Friday Wrap-Up: August 10th

Did you know that there is such a thing as "National Root Beer Float Day"?  Well, there is. And because I consider myself a true patriot (and a daughter of a root beer lover), I HAD to celebrate.  How's this for the boys' dinner? Super healthy, right? Best mom ever! :)

They were both smitten with root beer floats (genetics, I'm guessing).  I admit it...sometimes it's pretty fun to introduce your kids to something fun and tasty. We work on veggies and fruit too...I swear!

I'm not sure how many "Beckett Sleeping" photos I've taken, but they could probably justify a full album.  He's definitely my sweet boy, and him sleeping increases his sweetness by about 50%...so, off the charts.

We busted out the "whale shark pool" this week.  I used a sponge to clean the bottom before filling it.  Turns out baby pool + sponges = happily playing boys for about an hour.

Hamilton is "swapping the decks" here. :)

Our adventure for Wednesday was going to South Coast Botanical Gardens. I'd purchased a "Groupon" for an annual pass months ago and figured it was about time to cash it in.  We went with friends, and the boys spent almost an hour climbing a tree and finding "lucky beans."  Pretty nice for the mommies.  Here are the boys in the children's garden...where plants and figures correspond with nursery rhymes.

Old Navy was having a crazy $10 jean sale, so I took advantage...Hamilton is both growing and putting holes in his pant knees.  While there, I "accidentally" bought jammies for Beckett. Totally unnecessary purchase, but my boy loves Batman and deserves some "non-hand-me-down" items once in a while.

Thursday was beach day.  A lot of friends showed up, which means I got to chit chat, and the boys had lots of people to play with.  At the beginning of the summer, my friend Mackenzie made all the little kids into "mer-people."  Ever since then, the boys have me do that for them whenever we're at the beach.  It's pretty fun to just get in there, dig in the sand, and play with your kids.

On Friday, we "borrowed" my nephew Wesley for a couple hours.  His mom is having a baby soon, and I'm hoping to be somewhat helpful and steal him on other occasions post-baby.  She's due really soon, so I thought we'd better get a practice run in pre-baby.  We headed down the freeway to the Discovery Science Center.  Wesley was pretty shy and cautious at first (those kids exist?!?!), but then we found a submarine slide, and all was well.

 Lunch!

Sitting on dinosaur toes.

Cheese!

Show-off.

On Saturday,  I got to cross something that's been on my "to do" list since I've moved here: bike up the Strand to Santa Monica.  Round trip, it was about 26 miles. People have asked if we'd been training, which mostly makes me laugh. I wore my Rainbow sandals.  Does that tell you anything about the "chill level" of this ride?  We had a really nice time: beautiful coast, crazies in Venice, yummy Thai lunch, and nice conversation. Yes, it lasted about 4 hours longer than we led our hubbies to believe, but it was SO nice to be out and about together sans kids on a lovely Saturday.

Facebook Statuses:

• Dishes in the sink and time for dinner, but I'd rather just watch these two enjoy a $12 pool and a couple sponges. That's cool, right?
• The guy bagging our Costco purchases overheard us having our usual "who's turn to be in charge of the receipt" discussion and had the cashier print out an extra one. Might seem like a lame status update, but it was a welcome miracle at the end of the day. :)
• Favorite Olympic story and race: David Rudisha. Wow.
• Celebrating Alex belonging to us again! (we couldn't afford his billing rates) — at The Cheesecake Factory. [He pretty much disappeared for 2 weeks.]  
• The downside to living near the beach is we don't have a/c. Yuck. The upside, clearly, is we live near the beach. Biked down and back to Santa Monica today with nice ocean breezes and good friends. I'm a lucky girl (with a really nice husband who spent the day with the boys). 

Let the Nesting Begin!

I still "owe" this blog Friday Update and Utah Trip posts, but I'm feeling a little "high" from some recent organization endeavors.  I suffer from two contradictory conditions: Pack Rat and Organizer.  The "pack rat" side of me is largely based on my emotional attachment to inanimate objects. Like, I used to feel terrible throwing something from my school lunch away..."But my mom packed this for me! She loves me and spent time doing this!" It's an exhausting condition ;).  The "organizer" in me longs, longs, longs for a house where everything has its place.  Lately, the boys' closet and our third bedroom have been giving me minor panic attacks.  And with a baby on the way, those attacks have been in the back of my mind pretty constantly. 

My friend Megan (yea! Megan!!! Woot! Woot!) is watching my boys for about 7 hours today, so I could make some headway.  Six hours in, and I'm taking a "blogging break" to bask in my progress so far.

Sunday was actually spent doing the boys' closet.  I've organized this space before, but not the entire thing...plus since then babysitters and family have let the boys run free through it, so games, puzzles, etc. have been disorganized. Gives me shivers. 

Here's my big boy helper Hamilton helping put together some IKEA shelving:

Here are the "before and after's."  It's actually a more dramatic difference in real life.  One can now walk in and about the closet, no problem.

 Today was all about tackling this third bedroom, which I have high hopes of turning into an adorable nursery.  Before today the only progress has been putting the nursery furniture in here, along with any other junk we haven't felt like dealing with. Ugh.  This poor room really deserves its own identity. It's been a haphazard office, a crowded guestbedroom/office, and now storage room....and always the place where "stuff" collects.

The closet isn't much better...

