Happy Halloween! (Yeah, a week+ late.)

Galinda and Elphaba had a blast on Halloween! Our neighborhood was very quiet, but they had their cousins along for the walk and we enjoyed meeting some of our new neighbors.

Cara Recites Her Halloween Poem

Cara learned a new poem at preschool. She is very pleased with herself!

Watch it here!

Awesome Birthday Weekend!

I want to thank everyone here for all of the fantastic birthday wishes I received over the weekend. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch with everyone who called, but we had quite a busy weekend. Nevertheless, it’s nice to feel loved.

On Saturday afternoon, Todd and I took the girls to Jenny Bec’s new location in Brentwood for a book signing with Buzz Aldrin. How many kids in Cara and AJ’s generation will be able to say they met one of the first men to walk on the moon? It’s easy to find yourself starstruck in Brentwood, but this was absolutely incomparable.

Too bad we couldn’t get AJ to smile for the camera. Stinker.

Saturday night was dinner with the family at 320 Main in Seal Beach. If you happen to be in the area, their Chilean sea bass is absolutey incredible. So incredible that I can’t bring myself to try anything else on the menu.

Sunday, my actual birthday, was a mellow day. I spent half the morning reading from the Sookie Stackhouse series, and then we went over to Aunt Panny’s house for a big family party (my grandmother’s birthday is the day before mine, and my cousin’s three days later).

Following that we went to Disneyland, where we actually walked right into our friends Diana, David, and Aurelia. Actually, Diana spotted Todd (whose pretty hard to miss in any crowd, thanks to his height), and it was great for the girls, as they were able to go on a couple rides together.

We wrapped up the night with some clam chowder from the Fish Company (who could ask for anything more?), and Todd noted that all of his ladies passed out on the couches very early. It was a perfect birthday!

Getting Sucked Into the TV

If I’ve been absent from the blog lately, it has less to do with being busy around the house and more with the fact that Todd taught me how to use the XBox. We have Netflix now and can watch TV and movies on demand through the XBox, and I’m going to have to learn to tear myself away.

I’ve already gone through seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter, and now I’m nearing the end of series 2 of Ballykissangel. Dexter has been fun because it seems that everyone watches it, and Ballykissangel has been fun because it scratches the itch I have to move off to Ireland for a few years (Todd is not convinced).

They have tons of Law & Orders, too, but if I start those no one may ever see me again!

Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the pumpkin patch with Cara’s school this week. Luckily, we weren’t rained out!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho….

I had no idea how to title a post about Cara getting her ears pierced.

I never had any arbitrary age in mind when I thought about allowing ear piercing; my only requirement was that they needed to be the ones to ask for it. Cara has been asking, daily, and after satisfying myself that she was well aware that there would be pain involved, I decided to take her to have it done. She told me she would be brave.

We walked in while another woman was having her ears done, and she allowed Cara to watch (in fact, she asked Cara to hold her hand!). After seeing it, Cara said, “I think I’m going to have to think about it.”

We were only about 30 feet from the store when she changed her mind and decided she would be brave and have it done. We went back in, signed the paperwork, marked her ears, and two nice gals simultaneously used little sterile guns to shoot two rhinestone daisy studs through her ears.

Her initial reaction was VERY wide eyes, but when I said, “That’s it, it’s over,” she smiled. Not a single tear. Cara is not what you’d call a daring child, so I was pretty impressed!

She does look darling, but so old! How did my baby get to be four years old?

The Bus Trip From Hell, Part 2

It’s been another “Why do I bother?” day. I have already recounted our first attempt at SoCal public transportation in a previous post, and I’m sorry to say that our second outing on a public bus was even worse.

The girls and I took an OCTA bus to Disneyland today. The trip there was actually easy and uneventful. The day itself was nice. Fun was had by all.

And then it all went down the tubes very, very quickly. I promised the littlest one a Minnie Mouse balloon, but the balloonpersons were nowhere to be found on Main St. or near the Disneyland entrance. I decided to cut the bus arrival time close and went in to California Adventure to pick one up. I also asked Cara to go to the bathroom repeatedly on the way out, but she refused. It hadn’t been that long since she’d gone, so we left.

