Kiersten’s Blog

I took both kids in to the doctor today for shots.  I did this once before and there were no tears.  From either of them.  Today made up for the last time we went in.  Ashton had a good checkup.  He’s super healthy and looks great.  He’s in the 90th percentile all the way around: weight, height and head circumference.  He’s a whopping 26.9 pounds and 31 3/4 inches tall.  London weighed in at 34 pounds and is 40 inches tall.  Obviously he’s catching up.  Everything was just great . . . until . . . shots.  Ashton was first.  That was our first mistake.  He was poked 5 times and wasn’t happy about it.  London wasn’t happy about it either.  I think she was partly upset that he was hurting, but I think she was more upset about the fact that she would soon have to go through the pain herself.  We moved into another room for her shots.  By this time, she was in hysterics.  She got 2 shots and was told she was done, but on further investigation of her shot record, the nurse realized she needed one more shot.  Of course this was the cause of even more tears.  Finally we were done and marched across the hall to have Ashton’s blood drawn.  Poor kids.  Haven’t they been through enough?  Luckily they were only unhappy for a few minutes.

Neither of them seem to mind that Ashton's not a girl and that boys aren't usually dressed as princesses. London thought he was hilarious in this crown, ring and necklace.

After the doctor, we headed over to ballet.  When ballet was over, we went to an “eating store” for lunch, since that’s what I promised I would do for London if she was good at the doctor.  London loves In ’N’ Out so we went there.  I ordered 2 grilled cheese sandwiches and they made me 2 cheeseburgers.  So I had to have my food re-made.  The good news is I got a bit of a refund because cheeseburgers  cost more than grilled cheese.  When we finished eating and were walking to the car, I was holding Ashton, his cup, and my cup with about 1/3 of my shake that I hadn’t finished.  Of course I dropped it and lost the rest of my shake on the sidewalk.  Luckily, a nice guy was walking past and picked it up and threw it away for me.

Needless to say, I’m ready for bed.

Here’s London’s quote of the day.  She’s in quiet time right now.  In a not-so-quiet voice, she said, “Quiet time is NOT a time for being quiet!”

Remember this post?  It gets even better.  Yesterday I got brave and stuffed a bunch of fresh baby spinach in the cup before I added the soy milk.  I couldn’t even taste the spinach!  Yay!  Healthy AND delicious.  What more could you ask for?  Two nights in a row now, I’ve chosen this over ice cream.  And that’s saying something.  I think I need to buy more bananas and soy milk.

When London was just a few months older than Ashton, she discovered the glass doors at Granny and Papa’s house.  She figured out that she could squish her face on it, and we wold laugh as we looked at her on the other side.  Somehow Ashton just figured out this phenomenon the other day.  Nobody taught it to either of them.  I don’t know why they do it.  They can’t see what they look like.  Nevertheless, its funny to us.  These kids crack me up!

We planted our garden a couple of weeks ago.  Okay, we planted zucchini and a tomato plant a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn’t sure exactly how to plant the zucchini.  I’ve always seen it planted in a hill but that’s not what the directions said on the package of seeds we bought.  So I planted them in a short row right outside my dining room window.  I’m guessing I planted about 14 seeds in a row about 18 inches long.  I didn’t expect them all to germinate, but now I have 14 little zucchini plants that are really close together.  I guess I better thin them out pretty soon.  It’s exciting to see them growing!

We went to Disneyland again this week.  Yes, I’m that spoiled.  Ashton’s only a year old and he’s been 3 times already.  The thing is, I just know the right people, so I’ve gone for free almost every time I’ve gone.  Plus, we’re going again in May and then again in June. . . for free.  So lest you think I’m Miss Moneybags, it’s important that you understand that tidbit of information.  This week we went with Taylor’s extended family.  His uncle his family were visiting from New York on their spring break.  They generously supplied all 40 of us with hotel rooms.  I (along with about 15 others) stayed in the suite at The Grand Californian.  It was an amazing place with two stories which included 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, a large kitchen, dining room, living room, pool table, and much, much more.  It also had exclusive access to Disney’s California Adventure, which you could get to through the hotel itself.  There were also a number of rooms rented at the Disneyland Hotel.  I’ve heard that place is really cool as well, but I can’t imagine it was as nice as the Grand Californian.  It was fun to spend the time with family.  I felt bad that Taylor couldn’t be there, but I found myself really appreciating and enjoying his family.  I married into a great family.

