Dreamboat Sunday

I was drawn out of bed yesterday by the announcement, “I want buhwaffles!”  I brought out the waffle iron and Jack helped me stir the batter.  Waffles are so incredibly easy and tasty!  He wanted whipped cream, as well, but we had no cream.  Next time!  Crazily, Jack ate his entire waffle.

Determined to get out of the house and enjoy a bit of sunshine before the fog rolled in again, I asked Jack if he wanted to go on a boat.  He started shaking with excitement and shouted “yeah yeah yeah!,” which answered that question.  We got dressed and I made a PBJ sandwich to take with us, then we headed down toward the Marina to visit the SF Maritime Museum.  It was a gorgeous day, warm but breezy, and after parking at Ghiradelli Square, we headed to Beach Street.

Admission for the museum is uber cheap (especially since Jack is free), which is why I picked it.  We got our pass and boarded a schooner named Balclutha.  Jack was a little nervous at first because he could feel the ship rocking a bit, but he soon got used to it.  When he saw another kid exploring (a fellow pirate-shirted boy), he decided they would be pals and Jack followed him all round the boat.  He didn’t want to leave after that.

We explored the boat for a while and then I enticed Jack off the boat with promises of cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes in Ghiradelli Square (although first we stopped on a park bench and ate our PBJ sandwich).  I needed my parking validated anyway, so why not get cupcakes out of it?  We ended up buying 7 because the minimum purchase for validation is $20.  For what I would have paid for those two hours of parking, I got three cupcakes.  That’s a great deal in my eyes!

He’s at it again!

Jack has been drawing again! I love watching him draw. He didn’t pick up his magnedoodle for a few months and I worried that he didn’t like drawing anymore. When he picked it back up his drawings got even more amazing!

Rocket

And here is a video of him drawing a “bad guy.”

Happy Spring!

Egg painting

Click to go to Jack’s shutterfly album and see more pictures of our fun!

Xmas in pictures

You can see more on flickr.

Hope it’s a good one for you, too!

Decorating our tree

He’s two!

This is a day late, but I’m exhausted!

He loved the guitar, of course.  It was trumped, however, by a pirate Mr. Potato Head.  I could not have seen that coming!

Do you see a resemblance?

I love doing this, especially now because Jack is finally starting to look a bit like ME!  Of course, then you get to the last picture (of my sister) and you’ll see that Jack resembles her more than me.  Who knows, maybe I’ll get revenge when her kid comes out looking like me. 

Future Ranger?

Jack runs to greet his daddy at the door every day when he arrives home from work.  They spend quite a bit of time passing Joe’s ranger hat back and forth, then the hat tends to go onto Jack’s talking bear (you can see it on the shelf in the background – what you can’t see is that Jack broke the poor bear’s neck). 

A few days ago Joe and Jack took a walk and Joe caught their conversation on video.  They spoke of foliose lichen and crustose lichen on the trees.  I can’t tell you how bizarre it is for me to watch the little boy who came from my body identify different types of lichen.  It gets even weirder when Jack makes me draw lichen on the magnadoodle because the highest grade I ever got in Science was a C, and that was with “help.”

Little Helper

Jack and I have been on our own this weekend for the most part.  I am dealing with some hormone-induced depression and having a hard time coming up with things to keep us occupied.  The fourth of Jack’s 2-year molars is finally breaking through, too, so he is a bit cranky.

Thank goodness toddlers like things like checking the mail, helping to unload dishwashers, washing laundry, and baking.  There are always chores like these to be done!

Future birthdays may be a letdown

Jack’s birthday is in less than a month!  We have a costume party planned and there will even be a few kids there.    I am pretty excited, although the only things I’ve accomplished so far are to send out a save-the-date evite and buy Jack’s present:

 

Budding Artist

Coloring and drawing have been favorites of Jack’s for almost a year now and he does one or the other every single day.  If I wasn’t witnessing this with my own eyes, I would not believe that a not-yet-two year old would be this focused on anything.  We’ve gone through three boxes of crayons (because they break) and have four color books and a drawing pad that are nearly filled.  Finally we bought some crayons that have a plastic barrel so that they don’t break (yay!) and got a magnedoodle so we wouldn’t use up so much paper.  This is the best toy ever, if you ask me!

