seaport village

finally the lady bug gets a spotlight post - seems like her brothers have been stealing the show lately. today during pete's school, great grandma jan and i took the littles down to sea port village (after swinging by the base to get some of our overseas screening paperwork turned in) to enjoy a beautiful morning before scampering back to pick up our big boy.  we thoroughly enjoyed watching some super sweet brown baby ducks swimming in the ponds, tossing pennies in the fountains, wandering the walkways and climbing up on the benches - the highlight for me was riding the beautiful, hand-carved wooden carousel (the horses even had real horse-hair tails-woa) with betsy and seeing the perma-grin on her face for the entire beautiful ride. she waved wildly to great grandma jan every time we circled past her and curtis waiting by the exit. the highlight for betsy may have been the visit we paid to the darling and delicious cupcake boutique. we each picked a pretty treat and then sat along the sea wall watching all sorts of boats go by as we ate our amazing snacks.  i must admit, i was feeling both grateful and guilty, sitting there with some of my favorite people in the whole world, perfect temperature, sun smiling down, flickering off the water, coronado bridge in the background, happy as a clam licking the whippy frosting from my fingertips.....and thinking about what life was probably like for my amazing, brave hubby in that same exact moment. if only i could click my heels and magic him home to us in blissful moments like those (of course i'd take him back home in the most chaotic of moments too, but he'd sure enjoy harbor-side cupcakes right about now). well, soon enough he'll be joining in all the magic (and the messy too!) but for now, i'm doing my best to keep some pictures coming your way. we love you, babe! xoxo
this afternoon even baxter got a dose of blissful play - we made it to the dog park!!!!
and for our evening fun, i taught grandma how to use my iPad. :) i love that one of the first things she wanted to know was how she could play solitaire. pete will have to show her how to play angry birds tomorrow. :)

cute cow bench outside the cupcake shop - after taking a seat, she shimmied up his back and rode him, hanging on to his horns with a grin. she's such a monkey!

happily licking the blue frosting from atop her chocolatey cupcake - then she got to the cupcake part. she knows her priorities.

cupcakes with great grandma jan - thanks for such a yummy treat!

watching the water traffic, she kept telling me there were fish down there. i had a feeling she was plotting a way to climb down the wall and rocks and take a swim. i love how adventurous she is and she doesn't let any challenge stop her from trying.

when we stopped to pick up pete his teacher asked if we'd come in - today was the first day he accomplished rolling up his work mat all by himself and after he had done so he told his teacher he wished his mom was there to see it because she would think it was really cool. so we all went in to see him perform his latest learned task - and great grandma got a tour of the school too. daddy - you are invited to spend a morning at the school when you get back, they said. :)

great grandma and sweet curtis - whoop whoop for starting a little double chin of chubby! love love love.  also, hip hip for him starting to have a long sleep in the evenings - is making that right-after-bedtime period of time sooooo much more productive for me. thanks little  buddy. xoxo

story time with grandma after big brother hit the hay. we have all been tired out at the end of our fun days with great grandma - but keep the fun coming! i love having her here with us.

awesome wednesday

we have been running around to appointments and errands for so many days now that the kids just haven't gotten to just run and play for too long now. i dedicated today to getting back to the fun life for them. we hit the park this morning, then enjoyed swim lessons and hung out mid-day. when everyone was up from naps, we hopped in the car and made a quick "to go" stop at baskin robins and then enjoyed the ice cream at the park before playing for a good bit. it was so refreshing for us to really just relax and play all day. am looking forward to more days like this as we enjoy our dwindling time here in san diego.
of course it was made all the more special with great grandma jan's company!

first time in his new BOB - he was loving it and i was so happy knowing he was comfortable, much more so than being toted around in those horrible baby car seats.

yes, he jumped...and he stuck the landing!

getting baxter some much needed exercise - and watching the guy with all the cool toy airplanes

looking for bunnies

climbing photo sequence to show you his fav trick at this park

when he gets to the top he says "ok, now get me down!" ha!

she is as much a monkey as he!

discovering rolly polies

their own personal air show. petey said we are buying daddy an airplane for christmas!

here momma, i found you a sunflower! :)

moonlight beach

our morning was busy taking care of business. little sis took an early nap after an early wake up. the potty broke and the plumber came to save the day. and then, at 3 pm, against my momma-instincts and only because i had my mom here to help save the day in the event of chaos, we loaded into the van and drove to moonlight beach in encinitas. we (i) needed the beach. and it felt soooo good. the kids had a grand time jumping off the dunes. i couldn't help but grin a little from my seat perched on the sand nursing curtis as i watched my mom SPRINT across the beach after we noticed betsy, sneaky little betsy, making a beeline for the tide. that little lady but is a fast one! and you could hear her giggling all the way, she almost made it to her destination and i'm not sure she would have stopped until she was at least waist deep in the water. she is determined and brave and has no fear in her sweet little heart. i love that about her. i am also a little terrified about that, i know she'll keep me on my toes! :)  after some good romping in the sand, we moved over to the grassy playground area for subway dinner on the lawn and some playground exploration.  once curtis is a little bigger and able to ride in a cozy, sturdy baby carrier and is has a little more predictable meal schedule i think i'll be able to manage a trip to the park without a second set of adult hands (and eyes!), but for now i think we'll be having play time in our back yard. peter does great on the playground, he is extremely skilled at all things climbing related and has a good handle on his limits as well as the effects of gravity. fearless betsy, however, is not quite there yet and definitely requires a helping hand to steady her when she is at the peak of her climbing endeavors and certainly demands a watchful eye to be sure that she doesn't end up halfway across town!  this is a busy little life with these three littles and i'm a little anxious about how i'll do on my first solo parenting day (coming oh so soon!) but i'm also excited for all the big doses of awesome that we'll encounter, we three, together along the way of our journey.  going to bed tonight with a big happy heart after a phone call from my amazing hubby and a big heaping dose of fun at the beach with my family. xoxo

