Some mornings Julia wakes up when I get up.
It makes me nervous to have her up on the bed, awake, when I'm not right there.
Something about her falling off, it's not good for the head.
She likes to snuggle in the blankets or climb the pillows in search of remote controls until it's time to get dressed.

Here is our compromise.
She's still snuggley warm and not falling off the bed.
Yes, that's all her own hair.

Picking Antonio up from daycare Monday afternoon, they told me he had a loose tooth.
I seriously think that just the spit in his mouth was keeping the tooth in.




He just exhaled and had his finger next to it & it fell out



New toothless smile




Didn't the little stinker put the tooth in the tooth box, in his pillowcase, on the bottom of two pillows, directly under his head...
ya know...
so the tooth fairy could get to it easier.

On our way home Sunday, we stopped by the zoo for a little visit.

Antonio saw a snake and made friends



They have a children's play area that is pretty great.
I had my act together enough when I packed for Grammas to anticipate this & brought his swim shorts. And then, even remembered to bring them in my bag to the zoo.
Amazing!



Showing off his superhuman jumping skills



Julia pretty much hung out on this toy, it was shady and none of the big kids were interested in it



She did spend some time at the tank where the flounders were, yelling at them. She went back to the rock when she tried banging on the glass. They can't run away like squirrels can.

At Grammas house Julia adores the stairs.
We all have to be on climbing stair watch, even Antonio.

Here he is after catching her, yet again, sneaking up the stairs.




Julia is employing her arms up and lead butt escape tactic.

Gramma and I took the girl on a much needed trip to Ikea.
The boy stayed home with Grandpa and they spent the day at a park flying kites
Julia proved to be a fantastic little shopper. She picked out Blue Dog as her treat for the day.
He ended up coming in handy.




Here she is, still sleeping, after checking out. We had to take Blue Dog away for a minute to ring him up.

After dinner is Juila's semi-nekkey time.
One thing I've learned is to remove all clothing before meals, makes life so much easier.
Then there's not a lot of time between 'after dinner' and 'bath' at our house it's usually a direct shot from highchair to bath tub. At Gramma's we do things at more of a relaxed pace.

She is just tall enough to see out Gramma's front window, but not quite tall enough to reach it to pound and scream at things outside. Like she can on the back door where the squirrels come to get peanuts. They really don't come for peanuts if they see her at the door. Something about the screaming or is it the banging on the window that makes them nervous.

I just like this picture, the wild hair, the look, the cute shoes...

Julia isn't yet walking on her own, but can get around pretty well by walking along the walls, cupboards, pushing chairs around in front of her or hitching rides on legs that walk by to slowly.

At any given moment when we're in the kitchen together, I can look down and see this




Little barnicle.

Antonio's soccer practice is at the Junior High School near-ish to our house.
It's almost a full fledged hike to get to the practice field. Down hill from the parking lot, across the track and baseball fields to the very furthest part of the school's property is where his little practice area is.
I like that it's a ways, because he can run off some yah~yah's.
I do not like shoving the umbrella stroller with Julia in it, through all that grass and rocks and everything. Plus, it' doesn't have a rain protector hoodie thing.
The big stroller isn't any better, although it does have a visor.
I needed something with all terrain capabilities!
After doing some retail investigating and on line browsing, I found a great deal on Overstock.com & with shipping only one dollar (!), I couldn't resist.

Yesterday, the box was waiting for me when we got home.
By some stroke of luck, maybe some kind of karmic payback from my recent home improvement projects, I got it put together without a problem.

Here's Julia, in her new jog-stroller.




She looks grumpy, well because she is. It has a great 5-point harness system and she was less than thrilled about how securely she's strapped in.

Julia trying to smile through the frustration of being so efficiently harnessed in new jog stroller


Notice the death grip she has on the sides?
I hadn't yet adjusted it for her to sit completely stick straight up. Reclining isn't her deal.



After all of the adjustments were made, we took a spin around the neighborhood, complete with off road testing. Julia was happy to be moving, and I was more than pleased at how effortlessly I was able to transition from cement to grass to stairs.
The final test is this afternoon at soccer practice. Hopefully I can fit it through the maze entrance in the fence.

