Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Pictures from my trip to California

I just recently returned from a trip to California to visit my friend Amanda's sister (Audrey) who just had a baby. We flew into San Diego this past Thursday and returned on Sunday. It truly was a blast being with my 2 girlfriends that I've been friends with since we were kids. Hope you enjoy the pictures.


I surprised the girls with a limo the morning we were supposed to be taken to the airport by my husband, Jason.


A beautiful shot of Seal Beach.


On top of Mt. Soledad


Having lunch on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. Here we could watch all the strange walks of life parade by. Very entertaining!


Taking a break at Venice Beach.


Yes, this is me doing gymnastics at Venice Beach. I fit right in with all the other street performers except no one gave me any money just a few stares!


Us silly girls getting ready to head out for a night on the town. We hadn't even had a drink yet at this point even though the picture begs to differ!


Our fun night out at the Hermosa Beach pier. Yes, we had already had a few drinks when this picture was taken. Notice the name of the shop behind us. The name says it all!


Jenny and I at Hermosa Beach. This was the only real sunny day on the beach that we were able to experience so we laid in the sand fully clothed and attempted to take a nap. We ended up with sunburned faces and farmers tans. Oh well, it's the experience that matters!



Amanda and I up in the Hollywood hills with the Hollywood sign as our backdrop. So cool to see in person!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Running errands with a 3 year old is for the birds!

I've been told that the more one is exposed to an experience the easier and better it becomes. As for taking Carson with me when I have errands to accomplish, it's not getting easier or better. Take for instance today. We had a bit of running to do, but not necessarily a lot of items to purchase. It was mostly in and out of places which I thought wouldn't be too bad. HA! We began with a trip through the Dunkin Donuts drive thru (as usual) to get my small coffee with cream and sugar. Carson (as usual) was full of talk and questions. "Where is that car going? Who is in that car? Is that a car wash? I'm hungry. Can I have a donut? What's that dog's name? Can we play at that park? Where's my sippy cup? Is that a bank?" Literally he asked about 10 - 20 questions in a row. Talk about exhausting! He is so full of curiosity. Our next stop is to purchase salt for our softener. Luckily they too have a drive thru - so convenient! And again there is Carson in the back playing 20 million questions. So far non-eventful, but that's because Carson has been strapped in his car seat the whole time. Next stop, Walgreens. It was all good until we had to checkout. I am paying for my items, trying to keep Luke from grabbing things at the register and attempting to keep an eye on my wandering Carson. Well, sure enough I wasn't able to watch Carson close enough and he walks up to me taking a bite out of an apple. First of all since when did Walgreen's start selling produce and secondly why would Carson think it's a free for all and just pick up food and start to eat it at a store. We don't do that! So I add the partly eaten apple to the rest of the items I am purchasing and get ready to pay. I hear a lady behind me ask, "Are you buying two apples?" I look back and wonder why she would ask me that and then notice Carson has yet another apple and has begun to eat that one too! AGH! So I pay for the additional snack and make sure Carson is squeezed between my legs as I finish paying and get the heck out of the store. Unfortunately I still had 2 more stores to go to before we could go home. Next stop, Best Buy. Carson was actually pretty good in there. He had his ears plugged the entire time and kept asking me if we could leave because it was too loud. We were in and out of there in no time and at last the final stop - Target. By this time I knew Carson would have to use the potty so we stopped in the bathroom and as I am holding Luke and attempting to help Carson with his pants he starts trying to flush the toilet, pull the toilet paper out and lift the lid to the sanitary disposal bins. If he would just go pee and do one single thing it would make life so much easier for all of us. A lady walked into the stall next to us and of course here come the questions from Carson. "Who's that next to us? Does she have to go pee too? Can I look under and see?" Yeah, it was time to leave. So we wash our hands extra good and proceed to get our items. There is one thing that is not good about Target when you have a very curious child which is the service telephones that are posted throughout the store. If I stopped near one or even one that was in the distance Carson could not resist the urge to pick up the phone and begin to have a conversation with whoever was on the other end. This happened 4 different times with 4 different telephones. I am finally finished and we head to the checkout. Thankfully the checkout lady was engaging Carson in conversation which helped distract him so I could pay without another embarrassing episode. Yea, we were done and headed out the door. But Carson couldn't leave without at least one last incident. At the exit doors there was a piece of popcorn laying on the ground and Carson decided that he was going to pick it up and eat it. I stopped the shopping cart in the middle of the doors (unintentionally blocking anyone who wanted to exit the store) and tried to get him to spit it out. Well by the time he did spit it out there was a handful of people bottlenecked at the exit watching my pathetic efforts. Talk about embarrassment! These people probably thought I don't feed my boy if he has to resort to eating popcorn off the ground. I end up having to pick Carson up because at that point he wasn't into cooperating. And as I grab him and attempt to push the cart through the doors it gets jammed into the wall and there is a security panel which resembled a thermostat right at Carson's level. This child has quick hands and wouldn't you know it, he pushed a button on this panel and it made some beeping noise and I noticed it displayed a message that said "sensors restoring". I have no clue what he just did and wasn't about to find out. We booked out to the van without looking back and headed home so I could recuperate from the days errand run. The End. (This really is a true story! That's the sad part!)

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

More Observations from Carson


Hi everyone. Not much to post about lately and I haven't been on the computer as much as I used to since the weather has gotten warmer. We have been spending a lot of time outside these days. All of the fresh air really helps wear Carson out, but you would think it would help him sleep more sound throughout the night, but he is still waking up almost every night and coming into our room. When is this going to stop?!?!?! I also have had to continue to drive him around in the van in order for him to fall asleep and take a nap during the day. Otherwise he fights it so bad! The other night I peeked into the boys room during the middle of the night and noticed Taylor was not in his bed. He had crawled into Carson's. The next day I asked him why he slept in Carson's bed and he said that he had a bad dream and wanted to be by Carson. How sweet is that. Now if I could only get Carson to do the same thing when he wakes up. I have tried it, but he will stay in Taylor's bed for a few minutes before he comes back into our bedroom. I have heard of parents putting locks on the outside of kids rooms, but I can't bring myself to do that. It seems a little too much! Any suggestions out there?!?!?

Carson continues to repeat any and everything we say and do or that he sees or hears on TV. Just the other day Taylor was upset over something (I can't recall the exact situation) and Carson piped up, "Taylor calm down yourself. I don't want to hear you anymore." Gosh that sounded all too familiar! Do I say that a little too much for Carson to chime it back? It did make me laugh.

Carson also makes me laugh when he doesn't quite get what you said and it comes back out the way he interpreted it. For instance, the other day he told me he had to go potty. So I asked him, "Do you have to poop or pee?" Except I did not enunciate my words so it came out slurred and sounded like I asked "poor 'er pee." Carson looks at me with a confused look and asks, "Whose pooper?" Oh I love it!

Luke got a new drum toy from his Uncle Chad for his first birthday we celebrated this past weekend and Carson has been enjoying it a lot. It plays different tunes and one in particular is a John Phillip Sousa song - kinda of like one you would hear in a 4th of July parade. Well, Carson was so quick to make this observation. He brought the drum to me and said, "Hey this song is in Back to the Future. Save the clock tower!" I had to think about it for a moment, but then I got it. The scene where Marty and his girlfriend are sitting on the park bench and the lady come up to them and yells, "Save the clock tower!" And then a van goes by playing this "marching" music that's promoting Goldie Wilson for mayor. Carson is so observant - he shocks me!