If you build it, they will play.

About once every three months for the last year and a half, Chris has asked me if I wanted to add a swing set to the back yard.    A firm and quick  'no" always slips out of my mouth as soon as the question is asked.  But a couple of weeks ago when Chris asked me this question again, I changed my mind!  As you may know, life with toddlers seems to change every few months and in this phase of our lives, a swing set seems like. . .  fun!  There are so many different structures to choose from and it took us awhile to settle on one that would meet our criteria and needs.  As soon as the swing set was put together Chris and I knew that we picked the right one.  It is the right size and level of complexity for this age and this house.  Cheers to us!

We did not tell the boys about the swing set when we ordered it. Once day they just woke up to two huge boxes with a picture of a play structure on them and we let them figure out what was inside.  I think it was hard for them to conceptualize that a play structure was going to emerge from those boxes, and really they just wanted to play inside the giant cardboard boxes.  Chris was very excited to build the swing set with his boys.  He had the boys help for a few hours and did not let them slack at all!  They were able to help remove pieces of equipment from the boxes and lay them out on the ground, carry pieces over to Chris when he needed them, hold allen wrenches while chris tightened bolts and pass bolts to chris as needed. They also volunteered with a few of their owns tools to ensure that things were being done to code and proper CTS guidelines (California Toddler Standards).

In addition the manual labor, the boys were also key equipment testers.  They had to test out the slide to ensure it was fast enough and test the structural integrity of all the playhouse walls.

After a few hours, they boys kind of lost focus.  Brady ended up sitting inside what is supposed to be a basketball hoop and refused to do any more "work" and Brody decided the project would go faster if Spiderman showed up.  We gave them a break and Chris continued putting the structure together during nap time.

When the boys woke up the swing set was finished.  They ran outside to see for the first time and Brody exclaimed "This is AWESOME" and gave an excited fist pump.  Brady kept muttering "I love my swing set" while he was falling asleep that night.  I can't believe how good it feels to be able to do these kinds of things for your kids; it's a truly amazing feeling.

I am ending with a picture of the whole structure and a hug that says it all- special reminders for the memory book!  Everyone was very happy!

Halloween 2014 (AKA the year we ruined Spiderman's reputation)

We rounded out the fall "season" with our Halloween celebrations.  Like a rookie parent, I started talking about Halloween months ago.  I asked the boys countless times what they wanted to be and each time it was the same: Brady wanted to be "Spiderman" and Brody wanted to be "a baseball player with number three on my back".  For whatever reason, I decided to break with my usual tradition of waiting until last minute to make their costumes and get everything together weeks beforehand.  I bought a Spiderman costume off the internet and started collecting baseball attire whenever I saw something appropriate.  I was in good shape, way ahead of schedule, and very very pleased with myself.

Several weeks before Halloween, Chris was putting the boys to bed and decided to tell them a made up story. This is not unusual for Chris; he always ends his bedtime stories with a story that he has made up, usually involving Rocco and Adriane and snow and other things that he likes to talk about.  In this story, he talked about a villain that took children's toys and about the hero, Spiderman, who returned the toys safely to everyone.  Even though the message was intended to be fairly straight forward, this is not at all how the story came across to the boys.  Somehow all the boys heard was that Spiderman was going to take their toys.  I was not home the night Chris told this story, and when I returned home, the very first thing Chris said to me was "Um, we may have a problem with Spiderman".  Sure enough, the next morning, no sooner were the boys' eyes open than out of their mouths came the words "Spiderman took our toys".  Despite endlessly reassuring them that Spiderman does not take kids' toys, the inevitable happened: Brady declared that he no longer wanted to be Spiderman.  At this point, he did not know I already owned a Spiderman costume so I tried showing it to him so he could see how cool he could look, but that did not work.  He just cried and told me "No WANT to be Spiderman, Spiderman takes my toys".

