Eating Buddy

I had lunch today with my good friend, Laya, whom I worked with at Clorox. She was pregnant with her son, Eli, the same time I was with Nicholas. I blame her for my gaining 35lbs. We ate lunch and snacks together everyday. That's not even counting the trips to TCBY. She didn't force food down my throat, but she might as well have. She ate so much, I felt pressure to keep up or maybe it was the other way around.

She is about to deliver her second son. Noon tomorrow to be exact. Just wanted wish her a speedy recovery and looking forward to meeting little Beckham.

Lazy Weekend

Has it only been a week since our trip to Cali? Long week, I tell you. It's been nice having the weekend to ourselves to relax. We went over to the Promenade mall last night after dinner and made a stop at the candy store for dessert. Nick loves Jelly Bellys and delights in pointing out the colors he wants. He chooses all colors of the rainbow, including black. And he actually eats them! Disgusting. He also loves watching the lights change colors at the water fountain.

We had lunch at the Monte Ne Inn today. It's been years since we've been there and it was delicious as ever. We ate at least 12lbs of chicken and copious amounts of mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, coleslaw and bean soup. Everything is served family style and it's all you can eat.

Nicholas has taken an interest in football lately, and learned how to take hand offs from Scott and run it in for a touchdown (sort of, his own version anyway). Scott's attempt to teach him pass patterns didn't go over quite as well. I say the next step should be calling audibles and reading defenses. We'll let you know how that goes.

Here are my boys watching football and munching pringles

My Wish For You

The posts on this blog are normally about Nicholas. However, my friend, Beth, has inspired me to post a few things about moi. Namely, things I would like to be "surprised" with by my wonderful husband and family. I always see things I think would be cool to have, but I can never remember during very crucial times, such as my birthday, x-mas, anniversary, flag day, etc... So I've decided to start my very own wish list. Once I've generated a long enough list, I'll compile them on the sidebar (for easy reference, of course.) The very first item on my list is...

The ProCaulk Tool Kit

Next Top Model

Check out our little poser. He was hamming it up last night.




You've probably noticed my new layout and I hope you like it. I'm still messing around with several different ones. Some of them might be difficult to read, but please bear with me. This current one is in celebration of Autumn, my favorite season.

Ok. All Done.

I was having a serious phone conversation the other day, when Nicholas kept interrupting me by whining and tugging at my shirt. Despite several requests to cease, his antics got louder and louder. So I told him to go sit in his time out corner. Normally, I set the timer for 2 mins, but forgot to. About 10-15 mins later, I hear, "ok. all done." Ooops. Still on the phone, I had forgotten all about putting him in time out. Poor kid, he had been sitting there the whole time. Although he has not interrupted my phone calls since then.

Hysterical

Everybody has songs that are associated w/ certain memories of an event or person when they hear it. I had one of those moments today listening to the radio in the car and just had to share it. Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me came on and I laughed out loud. Not only b/c it's Def Leppard, but b/c I always think of our neighbor, Cliff, growing up. Cliff, with your Freddie Mercury-esque looks, always washing your Pontiac Fiero in your cut offs while blasting this song, this post goes out to you.

You Did What?!

Disneyland!! I think Scott was more excited than Nicholas. Nicholas had an "eh, what's all the hubbub about?" expression on his face the whole time. Now that I think about it, he often has that look on his face. Not yet 3, and a hardened cynic like his mama. He actually had a good time and loved all the rides. If you ask him, he'll tell you that he rode a rocketship (twice!), elephant, boat, horsie and a catapillow. We didn't get to see Mickey, but Goofy and Pluto were on hand. Not that he wanted anything to do with them. We went on a Thursday so the crowd was not too bad, if you consider being swarmed by strollers of cranky kids in the hot California sun not too bad. A big thanks to Hai for his Mickey ears. He loves them and wears them around the house all the time.

Seriously, your guess is as good as mine.

We also went to a man made lake in Mission Viejo. The weather and view were spectacular. We got in a paddle boat, played in the water (which Nicholas loved, until he got water in his nose) and ate KFC. Life was good. Except, Scott and I foolishly forgot to put sunscreen on ourselves. Nick probably wondered why his parents had changed color. Don't worry, he was slathered in sunscreen.

We mostly hung out w/ family, but all in all a great trip.

Airprwane Wide

So how did Nicholas do on his first plane ride? Not too bad, considering we had a 7am departure. The first leg of our flight from here to Dallas was 45 mins. There was teeth-clenching, seat kicking, howling and general shows of displeasure for only 40 mins of it. He clapped and giggled during turbulence and the landing. I mean, really, what more could you ask for? I'll have to check, but I'm almost positive that under FAA regulations you are allowed to beat your child. You must be airborne and use a flotation device or something like that.

