Christmas Time Adventures

Here are some fun pictures from this past week.
We went to the little playground in our complex. It's still a little big for Connor, but he had fun playing with the wood chips, climbing the slide (with help), playing tic tac toe, and hanging on the bars.
It was a great outing, but a bit cooler than I was expecting. So yes he's wearing shorts with a jacket.
Christmas day we woke up and it was relatively a normal Sunday for us. Went to church at 10, came home at 11:30ish, changed clothes and headed to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas. While there, Connor enjoyed playing in the yard until...
His binky dropped on the ground and was all grassy and dirty, so daddy took it away to clean it. Connor was not thrilled to be losing his binky for a few seconds.
He was also in desperate need of a nap, which he took finally around 2 and slept through the opening of presents and stockings. Around 5 we woke him up and headed over to the O's to celebrate Christmas with them. Connor played with Calvin's toys while the nieces helped open Connor's presents (maybe next year he'll be into opening his own presents).

Some of the presents we gave each other were: Mandy to Peter-Thomas Brothers Maps of San Diego, My parents to me-A new GPS :) Connor to Daddy-Harry Potter Lego video game, Connor to Mommy-Same Harry Potter video game (apparently he forgot he already got one). Amongst many other things, these seemed the funniest and the most appropriate given the previous post of us getting lost on the way to a Christmas party.

After all the gifts were open, Peter says, "Wait there's one more for Mandy."
Chris says, "Oh you mean the bear?"
Peter-"Well thanks for telling her."
Mary-"Don't worry he (Chris) blew the gift that Amy got for me too."

Peter walks out with this GIANT teddy bear. We had seen these at Costco several months back. I didn't have a bear that big, but didn't think we could fit it in our place. Peter went back and bought one and it had been hiding at his parents' house in a trash bag for the past 6 months. This is how we got it home.
I love it! Connor loves it too! He hugs it frequently. It'll be the snug up to and read a book bear.
Yesterday we took family photos at Old Poway Park. While waiting for everyone to show up I snapped a couple of my boys.
After the park we took another nap and then headed back over to the O's. Connor really enjoys playing with the blocks and this shape sorter cube. He tried really hard to fit the blocks into the different shapes. When he realized they didn't fit, he walked away. Great grandma said, "Proof of great intelligence, once you've shown the blocks won't go down the hole, then you're done."

Santa Claus

Last night we went to look at the luminaries in Westwood. It was about an hour past Connor's bedtime and he was already super exhausted, but with a bottle in hand we decided he might be up for it. We drove down a couple of streets and oohed and aahed at the lights on the homes. The luminaries were out of sight to him, but Peter and I enjoyed them. We came up to one street that was totally decked out. There was Santa Claus outside handing out cookies to the cars and people walking by. He comes up to our car and Peter rolls down the windows. He says "ho ho ho, would you like a cookie?" Connor completely flips out, screaming, yelling, huge tears stream down his face. Peter says, "The only other time I've heard him scream like that was when he was getting shots at the doctor's office." Hopefully we haven't scarred our kid. We decided that our trip was done and Connor continued to scream and cry the whole way home. I guess it was a good thing we didn't decide to go see Santa at the mall this year.....the cookie was good though.

More videos

Yesterday Connor noticed the step stool that we had in the kitchen and hadn't put away. We knew it would be only a matter of time before he would try to climb on it. We hoped it would take longer than this.

Yesterday while taking the video of him and the step stool I continued videoing as he decided to unload some oven mitts from a drawer. It didn't surprise me too much when he obeyed when I told him to put the mitts back in the drawer. He likes cleaning up things. He's great at dumping out blocks and then putting them back in the box and repeating.

Then there's today

After this I put the step stool away.
As you can see he really likes the dishwasher. He loves "helping" unload the clean/dirty dishes. He pushes the drawers in so he can climb in too. Today he decided to pull the bottom drawer out while he was standing there. Well...he ended up pulling it out on top of himself and then wouldn't let go. My oops in the video is me knocking two of the wheels off (luckily they snapped right back on). Well Connor was right back in the dishwasher right after as if nothing happened.

Wow

Look what I have

Connor has recently taken to saying "wow" really quietly. I thought it was cute how cool he thought playing with my sunglasses was. This video also shows him walking more.

While at my parents' house, Connor picked up the phone and started pushing buttons. At one point the phone calls the mysterious number. "The number you are trying to call is incorrect, please hang up and dial again." We all joked around that Connor was calling India. I guess we'll all find out when the phone bill comes. At the very end of the video, the camera battery died. We all laughed about Connor changing the security code for the answering machine...good luck replicating the numbers he pushed.