A few days later Brady told me that he wanted to be Geo from Umizoomi (a character from an older cartoon that we downloaded for our plane rides, for those of you who do not know who he is).  I was not worried about making Brady's Geo costume because I still had plenty of time before the big day.  I amassed my Umizoomi supplies and set to work making Brady a costume.  To celebrate Halloween, we bought tickets to our local Children's Museum Halloween celebration.  In my eyes, this was a perfect way to celebrate the Holiday.  We got to play in the museum late in the evening (with Chris which is novel for the boys) and wear costumes.  They had lots of "treats" available for the boys like books and pencils etc.  It was a great way to make the holiday exciting for toddlers who do yet know Halloween is candy-centric event.  We also had a Halloween party the next day so our weekend was full of Halloween festivities.

I was very excited to show the boys what they were going to be wear for Halloween.  Unfortunately as soon as Brody saw Brady's Geo costume, he wanted nothing to do with this "boring" baseball costume.  To be fair, Brody does "pretend" to be a baseball player everyday. He wears all sorts of "baseball equipment" when we play ball outside.  Seeing Brady's new threads (i.e. felt hot-glued to clothing- fancy!!!!!) must have really seemed super special compared to "just" being a baseball player.  Even when all decked out in his new baseball uniform, he kept saying "No WANT to be baseball player, I want to be Geo.".  Since I could not whip up another costume on the spot, I did the next best thing.  I asked if he wanted to be Spiderman.  Surprisingly, he said yes!

After the boys were dressed in their costumes, Chris and I left them alone in their room so we could finish getting ready to leave.  I could hear them talking to each other and this is what I heard:
Brady: "D- you Spiderman?"
Brody: "Yeah, I Spiderman!"
Brady: "You gonna take our toys?"
Brody: "Yes"
Brady: "Oh"

I could not bear how sad Brody looked when he told me he wanted to be Geo too, so before our second party, I stayed up late and made a second Geo costume.  Brody was thrilled when he saw it and both boys wore their Geo costumes to the party and on Halloween Day.  They looked so darn cute (if I do say so myself).  I learned some valuable lessons about toddlers this Halloween.  You can be sure we will do things a bit differently next year!  Happy Halloween!

Fall Happenings

This fall has been fantastic!  We have done so many fun activities.  We kicked off the slightly cooler weather with some apple picking with friends at our favorite organic orchard in the Santa Cruz mountains.  We picked an absurd amount of fruit and the boys ate their body weight in apples during our outing.  The slightly cooler and overcast weather was the perfect way to get us into the spirit of the season!

Despite trying to induce fall weather by participating in fall activities, the weather remained warm and nice for all of September and into October.  This meant that we continued to play lots of baseball in the back yard and we broke out the wadding pool a few extra times.  Though by this time of the year I am always chomping at the bit for cold temperatures, (I do so look forward to being able to wear boots!), the boys did not mind the warm temperatures and thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with their normal activities and antics.

To keep the autumn feeling alive, we went pumpkin picking with friends.  Brady thought it was hysterical to stack pumpkins on top of each other and call them snowmen.  Brody loved piling as many pumpkins as possible into a wagon and pushing them around. We left with a few little pumpkins that I let the boys paint latter that day.

In addition to all the fall festivities, we managed to squeeze in a weekend away in Lake Tahoe.  It was great fun being in the mountains and playing at the lake.  Of special note, the boys did a major hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.  They hiked 2.5 miles all by themselves at elevation.  I could not be prouder of them, their stamina, and their love of the outdoors!  Fall, I love you!

It's up to you, New York.

A couple of weeks ago it so happened that Chris was slatted to travel to NYC for work.  The boys and I took advantage of this fact and tagged along with him to visit with friends and family!  Although the logistics of the trip meant that I had fly across the country with the boys by myself, this somehow seemed less daunting than being alone with them for the whole week (ha, I only kid!).  In reality, I could not pass up the chance to take the boys to NYC, to meet up with my beloved college friends (and their kids!) and to see my parents, grandma, aunt and cousin!  It was a very short trip but that almost made it easier since there was no time to feel tired or overwhelmed and since we booked the trip with relatively short notice, there was no time to get anxious about traveling either.

