Things Adam Says.

Me: (while giving him a kiss attack) Oh, I'm going to eat some delicious baby meat!
Adam: I NOT MEAT! I ADAM!

His little voice is just the cutest. I love when we're driving over the speed bumps and dips on our way home and he goes "oh mama! Big wump bump! Oh, dippity-do-dah!" And the way he says "cock-a-doo-doo-doo!" as a noise for a rooster.

He is really into his "pack pack" of tools lately, and insists on bringing them around with him. Also very big into his digger, aka Mary Ann. Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann like to climb up into the recliner together to watch TV, which is pretty sweet.

The other day Tim and I went to see a movie, and the text from babysitter Gigi during the evening was "Adam finally learned how to play the kazoo because he started crying into it." Perfect! And so quintessentially toddler, right? The one time that crying actually fixed something.

During our final week swimming, when Gigi was trying to keep him from climbing on something he shouldn't be climbing on, he yelled at her "let go of my BODY!"

My other favorite is how he calls the little decorative light up Jack O Lantern in our kitchen "the happy face."

He loves walking with Ellie to school in the morning. To avoid a lot of the car line nuttiness, I park on an adjacent street and we walk over together. Both kids love running up the ramp instead of the stairs, and afterwards, Adam goes "I wun a-wamp! I exercise!"

Here he is in the car today, comforting his baby. In case you don't understand, first he sings You Are My Sunshine, and then Goodnight My Sweetheart from the Music Man, which I didn't even know he knew! It's a song I find myself singing more to Ellie.

UCLA, Fight Fight Fight!

We had a nice weekend with a bunch of my best friends from college. It was like being twenty two again, except there were a bunch of little kids running around who we were responsible for. On Saturday we went up to the Rose Bowl and met up with Pari and James and Mila and Rahim to tail gate and see the game versus ASU. It went really well. For one, they found us on the freeway (sometimes pays to drive a bright blue clown car!) and so we easily caravaned in together, then set up our tent and chairs and got to eating and drinking and watching the kids ran around like happily little nuttkins.

The game itself was not as fun. For one, it's a long walk into the stadium, and those kids are heavy. The cutest part was the fact that Adam LOVES James, and at one point Pari and I looked back, and Tim was carrying Rahim while Adam was holding James' hand and looking up at him with big love eyes. Then during the game, our team stunk and Adam insisted that he spend the entire time trying to walk around. We were seated in the benches, so he just sort of climbed over everyone for a good two hours, the little nut. In the third quarter when things were really looking terrible, we decided that it would be best for everyone to just head home, and it was the right decision. The kids got into their jammies and Adam fell asleep on the way home, and then everyone slept in the next morning, hooray! It was definitely a long and tiring day, but on the ride home Ellie declared that it was the most fun game she'd ever been to, and that makes it all worth it.

Then Sunday Lucas and Fluff stopped by on their way back from Oceanside, and Adam immediately ran over to hug Lucas when he walked into the house. Lucas didn't know quite what to make of it, but they had a great time running around and playing trains and using Adam's tools and trash grabber while the adults sat on the couch, ate and watched football. It was like being in our Culver City apartment again, except now my living room is bigger than our entire apartment!

Pick Up Time

This is what happens... after three hours apart. Every day.

Costumes.

When I went to the parents orientation night, they talked about how they have spirit Fridays where you wear school colors, and participating classrooms can win a prize. So I decided to get some school spirit and support the PTA by buying a school shirt. Brought it home and showed it to Ellie, who refused to put it on and SOBBED about how it was NOT PRETTY and she was NEVER going to wear it. I tried a few weeks in a row to get her to try it on and no dice. I showed her other kids who were wearing their shirts on Fridays, but she did not care. So I asked how we could fix it up to make it prettier, and she decided that cutting the sleeves off and applying some ribbon, and using some puffy paint might make it better. Wednesday night I busted out my scissors and my sewing machine and went to town.

AND LO, SHE LOVED IT. I was pleased with being able to get my sewing machine threaded and functioning for the first time, even if the sleeves could have been done better. Ellie loved all of the gold puffy paint - on the back I outlined the lion paw and put a heart in the middle of the palm.

Not to be outdone, here is our little bunny man. He initially cried about being offered Ellie's old bunny vest, but then once she tried it on, he wanted to wear it. Hopped around the bedroom for awhile, but it's so hot and sweaty out (and probably will be all year) that we decided to send it to Olivia, who will probably get more wears out of it. And sharing is caring! Plus he still wants to be the big truck man for Halloween.

Things Ellie Says.

