristina was wearing the Princess Leah ones, (in case you did not know, Princess Leah does not fly) so she was just there for moral support. We opened our window, pushed the screen over, I balanced on the window sill, pointed my fingers to the sky like wonder woman, bent my knees and jumped.

I landed on the front lawn.

Determined that it was going to work, I went back in the house. Wonder Woman has those arm bracelets right? So I found some wristbands (hey, it was the 80s) and resumed my perch on the window sill.

Hands were pointed, knees were bent, and JUMP!

I landed on the front lawn.

"Maybe you need a cape! Super Girl has a cape, and Super Man has a cape, maybe you need a cape to fly." My sister shouted this to me from our bedroom window.

Undeterred, I wandered back into the house and set out to find the perfect cape.

A ha! The new towels! There was even a red one to match my underoos! I could not tie the towel tight enough on me, so we rubber banded it on. This was going to work!

Back to the window. Hands pointed, knees bent...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" My mom shrieked.

"Mommy, she is going to fly in her underoos! Come watch!"

My mom pulled me back in the window by my newly purloined cape, and slid the screen back into place. She took away my cape (my source of power!) and told me to go play outside with CLOTHES on. Didn't she know that clothes would render the magical powers of the underoos useless? I wonder to this day if that red towel would have been the difference between flying through the sky or once again landing on the lawn....

Another quick update

We have moved and we have internet! But we are still wading through a sea of boxes. Someone packed my digital camera charger, and I have NO idea where it ended up! Of course the digi cam is now suffering from a low battery....

Alton is not sleeping well at all. He has been fighting naps, fighting bed time, and waking up two or three times a night. We have had to drive him around a lot and Travis is accruing several frequent flier miles in the Lazy Boy rocking Alton to sleep.