A day at the beach

Liam and I went to Newport Beach last week with a friend and I can honestly say that our day was like a dream come true. Seriously, it was heavenly. I almost didn't go because the beach is almost a two hour drive from us and I have never taken Liam on a car trip that long without Paul. In case you haven't heard, Liam used to despise the car when he was a baby. He would scream and cry the ENTIRE time. I tried everything and the only cure seems to have been time. I'm still so traumatized, though. Every time an opportunity like this comes along I turn it down because I'm so afraid of a meltdown while I'm driving and helpless. It's just a mild case of PTSD. Anyway, the day before we left, I changed my mind. It was such a beautiful day and we had no other plans so I thought, "What's one day of torture?" I'm so so very glad I changed my mind because it went so smooth that I almost feel invincible. Well, not completely, but I am feeling a lot more confident in our four hour drive to Fresno next month for my family reunion. So, this is how our day went. 

We were greeted downstairs by this adorable little drawing Paul left for us. Is my husband cute, or what?

Then, we hit the road. Luckily, we carpooled so I could sooth Liam if needed but he didn't even make a peep until we were well into Orange County. Then I climbed into the back seat to entertain him for the last stretch of the trip. We grabbed some lunch then headed to the beach. Now, let me tell you about the heavenly part. We found free parking a few feet away from the sand and nobody was there. We practically had the beach to ourselves on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Divine, really.

The last time we took Liam to the beach he didn't really want much to do with the water. Of course, he couldn't even walk at the time. This time, he ran right in with his clothes on. His swim suit ended up being his outfit for the ride home. A couple of times he ran in without me and scared me half to death. He has no fear, apparently. The lifeguards were announcing rip tides and my baby was diving out to sea. Not to mention, the water was freezing. He loved it, though. He was splashing and laughing and running and falling in the mud. It was so much fun to watch. 

Every now and then he would come back up and play in the sand. He had sand in every crevice by the end of the day. In his mouth, ears, eye lashes, diaper, you name it.

The ride home went just as smooth and he slept like a rock that night. I can't wait to take him again.

Let's catch up

Hi there! It's been a while. I kind of wish I could say that it's accidental but I have actually had to prioritize my life a little better the last week or so. Instead of blogging, I've had to talk to "salesmen" from the bank that is refinancing our mortgage and I've picked up doing yoga again. I really needed to start a work out routine again and our mortgage payment really needs to be lowered so, apparently, those things take precedence. Let's catch up on what has been going on in Lori Land.

This is one of my Mother's Day presents from Paul and Liam. I totally picked it out but don't you still think it's so thoughtful? I ordered it from this Etsy shop, along with necklaces for Liam's grandmas. Theirs had the names and birthstones of their grandchildren.

In other news, I went to see Burn the Floor with a very good friend and it was absolutely amazing. The show was incredible and so was a night out with a friend.

Besides that, not too much has been going on with me personally. At least, nothing I can think of right this moment. I'm just enjoying nice weather and days out in the sun with my baby.

As for Liam, he is so ready for summer.

And his new favorite toys are his choo choos. He LOVES Thomas and Paul loves buying them for him. Seriously, we did some early birthday shopping for Liam so now every time Liam does something good (long car ride, trip to the dentist, you name it) Paul pulls out a train he managed to smuggle past me.

We have also been eating lots of guacamock as Paul calls it.

Oh, and occasionally we find choo choos on their ends like this. Kids are so strange. And that about catches us up. More posts to come.

Air Show

We went to the Chino "Planes of Fame" air show last weekend. It started out a gloomy, rainy, un-flyable (I'm pretty sure that's not a word) day and turned into a beautiful day by the time we arrived at the show. I can honestly say, to my husband's dismay, that I'm not that into airplanes. I mean, they are pretty amazing and I like when they do tricks and make loud noises but I can't tell one from the other. This is very unlike my husband, who can tell you complete histories of every single airplane or helicopter ever created. I don't know how he even memorizes the names when they are all letter-number combinations. I made a joke about the B52s (the band) and he very seriously told me that there were no B52s there. He didn't think I was very funny. Bless his heart, though. He tries to explain to me the differences and the stories behind them all and I really am interested but I don't remember which one is which the next time we talk about them. My brain just can't distinguish them for some reason.

Anyway, I still had a super great time at the air show because, even if I wasn't as impressed or excited or star struck about the airplanes, nothing beats seeing the look on his and Liam's faces. When they looked up, I looked at them. I loved seeing the passion in Paul's eyes and I loved watching him share that passion with our son. Though, I'm pretty positive Liam can't distinguish between them either. Not yet, at least. It was only his first air show. There are many more to come.

