Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Barton Flats – Camping with the Marcrofts

BartonFlats_Dirt It’s tradition! It was the annual Marcroft Family trip up to Barton Flats—Great Grandma has been doing this for who knows how many years--but this year we just went up for the day. We headed out about the time that Nate should have been sleeping so that he’d fall asleep on the way (which of course he didn’t do), stopped at A&W for our traditional Root Beer Freeze and headed up the mountain. We got there just after lunch and just in time for a bit of rain. Luckily for us Grandpa Marcroft had put up a canopy and we all fit under it. The rain passed but left a nice cool breeze and a bit of water for the boys to play in.

My favorite part of the day was when the boys found a giant puddle on the road that went through the camp. They started jumping in it, of course, and then Sammy looked at me for a sign of approval or sure that he was going to be reprimanded and I just smiled. Then he said to me, “Why you letting me play in the mud? Because you love me?” and then he smiled and started jumping again. Yes Sammy, because I love you! :)

BartonFlats_StumpWhile we were there we hung out (with Great Grandma Marcroft, Grandpa Marcroft, Auntie Sarah, Uncle William, Shane, Troy and Brett, and Thad’s Uncle Lynn), ate, chatted, ate again, and then headed back down the mountain just about bedtime. It was a fun, and dirty, day but I was glad to be heading home and not into a tent to sleep on the nice, hard ground. We had a great time! :)

My beloved "shrimp" - I couldn't live without you!

A Haiku for my favorite pillow...
Oh my faithful shrimp
What relief you bring to me
You're a perfect fit!

Pillows are unique for everyone (even the kind that you put under your head, right?!) During my first pregnancy (I'm now 8 months into my third pregnancy) I found this pillow at Babies R Us. I love that it's not as hard as some of the pillows (like the normal hard-as-a-rock Boppy--it has some give) and I like that! When the pain is so bad that I need to lay down for 5 or 10 minutes and at night I use it between my knees and it relieves the back, hip, and other lovely pains that I have. It's not one that I like under my belly, but then again, I don't like anything under my belly when I'm on my side. It's been abused, as you can see, and has any number of stains but that doesn't decrease it's efficiency! That said I could not be without this! I have have used it three pregnancies and after to feed my baby with and to lay him on. My little shrimp shaped pillow is a faithful friend!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Nathan - Checkup with Dr. Wexler

I can't believe that it's been 15 months since Nathan's surgery to correct his sagittal synstosis (a form of craniosynostosis where the fontanel, aka soft spot, has hardened or closed). We went to Kaiser West LA today to have his check up and the doctors were happy to see a nice big boy and oh, his nicely shaped head. He, as most kids, was acting super shy and wouldn't talk to them or show them any of the things that he knows how to do--he hid behind me as much as he could!

I have been wondering about this next little boy...what if his little soft spot closes too? I know that after the experience with Nathan I wouldn't think twice about having the surgery again! Nathan did so well and just look at him now! :) If you missed any of the surgery story here are the links...
I did take a picture of him with Dr. Wexler, the plastic surgeon who reformed his head, but Dr. Cahan, the neurosurgeon, wasn't at the appointment so he's not in the picture. Of course Nathan wouldn't look at me but oh well! :)

One more month...

Summer has been crazy, well anything can be crazy with two little boys, and it's getting quite hot here in Southern California but we've been spoiled with our cool May and June! I'm surviving the stay-at-home status (although some days are better than others) but do get quite a few stares as I'm out and about chasing two little boys who are definitely faster than me, the waddler, and then the question, "is this one a girl?" And then I smile and say, nope, boy number three will be here in August!

Sammy is getting really excited about his new brother (I am not sure how Nathan will react) but this week he noticed how big mommy's tummy is getting. He has lots of questions about when he was born and loves hearing those stories and often pretends (with a blanket) to be "coming out of mommy's tummy"--he thinks your tummy just kind of breaks open and the baby comes out and who am I to tell him any differently?! ;)

This week Sammy noticed that my tummy was getting bigger. He asked, "Is the baby ready to come out yet?" and when I answered, "No, not yet," he responded with an exasperated sigh, "oohhhhh, it's so hard to be three!"

I'm still trying to find my home (after 9 months of neglect), declutter (we still have some boxes from moving that get brought over from time to time), and get organized before boy #3 arrives. I've had lots of help from my mom and from my good friend (and visiting teacher) Yolanda who brings her boys over to play with Sam and Nate and we get some work done! We have made lots of progress and I hope that we get lots more done! The clock is ticking...my due date is August 20th but who knows when he'll make his appearance? Oh, and we don't have a name yet--we want to see him and hold him first! You'll know when we do....

Friday, July 17, 2009

Another Samism!

One more funny thing that Sammy said last week following our demolition in the backyard with the excavator (getting ready for new grass and sprinklers instead of dirt, dirt, and more dirt)...

Grandpa: Sammy, did your daddy let you drive the excavator?