What we've been up to lately/Milestones

Two weekends ago we went to Balboa Park's December Nights. We went with cousins and family visiting from Utah. It was super crowded as usual, but all the museums were free, so that made up for the crowds. Connor enjoyed piloting/eating an airplane.
Peter put together a makeshift changing station inside the stroller. He thought Connor needed the privacy while being changed. We all thought it looked like he was delivering a baby. Connor thought it was hilarious!
Sunday we got out our Christmas tree and started decorating it. Connor helped too. He would pull an ornament out of the box, turn around and give it to daddy who would put it on the tree. At one point we sat down and he went up to the box, picked out an ornament and tried to hang it on the tree himself. It was super cute.

He liked the view from the top too.

Cookies and milk anyone?

Then this weekend we went to Sea World for their Christmas Celebration. Connor was not fond of the animal show (a pig-Hammie, pushed a lever that sent water out at the crowd. It caught Connor by surprise and he cried the rest of the show. He's not fond of surprises.). Connor loved the penguins, sharks, fish, and sea turtles. We could've spent all day watching the penguins. We also visited the winter wonderland part. Connor walked on the snow a little bit, but after about five minutes he was done.
On our way home from Sea World we stopped by the Temple to see their Christmas lights. Connor is absolutely mesmerized by Christmas lights. There were giant balls of lights in the trees above us.

As for other news....Connor has hit another milestone....He's walking!

At 12 months he started taking steps. Roughly 3-5 at a time, fall down, get back up and repeat. When we went to Utah for Thanksgiving he amazed us by taking about 10 steps at a time. Now at 13 months he pretty much walks everywhere. Here's a short video that we caught this evening. It's hard for him to show off his moves in our house since it doesn't take that many steps to get from point a to point b.

Completely Lost!

Tonight was Peter's work's Christmas Party. Spouses and children are invited and it's quite a bit of fun. Peter was really looking forward to showing off his cute little kiddo. We even dressed Connor in a cute set of Christmas overalls. So anyway we head out with a map and set of directions in hand. All directions are for side streets. Peter questions it, but decides to follow it anyway. Peter is driving and I'm in the back seat giving Connor some Cheerios to munch on. At some point (after several U-turns) Peter decides he really needs me to drive so he can give me the directions. So he pulls over and then gets in the passenger seat, I get in the driver seat. We're off again-making an (I'm sure illegal) U-turn. We think we know where we're going, but are really not quite sure....at some point Peter says, "We were only supposed to drive 2 minutes down the road and then turn.
"We've been on this road for a long time, should I turn around?"
"No just follow this road and maybe something will show up on this map and we'll know where we're going."
"How about you call Greg and get directions."
"No, we don't know where we are. I'll get out the GPS to get a map of where we are."
"The GPS doesn't work."
"I just need it to turn on and give me a map."
"Ok."
He gets the GPS out, turns it on and it searches for a signal. Then it starts talking, "Turn left in 2 miles, turn left in 2 miles, turn left in 2 miles (repeat at least 10 times). Off route, recalculating...turn left, turn left, turn, turn, turn left in 200 feet."
"I think the GPS is possessed."
Peter tries to turn the volume down..."5, 5, 5, 5, 5....lost signal."
"Ugh!"
"Hey this street sounds familiar, should I turn on it?"
"Let me check."
"I'm turning on it." (Mind you I had a big truck on my tail.) "Okay, now where?"
The conversation went on while we made a few more twists and turns and passed a lot of signs that we couldn't read because it was too dark. By now it is 6:45. The party started at 5:30 and we had been driving for over 45 minutes. It should've taken us about 20 minutes to get there. Connor was starting to get a bit tired/hungry/annoyed that he was still in his car seat, etc. And we were beyond frustrated that we couldn't tell where we were.
"How about you call Greg and tell him we're completely lost and if we ever find civilization, we're heading home." So he does. We can't tell Greg where we are, because we don't know. Then the phone cut out. At this point there's a green lit tree ahead..."Um, Peter, I think we made a full circle, cause I recognize that tree up there."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Well sure enough 20 minutes later we were back in a place we recognized-only because we had been there before, but we don't know where we were.
"I saw a sign that said Escondido 11 miles that way, I'm heading there." Well loooooong story shorter, we eventually found out where we were (on the other side of lake hodges). When we stopped being totally lost, we were near the mall. We hopped on the freeway and headed home. 1 1/2 hours later we were at home. We will print our own directions next time.