Jack has taken his love of coloring to new levels with his magnedoodle.  I am amazed at the things he can draw.  I wonder if this is going to be a life-long thing or if it will pass.  In any case, I had to document it.  I’m sure I’ll be adding more at some point because he includes more details every day; he recently started adding eyebrows and teeth to faces.

“Happy” with glasses

Bowl of cheerios

Pirate (skull w/crossbones)

No idea but it looks cool

Guy

Sand Castle

We had a really great weekend!  On Saturday I took Jack to the beach.  We live across the street from the beach, but I dislike sand and being wet so I rarely go (I know I’m weird).  Our daycare provider called to let me know there was a sand castle contest going on, so off we went!

We didn’t get very far before Jack planted himself down in the sand and started digging with his shovel.  I sat down in the wet sand with him and together we built our first sand castle ever!  We never actually got to see any sand castles other than the one we built because Jack didn’t want to move from the spot he chose.  Still, it was fantastic to be out there in the sunshine with the slight breeze blowing our hair around.

Pictures can be found here.  This one is my favorite.  (Don’t you just love the old school Koolade cup?  I have a pitcher to match.)

 

Black Diamond Mines

Sunday we ventured out to Black Diamond Mines in Antioch to hike and see the wildflowers in bloom.  The day was absolutely gorgeous – sunny with enough wind to create waves in the bright green grass.  We generally hate driving, especially in the bay area, but it was a really pleasant trip flanked by hills and trees.

  We ate a picnic lunch with our friends Melissa and Nick, then Joe strapped Jack into the Ergo and we started our hike.  Jack fell asleep about 1/3 of the way into our trek, right as we made our way along a sheer precipice.  I made sure not to look (as I get nasty vertigo in these situations) and made it through just fine.  Altogether we hiked about two miles and Jack awoke as we were descending the last third of the hike, which is when he insisted on walking.  He actually agreed to hold my hand while making his way down, although the adults frequently had to act as bumpers on either side of him to keep him confined to the trail.  He was very helpful in identifying trees, clouds, and “tall hills.”

I passed out in the car while Joe drove us home (literally, I closed my eyes and don’t remember anything until we parked in the garage) and apparently Jack chatted the entire way back.  It was a great day and I think all of the activity helped Jack sleep wonderfully that night.  I’m still sore, though!

Pictures from all of our recent adventures are uploaded to shutterfly if you’d like to see ‘em.

Aquarium of the Bay

We went to Aquarium of the Bay on Saturday.  This was our first trip into the touristy part of San Francisco since Jack was born and it was actually very fun.  Since we went fairly early and the forecast wasn’t great (although the weather turned out to be beautiful after all) the crowds were very manageable.  The only painful part was the high cost of lunch and parking, which were both expected anyway!

The aquarium itself was great, although on the smalls ide.  Jack was surprisingly shy in the touch pool area and refused to touch anything.  He loved looking at all of the fish, crabs, sea stars, rays, and sharks, though.  The best part was the “Under the Bay” tube, which is a giant tunnel that you walk through while fish, sharks, and rays swim over your head.  Jack thought it was fantastic when the sharks and rays would come directly at him, smooshing up against the glass while gliding by.

This outing increased my anticipation of our trip to Maryland in May to see my sister.  There is an aquarium in Baltimore that we’ll attempt to visit while there, and we may go to the zoo, as well.  These are the things I live for as a parent!

Chocolate Ice Cream

I relented a little bit on the no junk food rule and Jack got a chocolate ice cream bar while we were in Wisconsin.  Needless to say, he loved it.  It’s okay once a year, right?