fairytales & the animal kingdom

I guess the weather has gotten better (not perfect, but at least the sun is out and the ground is dry), as we have been getting out and about lately.  And it's been so much fun exploring the places that I explored as a kid, yet haven't been back to in years.  
First up...last week I took Ryan to Children's Fairyland with my girlfriends Megan and Lindsey, and their little ones.  It was perfect, everything was child sized, and the kids had a blast.  We moms spent more time chasing after our wee ones than actually catching up with each other, but it was still a wonderful weekday outing.  

"the Old Woman who lived in a shoe" entrance

Hadley, Macy, and Ryan checking out the dragon's tail

Pinocchio's house

snack time

Next up...today we decided to finally bite the bullet, and invest in season passes to the theme park that is practically in our back yard, Discovery Kingdom.  After driving past it almost every day for the last 5 years or so, and not having been inside the gates since high school, it was an adventure for all of us.  Think rollercoasters meet the zoo.  Although Ryan loved watching the rollercoasters fly by overhead, we primarily stuck to the kiddie rides, caught the Killer Whale show, and by the time the park got busy we were out the door and heading home for lunch followed by a long afternoon nap for all of us.  The beauty of the season pass.

We despise pushing a stroller in crowded places, and Ry despises riding in it.  Hence, he rides in style.

a fan favorite, the carousel

Finally they let me run free!

snacks while waiting for the orca to arrive

waiting, patiently

The whale show was worth it, wasn't it Ry? 

petting zoo

Most kids love going to the petting zoo, to pet the animals, like this....

 But then there's our kid, who has to take it one step further, and do this...

Poor goat!

Nonno's birthday

We celebrated Eddy's dad's birthday yesterday, and we all had a wonderful time just hanging out.  They were even kind enough to watch Ry for a little bit while Eddy and I got out for a quick bike ride, which was such a treat on such a beautiful day.  There's nothing like spending some quality time with family.

the Bayer boys (one of whom needs to learn how to take his thumb out of his mouth for photos)

blowing bubbles on the patio

story time with Ryan and Alexandra

Ryan taking Alexandra for a ride

building Nonno's new bbq grill

Ry was such a big help.

the kids (again, Ryan with the thumb!)

happy birthday Nonno!

Ryan and Nonni looking for the train

 Eddy's parents have the most INCREDIBLE view from their house.  Every time Ryan goes over there, he and Nonni always spend a little time looking down the hill for the Bart train that runs through town.  And this is the sunset view we enjoyed as we were sharing Nonno's birthday cake.  I took this picture standing on their back porch.  And yes, that's the Golden Gate Bridge you can see off in the distance.

the wonderful world of boys

my first attempt at the blog collage

Recently, I have started to notice how wonderful it is to be the mom of a boy.  I mean, Ryan has always shown his boy side...when he finally started noticing the world about him, it was the things with wheels that got his attention most.  Anything with wheels, especially big things like trucks, cars, bikes, or even the school bus.  And "car" was one of his first words, along with "bike" and "dog".

But I feel like I have begun to appreciate how fun it is to be his mom.  Maybe it's because I can see how his mind is developing, or maybe it's because I never really had as much of an interest in those things, seeing as how I'm a girl and all.  Or maybe this feels the same to be the mom of a little girl.  But the other morning, as I was standing on our driveway with Ryan so we could watch and wave at the garbage trucks as they were driving up the street to pick up our trash, I realized this is a whole new realm for me.  And I smiled real big, and I loved it.  

And then the garbage man honked his horn (at 7:15 am, I am sure the neighbors loved it) and smiled and waved at us, which made Ry's morning.  

So, in other true boy activities of the week, Eddy found out there was a new-ish park at the Port of Oakland, and it was a beautiful day, so we said let's go.  Not quite sure what we were getting ourselves into.  But as we were almost there, Ryan made it very clear that this was the very place he's been looking for his entire short life...out the window he could see nothing but trucks!  Coming and going, carrying those big heavy crates that they stack onto the ships to go off to who knows where.  And there were trains coming and going, with the same huge crates on top.  Heaven!  So we got out to explore: we found an amazing view of the city that we've never seen before, we found some ducks and other shore birds, and lucky us...we got to watch the big Star Wars-esque cranes loading those crates onto a huge ship.  A very cool thing to experience.

