San Diego

Last week, we spent 5 days in (somewhat) sunny San Diego. I've been so wrapped up in this family dinner challenge thing I'm doing for our family that I haven't had time to update this blog. Plus, I had to organize all my photos from the trip. So, here are some of the highlights:

First stop, Sea World!

This is part of the tots area at Sea World that is Sesame Street themed with a couple of rides that Vincent's still too small for. But, he wasn't too small to get wet!

And not too small to go up the giant nets and on to the suspension bridges above the tots area.

The look on your child's face when he sees "Shamu" for the first time (while sitting in the 'Soak Zone') is worth the price of admission. Somehow, we were the only ones not to get wet!

The Midway aircraft carrier parked down near Seaport Village. Something "PopPop" really wanted to see, and it was worth it.

The Hunts on the aircraft carrier runway.

Had to make sure we tested out the hotel pool.

It was my dad's 65th birthday that weekend. One of our 3 birthday meals with him was at The Fish Market for dinner. Vincent's meal included a giant scoop of ice cream that he so nicely shared with all of us.

A-Gong shows Vincent how to feed the pigeons.

David wanted to dip his feet in the ocean; Vincent went along for the ride.

Beached seals in La Jolla.

And, just because these are so cute...

Rain Gear & Hot Chocolate

It's fall. I write this with a bittersweet feeling in my heart. Since my first pregnancy, I seem to have acquired an aversion to warm weather. That makes me sad. I love warm weather. I love basking in the sun and getting a tan. Some people don't. That's fine. But, I quiet enjoy it. But, like I said, since my first pregnancy, I have had a hard time with the heat. For the most part it gives me headaches.

So, I've been looking forward to cooler weather. But, not rain. It's inevitable here, though. One thing that I hope will make the rain more bearable is Vincent's new rain gear. I finally found pants, coat, and boots, after searching all summer long. Yeah, yeah, it was summer, but fall stuff comes out so early!

We have also been enjoying some hot chocolate with this cool weather. David and I got a cup at Fran's recently, and they made Vincent a tiny little taster cup complete with whipped cream and chocolate flakes. He LOVED it. We sat in their little store and all enjoyed our drinks together.

Here are a couple of pictures of Vincent in his gear.

Home Improvements

Earlier this year, we were contemplating whether we need to remodel or move in order to expand our little family. Well, my current pregnancy happened quicker than we had expected (as did the first one), and we ultimately decided to put that big decision on hold.

Instead, we opted for some smaller home improvements. I will post photos once everything is complete, but what we're doing is painting the trim and windows, retro-fitting & extending the roof over our porch, replacing some windows, and if there is enough money left over, we'll insulate the crawl space. None of these things will give us more space, but the front porch project will hopefully give us a more useable area out there. In addition, my dad built us storage benches do go along the wall of our porch. They take up a large portion of the porch, but the idea is that stuff will be kept inside, rather than scattered all over, like it had been up until now.

Here's a pic of my dad and Vincent, enjoying some cuddle time.

Preschool

Vincent started his very first day of preschool today. We are enrolled in a tots class at the Madison Park Co-op Preschool. What that means is for one day a week, I (or David) take Vincent to class and spend time with him while he plays and learns for an hour and a half. The children can play dress up, paint, color, use play dough, and various other activities. They learn to line up to wash their hands before snack time, sit around a huge table for snacks, and then take their dirty dishes to the kitchen. After snacks, we gather for "circle time," sing songs, and say, "good-bye." At this age, it's a fun introduction to preschool, but it's mostly just playing.

It's so adorable. Here are the children gathered around the table for snacks.

Here is Vincent with his buddy, Liam. He doesn't actually interact much with Liam, as these two boys are just way too busy with other stuff at school to be bothered with small talk. Vincent LOVES to say Liam's name, and when we get out of the car for preschool, he will start staying, "Liam, Liam, Liam..."

Potty

Every so often, Vincent will ask for his potty seat when we're changing his diaper. The last two days he's been really into the potty. Yesterday morning, he actually pooped in it! It was such a delightful surprise to me. But, it didn't happen again today. No biggie. We aren't potty training yet, but it's been fun to watch him start to have some sort of understanding of the connection of sitting on the potty and actually doing something while sitting there. He will ask for the potty and then ask for a book. It's so cute.

"Helph! Helph!"

Words, words, words! It's amazing to hear your little child go from a babbling baby to a talking toddler. Each day, Vincent seems to have more words. This morning, he came running into our bedroom, while I was still in bed, saying, "Hi, Mama! Hi, Mama!" He hasn't been able to link two words together until, apparently, this morning. Actually, last week he said, "bye, bye, Pop Pop" to David's dad, once, and this weekend, he said, "bye, bye, Ba Ba" to David a couple of times. So, he's slowing getting it. Oh, wait, he's also been trying to say, "up, Mama," so it didn't just start this morning.

One of the words he has gotten very good at saying is "helph," meaning, "help." It's been fantastic. He will use this word when he needs someone to help him with something, rather than just scream (um, most of the time). And, we've taught him to help us with feeding the cats. So, one of us will say, "Buster, Stella, are you hungry?" to the cats, and Vincent will run over saying, "Helph! Helph!" Then, we get the cat food and he helps us scoop it into the bowls. He has even figured out on his own that the water dish needs to be refilled, and will walk it over to the bathroom.

It's truly a gift to watch your child grow.

Time Flies

I can't believe summer is over. Where did it go? We walked over to the park across the street this evening after dinner, and I was so sad to see that the water fountain has been turned off for the season. Unless there's some event that prompts them to turn it on, we won't see it running until next May.

Some summer highlights:

I've already told everyone, but I figured I should at least make an official posting to say that Vincent will soon be a big brother. We're expecting another baby in early March of 2009.

We've had a few visitors this summer. David's parents were here back in August. Then, my sister was here the week after. Or was it the other way around? Then, for Labor Day weekend, my friend, Angela came to town. Lastly, next week we will be having my dad here for about 10 days to help with some home projects.

We spent most of our summer days at parks, either in the wading pool, in the fountain, or just on the playground. We planned to go camping one weekend, but it rained quite hard that whole weekend. Oh well. Instead, we went to Pt. Defiance Zoo, which was great! Well, other than the HUGE bump Vincent got on his head from tripping over his own feet.

Vincent feeding the goats at the zoo.

Dustin, Nadia, David and Vincent on the merry-go-round at the zoo.

David's little project for Vincent. A chalk board to cover up that window Vincent broke back a few months ago.

Looking ahead into the fall, what we have planned is another year of Mandarin school, the tots class at the community college, and most exciting of all, Vincent is starting his first year in preschool! No, it's not what you would think of when you hear preschool. It's actually a co-op preschool, and we will only be going one day a week. It's a tots class as well, just and hour and half each time, and I stay there with him the whole time. This preschool is only for 2 years, and there is a lot of parent involvement. Kind of weird thinking of Vincent going to school already, but it's more of an introduction...sort of a pre-preschool.

We are also looking forward to the Puyallup Fair, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, the harvest party at Oxbow Farm, and of course, Halloween!