Memorial Day Swim at Uncle Tom's and Aunt Weez's

Vinny warmed up to the pool with a quick dip in the hot tub with Uncle Tom. He likes to walk laps around the seats and play with the waterfall. Uncle Tom and Aunt Weez have a pretty sweet back yard!

Swimmin' with Daddy and James!

Big Cousin, Little Cousin! Yep. That guy was our ring bearer 12 years ago. He is an awesome kid.

James, nearly 16, ditched the family party to go get into some trouble with his friends. So Justin, yet another really awesome kid, was left all alone among a bunch of boring adults. We felt kinda bad for him, so we put him to work.

What a good sport! The water wasn't exactly warm, and Vinny had no tolerance for putting on his wet suit. Besides, he'd rather skinny dip anyway. Justin was such a trooper, playing fetch with Vinny. I say fetch, because Vinny had his cousin chasing deep into the chilly water to retrieve the ball.

Silly Uncle Tom!

Zoo!

We thought we'd take one last trip to our local zoo down the road on Memorial Day. Vinny wasn't too crazy about the very vocal monkeys this morning.

This was our view most of the morning...always on the run!

BIG BOY BED TIME!

It was time. Once I realized he could lift his leg over the top of the crib, I wasn't willing to risk him flinging himself out of it and breaking his neck. I know, I know. Boys will be boys. But overprotective mamas will be overprotective mamas, too. Anyway, here he is helping Daddy replace the front of the crib with the toddler rail.
Maiden voyage in the big boy bed...looking promising!

One little monkey jumping on the bed!

Now for all the animals...

By now, Vinny has been in his big boy bed for two whole weeks, and he loves it! He loves to have all his little animal buddies in there with him, especially ducky, husky, and his blankee. Vinny can open doors now, so when he wakes in the morning he walks across the loft and into our room to let me know he's up. Whereas before he'd just hang out in his crib and sing or talk to himself for a good long time, completely content. But now, once he is up, he is well, up, and it's early. But I've been able to sneak in a few more winks by pulling him up into our bed and he just snuggles right up with me. Not going to lie, I love it. Turns out, once a cuddler, always a cuddler.

Odds and Ends

Making Scrambled Eggs with Daddy

It's really quite sweet...he says "help-ee" and off he goes to grab the chair from the dining room and he pushes it over to the counter. He climbs up and patiently waits for the tools and ingredients. Judging by the pose, he's saying cheese...

Playing with blocks at Mommo and Boppo's
Resting with his Best Buddy, BOPPO...and the Ba-Ba

Vinny's helped Boppo break in that spot on the couch even deeper. This is about how every night at Mommo an Boppo's has ended for the last two years. Same spot, same position, same pacifier...which by the way we tried to break. But we think Boppo likes it just as much as Vinny. I saw in Babies R Us one day that they were discontinuing his paci, so I bought the last one and figured that would be it. Well soon after he spent a weekend at Aunt Weez's and Uncle Tom's and he went with out it the whole time. Then, 3 or 4 days in a row at our house. Really thought we were on a roll. And then he found it, and actually called it by a name, "Ba-Ba." And we are right back at square one. But only at nap and bedtime, so little by little and it'll be gone. And that last replacement ba-ba? Forget about it. Won't take it. He only wants his old grubby one. The ring has completely broken off and it looks disgusting. But like Boppo says, it's not like he'll be taking it to kindergarten, so just stop worrying about it. We'll see...
Hangin' Out with Pals

Does this bring back memories of Forrest Gump, or what? Here he is with our neighbor's kiddos, Elijiah and Abygale. Vinny loves Abby in particular, and she's so sweet on him. Now the videos down below are dark, but oh, so funny. Vinny doesn't have much in the way of dance moves, but Abby got him going this one night, and if you look carefully you can see him really shakin' what his mama gave him!

Weekend Getaway...

I met Anthony in Los Angeles for one final attempt at house hunting. We then drove north to Santa Barbara to catch a Zac Brown Band concert, which was the best show I've ever seen. The next day we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary by taking wine tour, and then on our way back to the airport and one last house to check out, we made a pit stop in Simi Valley to tour the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It's a good thing we will have visitors so we have a good reason to go back...we ran out of time and left many of the exhibits unseen. Some of my favorites, other than the amazing views, were the love letters he wrote to Nancy and his collection of hand written quotes, all on index cards and carefully cataloged in of all things, a plain old photo album. We also toured his Air Force One, which was decommissioned after Reagan's presidency and replaced by a Boeing 747 to better accommodate the needs of the Presidential entourage. All told, it was one of those experiences that makes you so very proud of our country.

Finger Painting and Packing

Check out the tongue...Vinny's trademark face while doing anything that requires any amount of concentration! So stinkin' cute!

Can you guess what he is saying? Yep, "Cheeezth!"

It turns out Vinny takes his finger painting quite literally, only using his one (left, of course) pointer finger. It took some doing, but I finally got him to smear his whole hand around in the paint.

First Box Packed and Ready to Go!

Well, maybe not. I finally got motivated to start packing and as soon as I got going, this is what happened! He is adorable...and he knows it!

At the time of my post, and I am trying desperately to catch up, there are only a few days left till we pack up the truck and head west for California. Thankfully, we have a lot packed, and Vinny has actually gotten involved, helping me pack up shoes, books, and some clothes. He says, "help-ee, help-ee?" I think he gets that from my saying "Vinny do you want to help me?" he hasn't figured out the word "you" yet. Anyway, no toys have been packed yet, as his books didn't exactly go wonderfully. For every book I packed, he unpacked three! But it's been cute to have him hold the tape gun and marker as I label each box.