What We Did for July 4th

I am so sorry it took this long to post photos. This was a FUN day! Mama's friend, Coleen, grew up on a ranch about an hour away from here. Her folks graciously host a 4th of July picnic every year. There's down-home cookin', a pool with a slide and diving board, a tractor museum, and fun tractor driving for the kids. Lucky us, to have friends like these.

So here are some (lots of) pictures from that day. I apologize for them being all out of order...Blogger does something weird when pics are loaded and I can't quite figure out the method to their madness. This is a result of an "update" to their services. ??!

Wide open spaces for riding around on a tractor.

This tractor only goes a couple of miles an hour. It has been specially rigged up for the kids.

Little P loved it.  Stefan helped him stay on course.

Seriously. He still dreams about this day. He wakes up and tells me how he was "riding a tractor last night."

This tractor is rigged so that the adult can steer. The kid only thinks he's steering.

Mama's favorite shot.

A three-in-one!

Coleen's dad has a tractor museum. He restored the tractors himself.

Little P is in heaven.

Any doubt about it?

You can touch everything. A toddler paradise.

Mama even got in on the action!

A suit of armor? This guy has everything!

Golf carts are the preferred method of getting around the ranch.  Here is our buddy Max (in the middle) and his cousins.

One view of the ranch.

You always need more of Mama, right?

One of the vintage pieces in a barn.

This is our beautiful friend Zoe. She is Max's sister.

I'm not into arranged marriages, but if I were...

A tired boy at the end of the day.

Papa and Stefan - his best bike riding buddy. Other ranch relatives hitching a ride.

BenTV 013: If he lived at the height of the Village People...

After the bath and before bed is Little P's happiest, wildest hour. Let this be a testament.

Cookies and Cream

Benjamin got ice cream last night.  And if you read this post, you know why.

After discussing the various kinds of ice cream, he decided he wanted to have Cookies and Cream.  Good choice, Little P!

Potty Training in The Pod

We're getting there. We started getting "serious" (if what we do qualifies as serious) a few months ago when Little P began a several-weeks-long campaign of bare bottomed-ness. He is now (mostly) in underwear. If you care to read about our journey, here it is.  If you have better things to do than to dwell upon the waste removal habits of a two-and-a-half-year-old, just skip this post.

To start off, some mamas are very good at setting goals and, with laser-like focus, meeting them.  Others are very good at doing things the way they are "supposed" to, as described by an expert or in a book.  I am neither of these. I can take those approaches, on occasion, when motivated to, but mostly I read up on my options and then see how things go once I jump into it. I'm the intuitive sort. (A total NF on the personality scale.) So it went with potty training.

I have heard of mamas who take a week to focus intensely on potty training. Some books claim that a child can be fully trained in that amount of time. (I question how "fully trained" would be defined...#1 and #2? Able to take naps in their undies? Trustworthy at the grocery store in undies? In a week?!)

I did not even attempt this method because I know myself well enough to see that this would be a dangerous way to go about it in The P-Pod. Here's why: I don't like to fail. I don't like doing things that I'm failing at. I am trying to get over this, but even the consciousness I have of my neurosis is not enough to prevent the feelings of frustration from arising.  I also have the habit of resenting the people or things that did not perform as expected.  By this I mean that, if I work hard and do everything I'm supposed to do and the result is not the one we were seeking, I feel annoyed and cheated and very, very irritable. (This will go away eventually, but still...)

I knew that if I set a deadline (one week, two weeks, by the end of the month) for Little P to be fully potty trained, I would be frustrated with him if we didn't make it. He doesn't need that kind of pressure. He doesn't need Mama's neurosis weighing him down like that.

I also knew that I did not feel like putting that much effort into it. Seriously...do you know how annoying it is to pull pants and undies and shoes off every thirty minutes, only to find that nothing comes out? That's nearly 30 trips to the toilet every day! Egads. Props to you mothers who actually did it that way. 

there's lots more...to keep reading, click the link

Train to the Pier

On Monday we took the train to the coast - it's about a 50 minute ride. We left around 9:00AM and returned in time for a nap. Lunch was a peanut butter and honey sandwich on a bench on Oceanside Pier. We also hung out at the playground on the beach, but somehow I forgot to take photos of that.

Fascinated with the surfers and the fishermen.

The Oceanside Pier is 1,954 feet long - the longest wooden pier on the west coast.

On the train

At the station

He looks out the window almost the entire time.

This morning's insight

While lying around on Benjamin's floor at 7:30AM, making Duplo rockets launch off Mama's tummy, out of nowhere comes...

LP: Mama, you're not a pirate.  (pause)  You're Jessica.

Mama:  Yep.

LP:  And I'm Benjamin.

Mama: Yes, you are.

The Stills

After viewing the video, I thought that a few of the pics might be ones you'd want and there would be no way for you to save them from the video. So here are some stills - a few of my favorites.

Nature Walk - Lake Hodges

This is what we do, every week or two; head out to some wooded area where we can smell the California brush and take a walk.  We call it hiking, though that's only because a quarter mile feels like a legitimate hike to two-year-old legs. This little jaunt started near a tire swing, took us through a eucalyptus grove and out into the open.  We found sticks and bird feathers and surprisingly pink flowers that popped up randomly amidst a lot of dead golden grass.

A few notable things:

1. Benjamin climbed a tree for the first time.

2. The striped legwarmers were all his idea.  It was actually quite warm that day.

Oh, lovely apples! Hanging on a potted tree. Apples that the boy doth water, sustaining life so fervently!



Ack! Lovely apples! What happened to thy perfect flesh? Perhaps a little elf passed by who thought thou looked too fresh?



Dear, lovely apple! I must apologize. The boy who acted as your tender took another guise.



Oh, my innocent boy! Tempted there to bite. Surely the sweetness of the fruit brought you much delight!

This Week's Fort

Mama was feeling a little out of ideas this week, and then she remembered...it had been WEEKS since The P-Pod's last fort!


Thus, one was constructed. Little P took his books inside, and his Lambie, and a Matchbox car or two, and happily stayed busy without getting into any lotions or soaps of any sort.


Any kids want to come play?

His Preferred Activity

Uh-Oh

We've been out in the sun lately, and Little P is obsessed with applying his own sunblock.


This would not be a problem, except that he's two. He has no concept of enough.


Mama came across this lovely scene after a migraine had descended, and she had spent 20 minutes talking to Grandma. Little P was quietly, and busily, occupying himself in the next room.



It's a good thing Grandma was taking him home that night. Mama is not sure she could have handled much more of this.


One whole tube - emptied.