Ellie: Mommy, since you don't have to give anyone mommy milk anymore, are you going to get your boobs trimmed?
Me: Nope, wasn't planning on it.
Ellie: Or you could give them to me, when I have a baby, so that I can give my baby mommy milk.
Me: That's not how it works. You'll get your own boobs someday.
Ellie: Yeah, but right now I have little boobs. I think they weigh zero pounds.

Me: You need to start wiping your own butt. You're almost five.
Ellie: I don't want to! It's not fun!
Me: Trust me, it's not fun for me either.

More Big Trucks!

I know it's hard to believe, but for once, we had a weekend that was even too busy for me. I don't usually mind things being booked solid, because nothing to do and all day to do it in is murderous when it comes to small children. They do not know how to have a good lie in (though we've taught Ellie that she's not allowed to be up before 7, and on certain weekend days, we'll tell her she's not allowed out until 8. Like this Sunday morning, when she went to bed at 10:30pm.)

Friday night we had a fun last night with Lisa and Greg and Mike and Patty, and then Saturday morning our first party of the day was at Waste Management. You heard me. Turns out, you can host a party there, with a room for balloons and cake and snacks, and then take a tour of the facility, for zero dollars. And for the five and under set, the garbage trucks are INSANELY popular. The kids loved it, once we got over the hump of forcing them to wear safety gear. While I was trying to put on Ellie's hat and vest she was weeping about how "IT DOESN'T LOOK PRETTY!" Tough crap, it's not pretty to get run over by a dump truck.

Came home, put them down for naps (which Ellie did not take) and then we headed out to Pari's house for Rahim's first birthday party. It was such a fun night. Mila and Ellie are thick as thieves, probably because they are basically the same little girl, only two and a half years apart. And Pari's family is so wonderful and welcoming - they're like my extended family. We ended up staying until after 9pm because the kids were having so much fun together (except for Rahim, he had to go to bed an hour before. But he loved his cake while it lasted!) Highlights included getting to pick fresh oranges and squeeze some orange juice, doing play doh, and running around like loons in their jammies.

And then neither kid slept on the way home. So yesterday was a bit rough. We had friends over for a little bit of football time, and were supposed to go as a family to Nina and Thalia's birthday, but Adam was so wiped that instead Tim took Ellie by himself, and I enjoyed a little bit of quiet time in the house, because I also needed a nap. Tim and Sara hung out with the kids so I could go to the gym, and then we had dinner and watched the Packer game and were in bed early.

Gigi and Grizz's flights got delayed and messed up, so they will stay in Chicago over night as a special treat to Lisa, and then be home before lunch tomorrow. This vacation hasn't been so bad, because we've all been so busy and had nice visitors in town. The word is that it's been a great trip. Dad says Prague and Budapest are some of the most beautiful cities they've been to, so maybe next year Tim and I will go for two weeks! (what! A girl can dream!)

Big Truck!

This year I'm on the leadership team for our MOPS group, in charge of fellowship. Which basically means planning play dates every other Friday, with the help of the rest of the team. I missed the summer retreat, but the group decided it would be fun to go tour a firehouse. A thing I did not know: you can just email the OC Fire Department's PR person and set up a time to tour a local firehouse for free! It was so fun, and the fire fighters were so great. We had about fifteen small kids (four and under) who were just in love with the fire truck, and seeing the fire fighter get in his gear. Adam was initially a little scared of it, and then LOVED getting a chance to drive the truck.

Tomorrow his mind is going to be totally blown by a friend's birthday party at WASTE MANAGEMENT! I am thinking about dressing him as the garbage man for Halloween because he loves them so.

Lisa and Greg and Mike and Patty are in town, staying at mom and dad's house, which has been really nice. So fun to see them and hang out with them, for me and especially for Sara, and then Mike has been doing a bunch of work taking care of the pool, and Lisa has swept everywhere (except for the one time that Adam helpfully dumped out the dust bin.) Definitely takes a load off of my shoulders, and makes us all miss Gigi and Grizz less. Hooray for Gigi Lisa!

Last night though, everyone else (including Tim) had dinner plans, and I have grown weary of fighting with the kids about their table manners, or the fact that they have to eat some dinner so that they don't starve to death and get me thrown in the clink, so instead I went and picked up some sandwiches and we had PICNIC DINNER, aka: go run around the park and eat a sandwich while you do it, and feel free to act like a wild animal, because I'm hoping a pack of wild dogs will either adopt you or eat you, beloved children of mine. But they had a good time, and I got to sit on a park bench and relax, and then it was a quick shower and a lot of stories before bed. It's like I like them!