watching the volleyball match

walking along on the balance beam :) the only way to go!

watching the sunset

dinner on the lawn

deedee-cam

this week deedee took the kids to funbelievable earlier this week and yesterday she took pete on a special hike. its fun seeing the babes in action with their grandmas out in town.

he spent a LOT of time shooting hoops

fearless lady bug

during her "nap" she was exploring her closet. when deedee went to get her up, she was wearing the hat and told deedee it was cute.

took his 'noculars to blue sky ecological reserve in poway

snack time

pete's favorite wild life discovery of the hike

mama dates

the past two days have been extra special for this momma - i've gotten to spend some super fun one-on-one time with each of my babes. thursday betsy and i enjoyed exploring the birch aquarium and today peter and i trekked all over the wild animal park. i so enjoyed being able to really tune into each of them as individuals and give them some special attention where they generally have to share. the pace is slower, the needs are fewer and the time is easier spent enjoying instead of managing, planning ahead, refereeing, etc. its also fun to see their personalities light up when they are the star of the show, not having to compete with anyone else for time or attention. we are in a major season of change and transition and i'm so grateful for the opportunity to have spent this special time with each of them. i know they've enjoyed their mama dates and those hours together have certainly filled my heart up even more with gladness. xoxo

feeding the lorikeets with my brave bird-lover. i was so impressed with how still he was - he just held the tiny cup of nectar and presented his arm to this little fellow and he hopped on over and helped himself. those couple of minutes watching pete watch that bird sit on his arm were suspended in time for both of us - pure magic.

my darling child convinced me to climb into this giant bird's nest with him, he was so sweet asking over and over and i had to oblige. we were quite cozy in there together. turns out getting in there was no problem, getting back out was the trick!

FIVE boys, a baseball and a betsy

we spent an awesome evening at starridge park near our house with courtney and her boys - their daddy is with our daddy and we have so much fun with them! little man was in heaven when i told him we were going to meet fun friends at the park - and since we picked up his first tee ball set at target during our mommy-petey date today, he was even more excited about it. of course the boys all had fun romping and running and climbing together (and betsy didn't care what they were up to, she had her own agenda of things to tend to at the park), pete and charlie really figured out they were two peas in a pod and ran together and tackled each other and chased each other all around the field.  it was really fun to see how excited ALL the boys were about the baseball scenario and it was an all out epic race to see who could field the ball so he could have the next turn at bat.
we set pete up and gave him some "help" to show him how to bat right handed.  he looked totally awkward and ridiculous and confused and his swing was catastrophic. but then he righted himself, took a left handed batting stance and WHACKED the ball across the field. apparently he's a lefty at the bat, daddy! :)  it was pretty exciting to see the pride wave across his face when he really gave the ball a good hit - a lot of his attempts he ended up sending the tee across the field too, but when he connected with just the ball, he really did send it sailing!  thanks courtney and boys for an awesome night at the park.  and thanks for organizing the pizza delivery too, a great way to end an afternoon of play. i feel like i am just surrounded by awesome friends who are awesome moms with awesome kids everywhere i turn....i sure do feel at home here in san diego.

grandma giving pete his first batting stance lesson

his first swing....i am bummed i didn't get any pics of the left handed action, it looked SO natural!

throwing out the runner at home

courtney half supervising half waiting to rescue our monkey man - he literally scaled the side of the castle and shimmied his way onto the roof, and then there was nowhere to go but he was happy to hang out, proud of his accomplishment.

betsy and luke swinging with grandma in charge of pushing - courtney rescuing charlie in the background

cutie pie luke doing the slide thing

jack checking out the corkscrew

charlie getting it done!

hurry up charlie, here comes jack!

a serious race to see who could get to the ball first for their turn at the bat ....a race that turned into a wrestling match. these two are perfect pals, neither one a bit malicious, but neither are they afraid to get physical and share some throw downs

jack waiting for the ball

charlie giving it a whack

big brother daniel showing the boys how to do it, he was disappointed in his mom's pitches, however. but she looked good doing it!

racing across the field

look at that concentration

and then there was the running with the branches...pete was seriously having the time of his LIFE!

sweet courtney and a very exhausted looking preggo momma. :) we miss our boys! xoxo