(Side note: to the WP's, we looked for your crate of things being shipped over from London, but I don't think we were able to pick it out among the masses!)

Here are a few of the pics from the above collage:

running down to the pier

a quick stop to wave at his shadow

checking out downtown SF through the zoom lens

the best free entertainment around on a sunny weekday afternoon

garden gnome

recent favorites

For those of you who read this from far away, you may not know that it's been downright dreadful weather around here. But it has.  Everywhere else it seems that spring has sprung, but it's still "winter" here.  It's been so bad, in fact, that we opted not to head to Tahoe last weekend (now that's saying something!).  Good thing too, as we heard about blizzards, piles of snow, and hours of delays on the roads to get to and from, so I don't think it would have been a nice weekend getaway anyway.  But the nasty weather hasn't given us much opportunity for doing much around here either.  Other than make a mess in the house, and have fun doing it.  So here are just a few pictures from recent days, as we long for warmer weather, t-shirts, and bare feet (okay, we'll settle for just dry feet).  I know it's just around the corner, there are some blossoms on the trees around here after all...

the art of self feeding with a spoon, or a "poon" as Ryan calls it

 Thank goodness for blocks.....I don't know which is more fun for Ryan, building towers or knocking them down.  Either way, they are a good source of entertainment so it keeps us all happy. 

building a tall tower with Nonni

 

I love both Eddy's and Ryan's expressions in this picture!

sitting backwards on the Mickey plane

look at me mom!  I got up on the couch by myself, and I'm standing on it!

this seems like a nice place to rest my weary legs and take a thumb suck time out

 Last week we got the wonderful chance to spend the day with my good friend Kim and her beautiful kids...Jack is about 4 months older than Ryan, and little Brooke is only 5 weeks old.  We're so glad she braved the plane trip home with her 2 kiddos so we could catch up!

snacks are so much more fun when you can share them

pure bliss

this is what a Saturday afternoon at the park should look like. 
heaven and happiness. 
sigh.  love my boys. 

Surprise to Eddy!

It's really not easy organizing and throwing a surprise party.  And it's definitely not easy keeping it a surprise.  And it's even harder to do all of the above for someone who lives in the same house as you!  But, we went for it anyway, and there is no way it would have happened without the help of my parents, Eddy's parents and his sisters.  But...we all managed to keep the secret, and threw Eddy a great surprise birthday party this last weekend.  And he was completely surprised!  Man I'm glad that's over with.  So hard to keep secrets! 

our friends were hiding in the kitchen, the hallway, and up the stairwell

Surprise Eddy!

watching Alexandra learning to crawl

You know it's been a good party when the end of the evening looks something like this...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EDDY! 

all about Science

Last week Ryan and I, along with my parents, went into the city to the Academy of Sciences and the Aquarium.  It was Ry's 3rd time there, although this was the first time there since he's been up and walking.  And it was a whole different ball game this time around.  He loved everything...for about 45 minutes.  And then, with the combo of skipping his morning nap along with the plethora of school kids on field trips and the overstimulating everything, he began his downhill spiral to melt down city.  We managed to stay a bit longer, and even managed to stuff down some lunch before heading back to the car.  Thank goodness my parents were there...it took 3 of us to manage it all.  But on the bright side, Ryan got to see cool boy things like snakes and lizards.  And he loved running through the hallways of the aquarium.  It didn't leave much free time for the rest of us to enjoy the exhibits, but oh well, there's always next time.

2 monkeys....

Touching the starfish

The lifesize giant tortise.  We couldn't peel Ry away from it

The downhill spiral....Ryan has somehow learned the "turn into a wet noodle" trick.  Awesome.

(Thanks for the photos pops, terrible mom that I am forgot my camera that day.  Not that I had much extra time to take any pictures.)