In the dark...for a week!

Shortly before leaving for Thanksgiving I noticed that the light switch in our room wasn't working. Not only that, but the light switch next to the closet didn't work and neither did the light switch in Connor's room. Coincidental-I think not, but I didn't understand why they weren't turning on. Anyway we left, we came back and lived about a week in the dark at night because well we didn't have much of a light source. We kept the hall light on or the bathroom light on so we could get ready for bed. Changing a diaper in the dark was also a bit challenging, but we managed. So what could possibly be the source of the problem? Would you believe me if I said this was the culprit:
Yes the nightlight was the source of our problems. Connor really likes pulling the nightlight out, so I went ahead and pulled it out and placed a plug cover in it's place. From that point on we had no lights...though I didn't realize that at the time. A couple nights ago as we were getting ready for bed we decided re really needed the light from the night light, so Peter plugged it in. Instantly Connor's light turns on! We quickly turn it off as we didn't want him to wake up at 10pm. Then we try the light in our room and it works! Apparently in order to have our lights in working order the night light must be plugged into the top socket.

We just love the little quirky things about our house.

Our adventures in Utah

We flew up to Utah Monday night arriving at Grandpa's house around midnight.

At the airport roughly 11pm.
With our baggage that miraculously made the flight with us.

Tuesday morning we went to Temple Square, took a tour of the beehive house, and the conference center.

Connor and Daddy in front of a fountain
Ellie, Camille and Claire check out the water fall while...
Connor slept

Then we headed home. Later that night we met up with cousins for an ice cream party, which made for another late night-but we enjoyed it.

Wednesday we met up with more cousins and took a trip to Logan to visit the cheese factory, then stopped at A & W for lunch, followed by a trip to the Pepperidge Farm Factory. I was looking forward to getting a bunch of bags of Milano cookies, but they didn't have any...bummer. Instead we picked up other cookies and gold fish for really cheap.

The employee of the month parking space.
Connor somewhat enjoyed playing in the snow...until it got really cold.
The adults and cousins enjoyed the snow and a good snowball fight
Then we went to an ice cream place and had dessert
Connor really enjoyed the kids' table and chairs.
Back at home Connor knocked over a cup of water onto Peter's lap...it was too funny.
Looks like my Daddy wet his pants, doesn't it?
My great grandpa let me play with these cool toys.

I love this video-I have such a smart baby.

Thursday morning we prepared for the big feast. We brought a spinach salad for the feast.
During the morning we all went over to another house and made food. (Not many pictures were taken today...but a few videos will be posted later.)

Friday morning we went to visit more cousins and more importantly to visit their farm. Connor got up close and personal with horses, pigs and chickens. He wasn't fond of the horse who nearly bit his hand off (though I think he was more upset that the horse took his apple). The pigs were loud and smelly and the chickens were just the right size for him.
After our fun with the farm animals. We visited quickly with the Mackley's, went to Seagull Book, then out to lunch at Cafe Rio, and then headed back to get ready for the Novemberfest.

Connor and I are chickens, Peter is a pizza.
Basically Novemberfest is Oktoberfest held the day after Thanksgiving. We rent a church (same for Thanksgiving) and all the family gets together for another great party. We dance, play games, socialize and have a great time.

The chicken dance

The hat game-basically musical chairs with hats.

My gnomes (look he's showing his teeth)
Peter and other manly men dancing

Well I think this post is long enough. More videos to come a little later.

Airport Adventures

Monday-

So we left for the airport at 4:30, our flight left at 7:40 from Long Beach which is about an hour and a half drive. We thought we would have enough time for dinner so we stopped at a cute diner. Unfortunately when we left the diner we had about 30 minutes to spare. A bit tight on time, but we could do it. Then we hit major airport traffic and sit for 20 minutes. We have 10 minutes to catch a plane...were we going to make it? I was convinced that it wasn't going to happen. We get to the ticket counter and there's a sign that says you must arrive 30 minutes prior to your flight...we have less than 10 minutes left. We ask if there's any way that we can make the flight. The lady makes several phone calls and then tells us she can take our luggage, but it probably won't make the flight. It'll arrive on a different flight. We said that was fine as we really didn't want to miss the flight, our luggage could come later. She takes the stuff and gives us our ticket and tells us to try and make the flight. We RUN through the halls the best that we can. Then we get to the security check point. The stuff goes through, I go through...I'm putting my shoes on and realize they've pulled aside my bag...the diaper bag to be exact. The security officer is putting on gloves and asks me if that was my bag. Yes it is. "Is there anything sharp in your bag?" No. It's just diapers and wipes and baby supplies. "May I look through it?" Yes. So he opens it up, pulls out the wipes and looks around some more. Then he sends the wipes through the scanner again. When it comes through he says it's fine. I shove everything in the bag and take off running again. I hear our names being called over the intercom. Peter is rushing to tell them we're here....We finally make it to the gate!!! Apparently they held the plane for us and one other couple. We walked through the doors and then ran again down the halls for the plane. When we finally got to the plane we were clearly out of breath...but we made it.

