Weekend

It was a quiet weekend around here...and a long day today. Clara starts zoo camp again tomorrow, so to help us adjust from our lazy mornings of this past week to our early mornings of the coming week, I kept both kids up from naps today. They went off to bed early tonight, but here it is almost midnight and I'm not tired. At least the two of them will be ready to go in the morning :)

We didn't do much this weekend, but I captured some cute stuff with the camera and thought I'd share.

In the mornings we make Clara wear a head band to keep her hair out of her cereal/milk. Jonathan runs to get one every morning too. Typically he just pulls it down around his neck and wears it like a necklace, but Saturday morning he used it to keep his hair out of his face too. The sunglasses were his idea as well -- guess he had a rough night :)

Here are the 2 headbanded creatures enjoying their cereal.

Clara also chose to accessorize this particular morning with a pair of my shoes.

Shortly after breakfast Spidergirl made an appearance.

Aunt Sandi got Jonathan this cool cup for his birthday -- a big boy cup, with his name right on it!

He loves it...he also loves to blow bubbles in his milk, or let it dribble down his chin (we're still working on how to use a big boy cup!)

Clara has a Veggie Tales cup that's very similar. She wanted to use hers so they could match.

Cheers!!!

The upcoming week will be a busy one. Aside from zoo camp Jonathan has his 2yr well child visit to the doctor scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. We'll be working on minimal nap time between the time we get home from zoo camp in the morning and the time of his appt. I couldn't get in any later, but we will be stopping for Jonathan's free birthday ice cream from Coldstone after the doctor - so how bad can it be right?! (Thanks Katy!) Then on Friday I will be trying to sign Clara up for preschool at the Child Development Center here on base. I say 'trying' because it will not be a fun morning. They have just 48 spots and are holding open registration from 8am-12pm on Friday morning. I've heard that if you really want a spot you need to be there about 6am and just wait in line. It wouldn't be so bad if Chris were home or even if I didn't need to get Clara to zoo camp that morning as well. So 6am Friday morning the kids and I will be finding a spot in the lobby of the CDC to relax for a good 2 hours. (You know how much kids like to just sit around and wait, esp. first thing in the morning!) Then we hope to get registered quickly so we can hop in the car and make the 45 min drive to Fresno for zoo camp at 9am -- hopefully we won't be too late. Say a prayer it all goes well. I've been dreading Friday for weeks now and will be happy to see this next weekend!

Presents!!!!!

After a good night's sleep we were ready to finally open birthday presents this morning, but I did restrain myself from letting the kids eat the last 2 pieces of cake for breakfast. Jonathan did pretty well opening his gifts this year. Clara started them for him so he'd know where to start tearing from, and he'd take it from there. Of course if he did need any additional help, Clara was ready and willing! She had fun helping him decide which gift to open next.

This was the first one he opened this morning

With the first gift he was still way more impressed with the wrapping than what was inside. He really liked the tissue paper in the boxes. He would shake it to make noise. Maybe Santa Claus will just bring him a box of tissue paper :)

Finally fishing out that first gift...

It's Spiderman!!!!!

It's a bit big for him, but he loves it. I never got him to stand long enough with the full costume on (mask and all). He thinks he's the coolest thing around now though.

Spiderman enlisted the help of his sister for this gift. It was from his friends Haley and Alyssa. It's a cute tubtime toy. Absolutely perfect, since we're always outside in the pool!

This present was 'from Clara', but was Daddy's suggestion when I said, "What do I get a 2 year old boy for his birthday?" A remote control car...what else? Chris said I could get Jonathan a remote control car for every birthday/Christmas from here on out and I'd be safe -- even when he's 50+!

More cars! He's just started getting into Hotwheels/Matchbox cars -- He loves pushing them around.

With his new found love for Hotwheels/Matchbox cars we'll be needing some place to store them all.

Isn't this the coolest? It just hangs on the back of the door and there's a little pocket for each car. He can even reach them!!!

Clara modeled Jonathan's other new costume -- Construction man. It came with a toolbelt and a few tools...

...even a battery operated drill!

We had a lot of fun opening presents today. Jonathan was Spiderman all morning. He didn't mind when I took his Spiderman costume off later (I think he was getting tired of losing his hands and feet in it since it's too big), but he was upset when I tried to take the Batman PJs off which he was still wearing underneath.

