Turning Three!

The very cool and by the way did someone mention haunted Hotel Del Coronado
So the key to parenting, I've learned, is to properly set expectations. Don't over promise, you can always give more candy or more toys or more TV time, but it's impossible to take it away. So, what did we do for Tyto's 3rd birthday? Took him on a long weekend trip to San Diego to visit Legoland and SeaWorld. Luckily he's only three and won't remember much next year. Otherwise, he'll be expecting NYC when he's four, then London, then his own island hideaway in Tahiti by the time he's nine.

Expectations for a decent family photo in front of the del were set too high.

So, we cruised down to San Diego and Tyler LOVED the hotel. To this day he still talks about it at least one a week. Granted, it could be any hotel, as long as there are long hallways he can run down, he's a happy camper. I've got to say, the hotel was really cool. We were actually there for a function with John's company and they definitely style you. Buffet tables were set up for the children at every meal, we're talking all you can eat quesadillas, hamburgers, chicken fingers, chocolate fountains and make your own sundae bars. Thank God we brought kids, otherwise I'd have to borrow one so I could eat the kiddie food.


Now that I'm three, I can wear Daddy's cool shades
Our room looked out at the hotel and the beach, it was very cool. I had forgotten how interesting Coronado is with the mix of beautiful beaches and military bases (and ghosts haunting the hotel!). The highlight for Tyler and possibly for Tristan as well, was the hot tub. Both boys absolutely loved it in there and didn't want to get out.


Pasty white Sheas percolating away in the bubbles


Tyler checks out his tummy after several trips to the the dessert bar


High fivin' the funky fish


I used to go to San Diego practically every summer when I was little to visit my friend, Melanie. We LOVED SeaWorld and I totally thought Tyler would as well. The Shamu show gave me goosebumps, the otter show cracked me up. Maybe it was because I grew up in Colorado and we didn't have a cool aquarium there and now we're members of the Aquarium of the Pacific, but I've gotta say, Tyler was less than impressed with SeaWorld. Shamu wants to splash me? Don't even think of it. The otters and sea lions put on a haunted Halloween show? Big deal. All he wanted to do was ride the rides in the Sesame Street area and frankly, the rides at our Hermosa Beach fair are just as good with much faster lines. I guess the one good thing that came of it was we got away with spending $12 on a Shamu drink cup instead of $75 for the stuffed animal.



Tyler looks bored and Tristan couldn't care less at the Shamu show.



Hello, my pretty! I'll cast a spell on you and turn you into Legos!


Legoland, on the other hand, was fantastic. After two hours in the park, we'd only made it a quarter of the way around. It was very cool and decked out for Halloween with a spooky forest filled with Lego goblins and other scary guys. The people who put those things together for a living have a hell of a lot of patience. I was amazed at how much Tyler had grown since we were last there six months ago. How can I make him stop growing so he can stay at this super-sweet and funny age forever?

When I grow up, I want to be a fireman made out of Legos


So you cart me all around this park and the only ride I get to go on is sitting on a stationary pumpkin?
The birthday boy in his birthday suit? Let's hope not.
I once had a friend who celebrated the entire month that he was born, one day was not enough. Tyler was pretty much down with that idea so once we got back home, the festivities continued. Tyto got to unwrap his presents and, of course, his absolute favorite was Handy Manny and his tools and truck. We run around singing their song and pretending like we are hammers all the time. It's shocking how much stuff in my house needs fixing and Manny (Tyler calls him Mandy) is just the one to do the job.

Cousin Megan and Tristan
We also got a visit from Cousin Megan and Cousin Katie. They swung in for a very short weekend to say hi to the boys, celebrate Tyler and Katie's birthday, and chill at the beach. Katie is a junk-food junkie and introduced Tristan to Twizzlers saying they were good "teething" food. Eerrrrrr.

Tyler helps Katie blow out her birthday bran muffins. Two can play at that game!

Erin and Tyler looking esctatic at their birthday party.
The grand finale of the birthday extravaganza was a little party with threw for Tyler and his buddy Erin, who is a few days younger than him. We decorated gingerbread haunted houses, had cupcakes and trashed the house. Thank God birthdays only come around once a year.

