San Diego Day 1

Sunday 3/8 – Day One Life is good!!! Here I sit on a beautiful sunny day in San Diego and after a winter full of gray days and rain this pretty much seems like the best place on earth. The only thing that could be better is if I were sitting out in the sun writing this. But Hailey is napping which is a good thing and view out the window is of the ocean and all the people walking/running/biking along the Oceanside trail so I won’t complain. Here is what we look out to.

So now some background. We rented a condo for our stay so we could have a kitchen (eating out every singe meal with small children is not at all appealing) a separate living area while the kids are sleeping, and what may turn out to be most important a coin operated laundry in the building. The condo has turned out great. It is very clean. We all share a bedroom (a bit of a nightmare last night but hopefully it will all work out fine) and the kitchen is great. The location however is awesome. We are right on the beach which is fantastic.

This morning ended up being daylight savings and after our travels yesterday we slept in until 7:00 which ended up being 8:00 and then I slept in a little longer…just because. After we were ready to start the day we headed out for a walk along the beach which turned right into playing at the beach. There are always surfers out on the water and this morning we say a bunch of dolphins jumping in and out of the water (very cool). Tyler somehow slipped jumping in the tide and came back crying and soaking from head to toe. Once we convinced him it was ok to be wet he had a gret time running back and for the from the waves. Hailey was also very excited and the minute she say the ocean started saying “swimming, swimming”. She too enjoyed letting the tide go over her feet….ok and all the way up her legs. She also was very vocal about her displeasure in leaving the beach when we decided it was time to actually take our walk. We already realized how great it is being so close to the ocean since before our walk we were able to quickly run upstairs, shower off out sandy Tyler and put some dry clothes on him (and her). Our walk was great and we found some great looking restaurants to try out (or take out J). I’m already getting the itch to go for a run along the beach or trail as I watch person after person go by and I know Dave is too.

Welcome to San Diego

Saturday 3/7 – Travel Day
WE are happy to finally be in Sand Diego and have the flying out of the way. Ty did an awesome job on the plane. There were a few tears as we landed because his ears hurt but other than that he was very excited to be on the plane. He didn’t even want to watch a movie or anything on the computer because he was enjoying watching out the window and doing some coloring.

Hailey on the other hand cried a lot and LOUDLY. He did take a short 30 minute nap (thankfully). But overall wasn’t real happy about being stuck in her seat. And she was really mad every time I told her to stop pushing the seat in from her with her feet (and I feel real sorry for the man that was sitting in front of her who not only had to listen to her screams but got repeatedly kicked in the back as well. The landing was rough on her ears as well. Once on the ground all was good and made our way to the condo with a very excited Tyler and a very tired (though quite funny) Hailey.

By the time we unpacked, got something to eat and went to the grocery store it was time for bed. We have a queen bed and two pack and plays. Tyler slept in his pack an play until about 3am. Hailey had a real rough time falling asleep and then woke up crying and ended up in out bed about midnight. It is the first time she has ever actually slept with us…she usually much prefers to be by herself. It was a crazy night as she was all over the place. I felt like we spent most of the night with Dave sleepingwith about 3 inches of space. Tyler and I sleeping widthwise on about ¾ of the bed (my legs hanging over the edge of the pack and play (not comfortable) and Hailey pretty much overtaking the rest of the bed. We are hoping tonight goes better.

Getting excited

Tyler is so excited for our trip. I printed a map of Sea World out for the kids today......

Tyler is excited about everything. Hailey is concerned that the map has a picture of Elmo, Ernie, and Big Bird but not Cookie Monster. (Sea World is having a Sesame Street exhibit right now....perfect for Hailey).

Sleeping arrangements

Tyler has always had intersting sleeping habits. He sleeps great, it's how he sleeps that is usually crazy. He doesn't have a typical lay in bed with your head on the pillow and pull up the covers set up. As you've seen in previous posts, his bed is filled with blankets and pillows and other snuggly type stuff. His bed is packed full really and maybe as parents we should do something about it but he is very happy. He has always slept in crazy ways, blankets pulled all the way up over him, underneath pillows, you name it. At some point we probably need to lay down some guidelines and we may very well be at the point. Here's how Tyler has slept the last couple of nights.

His sheets are actually red. Note that you basically can't see them at all here because he has set out all his pillows and is sleeping on top of them.

And tonight he is literally sleeping on a TALL pile of pillows.

Is it right to force your child to sleep a certain way?? Do we let this craziness continue?

Hailey's newest phrases

Hailey's newest phrases from the last few days:

I know
Mom, come back
Wait for me
no, I not (translation...no I won't do whatever you just asked me to do)

today's creation

This was Tyler's creation of the day. Basically a fancy basketball hoop but when I asked him what it was he said "a super duper hooper", which I thought was a great name.

Soccer begins

Tyler's indoor soccer at the YMCA started today. Tyler has been looking forward to soccer for months so he was very excited all day! It's so fun/funny to watch these 3/4 year olds play. They just have so much energy and so little attention span and it is just so hard to not touch the ball with your hands. They played a green light/red light game where they had to dribble the ball on the green light and stop the ball with their feet on the red light. They probably played this for about 5 minutes and I don't think there was one child who didn't reach down and stop the ball with their hands......every single time!

They also picked a team name tonight. They were in a circle on the other side of the gym discussing names so I couldn't hear what all the options were. I could hear suggestions being offered and they seemed to narrow it down to about 4 names and then they had to vote. The coach told them to raise their hand for the name they liked best. The coach said the first choice and up when Tyler's hand. The coach listed the second choice and up went Tyler's hand. The coach listed the third choice and up went Tyler's hand. The coach list 4th choice and up went Tyler's hand :). And I'm pretty sure Tyler wasn't the only one. Somehow the coach narrowed it down to two names, Blue Angels and Blue Thunder. On to their hand raising scheme the coach told the kids to stand over here for Blue Angels and over there for Blue Thunder. Tyler and his friend Mason were the only ones standing on the Blue Thunder side and ALL the other kids were on the Blue Angel side. After practice when I asked Tyler what the name of his team was going to be he said, "Blue Thunder, that's what Mason and I picked". Sometimes his logic makes total sense even though it's entirely wrong :).

The fun part for me was Hailey. I sort of knew going into this that she wasn't going to be very happy sitting on the sidelines. It was toughlast year and she was barely walking back then. I brought her soccer ball so she could play over with me but of course that was not acceptable. Every time the coach called the team over to a circle so they could talk, Hailey would bolt out onto the court (the play on half a basketball court) to get her place in the circle. And she was none to happy when I would scoop her up halfway through her run over to her brother. Hailey actually has an outstanding soccer kick for her age and though I thought it would be good for her and I to kick along the sidelines the only place she would kick was straight out onto the court...which was of course very inconvenient. Her other source of entertainment was facing the cement wall, having me hold under her arm pits and then she would walk her feet up the wall until she was basically upside down. At that point she would say over and over "I'm a mountain". I didn't even know that she knows the word mountain, much less what it is. The straw that broke the camels back for Hailey was when the team played follow the leader and went running around the gym in full speed sprint mode. I should mention that Tyler and Hailey spend a good portion of their day running around the house (or outside on a good day) after each other. When the teams follow the leader started, Hailey's face lit up and she went full on sprint (which is fast) out to get Tyler. I got to her as quick as I could and carried her back but she was devastated. Full on going bananas with tears and crying "running, running, running.". Sometimes it's so hard being the little one, especially when you think you are your brothers equal.

Sorry, no pics with this. The hornet kept me to busy to take pictures. I'll try and get some soon.