They announce that we are to turn our phones off. Peter calls my dad to tell him we made the plane so he could stop circling the airport and go home. Then we send Peter's mom a quick text message that we might need a car seat. Then the phone turned off.

We arrive at our destination, turn the phone back on and relieved to find out David and Diana went and bought a car seat for us if we needed one. We find David and then go to the luggage carousel. Much to our delight our luggage had made the flight!!!

This concludes are airport adventures. I think our return flight home we'll be on time for.

Farewell nice weather, Hello freezing temps

Some might call us crazy, some might calls us insane, yet some others might call us wimps...we're leaving our beautiful weather(with the exception of the rain tonight) and heading to the bitter cold of Utah. I just checked the 10 day forecast...our lowest temperatures 40-46 degrees are still higher than most of the highest temperatures(37-52) we should see in Utah....shiver. I hope we survive.

On the bright side, when we return it'll be the warmest day of the week here at 70 degrees. Normally I would complain that this is also cold, but given what we will be in, I'll gladly take 70 degrees with no complaints.

Kitchen Catastrophe/Julian Trip

About an hour ago we had a small kitchen catastrophe. I had done the dishes, loaded and turned on the dishwasher, ran the disposal and then headed upstairs for a shower. Peter heard Connor awake so he went to get him. As he's coming downstairs he hears an odd leaking sound. He walks into the kitchen to find both sinks backed up and nearly overflowing. The fix to the problem is to run the disposal right? Well that's what I always do and that always fixes the problem...well this time it didn't. Peter turns the disposal on and (insert flatulence sound) the disposal explodes. The trap got backed up and last night's spaghetti noodles, peas and carrots came flying out of from under the sink. Water, food and grime were everywhere! Peter likened the mess unto vomit...lovely don't you think?
It was a good thing that we store some of our dishes under the sink, because one of them caught a lot of water. Had it not been there, we would've had a much bigger mess on our hands.

My kitchen was clean before the ordeal.

So that concludes our past hour. The disposal is fixed and the dishwasher is still washing...and when it's done we'll have more dishes that will need to be washed before they make it back under the sink.

Yesterday I had the day off and it was Peter's Friday off so we drove up to Julian to see the different colored trees and to get pie and bread. Apparently everyone else had the same idea and the place was super crowded. I was a bit bummed out with the nature bit. Most of the trees hadn't changed colors yet. This was the most colorful tree I could find.
We couldn't find a parking spot anywhere...so we drove back down the hill to Santa Ysabel and stopped at Dudley's for their famous bread. We bought 5 loaves for the price of 4 and had lunch there.

We enjoyed looking at the cows.
Then we went here
and brought home two apple boysenberry pies for dessert.

Connor's First Birthday!

Guess who turned 1 today!

Connor had a birthday party with Peter's family yesterday and got this cool pirate ship from his aunt and uncle and cousins.

I wish we took our camera with us then, so we could show you the mess he made with a chocolate cupcake. I took pictures with my phone, but have no idea how to get them onto the computer.

Then this evening he had another birthday party with my parents. His uncle gave him the elephant pillow/super soft blanket.
And his grandma and grandpa gave him shoes that match his daddy's. He also got a soft soled pair that have flames on the fronts. He was given those a little early and showed up in them.

He was eager for cake time

Connor also got some magnetic cars from Grandma and Grandpa O, a popping car, some balls, bath squirt toys and a balloon from Mommy and Daddy. All in all I think he enjoyed two days of celebrations.

Halloween

For Halloween my family thought it would be fun to dress me up as different characters. They had fun.

Here I am as a bunny rabbit...

and a mouse...

and a clown...
Will you please stop putting things on my head.

for Halloween I was a monkey...and I enjoyed it (for the most part).

Wait for me...
I'm all ready!
I got some candy, but mostly I just chewed on the packages.