I did these bookshelves a couple months ago. They were IN the room before, so I was pretty stoked about getting them moved in here, books categorized and alphabetized, of course.

 And...TADA! Here's the room now! And no, the rest of my house isn't a disaster now.  There's been plenty of purging and reorganization.

And the closet! The shelf on the left was in the room this morning...and now it's in its new home. :)

Not too shabby, eh?

Projects left to do...hang some pics and a stuffed animal hammock in the boys' room and go through/store clothes they've outgrown.  Alex's dad and stepmom are taking the boys for a few days next week, so I'm hoping between spontaneous dates (yea! so did not appreciate these pre-kids), I also hope to get the nursery painted and furniture set-up.

And, yes, eventually I'll clean a bathroom or two. (boring)

Our Week: August 3rd

 Hello again!  We have returned from Utah adventures, but I'm saving that post for another day (like tomorrow night, when Alex is working...boo).  No matter how much fun a vacation is, it's always soooo nice to come home.  Your own bed, regular exercise, naps for Beckett, less car time.  We drove home Sunday, so we've been back to our usual antics this week.

Creating "nests" has now turned into building "hideouts."  Alex rightly pointed out that it is merely a pile of everything soft in our house (pillows, blankets, stuffed animals), but try to convince the boys of that.  I once made the mistake of showing them how to use a blanket to turn their bunk bed into a fort.  Hamilton was disgusted.  He is not disgusted, however, that I let him do this.  When I made him put it all away on Monday, but explained he could do it all again the next day, he beamed. Beamed, people.

This week also saw a return to our Adventure Wednesdays.  This week we headed to The Getty, which I've not been to in years.  The boys and I "took turns" enjoying the museum.  The played, ran, and explored outside then they climbed in the stroller for my turn in the galleries (I just chose 2 exhibits...Herb Ritts and paintings).  It must have been a good strategy because we stayed almost 4.5 hours, and I didn't leave thinking, "Never again!!":)

A couple Hamilton highlights...I pointed out three painting hanging on the wall and asked him which one he liked best, which one stood out the most.  He pointed at the middle one and pronounced, "Van Gogh!" He was right...it was "Irises."  Another Impressionist fan for you, Mama. :)

Hamilton also took strong notice of a picture of Christ...just his face and wearing the crown of thorns.  At first he was excited to recognize Jesus, then he was seriously wondering, "What's wrong? Why is there blood?"  This came up later in the car, as well, so it definitely made an impression. Interesting. And also intimidating to be answering heavy questions already! 

The boys played hide and seek in this area for awhile.

You can't tell, but they're looking at a waterfall. We went up and down this path, stopping each time the waterfall crossed our path.

Sincere smiles...we were cracking up trying to get all of us in the picture.

Kinda bummed when this maze turned out to be one you just looked at. (Hey, Getty, maybe lose the photo in your brochure where a person is actually standing in the maze. Very misleading. Sincerely, Mom who had to explain 20x to her kids they could not jump into the maze).

I texted this photo to Alex with the words, "We see you!" :)

Between being pregnant and being a fan of the Olympics, I'm feeling pretty rundown these days.  Rather than letting the TV do the work during the long final march to bedtime (although, pssst..confession: the TV is why I can blog right now), I've been trying to get out and do something.  One evening we walked over to a nearby park.  Not a bad time killer :). 

Thursday we met up with friends at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica.  It's pretty cool...there's a beach, a pool, play equipment, a splash pad, and a cafe. It's reasonably priced, and having to make reservations in advance ensures the pool isn't overly crowded.  Being in a swimsuit makes me pretty sad, but playing in the pool with my cutie boys was awesome.  Plus celeb sighting! Chad Lowe! Would have been even cooler if he hadn't smiled at me knowingly ("Yeah, hi. You recognized me then told your friend. Settle down.")

If one time at the beach is nice, than twice is even better?  Here's our time killer for Thursday night:

Tonight we're going with a bunch of friends to a Dodger game! And here are the pics!

Kieran and Hamilton. They laughed pretty much the whole time. These dudes have been going to games together since....forever?

We've lucked out and had some pretty sweet seats this season.  Of course, the most exciting game, we're the farthest away.  hahahahah.  Not bad for $6/ticket though, eh?? And is there or is there not something totally magical about a baseball field? Love it.

Our group took up two rows (not including the nice Tawianese couple directly behind us). I'd like to think I look better and less enormous in "real life," but this is probably (and sadly) untrue.

Beckett had a red sucker and wanted to see if his tongue was red.  My iPhone camera was our best "mirror," and we accidentally took a picture.
 

Dodgers beat the Cubs by 5 runs; it was great to see Kemp and Ethier playing alongside some great, last-minute trades. (sidenote: I have a soft spot for the Cubbies, so it felt a little bad beating them) Because it was a Friday night game, we got fireworks after. This is family life in LA...I love it! :)


Facebook Statuses:

• Marriage tip of the day: When your wife tells you she had a horrible dream in which you asked her for a divorce, refrain from variations of the following response, "Did it come as a surprise? I'd like a happy marriage...every marriage is going to need some work."
• For better or worse, a guaranteed way to have your kids independently play together for an hour+ is to ask them to "clean up."
• Hamilton: "Mom, does Daddy have the Force or the priesthood?"
• I went to bed at 9pm last night. And I've been telling myself all day not to freak out about this "strange and unusual feeling" I'm experiencing. It's called "well-rested."