I did give him his piece of cake after dinner, and got the close up of him eating it (even if it is with his 'cool dudes' on)!

Jonathan is 2!!!!!!!!!

My little guy turned 2 today...it doesn't seem possible. Who told him to grow up so fast anyway? I decided at the last minute to invite all the neighbors on our street down to our house for dinner and cake tonight. We're usually all hanging out together in the evenings anyway, and often have dinner together too. About half of the husbands on our street are deployed right now, so it's just nice to have each other's company and friendship.

When Jonathan got dressed this morning he decided he wanted to wear his rain boots -- nevermind that I think we've only seen rain about 4 times in the 10 months we've been here (and today was not one of them). After he got his on, he brought Clara her boots and she happily put hers on as well. We were quite the site walking around town today!

Clara wrapped a couple of Jonathan's presents so they could be from her. I had forgotten to let her pick one out for him and she spent the last week trying to figure out which of her own toys she could wrap for him. I let it go for a while, wondering what she'd come up with. She wanted to give him her old slippers because she knows how much he likes to wear her shoes, and of course, then his feet wouldn't get cold. However, at the last minute she told me she wanted to save them so she could give them to her baby when she grows up and has a baby girl of her own. So I laid out all of Jonathan's presents on my bed and told her to pick 2 to wrap for him. She was so excited to be a part of his big day -- and she picked well!

After Jonathan's nap, he was not in a party mood!

There was time before everyone was supposed to start showing up to eat, so I let the kids open one of Jonathan's gifts. I didn't have enough paper to wrap it anyway!

Watch out! He'll be the next Michael Jordan!

Check out the cake! I'm really proud of it. I made it from scratch, a recipe I found online. It was yummy...and even my decorating skills were pretty good on this one!

Jonathan wasn't sure why everyone was singing.

He blew out the first candle no problem, but after a few tries and a little drool, I let the other kids help him with the second candle.

I think the only time we actually saw all the kids around was when the cake came out. The rest of the time they were off playing in Clara's room!

Jonathan got the first piece, of course!

Everyone liked the cake. I have just 2 small pieces left.

A picture of all the parents. I handed my camera off to one of the neighbors to take pics for me. There's not too many of the birthday boy, but had it not been for my neighbor, I wouldn't have any pics at all. I don't think I sat for more than 5 min all night. I've never entertained so many when Chris wasn't home to help. It was fun, but a challenge! Chris called to wish Jonathan a happy birthday and it was chaotic. We didn't get to talk long, but Jonathan was excited to hear his daddy's voice nonetheless.

Even Aunt Sandi came to help us celebrate.

Of course, we let balloons go again.

Clara and Jonathan each got a dozen...

Clara let hers go and Jonathan just watched them. He didn't cry this time. He was mesmerized by the way they flew away.

When he had enough of watching Clara's float away, he let his go too.

Shortly after, everyone started heading home. It was late and time to get all the kids to bed. My kids both needed baths too. I felt bad because we never got around to opening gifts today.

So after putting my house back together and bathing the kids, I asked Clara to go get one of the gifts she had wrapped.

Jonathan was excited to have it, but wasn't sure what to do with it, so I asked Clara to help him.

As Clara peeled the paper off Jonathan watched and said, "Ooooo, bops" which is how he says 'box' -- apparently that's all he needed to see.

Holy PJs, Batman! The perfect gift just before bed time. They are the cutest PJs! There's even a little cape that velcros to the shoulders. He loves them! He ran around the house saying, "Fast!" Clara said, "Are they Batman or Fatman pajamas?"

I asked Clara to take a pic of me with my birthday boy. She took a few, all blurry, but this is the best.

Not to be left out, she then turned the camera around to take a pic of herself.

Tomorrow we get to open all the rest of the presents!

I can't believe it's been 2 years since I brought that little guy home from the hospital. He's an amazing, affectionate, warm-hearted little boy. He has taught me so much in these past 2 years and I can't wait to see what else he has in store for me!

Happy Bithday, Jonathan!