The boys and I packed  our things into a tiny tiny suit case (I feel like I earn major traveling points here and that is why I mention it; this was the smartest travel thing I have ever done!  Having a tiny bag made handling the boys and my stroller much more manageable).  Driving to the airport, parking in long-term parking, taking the bus to the terminal, and going through security were stressful and time consuming; it almost felt like a cross-country journey in and of itself!  Our flight was basically boarding when we arrived at the gate and after glancing around, I could tell it was made up of predominantly business travelers.  We rolled up just as they announced that anyone needing more time boarding should come forward.  I think I now know how Moses must have felt when he parted the Red Sea- for as soon as they made that announcement, all of businessmen started frantically waving to get my attention and the crowd of 150 literally parted into two sections to make a pathway toward the ticketing line.  I was the very first person on the plane and getting on was very easy thanks to everyone being terrified of me, the boys, and my stroller!

The flight was pretty uneventful (except for the fact that each boy pooped no less than 4 times.  I have no idea why this happened but I spend most my time taking the boys to the bathroom).  The boys played with toys and the ipads and time went relatively quickly (twice now we have hidden the ipads for a week or more prior to our trips and that has worked great for us.  They become completely new and novel for the airplane!).  We had to change planes in Charlotte and the boys were so cute running through the airport.   We made it onto the second airplane without any trouble and landed in Newark late that night.  Chris planned it so he would meet us at the gate and seeing him after a full day of travel was a very welcome and pleasant sight!  We jetted into Manhattan together and arrived at our Time Square Hotel.  The whole day was incredibly overwhelming but the boys handled it like champs!  They passed out after we got into our room (it was 2 a.m. EST by that time) and woke up late the next day!  I am very very happy with the way they traveled and could not have asked for better behaved kids.

Once we were up and ready the next day, we meet Chris for a quick lunch and then I hoofed it uptown to meet my friends and their kids for a day at the Central Park Zoo.  It was WONDERFUL to see my long-time friends Danielle and Christine and their kids (sans one little one who I did not have a chance to meet).  We had a blast watching all the kids run around and experience the zoo while trying to chat in between bursts of play.  The kids had a blast running around the zoo and playing with each other.  After a few hours of play, we left the zoo and Christine and I continued on to the West side to play some more and eat dinner.  After dinner, I walked the boys back to the hotel making sure to walk them through Time Square.  They were in awe of all they saw, but they were particularly mesmerized by the 100's of Spidermen that they saw walking around. One even gave Brody a fist-bump and that is pretty much all they have talked about since that day.  We hung out with Chris for a little while back at the hotel and then went to sleep after a long fun day.

In my opinion, there is nothing like the warm and fuzzy feeling you get when you see your friends' kids playing with your own kids.  I do not think  it will never go away.

(Photo courtesy of Brody.  This may be my favorite photo ever taken.)

Above are some random snapshots of memories that I want to keep alive.  They show Christine pushing my boys and baby J on her stroller while  I push P in my double stroller, P, Brady and Brody cracking each other up at the restaurant doing something only the three of them understand, the three of them running full speed through Lincoln Center, and the boys playing in one of the playgrounds in Central Park.

The next morning the three of us got up and took the train upstate to my parents' house.  We spent a few hours at my parents' house and a few hours at my grandma's house with my sister joining in on the fun.  It was great seeing the boys play in my parents' yard (who knew acorns were so amusing!) and watching them play with my Grandma (whom they call GiGi).  Chris took a late train to meet us so he was home when the boys woke up the next morning.  We played all morning and then spent the rest of the day at Gigi's.  My aunt and cousin joined us for a great afternoon of family fun.

Sunday we got up early and left for the airport.  Like I said, it was a short but very eventful and fun trip.  I can't believe how much we fit into three full days and I am truly happy with all the time we spent with everyone.  I can't wait to do it again (and that is saying a lot since I usually come home thinking I am never traveling again!).  One thing is for sure, New York left a big impression on the boys!  Until next time. . .  much love NY!