Whaddaya mean the party's over? I heard there were going to be dames jumping out of cakes. Bring on the strippers!

After the strippers left, Tristan assumed his low-profile disguise to distract any paparazzi from taking his photo. You never know who is lurking around the corner with a telescopic lens.

I'm one!

I'm two!

I'm three!
Every year I take a photo of Tyler in John's swim trunks and marvel at how much he's grown. This year, the truly striking difference wasn't in how much he'd grown physically, but rather his command of the language. It took off after he turned two and he has complete conversations with us (he'll even say, "I'm going to go have a conversation with Daddy.") He's been through the "why" phase where he asked "why" 100 times a day then finally said "okay" as if the very last answer finally satisfied him, and he's been through the run-on-sentence phase, where I wanted to stop him so he could breathe. His pronounciation is pretty good with the exception of words that start with "s" and I've been writing down some of the Tylerisms that I find amusing. Here are some of my favorites:

- "Okay, if you say so."

- "I want more minutes!" (after the timer went off and it was time to stop playing and get in the bath)

- "I don't want to be thirsty!"

- "Can I have a cookie and a marshmallow for breakfast? It's good for me, promise?"

- "I need a quick nini break" (when he needs his binky, I feel like I should get him an ashtray and send him outside)

- "my tummy is growling for muffins!"

- "why are they wearing boxes on their heads?" (old-time nurses hats in our Curious George book)

- "aaahhhh, tasty!" (when drinking his night-night milk)

- "I'm not three, I'm two!!!!" (when I went in to wake him up on his birthday morning, apparently the leap to three was just too much for him, or two was a very good year. I think I'll try that reasoning this year.

- "Woody is having a meeting and making donuts for you."

- "Can I may watch something please mama. I use my good manners."

"Santa can give it to me early!"
"my gorilla cheese (grilled cheese) went down the wrong pipe!"

"Why do we have heads?"

"Christmas comes after Halloween, not Thanksgiving!"

snake=cake

cacuze me = excuse me

cool bus = school bus

caprise! = surprise!

cone = scone

cacotti = biscotti

"Hi little fella!" (what he says to Tristan every morning when we come in his room)

"His tummy looks like a panpake!" (patting Tristan's irredescent belly)

"I hear you're dirty again" (trying to get me to take a fake shower in our hotel fort)

All this birthday celebrating has made me tired! Wake me up when it's Halloween (or I'll wake up myself in 20 minutes since that's about enough of a nap for me).

Fall into Fun

This fall has flown by, as illustrated by my inability to blog on a regular basis. So, here are a few photos that will get you up to date on what we've been doing.

Tyto went back to school at the end of August. He's once again in the program at our club, which at first was a little rocky because they have a new director and it didn't have the same super-warm/managable-chaos feeling that it had last year (plus, lots of the kids--including Tyler--were crying during drop-off, which didn't help matters. At least Tyto didn't throw up during drop-off for a month straight like his little classmate, Avatar). However, now we've got all the kinks ironed out and Tyto really looks forward to school. He comes home with the most adorable art projects and he loves his teachers and most of the classmates. He cracks me up when he starts to sing the songs that they sing in school, songs that I don't know, which is weird because up until now I've known EVERYTHING that he's exposed to. His teachers are so creative and he comes home doing with silly ideas like how he has to "shake his sillies out" and go on bear hunts. We now do this on a daily basis at our house so if you ever come over, we may be under the covers of our bed pretending to be bears. Don't say I didn't warn you.

While Tyto is in school, Tristan and I get to play! I usually take him down to the beach to swing a while. He loves it and I'm sure is thinking "push me higher!" but I'm just a little cautious with him still. This one is going to be our daredevil. He's growing so fast and just loves watching all the kids when we pick up and drop off Tyler.