Words of Wisdom

"Daddy says it's OK to pick your nose sometimes, if you're in the car."
-- Clara

Redcocks 60th Anniversary

Chris' squadron just celebrated their 60th anniversary for which they did a 6 plane 'Flyby'. One of the guys in Chris' squadron took some pics and a video. I got Chris to ask if it was alright to post them on the blog and we got the OK -- so here they are.

Chris was not in any of the planes this time around, but the pics are cool nonetheless.

Enjoy! (Just 18 more weeks till Chris comes home!)

Zoo Camp -- A,B, Seas

Here are the pics of Clara at zoo camp I promised. Today was her last day for this session. She gets to go for one more week, the first week of August. I truly cannot say enough about the zoo camp here. It is a fantastic program. Clara looked forward to it everyday, so much so that she never complained about getting up and going to bed early. When I would show up to pick her up everyday, I always had to sit through "one more song" or "one more story" because she just didn't want to leave. The whole way home she would tell me excitedly about everything she learned, like, did you know that baby flamingoes are gray, not pink? She learned that the daddy penguin carries the egg on his feet (she even got to imitate it) and that trash in the ocean is bad for the sea life, for example, if a sea turtle was to swallow a trash bag thinking it looked like a jellyfish. She learned that many consider a stingray a type of flattened shark and she even learned all about gills. It was amazing to listen to her each day after zoo camp, she was happy and enthusiastic.

Everyday when I dropped her off in the morning they would have several stations set up in the classroom to engage the kids while waiting for everyone to show up. The kids were quiet, happy, and busy. Clara would leave my side as soon as we walked in the door. I would have to chase her down after signing her in to stick on her name tag. She didn't care to say goodbye to me, she was just ready to get involved. This is a pic of her in one of the stations where they had various stingrays and underwater creatures in a tub of water and different shells to look at as well.

Every day Jonathan and I would find something in Fresno to keep us busy until it was time to go back and pick her up. He would periodically say 'Sissy' for the whole 3 hours -- he really missed her. He'd get really excited each day when I would tell him it was time to go back to get her. When I would return to pick her up Jonathan would find her in the group of kids and run over to her to give her a big hug. Clara always asked to stay for one more story or song and so Jonathan would sit down right next to her and join in with the group.

They were singing this cute song called 'Slippery Fish'. http://www.colleenschildcare.com/Song Cards/Octopus.mp3 I had to ask the teacher for the words because that night both Clara and Jonathan were running around the house singing it with Clara trying to teach Jonathan all the hand motions. It was adorable!

Still singing 'Slippery Fish'.

I mentioned before that they were well staffed. You can see in this pic the main instructors were the girl in the turqoise polo shirt and the one in the black polo shirt. The other 5 girls in the green shirts were helpers. There were actually 2 others there that you can't see in this pic. All the same teachers and helpers were there each day and this pic shows the whole class of kids. They were almost matched one for one. The helpers were all very young -- like high school age. Clara told me that each day when they'd walk into the zoo, each child was assigned a teacher and a buddy, so each teacher only worried about 2 kids as they walked through the zoo...it was a fantastic feeling that I had left Clara in such a safe environment. I had been worried if she was ready for this before it all started. I think just the word 'camp' made me a little apprehensive, even if she wasn't staying away over night. All my fears were put at ease as soon as we showed up the first day.

One of the days, Jonathan and I kept busy by hanging out at the zoo too. I was hoping to run into Clara's class when they went over there to get more pics, but it turned out to be the one day they didn't go into the zoo because they had a puppet show instead. Here's Jonathan at the prairie dog exhibit.

What's in there?

Just a Camel!

We caught the end of the puppet show when we went back to pick Clara up.

Clara made this fabulous turtle and named him Squirt, like the baby turtle from Finding Nemo

All the kids were pretending that their turtles were scared and stuck their heads back in their shells.

Today Clara got to bring home all the other art projects she had made at zoo camp this week. There was a jelly fish, a penguin pencil topper, a color sheet, and a rainbow fish...and it was all tucked nicely in this beautiful envelope she made as well.

Like I said, there's nothing bad I can say about this program. It's the best thing Clara has been involved in yet and she's already bragging to her friends that she gets to go back in a couple weeks. It's a wonderful feeling when you can pick your child up from something like this and know that they've been stimulated intellectually and creatively...and they had a blast doing it!