Bubbles

I haven't blogged in what feels like forever but has actually been about five days. Paul worked 70 hours this past week which left my head spinning. I think I handled it pretty well except that Liam just started acting... funny. If you have kids you should know what I mean. It was just an off day followed by a couple more off days. It's when they take two ginormous steps forward in development and you're so thankful for their increased independence just when they take a tiny step back that leaves you scrambling for your bearings.

He started crying about EVERYTHING. Morning diaper change, he cried. Getting dressed, he cried. The dogs weren't in the house, he cried. His shoes weren't on, he cried. His MICKEY MOUSE shoes weren't on, he cried. His shoes weren't OFF, he cried. You get the point. I think it's from his sleep readjusting again. He started waking a bit earlier than usual and was grumpy right off the bat but couldn't go back to sleep until nap time. I think we have it all ironed out. Whew.

One of his favorite things to do has been blowing bubbles. We do it every single day. Preferably with the dogs. He likes it when Emilia eats the bubbles. It has proven to be the best cure for a grumpy little boy.

San Diego Day 2

 

Our night in the hotel went really well. Liam kept playing with the phone, picking it up and saying, "Hello? Giraffe? Bye Bye," and in the morning we had breakfast at the hotel where he ate "cupcakes" also known as muffins.

Our second day was spent mostly at the San Diego Zoo where the weather was incredible. It was much better than the Safari Park and was a lot less walking and on much more level ground.

We walked around for the first half of our day and visited the exhibits. The giraffes remained Liam's favorites and I'm pretty sure they became ours as well. They are pretty incredible.

After nap time we took a bus tour which drove us around the park and stopped in front of the exhibits so you can see most everything in the park. I'm glad we took it even though we had pretty much already seen everything because we got to see the animals doing different things. Like, when we saw the polar bears earlier only one of them was out and he was sleeping in a cave. When we drove by, he was in the water playing with a ball and the driver stopped for us to stand and watch for a while. It made us get on the Skyfari (an aerial gondola) and head straight for the polar bears after the bus tour.

Oh, and we stopped by the petting zoo on the way.

We spent the rest of our evening hanging out and taking pictures in the helicopter they have at the polar bear exhibit. Paul and Liam were having a bit too much fun so we headed back to the hotel, ordered pizza, and headed home the next morning. We had a really good time and I'm so glad we purchased a membership because I'm positive I want to go back.

San Diego Day 1

We left Wednesday morning around 9am and went straight to the Safari Park in Escondido.
We had been pumping Liam up for days and he was so excited we thought he was going to burst. We had to buckle him in his car seat even though we weren't done loading up the car just to appease him and assure him that we were finally on our way. For a kid who used to despise the car, this is saying a lot. So we set off fully equiped with our elephant and farmer's tan.

At the park, we saw a bubble show that Liam watched in it's entirety with his jaw dropped. Then we walked around and looked at some of the animal exhibits. Liam really liked the elephants and we watched them walk around and eat for a long time. He is still talking about the baby elephant.

Then we went to the petting zoo which consisted of deer only. Little berries were falling from the trees so we picked some up and fed them to the deer. Liam was a bit nervous about being so close to them and didn't really want to touch them but he couldn't pass up feeding them.

Then Liam got pretty tired so we headed to the car for lunch and a nap. 

When we were all feeling a little more rested we went on the Africa Tram which is a guided tour through "Africa." This was the highlight of Liam's day because he got to ride the choo choo and see "Joo-raffs (Giraffes)."

One thing we weren't counting on was how far the Safari Park really is from the Zoo and our hotel. It's about forty minutes north which means it's about forty degrees hotter. No, really, it was about 95 and we were all sweaty and sunblocky and then we found a water park. Liam played with the other little ones in the water for the remainder of the day.

And I didn't think to take his shoes off so they spent the evening sitting in the sun drying out.

We checked into our hotel that evening, took a dip in the pool, ran to Target for more water and shorts for Paul. (He split his straight up the back as we were leaving the park. Hee hee.) We went for chinese then came back to settle in for the night. Now, here is a story for you. Paul was unloading the car and Liam and I were up in our room. I thought it would be funny to scare Paul when he came up. As I was looking for a good hiding place in our hall, the elevator doors started to open. I swooped Liam up and ducked around the corner to wait for him to walk by. I hear voices and recognize one of them as Paul's so I wait for the perfect moment to make my move while Liam dangles in my arms. An older woman with a British accent turned the corner and jumped and gasped. I was standing right in front of the door to her hotel room. "I'm so sorry," I say, "I was trying to scare my husband." She is still a little shocked then her husband and mine both round the corner and look at me with confused expressions. The first one to speak is Paul who says, "That's what you get." Then we all had a good laugh and the older man makes a joke about me being a stalker then we part ways. As we are walking away, Liam, who has remained silent and confused this whole time finally clutches his chest and says, "I scared," which makes all four of us laugh again until we entered our respective rooms. This concludes our first day in San Diego. To be continued...