Baba, Ahmee... night-night, Monkeys... night-night, Lion... night-night

Cutest thing around our house right now is Zac going to sleep and saying "night-night" to everyone as he falls asleep. This includes family and all of the zoo animals that he now loves. "Sky ... night-night, dog ... night-night, daddy ... night-night, Nana ... night-night, Lion ... night-night, mommy ... night-night, birds ... night-night, monkey ... night-night" Some of the animals he can't pronounce so he signs them, waving his hands around in the dark (elephant, lion, bear, etc.) It's like he's tucking everyone in for the night.

He also points to any man with gray hair and calls out "Baba!!" only he expects the man to turn around and understand, and come up and give him a hug. Yesterday at the zoo there was a man with a gray beard behind us while we were watching the monkeys and he started calling out "Ho Ho Ho". The man said "He thinks I'm Santa?" I said "Yep", and he said that Zac the cutest little guy ever. (Another heart melted by Mr. Zac)

Annie is so cool and bobby pins open locks

Skyler came home today with an old-time bobby pin and said with awe "This can open any lock!" he thinks it's the coolest, and Annie, his class mate, gave it to him, so she's the coolest. He started pushing it into the locks around the house - I stopped him. He also said it can break rocks...?

Hope they are the next big detectives ala The Fringe and not the next Bonnie & Clyde :-)

LA portion of trip - Ahmee & Baba's house (AKA Judy & Jules)

May 1st, 2009 drive from Disneyland to J&J's house. There's no place like home.... We spent three wonderful days at Jules & Judy's house in Studio City. Great food, playing in the backyard and going in the jacuzzi & pool were fun but the real highlights were hanging out with grandma and grandpa. Judy is editing her movie so Skyler got to watch and help out the editor. They read books and played ball. Zac discovered hitting the ball with the bat in a kind of hockey/golf style. We visited Travel Town and climbed on the big old trains and rode the little train which Zac loved. We went to the Farmer's Market and met our old time 80's friend Kim Blahousky who now has a little cutie of her own, Nicolas, who is 9 years old. We went to Olvera Street and didn't realize that the day we went was their Cinco De Mayo celbration so it was extra festive and Skyler got to jump and slide in the bounce houses. Of course all of Ahmee's turtles were a big hit and got shuffled around and set pointing in different directions.

Disneyland trip 2009 - Fabulous Family Fun!!

April 28th, 2009 our adventure begins! Excellent trip! The drive from SF to LA was better than we expected considering we had an 18 month old that usually yells "UP!" and pulls at the safety strap on the car seat when we are only driving 15 minutes to the store, and a 6 yrs old that asked the eternal question "Are we there yet?" every 20 minutes or so. Zac slept for part of the drive and was happily entertained with books, toys, and a CD of Disney songs. Skyler is a great travel companion and asked brilliant questions like "Is that the middle of nowhere?" to every open space he saw and then added things like "There is no such thing as the middle of nowhere because if you are there, then you are somewhere, even if you are in the middle." My mom, AKA Nana, fly down to LA and met us at the hotel.

Disneyland fun: the biggest part for Skyler is that he is finally tall enough to ride the fast, scary and exciting rides like Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain which he rode every chance he got. The fun for Zac was rides like Winnie the Pooh and It's a Small World. Lots of rides and running around in perfect weather made for another wonderful Disney trip for all of us!