With one child tucked into bed and fast asleep, the other one decides sleep isn't an option just yet.

I think I can sit down and watch a movie, well, at least have a decent chance of watching some of a movie until she winds down

Magic Pokey Finger gets curious.





At first I think she'll get bored with it if I just ignore it.


Not the case.
She keeps it up, alternating between turning the TV on and off and putting the menu display on. She even gets tricky and uses both Magic Pokey Fingers.



I set down my popcorn to go paw through art supplies to rig up some temporary fix for anti-button-pushing.

Then her real motive became obvious...

Before breakfast, Julia did a little yoga near the window getting the best morning light
Here she is in Downward Awkward Dog .




Her new method of getting around.
She pulls up on a chair and pushes it around the house. As she bumps into something, she'll change sides and push a different direction.





I have dining chairs abandoned around my house

Antonio's latest project




Beeerrr-neer-neerrrrr!



deelie-deelie-deeliedeelie-neeerrrr

beeliedeet-beeliedeet!-beeliedeet!




brwreeerrrrr!

squeeeeeeelEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeee


Thankyou



I'm out!
Have a good snacktime




Accoustic version

Countdown

Each link in the chain represents a day & that's how many days left until Daddy comes home.
After I cut all of the strips, Antonio has spent the past two days stapling them together to make this.



Every night, after bath and before bed, he gets to take a link off.
The last 10 days or so are red, so there's a home stretch set of links.
I left a few extras, since we're not quite sure which day is the homecoming day.
Here he is tonight, taking the first link off...



Only about 53 days left!

Some babies cuddle stuffed animals or blankets, or toys.
Julia woke up for a little bit last night & then went back to sleep on her own, snuggled up with her lovey...

Antonio's first soccer practice was today.
There are a total of six boys on his team, and they're all at about the same level.
They first practiced kicking the ball towards the coach and back.
Then they took a little break and decided what their team name was going to be.
The Lions!
Then back to the field for some more practice.

Here's Antonio during his first trip down the field with the ball..



and back...



and another trip...



I was feeling pretty great that he had cleats and shin guards, it never crossed my mind for him to have, you know, soccer shorts for practice.
They'll be providing uniforms when the games start.
So we picked up a few pairs of shorts and t-shirts & he should be more comfortable Thursday.


Oh, and here's Julia, hanging out with me

What is going on with Julia's teeth?
I've never seen them come in this order

When I woke up this morning, I was startled to see such a huge body in the bed.
Antonio had commando'd in during the night.
With both kids in the bed, I was suprised I had so much room, meaning, I wasn't clinging to the edge.

Once I got up I noticed that Antonio was snuggled up using Julia's butt as a pillow.



When I told him as I was waking him up, he was horrified to have his face so close to something that does stuff so gross

Julia and Antonio really have a good time together at dinner.
The chatter at each other and he shares bites with her.

The last swim lesson usually is the kids getting to play around in the pool after watching a water safety video.
Antonio has been anti-diving board since he couldn't keep from doing belly flops.
He's discovered that the slide is pretty much belly flop safe




Julia, as usual hangs out with me, has a snack and tries to escape from her stroller.



Antonio has only to learn how to do the butterfly and crawlstroke for 15 meters (or something like that) and he can advance onto level 4.
That'll be a good goal for this winter, after soccer.

Julia's busy and into the cabinet beneath the entertainment center 1.2 million times a day.
I finally got the screws I needed (the movers had lost) to put the handles up & purchased a cabinet lock this weekend.

You know, I don't think she even gave me the courtesy of noticing.

This week swim lessons end and next week Antonio's first soccer season starts.

With a few suggestions via email from Daddy, we headed out to a few shops to pick up the required shin guards and cleats.

Yes I did stop by The Store, and your guy did help us pick out shin guards.
They aren't selling shoes there, so went over to the soccer store you suggested.
They were really nice and helpful there, and after detouring Antonio away from the pink shoes, he narrowed it down to two pairs.

Here is what we decided on.



They match his shin guards, and that's red outline, in case you can't tell.

Here they are tried on when we got home



He is so excited! I think he'll sleep with them if he can get away with it.

