Happiest Place on Earth

Last weekend we escaped to Disneyland for several days. What a great trip! We drove down on Saturday, went to Disneyland on Sunday, California Adventure on Monday, then drove home on Tuesday.  It was fun to do the trip with our friends who have two girls close in age to Caleb and Hayden.

Caleb did great branching out and trying some new things (since he is not naturally the adventurous type) including Space Mountain.  And he hated it.  In his words, "I never ever ever ever EVER [insert about 10 more 'evers' here] want to go on Space Mountain again!"  Caleb especially enjoyed riding some of the rides with his friend Jenny.  No surprise that George now has a friend named Jenny, whom Caleb refers to as "George's Jenny."

Hayden walked all day long both days, not once taking a break to sit in the stroller- what a trooper! One of my favorite parts of the trip was during the Finding Nemo ride when Hayden, referring to the fish and divers he saw in the water, exclaimed, "They're all REAL!"  And after this trip, Hayden is even more obsessed with Buzz Lightyear.

Avery enjoyed her third-child duty of tagging along for everything. Even though she was quite young to appreciate the Disney experience, she was old enough to sit next to me on most of the rides (rather than on my lap), which was quite nice. I'm sure she felt like a big kid.  The kicker was on the way home... Avery was pretty cranky and over-tired by Tuesday after we dragged her along without much respect for her napping routines all weekend.  We left Anaheim around 9:30am, and I was sure that Avery would soon be asleep in the car. WRONG! That kid stayed awake the entire way home until we were 10 minutes from home (at 5pm)... no exaggeration!  At that point we debated about whether to wake her up or let her keep sleeping-- this time we chose the latter, and it worked out for the best, because Avery stayed sleeping until 6am the next morning. Whew!

Below are a few highlights from the trip:

Top 10 Sounds In the House That Send Me Running

Between the 2 adults and 3 children in our home, the house is rarely quiet.  Since I don't REALLY have eyes in the back of my head, I've learned to listen carefully to what's going on in the house so I can monitor things.  Here are ten sounds that tell me I more than likely need to make a quick move (besides the obvious fighting/yelling/crying/"Moooooooom!").

10. Thud in the middle of the night
9. Scissors cutting
8. Refrigerator door opening
7. Phone dialing

6. Bathroom sink faucet turned on for more than 3 seconds

5. Laptop crashing to the floor
4. Chair being pushed from one end of the kitchen to the other
3. Toilet lid opening
2. Silence that lasts more than 3 seconds.
1. Giggling in the bathroom

Trip to The Mountains

This weekend we attempted our first camping trip as a family of 5. We headed up to Big Basin to camp in the redwood forest with our friends, the Pozzi's. We all had a great time walking through the woods, throwing stones in the creek, cooking dinner over a fire, making s'mores, and playing in our new gigantic tent that sat under the gigantic redwoods.

Did you notice how I used the word "attempted" in my first sentence? Yeah, that was on purpose.  Everything was just ducky until 11pm.  That's when Avery woke up screaming. It was obvious to me from the sound of her cry and her body language that Avery was down right mad when she woke up found herself still in the sleeping bag in the tent.  She was not at all happy about her sleeping arrangements. (This was in spite of me laying her usual night time blanket in the sleeping bag, so that she would have a familiar scent and texture on her face.)  And she carried on and on. It was the first time since weaning that I wished I was still nursing! There was no reasoning with her, and distraction wasn't much of an option either. And I just "knew" that even if I managed to get Avery back to sleep, that she would soon wake up and start the whole cycle over.  So we packed up our stuff and headed home.

Soooooo disappointing! You know that terribly-sad-pouty-face that babies make before they burst into tears? That was the look Caleb had when Matt carried him into the car.  I felt so bad for the boys because they had REALLY been enjoying themselves. But I think we made the right decision. There wasn't much point to us all -and by "all" I mean our family plus everyone else within earshot of Avery's screaming- being miserable throughout the night.  We were home 45 minutes later, and Avery went to bed just fine in her crib.

As we drove home I remembered how when Matt and I were making plans for this trip with our friends, Julie and I felt strongly that our first trip should be 1) just for one night and 2) close to home.  There was a reason for that!! I was super glad we didn't plan 2 nights in Yosemite, like we originally discussed! Someday we will do Yosemite... but not this year, that's for sure.

All in all, it was still a fun trip.  But as Caleb reminds us, "We didn't go camping since we didn't stay the whole night. We just went to the mountains."  We'll have to try camping again another time.

Holding My Breath

I think a lot of parents of preschoolers know what it's like to hold their breath as their child opens his mouth to say something, when the parent doesn't know what the kid is going to say, but knows there is a good chance it may be something outrageous. Yeah, we've had those moments too.

Every Sunday, in fact.

For the past few months we've been attending a new church. Caleb sits patiently with us for the first part of the church service, then goes up front with the other children for a lesson time before being dismissed to his Sunday school class. It's this children's story time at the front of the sanctuary that has us holding our breath each week.

Caleb is one of the youngest children to take part.  The majority of the kids are several years older, and depending on who is giving the lesson, some story times are more geared toward the older kids than the younger.  Some teachers solicit more child participation than others. But Caleb always eagerly listens and engages.  And in his wonderful, 5 year old way he participates.  Every week we hear him chiming in to answer a question or share his thoughts.  He is not shy at all.  On more than one occasion his comments have had the adults laughing heartily.  Like last week, when the teacher, illustrating the parable of the lost sheep, brought in a jar full of cotton balls and then intentionally spilled them.  The children helped clean up the mess, and then the teacher pretended there was one cotton ball still missing.  Caleb was sincerely concerned about this last cotton ball and stood up, tugging at his shirt, and said, "Wait, maybe one of them jumped into my pocket." And when the teacher spoke about the shepherd continuing to search for the lost sheep, Caleb shared how that was similar to the way he helped his brother search for his missing wrist watch.

So, yes, on the one hand I am holding my breath during the children's story time, not know what in the world my son might share with the group while he is up front.  But at the same time, I am loving it.  I love his innocence, his genuine interest in the story time, the way he connects new information to his past experiences, and especially the way he is comfortable being the wonderful 5 year old that God made him to be.  It's pretty neat.

A George-Related Follow Up Story

Remeber Caleb's imaginary friend, George? Caleb likes the idea of Hayden having imaginary friends too, so he often encourages Hayden by talking about Hayden's friends, Buzz Lightyear and Caillou.
"Hayden, are Caillou and Buzz still sleeping?" "Hayden, did Caillou and Buzz arrive here in their car?" "Hayden, where are Caillou and Buzz going to sit?" You get the idea.
This morning Caleb asked Hayden, "Why don't you talk to Caillou and Buzz?" 
And Hayden replied, "Because they don't talk to me."  So there.