We went with some friends up to the Trail of 100 Giants for Memorial Day picnic. It turned out to be a great day--Trevor got to run and climb all over the place, we got to be in that foresty smell and we had beautiful weather. Most of the pictures we ended up with have Trevor on the go because that's pretty much what he was doing all day. John said he put him in a red shirt so he'd be easier to spot.
One of the families has an 11 year old boy who likes kids a lot and usually tries to get Trevor to smile, which usually results in Trevor being suspicious and not wanting much to do with him. With the longer than usual visiting time with him and Trevor being able to see all the amazing stuff an 11 year boy does, he seemed to quickly develop a man-crush. It started with Trevor following Matthew around and complimenting him ('good throw Matthew' 'good job Matthew') Then progressed to Trevor giving orders. John explained to them both that Matthew didn't have to do everything Trevor wanted him to... Trevor seemed to catch on and tone it down a little bit. Here's a picture of them taking a break to go fishing.
And Ryan continues to look cute in swings... we stopped at the park in Kernville on the way.
As many of you know, I like to drag birthdays out as much as possible and usually institute 'birthday weekends' instead of single days. So in order to pass my tradition down to Trev, we had a birthday weekend for him this past week. The timing was great since John had to be in LA for work at the end of the week anyway--so Trev, Ryan and I spent Thursday roaming around Downtown Disney and then we headed down to Sea World the next morning. We picked Sea World as his first theme park because he's pretty interested in animals and we thought he'd like to see some real ones up close. And we figured that the lines at places like Disneyland might be pushing his patience. That, and Ryan and whoever would be Ryan's keeper wouldn't be able to go on anything at the more ride focused parks.
It turns out that we didn't really need to actually go inside Disneyland anyway. The Downtown part was pretty exciting enough. After we got there he quickly pointed out a mickey mouse head. We were counting them for a while, but the numbers got out of hand. The biggest attractions were the multiple fountains. At first we just looked at them and touched them if the water was high. Then I started giving him pennies to make a wish. It was super cute--I told him to make a wish before throwing it in so he held on to his penny, closed his eyes and very softly said "I wish I wish with all my heart to fly with dragons in a land apart" (those of you who are familiar with PBS kids or Trevor will recognize this as the dragon tales cartoon chant). He continued to do this at every other fountain we came across (and that he could get a penny out of me for).
Ryan and his first piece of flare.
The Rain Forest Cafe was also very exciting. I think that Trev liked it more during the day when it was close to empty. They had a talking tree that he decided was his friend. It left little pauses while it told you about the many products you could purchase there, so he could sort of have a conversation with it. I made a reservation for dinner there that night since he was so excited about it. But turns out at night time everything gets tons more crowded and tons louder. And they have these thunder storms every fifteen minutes that are super loud and the lights dim. I think both the boys were slightly traumatized after having dinner there. But I sacrificed and bought a fancy adult beverage that came with a cup that flashed different color lights. So being able to leave with that and his little wand from the volcano cake made the evening a success in his book.
The next day we headed off to Sea World with I think maybe a little less energy after already spending a day with new and exciting things. We went to the dolphin and sea lion shows first and Trev pretty much stared at them and laughed occasionally. I think it was a bit of an odd thing to see and he was taking it in. He was a lot more animated at the different exhibits--loved the aquariums and looking at the animals up close. I think he was into the manatees the most, but that could have been because I was hyping them up because I liked to hear him say 'manatee'. They also have a Sesame Street land in the park with a few little kid rids and a huge net to climb up and tunnels to crawl through. The lines were pretty short too, so it was a nice break from looking at things. We ended up bypassing nap and staying the entire day at the park. Trevor was fast asleep in his carseat within a couple of minutes of being back in the car.
We went to a beach/playground area that both John and Trevor seemed to enjoy the last morning of our trip. Ryan seemed less than thrilled once he started to get a bit tired. I'm not sure if it was his being tired of sleeping in his carseat or his adjusting to cool damp air, but whatever it was had me walking up and down the bike paths. Trevor had a blast with the sand, shells, and seagulls.
And here's a video of hotel room entertainment. Ryan is really enjoying himself--his shrieks are of glee :)
We are happy to announce that Grandma and Grandpa Carter did indeed make it all the way to California and had a nice visit. Ryan got to meet them for the very first time and Trevor got to re-meet them, now that he's at an age he can remember people better.
Grandma Jackie seemed to fall under Ryan's spell, despite her thinking "he doesn't look like us". They are both the morning people in the house, so bonded often over bottles and rolling over practice.
Grandpa Bill and Ryan reading... well, Ryan is probably trying to figure out how to shove the magazine in his mouth, but reading sounds better.
Trevor has a mild fascination with grandparents' cars...
It's been crazy windy here lately (I think that the Wyoming people brought it with them) but we managed to get a couple of park visits. Ryan has just started to like the swing and Trev has been into riding his bike lately.
Play time with Trevor. Grandma Jackie became proficient in building castles and she and Trev both were pretty into puzzles. Grandpa Bill helped make play-doh pretzels.
You have to imagine Jackie making a big high pitched "EEEP!!!" sound when John got her with the foam gun.
The grandparents brought birthday presents for Trevor, so we had a practice birthday for him while they were here. When we first told Trevor about it, he said he did not want to have a party if it wasn't his birthday. When we reminded him that there would be cake and presents, he quickly decided to give it a second thought. Grandma Jackie made him "red cake" as requested, which was a lucky coincidence since she makes some very yummy strawberry cake.