Our mistake was making him sit in his car seat on the plane. We thought he might be more comfortable. He hated it and kept trying to get out which he never does in the car. On our second leg, we valeted the seat and just had him sit normally. We had our fingers crossed the entire time and he was awesome on that 3 hr flight. Our flight back was a little rough. We had to wake up at 3:30am to catch our flight, and sleep had been in short supply during our entire trip. It was pretty good all things considered. But let's just say he won't be flying again until he turns 18. Sounds reasonable.

Enjoying his inflight video

Mini Break

We're back! I hope everyone missed us terribly. We got in yesterday and have been trying to catch up on some much needed rest. We had a fantastic time with my family out in Corona, CA. We stayed w/ my cousin, Khoi, and his wife, Hai and their 3 kids. Nicholas had a great time with his cousins Matthew, Megan and Nicholas. Thanks so much guys for having us and showing us around. We miss you already.
Unfortunately, our camera wasn't working, but we did use my brother's. I'll have pictures up as soon as I get them from him. You'll be hearing more from me shortly.

And We're Off

Well, it's T minus 8 hours or something like that before take-off. We'll be leaving very, very early tomorrow morning. So, I'll keep this short.

I wasn't kidding about the short part. Toodles.

It's Genetic, Dummy!

Nicholas is not what I would call a super picky eater, but he certainly has his likes and dislikes. One of our biggest issue is just getting him to try something new. We know he'll like most foods once he tries it, but getting it into his mouth is a challenge. After much experimentation and observation (this morning), I have developed a foolproof method. It involves no coaxing, demands or threats. Ready? I simply eat the food in front of him without offering him any. His "I need to check this out" radar goes off immediately. I'll ignore his demands for a bite and he'll grab my hand to shove the food in his mouth. Genius!! Well, maybe not so much genius as he is genetically predisposed. Whenever we go out to eat, Scott's dish always looks and tastes better than mine, even if I order the same thing.

He's got his game face on.

Dinner Guests

We had the lovely Pittman family over last night for dinner. It is always great seeing them, especially the kids, Kate and Luke (baby Wuke, as Nicholas calls him). We're so happy that we'll be able to see them more often. Nicholas and Kate got along fabulously. And by fabulously I mean he eyed her warily most of the night, but did not growl at her. All kidding aside, when they finally made it up to the playroom after dinner, he shared his toys (well, some of them anyway) and played companionably alongside each other. We were very proud of him. I'm sure there will be more play dates in the future. Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries, so I was only able to get one decent picture the whole night. If you look closely at the photo below, you'll notice how hard I slaved over dinner. What you don't see are the wonderful "homemade" cookies Beth brought over. Great minds think alike.

Did I Stutter?

Here's a typical afternoon when Nick is home from MDO(mommy's day out).

Me: Would you like orange juice or apple juice?
Nick: Orange juice
Me: Okay, orange juice it is.
Nick: Noooooooooo. Apple juice.
Me: You want apple juice?
Nick: Noooooooooo. Apple juice.
Me: That's what I just said.
Nick: Orange juice.

Me: Would you like to play upstairs?
Nick: Noooooooooo. Play upstairs.
Me: Would you like to read a book?
Nick: Noooooooooo. Read book.

He had asked, very sincerely btw, to go to Hanna's house. I heartlessly told him that Hanna wasn't home, that we could go some other time. Below is his reaction.

About That Cough...

So I took Nicholas to see his pediatrician this morning for his cough. He's had it for a good 2 weeks now, but no fever. Good thing I did, too. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Doc says it's sounds scarier than it really is, that it typically clears up on it's own after a month or two. But not wanting to take any chances, he put him on really strong antibiotics. Poor little fella. He was not pleased with the doctor poking around and howled like there was no tomorrow. He did manage a grin when the doc gave him a sticker though.

He's in good spirits, wearing his new cowboy hat from Uncle Nghia.

I'm Baaaack

Well, after a sinus infection, no internet connection and a functioning computer, I am finally back up and running. For those who didn't know, we've been in our new house for almost two months. I'd say we're about 90% complete. Everyday we find something new that we've crammed into a temporary spot and forgot about.

Nicholas adjusted to the move after 3 weeks and enjoys having his own little playroom "uppa stairs". He also enjoys taking long walks around the neighborhood and telling me the color of every door on EVERY house. He is back in mommy's day out twice a week. Gives me a little time to clean and run errands. Oh, but I pay for it later when he's home, as he never takes naps there anymore. Disagreeable becomes his middle name.

So we are a week away from our trip to CA to visit my family. This will be Nick's first plane ride and I'm a bit nervous. We're excited though, we plan on visiting Disneyland. He's been really into Mickey Mouse lately.

Our Phanfare website is updated, with pictures, at least. Since this computer is back up, I'll be able to take more pictures and upload them. That's it for now.

Here he is helping Scott with the yard work. Actually, he ended up with more grass in his hair than in the dustpan.

Enjoying the new back yard. Somebody feed that kid!