Tyler finished up his last few classes of Coach Derek's sports class at the end of summer. Here he is making a basketball hat. With moves like this and his preference for snacks and water breaks over actually playing the game, perhaps he'll end up being a Clipper.
Best part of class is doing the cheer at the end, getting a sticker and heading to the car for yet another snack. Oh yeah.

Snack? Did someone say snack? Tristan may not be a very good sleeper, but he sure does love to eat! Uncle Ed came back to visit us for a few days before going on to Addis Ababa for his next job.

So, we decided to take a weekend trip up to Big Bear to see what it was like. Tyler loved the cabin we rented because of all the friggin' bears. I swear, it was decorated with at least 40 bears in various places: bear umbrella holders, bear toothbrush holders, bear cabinet handles, etc. Very cute, but perhaps 39 bears would have done the trick. Tyler didn't think so, he especially loved this big one. He also loved the bunk beds.
We went for a nature hike that was a little over a mile long and took what felt like all afternoon. Largely because Tyto pretty much insisted on being carried the whole way, stopping every so often to serenade us with a lovely rendition of Frosty the Snowman, sung properly atop a stump. Tristan pretty much slept in the carrier the entire way.


Here's Tyto trying to school Uncle Ed on the proper way to climb a rock.
For being only two hours away from our house, it was quite surprising how mountainy Big Bear really felt. Naturally the skiing will never compare to Colorado, but it's nice to know we can get in the car and go sledding for the day if we really, really want to.
Tristan is getting to be more interactive and playful every day. He's pretending to be Super Baby in this picture, I think.

Labor Day weekend brought the fair back to Hermosa Beach. Every morning we went down and spent ridiculous amounts of money on filthy rides that Tyler couldn't get enough of. Then he made up stories about the fair for the rest of the day so I guess it was money well spent.
Tyto says, "weeeeeeee!!!!" Mama says, "please don't fall over, please don't fall over, please don't fall over."

Cute, cute, cute! I have to say, I think Tristan is ridiculously cute. I didn't think I could take more photos than I did of Tyler, but I think I may have to sell a few extra houses to pay for all the photo development for this child. He's just so sweet and easy to make smile and he's at such a wonderful gushy stage.
Note the hand on Tristan's arm. These two are going to be such good friends. Tyler is always all over his brother and just when I think Tristan is going to scream, he laughs. He particularly likes watching Tyler walk down the stairs, it cracks him up! I may be eating my words once Tristan can take Tyto's toys, but for now we are just in such a sweet spot. I feel so lucky to have these two little people in my life.

Ode to Okoboji

With an oink oink here

Is that Daddy and Tyto sitting on a pig? That must mean one thing, we're in Iowa! Oh wait, we've got a photo of Tyto sitting on a pig outside a store in Boulder as well, maybe he should be sitting on a big ear of corn.

Make this into popcorn!

Okay, so this is the closest we could get. Long gone are the days where Tyler will actually pose for the camera. Now we're all about making goofy faces and sticking out our tongues. So much for the modeling career we were banking on. Anyway, what do you get when you combine four doting uncles, two adoring aunts, four crazy cousins and one grinning grandma with an indoor water park, a super cool lake with a speed boat and an amusement park down the street? You get absolute heaven for little boys and this one is called Lake Okoboji! We "discovered" Okoboji last year and Tyler couldn't stop talking about the water park and the amusement park (called Arnold's Park, perhaps the oldest amusement park in the world but so much fun - who needs Disneyland when half the thrill of the ride is that it could literally fall apart on you?).

Just try and pry me out of this roller coaster, sir.
The rides, of course, were the big draw for Tyler (the food, of course, was the big draw for mom. Hand-made salted nut rolls and nutty ice cream bars anyone?). This year Tyler was able to do more of the rides on his own and I don't know what the hell we were thinking putting him on that roller coaster alone last year, but put us down as the most laid-back/stupid people on this planet. Tristan was content to just ride along in the Baby Bjorn and snooze every so often. That's my kind of amusement park. I think it's called a "spa."

Try getting a smile like this at the spa.