As you could have guessed, we were nine minutes late and missed the bus. No problem, as our line runs every half hour all afternoon….oh, except for the hour we were in. We had to wait nearly a full hour.

The little monsters heathens devil’s spawn children were out of control crying and whining and being generally good birth control for everyone else nearby. AJ was playing with the balloon and hitting people so much that I finally took it away, which caused a crying jag lasting at least a half hour. Seriously. I know they were tired, but they were absolutely the most miserable people to be around. Ever. In the whole wide world.

Our bus finally arrived, and we were off. It took about ten stops for me to get a seat, but I had about five minutes of peace. About ten minutes before our stop, Cara started whining about having to go to the bathroom. IMMEDIATELY. I made her sit on her jacket in the event of an emergency, which it turned out came in useful, as she had an accident right then and there. At least we saved future passengers by shielding the bus seat.

When we finally got off the bus, I was done….but there was still the half mile to walk home. We did it with the damn balloon hitting me in the head repeatedly the entire way because AJ insisted on holding the string, and Cara whining about her wet jacket/dress/underwear without so much as a pause to take a breath.

But wait…it gets better. Even though I asked her the second she stepped off the bus if she needed to go to the bathroom (our bus stop is next to a park with adequate facilities), she declined. She’s been potty trained for 1.5 years, so it’s not as though we deal with a lot of accidents (we don’t). When we were just two short blocks from home, she peed ALL OVER HERSELF. Again. Including all over the shoes we just bought four days ago.

About ten steps later, Minnie Mouse snagged on the top of a chain link fence. It was miraculously unscathed, but some helpful idiot called out from across the street, “Don’t pop it!”

At this point I’m fuming and well aware that the day can’t get much worse without bloodshed. As we walked up to the house, I noticed the garbage truck left a little remnant at trash pick-up today….a dirty diaper. As I paused to let the stroller go and pick up the diaper, the string to the Minnie Mouse balloon snagged on my backpack and sent Minnie sailing up into the sky. There I stood, hopping up and down with a dirty diaper in one hand, two screaming and crying kids at my sides, trying to catch the balloon. I touched it, but I didn’t manage to catch it.

I grabbed my phone out of the stroller and took a picture. What else could I have done? No one would have believed me otherwise.

Walking on the Wild Side

My BFF, Boss Lisa, and I took the girls to the El Dorado Nature Center this week. Who knew there was such a neat little slice of wilderness within walking distance of our house?

My little city slickers weren’t entirely sure what to make of it. AJ isn’t much of a walker, so she stayed happily in her carrier the entire time. Cara (a girl so girly that I have no idea how she came out of me) wasn’t terribly impressed with the flora and fauna, but she was a good sport anyway.

And really, it is quite hard to believe something so lovely exists a matter of yards from a busy freeway!

Auntie Boss and Cara stroll at their own pace:

See, this isn’t so bad!

AJ hitches a ride, while Cara almost makes it in the shot:

Both girls did LOVE the turtles.

I wish I could describe how funny this squirrel was. He wasn’t afraid of us AT ALL, and ran around conducting his business without paying us any mind. However, when I pulled ou the camera, he ran up to this post, jumped up, and posed for me!

The part that none of us really liked: On the way out of the nature center, we almost stepped ON this snake. I would like to tell you that we turned it into a teachable moment for the kiddos, but we really jumped several feet and screamed like…well….the girls that we are.

Afterwards, we did go into the onsite museum to identify him (just a very big gopher snake) and get a look at some of the other little critters inhabiting the area (like the monster cockroach…yuck).

Despite our last encounter, I’m sure we’ll head back. With the stroller, because that AJ kid is getting heavy!

Our New Baby Brother!

Haha, just kidding. They wish.

(AJ with her friend, Mr. Baby Carter.)

All Access to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Well, we finally did it. We broke down and bought passes to Disneyland. The girls and I were going a little stir-crazy on Tuesday morning, so at 10:00 I said, “What do you think about going to Disneyland today?” Like any other red-blooded American child, they were all over it.

We spent the day wandering around Disneyland, with a quick stop at California Adventure to watch the Playhouse Disney show. We are hoping to use our passes every week or two. Next week we’re actually going to attempt riding the bus there, since it’s only about 10 miles and there is a bus that runs right from the park near our house to Disneyland!