Sammy: Oh no, if I drive the excavator I would crash into the house and break it and then I would have to live with you.

Grandma and Grandpa really got a kick out of that! More pictures of the boys, backyard, and dirt can be found on Smugmug. More of the backyard story to come...

Saturday, July 11, 2009

From the mouth of babes...

One of the things that had me giggling this week was this conversation with Sammy.

The boys were fighting over some used trains that I bought off of eBay but especially over Spencer, a silver steam engine and coal tender. I was so frustrated that I said, "do I need to buy another Spencer so that you guys will stop fighting over him?"

Sammy replied with a big sigh, "Mom, you can only buy trains on clearance!"

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Kids' first "real" 4th of July

Happy Birthday America!

:) We had a pretty calm day and tried to put the kids down for naps a little later than normal so that they would survive the festivities this year. Last year Sammy was so tired he was crying by the time it was dark and Nathan was so little he just screamed because he was scared and confused by all of the noise so we didn't even really do fireworks!

This year we picked up a few ($30 doesn't go too far at a fireworks stand here!) since we hadn't been invited anywhere and called up Great grandma to see if we could do them at her house! She was ecstatic and we packed up the boys, called Thad's siblings and headed to Great Grandma Marcroft's house. Luckily for us his cousin Laura lives on the street and she brought over her fireworks too (which were way cooler than ours!) and Aunt Becky and Laura's son Mitchell took turns lighting them. The boys loved all of them (especially the sparklers since we wouldn't let them touch anything but those and the snapper things that you throw at the ground--and Nate wasn't didn't have much luck with those!)
When it got late we headed home but then Thad's sister Adrian, and boyfriend Eric, called and wanted to stop by since they still had fireworks. So we said, c'mon down! The boys were excited to see Aunt Addie and Eric had gotten some cool fireworks so the pryos Thad and Eric had some fun lighting as many as they could at one time with Thad's mapp gas torch. (We had tried matches earlier but after 6 matches on one lonely sparkler we decided that a torch would be safer!) It was waaaaaaay too late when we got the boys down but they had a blast and it was our best 4th of July yet! :)

Thursday, July 2, 2009

A Little Jaunt Down to Oceanside!

With Thad's crazy work hours and my parents vacationing in Oceanside with two extra bedrooms I decided to take the boys and head South! We could have driven but for $12 we can ride the Metrolink train from Norwalk all the way to Oceanside and it drops us off at the corner from the condo. I love it because I don't have to deal with traffic or driving (or trying to get snacks or dropped toys etc while driving) and the boys love everything about the train! We left Monday after naps and it took us about 90 minutes. We got on and it was really crowded but even as I stood there trying to figure out where to sit with my two boys people saw me and shuffled around and said, here, take these three seats together! :) Phew! Thank goodness for nice people! We sat by a nice UCLA student who played with the boys until she got off in Tustin! The boys were really good on the train (well for the most part--Nate struggled at the end but we survived) We got there just in time for dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, the Fongs and the Repettis and then the Fongs and the Repettis had to get back on the road for home.

We woke up in the morning and packed lunches (or maybe a brunch?) and went to try to see the train pass by but didn't have any luck so we went to the playground at the beach. I hadn't packed swim clothing so we didn't go in the water but they had a blast on the slides and swings!

Later on in the day after naps we headed back out with the Repettis (they live in Vista and are pretty close to Oceanside) to the San Diego County Fair (at Del Mar) and had some fun there! We saw racing pigs (they raced for Oreo cookies), monster truck racing, the petting zoo, tons of pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep, and even walked around the booths a bit. It was a fun night.

On Wednesday when I put Nate down for his nap Grandma stayed home with him and then Sammy, Grandpa and I headed to the outlet mall for a Thomas Playday thing and then stopped by Costco for groceries and to look at the laptops for Grandpa (his is dying!) Sammy had fun playing with all of the neat play sets that they had and loved all of the samples at Costco (who doesn't?!) He chomped down a trout (?) or seafood burger that I refused to sample...maybe I should buy some of those--fish is supposed to be really good for you, I just can't stand it!

Later on (after naps...don't we just live our lives around nap schedules!?) we asked the boys if they wanted to walk down to the beach or just swim in the pool and Sammy said, "I want to swim in the 'big boy' pool". I didn't fight that--much easier on me--I didn't have to worry about waves stealing him or looking like a beached whale in front of as many people ;). We swam and even had root beer floats! It was fun! We the kids cleaned up by sticking them in the giant jacuzzi tub and then rested a bit, fixed dinner and then back to bed again!

I woke the kids up early to take the 6:41 train from Oceanside (okay, I woke Sammy up--Nate's been on this 5:50 - 6 am waking up time lately with it being so light out! :( ) and arrived back to good ol' Norwalk a little after 8! Daddy, I mean Thad, was happy to see us and hear about our adventures! It was a good little trip!
If you're crazy enough and want to see more pictures, head on over to Smugmug!
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