A spa treatment is definitely what we all needed after our exasperating trek up to Okoboji from Cedar Rapids. This is a four-hour car ride with two little people so serious plans had to be in place. We were to leave in the morning, just before Tristan's nap. He would therefore chill in the car for 30 minutes, sleep for an hour, then wake up during the last 30 minutes before lunch. Then we'd chill in a park and repeat the plan with the afternoon nap. Tyler would get plenty of provisions and Clifford on the DVD player and would be happy as a clam. Easy! Someone apparently missed all the planning meetings because the nap occured, but only for 20 minutes and the rest of the ride was spent howling and screaming. You have never seen a more haggard bunch escape their car, giddy at the thought of a picnic in Clear Lake. He's my adorable son but I was thinking, "please don't make me go back in the car with him. I'll walk us there the remaing 150 miles. Seriously." We even thought about purchasing real estate in Okoboji so we wouldn't have to do the whole thing again.

Oh, are we there finally? Yay! Did you notice that I wasn't particularly fond of the ride?

But, once we got there, the fun never stopped.

We went boating....
And tubing (is this activity going to ruin my hairdo?)....

And chilled out on the sun deck...
And in the water park...

And cruised on jet skis...
And gummed Thimila....
And gummed Katie....
And were ready to hit any luaus that might pop up.

And if that weren't enough photos for you, more Okoboji photos can be seen here. Too soon it was time to go home although we did get to go back to Uncle G's house for a while which was cool because he has his very own pool and a real choo choo train passes behind his house. You have never seen so many people scream and grab the toddler and rush out to see the train when they hear the whistle, you'd think the house was burning down. Nevertheless, it was a fun-filled vacation, and now we need a vacation from our vacation!!!

The Summer Story

So Tyto's favorite thing to do right now is to tell stories. Or rather, have me tell stories based on the characters in a "Spreckle Story," which is something Emily Elizabeth tells Clifford. I take some liberties, of course, and Tyto keeps me in check when I get off base. The thing that drives me crazy is that the second I'm done with my story and say, "the end!" he says, "do another one!" Not even one second pause to appreciate the story he just heard. It is in this spirit that I blog our "Summer Story." Me: One day Spreckle and his family decided to visit Nana, Papa, Grandpa and Kookie in Colorado for their summer vacation! It was a long way to go and they had to ride an airplane.
Tyto: And they took Mama and Tyto and Tristan and Chi with them!
Me: Yes, they all came, too.
Tyto: And when they went through the tunnel at the airport, what did Chi say?
Me: Oh, Chi was very, very scared. Tyto had to hold her hand because it was very dark and there were scary monsters in the tunnel.
Tyto: And they jumped out and scared Chi and she screamed!
Me: Yes, but then Chi realized that Tyto was holding her hand and that she would be okay. Then she saw that the monster was actually Elmo and he asked where they were going and when he found out they were going to Nana and Papa's he asked if he could come, too! So, he climbed in the car..
Tyto: they opened the back door for him...
Me: yes, they opened the back door for him and he climbed in and they went to the aiport and bought their tickets.
Tyto: and Cookie Monster was there selling the tickets!
Me: yes, and Cookie asked them where they were going and when he found out they were going to Nana and Papa's, he asked if he could go, too. They said yes and bought some cookies from him as well and they all got on the plane.
Tyto: And who was the pilot?
Me: Funny you should ask.. Mama took Tristan up to get his picture taken with the pilot and it was Grover! And he asked if he could come to Nana and Papa's house, too! So they all took off and Big Bird was the flight attendant and Oscar the Grouch was another passenger and he asked for a drink of...
Tyto: trash!!!
Me: yes, trash!! He wanted a trash drink, it was delicious. Nobody else drank that, though. Everyone else wanted lemonade and cheesy crackers.

Tyto: Except Tristan who got milk.

Me: You're right, Tristan can't drink lemonade, yet, so he had milk. When they landed, they got their car and drove past the big blue horse with the red eyes and stopped to buy flowers for Nana from Chip and Dale, who also asked if they could come to Nana and Papa's.

Tyto: And then Dave was selling papa cheese so they stopped to buy that for Papa!