And on the topic of 'pots'--Trevor is now doing his business on the potty! No daipers since Thursday morning. It wasn't at all as traumatic as I thought it would be and after a rough first twenty four hours (mostly rough for me and my worries about the carpet) he seemed to really catch on to the whole operation. He hasn't had any accidents for the last 24 hours, so we're a pretty excited little household.
I am continuing to enjoy the new ways Trevor 'gets it' with holidays and events and all. He's more interested in and excited about decorations, activities, and anticipating things. So here's some pictures...
Dying eggs (in his 'hawaii man' shirt)
We went to the Easter egg hunt at the park--his sitting with the bunny is a big improvement from last year when he wouldn't go near the thing. This year he seemed to just want to avoid having a picture taken. He even hugged the bunny before he left and talked about how the bunny doesn't talk for the rest of the day (this was a big deal to him because when Trev said 'hi' and the bunny just waved)
This is what Ryan did during the egg hunt activities...
Dying eggs
Ready...
Set GO!
Trevor quickly caught on to the candy being inside the eggs. He ate the gummy thing in the first one, then started sifting through to find some chocolate. I'm pretty sure he gets that from me.
Ryan has been working very hard at turning over. He managed to do it once, but he was unclothed at the time. So I guess turning while having clothes on is tricky. On easter egg hunt day I tried to dress the boys in their most easter egg like shirts. Ryan almost blends in with the quilt in the background...
I made bunny cake for Trevor and John to decorate(coconut restricted to the ears). It turned out beautifully and since it was cake the two year old was pretty sure we had to sing happy birthday... Trevor first thought it should be happy birthday bunny, but then decided that it was better to sing happy birthday Trevor. Any time there's a birthday now or reference to a birthday he insists that it's his birthday first. So he'll be happy next month when it is indeed his day.
(The big smile of a boy who knows he's going to get to eat cake!)
We have to take Ryan back in four weeks so they can measure his head again. His graph for head circumference is more of a straight line than a curve... so he wants to make sure it levels off a bit more. The doctor said it's nothing to worry about, he just has a big head. Then he looked at me and said "you have a big head too". I looked at Trevor's old measurements and his head size was a bit similar at the time. So there you go.
Here's a picture of Ryan next to his friend who will be one in May... he's not too far behind in size...
It continues to be nice here, so more time outside. Trevor found a bug the other day and managed to carry it around for quite a while without it coming to a devastating end. It was one of those pill bugs that roll up when they're threatened. So when he first picked the bug up it rolled in to a little ball. John explained that if he was nice to the bug it would unroll and it did--so then he declared it his best friend.
And today we were out playing with his new jump rope. He was requesting one and trying to use belts at home so we figured that maybe he picked that up somewhere... he doesn't quite have the coordination to get it to work quite right. So instead he decided it was good for whacking stuff and to use like a little lasso to drag things behind him. I think the label might have been right--jump ropes are for ages 5 and up.
Trevor and Ryan have been figuring out ways to play together. Trev has come up with a game where he drapes blankets over Ryan's play mat and they pretend it's a tent or a castle or a cave or whatever suits them. Today they were giants and in a cave...
March was rough. I think that someone in our house has been sick on any given day for the past several weeks. We seem to be passing one or two bugs back and forth--I think Trev and I had the worst of it. But we managed to do some fun things despite all the ickiness.
Last weekend we dragged our sick toddler to Las Vegas to meet up with my parents who were in town for an extended weekend. The boys got to spend a lot of time with the grandparents, John and I got to go out on a date and had time for poker and shopping. John placed in one of the poker tournaments at the TI and I 'won' a pair of shoes. I think Trevor's enjoyment was a little muffled by the sick stuff, but he was still pretty excited about going to the pool and over to the Mirage gardens. He was pretty into watching the dolphins in the "under water windows" and found the tigers to be pretty exciting too. Since he was with grandma he scored some tiger toys, but when she wanted to get him a t-shirt too, he explained "I already have a shirt at my house" (His daddy was very proud). John tried to take him to the pirate show outside the TI, but it was cancelled due to wind. Wussy pirates.
(This was a week before we went to Vegas, but I put it in because I brushed Ryan's hair back for an elvis look)
We got to fully experience the wind on the drive back to Ridgecrest. The visibility was sketchy some parts which made the traffic awful. I was driving because that morning John woke up with the sick bug and it took us a good 6 hours to get home (usually it's about three and a half). Trevor managed to not nap the entire time, but kept his cool in the car. However, when we got home he was pretty miserable. He's been up and down this week until finally he was sent home Thursday for a fever so John took him to the doctor to find out he has an ear infection. So he started an antibiotic and his disposition has improved immensely.
Ryan was the first to get sick, so has been okay the past week and a half. He's very excited about his hands now and grabbing things all over the place. He's also experimenting with scooting on his back. I put him on his play mat yesterday morning, was busy on the other side of the room and then when I looked back at him he had moved a good two feet or so to the other side of the mat. Since he's been into sticking things in his mouth I decided to try sticking some rice cereal in there too. I was surprised to find that he wasn't too into it yet. I think he ate a little bit, but mostly seemed to be excited by the new scenery perched up on the counter. He found it funny to watch me pretend to eat it, then made a sour expression when he at any point got some into his own mouth. So maybe we'll try again next week.