Ashton wasn't so sure about aviator Minnie

The big group went to Disneyland on Wednesday, but I went with Taylor’s sisters and my kids on Tuesday, since I had to get home on Wednesday for a concert Taylor was playing in.  We had a great time.  We started out the day standing in an hour-long line to meet the princesses.  That was the longest line of the day by far, and I can assure you that I will not ever stand in that line again.  That hour of trying to get Ashton to stand in line was DEFINITELY not worth it.  London was excited about it, though.  That’s one thing she always wants to do, but the line’s always too long.  Every other line was short.  I’m sure that had a lot to do with the fact that it started raining a bit in the afternoon, so a lot of people left.  It only lasted for an hour or so, then things dried up (including the lines).  London was so excited to be able to ride the big rides.  She’s kept saying, “I’m 40 inches!”  She’s barely 40 inches, and she must have been slouching or something, because they wouldn’t let her on “Space Mountain.”  She was really upset about that, but she got over it when she got to go on other cool rides like “Soarin’ Over California” and “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.”  She was so funny on “Big Thunder Mountain Railroad” because she kept putting her arms up in the air and screaming.  She loved it!  I can’t believe my 4-year-old is such a thrill seeker.  We did miss out on her favorite ride, “The Matterhorn” because it was closed for seasonal repairs.  “Small World” was a hit with Ashton.  He was pretty crazy about the rides too.  If we got on and they weren’t going, he went crazy.  He also really enjoyed “Dumbo” and “Buzz Lightyear.”  I’m sure he’ll be just like his sister in a couple of years.  Although they’re both thrill seekers, probably the favorite ride of the day for them was the carousel.

We really did have a great time and I’m excited to go back.  Now if I could only curb the attitude I get from London the day after we come home. . .

Happy b-earth day to this wonderful guy.  I’m so lucky he’s mine!

Here’s what our day looked like:

We got up early to be somewhere that we don’t need to be until next week.  So we drove around Mission Beach and ended up here at the La Jolla children’s pools.  In case you couldn’t tell, children don’t play here.  Seals do.

We made a stop for breakfast then made our way to La Jolla Shores where it must have been Speedo day because I saw no less than 7 men in Speedos.  My favorite, by far, was this guy carrying a Roxy surf board on his head.  How could I not take a picture?

Taylor surfed while I ran after the kids in the water.  Again, more plans were foiled when we couldn’t do pictures as planned.  But we had a good time anyway.

It only took Ashton a few minutes of eating sand to realize that we were at the edge of the biggest bathtub he had ever seen.  And I couldn’t keep him out of it.  Not even feeding him bananas would keep him from making a beeline to the water.

But back to the bathtub.  Of course it was bath time when we got home.  Look at that gross water.

Those kids were DIRTY!!!  And speaking of taking baths, Commancho (the car) needed one too.

London loved that part.  He was cleaned inside and out.

As I was cleaning the front, I heard London hit the car (in the back).  Apparently Commancho deserved a spanking because he didn’t clean his room.  Incidentally, London has never been spanked for not cleaning her room.

We ended the day with a trip to John’s Incredible Pizza for dinner and games.

Needless to say, the kids zonked out pretty fast tonight.

Seeing London doing the “potty dance” I say:

London, you need to go in and go potty.

London: I don’t need to go potty.

Me: It sure looks like you do.

London: No I don’t!

Me: Then why are you doing the potty dance?

London (now dancing even more): It’s not a potty dance.  I’m just doing a dance.

Me: Fine

London: I think I need to go potty.

Isn’t Mom always right?

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we planted our garden.  I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.  We don’t really have a plot for a garden so we just dug up some dirt next to our house.  The problem was, there were tree roots all over the place.  We ended up putting our tomato plant next to our patio and opted for putting the zucchini under the window by the house.

London loved helping us dig.  We didn’t have any real tools, like a spade or a shovel or anything like that so we used sand toys.  I don’t really know what happened to the spade we used to have.  I’m sure that had we had a shovel, the tree roots wouldn’t have been nearly as big of a pain.  As I was pulling one of the roots, I fell backward, turning on the spigot which, in turn, soaked one side of me.

Because of the snafoos, we didn’t plant everything we planned.  We’ll finish another day.

Ashton had a great time getting dirty and testing the flavor of the dirt.  He started out sitting like a good boy in the wagon, but soon realized he was missing out on a lot of fun.  Once he was free to go, there was no stopping that kid.  I love watching him discover.  He even planted a few seeds!  I can’t wait to watch our plants grow!