Me: You're right, it wouldn't be fair to just bring Nana a present. So, Spreckle and his family, mama, Chi, Tristan, Tyler, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Oscar, Grover, Chip, Dale, and Dave all went to see Nana and Papa.

Tyto: And Alvin, Simon and Theodore.

Me: Where did we pick them up?

Tyto: They were on the plane, too!

Me: Okay. So they all surprised Nana! When Nana came to the door she said, "oh my goodness! Look at all these people! Tyto, Tristan, give me a hug! Goodness, I'll need to order some more pizza!"

Tyto: With Canadian bacon and tomatoes!

Me: Yes, all different kinds. While they were waitinig for the pizza, they decided to go up to Boulder to play in the river and on the mall.

Tyto: And they played in the rocks and touched the fountain!
Me: Yes, and then they went into the river and it was very cold, and mama was a bonehead and didn't bring swim suits for anyone so they got a little wet from the river. But it felt good and it was beautiful.

Me: And when they got home that evening, they were very tired and very hungry and the pizza still wasn't there. So they had to go to bed without dinner and they were very sad...

Tyto: But then Daddy came over and brought doughnuts for everyone!

Me: And they had doughnuts for dinner? Really?

Tyto: Yes! It was a healthy dinner, I promise!

Me: I don't know about that, but okay. So after eating their healthy donut dinner, they all crashed into their beds exhausted from their long day, ready to catch some zzzzz's so they could go on another adventure tomorrow.

Tyto: And they went to the firestation for a panpake breakfast when they woke up! And there was a parade!

Me: Was it for Buffalo Bill Days?

Tyto: Yes, and they got candy!

Me: Cool. Then after the parade they came home and rode cars down the street through the sprinklers.

Tyto: And then they went to Casa Bonita and went into Black Bart's Cave and there was a hand!

Me: A big scary hairy hand that came out and them and growled and they screamed and started running but then they heard a voice that said, "stop!" and they said, "no! you're scary!" and the voice said, "no, I'm just a hungry bear, that was my stomach you heard, not me growling. I've been hibernating for a long time, do you think you could get me some sopapias?" and they said "sure!" and they went out and came back with the biggest platter of sopapias you've ever seen

Tyto: and honey

Me: yes, and honey and they had a picnic in the cave and then they went and saw a puppet show.

Tyto: And then they went to the acquarium!

Me: And they saw fish and fed the rays and got a Shamu tattoo! Weren't they lucky!

Tyto: And they saw the karks, too!

Me: Yes, they saw the sharks, too. Then they were so tired, they had to go home and go to bed. By then, the pizza had finally arrived so they ate their pizza and then they said "sweet dreams" to everyone and climbed into their beds and went to sleep. Good night and THE END!

Tyto: Tell me another Speckles story! The one about going to the Hermosa Beach fair!

And on and on it goes, all day long sometimes. I don't have to worry about too much television rotting his brain because he definitely has a pretty good imagination thus far. Hopefully, he'll be able to tell some of these stories to Tristan when he gets big enough. Tristan, by the way, is adorable!! He is such a love and has that perfect baby gushiness going on right now. He's got dimples where there aren't joints in his legs and arms, he's in 9-month clothes already and he's just super curious about the entire world. 50% of the people we know say he looks just like Tyler, the other 50% say he doesn't look a thing like his brother. They aren't twins, but you can definitely tell they are related. I suspect/hope they will be good friends. Tyto already makes Tristan laugh and smile as he runs around and Tristan just beams at him. One of my favorite parts of the day is in the morning when Tristan and I have been up for about an hour and Tyler finaly gets up around 6:30. Tristan and I go in to wake him up and Tyler just grabs for his baby bro to give him a big hug, then they lay on the carpet together just snuggling (or smothering in some cases, I never thought I'd have to say, "Tyler, stop licking your brother!"). I just love it!

Ah, and we'll end this post with a photo of my boys on the beach. I'll be glad when Tristan can wear sunscreen and I won't be so freaked out about burning his irredescent skin. Oh, and here's alittle movie of Tyto at summer art class.









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