A rare moment where they're both still and touching the same thing without any pushing or screeching involved.

Tonight, Antonio was trying to make a case for him being able to sleep in my room.
He thinks it's not fair that Julia gets to. I told him that no one sleeps in my bed unless they're sick or having nightmares. He pointed out that Daddy always gets to sleep in my bed. Then asked if I missed him sleeping in my bed.
"Well, yeah, I do," I replied "I miss daddy".
Antonio replied, "But it's okay when he's gone, because he snores." and then proceeded to do his narcoleptic Melman impersonation.





He has a point there...

Antonio wanted me to take a picture so he could see what he looks like when he yells.



Someone else wants to do the same thing as her big brother...

On the weekends, Julia doesn't have a set nap time. I've tried, but it just ends with both of us being frustrated & me exhausted, needing a nap more than her.
She's been pretty good about playing quietly until she's sleepy, then snuggling up on the couch to sleep.
Tigger, when in the house, likes to snuggle too.

The Man is out to sea again, so the kids and I headed down to Grandma's house after Antonio's soccer game on Saturday.

Today Grandma and I took the kids to the zoo.

We checked out the Asian exhibit, and watched the elephants for a while, but we ended up spending most of the time around the aquatic exhibits.

Antonio doing his best impersonation of a Sea Horse.




They took a quick trip on a seal near the tidepool exhibit.
Julia has started defining her space lately.



There is a great play area, so once we had finished visiting the animals, we turned the kids loose to run off yah~yahs before the long car trip home.




They recently built a carousel, and the kids wanted to go.
The last time Antonio rode on one, he hated it.
Too spinny and too up and downie.

After watching for a little bit, waiting for our turn, he decided he wanted to ride he beluga whale.
Julia got the one next to him.



Gramma had a tiger in front of us and I stood by to keep Julia steady.



There was a bit of a wait between picking out our rides and the carousel starting.
Julia began to look like she wasn't too sure about what she'd gotten into.



After two trips around she was done, trying to claw her way up me.
Once off her horse she enjoyed the rest of the ride.

It's soccer season!
Antonio had his second game today, and scored his first goal of the season.




He has two other boys from his team last year and three other boys that were on a team together last year.
So it's been nice for him to have familiar pals to play with and then new buddies to make as well.

What is going on here?




Someone looked pretty guilty when they saw me take this out of the trash...

Weekend mornings are for video games or cartoons. Video games is usually preferred.
Julia, of course, wants to play too, but the continuous crashing or falling off stuff is fun for her, not so much for the observers.
So she has her own controller and plays along.
No one needs to tell her the wireless dealie isn't plugged in.

I was able to get out of work a bit early, so The Man and I were both able to pick up Antonio from school this afternoon.

He looked so cute and so much like a kid standing in line outside his classroom waiting to be walked out to the pick up area.
He had a great day and had endless things to talk about. The getting settled in the classroom, the recess and the kids he knew already from daycare, soccer teams and his neighborhood.
He loved lunch, he said they read a story while the kids ate.
He came home with a happy stone from the teacher, a little glass crafty marble, because he behaved so well today.
When asked how 1st grade differed from kindergarten, he said that 1st grade was way easier than kindergarten, because he barley any classwork today.
I assured him that would change and things will pick up as the week goes on.

Tomorrow is gym day and he's excited to go back to school.

Today is Antonio's first day of 1st grade.
The Man and I took the morning off so we could walk him to school.
Antonio woke up at 0645 and was ready to start his day.
He was so excited!

Here he is just before we left




Last week he got to meet his teacher and see his classroom, even pick out his desk.
So when we got to his classroom this morning, he went straight to his desk, which is grouped with four other desks and started to get settled in.




I wanted to stay longer with him, honestly, I wanted to just spend the day, but he insisted he was fine and that he was okay if we left.

The Man is picking him up this afternoon & I cannot wait to hear about his day!

We've recently found out that The Man's next deployment is going to be 8 months long, instead of the usual 6 months.
This has caused us to do some evaluation and think about ways we should prepare for him being gone so long.

Along with some home improvements, we've been looking at getting me a new truck.
The one I have now works for us, but we could use some more space, and while Antonio is the best road tripper, Julia is not.

So, we spent the weekend shopping around and came home with a Honda Pilot.
I dig the safety ratings and the DVD system is worth it's weight in gold.
Both kids are happy and entertained, and I don't have to contemplate begging The Man to let me out of the car so I can walk home instead of listening to Julia scream as often.




Could Antonio look any more content.
A beer and he'd be set.






*kidding of course, he likes bourbon*

Yesterday when Antonio and I were doing some school shopping, we ran across these



Antonio and I instantly looked at each other and nodded as he said, "We HAVE to get these for Julia."

This morning, we pulled out the every so appropriate monster feet slippers and as we tried to put them on her kicking feet she quickly told us, not so much in words, that there was no.way.in.hell. she was going to wear them.

Stupid scary slippers