Toilet paper is no longer safe within Grabby Little Hands' reach




Here she thinks she's getting a clean get away

Antonio's throat is still hurting him, so we visited the pediatrician today.
His, SpongeBob PediatricianPants, didn't have any openings, but Julia's did.

Of course, any event at the Naval Hospital isn't a small one, so after visiting her, and getting his throat swabbed. She asked that I hold the back of his head with one hand and put my other hand over his, I let her know he'd be cool, he's uncannily compliant with doctors. He was true to form, not even a twitch, she was impressed.
Then we had to go down to the lab to drop it off the goods.

Back up to the waiting room for a while & the results came back positive for strep. Then we had to go down to the pharmacy to pick up his shot antibiotics, why she didn't have them on hand, I dunno.

So, wait down there, the whole time he is just dreading getting a shot. He's worried about how much it will hurt, "less than the Chickenpox one? More? Ohhhhhh I don't want a shot!"
On our way back up to peds., he tried to convince me to throw it away and get outta there.

We're greeted by a corpsman who will be giving the shot, and Antonio is starting to panic. So I ask him, "Hey, do you want to get a tattoo when you're older?" he's nods excitedly, "Just think of this as practice for getting that tattoo."
A little bit braver, we go in the room.
Let me just say, I think he'll be re-thinking the tattoo business.
Poor guy, that shot just did him in.

After much limping out of the hospital, and very very carefully getting into the car, we stopped by Starbucks on the way home for green tea frappuccinos.
This helped a little, along with a healthy dose of cartoons.

Another new tooth!
the one on the upper right showed up today, completing her redneck vampire look
Pictures as soon as it peeps out more, and when I can get her mouth open long enough before she shoves something in it to snap one.

Poor thing has my hair.
Doesn't do anything you want it to, like hold a style.
But this is what happens after wearing pigtails all day...

Enough with the puking already!

Antonio wasn't feeling so hot when I picked him up from school, he decided to lay around instead of dashing outside to play. I figured he was tired.
We skipped swim lessons, since he seemed to need the rest.

I wasn't in the mood to cook, and Antonio has been persistent about wanting to eat out at a restaurant eat lately. We went to a great little Mexican restaurant and had some chicken burritos. Julia ate our rice and beans.

On the way home, he said he wants to go straight to bed, and not have a shower or anything.
Ok.
So, he gets changed and before I can get in his room to read a story, he's asleep.

Have a quiet evening after getting Julia to sleep.
Nice.

When I go to bed, Julia turns into nursy monster. Her
other tooth is coming in and she is being pretty savage about it.
I'm having a hard time getting to sleep, because Julia is restless.

Then Antonio comes in around 0100
He's all burning up hot, so I get him some medicine, which he argues with me about taking. He finally tries, and promptly barfs all over the bathroom, well,
after first puking in my hands.

Of course, Julia has to wake up about then.
So, I get Antonio taken care of, showered (he noticed puke on himself this time-the horror), clean clothes, help him blow his nose a million times to get
puke chunks out.
Clean the bathroom, while trying to keep Julia out of it.
Get Antonio tucked in beside our bed on his little mattress.

Then have to call 3 different people I work with , two here
and one in San Diego. To let them know I won't be in.
Of course there's a high maintence course going on right now.

So, after all is settled, Antonio gets all restless, and I'm able to get him to take his medicine (no barfing this time) and he decideds he's to hot so back to his room with the fan he goes.

It's 0202 and I am up writing because Julia is not ready to go back to sleep yet. She can't be reasoned with.
Hell I'm tired.

The girl learned a new trick today.
Today was beautiful, sunny, not too hot and a breeze. A perfect day for catching up on yardwork I've been neglecting.

I gave Julia a rice cake bite for each hand to hold & set her near me as I weeded our garden. She watched the boys playing baseball and seemed pretty content to just hang there. As I moved down the garden, which really isn't that far I'd keep looking over at her, glad to see she wasn't crawling off to scoop bark mulch into her mouth or eat dandelions or something like that.

Instead, when I wasn't looking at her, she was dipping her soggy rice cake in the dirt and eating it. I caught her mid-dip and watched her bring it to her mouth, then she realized I was watching her and tried to stuff the whole thing in her mouth before I got to her.

She won.

Yech.